Not asking why

17 April 2007, 12:18 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life

I could very easily ask so many whys about the shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday. I could ask whys about why he did it. I could ask whys about what was done about it. I could ask whys about policies and procedures and laws. I could sit back and analyze what could have been done that morning, the week before, the semester earlier, or even years previously, the way some people are doing, thinking that some how they would’ve done something differently that would have prevented this.

But I don’t want to ask why. I don’t want to know why. Things like this always hit very close to home for me. So rather than ask why, I would rather respectfully mourn those who lost their lives, those who lost loved ones, and those who lost some of their innocence.

Share your thoughts

A Teacher’s Influence

12 April 2007, 12:28 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Musings, Work

Someone recently asked me an interesting question about teachers in my life. I liked it because it is slightly different than the one I normally get, which is, “why did you become a teacher.” They asked about teachers that had affected my life. Here are a few.

I remember my third grade teacher keeping me in from recess every day because I couldn’t identify the nouns and verbs in those stupid sentences fast enough. I probably stayed inside at least half the year doing those stupid exercises. That convinced me that I stunk at English, particularly grammar. I frequently tell people that the grammar I do know I learned through Mad Libs. Luckily I was very good at reading, so I was always in the honors and advanced placement English classes where the focus was not on diagramming sentences. I can’t diagram a sentence. But I got As in high school. My senior English teacher, Mr. Helm, finally convinced me I was good at English, and almost made me want to be an English teacher.

My fifth grade teacher was from Canada. He made my life miserable. We would run for PE, and I was very good and would finish before most of the boys. To try to encourage the boys, he would ask if they were going to let a girl beat them. All it did was make the boys hate me.

My sixth grade teacher put up with a lot from me before I was even in her class. I did math with her when I was in fourth grade. When I was in sixth grade we did projects for social studies and art and we wrote journals and stories and I absolutely loved that year. I wanted to be a teacher like her.

My seventh grade math teacher took a real interest in me. A lot of kids made fun of her because of her name. I thought she was a great teacher. I still have the blank book and card she gave me at the end of that year.

My history teachers all through junior high and high school were amazing, all of them. I loved history. I thought about being a history teacher because of them.

My computer science teacher believed in me and got me on the computer science team. I ended up lettering in it in high school, decided to keep going and get a minor in it at college, and now have the job I have teaching computers.

When I’m back in El Paso I still try to stop and visit my senior English teacher and my computer science teacher.

More recently, I had a professor last semester who treated me such that I know I can make it in a doctorate program. She inspired me to keep going with my education and really made me love the subject.

Not all of my teachers have been wonderful and great, but I’ve tried to use those that weren’t as examples of the type of teacher I didn’t want to be.

1 Shared thought

A simple request

11 April 2007, 5:00 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life

I am requesting that everyone cross their fingers that the run-away crack on my windshield will continue to angle down rather than across my windshield. I can’t stop the crack now, but if it goes down I won’t have to replace the windshield until the next time my car needs a safety inspection.

2 Shared thoughts

The randomness that can be Monday

9 April 2007, 6:45 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random

I had to scrape frost off my car this morning. I drove to work, worked for an hour, and then left work. And suddenly there was a twelve inch crack on my windshield. It wasn’t there before.

I have a pansy in my garden. Three plants survived the winter and one of them bloomed today. I think it’s pretty. I like pansies.

2 Shared thoughts

Funny hood thing

8 April 2007, 10:12 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Happy Things

Friday I picked up my cap and gown and tassel and hood for the graduation ceremonies in one month at the University of Utah that I am participating in. I won’t be finished with my classes till the end of June or the first of July, but this is the closest graduation ceremony to then, and I really want to celebrate what I’ve done. I deserve it. So I got all the stuff.

For a brief moment when I picked it up the reality that I’m going to have a Masters degree in a few short months hit me hard and was temporarily terrifying. There are moments where what I am doing doesn’t feel real. It felt real right then. But I got over it. The degree isn’t going to change me much at all. For the time being I’m going to keep doing the exact same thing I’ve been doing for the last five years. The only change will be that I might change the signature on my work email to reflect the funny initials I’ll be able to put at the end of my name after all of this, and I’ll be making a bit more money. So it isn’t going to change anything for a while.

I am very giddy that I have a funny hood thing now. And because the University of Utah makes us buy our stuff instead of rent them, the funny hood thing is mine forever. My dad told me I couldn’t get a Masters degree if I was just doing it to get the funny hood thing. So I decided to do it because I could, which sounds a bit better than doing it for a funny hood thing. But I still did it in part for the funny hood thing.

Share your thoughts

What I learned about me

3 April 2007, 4:18 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Learn Something, Work

For one of my Masters classes this semester I am conducting an action research project in my own classroom. As part of this I have video taped myself teaching various lessons through out the project to see if I change from the first time I teach the lesson to the last. I was watching the tape yesterday and I think I did a pretty good job explaining what multimedia is and how stop motion movies are made to fourth graders. But I did notice one thing that made me a bit self-conscious, and laugh at the same time.

I use my hands when talking to my classes to express things. My hands move a lot when I talk. My elbows, however, do not. I watched myself teach four different classes and it looked like my elbows were super glued to my sides almost the entire time. The only time my elbows left my side was when I was pointing to something higher up on the board. It was funny watching myself use my shortened arms to emote.

Share your thoughts

General Conference

1 April 2007, 9:08 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Gospel

Well, I hope the rest of you got something out of General Conference because it felt like a lot of the talks were just for me. This time around I thought of four specific things I wanted to hear about in General Conference and I prayed that I would hear something that would help me out with those. It was almost funny to me to finish a prayer right before the start of a session and then have the first two or three talks address my four chosen areas. That prayer thing sure is powerful.

I enjoyed all of the sessions, and I’m so glad that my parents taught me that they are all important. I’ve never understood the people who attend just the Sunday ones, or even just the Sunday morning one. I took enough notes through all the sessions that I finally finished off the journal I’ve been working on since February of 2003. I’m excited to go out and buy a new one this week. I’m looking forward to comparing the notes I took this weekend with what I’ll mark in the Ensign next month. I’m going to see if I can’t read the entire May Ensign before the October conference. And depending on the weather in October, I think I might like to drive up to Salt Lake and sit on the grounds of Temple Square and listen to it there. That would be a nice change. I don’t plan on always living in Utah, and I feel like I should take advantage of some things like that while I can.

Share your thoughts