why i am a teacher (kinda)

a student once asked me "ok ms. becker. you went to NOTRE DAME. you graduated with a degree in CHEMISTRY. and now you want to be a TEACHER? WHY do you want to be a TEACHER?"

i looked him right in the face and replied "christmas break and summer vacation. who wouldn't want to be a teacher"

ok yes, so of course this isn't the REAL reason I became a teacher, and of course i followed my witty remark with a real answer, but right now. a week into my summer vacation it certainly seems like a pretty good reason.

by memorial day weekend my day to day work had finished...I had final exams to grade, but they hadnt been taken yet, and I had a classroom to clean up, but I can't get in there over the weekend, so I celebrated the rainy holiday weekend with a cooking extravaganza.

i made ribs, chili potatoes, and oven roasted corn for claires, nickface and I on our memorial day staycation

and then I made 130 bandit paw print cookies for my students to celebrate the completion of another successful year. (see my students are the REAL reason I am a teacher)

1000 mile project

over the summer my bike project was to post tales of my miles. and then I accidentally reset the trip odometer on my bike. and then I forgot what the number was when I reset the trip odometer. so now I have a new project, and a new goal to motivate me wake up and not hit snooze for those extra 5 minutes of sleep. I call it: "the 1000 mile project"

my goal: to ride 1000 miles before putting my bike away for the year. a goal which actually isnt quite as impressive as it sounds. not even I with my crazy bike commute to work (where I proceed to sneak my bike up the back stairs and stash it away in my prep room because last spring the maintenance man told me I couldn't bring it into school. Take that maintenance man...you can't tell me what to do!) has it in me to bike 1000 more miles before the winter comes. I just want to bike a total of 1000 miles, a total since august 2009.

the current odometer: 684.3. that leaves me with 315.7 miles to go. or 14.35 round trips to school via my new 1 mile longer but 1 million times safer route. translation: at my current two trips a week I'll be biking till mid october.

time perhaps to find those gloves.

or ride more days each week.

summer vacation

back in the days of student teaching one of my little darlings said to me "ms becker, you went to notre dame, you were a chemistry major, you could make good money....you want to be a teacher now why?"

I looked him straight in the face and said "christmas break and summer vacation"

all seriousness aside - yes as a teacher i get to touch children's lives (not their bodies), impart knowledge on the future generations, awaken in them a love and appreciation of science, help them to become who they are, blah blah blah - I get christmas break and summer vacation.

the kids think its news to me when there are 25 days of school left...sorry I've been counting down since there were 50.

they walk into my room to take their final exam telling me I am sooo done with school. too bad I was soo done weeks ago...remember how the last week you've had work-on-your-study-guide-time.

I am so ready to ride by bike, lay on the beach and ready my book.

more church humor

tonight was baccalaureate mass at schoolio aka another 14 hour work day. but at least cool priest said mass....tonight's homely began with the following.

"on the first day god made the cow. and he told the cow that he would labor under the sun working in the fields and provide milk for the farmer's family. and that his life would be 60 years. the cow said '60 years, that is too long for that hard life. how about I take 20 and give the remaining 40 back to you' God said this was ok.

on the second day, God made the dog. and he told the dog he would sit at the door to the human's house and bark at any who tried to enter. and I will give you a life span of 20 years. the dog said '20 years is too long to sit barking how about I take 10 and give you the other 10 back' God said this was ok.

on the third day God made the monkey. he told the monkey he would live his life doing monkey tricks and making the human's laugh. he told the monkey that he would have a life span of 20 years. the monkey said '20 years is too long doing monkey tricks how about I take the same deal that the dog did, accepting 10 years and giving you back 10' God said this was ok.

on the fourth day God made the human. he told the human he would lay around and do nothing but have fun and laugh and that his life span would be 20 years. to this the human said '20 years that is not enough....how about I take the 20 years you offered, plus the 40 years from the cow, the 10 years from the monkey and the 10 years from the dog.' God said this was ok.

and thus the humans live the first 20 years doing nothing but laughing, laying around, and having a good time, the next 40 years working away under the sun providing for the family, the next 10 doing monkey tricks to make the grandchildren laugh, and the last 10 years sitting outside the house barking at strangers.

hair today...gone tomorrow

(or as nick would say more accurately...hair last wednesday, gone last thursday, and then again on friday)

i'd been growing my hair out since I started working at Res with the intent to cut it all off and donate it to locks for love with my school's annual Respunsel project. last thursday was the day...and the hair is now gone.

here are me and my teacher friend jess...showing off our flowing locks...ready for the chop

oh my goodness...last chance to back out

committed

look it's a ponytail from my head!

all bagged up and ready to donate...mine was one of the few blonds of the day

all the girls with their beautiful hair donations...we donated 26 ponytails or enough to make 4 wigs!

the cut after day one

stubby pigrails were the hairstyle of choice thursday night

and the final cut...after a $50 splurge cut...already though it doesnt look as good as when I walked out of the place...i have no hair fixin' skills.

however, nick and I do have matching headband STYLE.

to grade pile

my to grade pile grew to gigantic proportions....hoping for a snow day...but not tomorrow...wednesday. I would MUCH rather teach than sit in an inservice :)

100% story of my life

"look ms. becker! molecule dogs!"

allow me to set the stage....

students at lab tables doing an activity that involves building molecules out of molecular lab kits to help them visual the actual 3D structure of the molecules.

students asking needing my help because they don't get it. don't get it because they refuse to build the molecules because they are there during the seminar time and would rather be having free reign of the school then actually using their time constructively.

me running around attempting to help all sixteen of them at the same time. gimping around with HUGE blisters on both feet forming, because of yes a unfortunate self inflicted shoe choice. spinning around to to repeat....just build it! when I hear:

"look ms. becker! molecule dogs!"

apparently I am teaching myself as a student because I almost stopped helping other people so I could admire.

and now maybe they sit on my desk.

feelin' guilty

my phone was taken....or even better snatched, off my desk by a student of mine determined to make my life miserable.

I tried requests, i tried threats, I tried scaring them with police action, i tried guilt, I even said fine keep my phone, just give me back the sim card that's useless to you, no luck, devil children who steal things have no desire to return.

I told my senior homeroom on friday and they made me an honesty box, so people could return it unidentified. they carefully designed the box hole so it would be large enough to fit my phone, but small enough that no one could reach back in and steal it back.

sadly no luck. but it would have been really cool if it had. :( Friday Im off to buy a new phone and say good bye to all the pictures and photos collected on my phone. This is what I get for not getting the free one.

SLINKS!

add some lighting wire, vinyl tubing, a screen door spring, brown leggings and a brown shirt, tan gloves and mittens, green materials, some stuffing, and a couple of yards of tan and brown felt....and what you do get ???

SLINKS! aka my contribution to the science department does toy story....halloween 2009.

the whole group:

Slinks's favorite cowgirl Jessie

and favorite cowboy, Woody.

.

FEAST!

when the science department has department meetings we eat.

when I have food duties for science department meetings we feast.

phone conversation i had the night before my turn:

caller: how is your evening going?

me: good good, just cooking a feast for my deparment meeting tomorrow.

caller: oh should i call back later?

me: no it's ok. I'll still be cooking then. I did say feast after all.

and feast we did.

with peanut butter pumpkins

pumpkin cheese cake

pumpkin pie trail mix

apple cider

orange pop

pumpkin log

and sweet potatoes.

spirit week 2009

ever so long ago we had spirit week at my school. like a good teacher with sprit I complied.

well monday I did not....but I did wear a res t-shirt

and tuesday my walk-a-thon shirt...as we walked to the movie theater and saw fame.

then wednesday...TOGA day! and sadly I didnt take pics.

then thursday....grade school day. (well high school day for me...since I have nothing with me of the supercat or eagle days) i rocked the skirt, with sweatpants on since the skirt just wasnt as long as it used to be, the white polo, pigtails, kairos cross, and STA class ring.


then friday...would you still be my friend if I dressed like this. my wacky day outfit from the summer with some fabulous improvement: a horrendous tie from nick, and my half kitted hat atop my head.

Inversely proportional relationship

Dear blog-

how I miss you. I have sadly realized that my relationship with you is inversely proportional to my busyness factor.

when the busyness goes up the blogging goes down.

right now I could blog about how I spent last saturday taking a 125 chemistry content test for my IL teaching certification and I didnt come to the first chemistry question until question 90

or I could blog about my 30 mile bike ride on sunday when I chucked my full water bottle not once but twice out of my bike bag at the riders behind me because despite my not having any empty water bottle racks I couldnt bear to pass up free swag.

or I could blog about how I got a $1 bill in the mail as bribery to try and get me to go online and fill out a survey about my new car purchase.

but instead I will go and make a power point and student note packet for unit 2 chapters 2 and 4.

10 days in photos

the past 10 days have been in a word busy. and here lies the irony of me and my blog life. when I have time to blog, there is nothing to blog about, when there are things to blog about, I have no time.

over the past 10 days I have had several post ideas, but I dont remember them all, so I have turned to the old camera. and 10 days in pictures is more more bearable than 10 days in words.

Thursday: gave little bear a bath


Friday: traveled to KC where nick got eaten by a giant monkey


Saturday: emily enjoyed a cole slaw and bbq sauce sandwich on family bbq night


Sunday: Made some Instant Easter


Sunday Part 2: took nick to his first celebration at the station, had a partial mini STA reunion



monday: made trivia pursuit: conceptual physics edition


Tuesday: Piccolo found her new favorite spot EVER


Wednesday: Burt MILLIONS of DVDs for my students' end of the year presents


Thursday: unpacked THOUSANDS of dollars work of new lab equipment


Friday: went and saw UP a fabulous new movie

but I thought my masters was in education...

today is graduation. not my graduation, but graduation at my school. I opted out of actually attending my gradschool gradation since I was working at the time and didnt want to make the 500 mile trek so I had to rely on the ability of our senior class moderators to accurately order my hood. turns out bad plan.

our president was explaining the history and tradition of wearhing hoods and what the colors represent during graduation assembly and she mentions light blue for education, gold for science and then I look down. Navy blue. NAVY BLUE wft??? what does that even represent. philosophy apparently as google has described it to me.

interesting. I thought I studied education the past 15 months. apparently it was philosophy. my mistake.

so next year I start all over. try 2. masters of EDUCATION from Mizzou.

(but really can i actually just go back to my chemistry at ND, the school and the degree that I am actually most proud of??? I think I should be able to mix and match all my educational elements into a custom designed hood. or at least they should incorporate all schools always. undergrad pride perhaps???)

senior shenangins

last night was the senior lock in at schoolio. this meant 80 seniors, hanging out at school, with 4 adults volunteering to stay with them all night.

and lots of poor planing.

by 3 am the teacher in charge was M.I.A. apparently asleep for the past hour. so my colleague and I who were still being responsible chaperons decided to make a plan so we could each get some sleep. she'd sleep from 3-4:30 I'd sleep from 4:30 till 6.

5:00 came along and she never came out of the lounge...I figured she, being the only one of the four of us who had to teach all day the next day needed the most sleep. so I let her sleep the last hour.

meanwhile I hung with the seniors for hours. my duties during this time, reminding them of common sense items.

"no you may not play hide and seek in the kitchen, they cook in the pots and pans you want to hid in"

and

"no you may not hang fake mustaches from new paintings of your classmates they tape will RUIN THEM"

K.T.D.S K.T.D.S

prom night! welcome back to high school

this week is officially senior week. not cool senior week like at ND where we got to do cool stuff like play in blow up castles on south quad or get stadium tours, or escape to cedar point while tornados hit campus but senior week where I spend my free time catering to my 23 fabulous seniors some of whom I will miss dearly. here is the week run down.

thursday: senior awards night, got home from school at 8:30 pm.

Friday: went to prom took some fabulous pics, including one with momma claires who stayed up waiting for us to get home, ate some delicious ice cream at the sunday bar. got to wear a pretty dress

Saturday: softball championship. 13 innings no runs finally the other team won at the bottom of the 13th with a homerun over the fence. almost got hit in the head with a fly ball..teach me to delete text messages while "watching" as softball game.

sunday: make pretty books for senior science kids

monday: baccalaureate mass, followed by senior lock in aka staying up all night with my seniors

tuesday: recovering from monday's lack of sleep

wednesday: graduation and farewell to my favorites

the world smiles upon you? it pukes upon me.

yes I know life is pretty good compared to what is should be. i am alive, have a home, car, job, family, all my limbs, my health (most of the time...unless you count the massive headaches, sore neck, upset stomach, hot flashes (yes I know im not old enough for real hot flashes), ear aches that plague me every sunday night when the stress of the upcoming weeks gets to me) etc. but disregard MASSIVE tragedy, and compare to the life that 90% of the population deals with and yes the world pukes upon me.

lets take today for example. wake up. TIRED. drag myself out of bed, attempt to leave. finally make it out the door 10 min late. half way down the stairs. and back up I go. need dinner since I dont get to go home till 9 tonight. head down again. forgot phone. back up stairs.

have to wait for both trains AND the el on my way. get to school to be greated by sub coordinator. you have to sum during 5th. great 5th. my only plan for the day. fabulous.

not so bad you say. just wait. it will turn worse. like maybe I'll forget my wallet on a day when I have to run errands but not realize it till I've had to spend 10 min finidng a parkign spot and a half hour shopping, followed my 10 min standing in line.

or maybe I'll put hundreds of dollars into fixing my car just to have something else break the next day.

or maybe I'll make sure that I have everything I need to do a lab, and find out that the batteries were dead when they were put away last year.

or maybe I'll hang all my beautiful mobiles from the ceeling just to have to take them down and get ceeling dust in my eyes at the same time

or maybe the number of days since I've done anythign from fun will continue to grow (currently its at about 24)

hufflepuffs and where's my power?

in class today my seniors come in to take their exam. Well the 12 of them that were big enough failures to not get out of taking their final. All the students came in and sat in the last 2 rows of the classroom. I said ok guys spread out, you can even use the lab tables in the back of the room. and no one moved. I said it again, and the response. "but these are our assigned seats. humm interesting how no one in the front had to take the exam." I said "humm interesting yes...perhaps life lessons to employ when picking your seats in your 500 person lecture hall next fall" then went back to taking attendance etc. looked up again. no one had moved.

and then I had to pull out the big guns. "move NOW before I move you" the response "why"

and then the really big guns. "BECAUSE I SAID SO NOW MOVE"

hufflepuffs and finally a few move.

nerd alert

as a teacher I like to pilfer off others, so I was borrowing from my colleague's old former exam. and saw this cartoon.

my little sister always tells me "just because you are home earthquake season doesnt have to start" it made me giggle and so I share