What I did this past Saturday.

This is a picture of my wedding.

The vows.

No, I'm not happy :-)

We didn't tell the bridesmaids or groomsmen ahead of time about the wedding.  But they got buttons.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things I am thankful for:

1.  Kevin.  He makes my life better in so many little ways, and I am still burbling with joy to be marrying him.  I love you lots.

2.  The rest of my family, both by blood and by choice.  I could not live without you and your support.  This does not begin to cover the thanks I owe to all of you.

3.  My pets.  Kitties to cuddle, and ferrets to crawl up my sleeves.  Without their love and the laughter they give me, my life would be poorer.

4.  My job.  It's not perfect, and never will be.  However, I love doing it, and it's nice to have something solid and mine in the midst of this crazy year.

5.  Knitting.  I come back to it again and again.  When I'm happy, I knit.  When I'm sad, I knit.  When I'm lonely, I knit.  When I'm bored, I knit.  Without you, my hands would twitch and I would be infinitely less stable.

6.  The material things.  Home, food, heat, water, electric, internet, phone, nice clothes, stash yarn.  Taken for granted every day, but would be sorely missed if I could not have them.

7.  The little comforts that make the days better.  Trader Joe's peppermint Joe-Joes cookies (aka "the crack cookies"), sparkly eyeshadow, excellent loose tea in large quantities.

I hope you are as blessed as I am this Thanksgiving.

Really really really busy.

My life is feeling complicated right now, although mostly in a good way.  Big changes are in the works, but they are not yet internet safe, so I have little to say.

Here are some simple ribbed socks I knit.

Gypsy Knits yarn.  Beautiful stuff!

These were supposed to be for me, but I knit them in best friend size.  She won't mind.  I may have to buy more yarn in this colorway.

I have also started working on another pair of socks for me.

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy.  The color is closest to true at the bottom of the picture.

 These are Jaywalkers, except that my printer was being dumb and didn't print the whole pattern.  So sort-of jaywalkers with lots of modifications.  But they fit MY feet, so I'm happy with them.

Still pretty, though.  Lots more blue/green than this shows.

A regularly scheduled blog will return after New Year's.  At that point, I should be able to discuss all the big stuff.  And there will, no doubt, be lots more knitting.

I've been busy.

It's not much of an excuse, even if it is true.

I've been knitting.

It's a scarf in poor light, but you can kind of see the sparkles.

And another scarf out of this:

I swear it's more yellow and less green in real light.  The scarf is pretty and soft.

I finished a pair of socks.

Seriously, the colors are terrible in these photos.  This is a basic sock made out of Panda Cotton.

I've knitted most of another pair of socks too, but those are at school and I don't have a picture.

Oh yes, and one other thing.

I got engaged last weekend :-)

The love of my life Kevin proposed this past weekend.  In case you're wondering, it's a sapphire.  He's a geologist and I quote, "Diamonds are boring.  They're just carbon."

We are stupid happy, and I've been busy.  Happy November :-)

Vocab Update

I was at the school soccer game last night.  Guess what my students were yelling at our team . . .

Can you guess?

No really, can you?

And I quote, "Cut off their nether bits!"

I have created a monster, and I really really like it :-)

New vocabulary use in 7th period.

My students have been learning new words this year.  This is not terribly surprising, but in addition to all the words I WANT them to learn (distance, displacement, etc), they are also learning things by listening to me speak.

A few weeks ago, I foolishly taught them the term "vertically challenged" (we were discussing political correctness).  They all agree that this is way worse than just being called "short", so of course they remembered it to call other people.  A good insult is not to be wasted, especially not one that is unlikely to send them to the dean.

Then, today, I used the term "nether bits" in class (We were talking about the metric system.  Of course I used the term "nether bits".  I have no idea why you're looking at me funny.)  The kids thought this was the best term EVER, and kept giggling and saying "nether bits" to themselves the whole period.

And then my two smartest boys started thinking about insults.  And so, today in class, one boy said to another, "You have vertically challenged nether bits!"

If I ever stop laughing, I need to decide if I think this is a good thing or not.  Looked at in the right light, this might just be education.

Student teacher

I now have a student teacher.  For those of you who don't know, teaching is sort of like medicine.  The only way to get good at it is to do it.  While the theory classes are very interesting, and the stuff on brain development is good to repeat to yourself when you're listing reasons not to murder teenagers, but it doesn't ever tell you what to do in the classroom.  When do you have the power struggle to make a kid move?  When do you issue a detention?  When do you kick a kid out?  What do you say to kid who makes the double entendre comment that starts the whole class giggling?

So when you're done with those theory classes, an experienced teacher lets you come in and spend time with their classes, and eventually take over the class for some number of weeks.  I have now been cast in the role of experienced teacher (5 years!).  This man who will be working in my classroom with my kids is an experienced chemist and patent lawyer.  He is very competent in his previous work.  But now, he has to learn how to entertain and manage kids well enough that some of his vast knowledge and experience passes from him to them.  And I have to help him do this.

I hated student teaching.  There were a number of reasons, very few of which are internet appropriate.  But I will say that that step from competent person to newbie was incredibly hard and humbling, and I did not feel well supported when I took it.  I still learned more than I ever believed possible, some from the adults I was working with and more from the kids.  So, in honor of this step of teaching an adult, I will list some of what I learned in student teaching that still shapes my teaching today.

1.  I am an adult, and they are children.  My self esteem is not, and should not be, shaped by what they think of me.
2.  Each day is a new day.  No matter how horrible the child was yesterday, be happy to see him/her again today (even if I'm really not).
3.  Be clear in your expectations.  I must explain exactly what I want -- they cannot read my mind.
4.  Having secret standards is unfair.  All of the basis for grading must be explained up front.
5.  Don't yell.  When I yell, my voice gets high and squeaky and I just sound silly.
6.  Yelling in German is better.  Any language they don't speak would probably work.
7.  Be organized in my lessons.  Kids appreciate a coherent flow of topics.  Jumping around is not helpful to anyone.
8.  Give frequent grade updates.  Kids want to know how they are doing, and will forgive me a great deal if I give useful feedback.
9.  Go to events the kids are in.  They love seeing teachers there.

And most important of all:
10.  CARE ABOUT THE KIDS!!!!  If they know I care about them, they will walk through fire for me.

And to finish up, one great kid story:
    When one of my students, a kid who would rather distract than learn most days, saw the student teacher in the classroom on Friday, he pulled me aside.  "Is this a day where I have to be especially good?"  "What?" I asked him.  "Are you getting graded?  Do I have to be good?"  He thought it was my review day, where I was getting graded by the administration, and wanted to be sure to be good on that day.  When I explained that this was not that day, he replied, "OK, but just tell me when."  It was a good moment :-)

I love teaching, and hope my student teacher does too.