Books and Learning

Books

Despite the fact that there aren't too many books in the library here to begin with, sometimes the library gets tired of books and will leave them out on a table for students to take for free. Apparently, however, students don't actually take any of the books left out, so one of the English teachers here rescued them and brought them to her classroom, where I got to look through them yesterday. Let's just say it makes sense why the library doesn't want them and why they can't seem to give them away to any students. I mean, really, who doesn't want to read such classics like The Runaway Robot or Dick King-Smith and Lady Lollipop?

I took pictures because this is very real.

Rocks and their stories (my life) & The Runaway Robot (whose name is Rex! and he lives on some planet.)

Dick King-Smith and Lady Lollipop (this looks like a little-kid book. what is this name), The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, and The Muffin Child (whose muffin is oddly reminiscent of a mustache)

This is a Tree, It's Like This, Cat (damn straight), and A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag

In a moment of sheer indulgence, a dramatic reading of the first page of This is a Tree may have occurred. 

Learning

We watched two videos in English yesterday that basically made me remember why I am passionate about education and why I don't think I could be a teacher in the current system of schooling. There's this quote by some wise guy who said something along the lines of "Never let your schooling interfere with your education" and I think both videos spoke quite well to that idea. I'll post links to the videos later (wifi in school is objectively terrible). If you are too excited to watch these videos, and would like to go find them immediately, here are the names:

"I Will Not Let an Exam Result Decide My Fate" - Suli Breaks

"Changing Paradigms" - Sir Ken Robinson (for a more optimal learning experience, I suggest watching the RSA animation of the TED Talk)

extended naptime

Today, I came home from school and there was so much free time awaiting me! I made myself lunch for tomorrow, which is great because I won't have to do that in the morning - hence, more sleep! and then I went upstairs, and in the middle of changing into my pajamas (yes, this is a thing I do at 4 PM) I decided it would be a great time for a nap, and promptly fell asleep with no pants on. Whoops.

The only downside to this was actually just that I'd been super stoked to make something new and interesting for dinner, and then I woke up at 6:30 or so and was bummed to a) put on pants and b) have to make dinner instead of just eating. But once I put pants on, the prospect of making dinner didn't seem as daunting, and now I am full of delicious scallops and veggies and Lactaid milk. And tomorrow's lunch is already made. Winning.

I think sometimes at Dartmouth it's easy to forget what immaturity looks like because it's often masked in a veil of intelligence or excused by alcohol. High school doesn't wear the same disguises, and immaturity is prevalent (albeit occasionally funny). So many dirty jokes. So many. I like having humor in my day, and I also like being around people who are completely and openly honest. But sometimes when the kids are tiptoeing on the balance beam between hilarious and inappropriate I start to question my life choices a little bit.

I got more candy for the bowl, and got a ton of stories out of it today, which rocked. I love sharing stories. It's taking a piece of your life and letting someone else look at it. I think stories are important because they enable you to appreciate the people around you in a more complete way.

I also got a lot of jokes, and I'm writing down the absurd ones for use at a later time in life. I promise you, this will one day come in very handy.

Here are some especially bad jokes that I definitely laughed at:

Where does Batman go to pee?
    To the bat-room (said in a ghetto voice. optional: add a head nod)

If you're an American outside of the bathroom, what are you inside the bathroom?
    European (you're a-peein')!!!!!

Wanna hear a dirty joke? A horse fell in mud.

Why did Susie fall off the swing?
    She had no arms.
Knock Knock
    Who's there?
Not Susie...


So this is hopefully painting a decent picture of what sort of interactions I have on a daily basis.

On a more serious note, this movie The Place Beyond the Pines recently came out (or is about to come out? unclear) and it's about Schenectady. A bunch of the kids are actually in it, which is pretty awesome. But the thing that came up about this movie wasn't that a bunch of the high-schoolers are mini Hollywood stars now - what made this a hot topic was actually a YouTube clip of one of the actors talking about Schenectady and kind of ripping on the town.

Here is a trailer (which I just watched and now I kind of want to see it for a reason that's not just RYAN GOSLING IS IN IT).

Here is the video they were watching in school. The actor starts addressing the town specifically at around 2:30. I think the comments do a good job illuminating some of the kids' frustrations with the interview.

Okay, so that's a bummer and I don't want to leave you on a bummer note but I ran out of other things to talk about, so this is a more neutral statement that ends with an exclamation point!

weekends are for trying new things

One nice thing about working at a high school is that you get your weekends off, and you don't really have very much to do in preparation for the next week. I've taken this to be a good opportunity to do a lot of things purely because I have the time to do them. So, this weekend, I played in a frisbee tournament.

Let's get one thing straight - I don't play frisbee. That is not a thing that I am really capable of doing. However, I am friends with a lot of the frisbee team, and I like hanging out with them, and really, when will I ever have the time at Dartmouth to spend a weekend playing a sport I have never played before? So, I played in a frisbee tournament. And it was awesome. I learned how to play frisbee, I did some things that were good, I ran a lot, got really sunburned, the whole shebang. I still can't really throw a frisbee, but I can catch them and apparently that's 90 percent of what you need to be decent enough at frisbee to play in a tournament.

Other fun things: Last night I went to the local open mic night and it was also super fun. I played, and it went well, and I played one of the songs I wrote which impressed me because I barely feel comfortable playing my own stuff at Dartmouth. Maybe I'm just getting more comfortable with the idea of putting personal stuff like that out there... I don't know. Anyways, that was fun and the cafe where they have the open mic night is freaking awesome - definitely going to start going there all of the time. That'll be sweet because I won't feel quite so guilty about never leaving the house if I just hole up in the cafe instead.

It is still cold. Why is it so cold? I feel like everywhere I go here is cold. It is freezing in my room. It is freezing in the guidance office. It is freezing in the classrooms. I'm starting to think that Dartmouth is actually brilliant for keeping it inordinately hot in every building all winter long. Also, the weather reports here lie. It's supposed to get up to 62 today and right now it's 39. Good thing I can always touch my sunburned face for warmth!

Okay, back to school. I have to go find the kids and give them notes with important information. Sweet!

everybody loves mug

Over winterim I was given a mug in the shape of a camera lens. It is maybe the best unintentional conversation starter I have ever encountered. Every morning, I make tea, and then bring it to school. And then this mug sits there, chilling on the table, and kids'll walk in and they'll be talking to each other and I'll be listening and be somewhat part of the conversation and then out of nowhere one of them says Holy shit! Is that a cup?
And it's great because somehow this makes us friends.

The candy bowl ran out already. That was freaking fast.

Someone was supposed to come clean the kitchen last night, so I made dinner and was done eating by 5:30. Then I got a text saying that nobody was coming to clean the kitchen. On the bright side, it occurred to me that I could just pretend it was later and consequentially fall asleep and be able to wake up earlier. I'm going to be on the weirdest sleep schedule when I get back to school. In bed by 8, asleep by 10, up by 6:30.

life is exciting
!

M&Ms

The moral of the last two days is that next time I buy candy for the office, I need to buy a kind of candy I don't like, because I've literally just been sitting here eating candy all day every day. Pretzel M&Ms and almond M&Ms are officially off limits. The Skittles and on-sale Easter chocolate can stay though.

This is my candy bowl:

The previous interns mentioned that because there are kids in the office all the time, the candy runs out really fast, so to save money and not have to refill the bowl as often, I made this sign. It's working, which is awesome. I have gotten so many high fives, and also some great bad jokes, and yesterday a kid even did magic tricks for me for a solid twenty minutes. And one time I came back to a piece of paper with a high five drawn on it. That happened. I feel accomplished.

One thing I've noticed that has worked really well so far is conversations. It's hard because the topics have to be spontaneous, otherwise you can't really talk. It's not like "quick! talk about robots! go!" but more of a "what's going on in your life" that leads to something super random but relatable and open. So far today I have talked to kids about an alarm clock that wakes you up by gradually getting brighter, how awesome it is when the radio doesn't have commercials, and dragons. And it's only 10 AM.

Also, here is last night's dinner. Making dinner is weird because I'm excited about it but I'm always exhausted by the time I'm hungry.

After school yesterday, it was nice enough outside to do some exploring, and since I hadn't actually gone around the entire school yet, I decided to make that my exercise for the day and ran around the school. Fun fact: It is a mile-long run. Then I did sit-ups in the backyard of the house. Then I made dinner and fell asleep watching the 6th episode of Star Wars. It was 8 PM.

Oops. Eating more M&Ms. And now giving the candy bowl an evil look. Good thing I have all afternoon to run a mile (or two or three... wait, who am I kidding) around the school!

here we go, for real

Second day of school! It was the first REAL day though, as in, teachers were actually teaching and wearing clothes that were not college sweatshirts. It was a really, really productive day. I sat in on a class, I talked to a ton of students, I met people I was supposed to meet - things happened and I felt good about that.

It's striking how much respect can distinguish me from students. I realized pretty soon into the day that most school staff in the halls were aware of the fact that I'm not a student, which was surprising given that I don't have a staff ID yet. Later on, I realized that the reason they knew is because I smile at them walking in the hallways. I make eye contact. I acknowledge them, I am happy to see them, and I guess this just isn't a response they typically get from the students on such an overt level.

There was one moment today when I was talking to one of the students and it was going so smoothly and it occurred to me that I am good at this. It was shocking and made me happy because I really like this, and I'm not usually the best at things I really like. It felt natural and awesome to be working with students, talking to them, teaching them and learning from them.

I am also going to teach an SAT prep class starting next week. I hate standardized testing so much, so in a weird twist of events, I'm going to try and get a bunch of kids prepared to kick standardized testing's ass. Yeah... that'll happen.

Here is a picture of the cat in the guidance office. I was stoked to see it survived spring break.

meow

And because it looked really good and tasted really healthy, here is a picture of Jamie cooks herself dinner, day two. And I made too much pasta because what are measurements so now maybe tomorrow for lunch I can have macaroni and something. Yum.

Pasta topped with carrots, broccoli, celery, and red pepper stir-fried in some random but delicious spicy sauce, topped with shredded Cabot and then some goat cheese when I got tired of shredding the Cabot. And Lactaid milk of course. 

Cool. It is way too late for me to be up because I've decided that 6:30 will be my wake-up time for the term. Tomorrow, get at me.

I'm such a real person

and by that I mean I successfully* made myself dinner! Hell yeah! I even took a picture because I was really excited by how real it looked. It also tasted pretty damn good too, and not just because I made it (because we all know that can sometimes be a thing).

Salad, Lactaid milk, and mushroom thingies... some amount of money I don't remember.
Making an edible dinner... priceless.

Photography struggles (too excited about dinner? Couldn't hold the camera straight because shaking with excitement? That's gotta be it...), but regardless, sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! I made a real salad with all sorts of fun goodies inside and then also tried to mimic this thing my friend Boze does with baby portabello mushroom caps and boursin (definitely didn't just have to look that up because I forgot what it was called) and crispified prosciutto. It sort of worked. Fact: It's way better when she makes it. 

I also photographed the egregious amount of groceries I purchased. I got too much food to fit on the kitchen table. Oops? Success? Unclear. 

Groceries on groceries on groceries. 

So much cooking is going to happen. I'm scared. I'm stoked. Let the great food adventure of 13S begin.

Also, can't wait for school tomorrow... seven AM wakin' up in the morning gotta get dressed gotta go downstairs, gotta have my bowl gotta have cereal or some other food, okay stopping now because it's maybe not okay that I still sing that song in my head from time to time. For real though, seven AM wake up. HERE WE GO HIGH SCHOOL. I'm ready.

*success contingent on the fact that I don't die of food poisoning later tonight

Toto, I don't think we're in Hanover anymore

I actually left, for real this time. After a lovely three hour drive through a lot of empty fields and then a field with cows and then some more empty fields and also the weirdest rainstorm ever (upstate NY, do you know how to rain continuously? I don't think you're supposed to rain for two seconds and then stop and then start for another two seconds. I don't think that's how that's supposed to work), I made it to a grocery store about 15 minutes from where I'm staying and decided it was a really excellent time to buy a ton of food. I'm now procrastinating from attempting to cook any of it by writing this. I also am starting to think that this is going to end up being more of a blog about my attempts to be a real functioning person who makes edible food. I will make an active effort to write about more than just my failed attempts at cooking. 

School starts tomorrow! Woo! I'm actually excited now. This morning I was super bummed about leaving, which is silly, but I had the best week with friends and not a lot of stress and a lot of visceral happiness and I didn't want to leave that. On the bright side it makes me excited to write letters. Sending letters to friends is an important thing, as a very meaningful poem once said. 

This morning I don't think I was ready to let go of all of that. But, as a wise person once said, "Sucks to suck" (a snarky wise person, clearly). I may not be ready but I don't really have a choice, I'm here in upstate New York and I'm going to school tomorrow and I'm about to cook myself dinner (AHHHH) so I might as well get stoked, you know? I'm making my own food! I just spent $200 on food! It's like I'm a real person or something! Go me! 

Here are some fun facts from the day.

Fun Fact #1: V-neck undershirts cost way more than they should. Nothing that flimsy should cost more than five bucks. (On that note, maybe someone should alert every fashion designer ever.)

Fun Fact #2: I did not see a single animal in one of the large fields I drove past until I got into New York. 

Fun Fact #2.5: I crossed the New York border and promptly, like two seconds in, saw a field of cows. Vermont, you are slacking.

Fun Fact #3: Just kidding. In case it was unclear by the description of what I did today, there aren't actually 3 fun things about driving from Hanover, New Hampshire to Schenectady, New York. (But there are 2.5 fun things, so that's cool.)

Also, this has nothing to do with my internship or being a real person or anything really, but last night rocked. I really don't think I've ever had so much fun being social at Dartmouth. And I want to remember that. I love my friends. : )