A day in the life of a Teacher

I very much enjoy being a teacher. I'm especially grateful for the opportunity to witness and minister to these students and their families. But there as some days when I ask myself if it's all just too much. Case in point today...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

8:00am    Arrive at school;
                check mailbox;
                prepare for the morning
8:20am    Open door and greet students; answer parent questions;
                help students unpack
8:30am    Class begins; Morning Routing + Seatwork + Pledges
9:00am    ELL gets pulled out for tutoring
9:10am    Pledges + Bible
9:45am    Recess + Monitoring outside + Help students with Math
10:00am  Spelling/Grammar + principal observes in the back
11:00am  Language Arts/Reading + principal leaves
11:25am  Pray for lunch; Lunch
11:30am  Make sure students washed hands
               Check to see that students seated and eating
11:35am  Grab my lunch; return to classroom; forget that I need to pee
11:40am  Students come in to make up work
12:15pm  Rest of the class files in
12:25pm  Sustained Silent Reading
12:45pm  Computers
12:15pm  Math
1:30pm    History
2:00pm    Recess; group of students stay in to finish work
2:20pm    Students write down HW and pack up; send to Mandarin; go pee
2:30pm    "Teach" MS Photoshop
3:15pm    Bell rings
               Scold the 8th graders who were not on task + lying
3:20pm    Thank co-worker for covering for me the past 10 mins
               Dismiss students/wait for parent pick-up
3:30pm    Prep for meeting + search for interpreter
3:45pm    Meeting with principal and parents commences
5:50pm    Parent leaves
6:15pm    Meeting comes to an end

I missed praise practice, finally had a moment to sit and think, had a headache, couldn't believe how much I had talked, couldn't believe my day's back-to-back schedule (no recess either!), allergies started acting up again, refuse to stay late working tonight, plan to sit in a quiet and dark room, noticed that objects further than 3 feet away were fuzzy, wanted to cry (but told myself that it was not professional to do such a thing), found Husband and got a big "bear hug." No place like Pooki's arms after a long, winding day. :)

6:30pm   Husband knows it was a long day + picks up some sushi
               Feel so touched by Husband's sweet gesture and surprise
               Forget surroundings and gobble down yummy treat
7:45pm   Grab a caramel sundae from McD's
7:50pm   Excited to go to Home Sweet Home
              Husband reminds me that our nook is just a temporary tent and heaven is our real home

Mrs. Avocado

College life was great. I discovered many things like: Pad Thai, Blueberries, Lychee (the fruit, not the boba flavor), Cous Cous, and Naan - yes, even a small helping of academic learning on the side. ;) But the other deliciousness that I was introduced to was Avocados!

My co-worker gave me an avocado a few days ago, and today I remembered to bring it home. It was a beast of an avocado. Look, it's like a baby!

Seeing this ginormous avocado was getting me excited about eating it. It was so big, so ripe.

I slapped a third of it onto the omelet-rice (with veggies) that I made for my poor Hubby who only came home from a grueling day of work and school at 8:30 P.M. Of course the eggs were the first thing he smelled when he walked in the door. But even Mr. Woo, who usually doesn't like avocado, really enjoyed eating it! We quickly ate up the two-thirds remaining in the same sitting.

Hands down, the best avocado. I need to find my co-worker's avocado tree and eye some more for the taking.

Puahah, I'm so punny!

With a cherry (blossom) on top

I very much like cherry blossoms. So much so that I have a tree blooming with them behind me at work. Mr. Woo even included a couple branches of blossoms with my Valentine's Day surprise last year. Unfortunately, I couldn't incorporate it into our winter wedding, but I did try.

It's exciting to find outlets for our likings, and when an opportunity came for me to create Valentine's Day cards I definitely went this route. I participated in a card swap this year. I was sent three names/addresses to send my cards to within a time frame, and then was to expect three Valentine's in the mail myself! I sat and pondered for some time, before I came up with the idea of mimicking my tree.

Part of my bargain-hunting is to dig through clearance items, even if I don't have a current need. I keep it in my stash, much like a squirrel I suppose, for a later purpose. So whenever I'm crafting, I'll look through what I have first, before going out to make a purchase (with coupon in hand). One of these items would be the card that I used as my base. It was a gray dictionary-like front and back with many words and definitions. To complement this word-y theme, I chose to include my own haiku on the inside as well (just like my wall!).

It wasn't difficult so much as tedious. It doesn't require much supplies, so I was able to use leftover materials from my wall.  Here's how I got it done in time:

Materials needed:

• Card or cardstock
• Pink tissue paper, various shades
• Brown crafting paper (I used butcher paper)
• Green construction paper
• Glue
• Patience and nimble fingers

Time: 25 minutes per card

Note: Finger tips may hurt from so much pinching.

1. Start with a base, the card. If you can't find any with words on it, you can type/print it on or even use some stamp letters.
2. With your brown paper, cut off a strip the size that you would want your tree trunk to be. Tip: Start with the width, then adjust the height (or vice versa). Also, you may want to crinkle your trunk to give it some interesting detail. Be careful not to rip it completely!
3. After you "plant" your trunk onto the card with glue, cut off a few smaller strips of brown of various lengths. These will be your branches. While crinkling, try twisting off the ends of the branch for a less blunt end.
4. Start planning where you want to place your branches. When you have made more, taken some out, and finalized the look of your tree glue them down.
5. With the pink tissue papers rip off small pieces (cutting it off won't give much of the flower-y texture). Then crumble it up into a wad. If you're more meticulous, pinch tissue into a rosette-like pattern.
6. Just like the branches, you can plan your placement of each blossom before gluing it down. Use 3 different shades for more "pop" and bloom them in clusters of 2 or 3.
7. If you'd like you can add some fresh, green grass. I cut it in a zig-zag, angled patter to give more appeal. Add any adornment (and a haiku perhaps?) that you wish!

For the envelope, I took blue colored paper and use a die-cut. I folded along the creased edges (created from the die-cut) and glued it in place. To make it look more attractive I sealed the top fold of the envelope with pretty flower stickers instead. Ta-da!

You can now see it featured among some fabulous Valentines here!

Did you DIY any Valentine cards this year? :)

How we Koreans mix it up

This past weekend we made a trip to visit my parents. The four of us paid a visit to Kome, a new buffet rivaling Moonstar, with unlimited sushi, crab, lobster, and I don't know what else because that's all I ate. My parents wanted to watch Avatar after hearing all the fuss so we did so in 3-D. Perhaps it was all the emotion that James Cameron was wrenching out of me, but driving away from the waving Mama and Papa Birds who were about to turn back into the empty nest left me with a pang in my heart. (Hats off to Mr. Cameron. You've done it again.)

But have no fear, Mama Bird packed us some worms (figuratively speaking) which she slaved for in the kitchen with love! She packed us to-go boxes of bibimbap, Mr. Woo's favorite. And by the way, ever since they found out that he really likes eggs and likes them slightly undercooked so that it'll pop and ooze out the yoke, that's how they make his eggs - every time, minimum four eggs.

Mr. Woo's also discovered the taste of gochujang (red pepper paste) and puts a bunch of it in his mountain of a bowl. He's impressed shocked worried me with a second helping of it each time. So this time, we put it all in one big bowl - Korean style.

Wait, something's missing...

That's better, but... 

 

  There!

Yes, now I have a super elated Husband. :)

We mixed it up:

And feasted:
(Note: I am married and now able to post pictures such as the one before you. When I have children later, they may ask that I take it down...)

We're so romantic! That was my reasoning for sharing one bowl. :) The other benefit was fewer dishes to wash.

It is finished:

So now we have full tummies thanks to Mama Bird's labor of love (and no gochujang stains on any of the tableware thanks to the paper towels that were laid out - yes, I went there.) Thank you, Mommy! :)

Roses are red...

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

You know the rest,

But my Honey is the best!

After lunch, I had my kids reading quietly at their desks and/or on the rug. Suddenly, two middle school students enter the classroom and make a beeline for my desk. On it, they purposefully place a tall glass cylinder. My students and I look at each other. I give them a shrug, and they respond with an anticipatory giggle. At this point, I'm thinking that the middle schoolers want to show me a super-cool science experiment in preparation for the upcoming Science Bowl since they had left a tiny yet bright, orange post-it, which read: Hold on please. Another seventh grader enters with the familiar blue water bottle that Mr. Woo recently received. He craftily pours the water into the (what I thought was at the time) large beaker. And so it began.

The sheepish students, one at a time, brought foliage and baby's breath. They were then followed by a long and steady trail of teenage students who individually brought in a single red roses - my favorite. Each richly luxurious stem was blooming much excitement in E101. There was squealing. There was yippee-ing. There was jumping. There was running and rushing. My kids were exuberant with ecstasy. It must have been too much for the middle schoolers because the grin they entered with quickly left their face upon their exit. Then there was me. I knew who was up to this kind of something and I loved every bit of it!

After a few roses made their way onto my desk, my third graders caught on to the pattern. A pod of them peered out the door to announce where the wiser fish were swimming out of, "Mrs. Woo, they're all outside under the stairs!" shouting out their predictions of who was behind the scheming, "It's Mr. Woo! I see Mr. Woo!" While I let the Peeping Toms proceed,  the other side of the room was shouting their commentary of, "Mrs. Woo, you're so popular!" and "This is the best day ever!" and the like. It was spectacular fun, and the juxtaposition of my kids' energetic excitement and the older students' demure display of emotions was like peanut butter jelly.

After the dozen roses trickled in, Mr. Woo popped his head in to say Happy Valentine's Day. Using the students to surprise me? Perfect.
Before we married, he mentioned that he had wanted to have students help in proposing (something like holding signs/letters to spell out "Will you marry me?"), but it didn't work out since he proposed after summer school ended and before the new school year. The seventh graders aren't cutesy, giggly kids but it was adorable nonetheless. Husband, you are genius!
You even made me think the two roses you had sent in the morning (MS fundraiser?) via students was my gift. You are getting quite sneaky... (and plastering a big smile on this very happy wife with all these flowers!)

Afterward, even though the older kids were late to Science (no worries, Mr. Woo wrote them all an excused tardy pass), we took time to take a picture with the kiddos. My students were long since reading their books, and were now waving at me with ear-to-ear grins. So I called them all out so we could take a group picture. Cute, huh?

Open House now closed

Open House came and left much too quickly, not that I was enjoying the extra work. It's an interesting concept because we put in the extra hours for a 2-hour viewing of the classroom, and at most half of my parents showed up. Yes, I do it for the school and the prospective families, but if there's one targeted group it's my own students' families. I want them to be proud of what their child has accomplished and to see the progress they've made thus far. Oh, for them to get excited about how much more they'll have learned by June!


But I am thankful for those who did show, for the parents who've been extremely supportive, and for the Lord's grace in bringing me thus far with my special batch of kids this year. They've each come a long ways since the beginning of the year, as it's evident in their journal entries, letters, other writing assignments, and notes that they write me.Without further ado, my Open House tour online exclusive (with director's commentary)...


The students have produced many writings this year - narratives, descriptive paragraphs, letters, poetry, and more.

I had many of the final drafts up on the walls, so on their desk I laid out their portfolio of each writing process along with some other work they had done, a Family Totem Pole, and their animal sculptures.

My students very much enjoy art, so you can see that the results are usually wonderful:

Many of the assignments tie into other subject areas. The artwork above was done during Art, but the final draft writing was typed up in Computers. It related to the Open Court (language arts curriculum) story "City Critters."

My favorite part of the classroom (it looks better in person):

This was, believe it or not, a math lesson. I learned of this project at Asilomar, an annual math conference. Students had already learned about multiplication and arrays, so we introduced parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and finding area. The art portion is actually based on the contemporary artwork of Piet Mondrian. Pretty neat, huh? Here's what it looks like when you first walk in - bam!

Do you remember my tree that I "planted" behind my desk? It changed leaves throughout the year (yellow and orange for fall; barren for the winter), and is now blooming with cherry blossoms for spring - a fitting backdrop to showcase their haikus!

People say that it's what's inside that counts, but I'm awfully fond of our bulletin board outside. The third grade went full force with our "American diner" theme, based on an illustration in my 2010 Sandra Boynton planner. It's super cute, and (don't tell my previous students) it just might be my favorite display I've ever created. If you look closely, you can see our pig (note the newspaper and coffee mug) and cow sitting on the barstools. It's brilliant! Oh, right, and the students' favorite food descriptions, illustrations, and crafts are up there too.

Back inside, I had all the curricula on the back table with a plate of cookies and made myself available for any questions parents might have had and/or pleasant conversation. There was no reporting-Mrs.Woo-to-the-principal shenanigans this year, so that was nice. I even received a bouquet of pretty pink tulips from the art teacher who had used it for her "gallery." All in all, it went well. I just need to make copies of some of their hilarious/insightful/touching/fantastic work so I can add it to my collection for when I need some teacher encouragement.

Culprit found!

My eczema, that I had outgrown for over a decade(!), came back. Initially it was only on the legs, on and off, during my last year or two in college. Then last year, it started creeping up my body and appeared on my torso, then back/shoulders. Finally, it reached my neck and face the past couple of months. It's not painful, but horribly itchy. I even scratch in my sleep, only to find out in the morning when it's too late. The worst, though, is when I'm kept up all night because I'm aware and scratching so much. The thought of seeing a doctor crossed my mind, but I knew what would happen: prescribe some sort of cream and send me away. It's happened before to no avail. The way I saw it, why bother? But when parents and middle school students started asking what was wrong with my face the past couple of weeks (and Open House coming up), I knew something had to be done.

Bad News
(1) I call the advice nurse. Tells me to take Benedryl. (2) Got a phone appointment. Doctor says she can't assess me over the phone. Duh. (3) Was able to be seen by a doctor. Leaving out details but she must have been new or just not thinking that day. (4) Finally got my referral to see specialists!

You know what this reminded me of? College pre-req "weeder" courses. I just wanted to get started with the upper div classes!

Good News
The allergist was very helpful. We talked over my symptoms, diet, family history to determine which skin tests I should take. Each test would be a prick of a needle on my forearm. She narrowed it down to 30. I thought she was kidding. Nope! Before I knew it I had consented to sitting in a chair with 30 holes in both arms. It looked something like this, except the nurse scribbled HUGE numbers, lines, and abbreviations down both forearms with a blue ball point pen:

The first one that I reacted to was histamine to make sure I didn't have any anti-histamine in my system to show false results. Yes, it itched very much. After the 30 pokes, I noticed that only the second allergen was turning into a welt. It, too, was calling for my fingernails to dig into it. The culprit: dustmites! These pesky creatures (aren't they butt-ugly?) are everywhere!

 

Hear me roar.

The dermatologist was also helpful. I'm so glad I had Mr. Woo there with me because the doc came in with a "visiting dermatologist" (student?). With two men hovering over my back (to see my ugly eczema patches), I was feeling a bit uneasy. But it was quick, painless, and professional. Even with my personal questions that I asked, to which I (finally!) received answers. I found that some of my symptoms to which I had other concerns were actually common in women. Hoorah! (kind of...)

The best doctors' visits, hands down.

Conclusion

1. There's no cure for eczema, but there are some "preventative measures": 
1. Moisturize like crazy, 
2. Don't scratch, and 
3. Get a topical steroid cream for the aftermath of when you do relieve the itching.
2. Google is my friend.
3. Kaiser and I are "aite" now.

6 more weeks of Christmas in a cup

I had a great day today!

Let's recap: I woke up early, got my Starbucks, arranged neatly on each of my students' desk a Happy Groundhog Day pencil with a mystery picture worksheet (sorry, no picture), students were excited and grateful about the colorful pencils, taught normal academic subjects, read a story about Punxsutawney Phil to them, talked about sin and why it should bother them, left early for my Kaiser appointments with two different specialists, Husband drove and came with me for moral support, discovered the culprit to my allergy(!), received a cream for my eczema, asked questions I've literally had for years since I was there anyway, ate dinner with a friend of ours, finished one item off of my to-do-for-Open-House list, am relaxing while blogging, and will soon be watching American Idol on my new laptop, Onesimus 2.

One of the events I'd like to highlight...

Punxatawney Phil came out this morning (more like forced at the break of freezing dawn, the poor thing) and saw his shadow - 6 more weeks of winter!

Speaking of winter, a couple months ago, I watched a movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds called "The Proposal." In it, he gets her coffee for her every morning - a Soy Cinnamon Dulce Latte, which they refer to as "Christmas in a cup." I don't know if it was the scene that prolonged the coffee's appearance (he spills one on himself, but like a good assistant, he always buys two..) but I just had to give it a try. So after one of our date nights, we walk over to Starbucks and I tell them exactly what I want. It went something like this:

Barista #1: Hi, what can I get for you?
Mrs. Woo: Hi! Have you seen the movie, "The Propsal"?
Barista #2: Oh, yeah, I have!
Mrs. Woo: I can't remember what that drink was called, but do you remember the one that Sandra Bullock always gets?
Barista #2: Yeah, it's the, um... Cinnamon Dulce Latte!
Mrs. Woo: Yes! Can I get a Soy Cinnamon Dulce Latte please?
Barista #1: Sure.

And so, I walked out a happy patron - Soy CDL in one hand, Husband's hand in the other. The evening brought a crisp breeze as we strolled down the street to where we parked. The light scent of cinnamon was close, and the smell of wood in a well-burning chimney was near. Winter bliss. :)