school
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
fro
this is my student, who goes by the name “fro”
the name was of his own choosing, although i’m sure you can guess where the nickname comes from…
and today, the art teacher came into my classroom and asked to take a photo of me. sure, why not? so i stood by my whiteboard with all my notes up on the board and pretended to be writing some more. no - he wanted me to look into the camera and smile with my lips closed.
okay....
i didn’t really know what was going on… and then i found this final product!:
a decent job of photoshop, yet it is very weird & sorta disturbing…
Thursday, August 31, 2006
the first week is kicking my butt!
last week was my last week of vacation and i spent the last bit of it celebrating daryl’s birthday with him and yuko, and then heading out to LA on thursday… and staying until sunday! i didn’t really plan on being there that long, but i didn’t have anything planned here at home and watching the entire season of “project runway 3” with two built-in roommates (kat and susan) was so much more funner than being home alone in my cable-less apartment. i took pictures, as usual, of us eating, and wanted to blog about it when i came home…
but when i arrived back here in the land of internet (that would be my house, since kat’s network kicked me off every 10 seconds), i realized i had to go to work.
i know, i know, i had the whole summer off, and i’m pretty sure NO ONE feels sympathetic towards me right now… but this first week of work is kicking my butt!
i have to be there at 8, which means i have to get up around 7… and for some reason, the adjustment period is just really really really hard. i’m tired all the time and i take naps and everything, but i’m still tired. and the daily meetings for 2-3 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the afternoons aren’t really helping either. plus… my classroom is a mess and i have to try to get things all organized around this schedule that we have of meetings and more meetings. add to that, when i get home and try to take a nap, someone usually calls and wakes me up. grrrr!!!! you shoulda heard me growl at the telemarketer who called - especially since i’m on the do-not-call list! he claimed he was from a non-profit organization, which apparently is exempt from the do-not-call list, but when i asked him if it was a marketing call, he sheepishly acknowledged that it was… and i firmly told him not to call me again and that i didn’t appreciate being woken up… but i get one or two calls like that every day! what’s up with that??!?! anyways, that’s besides the point…
the point is that being back at work is tiring me out and i fnd myself wanting more and more sleep, but i have SO MUCH TO DO to be ready for my classroom on tuesday.
*sigh*
at any rate, i would love to post more about my friends and the good times we had eating, but i think i’m gonna take another nap. and maybe this time i won’t wake up till 7am. =)
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
california adventure
yesterday, i took the seniors to disney’s california adventure as part of their senior class trip… there wasn’t a lot to do, so i made them do it all! my excuse for everything i wanted to do that they thought was cheesy was, “hey, we have all day here! there’s no rush to go to the next ride!” followed by “let’s look at this exhibit!”, “let’s watch that play!” and my favorite, “let’s take a picture with goofy!”
they always tease me about being asian and taking pictures all day gave them ample fodder for and endless supply of jokes aimed at me.
they also were teasing me that i wanted to walk past the funny mirrors, and they wouldn’t let me at first, but we finally got to walk past them, and then they really enjoyed it, cuz everyone looked like urkel!
since it was a tuesday, we were able to go on all the rides, and logan, carynn, phil, and amy dragged shelby onto tower of terror. shelby was so frightened of the ride she almost broke down, and she actually was crying and shaking! they bought this picture simply because they thought it was hilarious how terrified shelby looked (you can’t really tell but she’s really red in this pic, and she’s about to burst into tears!!) and especially that carynn was pointing and laughing at her pain… ah… what are friends for, eh? =)
of all the costumed peoples, i thought that the green army men from toy story were the coolest looking ones
here, chris and elsa, BUNDLES of energy!, were excited to head off to the corn dog castle. i have to admit, that was the best corn dog i’ve had!
all in all, it was actually quite an enjoyable day!
Monday, May 08, 2006
10 yr reunion
the first weekend in may is always reunion weekend at glendale adventist academy, and i hadn’t really come back to participate in any of the activities before… but this year it was actually my ten-year anniversary of graduation, so our class had a few special activities. even though our main reunion is planned for june 3, we still had a few get-togethers this weekend…
here are a few of the classmates that i saw again… some of ‘em had already escaped to go play in the alumni games (they play alumni vs varsity), but pictured here are dan, lori, nikki, and sam in the front row, and bryan riffel, duane, susi, lyn, me, and kathleen standing behind ‘em.
probably the most reunion-y feeling i got that night was when i was walking up right when i got outta my car. i was headed outta the faculty parking lot and got a glimpse of bryan, standing there right behind the flagpole, talking on the cell phone, and he looked like it was 10 years ago - exactly the same! i almost thought he was his younger brother cuz he didn’t look like he aged not even a day! then, while i was standing there, saying hi to him, i turned around and saw ricky baptist approaching with his wife in one hand and his son in the other!
by the way, he was the only one of us who brought a spouse and a kid. well… okay, sam and kathleen came as a married couple, but they were both classmates… so jasmine was the only “in-law” to show up.
i guess in that sense, it was sorta nice that there wasn’t a whole lotta “reunion talk” - y’know, the “what are you doing now?” conversations small-talk were kept to a minimum. we were all just happy to see each other - as soon as someone new walked into the room we’d all cheer and welcome and greet them and it was really heartwarming to see everyone be friendly - now, we’re all friends. it doesn’t matter who your friends were in high school, we just wanted to see everyone again. we just sat there and spent time together and reminisced and called up classmates who weren’t there and passed the phone around to talk to them, and it was neat to be in that environment again. it was weird… everything was so familiar, there were barely any changes to the school, yet it was like i was seeing parts of the school for the first time - i even asked where the bathroom was before i remembered that i went to school there for 10 years and of course i knew where the bathroom was!
anyways, it was nice being back for a little bit. even playing in the reunion volleyball games the next morning - where old alumni (yeah - i’m old alumni!!! yikes!) beat the young alumni twice, and then we teamed up against varsity and beat ‘em 3 games straight - it was just neat being on the court with former teammates, working together as a team once again… it was neat, cuz we all just gelled on the court again, some of us were rustier than others, but all of us entirely enjoyed the experience =) i didn’t get anyone’s phone numbers and i have no delusions of making them part of my daily life again, but i think we just enjoyed it for what it was - visiting part of our past and enjoying those memories together.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
"if i had kids with you..."
“...our kids would be half jewish and half smart!’
according to my (apparently) jewish student.
hmmm.... interesting....
Friday, April 21, 2006
i want to ride my bicycle
today was yet another field trip friday, and this time, i asked my seniors what they’d like to do for their field trip. phil suggested a bike ride around redlands, and so we did it - west on barton to mountain view, north all the way to san bernardino ave, down the way till we hit alabama and from there we took a small break at citrus plaza, where we took this photo:
and then from there, we continued east on lugonia till we hit up texas, then cut back under the freeway. i figured when we hit redlands blvd we’d turn left to go towards state street and cuca’s, but the girls were on one-speed beach cruisers, so they were too tired to do anything but turn right and head back home towards the school.
it definitely was a different field trip than any of the other ones i’ve been on this year, but i really enjoyed being out and about in the sun, enjoying the physical exercise, after which i was so plum tuckered out i came home and crashed in my bed. i think i’d count this as another successful friday!
Friday, April 14, 2006
friday is a free day
today was “field trip day” but also a minimum day and there were tons of groups who needed to work on projects, so we ended up having “in-house field trips” which basically turned into the pe teacher playing sports outside with the students while i hosted ‘game day’ in my classroom, playing cranium, taboo, and catchphrase. we played for 4 hours, and then everyone helped clean up and everyone went home.
instead of going home, i ended up taking the principal’s two daughters and another student to las brasas on state street in redlands, and then afterwards we walked over to the redlands mall to wait for sara’s mom to pick them all up.
and there, at “hobo’s" vintage store, we found these goodies:
at one point, sarah was like, i can’t believe we’re shopping with our math teacher!
and then these students showed up from the farm and they too were surprised to see me all dressed up…
i think my job rocks…
UPDATE: so hobo’s vintage already put us up on their myspace!!!
Friday, February 24, 2006
oh how fun my school is!!
today was a workshop friday. this means that while i’m helping my students alter pictures using photoshop, kim’s having the students play volleyball, gabriela assists in all sorts of fabric making/sewing/knitting/textile stuff, and david’s teaching ‘em to breakdance in the room next to mine. it’s pretty cool to see what the students can do… and today at my prompt of “do you know how to do the chinese get up?” the students took it outside onto the grass… and then we ended up having a whole buncha fun out there!
here’s david (art teacher) jumping through the hula hoop
and kim (science teacher) jumping through the hula hoop
david (sophomore) jumping through the hula hoop
gus (senior) diving through the hula hoop
my school’s so fun! i love it there =)
Thursday, February 02, 2006
knott's berry farm
continuing with winterim week....
mya, kristen, & jade with the knott’s ladies
and with doug on xcelerator.... what a fun ride!
sarah and celeste being dorks
i got adam to ride jumanji jaguar! he’s there in between robert and doug… and chris and kody are in the front yelling, asking if he’s ok the whole ride long… hilarity!
kody, adam, doug, chris, and robert put their heads up chicken butts… hahahah!!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
snowboarding at summit
on monday, i took my “winterim” group to snow summit. winterim is a special time at our school, where we take a break between 1st and 2nd semesters and do activities all week - the ony stipulation is that the week must be planned and organized by the students. our group is known as the mammoth group, but we didn’t make it all the way to mammoth this week =( we’re just doing local activities. that’s all right, we had fun this monday at summit…
perry helped chaperone our group, and he helped me teach sarah and celeste how to snowboard.
this is sarah
and this is celeste
jesse learned how to snowboard on our last trip 2 weeks ago, and he was already trying jumps in the park! but this was funny - he actually took down the sign for the park by running into it!!! hahahah....
go speed racer, go!!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
vandalism sucks
over the weekend, some vandals took bricks from the design on the patio and used them to smash in the windows at the school where i teach. they broke 10 windows, which sounds like a lot, but looks like a whole heckuvalot more when you think how small our school actually is, and that there were about 2 windows broken in each room (kitchen, art, science lab, staff lounge, and entranceway). the only rooms that weren’t hit were mine and bio-kim’s. the weird thing is, the bricks were picked up from the patio RIGHT OUTSIDE my classroom. yet, my classroom remains untouched.
i ended up spending the majority of my sunday cleaning up broken glass and wiping down counters 20+ times just to discover that there was more glass dust, so right now we don’t trust the kitchen to produce any food for lunch.
and last night i had a dream (or more accurately, a nightmare, i suppose) thinking that someone would launch bricks into our classrooms while i have students in it.
the stupid thing is, it seems like it’s done outta pure spite. they left the laptop there, in plain view of the door which was broken so thoroughly that there was absolutely no glass left in it - the shards were all in a pile at the bottom of the door, right next to the music keyboard, etc. they weren’t looking to steal anything - it was simply pure vandalism.
it is very appalling to think that some people would get thrills off creating such a mess… that they’d think that whatever feelings they have towards ‘the grove’ justify their destructive actions. i wonder if they’ve thought about the cost to the school that they’ve incurred - not just the money for the new windows but the grief and agony they’ve put teachers, students, and parents through - plus all the labor that everyone put in to clean up the mess. there was a big donation box in front of the window full of children’s toys - rainbow brites, my little ponies, legos, bouncy balls, etc - and they’ll all have to be thrown away because all the little pieces of glass are there, and who knows how safe the toys are now. can you imagine if a small child sticks it in their mouth and there’s some broken glass in it?
so yah… even if their intention was not to take anything, they’ve robbed several children of Christmas gifts. they’ve robbed me (and a bunch of students, parents, and other staff) of my sunday. i wonder if that will sate their desires or if they’re planning on coming back for more. *sigh*
Friday, December 02, 2005
snowboarding pics
click on the pics to see ‘em full size
jade taking a jump…
and almost eating it!
alex
i didn’t take very many pictures so i don’t have one of matt, and i don’t have one of me, either…
and it was pretty funny… jade rode up the mountain a few times with this one guy, and matt had to comment on it: “i’m not gay or anything, but there are like 100 sexier guys on this mountain” we were laughing hard at that one… but at least the dude was nice =) hahhah… too bad he couldn’t beat jade down the mountain! neither could i, though… and her goal was to hit the rails… which i avoided this time around =/ but that’s okay, i had a lotta fun with the students, even though the snow wasn’t in the best condition, it was still nice. i was a little timid at first and didn’t even try any jumps for the first 3-4 runs or so, but by the end of the day, on my 20th run, i attempted all the jumps on the run, and i landed all of ‘em =) and i think i done good =)
Thursday, November 17, 2005
glove? balloon? hat?
sometimes my students can seem so smart....
but what is up with the balloon/glove that he’s blowing up with his nose?!?!?! wow…
Friday, November 04, 2005
grove volleyball
tonight is the girls last volleyball game… and then afterwards, we’re gonna have a staff/parent vs. varsity game, as a fundraiser.... michelle, kim, and i are lookin’ forward to playing ‘em for real in a gym, instead of just practicing with them on the outdoor court at the school. oh, what fun we’ll have =) hahahhaha… oh yeah… okay, well, i’m off to the gym to go play! let’s see how we do against varsity =)
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
fish in hot water
allison gave adam this goldfish, bubba, for his birthday last week, and he was toting it around school in it’s plastic bag… i felt so bad for it that i rummaged around the kitchen looking for a glass bowl it wouldn’t fall out of, and the only thing i could find was this cofeepot! =) hahahah… it was so cute in there… and all the students thought it was the best fishbowl ever!