"I'll give you a red shirt to wear. And as for pants, just wear something you don't mind if a little chicken blood gets on 'em."
"Okay, sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow at 7 then. Thanks a lot."
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Matthew Job-Hunts in Pittsburgh, Episode 1: The Butcher Shop
"Well, should I wear any special clothes? Jeans okay?" I asked.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
An Ode to South Dakota Farm Boys [Preceded by Contemplative Ramblings]
Hi. Guess what, I haven't posted in some time. My bad. Life is busy up here in the Northwoods, for me at least. Let's just pretend that I've been constantly blogging though.
I just got back from my most recent trip two days ago, and since my return I've entered and remained in 'zombie mode' - something that has become a post-trip habit. I go out on the water, guiding groups into the wilderness, offering myself as a source of strength, endurance and moral, and we have fun. I love time in the wilderness and time with interesting and fun people. And yet when I am responsible for peoples' well-being a good 16 hours a day (and in the sun about that many hours a day) the inherent stress that comes with that amount of responsibility gradually takes its toll. And I come back and crash. (Thank goodness trip leaders have an automatic day off scheduled in the day after returning from a trip!) Friends at camp ask, do I want to go for a canoeing outing now that I have a day off? Uh, ... no. How 'bout a movie, a cold beer and a dash of leave me alone for awhile. (I like to think that I'm not actually that rude, though...)
In my last post (What? Over a month ago? My apologies.) I mentioned enjoying times of silence and reflection. I also mentioned not missing things like the Daily Show, movies, or YouTube. Here's the latest update: What I have learned about myself this summer is not that I thrive in solitude and in perpetual reflection. I have now grown to realize that I thrive in experiencing contrasts. Coming from working in a middle school and spending lots of time with friends, time spent in solitude and reflection was welcoming and needed. The wilderness provides and excellent source of recreation after spending time in a city. And so it goes. But after making a summer career of nature, solitude and reflection, I've discovered that sometimes I just need to sit in a dark room inside and watch movies; listen to loud music (e.g. Rage Against the Machine) at high volumes; enjoy simple pleasures in life without having to deconstruct them/figure out how I feel about them/wonder where the deeper meaning lies...
I think I've always known this about myself. I have often said that my favorite season is the current season (unless it's been going on for over 2 months, in which case my favorite season is the upcoming season). I love summer because every few weeks a different fruit ripens and thus becomes my new pancake filling/topping of choice. I now have more music in my collection than my 80GB iPod can hold, but it still seems bland without my constant discovering of new recording artists.
Not to say that I need constant change in my life. Despite the ever-expanding music collection, every re-listen to Radiohead's The Bends brings satisfaction and new appreciation... It's more that I find contrast helpful in appreciating the many aspects of life. Summer helps me remember the joy of fresh vegetables and shorts, and winter reminds me that there are times when mosquitoes all die... and that fireplaces are the best things ever. Similarly, prolonged periods of contemplative thought make me long for some darts, some board games and my dude friends. So it goes.
[Begin transition back to Trip Leading/South Dakota Farm Boys. Go.]
I am currently in day two of vacation (due to a particularly crazy week for all staff + various staff families visiting we get 3 days off this time), and I am still a zombie. Yesterday I was even more of a zombie. Why the extra zombiedom? As it happened, I was recovering from not one but two back-to-back canoe trips. Two Thursdays ago I headed out on a family Father-Son trip for four days, returning only to clean up and pack for another early morning departure with a youth group. Stress levels high - danger! System overload! Thankfully both groups were great and made the situation as good as it could have been.
IN FACT, the second group - a group of 5 older guys from a larger visiting South Dakota youth group - was so great that it almost a vacation from trip leading in itself, despite that fact that I was trip leading. Upon further reflection, I decided that my time with them was worth of a blog post. (Actually, I had already begun composing the post the second morning out on the water, as they packed up camp in record time...)
On the morning of our departure I wasn't nervous or apprehensive, but at the same time I had no idea how this trip was going to go. Having just returned with a different group, my guys had been oriented by other staff and I had only briefly met them late the night before. As I drove to the drop off point in the camp pick up truck, Jon - one of my guys - joined me in the cab. We talked of his life [He's now graduated from high school and attending a nearby technical college with ambitions of taking over the family cattle farm.] and of vegetarianism. Here was a young lad on a walk of life very different from mine, yet on many levels similar to me (note camping activities about to be described), with a good head on his shoulders, a good heart and full of interesting thoughts. I was encouraged.
We hit the water on a rather large lake, and paddling (it became apparent) was going to be a bit of a struggle. First, I realized I had inadvertently paired the two weakest paddlers together (quickly remedied by a little mid-lake swapping), and furthermore many of these guys were still learning the rudiments of stern paddling (aka - steering). I began to offer my routine 'unsolicited advice' (my euphemism for constructive criticism), and I was very impressed with their positive response to it. Then came portaging.
Having already taken three groups out on the water, I had come to dread the first few days of portaging. Inevitably, even if a group was good at the actual portaging process (the carrying of packs and canoes between lakes on designated trails), efficiency would quickly become a concern. One canoe would pull up to a landing, cautiously step out, carefully arrange life jackets and paddles, take their time extracting packs from canoes, and take drinks from water bottles, eventually pulling their canoes out of the water... all while the remaining canoes in the group sat idly in the water. In response to this phenomenon, I began developing and tweaking an on-the-water 'Portaging Efficiency' curriculum (essentially, land, packs out, canoe out, then deal with other stuff while the next canoe unloads). When I tried out my experimental lesson with this group at the first portage they got it! No questions asked or further directions given. And from the next portage on if I was in the last canoe these guys would be disappearing down the portage trail before my canoe even got to the landing! Wow!
Another challenge of trip leading lies in getting group members to help with camp chores. Often the tendency upon arriving at a campsite is to want to fish, not set up tents. Not so with this group. We arrived at our first campsite hungry and with rain clouds looming. I proposed setting up tents before lunch in case it did rain. No questions asked. Boom, the tents were up. "So are you guys ready to eat?" Sure, but shouldn't we set up the rain fly first? Well, yeah but... wow, I love you guys. When it came time to complete other camp chores, the guys were eager. I showed one guy how to operate the water filter and not only did he gladly complete the task, he continued to volunteer to pump water throughout the trip before I ever got the chance to suggest it again!
In the morning, when it came time to get packing, I got the guys up fairly early. No problem. Up they rose, getting most of their things packed before I had finished making breakfast. [Another note: on the morning we left base camp, whereas I usually have to rouse groups that have overslept and prod them along to get packed, I came to check up on my group to see if they were awake. Not only were they awake, but they were heading down the hill 10 minutes early, bags packed, AND they had found the extra time to take showers that morning.] They were officially - by far - the fastest group I had ever led. On our third and final morning they were standing around with packed packs, bored, waiting for me to finish packing. Good work dudes.
When it came time to play, these guys played just as hard as they worked. Whether I joined in or just read and let boys be boys they were well-behaved, concerned enough for their own safety that I didn't have to worry, and creative. Activities included searching for crawdads, pine cone wars, building fires, skipping stones, swimming and playing with canoes, berry picking, and evening games of pinochle. (To be honest, when they started having pine cone wars, I was jealous and longed for my teenage years.) What fun. Truly a vacation from 'hard work' (my original goal in coming up here this summer). Even during evening discussions, they contributed genuine and thoughtful ideas, including many perspectives I had not even considered.
By the time it was over (an all-too-quick 2.5 days later) I was simply in awe. Whether due to lifestyle, geographic location, parental upbringing, or simply individual personalities these guys were a pleasure to guide. They were helpful, respectful, and were great with taking initiative, be it with chores or play. Would that we all take note of their example in these things. (And let us never forget the joy of skipping stones.)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time for Repose and Reflection. Hah.
I'm working at a camp this summer. The name of the camp is Wilderness Wind. Thus far it's proven very interesting and fulfilling work. The not-work is also very interesting and fulfilling. We pause for silence, discuss and reflect quite a bit. It's good for me. I'm thinking a lot and learning much about myself. One interesting side-effect is that I'm kind of in my own little world here. I make time for reading and friends and my guitar, but I rarely surf the nets. Since my arrival I haven't seen a single episode of the Daily Show, watched a movie, or even a YouTube video. And I don't miss it. I also haven't blogged, and I kind of miss that. But I've also lost track of time, gotten behind in correspondences, forgotten to call even my family members... If you count yourself among those who enjoy reading my blog, I send my personal apologies to you. Tonight will not be the night that I write. I'm already up much past my bed time, working on housing application forms and obtaining free credit reports. But, now that I've publicly acknowledged an intent to write a more detailed and hopefully entertaining post, hopefully I soon will. In the meanwhile, a consolation prize: a post I wrote for Wilderness Wind's blog...
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The End is Near
I only have one day left at Goshen Middle School. My how time flies! One day left and about 5 or 6 sticky notes floating around my room of things to blog about, relating to my work at the Middle School. I guess that's both the blessing and the curse of my time there: there are endless challenges, struggles, joys, things to think about... and so much time out of my day is taken up! Granted, I don't have lesson planning to do after school, but I come home, try to exercise, cook supper or both. Then I get some chores accomplished, try to save a little time for friends and before I know it it's bedtime.
(Interesting tangent related to sleeping: In CO I used to wake up just before my alarm went off at 7 am. It was great! I woke up at a good point in my sleep cycle and the day felt tolerable from its beginning. Then I moved to Goshen in February, and even though I began waking up at 6:30 every single day I could not get my body into it's auto-wake up rhythm! Then, about a week ago, it started working for me again. I'd wake up at 6:25, look around my sunlit room and look frantically at my alarm clock, believing I had forgotten to set it (This was actually the case about 2 weeks ago!). Ohhhhh. Sunlit room. I found the other magic ingredient. Waking-up-at-the-same-time-every-day + sun = auto alarm clock. Cool.)
Back to getting sentimental about leaving my present job. This week started out sentimental. Then yesterday and today, I had two very tiresome and draining days in a row. I utterly failed in one tutoring session (example after example did not convey the fairly abstract concept of proportion), kids were rowdy, I overhead a few kids actively missing the original (and ultimate) holder of my position, and many of my tutoring and intervention attempts were either ill-received or seemingly ineffective. So much for going out with a bang.
But today as I was leaving my last class of the day, the teacher whose class it was stopped me to say good bye and wish me well. "Thank you so much for all your help in my class. You were really effective working with the kids. They really listened to you and seemed to look up to you. I'm sure you'll go far if you continue down this path. And I'd be glad to be a reference for you."
And suddenly, despite my frustrations and shortcomings this week, all was validated. Yeah. I did build some good relationships with those kids. And no I didn't just socialize with them and play cool Mr. para. I demanded their best effort in the most encouraging way I could. Sometimes I made friends, sometimes enemies, and I earned my fair share of respect. I done good.
-- As if to reinforce those proud and happy feelings, a student burst out of Kroger as I was exiting, post grocery shopping. "Hi Mr. Rody!" she blurted. "Hi Ana," I replied and smiled to myself as I unlocked my bike. --
Monday, May 3, 2010
Where I Be Goin'
Here's an interesting nugget I found in my National Geographic this morning:
Unless you change direction, you're
apt to end up where you're going.
-Chinese Proverb
Where I found the proverb quoted, it was suggesting that we beware paths that lead toward environmental destruction, the idea being that even if we're not killing off species now, we ultimately will without a major shift in attitude. BUT I feel that it also sums up my recent decision-making process.
For a few months now a dark cloud has been looming in my mind. I need to decide where I'm going to live next. I moved to Goshen in February knowing that it would only be temporary. I had already made plans to work in Minnesota for the summer, and the lease for the house where I am currently living ends in less than a month. So my possessions and myself need to go somewhere. Furthermore, as I was leaving Colorado, I decided that I was sick of moving around on a regular basis. It just took too much energy! So I need to move somewhere and stay there (at least for a little while - say, more than a year). But where?!
Goshen was in the running, but not the preferred candidate. I love the town and the people in it, and while I could see myself settling down here further down the road, I wanted to go somewhere new for the time being. But what should the other options be?? One can't make a choice weighing only one option. And what should my criteria be??? I could move somewhere for a job, but the only feelings I have resembling ambitions are that I might like to be a teacher in the near future... and you can take ed. classes anywhere. I could move somewhere for the scenery, but even in beautiful Colorado I got lonely and moved back East. So shall I go somewhere with a high density of close friends? Still doesn't sound like the best way to make such a big decision, but maybe I can at least start generating options...
Okay,
1) Goshen. But, I already decided I'd like to go somewhere else next if it works out...
2) Pittsburgh. I have plenty of friends there or moving there.
For a few months now a dark cloud has been looming in my mind. I need to decide where I'm going to live next. I moved to Goshen in February knowing that it would only be temporary. I had already made plans to work in Minnesota for the summer, and the lease for the house where I am currently living ends in less than a month. So my possessions and myself need to go somewhere. Furthermore, as I was leaving Colorado, I decided that I was sick of moving around on a regular basis. It just took too much energy! So I need to move somewhere and stay there (at least for a little while - say, more than a year). But where?!
Goshen was in the running, but not the preferred candidate. I love the town and the people in it, and while I could see myself settling down here further down the road, I wanted to go somewhere new for the time being. But what should the other options be?? One can't make a choice weighing only one option. And what should my criteria be??? I could move somewhere for a job, but the only feelings I have resembling ambitions are that I might like to be a teacher in the near future... and you can take ed. classes anywhere. I could move somewhere for the scenery, but even in beautiful Colorado I got lonely and moved back East. So shall I go somewhere with a high density of close friends? Still doesn't sound like the best way to make such a big decision, but maybe I can at least start generating options...
Okay,
1) Goshen. But, I already decided I'd like to go somewhere else next if it works out...
2) Pittsburgh. I have plenty of friends there or moving there.
Time went by. Still no more options. I still liked the idea of Pittsburgh - I even started looking for a few job possibilities there. A few months later I found that 3 of my former housemates were planning to reunite under one roof and that my company would gladly be invited.
Conversations with friends and family turned gradually shifted from "I'm still not sure where I'll go after summer. Pittsburgh is one option," to "I'm kind of leaning toward Pittsburgh right now, but I need to weigh the other possibilities," to "Well, there's a good chance I'll be moving to Pittsburgh in the fall."
I wasn't really doing much to change direction. The Chinese must really know what they're talking about...
In my journal I vented frustration at myself for not actively researching additional locations for my post-summer life. This is my life after all! And yet the conversations evolved: "Barring some last minute pull toward some other place, I think I'll be heading to Pittsburgh..." until finally, last Saturday I ran into my Mom's cousin on the sidewalk. "Oh, hi Matthew," he said. "What are you up to." "Just going out for a bike ride now," I replied, "but soon I'll need to start getting my stuff packed up. I'll be moving to Pittsburgh this fall."
I don't think he realized the significance of that statement. I didn't either, really - not until I was riding away. It slowly dawned on me then that I had issued my public statement. I had officially made the decision that I had kinda already made (through laziness? following my heart? ??) much earlier. And it felt all right. Not that stressful. Not necessarily relieving. Just kinda neutral, like I was following a gently meandering path, the faint far-off outline of which had been visible a long way off.
So there you have it. If you need me, I'll be in Pittsburgh.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
My Amazing Adventures Out West: A Picture Book
Hi! My name is Matthew. I'm an explorer! You can tell that I'm an explorer because I wear a big hat.
One time I flew very far away to a state called Colorado to go exploring with my friends. I have cool friends. Here, let me introduce you. This is Colin.
I used to live with him in Colorado. He is a very funny person. In this picture he is wearing sunglasses that he found at an airport! Aren't they neat?
This is Erin.
After I flew to Colorado Erin, Kate, Colin and I drove west to Utah. Utah is another state in the West. It has lots of sand and Mormons. We saw lots of sand but not very many Mormons! There were also some very pretty mountains. On our first day in Utah, we climbed on top of a small mountain so that we could see further. Look at all of that sand and all of those pretty mountains!
On our next day in Utah, we visited a very neat place called Arches National Park. The park is named "Arches" because of all the huge stone arches that are naturally found there. Can you see the arch in this picture?
Even though Arches National Park was in a desert, there were still a few plants and trees growing there. How do you think this tree gets its water?
Do you remember trying to figure out how plants get their water in the desert? The Colorado River is one big source of water out West. This is a picture taken from our campsite one night when we stayed in Utah. Erin is down near the bottom right. See how big the rocks are?
Canyonlands National Park was another place we visited in Utah. For this part of the trip another cool friend named Greta joined us. She's the one with the camera in the picture. Even though it was a cloudy day, everything was still very beautiful. Look at the rock mountains in the pictures. They have a very special name - that eludes me at the moment, probably something like steppes or buttes or mesas... They are formed by a process called erosion. After different layers of sand and rock build up for a very long time, wind and water can slowly tear away at the rock, leaving only a little behind. And that's erosion! The cool rocks towers and canyons are all it leaves behind
This is a picture of me and Erin in the Canyonlands. Do you see the big pointy mountains far, far away? They're not flat like the mesas in the Canyonlands, are they? That's because they weren't formed by erosion. Instead they were forced straight upward by the Earth's natural movements!
After visiting Utah, we all decided to drive even further to a new state called Arizona. There was something very special in Arizona that we wanted to see. But all the way there we had to drive through a big desert. And it was very boring.
Why did we spend so much time driving? It just so happens that Arizona is home to a very special canyon. It's special because it's the biggest canyon in the world! And my friends and I wanted to explore it! Because we wanted to go down inside of it for several days, we had to get a special permission slip from the government called a permit. We also had bring all of the food and clothing we needed for several days. There aren't any McDonald's in the Grand Canyon! Do you see the big backpacks we are wearing? Those are to hold all of the things we need. They were very heavy!
On our first day in the canyon, we hiked all the way to the very bottom. It was very long journey. On our way down we passed through many different layers of rock. I think the very bottom one was the coolest.
Every morning when we'd wake up it would still be cold outside. We would make hot cereal and coffee to help warm us up.
And once we'd start hiking into the sun, we would definitely warm up!
One interesting thing that we discovered in the Grand Canyon was that whichever layer of rocks we were hiking in seemed to be the biggest. All the other further away layers seemed smaller just because they were so far away! Also, each layer of rock had its own special color. I really liked the red rocks.
This is a picture of all of us on our way back up to the top of the canyon. You can tell that we're only half-way back to the top because the highest layers of rock still look very high above us. Can you see the river way down below us?
After we were all done hiking we were very tired. And since there weren't any grown-ups around, we ate ice cream for supper! I love ice cream!
On the very last day, right before we left, we cooked a very special breakfast. Because it was Easter Sunday, we decided to get up extra early to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. We ate Spam, candied yams, cornbread stuffing, canned green beans and a whole coconut cream-filled chocolate egg! What a great way to end an adventure!
So, what is the moral of the story, kids? What? Adventure stories don't have morals? Well this one does. DON'T FEED THE SQUIRRELS!!!
One time I flew very far away to a state called Colorado to go exploring with my friends. I have cool friends. Here, let me introduce you. This is Colin.
I used to live with him in Colorado. He is a very funny person. In this picture he is wearing sunglasses that he found at an airport! Aren't they neat?
This is Erin.
I've known her ever since I was born! That's because we're cousins. That means my Mommy and her Daddy are sister and brother. Ever since we were little they took us on walks and hikes. And we still like to explore together! Erin is very creative. You can tell because she invented a deer sausage whole wheat tortilla hot dog without even trying very hard! That's what she's holding in the picture.
This is Kate.
This is Kate.
She is another one of my good friends. Kate is very good at surviving in the wilderness. Surviving is a word that means not dying. See how she is wearing such warm clothes? Even though it was very cold where she was in that picture, she is toasty and warm. She's even laughing!
This is a picture of me with my camera. When I went out West I took it with me and took pictures of everything. That's why I'm making this a picture book instead of a boring no-words post that only boring adults like to read. But enough explaining, let's get to the ADVENTURE!
This is a picture of me with my camera. When I went out West I took it with me and took pictures of everything. That's why I'm making this a picture book instead of a boring no-words post that only boring adults like to read. But enough explaining, let's get to the ADVENTURE!
After I flew to Colorado Erin, Kate, Colin and I drove west to Utah. Utah is another state in the West. It has lots of sand and Mormons. We saw lots of sand but not very many Mormons! There were also some very pretty mountains. On our first day in Utah, we climbed on top of a small mountain so that we could see further. Look at all of that sand and all of those pretty mountains!
On our next day in Utah, we visited a very neat place called Arches National Park. The park is named "Arches" because of all the huge stone arches that are naturally found there. Can you see the arch in this picture? 
Even though Arches National Park was in a desert, there were still a few plants and trees growing there. How do you think this tree gets its water?
This is a picture of me beside a very famous arch. You may have seen it on license plates or on quarters before. It's name is Delicate Arch. In this picture, I'm being a tourist. Tourists are people who have big expensive cameras and go to places to have their pictures taken with famous things. Can you find the other tourist in the picture? [hint: she's very small]
Do you remember trying to figure out how plants get their water in the desert? The Colorado River is one big source of water out West. This is a picture taken from our campsite one night when we stayed in Utah. Erin is down near the bottom right. See how big the rocks are?
Canyonlands National Park was another place we visited in Utah. For this part of the trip another cool friend named Greta joined us. She's the one with the camera in the picture. Even though it was a cloudy day, everything was still very beautiful. Look at the rock mountains in the pictures. They have a very special name - that eludes me at the moment, probably something like steppes or buttes or mesas... They are formed by a process called erosion. After different layers of sand and rock build up for a very long time, wind and water can slowly tear away at the rock, leaving only a little behind. And that's erosion! The cool rocks towers and canyons are all it leaves behind
This is a picture of me and Erin in the Canyonlands. Do you see the big pointy mountains far, far away? They're not flat like the mesas in the Canyonlands, are they? That's because they weren't formed by erosion. Instead they were forced straight upward by the Earth's natural movements!
After visiting Utah, we all decided to drive even further to a new state called Arizona. There was something very special in Arizona that we wanted to see. But all the way there we had to drive through a big desert. And it was very boring.
Why did we spend so much time driving? It just so happens that Arizona is home to a very special canyon. It's special because it's the biggest canyon in the world! And my friends and I wanted to explore it! Because we wanted to go down inside of it for several days, we had to get a special permission slip from the government called a permit. We also had bring all of the food and clothing we needed for several days. There aren't any McDonald's in the Grand Canyon! Do you see the big backpacks we are wearing? Those are to hold all of the things we need. They were very heavy!
On our first day in the canyon, we hiked all the way to the very bottom. It was very long journey. On our way down we passed through many different layers of rock. I think the very bottom one was the coolest.
Every morning when we'd wake up it would still be cold outside. We would make hot cereal and coffee to help warm us up.
And once we'd start hiking into the sun, we would definitely warm up!
One interesting thing that we discovered in the Grand Canyon was that whichever layer of rocks we were hiking in seemed to be the biggest. All the other further away layers seemed smaller just because they were so far away! Also, each layer of rock had its own special color. I really liked the red rocks.
This is a picture of all of us on our way back up to the top of the canyon. You can tell that we're only half-way back to the top because the highest layers of rock still look very high above us. Can you see the river way down below us?
After we were all done hiking we were very tired. And since there weren't any grown-ups around, we ate ice cream for supper! I love ice cream!
On the very last day, right before we left, we cooked a very special breakfast. Because it was Easter Sunday, we decided to get up extra early to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. We ate Spam, candied yams, cornbread stuffing, canned green beans and a whole coconut cream-filled chocolate egg! What a great way to end an adventure!
So, what is the moral of the story, kids? What? Adventure stories don't have morals? Well this one does. DON'T FEED THE SQUIRRELS!!!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Privilege Slaps Me in the Face
Last week (during my cousin's Spring Break) I took a week off from school to chase the sunset out to Utah and Arizona with some of my good friends. [No I haven't forgotten to blog about my recent adventures to the Grand Canyon and back - this is a blog of adventures, after all - it's just that I have a digital pile of photos to sort through and edit before I could do such a post justice. Please have patience.] The trip was a wonderful success and oodles of fun. Now I'm back in Goshen, and it's my Spring Break. Oops. To help fill some of my time, I solicited one of my contractor friends for a bit of quality out-of-doors labor. He obliged.
Yesterday morning I found myself in his driveway, leveling and compacting dirt and gravel in preparation for laying paving bricks. At one point, while I was raking gravel, a man walking by stopped me to say hi and to inquire about my work. "You got your own business or you work for a company doing this?" He went on to tell me that he had been doing similar work for the past six years. Then the company he worked for downsized and he got the can. He still hasn't found work elsewhere. "Ain't no work anywhere." He applied for positions at numerous other building companies. Rejection after rejection; he was "overqualified." "Well, best of luck to you," he cheerfully yet somewhat resignedly called out as he walked on once more.
I paused for a moment to reflect. I've got a job. Granted, it's temporary, but it's a good job. And I have a different summer job lined up anyway. This is my official week off, and I decide to make a little extra cash on the side. I have connections - personal acquaintances who are willing to help me out, work with me a little. And it's not like I have tons of cash lying around. I think my actions are all fairly justified, if not wise/prudent. But what gets me is that while I blog about being concerned about money and finding work and all of my other petty woes I still found work - I pulled through and things worked out for me, almost as if by magic. And then little life episodes like the one I lived yesterday start to clue me in on what that "magic" really is. 100% middle-class white boy privilege magic. I was fortunate enough to go to college, I made connections all through it, and I now have all the right ins. Good for me.
Not that I'm going to act any differently, with regards to myself that is. I'm still going to make ends meet. I'm going to take advantage of every little opportunity that comes my way. But I am also realizing - I have to realize - that many people are not as privileged as myself. Some folks just don't have any luck! And here at the crux of my blog entry ... I utterly fail to provide a "call to action" - a crucial element I've been tutoring 6th grade English students to include at the end of their persuasive essays. That's just it: how do I act differently? For now, until I think of something else, I guess I'll just try to maintain a heightened awareness of my own privilege and an increased empathy toward those with less than myself. And hopefully some good will come of it.
Yesterday morning I found myself in his driveway, leveling and compacting dirt and gravel in preparation for laying paving bricks. At one point, while I was raking gravel, a man walking by stopped me to say hi and to inquire about my work. "You got your own business or you work for a company doing this?" He went on to tell me that he had been doing similar work for the past six years. Then the company he worked for downsized and he got the can. He still hasn't found work elsewhere. "Ain't no work anywhere." He applied for positions at numerous other building companies. Rejection after rejection; he was "overqualified." "Well, best of luck to you," he cheerfully yet somewhat resignedly called out as he walked on once more.
I paused for a moment to reflect. I've got a job. Granted, it's temporary, but it's a good job. And I have a different summer job lined up anyway. This is my official week off, and I decide to make a little extra cash on the side. I have connections - personal acquaintances who are willing to help me out, work with me a little. And it's not like I have tons of cash lying around. I think my actions are all fairly justified, if not wise/prudent. But what gets me is that while I blog about being concerned about money and finding work and all of my other petty woes I still found work - I pulled through and things worked out for me, almost as if by magic. And then little life episodes like the one I lived yesterday start to clue me in on what that "magic" really is. 100% middle-class white boy privilege magic. I was fortunate enough to go to college, I made connections all through it, and I now have all the right ins. Good for me.
Not that I'm going to act any differently, with regards to myself that is. I'm still going to make ends meet. I'm going to take advantage of every little opportunity that comes my way. But I am also realizing - I have to realize - that many people are not as privileged as myself. Some folks just don't have any luck! And here at the crux of my blog entry ... I utterly fail to provide a "call to action" - a crucial element I've been tutoring 6th grade English students to include at the end of their persuasive essays. That's just it: how do I act differently? For now, until I think of something else, I guess I'll just try to maintain a heightened awareness of my own privilege and an increased empathy toward those with less than myself. And hopefully some good will come of it.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Oops. I accidentally grew up.
[WARNING: HALF-BOTTOMED (I work in the schools now) BLOG ALERT! It's bedtime, but I haven't blogged for sooooo long! I'm now writing in accordance with my better mediocre than never! policy.]So, I now have a stable job, I wear nice pants and button-up shirts (except Fridays I can wear jeans!), I have an official title ("ENL Collaborator"), AND kids call me Mr. Rody. Could somebody please tell me what happened to the old Mr. Ro... er, Matthew? And now it's 10:30 pm and I'm all like oh, it's past my bed time, I'd better not blog even though I haven't for sooooo long! Weird. Rest assured that somewhere buried in this mess of buttons, pomp and collars the old Matthew lives on. Let me tell you a bit about his new job.
As well as I can recall, my last post heralded this new job but didn't really describe it at all. I am now the ENL Collaborator for the entire 6th grade at GMS (and have been for two weeks now (!!!)). What this means (as far as I can tell... No really. My job description is to some degree self-determined.) is that I, to the best of my ability, track the progress of all the recent ENL Academy grads and help them transition to all-English classes. (The ENL Academy is a group of specialized classes that offers English-learning-focused curriculum to kids coming from a non-English-speaking back ground. To them, English is a new language (hence the acronym "ENL"), and thanks to the effectiveness of the program they pick it up pretty quickly. Then they begin making the transition to all-English-speaking classes. And that's where I come in. I check grade sheets, talk to teachers, attend classes and talk to students to who is struggling with what and how I can help. Often I provide in-class aid, but during study hall and sometimes during class I'll take kids to my room for tutoring. Sounds cool, right?
The Pros:
- I now have a regular job with a steady income.
- I get to work directly with kids and with the same kids day after day. I get to watch their progress and forge relationships.
- Often relationships = friendships. Already I get high fives and "Hi, Mr. Rody"s in the hallway. Today one kid chose to confide in me about a relative's recent auto accident. I even get some respect from a few of the rowdy "bad kids," albeit only when they are alone in a room getting tutored by me with no friends around to impress.
- No lesson plans or papers to grade!
- Aside from my one explicit goal - help ENL kids as much as possible - I don't really have a set job description. What means are best? Do I focus on tutoring? Do I try conferencing/intervention to help nip attitude and behavior problems in the bud? Should I spend more of my time trying to make sure classroom material is accessible to those who still struggle with English? Who knows? I do, or have to, I suppose.
- I have two sweeeeet co-workers who are my 7th and 8th grade counterparts. They're fun to chat with before school and at lunch, plus they give me tons of advice. Also, basically the entire staff of GMS is helpful and friendly.
- I have no supervision/feedback system. The last time I talked to the principal (other than one "hi" in the hall) was when she hired me. I just sent her a check-in email today for good measure, but essentially there is no-one directly over me. That's cool in some ways (I actually have responsibility and am treated in such a way) but scary in others (I have to call my own shots). Basically my only feedback is when teachers thank me for helping catch certain kids up.
- Forget it. I'm now too tired to keep making lists. The job is a good one. I can't complain.
- Today a kid I was tutoring tried to convince me that the person I'm subbing for used to take him to Taco Bell every day for lunch. Nice try kiddo.
- When I went to one class for the first time, one boy said hey, who's this guy? Another replied oh, that's Mr. Rody. He's cool. He helped me with my math homework. Win. And these sixth graders wonder why they'll ever need math skills... To impress future sixth graders!!!
- Today I was working with a reading group in the hall. One kid (who acts up constantly in class) was actually eager to read and was doing a good job when his pocket started making noises. He soon realized it was his mp3 player. If I see it, I'll take it, I said, informing him that I intended to follow school policy on the issue. It kept making noise. Please, Mr. can't I take it out to turn it off? I began repeating what I had said and then realized that I was essentially telling him to continue being extremely distracting (he was already dancing to his music). Okay, fine. Turn it off, then put it away and then I don't want to see it or hear it... or I will take it away. [Remember all those times when teachers lectured and chided and scolded and it sounded kinda awkward, like they were pulling it out of their bottom? Now I see. Teachers are forced to be master improvisers. It just doesn't work perfectly 100% of the time...]
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Big Boy Consequences (followed by some unrelated, humorous tidbits)
Sometimes, when big boys make decisions, they have to deal with the consequences of their decisions. Last Sunday night, I made a very big decision. I spent almost $400 on a plane ticket and I reserved a week that I could potentially have worked for purely recreational purposes, all in the name of adventure. You might say that I took a gamble and that my wager was financial stability. As I tried to put it in my last blog, I prefer to think that I got my priorities in order and acted accordingly. And as I did this, I recognized that I was taking steps that I could not retrace and that I would have to face whatever life threw me as a result.
Fortunately, the god of Fun decided to step in at this point and reward my decision. Though I didn't get a subbing call on Monday morning, I did get a call from the principal of Goshen Middle School asking if I had some time to come in to talk today. The subject of our little meeting: an aide position that needed filling and whether I could and would fill it. [Thank you Fun God!]
The Back Story: About a month ago, I was still job searching and happened to be playing post-church pond hockey. When the subject of my search for employment came up, one friend (an English Language Learners (ELL) aide at the middle school) told me that one of his co-workers would be student teaching for a few months in the spring and would need someone to fill in for him temporarily starting in March. I sent in a resume right away, and emailed the appropriate assistant principal. And I didn't hear anything back.
Soon I started subbing, and it looked like I could make it on my subbing pay alone. Plus, subbing afforded flexible time off and meant I could maybe go to the Grand Canyon with my friends. I forgot all about the ELL job.
The Present, The Event and The Implications: So, today I had my conversation with the principal (don't quote me on this, but perhaps the first time I've been sent to the principal's office in my life...). She liked my resume (experience tutoring, albeit tutoring college kids), the fact the I knew Craig (my friend) already and my immediate and temporary availability. In fact, my schedule fit almost perfectly with the period of time the other aide would be absent! Except for one little hitch. I brought up the matter of the plane ticket I had just purchased and how if I went through with the trip I would miss the four days prior to Spring Break. Consequences time. [Cue god of Fun intervention!] The principal smiled and in effect said that if I could take the job, then we could probably work something out for those four days. That sure sold me. We talked a bit more about the job description, but it sounded like it was more or less a done deal, pending some paperwork and reference calls.
So what does this teach me? Funny. I typed this rhetorical question, yet I still don't have the answer after staring dumbly at the blinking cursor for several minutes. Okay, put the rhetoric aside and do some soul searching, Matthew. I guess it's satisfying to know that things worked out okay, even though I put myself out on a limb. It could have been different. I might have lived the next two months squeaking by on scant sub calls and living on nothing but the essentials. Or I might have found myself with a good job, but without the allowance for vacation. I'd like to think that I would have stuck to my bold stated principles about prioritising adventure, but I can't honestly say that I would have definitely turned down a great job offer like this...
Maybe I'll just wrap up the lesson I've learned in saying that my friend Christy would quote to me when I was being too realistic and pessimistic about life: "Do what you love and the money will come." The realist in me never liked that phrase because what happens when the money comes too late or there's a day when the money doesn't come? The uncertainty bothered me as did the presumed (by me) permission to blow off responsibility. Now I see that saying in a slightly different light, saying something more like: "Concern yourself most with doing what you love. If your primary concern is money, you will find yourself unhappy and unsatisfied, especially if you are not doing what you love. If what you love to do brings you money, then you are all the more fortunate. If it does not, then you will ultimately have to find a way to survive, but at least in surviving you will increase your capacity to do what you love. And should you perish in pursuit of doing that which you love, then at least your life will not have been wasted on anything less than what was most meaningful to you."
I know that the maxim doesn't always hold. What of the people who have to start surviving right from their birth? Where is their break? How do they even know what they love when all they know is survival?? I have no idea. But perhaps this is the topic of another post. The point I was making above is that I feel good about my priorities, and feel even better about them when life gives me the occasional lucky break.
CONGRATULATIONS! You made it this far in my already-lengthy post! Reward time: Stories! I had a first grade class full of trouble makers today. Rough day but good story fodder... [Note to future potential employers: the use of the word "fodder" in reference to school children was used for comedic purposes only and does not represent my actual views on children.]
-My first task of the day was to help take the class on a field trip to Dominoes Pizza! Yay! Fun times AND I got to make my own 8" pizza for lunch. Downside: the kids were extra wound up when we got back. Furthermore, one little girl thought she would get some attention by downing her entire pizza plus several slices from other kids and then making claims of being "sick" and attempting to throw up all over her table. Fortunately, all she could muster was a bit of regurgitated Sprite, and I called her bluff and let her lie down inside for recess. When we got back she was miraculously cured.
-These kids were baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad today. I take plenty of credit for not laying down the law enough early enough, but I think there were also just too many troublemakers for one me to take care of at once. Some fires I failed at putting out in time: a fight beginning in the hallway, a minor marker war involving both clothing and "teacher [i.e. permanent] markers," several kids pulling structural nails out of a bookshelf, plenty of writing on other kids' papers, and much much more. One teacher said at the end of the day that she hoped my experience didn't deter me from coming back. Don't worry about that. I just hope that my inexperience doesn't deter them from asking me back!
-There was so much to do today that I never got around to writing my name on the board. I got called all sorts of interesting things as a result, most of them close but not quite right. The best I found out from a secretary in the main office, later in the day. Apparently a little girl I sent down to the nurse had informed her that "Mr. Rodent" had said she could come down.
Fortunately, the god of Fun decided to step in at this point and reward my decision. Though I didn't get a subbing call on Monday morning, I did get a call from the principal of Goshen Middle School asking if I had some time to come in to talk today. The subject of our little meeting: an aide position that needed filling and whether I could and would fill it. [Thank you Fun God!]
The Back Story: About a month ago, I was still job searching and happened to be playing post-church pond hockey. When the subject of my search for employment came up, one friend (an English Language Learners (ELL) aide at the middle school) told me that one of his co-workers would be student teaching for a few months in the spring and would need someone to fill in for him temporarily starting in March. I sent in a resume right away, and emailed the appropriate assistant principal. And I didn't hear anything back.
Soon I started subbing, and it looked like I could make it on my subbing pay alone. Plus, subbing afforded flexible time off and meant I could maybe go to the Grand Canyon with my friends. I forgot all about the ELL job.
The Present, The Event and The Implications: So, today I had my conversation with the principal (don't quote me on this, but perhaps the first time I've been sent to the principal's office in my life...). She liked my resume (experience tutoring, albeit tutoring college kids), the fact the I knew Craig (my friend) already and my immediate and temporary availability. In fact, my schedule fit almost perfectly with the period of time the other aide would be absent! Except for one little hitch. I brought up the matter of the plane ticket I had just purchased and how if I went through with the trip I would miss the four days prior to Spring Break. Consequences time. [Cue god of Fun intervention!] The principal smiled and in effect said that if I could take the job, then we could probably work something out for those four days. That sure sold me. We talked a bit more about the job description, but it sounded like it was more or less a done deal, pending some paperwork and reference calls.
So what does this teach me? Funny. I typed this rhetorical question, yet I still don't have the answer after staring dumbly at the blinking cursor for several minutes. Okay, put the rhetoric aside and do some soul searching, Matthew. I guess it's satisfying to know that things worked out okay, even though I put myself out on a limb. It could have been different. I might have lived the next two months squeaking by on scant sub calls and living on nothing but the essentials. Or I might have found myself with a good job, but without the allowance for vacation. I'd like to think that I would have stuck to my bold stated principles about prioritising adventure, but I can't honestly say that I would have definitely turned down a great job offer like this...
Maybe I'll just wrap up the lesson I've learned in saying that my friend Christy would quote to me when I was being too realistic and pessimistic about life: "Do what you love and the money will come." The realist in me never liked that phrase because what happens when the money comes too late or there's a day when the money doesn't come? The uncertainty bothered me as did the presumed (by me) permission to blow off responsibility. Now I see that saying in a slightly different light, saying something more like: "Concern yourself most with doing what you love. If your primary concern is money, you will find yourself unhappy and unsatisfied, especially if you are not doing what you love. If what you love to do brings you money, then you are all the more fortunate. If it does not, then you will ultimately have to find a way to survive, but at least in surviving you will increase your capacity to do what you love. And should you perish in pursuit of doing that which you love, then at least your life will not have been wasted on anything less than what was most meaningful to you."
I know that the maxim doesn't always hold. What of the people who have to start surviving right from their birth? Where is their break? How do they even know what they love when all they know is survival?? I have no idea. But perhaps this is the topic of another post. The point I was making above is that I feel good about my priorities, and feel even better about them when life gives me the occasional lucky break.
CONGRATULATIONS! You made it this far in my already-lengthy post! Reward time: Stories! I had a first grade class full of trouble makers today. Rough day but good story fodder... [Note to future potential employers: the use of the word "fodder" in reference to school children was used for comedic purposes only and does not represent my actual views on children.]
-My first task of the day was to help take the class on a field trip to Dominoes Pizza! Yay! Fun times AND I got to make my own 8" pizza for lunch. Downside: the kids were extra wound up when we got back. Furthermore, one little girl thought she would get some attention by downing her entire pizza plus several slices from other kids and then making claims of being "sick" and attempting to throw up all over her table. Fortunately, all she could muster was a bit of regurgitated Sprite, and I called her bluff and let her lie down inside for recess. When we got back she was miraculously cured.
-These kids were baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad today. I take plenty of credit for not laying down the law enough early enough, but I think there were also just too many troublemakers for one me to take care of at once. Some fires I failed at putting out in time: a fight beginning in the hallway, a minor marker war involving both clothing and "teacher [i.e. permanent] markers," several kids pulling structural nails out of a bookshelf, plenty of writing on other kids' papers, and much much more. One teacher said at the end of the day that she hoped my experience didn't deter me from coming back. Don't worry about that. I just hope that my inexperience doesn't deter them from asking me back!
-There was so much to do today that I never got around to writing my name on the board. I got called all sorts of interesting things as a result, most of them close but not quite right. The best I found out from a secretary in the main office, later in the day. Apparently a little girl I sent down to the nurse had informed her that "Mr. Rodent" had said she could come down.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Big Boy Decisions and How I Dealt With One in Particular
I'm in the middle of making a big decision right now. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that I'm about an hour away from finalizing a decision I have already made, and am using this post to enlighten you fine people as well as to convince myself that I really want to make this decision. As my post title suggests, this is no everyday, ho-hum decision. No. This is a Big Boy Decision, and you know it is such because it involves a great deal of money as well as thinking more than few months or even years ahead (parts of this decision significantly affect events more than 40 years from now!). So, behold and enjoy the exposition, plot twist, and rising action complete with riveting solution and conclusion. (I've substitute taught for 3 English classes now, and I'm pretty sure I still bungled that last bit up terribly...)
Some months ago I was still living in Colorado, and thinking that I would continue living there through at least early spring. My dear cousin Erin called one day and proposed the grand adventure of backpacking down into the Grand Canyon. SWEET! I was in. In fact, Colin and I began tentatively setting the the date of our departure from the winery to nicely coincide with the trip date at the end of March. All was well... and going to be even weller!
Then I moved back to Indiana. I had planned far enough ahead to know that even if it took me a while to find a job, I could still survive and pay the bills. I did not however budget a plane ticket to Denver. (To those of you mentally pointing out that the Grand Canyon is in Arizona, not Colorado, yes I know, but Erin lives in Denver and she and her house-mate are my ride AND the whole reason I'm going.)
Relief! Mid-February (old news to those who have read previous posts) I started work as a substitute teacher. Money was (slowly) rolling in. Plus if I could support myself with just subbing jobs, then I could take full advantage of the fact that I didn't have a set work schedule... and take a week off and go backpacking in the Grand Canyon!!! Cha-ching!
Blatant foreshadowing: After subbing for a week or so, I had been getting regular calls and was feeling good about the job. In between bouts of estimating finances I would have conversations with people: "Oh, so you're subbing now. How's that been going?" - "Great, I've been getting calls pretty much every day!" - [surprised] "Oh. Wow, that's pretty amazing. Cool." Was there something I was missing? Was I some super-sub that I got calls every day? (Or was it the peak of flu season?)...
The finances looked good. I made it yet another full week with 4.5 days of work. I wasn't rich, but I estimated that I could swing the trip out West on top of the rent check. I was all set to buy the plane ticket. I started getting excited. And yet for some reason, I hesitated. Was this unrealistic? What if I stopped getting calls? I'd be up a crick! Wait another week... see what happens...
Half a day of work on Monday, a full day on Tuesday... and then nothing. For the last three days of last school week I received no communication from the school system (except my first paycheck). I started to panic. On my second "day off" I spend a good many hours designing a spreadsheet that would track the ebb and flow of my projected earning and spending, with added cells that let me "turn on" optional scenarios - going to the Grand Canyon for instance. Things still looked okay if I got a few calls each week... unless I turned on the Grand Canyon option. Then there would appear this discouraging little "dip" in my chart, which indicated a period of *wince* negative money. And my understanding is that banks don't like negative money...
Friday gave me an extra day to mull over things. It also gave me another zero to add to my spreadsheet, thus diminishing my calculated probability of getting a call on any given future school day. I really wanted to go on this trip.
On Saturday, I reluctantly started playing with the IRA contribution "option" on my spreadsheet. My mother has done a very good job of raising me to be fiscally-aware young man. The wisdom she has imparted on me (as well as some simple math done in Calc and economics classes) has made me understand that $1000 saved now is very different from $1000 saved 10 years from now. So, as it happens, I've been holding onto $1000 in my bank account to throw into my IRA for the 2009 fiscal year. But I haven't done it yet. The reason for this is that while my intricate calculations told me that I could afford to move back to Goshen AND still save $1000 they also told me that I would most likely have to dip into that cash bag once or twice before April - little "self-loans," if you will. Anyway, this is getting lengthy and dull and is totally straying from the whole point of the story. Suffice it to say that the smaller I made the "IRA contribution" cell, the less formidable the dip in the chart looked.
At last, the pivotal question - the question that will challenge our hero to act responsibly and reasonably, though with the full knowledge that this decision will likely set a precedent for future such decisions. This is the Roe v. Wade of my LIFE! Let's hear it: Do I a) head out west in three weeks' time, seeking adventure and fun with friends, contributing little or nothing to my IRA for the current fiscal year, and putting myself in financial limbo in the near future? OR b) decide to stay at home, save most or all of my allotted IRA money (giving me an extra $25-30 Gs come retirement, even assuming a fairly low interest rate), have an extra week to potentially sub, remain assuredly debt-free, ... and watch my friends have an amazing adventure without me. And it's not like I know how many calls I'll be getting in the future. I might be getting tons starting tomorrow! Do you risk potential, minor, future hardship for immediate, assuredly-satisfying adventure? What would you do?
My particular answer to this question began to form in my mind last night after I asked myself this question: When I'm 65, which would I rather have: $25,000 or memories (and pictures and stories) of an amazing adventure had with friends as well as the knowledge that I wasn't afraid to take risks? Wellllll... If $100 was an unfathomable amount of money when I was ten and $1000 was a huge sum to me on my 20th birthday... assuming a logarithmic relationship... Yep, pretty sure I won't really care about $25,000 in another 40 years. (I don't literally think this. What was that word from that English class? Hyperbole?...) But I do think that I will want to be able to look back and see that I took advantage of every great and small opportunity for adventure, for after all, life's too short. (Not to mention, if I do set a precedent for always opting for adventure I may not even live to see the day when I would care about that extra $25,000 anyway!)
My decision was helped along by a very encouraging email from my cousin this morning, reminding me that part of what makes this opportunity so special is the great group of people who are embarking on this adventure together! And again I was encouraged at church today by a friend and Sunday school classmate, coming from a post-marriage/children viewpoint. This person empathized with my predicament and yet initially refrained from giving me direct advice. When asked, this person they would go for it; adventures just get more complicated the older you get. Jobs, spouses, kids... they can all make adventuring more difficult to coordinate. Good to get out while you're young and can!
This afternoon I've been assuring myself of what I decided long ago and didn't have the courtesy to tell myself. I'll be flying to Denver in less than three weeks time and enjoying the heck out of myself. If I manage to come out of the whole deal still in the black, then more power to me. If not, then hey, I'll still survive. And I'll learn a very valuable lesson about what it feels like to screw up and be destitute (temporarily. Please understand that if this adventure required 100% credit card financing I would not even be considering it. It's merely a matter of living life on the edge... of black and red)... so I'll be prepared when it comes time to bite the bullet for the next adventure.
So, the plan as it stands:
1) Hit "PUBLISH POST"
2) Purchase the cheapest available plane ticket from Chicago to Denver
3) See how things ride out and count my blessings either way
Some months ago I was still living in Colorado, and thinking that I would continue living there through at least early spring. My dear cousin Erin called one day and proposed the grand adventure of backpacking down into the Grand Canyon. SWEET! I was in. In fact, Colin and I began tentatively setting the the date of our departure from the winery to nicely coincide with the trip date at the end of March. All was well... and going to be even weller!
Then I moved back to Indiana. I had planned far enough ahead to know that even if it took me a while to find a job, I could still survive and pay the bills. I did not however budget a plane ticket to Denver. (To those of you mentally pointing out that the Grand Canyon is in Arizona, not Colorado, yes I know, but Erin lives in Denver and she and her house-mate are my ride AND the whole reason I'm going.)
Relief! Mid-February (old news to those who have read previous posts) I started work as a substitute teacher. Money was (slowly) rolling in. Plus if I could support myself with just subbing jobs, then I could take full advantage of the fact that I didn't have a set work schedule... and take a week off and go backpacking in the Grand Canyon!!! Cha-ching!
Blatant foreshadowing: After subbing for a week or so, I had been getting regular calls and was feeling good about the job. In between bouts of estimating finances I would have conversations with people: "Oh, so you're subbing now. How's that been going?" - "Great, I've been getting calls pretty much every day!" - [surprised] "Oh. Wow, that's pretty amazing. Cool." Was there something I was missing? Was I some super-sub that I got calls every day? (Or was it the peak of flu season?)...
The finances looked good. I made it yet another full week with 4.5 days of work. I wasn't rich, but I estimated that I could swing the trip out West on top of the rent check. I was all set to buy the plane ticket. I started getting excited. And yet for some reason, I hesitated. Was this unrealistic? What if I stopped getting calls? I'd be up a crick! Wait another week... see what happens...
Half a day of work on Monday, a full day on Tuesday... and then nothing. For the last three days of last school week I received no communication from the school system (except my first paycheck). I started to panic. On my second "day off" I spend a good many hours designing a spreadsheet that would track the ebb and flow of my projected earning and spending, with added cells that let me "turn on" optional scenarios - going to the Grand Canyon for instance. Things still looked okay if I got a few calls each week... unless I turned on the Grand Canyon option. Then there would appear this discouraging little "dip" in my chart, which indicated a period of *wince* negative money. And my understanding is that banks don't like negative money...
Friday gave me an extra day to mull over things. It also gave me another zero to add to my spreadsheet, thus diminishing my calculated probability of getting a call on any given future school day. I really wanted to go on this trip.
On Saturday, I reluctantly started playing with the IRA contribution "option" on my spreadsheet. My mother has done a very good job of raising me to be fiscally-aware young man. The wisdom she has imparted on me (as well as some simple math done in Calc and economics classes) has made me understand that $1000 saved now is very different from $1000 saved 10 years from now. So, as it happens, I've been holding onto $1000 in my bank account to throw into my IRA for the 2009 fiscal year. But I haven't done it yet. The reason for this is that while my intricate calculations told me that I could afford to move back to Goshen AND still save $1000 they also told me that I would most likely have to dip into that cash bag once or twice before April - little "self-loans," if you will. Anyway, this is getting lengthy and dull and is totally straying from the whole point of the story. Suffice it to say that the smaller I made the "IRA contribution" cell, the less formidable the dip in the chart looked.
At last, the pivotal question - the question that will challenge our hero to act responsibly and reasonably, though with the full knowledge that this decision will likely set a precedent for future such decisions. This is the Roe v. Wade of my LIFE! Let's hear it: Do I a) head out west in three weeks' time, seeking adventure and fun with friends, contributing little or nothing to my IRA for the current fiscal year, and putting myself in financial limbo in the near future? OR b) decide to stay at home, save most or all of my allotted IRA money (giving me an extra $25-30 Gs come retirement, even assuming a fairly low interest rate), have an extra week to potentially sub, remain assuredly debt-free, ... and watch my friends have an amazing adventure without me. And it's not like I know how many calls I'll be getting in the future. I might be getting tons starting tomorrow! Do you risk potential, minor, future hardship for immediate, assuredly-satisfying adventure? What would you do?
My particular answer to this question began to form in my mind last night after I asked myself this question: When I'm 65, which would I rather have: $25,000 or memories (and pictures and stories) of an amazing adventure had with friends as well as the knowledge that I wasn't afraid to take risks? Wellllll... If $100 was an unfathomable amount of money when I was ten and $1000 was a huge sum to me on my 20th birthday... assuming a logarithmic relationship... Yep, pretty sure I won't really care about $25,000 in another 40 years. (I don't literally think this. What was that word from that English class? Hyperbole?...) But I do think that I will want to be able to look back and see that I took advantage of every great and small opportunity for adventure, for after all, life's too short. (Not to mention, if I do set a precedent for always opting for adventure I may not even live to see the day when I would care about that extra $25,000 anyway!)
My decision was helped along by a very encouraging email from my cousin this morning, reminding me that part of what makes this opportunity so special is the great group of people who are embarking on this adventure together! And again I was encouraged at church today by a friend and Sunday school classmate, coming from a post-marriage/children viewpoint. This person empathized with my predicament and yet initially refrained from giving me direct advice. When asked, this person they would go for it; adventures just get more complicated the older you get. Jobs, spouses, kids... they can all make adventuring more difficult to coordinate. Good to get out while you're young and can!
This afternoon I've been assuring myself of what I decided long ago and didn't have the courtesy to tell myself. I'll be flying to Denver in less than three weeks time and enjoying the heck out of myself. If I manage to come out of the whole deal still in the black, then more power to me. If not, then hey, I'll still survive. And I'll learn a very valuable lesson about what it feels like to screw up and be destitute (temporarily. Please understand that if this adventure required 100% credit card financing I would not even be considering it. It's merely a matter of living life on the edge... of black and red)... so I'll be prepared when it comes time to bite the bullet for the next adventure.
So, the plan as it stands:
1) Hit "PUBLISH POST"
2) Purchase the cheapest available plane ticket from Chicago to Denver
3) See how things ride out and count my blessings either way
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Kindergarten Follow-up
Hey, guess what? The little kids didn't kill me! or even make me go totally crazy! It was a crazy introduction to kindergarten, but as my story will soon tell you, it could have been much worse. Behold the tale, in Good New, Bad News format:
Bad News: I got a call to "guest teach" for a kindergarten class today. I was totally terrified of kindergartners!
Good News: Today was Dr. Seuss Day!!! (Dr. Seuss' birthday)
Bad News: I didn't know and so I didn't dress up like Dr. Seuss Characters like a lot of the cool teachers did.
Good News: I got to make ooblec for the kids (and me) to play with!
Bad News: I only had 15 minutes to make 8 pans of ooblec before a room full of 5-year-olds came barging in.
Good News: Another teacher watched my class coming in while I finished up (and was really friendly and helpful).
Bad News: I still got off to a late start.
Good News: I got to read a fun book to my first group of students (the whole grade travelled between classrooms to different book and activity stations).
Bad News: We got done late and the next group came in while I was still reading.
Good News: That's okay, it's ooblec time! Everyone loves ooblec!
Bad News: Ooblec is very messy. It was time to change groups in 5 minutes. I didn't have a sink. I had no idea how I was going to get 15 kids' hands clean in less than 5 minutes with no sink.
Good News: Oh wait, we do have a sink in the class' bathroom!
Bad News: Despite instructions to wipe the ooblec off their hands and into the pans running to the bathroom, the kids managed to get ooblec EVERYWHERE!
Good News: It's okay, when my class came back for the first break they were more than happy to help clean up.
Bad News: Now I have to keep them occupied for a whole hour before lunch.
Good News: (At the teacher's recommendation...) INDOOR RECESS!
Bad News: I hear a little girl say with urgency, "teacher!" as she barely manages to prevent 2 pans of ooblec from spilling on the floor after she bumped them with the bin she was carrying.
Good News: Teacher saved the day! (and the floor.)
Bad News: More story-reading (it gets old after the 3rd or 4th read) and play time, but one kid becomes very difficult and refuses to do anything.
Good News: An aide intervenes and saves the day!
Bad News: The kids got the room messy again!
Good News: Hour lunch break for me!
Bad News: I forgot to bring a book to read during lunch break.
Good News: I'll write a letter to my sister instead. AND after lunch I have more free time when the kids go to gym.
Bad News: I realize that the teacher didn't say when to pick the kids up from gym class.
Good News: An aid tells me.
Bad News: It's in 10 minutes and there's a 50 minute hole in the lesson plan! I have to come up with something to do for the entire time.
Good News: I brought dried peaches for lunch. I use them to tell a story about fruit in Colorado where I used to live. We play BINGO for dried peach slices, listen quietly to a story for dried peaches and line up quietly for more peaches!
Bad News: More stations, groups of kids, reading the same story over and over, and more mess!
Good News: The end is near. The kids finally leave!
Bad News: They left ooblec and papers and crayons everywhere!!!
Good News: Cleaning ooblec off tables is super easy compared to teaching kindergartners. I survived.
Bad News: I got a call to "guest teach" for a kindergarten class today. I was totally terrified of kindergartners!
Good News: Today was Dr. Seuss Day!!! (Dr. Seuss' birthday)
Bad News: I didn't know and so I didn't dress up like Dr. Seuss Characters like a lot of the cool teachers did.
Good News: I got to make ooblec for the kids (and me) to play with!
Bad News: I only had 15 minutes to make 8 pans of ooblec before a room full of 5-year-olds came barging in.
Good News: Another teacher watched my class coming in while I finished up (and was really friendly and helpful).
Bad News: I still got off to a late start.
Good News: I got to read a fun book to my first group of students (the whole grade travelled between classrooms to different book and activity stations).
Bad News: We got done late and the next group came in while I was still reading.
Good News: That's okay, it's ooblec time! Everyone loves ooblec!
Bad News: Ooblec is very messy. It was time to change groups in 5 minutes. I didn't have a sink. I had no idea how I was going to get 15 kids' hands clean in less than 5 minutes with no sink.
Good News: Oh wait, we do have a sink in the class' bathroom!
Bad News: Despite instructions to wipe the ooblec off their hands and into the pans running to the bathroom, the kids managed to get ooblec EVERYWHERE!
Good News: It's okay, when my class came back for the first break they were more than happy to help clean up.
Bad News: Now I have to keep them occupied for a whole hour before lunch.
Good News: (At the teacher's recommendation...) INDOOR RECESS!
Bad News: I hear a little girl say with urgency, "teacher!" as she barely manages to prevent 2 pans of ooblec from spilling on the floor after she bumped them with the bin she was carrying.
Good News: Teacher saved the day! (and the floor.)
Bad News: More story-reading (it gets old after the 3rd or 4th read) and play time, but one kid becomes very difficult and refuses to do anything.
Good News: An aide intervenes and saves the day!
Bad News: The kids got the room messy again!
Good News: Hour lunch break for me!
Bad News: I forgot to bring a book to read during lunch break.
Good News: I'll write a letter to my sister instead. AND after lunch I have more free time when the kids go to gym.
Bad News: I realize that the teacher didn't say when to pick the kids up from gym class.
Good News: An aid tells me.
Bad News: It's in 10 minutes and there's a 50 minute hole in the lesson plan! I have to come up with something to do for the entire time.
Good News: I brought dried peaches for lunch. I use them to tell a story about fruit in Colorado where I used to live. We play BINGO for dried peach slices, listen quietly to a story for dried peaches and line up quietly for more peaches!
Bad News: More stations, groups of kids, reading the same story over and over, and more mess!
Good News: The end is near. The kids finally leave!
Bad News: They left ooblec and papers and crayons everywhere!!!
Good News: Cleaning ooblec off tables is super easy compared to teaching kindergartners. I survived.
News Flash
So remember when I was saying how little kids get crazier as you go downward in grade level? And remember how I pointed out the trend in sub calls I was getting? And remember how kindergarten was going to be today if the trend continued, but I only kinda suggested it because, hey, who's superstitious anyway?
Well I just got a call for a full day of kindergarten.
Also, I don't really know what to think of this, but I had the scariest dream of my life last night - I was in a hostage situation, forced to lie down on the floor with others. People started getting shot, or were pretty close to it before I woke up. I was too scared to run or anything. Then I recognized it was a dream. And I was too scared to wake up from the dream because I was afraid they would shoot me. It was terrible.
So, wish me luck. And I can't say I'm actually worried about this, but if a group of super-crazy kindergarteners holds me hostage with guns, I totally called it!
(But really, I hope that doesn't happen.)
Well I just got a call for a full day of kindergarten.
Also, I don't really know what to think of this, but I had the scariest dream of my life last night - I was in a hostage situation, forced to lie down on the floor with others. People started getting shot, or were pretty close to it before I woke up. I was too scared to run or anything. Then I recognized it was a dream. And I was too scared to wake up from the dream because I was afraid they would shoot me. It was terrible.
So, wish me luck. And I can't say I'm actually worried about this, but if a group of super-crazy kindergarteners holds me hostage with guns, I totally called it!
(But really, I hope that doesn't happen.)
Monday, March 1, 2010
More Stories From the Teaching Front...
or "substitute teaching front," I suppose, since they are pretty different. As I was briefly discussing with my cousin (a 'real' teacher) the other day, I have the wonderful benefit of being done for the day at 2:30 or 3:30. I can go home, unwind, decide I don't want to come in the next day... whatever. If I don't want to deal with little kids, I can opt for middle school or high school only (though I would get less calls), and my lesson plans are usually simple. Not to mention they are made for me.
By contrast, a 'real' teacher makes lesson plans, gets up every school day, teaches most of a full day, stays a little after, and takes papers home to grade on nights and weekends. And they're responsible for the education of their students. On the plus side, they get to stick with a group of students for a whole year, or at least a semester. And they can watch their kids grow and mature, and see them learning, making progress. And if I'm not mistaken, though teaching is an (arguably) underpaid profession, 'real' teachers still make quite a bit more money than me. (Not to say I begrudge them. They earn every penny!)
Seeing how rewarding even substitute teaching can be, I'm thinking more and more that I would like to be a high school science teacher some day. I like being a positive (hopefully) influence it kids' lives and watching them learn. And I think that all the added benefit of becoming a teacher would far outweigh the extra effort and time commitment it would mean for me. Plus, I could totally design way cool labs for kids, and we could shoot off rockets, and learn about the heat exchanges involved in blowing stuff up and...
Anyway, the whole reason I started this post was to tell some more humorous tales that I have drawn from my experience. One happened quite recently. By Sunday evening I had not yet gotten a call for subbing, and so I went to bed (early, due to a long, exhausting weekend) with my cell phone on, sitting on my night stand. I nodded off right away. I was awoken with a start to my phone ringing. It was still dark and I was suffering the shock of coming out of a deep sleep. I set my alarm clock for about 6:30 am, and usually I get calls around then or a little after. Weird. The caller ID said, "Naffy" - not "sub caller lady." Even weirder. It must be important, though, if my good friend Jonathan was calling me this early in the morning. I picked up the phone and said hello. "Hey Matthew, how's it going? So I was going to respond to your email, but then I thought I'd just call and talk since we haven't talked in a while anyway." Hmmm. Didn't sound that important. "Dude, what time is it?" Jonathan's answer: "Oh shoot! I'm sorry! I forgot you went to bed so early!" I looked at my clock. It was 11:15 pm. I had been asleep for 45 minutes. Suddenly the still-dark world made more sense. We set a different time for talking, and I went back to bed for another 7 hours. I woke up at a more reasonable hour and got a call for a 1st grade class. Which brings me to my second story.
3rd grade last Wednesday, 2nd grade last Thursday, and 1st grade today. And what a day it was! (I told myself that I would try every classroom setting at least once before saying I wouldn't do it, but if little kids get proportionately crazier the more they retro-age, I might just have to rethink my Trying Things Out strategy!) We got through their teacher's lesson plans for the most part, but I was amazed at how often I was needed to put out this fire or that - hurting tummies, using the markers they "weren't supposed to," telling on people for using the markers they "weren't supposed to," a sore eye, a broken bag, a shortage of band-aids, approximately 1 million other grievances and another 2 million things that I forgot to do that their teacher usually did. But to save your reading eyes, I'll just tell the story of a bit of reconciliation work done by myself this morning. I'll even cut it down to just dialogue.
Snot-Nosed Little Boy 1: Mr. Rody, he [points to Snot-Nosed Little Boy 2] has my pencil.
SNLB 2: No I don't! It's my pencil now!
Snot-Nosed Little Boy 3: Yeah, it's his [pointing to SNLB 2] pencil because I sold it to him for three [money flashes].
Mr. Rody [to SNLB 2]: Okay, so you have his pencil?
SNLB 1: Yeah, and my mom said that I couldn't give it away.
Rody: [to SNLB 1]: So how did he get it?
SNLB chorus [in unison, with increasing volume]: He took my pencil! Nuh-uh! But my mom said you shouldn't give stuff back that you buy! I want my pencil back! BLAHBLAHBLAH We're little kids going crazy!!!
Rody: Okay, okay! Now everyone calm down! Let me ask you all some questions, and you can respond when I ask you a question, but you have to use your quiet voice. [to SNLB 2] Where did you get the pencil?
SNLB 3: He [indicates SNLB 3] sold it to me for $3.
Rody: Okay. Should you guys be selling things like that in school?
SNLB 2 & 3: No.
Rody: Right, now where [to SNLB 3] did you get the pencil?
SNLB 2: He [indicates SNLB 1] gave it to me.
Rody [to SNLB 1]: Did you give him the pencil?
SNLB 1: Yeah. [Rody gives him a bit of an Are You Freaking Kidding Me look.] But I forgot. My mom said I couldn't give the pencil to anyone.
Rody: Okay. Well, can you [looking at SNLB 3] give the $3 back to him [looks at SNLB 2]? And can you give him [indicates SNLB 1] his pencil back.
SNLB 1, 2 & 3: Yeah. I guess. Okay. [trades occur. students calm down and go back to work.]
Rody: [turns to audience] Wait. Really? After all that? These kids are N-U-T-S nuts!
By contrast, a 'real' teacher makes lesson plans, gets up every school day, teaches most of a full day, stays a little after, and takes papers home to grade on nights and weekends. And they're responsible for the education of their students. On the plus side, they get to stick with a group of students for a whole year, or at least a semester. And they can watch their kids grow and mature, and see them learning, making progress. And if I'm not mistaken, though teaching is an (arguably) underpaid profession, 'real' teachers still make quite a bit more money than me. (Not to say I begrudge them. They earn every penny!)
Seeing how rewarding even substitute teaching can be, I'm thinking more and more that I would like to be a high school science teacher some day. I like being a positive (hopefully) influence it kids' lives and watching them learn. And I think that all the added benefit of becoming a teacher would far outweigh the extra effort and time commitment it would mean for me. Plus, I could totally design way cool labs for kids, and we could shoot off rockets, and learn about the heat exchanges involved in blowing stuff up and...
Anyway, the whole reason I started this post was to tell some more humorous tales that I have drawn from my experience. One happened quite recently. By Sunday evening I had not yet gotten a call for subbing, and so I went to bed (early, due to a long, exhausting weekend) with my cell phone on, sitting on my night stand. I nodded off right away. I was awoken with a start to my phone ringing. It was still dark and I was suffering the shock of coming out of a deep sleep. I set my alarm clock for about 6:30 am, and usually I get calls around then or a little after. Weird. The caller ID said, "Naffy" - not "sub caller lady." Even weirder. It must be important, though, if my good friend Jonathan was calling me this early in the morning. I picked up the phone and said hello. "Hey Matthew, how's it going? So I was going to respond to your email, but then I thought I'd just call and talk since we haven't talked in a while anyway." Hmmm. Didn't sound that important. "Dude, what time is it?" Jonathan's answer: "Oh shoot! I'm sorry! I forgot you went to bed so early!" I looked at my clock. It was 11:15 pm. I had been asleep for 45 minutes. Suddenly the still-dark world made more sense. We set a different time for talking, and I went back to bed for another 7 hours. I woke up at a more reasonable hour and got a call for a 1st grade class. Which brings me to my second story.
3rd grade last Wednesday, 2nd grade last Thursday, and 1st grade today. And what a day it was! (I told myself that I would try every classroom setting at least once before saying I wouldn't do it, but if little kids get proportionately crazier the more they retro-age, I might just have to rethink my Trying Things Out strategy!) We got through their teacher's lesson plans for the most part, but I was amazed at how often I was needed to put out this fire or that - hurting tummies, using the markers they "weren't supposed to," telling on people for using the markers they "weren't supposed to," a sore eye, a broken bag, a shortage of band-aids, approximately 1 million other grievances and another 2 million things that I forgot to do that their teacher usually did. But to save your reading eyes, I'll just tell the story of a bit of reconciliation work done by myself this morning. I'll even cut it down to just dialogue.
Snot-Nosed Little Boy 1: Mr. Rody, he [points to Snot-Nosed Little Boy 2] has my pencil.
SNLB 2: No I don't! It's my pencil now!
Snot-Nosed Little Boy 3: Yeah, it's his [pointing to SNLB 2] pencil because I sold it to him for three [money flashes].
Mr. Rody [to SNLB 2]: Okay, so you have his pencil?
SNLB 1: Yeah, and my mom said that I couldn't give it away.
Rody: [to SNLB 1]: So how did he get it?
SNLB chorus [in unison, with increasing volume]: He took my pencil! Nuh-uh! But my mom said you shouldn't give stuff back that you buy! I want my pencil back! BLAHBLAHBLAH We're little kids going crazy!!!
Rody: Okay, okay! Now everyone calm down! Let me ask you all some questions, and you can respond when I ask you a question, but you have to use your quiet voice. [to SNLB 2] Where did you get the pencil?
SNLB 3: He [indicates SNLB 3] sold it to me for $3.
Rody: Okay. Should you guys be selling things like that in school?
SNLB 2 & 3: No.
Rody: Right, now where [to SNLB 3] did you get the pencil?
SNLB 2: He [indicates SNLB 1] gave it to me.
Rody [to SNLB 1]: Did you give him the pencil?
SNLB 1: Yeah. [Rody gives him a bit of an Are You Freaking Kidding Me look.] But I forgot. My mom said I couldn't give the pencil to anyone.
Rody: Okay. Well, can you [looking at SNLB 3] give the $3 back to him [looks at SNLB 2]? And can you give him [indicates SNLB 1] his pencil back.
SNLB 1, 2 & 3: Yeah. I guess. Okay. [trades occur. students calm down and go back to work.]
Rody: [turns to audience] Wait. Really? After all that? These kids are N-U-T-S nuts!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Sub that Keeps On Going
Good news: So far I've been working every day! Yay for making money! Since I last posted, I've gotten to try my hand at teaching in quite a number of new settings - a high school weight training class, a special ed. class, a return visit to an 8th grade English class and today (for the first time ever) an elementary school class. Oh boy.
The fact that I am writing these words right now - that I am still alive to tell the tale - is a testimony to my perseverance, but I must admit I had my qualms about teaching elementary school kids. Yesterday I got to return to an English class I had already subbed for (I'm assuming I was requested. Score!), and I revelled in the comfort of familiarity. I knew where attendance sheets were, I knew some of the kids names, I knew the basic structure of the class... And even on my first day in the high school this felt okay. I had just been a high school student myself only 6 years ago. But 3rd grade was a whole new universe to me. I'm not even sure I'd set foot in an elementary school since going to one some 14 years ago...
Fortunately it was only a half day. And the teacher I was subbing for was in the building and briefly stopped by the class a few times. Still, these kids were tiny, and together formed a mob of tiny, kiddie, snotty-nosed bundles of fun (or insanity?). And I was to be the only force preventing hell from breaking loose. I expressed my anxiety over the possibility of this situation to another sub friend and her response was, "yeah, but with elementary school they're all so full of undying love." And now I see that she was right. These kids may be crazy but at least they are still young enough to think that you are the coolest person ever, unlike their older middle school counterparts, who see teachers as the enemy - agents representing the grown-ups' need for them to work work work, all the time! ...
So anyway, cute kids, can be trouble, still respect you (mostly) ... and I'm thrown in a room with them. Cool. Things went well for the most part, but one humorous (and almost disastrous) incident is worth recounting here.
D.O.L. You may or may not remember this from your own grade school days. I do, and I think I even remember liking it. Daily Oral Language assignments are generally short, and they involve exercises in different aspects of writing. Sentence corrections are mostly what I remember and were the bulk of what my kids were doing this morning. And in my lesson plan paper, I had directions that said, "9:10-9:20 - go over D.O.L., sheet should be on overhead." I was proud of myself for even finding the transparency before the designated time. I did not find any sort of answer key, so I figured that teachers were just supposed to know this stuff. I should be reading at a higher level than 3rd graders, right?
We turned off the lights, and I got the kids' attention up toward the overhead. [Okay... here goes. Just don't let them know you have no idea what you're doing and that you haven't done D.O.L. since you were their age...] First sentence. "Who can tell me what we need to do first?" Hands shot up. (This is one thing I really appreciated today. It's so cool to have kids who want to tell you the answer! If only that were true of most older kids too...) "Right, we capitalize the 's' first." The sentence read something like this:
"since you saw your brother now, will you see him later too"
"Who can tell me what we need to change next?" A smart little girl near the front pointed out that "saw" should be "see." [Oh. Right. I knew that. I did catch that, right? Okay, I've gotta play it cool. Think, Matthew. You know how sentences work. Hell, you can write thesis papers!] "Good. And do we need to change anything else? Yes?" A period at the end! "Good. Okay are we all done with this sentence? Yes?" No, it needs to be a question mark at the end. [&$#^!! Okay. You meant to do that. It's okay. It's all part of your pedagogy - see if they can catch it.] "Gooood. Right, it needs to be a question mark because we're asking a question." [God, save me!]
And I did survive - the rest of D.O.L. as well as the rest of the morning. I was constantly reminded of the weirdly imaginative nature of little kids' minds ("Which words doesn't belong: Lettuce, Tomato, Spoon, or Carrot? Good. Spoon, because it's not a vegetable." But Mr. Rody, what if the spoon was made of spinach?! [Good grief.]), but I mostly just had fun. And my faith in myself in dealing with little kids comes none too soon. Tomorrow I'm spending a full day as a floating sub in a different elementary school!
Wish me the best!
The fact that I am writing these words right now - that I am still alive to tell the tale - is a testimony to my perseverance, but I must admit I had my qualms about teaching elementary school kids. Yesterday I got to return to an English class I had already subbed for (I'm assuming I was requested. Score!), and I revelled in the comfort of familiarity. I knew where attendance sheets were, I knew some of the kids names, I knew the basic structure of the class... And even on my first day in the high school this felt okay. I had just been a high school student myself only 6 years ago. But 3rd grade was a whole new universe to me. I'm not even sure I'd set foot in an elementary school since going to one some 14 years ago...
Fortunately it was only a half day. And the teacher I was subbing for was in the building and briefly stopped by the class a few times. Still, these kids were tiny, and together formed a mob of tiny, kiddie, snotty-nosed bundles of fun (or insanity?). And I was to be the only force preventing hell from breaking loose. I expressed my anxiety over the possibility of this situation to another sub friend and her response was, "yeah, but with elementary school they're all so full of undying love." And now I see that she was right. These kids may be crazy but at least they are still young enough to think that you are the coolest person ever, unlike their older middle school counterparts, who see teachers as the enemy - agents representing the grown-ups' need for them to work work work, all the time! ...
So anyway, cute kids, can be trouble, still respect you (mostly) ... and I'm thrown in a room with them. Cool. Things went well for the most part, but one humorous (and almost disastrous) incident is worth recounting here.
D.O.L. You may or may not remember this from your own grade school days. I do, and I think I even remember liking it. Daily Oral Language assignments are generally short, and they involve exercises in different aspects of writing. Sentence corrections are mostly what I remember and were the bulk of what my kids were doing this morning. And in my lesson plan paper, I had directions that said, "9:10-9:20 - go over D.O.L., sheet should be on overhead." I was proud of myself for even finding the transparency before the designated time. I did not find any sort of answer key, so I figured that teachers were just supposed to know this stuff. I should be reading at a higher level than 3rd graders, right?
We turned off the lights, and I got the kids' attention up toward the overhead. [Okay... here goes. Just don't let them know you have no idea what you're doing and that you haven't done D.O.L. since you were their age...] First sentence. "Who can tell me what we need to do first?" Hands shot up. (This is one thing I really appreciated today. It's so cool to have kids who want to tell you the answer! If only that were true of most older kids too...) "Right, we capitalize the 's' first." The sentence read something like this:
"since you saw your brother now, will you see him later too"
"Who can tell me what we need to change next?" A smart little girl near the front pointed out that "saw" should be "see." [Oh. Right. I knew that. I did catch that, right? Okay, I've gotta play it cool. Think, Matthew. You know how sentences work. Hell, you can write thesis papers!] "Good. And do we need to change anything else? Yes?" A period at the end! "Good. Okay are we all done with this sentence? Yes?" No, it needs to be a question mark at the end. [&$#^!! Okay. You meant to do that. It's okay. It's all part of your pedagogy - see if they can catch it.] "Gooood. Right, it needs to be a question mark because we're asking a question." [God, save me!]
And I did survive - the rest of D.O.L. as well as the rest of the morning. I was constantly reminded of the weirdly imaginative nature of little kids' minds ("Which words doesn't belong: Lettuce, Tomato, Spoon, or Carrot? Good. Spoon, because it's not a vegetable." But Mr. Rody, what if the spoon was made of spinach?! [Good grief.]), but I mostly just had fun. And my faith in myself in dealing with little kids comes none too soon. Tomorrow I'm spending a full day as a floating sub in a different elementary school!
Wish me the best!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Back to School: B.A. Going on 6th Grade
HeyguesswhatI'mnotaploidanymore!!!!! I'm a substitute teacher now!!!! (You can tell because I'm wearing a sweater vest.)
First Day of School: Self-Portrait
That's right. I can now count myself among the gainfully employed once again. And none to soon; the coffers were running low. I wanted to write this post to share this good news yesterday, but it was a housemate's birthday and festivities had to be provided for and attended to (and I didn't have to sub so I spent the first 6 hours of the day in my pajamas reading books and playing games). And this evening I have plans too, so this will have to be brief. Now I give you thoughts on and recounted adventures in SUBSTITUTE TEACHING...
Monday was President's Day. I was taking it easy, relaxing, half-heartedly looking for jobs... and I was still under the impression that the required criminal background check for my substitute teaching license wouldn't be finished for at least a few more days, maybe a week. So though I went to bed with my phone turned on and atop my night stand I also went to bed at 1:30 am after a showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, some funny YouTube videos, and half a chapter of a really cool/nerdy book (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information). And wouldnchaknowit, the phone woke me up at 6:30 the next morning. "Good morning. Can you sub today?" Now or never. "Sure." "Okay, you'll be subbing for Mrs. Yoder at the Middle School..."
This was it! Having never set foot in a classroom (other than as a grade schooler myself, or as a college T.A.) before I donned myself in professional raiment, brushed the snow off my car and drove in the direction of that huge metaphorical 'fire' into which one is thrown to be tested. (I came out a little over-cooked, thanks in part to my previously mentioned sweater vest.)
I was to sub for a 6th grade English teacher. Fun. With the exception of perhaps all of K-5, this setting terrified me the most of all the possibilities. On the plus side, if I could survive this, I could survive anything. And it wasn't too bad. I surprised myself. Before I go on about my Mad Kid Skillz let me just give a shout out to the real heroes: Rita, the super-nice secretary who greeted me when I first came in, Anastasia, the super-nice teacher who led me to my classroom, befriended me and let me eat lunch with her and others, and all 3 of the amazing paras who worked in my classroom and helped keep the situation contained. I guess when it's a thousand vs maybe a hundred, the hundred have to band together if they want to have a hope of keeping the punk-ass thousand at bay.
My day as a 6th grade English teacher was trying. My first two classes were honors classes, and they mostly stayed on task, but I still had to put out my share of fires: kids talking, getting up out of their seats, ripping up their magazines... and the basic English classes were even worse. In short, it was a day-long lesson in how to efficiently use discipline, or the threat thereof, to keep a small mob of hormones from destroying the room. Every class did have its good students, and whenever I could I tried to help and encourage them, but those free moments were few and far between. (Thank god for my planning period - one full hour of paid bliss... and frantic alteration of strategy and rallying of courage!)
Today I was called back to duty. Apparently I left a good impression on the GMS English department because today I was in the classroom of an 8th grade English teacher. Maybe it's because this teacher had a much better handle on her class, maybe it was the maturity that 2 years can develop in young adolescents, or maybe it was the fact that two of my classes today were honors, but today was AWESOME!! The kids were quiet (with some motivating on my part), helpful, respectful and just plain good. Though I had previously sworn I would never teach any grade below 9th, this week's transition from 6th to 8th grade left me feeling pretty good about 8th graders.
Now I really should be heading to dinner, but before I do, some quick thoughts and anecdotes (I'm sure there will be many more to come, as education is fast becoming a passion of mine and... kids say the darndest things...):
-I really feel for good kids stuck in groups or classes with rowdy kids. So many times on Tuesday I wanted to just ignore the kids who were throwing stuff and work with the good kids on learning. Likewise I found it difficult to mandate a one-library-pass-at-a-time policy (to keep the rowdy and grinning boys from wreaking havoc in the hallways) while there was also a line of perfectly responsible children with legitimate reasons for going.
-Surprisingly, the only two comments on my long hair thus far: "Are you a hippie?" and "How long did it take you to grow out your hair?!"
-How does one maintain control? A fellow 6th grade teacher advised starting off on a stern, in-control foot and never backing down from there. And that was more or less necessary with the 6th graders. Today, however, I found that giving students the benefit of the doubt and respecting them resulted only in students who were more open to doing what I told them. Maybe (probably) it was just a difference in maturity, but it will be interesting to experiment with the gentle-but-firm respect vs Super Substitute Smackdown laying on of authority ratio.
-Today, a question from the student after their assignments were completed: "Do you play video games?" Yeah, sometimes. "Oh! What kinds?" Mostly ones for 64. [blank stares] Nintendo 64. [blank stares] You know. Old school. "Ohhhhh, yeah. Yeah, like Super Smash Bros..." At a mere 23 years old, only 2 years out of college, I reeeeeeally dated myself today.
-Another question: "Do you like [name of clothing brand I'm not familiar with]?" I don't know what that is. "Like the clothes." I've never heard of that. "Are you a prep?" Uh... no, I'm just poor.
Well, off I go. More later. Just rest assured (for those who were concerned) that I'm back to work.
Woot.
First Day of School: Self-PortraitThat's right. I can now count myself among the gainfully employed once again. And none to soon; the coffers were running low. I wanted to write this post to share this good news yesterday, but it was a housemate's birthday and festivities had to be provided for and attended to (and I didn't have to sub so I spent the first 6 hours of the day in my pajamas reading books and playing games). And this evening I have plans too, so this will have to be brief. Now I give you thoughts on and recounted adventures in SUBSTITUTE TEACHING...
Monday was President's Day. I was taking it easy, relaxing, half-heartedly looking for jobs... and I was still under the impression that the required criminal background check for my substitute teaching license wouldn't be finished for at least a few more days, maybe a week. So though I went to bed with my phone turned on and atop my night stand I also went to bed at 1:30 am after a showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, some funny YouTube videos, and half a chapter of a really cool/nerdy book (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information). And wouldnchaknowit, the phone woke me up at 6:30 the next morning. "Good morning. Can you sub today?" Now or never. "Sure." "Okay, you'll be subbing for Mrs. Yoder at the Middle School..."
This was it! Having never set foot in a classroom (other than as a grade schooler myself, or as a college T.A.) before I donned myself in professional raiment, brushed the snow off my car and drove in the direction of that huge metaphorical 'fire' into which one is thrown to be tested. (I came out a little over-cooked, thanks in part to my previously mentioned sweater vest.)
I was to sub for a 6th grade English teacher. Fun. With the exception of perhaps all of K-5, this setting terrified me the most of all the possibilities. On the plus side, if I could survive this, I could survive anything. And it wasn't too bad. I surprised myself. Before I go on about my Mad Kid Skillz let me just give a shout out to the real heroes: Rita, the super-nice secretary who greeted me when I first came in, Anastasia, the super-nice teacher who led me to my classroom, befriended me and let me eat lunch with her and others, and all 3 of the amazing paras who worked in my classroom and helped keep the situation contained. I guess when it's a thousand vs maybe a hundred, the hundred have to band together if they want to have a hope of keeping the punk-ass thousand at bay.
My day as a 6th grade English teacher was trying. My first two classes were honors classes, and they mostly stayed on task, but I still had to put out my share of fires: kids talking, getting up out of their seats, ripping up their magazines... and the basic English classes were even worse. In short, it was a day-long lesson in how to efficiently use discipline, or the threat thereof, to keep a small mob of hormones from destroying the room. Every class did have its good students, and whenever I could I tried to help and encourage them, but those free moments were few and far between. (Thank god for my planning period - one full hour of paid bliss... and frantic alteration of strategy and rallying of courage!)
Today I was called back to duty. Apparently I left a good impression on the GMS English department because today I was in the classroom of an 8th grade English teacher. Maybe it's because this teacher had a much better handle on her class, maybe it was the maturity that 2 years can develop in young adolescents, or maybe it was the fact that two of my classes today were honors, but today was AWESOME!! The kids were quiet (with some motivating on my part), helpful, respectful and just plain good. Though I had previously sworn I would never teach any grade below 9th, this week's transition from 6th to 8th grade left me feeling pretty good about 8th graders.
Now I really should be heading to dinner, but before I do, some quick thoughts and anecdotes (I'm sure there will be many more to come, as education is fast becoming a passion of mine and... kids say the darndest things...):
-I really feel for good kids stuck in groups or classes with rowdy kids. So many times on Tuesday I wanted to just ignore the kids who were throwing stuff and work with the good kids on learning. Likewise I found it difficult to mandate a one-library-pass-at-a-time policy (to keep the rowdy and grinning boys from wreaking havoc in the hallways) while there was also a line of perfectly responsible children with legitimate reasons for going.
-Surprisingly, the only two comments on my long hair thus far: "Are you a hippie?" and "How long did it take you to grow out your hair?!"
-How does one maintain control? A fellow 6th grade teacher advised starting off on a stern, in-control foot and never backing down from there. And that was more or less necessary with the 6th graders. Today, however, I found that giving students the benefit of the doubt and respecting them resulted only in students who were more open to doing what I told them. Maybe (probably) it was just a difference in maturity, but it will be interesting to experiment with the gentle-but-firm respect vs Super Substitute Smackdown laying on of authority ratio.
-Today, a question from the student after their assignments were completed: "Do you play video games?" Yeah, sometimes. "Oh! What kinds?" Mostly ones for 64. [blank stares] Nintendo 64. [blank stares] You know. Old school. "Ohhhhh, yeah. Yeah, like Super Smash Bros..." At a mere 23 years old, only 2 years out of college, I reeeeeeally dated myself today.
-Another question: "Do you like [name of clothing brand I'm not familiar with]?" I don't know what that is. "Like the clothes." I've never heard of that. "Are you a prep?" Uh... no, I'm just poor.
Well, off I go. More later. Just rest assured (for those who were concerned) that I'm back to work.
Woot.
Monday, February 15, 2010
To Be Frank, I'm Incensed - A Tale of Internet Theft Recounted by a Less Than Happy Narrator
I've never tried writing a blog post while mad before. Frustrated maybe, but never mad. And I'm down right pissed off at the moment. So, maybe I can blow off some steam and have some verbal fun while I'm at it. Bear with me (and try to be entertained).
The background:
About three years ago I decided to start keeping track of my finances in great detail - more than just balancing my check book. I started keeping records of every dollar I spent, cash, check or credit card. ("Isn't that painfully tedious, annoying AND boring?" the reader asks. No. Thanks to my particular neural wiring diagram I love it. I enjoy being meticulous, I have fun recording data and when I can use my records to make cool little projections and graph thingies, all the better!) Last December (2 months ago), I decided to upgrade my methodology from trying to record everything in Microsoft Excel, using instead some free accounting software I found for my Linux operating system Ubuntu - the open source equivalent of Microsoft Quicken, I believe. (I'll sing the praises of open source software in some other blog post.) Now I very efficiently keep track of every single cent I spend or earn and am prompted to cross check my e statements with my recorded account balances. Back track.
Last August I was going over a credit card statement to discover the source of a $15 discrepancy. What I found was some bogus charge from some bogus company somewhere in New England. After calling Visa to dispute the charge I was told I had to first contact the charging company. Now there's an idea... I'll have some things to say to them... Remarkably, I kept a very civil tongue in talking to the company rep. (he sounded like he was from India). As soon as I mentioned that I had never heard of the company and was rather annoyed, he offered to refund the money to my account. In fact, it was blatantly obvious that the company was bogus and that this was the protocol for the scamees who noticed their little games. This is how they play: Somehow (Through spy-ware? It's unclear to me.) they access your credit card information. Then they charge a small amount of money to your account on a monthly basis, sit back and hope you don't realise what they're up to. And if you find out, they refund the money and hope you don't sue. After all, why would you sue? You are getting all of your money back, no matter how pissed you are. And even if only %15 of us are chumps (I'm sure it's much more than that, as it is very difficult to catch even if you don't have very many items charged to your credit card AND you keep meticulous financial records AND you regularly check your credit card statements, if briefly.) That's still quite a bit of income, especially considering the low overhead of having a computer program doing the stealing and having people in India answering the calls. Anyway, I got over it. And that was last August.
The Present:
Today I was catching up on my finance records. A mundane chore, but I don't mind. Also, I decided that it might be a good time to get caught up on reconciling my bank and credit card statements with my personal records. Fun fun fun. My January bank statement checked out to the cent (man is that satisfying). And perhaps that is why I was curious when my credit card statement and my personal records of credit card spending were exactly one dollar off - to my detriment. I needed to change address information anyway, so I logged into my account to investigate. $26.14 for gas, $14.15 for groceries... things were checking out. Still a dollar discrepancy. I scanned my statement once more and there it was. "MVQ*CLUBSAVE 888-239-3917 CT - $1.00" I knew it immediately for what it was. A scam. And this time I had experience with *people* like these. This meant that I knew what to do. And that I had a special place in the Pure Loathing And Resentment section of my heart, all nice and warmed up for them.
I called the 800 number posted by the charge. Time to refute! But these f***ers (At risk for sounding crude or offensive, I think I can safely defend my use of the term by pointing out that within the age demographic that most internet scammers fall into (I think 20+ years old is safe), I bet there's a good %70-80 chance that they've had sex at least once in their lifetime. And as there don't exist such words as 'sexual intercoursers' or 'love-makers'... I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I may sound vulgar, perhaps I'm merely referring to the humanity of these scheming bastards by calling attention to commonalities they share with a vast majority of the rest of the world, which happens to have plenty of good people in it.) had a very clever answering system in place. In order to (maybe?) talk to a real person I had to enter my account number (Hmm, never signed up. Don't have one.), enter my phone number (didn't work - not in the system. Huh.) or enter my credit card number (Do they still think that I'm stupid, having gotten this far in unveiling their scheme?). The machine expressed its sympathies in not being able to help me at the present moment and gave me a very helpful email address to contact. And contact I did while doing my best to restrain my Angry Language. In my email, I requested a full refund for stolen funds, a confirmation notice and that they remove my information from their system. Hopefully they'll get on that. I'm still pissed. Pissed that I'd been had. Again. And had been getting had for seven months. And mostly I'm pissed at the cleverness of their scam. Not only are they stealing money from innocent unwitting people like me but they are essentially safeguarded from retaliation. Sure I'm pissed, but I'm not going to hire a lawyer with money I don't have to shut down their little scam. And neither is the next guy. And they'll just keep cashing in. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
So this is my attempt at one small iota of retribution. I am letting off steam during this writing process and I'M WARNING YOU, YES YOU! of these types of schemes. They're out there. I've been had twice already. I'm not an opponent of buying things with credit cards on the internet - frankly, eBay, Amazon and other online stores are pretty amazing and convenient. But I would praise the recording of spending. Or, if keeping meticulous notes isn't your cup of tea, AT LEAST do yourself the favour of carefully examining your monthly credit card statements, especially if you have ever used the accounts to purchase anything online. These guys are sneaky. They generally charge small amounts ($1.oo in this case) that are hardly noticeable, and they have cute little names like "MVQ*CLUBSAVE." If you don't keep records or save receipts, you can still call to dispute questionable charges and at the worst you can apologise to the totally legitimate business you forgot you purchased from. I for one am going to be much more diligent in checking statements.
...
Yep, still mad. I think this post helped a little, though.
The background:
About three years ago I decided to start keeping track of my finances in great detail - more than just balancing my check book. I started keeping records of every dollar I spent, cash, check or credit card. ("Isn't that painfully tedious, annoying AND boring?" the reader asks. No. Thanks to my particular neural wiring diagram I love it. I enjoy being meticulous, I have fun recording data and when I can use my records to make cool little projections and graph thingies, all the better!) Last December (2 months ago), I decided to upgrade my methodology from trying to record everything in Microsoft Excel, using instead some free accounting software I found for my Linux operating system Ubuntu - the open source equivalent of Microsoft Quicken, I believe. (I'll sing the praises of open source software in some other blog post.) Now I very efficiently keep track of every single cent I spend or earn and am prompted to cross check my e statements with my recorded account balances. Back track.
Last August I was going over a credit card statement to discover the source of a $15 discrepancy. What I found was some bogus charge from some bogus company somewhere in New England. After calling Visa to dispute the charge I was told I had to first contact the charging company. Now there's an idea... I'll have some things to say to them... Remarkably, I kept a very civil tongue in talking to the company rep. (he sounded like he was from India). As soon as I mentioned that I had never heard of the company and was rather annoyed, he offered to refund the money to my account. In fact, it was blatantly obvious that the company was bogus and that this was the protocol for the scamees who noticed their little games. This is how they play: Somehow (Through spy-ware? It's unclear to me.) they access your credit card information. Then they charge a small amount of money to your account on a monthly basis, sit back and hope you don't realise what they're up to. And if you find out, they refund the money and hope you don't sue. After all, why would you sue? You are getting all of your money back, no matter how pissed you are. And even if only %15 of us are chumps (I'm sure it's much more than that, as it is very difficult to catch even if you don't have very many items charged to your credit card AND you keep meticulous financial records AND you regularly check your credit card statements, if briefly.) That's still quite a bit of income, especially considering the low overhead of having a computer program doing the stealing and having people in India answering the calls. Anyway, I got over it. And that was last August.
The Present:
Today I was catching up on my finance records. A mundane chore, but I don't mind. Also, I decided that it might be a good time to get caught up on reconciling my bank and credit card statements with my personal records. Fun fun fun. My January bank statement checked out to the cent (man is that satisfying). And perhaps that is why I was curious when my credit card statement and my personal records of credit card spending were exactly one dollar off - to my detriment. I needed to change address information anyway, so I logged into my account to investigate. $26.14 for gas, $14.15 for groceries... things were checking out. Still a dollar discrepancy. I scanned my statement once more and there it was. "MVQ*CLUBSAVE 888-239-3917 CT - $1.00" I knew it immediately for what it was. A scam. And this time I had experience with *people* like these. This meant that I knew what to do. And that I had a special place in the Pure Loathing And Resentment section of my heart, all nice and warmed up for them.
I called the 800 number posted by the charge. Time to refute! But these f***ers (At risk for sounding crude or offensive, I think I can safely defend my use of the term by pointing out that within the age demographic that most internet scammers fall into (I think 20+ years old is safe), I bet there's a good %70-80 chance that they've had sex at least once in their lifetime. And as there don't exist such words as 'sexual intercoursers' or 'love-makers'... I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I may sound vulgar, perhaps I'm merely referring to the humanity of these scheming bastards by calling attention to commonalities they share with a vast majority of the rest of the world, which happens to have plenty of good people in it.) had a very clever answering system in place. In order to (maybe?) talk to a real person I had to enter my account number (Hmm, never signed up. Don't have one.), enter my phone number (didn't work - not in the system. Huh.) or enter my credit card number (Do they still think that I'm stupid, having gotten this far in unveiling their scheme?). The machine expressed its sympathies in not being able to help me at the present moment and gave me a very helpful email address to contact. And contact I did while doing my best to restrain my Angry Language. In my email, I requested a full refund for stolen funds, a confirmation notice and that they remove my information from their system. Hopefully they'll get on that. I'm still pissed. Pissed that I'd been had. Again. And had been getting had for seven months. And mostly I'm pissed at the cleverness of their scam. Not only are they stealing money from innocent unwitting people like me but they are essentially safeguarded from retaliation. Sure I'm pissed, but I'm not going to hire a lawyer with money I don't have to shut down their little scam. And neither is the next guy. And they'll just keep cashing in. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
So this is my attempt at one small iota of retribution. I am letting off steam during this writing process and I'M WARNING YOU, YES YOU! of these types of schemes. They're out there. I've been had twice already. I'm not an opponent of buying things with credit cards on the internet - frankly, eBay, Amazon and other online stores are pretty amazing and convenient. But I would praise the recording of spending. Or, if keeping meticulous notes isn't your cup of tea, AT LEAST do yourself the favour of carefully examining your monthly credit card statements, especially if you have ever used the accounts to purchase anything online. These guys are sneaky. They generally charge small amounts ($1.oo in this case) that are hardly noticeable, and they have cute little names like "MVQ*CLUBSAVE." If you don't keep records or save receipts, you can still call to dispute questionable charges and at the worst you can apologise to the totally legitimate business you forgot you purchased from. I for one am going to be much more diligent in checking statements.
...
Yep, still mad. I think this post helped a little, though.
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