Musings

quotesfromfiction: “He kept making her feel like it was safe to...

Fri, 24 May 2013 18:30:32 -0400

quotesfromfiction:

“He kept making her feel like it was safe to smile.” - Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)

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Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:30:59 -0400

Oh hey spring! It’s so good to finally see you!

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:55:22 -0400

Oh hey spring! It’s so good to finally see you!

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Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:39:19 -0400

Everyone SAYS they want a fairytale wedding but when I show up and curse their firstborn suddenly I’m a jerk.

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:41:06 -0400

teachingliteracy:

la-meilleure-amie

WHEN I GET HOME FROM SCHOOL

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:34:26 -0400

whatshouldwecalleducators:

WHEN I SHOW UP TO A DAY OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:29:52 -0500

whatshouldwecalleducators:

Fact.

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Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:32:23 -0500

WHEN SOMEONE FIXES THE COPIER

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:55:19 -0500

whatshouldwecalleducators:

ebookporn: Books are sexy.

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:52:54 -0500

ebookporn:

Books are sexy.

fishingboatproceeds: I’m not proud of the language, but I stand...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:15:51 -0500

fishingboatproceeds:

I’m not proud of the language, but I stand by the sentiment.

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Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:15:08 -0500

jacquesofalltrades: warbyparker: Whoa. The MLA has officially...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:16:01 -0500

jacquesofalltrades:

warbyparker:

Whoa. The MLA has officially devised a standard format to cite tweets in an academic paper. Sign of the times.

It was bound to happen, eventually.

Damn. I thought finding a way to cite blog posts was odd for my research paper.

teachingliteracy: bloody-h-e-l-l: Post Deathly Hallows. [...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:22:57 -0500

teachingliteracy:

bloody-h-e-l-l:

Post Deathly Hallows. [ credit: x / x ]

Love love love!

Kitchen Controversies

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:29:12 -0500

Last night I ended up getting into a heated argument/debate with my roommate in the middle of my kitchen, and even now I am having a hard time being able to let it go.

Everything started when I was talking about previous students and my roommate asked which of my kids were “the ones I hated, the blacks or the Mexicans?” (the school I worked at was 60/40 Hispanic/African-American on the westside of Chicago). I paused for a second and said that there were trouble-makers among both groups, but there wasn’t necessarily a group that had more or less than the other, they both had good and bad kids in them. He immediately laughed and said “yeah, but none of them were really good or respectful”.

I stopped what I was doing, turned to him, and said that in fact, plenty were both good and respectful. He replied that he was surprised by that, because he had never heard of a black kid being respectful before. Now, some background info would be that his former girlfriend worked as a French teacher at a Lincoln Park high school and apparently told him only stories about “bad” black kids.

As I pushed him on this topic, he was shocked and skeptical that I would encounter someone who was both black, and “well-behaved” because “those kids live in a homogenized culture where no one teaches them values”. I took huge offense to this and immediately rattled off plenty of instances of children and families from the schools that I worked at who were hard-working, value-driven, who might have a different skin color but were no less “good”.

This whole conversation eventually spiralled into topics of mugging, crime, and affirmative action. Throughout all of this, my roommate staunchly maintained that he felt safe around other white people, but assumed that any person of a different color was poor and would mug him if given the opportunity. He felt that I was naive and didn’t live in the real world, and that with his living here long enough (8 years) made his outlook more correct than mine because I had been here for 3 years. He also declared that “upper class black people do not exist” in the city of Chicago, except maybe a few in Hyde Park, but nowhere else.

I’ll admit that I got angry and told him that I found his beliefs and opinions ignorant and racist. I know if someone truly believes these things that no matter what I say, I cannot change their mind. However, I couldn’t stop myself from countering and disagreeing with everything he said. I also got personally insulted when he told me that I “care too much” to have a real conversation about this and that because I know people, I cannot maintain an academic understanding of what was going on. To which I asked him over and over again when he had ever been in a classroom with black kids, which he was unable to answer that he actually had, but he had “heard enough to know what is true”. I told him he didn’t have enough evidence to have a conversation.

I eventually ended the conversation that his outlook of the world made me very sad for him that he could be so hateful. He told me, “well don’t be too sad. I’m fine”.

Now I am stuck with wondering how to live with someone who can be so cavalier about such things, and honestly be that blind to other ethnicities. Only 6 months left on the lease…

Delicious success! Can I eat them now?

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:02:23 -0500

Delicious success! Can I eat them now?

Making Christmas cookies with my dad!!

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:23:45 -0500

Making Christmas cookies with my dad!!

World-Shaker: For friends who aren't teachers or don't know teachers or don't realize how things work in these emergency situations.

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:44:24 -0500

World-Shaker: For friends who aren't teachers or don't know teachers or don't realize how things work in these emergency situations.:

jekoh:

The staff at Sandy Hook today, the teachers but anyone involved with the students, they are heroes, and they are heroes in a way that is part of their job and not expected but always planned for.

When you become part of a school you learn lockdown procedures. When you’re with a class…

Home!

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 10:20:44 -0500

Home!

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Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:07:32 -0500