Being a better blogger

I’m going to work on blogging a little bit every day again. I keep telling myself I don’t have time, but I think it’s important to do a little journaling with some regularity.

Work was tough today. After being out so much, behavior is not where I want it. Not to mention the whole vacation, weather change, excitement for Christmas. However, don’t these children realize the end of the semester is coming? They have final exams to study for. Who am I kidding? They’re 12. I’ll do my best and hope they do the same. Off to plan a couple more lessons before completely relaxing for the evening. Have to rest up for working out tomorrow!

Motivation

I’ve committed to give the husband until May 1 on this new crossfit workout. It’s hard and I hate it, but there is no form of exercise out there that I truly enjoy or even like a lot. I do it because it’s necessary. These workouts are relatively short, so it’s less time that I dread. I’m going for the most bang for my buck at least. We’ll see. I’ll keep you updated on the results.

Fitting it all in…and What I’m Thankful For

Ok folks, how do you fit it all in? I mean be a good Christ follower, teacher, spouse, parent (if applicable), friend and take care of your own mental/physical/spiritual health at the same time? I’ve really focused on balance these past few months since returning from Africa. I’ve worked hard to improve what I do at work, but still letting things go so that I can take care of myself and family. However, it’s hard! And I hate hate hate hate hate working out! Apparently I’d rather do work than work out. That doesn’t even make sense. I don’t get paid to do all this extra work I do at home, but I do get “paid” to do this exercising because I feel and look better, and I’m being a good steward of the temple God has blessed me with. I’m blessed that the working out is typically done with my husband, which makes him happy, so that gets to count as some family time, but I never feel like I spend enough time with him. If I had a kid, oh my. Then there’s friends. There are so many wonderful friends in my life I would love to spend more time with, but I just don’t know where to find that time either. Oh well. I know this is the struggle of every professional. I’m just having a little therapy session with myself (and you all out there) on this Thanksgiving day. I guess I’ll end with a list of all I’m thankful for; these same things which I try hard to balance in my life…

1. Christ’s sacrifice for my sake and the redeeming love and life that I count as mine as a result

2. My amazing husband without whom I do not know who I would be

3. The awesomest church I have ever been a part of and the family I have there

4. My super cute dog who never gets enough exercise, love, and play time

5. My family

6. The abundance of friends who are my support system

7. My job and the great people there with whom I learn and grow

8. My health

9. My abilities and drive

10. Freedom and choice

Applying to a PhD program

I’m having  a hard time trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up. I’ve done the research to get  a list of 5 PhD programs I’ll be applying to. However, a huge part of the application process is selling yourself to one of the PhD’s on campus. One of them has to want to pick me up to work and train under him/her. Here’s the problem: I don’t really know what what job I’m ultimately aiming for, so I’m not sure how to write my letter of intent. In addition, I don’t really know what I want to pour my life over for 4-6 years. Here’s what I do know: I enjoy curriculum, standards, and assessment. What can I do with that?

Quizzes & Standards Based Grading

If you give a quiz partway through a unit to inform instruction before the exam, and a student shows proficiency on the standards on that quiz, do they have to take that portion of the exam? What if they do worse on the exam? I’m in favor of if students do better on the exam than the quiz, replace the score with the higher achievement, but I don’t know what to do if the reverse occurs.