I always think it’s weird that more girls aren’t encouraged to go into STEAM careers. And then I remembered the fact that I grew up in a very different household from most of the other girls in my generation. I put emphasis on STEAM and not STEM because that is the kind of household we had. STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) is a much more “Renaissance” way of looking at it. It’s well-rounded. So well-rounded in fact that the phrase “Renaissance Woman” was used in every single one of my college recommendation letters. […]
Living with Kosmimaphobia
When I first looked it up, it was listed several places as “gemnophobia”, so the first most common reaction I would get when I told people I had gemnophobia was, “Oh, so do you Lysol your entire house?” Ah… So I guess I should explain… “Not germophobia, gemnophobia. I have no trouble with germs. I actually think germs help you stay healthy.” “What is gemnophobia?” Well, it’s not actually gemnophobia. I have kosmimaphobia. A fear so weird and unheard of that it was possible to actually get an inaccurate result for what it was called on […]
Things I’m Thankful For
I was nominated by my aunt to do one of those things that you have to do continually for a week. This one is to post three things you are thankful for every day for a week. As usual, I decided against posting (most of it) on Facebook. Why post on Facebook over the course of a week (inevitably annoying those people you are thankful for when you know you have a bad habit of continually posting to Facebook once you get going in a 24 hour span), when you can just get it all […]
Books That Have Influenced Me
Here’s another list of ten books – yet again inspired by a Facebook pass-it-along type game. However, this one asked for a reason that the book influenced you, and it wasn’t restricted to childhood books, so I figured it was time to put up another list. So here goes:
EDU-5320: Technology in Education
Reflection on website designed for course. http://robindonovan.wix.com/edutechjsc
Full Circle: Relationships and the Death of Chivalry
Every so often I come around yet again to this: the “Relationship Rant”. The post I do about… oh… once a year (more often if I’m in a particularly down part of my life) where I decide the best thing to do is to write a blog post about how: No one gets me. I don’t have a boyfriend. Past boyfriends have been total bums. I would really like to be treated if I were to have a boyfriend. Sometimes these posts have been oddly prophetic – which is probably the only reason I am […]
Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle, or Falling in Love with Fictional Characters
I know all about your standards. And if you don’t mind my saying so There’s not a man alive That could hope to measure up to that Blend of Paul Bunyon, St. Pat, and Noah Webster You’ve concocted for yourself Out of your Irish imagination, Iowa stubbornness, And your library full of books. ~Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man Here’s the problem with fictional men: someone made them up. And as a result, we have to seriously look for their faults. And while characters like Dom surely have faults, because we see so little of those faults […]
The New Body Shaming of the Thin
I remember being maybe nine or ten years old and going into the doctor’s office for my annual physical. It was probably about the first or second time I had an annual physical with the nurse practitioner instead of my actual pediatrician. It would also be the first time I would hear this question. “How do you feel about your body?” “Good.” I answered, before I’m sure a slightly puzzled expression would cross my face. I don’t remember what she said next, but it was clear that she thought there would be a possibility of […]
The Secret Sisterhood of Tortall & Tamora Pierce
There is one book series that most women in my generation – the older end of the millennial generation – have read. It’s the secret book language that we can all speak, and know inside out. And they’re books that we keep pushing the younger millennials to read, too. These are the books by Tamora Pierce. All of them a extremely empowering, particularly to women. However, my love has always come back to her Tortall stories. “At the end of the road – we’ll see. We’re bound for the capital of Tortall-“ The girl’s face […]
Middle Grades Institute: Organization Strand
This week has been tremendously helpful as far as furthering my understanding of education and knowing not just where my students are coming from, but giving me ideas of how these things might be carried forward into high school.There’s a lot that is going to have to happen from within an existing system. As an education student I don’t have much sway with the organization as a whole, but that doesn’t mean I can’t keep notes and track ideas that I have and how they might correspond to improving what we can so that the […]