I grew up in a Christian (UCC) household. However, even at five years old I was aware there was a discrepancy between the bible and my own knowledge. I loved dinosaurs. I could name almost all of the major ones. I had snuck to into the television room at the babysitter’s house one day to see Jurassic Park on the screen. I was upset that I got kicked out because I wanted to watch the dinosaurs. (I did not understand at the time that the movie would likely give my nightmare-prone younger self, well, nightmares.) […]
100 Happy Days, Part 1
I decided to blog about this for multiple reasons. The first reason is this. It’s a brilliant idea. 100 Happy Days is an online photo blogging challenge in which you have to take a picture of something that made you happy each day for 100 consecutive days. The website and more information can be found here: http://100happydays.com/ The second reason is this: I tend to not instantly think to take pictures when something makes me spontaneously happy in the middle of the day. I did start noticing within a day or so of looking into said […]
Being Different in 2014
You can be really smart about these things, and yet totally, completely, ignorantly stupid – all at the same time. That was me up until about a year ago. I’ve had a long time to think since then. I will admit, this starts out as a gender equality blog post. However, the more I made my point and wrote, the more I realized, this isn’t just about gender equality. This is about EQUALITY and DEMOCRACY and FREEDOM. Growing up in this day and age, women have come so far that you sometimes forget we still have a ways to […]
Books That Stay With Me
You ever see someone post one of those random “10 Things” lists on Facebook and think, “Wow, that would make a good blog post?” Well that’s pretty much this post right here. The post goes thusly: Rules: In your status line, list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take more than a few minutes and don’t think too hard – they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works. Just the ones that have touched you. Tag 10 friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. I’m not tagging […]
End of Year Goal Checkpoint
Where are we at on the list of goals for 2013? 1) I want to audition for a local production of something. I can act, I swear. I’ve just always been very hesitant to audition for these things. I auditioned for Oliver!… Didn’t get in. Worked on sound crew. I auditioned for Les Miserables… Didn’t get in. But I will be helping out with costumes, so that’s something. 2) Keep doing what I am doing. Working where I do has been a lot of fun, even if it is also a lot of work. Well this was […]
EDU-5011: Educational Studies
I have always known the importance of personal experience in the classroom. For a long time, for me, that personal experience usually related to passion for the content area that you are teaching. The more you experience and learn about the subject you are teaching, the more passionate you become about that subject area, the more passionate your teaching of that subject will be. As true as that is, there is so much more to teaching than just that. There is the fact that every student who ever enters your classroom will be different, will […]
A Quiet Place
Breathe in, breathe out. Let the day just wash away. Let everything go And just breathe. Let your mind soar through the possibilities. Let everything be absorbed and released. Pause and just let everything exist. Light music. Tea in hand. Calm. An oasis from the world. A place where you can just be. Those places are so few and far between today. We create them – if we know how – Using little digital devices And closed eyes. And sometimes we can find the right place – A cafe, a tea shop, or other place […]
Tea: The Cure to Aid All Ills
In parts, this post is going to continue on some topics brought up by the Scotland post. However, I think it’s important to write this as its own thing, particularly since so much of this is not only personal, but also more about growing up a tea-lover in the United States than it is about traveling to Scotland. I experienced excitement yesterday at the prospect of one of the studios I teach for holding themed teas. Scones and tea and Nutcrackers. The studio owner had started an annual tea for a studio she used to teach […]
A Little Wild Beauty
A few weeks ago, in the height of dandelion season, I thought I saw a buttercup. No, I don’t mean a porcelain cup with the intention of being used for butter. I mean the bright cheery happy yellow flower. I was saddened when I realized that, no, it was just another dandelion. But it brought back memories of my sister and I running around the yard, picking the little shiny yellow flowers and holding them up to our chins. “Do you like butter?” we’d say as we did so. The myth seemed to always favor […]