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May. 10th, 2021 09:32 pmIt was the First Day Of School!
I mean, it _wasn't_ for a whole slew of reasons, starting with "okay, so it's May" and continuing rapidly to "...and the students don't come in until Friday" but for the first time in a year and two months, I Did Work from my actual workplace and not from a home.
The new school building is an utterly beautiful marvel of architecture and aesthetics. It would be nice if the desk I have been given had drawers, or if the teachers lounge had greater than one microwave. I think those two sentences combined give you a pretty accurate assessment of where I'm at with everything.
((The view from my classroom --which is probably not my permanent classroom but might actually be in the actual math block and I will 100% mention to my boss how much I love this feature that others would consider a bug in hopes of increasing the odds of making it my actual room-- looks out over the construction of the green line stop, and the train tracks for the commuter rail. I got to hear so many trains go by, and even lean up against the window and watch a few of them.
"Gee Kat, when did you get so obsessed with trai-" three years and eight months ago, don't worry about it.))
I have not yet played with the new whiteboard projector, which will be a necessary component of teaching students in person. I don't know yet if I'll be able to hook it up correctly so that I can share my screen with the zoomies at the same time I'm drawing for the roomies. Yes, those two abhorrently twee little words do mean I'm going to be hybrid teaching, and yes, we were assured by the union and the district that it wasn't going to happen. I am _not excited_.
((I mean, I am excited to have an actual responsive audience...and terrified for their sakes because none of my freshmen are even eligible for the vaccine yet, and that means no one will be fully vaccinated by the end of the school year. But teaching is different when you actually have people to teach to, and I have taught to a screenful of black boxes for eight straight months.
I am in this job, and in this career, because I like children and for too bloody long, it seems like every person I've been able to have an actual mutual conversation with has been an adult. I am eager to see my actual reason for teaching again.))
My next door neighbor teacher is probably my current work-bestie, so that's extremely good. We can pop over to each others rooms on breaks and go "SO NOW THERE'S THIS BULLSHIT". I hope that we manage to power through more positive than burnt out in the long run --we wound up talking some very good actual math at the end of the day --he showed me a super elegant proof that irrational numbers exist1, I traded him the "don't make assumptions" number game that I originally learned from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality2....I would like to be able to talk more pedagogy and mathematical lore with this dude, because he's good times.
My desk does not have drawers, and I don't yet have a key to my room, so going anywhere else (like to the single shitty microwave) involves packing up my computer. The ceiling is on a slope, because ~aesthetics~ and the student bathrooms have incredibly stupid sinks and no paper towels --just one of those knife edge dysons. There are bike racks, but they're all behind construction fences right now, but jegus, do not expect that you can park anywhere remotely nearby. Maybe you could take the bus, does it run regularly these days?
I'm incredibly frustrated, but maybe if I push hard enough I will find some of the joys. I get to watch the trains go by, and that part is very nice. We'll see.
~Sor
MOOP!
PostScript: It is technically a secret to the open internet where I work. I recognize that I am doing basically nothing to hide it, but please don't explicitly state my district, thank you!
1: It involved hypothesizing that sqrt 2 was a rational number a/b, then proving that both a and b would be even, which is impossible if they're both integers.
2: I have a secret rule for groups of three numbers. I can tell you that "2-4-6" and "8-10-12" meet my rule. You can ask me about as many groups of numbers as you'd like until you're ready to write down your guess. A hint/spoiler is written below in very small text I hope:
I mean, it _wasn't_ for a whole slew of reasons, starting with "okay, so it's May" and continuing rapidly to "...and the students don't come in until Friday" but for the first time in a year and two months, I Did Work from my actual workplace and not from a home.
The new school building is an utterly beautiful marvel of architecture and aesthetics. It would be nice if the desk I have been given had drawers, or if the teachers lounge had greater than one microwave. I think those two sentences combined give you a pretty accurate assessment of where I'm at with everything.
((The view from my classroom --which is probably not my permanent classroom but might actually be in the actual math block and I will 100% mention to my boss how much I love this feature that others would consider a bug in hopes of increasing the odds of making it my actual room-- looks out over the construction of the green line stop, and the train tracks for the commuter rail. I got to hear so many trains go by, and even lean up against the window and watch a few of them.
"Gee Kat, when did you get so obsessed with trai-" three years and eight months ago, don't worry about it.))
I have not yet played with the new whiteboard projector, which will be a necessary component of teaching students in person. I don't know yet if I'll be able to hook it up correctly so that I can share my screen with the zoomies at the same time I'm drawing for the roomies. Yes, those two abhorrently twee little words do mean I'm going to be hybrid teaching, and yes, we were assured by the union and the district that it wasn't going to happen. I am _not excited_.
((I mean, I am excited to have an actual responsive audience...and terrified for their sakes because none of my freshmen are even eligible for the vaccine yet, and that means no one will be fully vaccinated by the end of the school year. But teaching is different when you actually have people to teach to, and I have taught to a screenful of black boxes for eight straight months.
I am in this job, and in this career, because I like children and for too bloody long, it seems like every person I've been able to have an actual mutual conversation with has been an adult. I am eager to see my actual reason for teaching again.))
My next door neighbor teacher is probably my current work-bestie, so that's extremely good. We can pop over to each others rooms on breaks and go "SO NOW THERE'S THIS BULLSHIT". I hope that we manage to power through more positive than burnt out in the long run --we wound up talking some very good actual math at the end of the day --he showed me a super elegant proof that irrational numbers exist1, I traded him the "don't make assumptions" number game that I originally learned from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality2....I would like to be able to talk more pedagogy and mathematical lore with this dude, because he's good times.
My desk does not have drawers, and I don't yet have a key to my room, so going anywhere else (like to the single shitty microwave) involves packing up my computer. The ceiling is on a slope, because ~aesthetics~ and the student bathrooms have incredibly stupid sinks and no paper towels --just one of those knife edge dysons. There are bike racks, but they're all behind construction fences right now, but jegus, do not expect that you can park anywhere remotely nearby. Maybe you could take the bus, does it run regularly these days?
I'm incredibly frustrated, but maybe if I push hard enough I will find some of the joys. I get to watch the trains go by, and that part is very nice. We'll see.
~Sor
MOOP!
PostScript: It is technically a secret to the open internet where I work. I recognize that I am doing basically nothing to hide it, but please don't explicitly state my district, thank you!
1: It involved hypothesizing that sqrt 2 was a rational number a/b, then proving that both a and b would be even, which is impossible if they're both integers.
2: I have a secret rule for groups of three numbers. I can tell you that "2-4-6" and "8-10-12" meet my rule. You can ask me about as many groups of numbers as you'd like until you're ready to write down your guess. A hint/spoiler is written below in very small text I hope:
It is of course a lesson in trying to _break_ your own rule rather than finding examples that fit your rule. Even though it's more satisfying to be told you have a successful example, having unsuccessful ones will give you more information!