Camus in Pumas

FEEL-GOOD ACTION-PACKED PHILOSOPHICAL

[camusinpumas]

Educational Dare Day: National Boards

Anyone else trying to get board certified this year? HMU if you want to study together/plan things out!

[camusinpumas]

Educational Dare Day Question: What is your second job, summer job, etc?

I work at a writing camp in the summer.

[teamteachers]

Time for an Educational Dare Day Today!   How it works: Reblog the announcement! Ask one question related to education on your tumblr for your followers to answer.  Post the responses in one single post later. Ask at LEAST 2 of the tumblrs in the #education community a question in their ask box. It does not have to be related to education. Please tag your posts as “education dare day” and/or “EDD.“ You do not need to be a teacher to participate. The purpose is to help the education community get to know each other, as well as provide opportunities to learn from each other.

[camusinpumas]

Year in Books 2016

Out of the books that I read in 2016, here are my favorites:

Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein is an eye-opener to journalism, Yakuza, and the sex industry/slavery in Japan. Adelstein’s short article on Japan Vice and the Yakuza giving out candy on Halloween was what hooked me on to his writing. I found this nonfiction to be very accessible, funny, and informative.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde--I finally read this one. It took me a really long time to get past the intro about art and how it reflects life and all that jazz. It turns out to be a good old horror fantasy after all.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a contemporary classic that I finally got around to reading. It is no wonder that it is a bestseller. I have cried through many parts of that book and I still don’t find the main character to be redeemed, but I feel sorry for many of the other characters in the book.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is surprisingly relatable to me, a woman of color, despite written by a white male author. I liked this female character who really just didn’t care about what anyone else thinks of her. The mysteries themselves were fun as well.

I listened to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn on Audible. Great readers and a fantastic book. Knew the story from the movie but I liked a lot of the narration in the book version--especially the parts from Amy about being a strong woman and some of the extra characters.

My favorite book this entire year is probably A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. I’ve never been a huge slice of life reader, but this one was just so heartwarming and funny. I listened to this on Audible as well and loved the reader. I also enjoyed the cute chapter titles.

Here are some of the ones that I could have bothered with not reading:

Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer - Whiny first person YA!

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez - Annoying white woman saves a third world country single-handedly! Also...some weird stuff with this lady?

Honorable Mentions:

David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell - really made me think for a long time afterwards

Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - good series, good characters!

Emma by Jane Austen - very Austen but also quite a cute ending! Emma herself is quite prideful.

[camusinpumas]

Do or Do Not

Do or do not There is no try but it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t that’s when I just grit my teeth and go even if it ruins my teeth I clench ’em tight as fists ready to square up head lowered walls up walls down to feel the poetry and to let it flood

I make lists these days things to do things to don’t and have you ever feel your guts fill with fortitude? you can feel it like a river rising these lists they don’t pile up anymore leave them there so I can remind myself how much I’ve done already not how much I can’t do

Just before you knock down the door the monster behind it is mouthbreathing hard it’s scared of you more than you’re scared of it the heart you hear pounding is not yours poetry is here poetry is inside and you knock it down you rediscover you dream you defeat, not defeated another thing done.

[camusinpumas]

Wow...haven’t posted in forever!

Tagged by @depthlessperception

Name: Ting

Nickname: none officially besides random variations of my name

Gender: Female

Star Sign: Libra

Birthday: October 4

Relationship status: Single and possibly ace. Pets: <3 Deekitty

Height: 5′1 3/4′’

Favourite colour: Purple and green like Barney

Average hours of sleep: 7 is okay, but never enough

Lucky number: *shrugs* but 5s and 10s are wholesome numbers

Last thing I Googled: Fiddler on the Roof sets for inspiration on an upcoming play for my school

Number of blankets I sleep with: 1, 2, sometimes 3

Met a celebrity: I have gotten the chance to meet a few of my favorites, including Astronautalis and K. Flay. Recently I got to chat with Astro again and also met Maggie Stiefvater.

Favorite fictional character: Currently, I’m trying to be more and more like Fred from Angel every day.

Favorite books: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Gone Girl, and The Martian.

Favorite bands: The Hush Sound  Last movie I watched: Fiddler on the Roof

Last TV show I watched: Finished Daredevil and now trying to finish Angel

Last song I listened to: “Kurt Cobain” by Astronautalis

Dream trip: Eastern Europe

What I’m wearing: Pajammies

Time right now: 6:52 am lol

When did you create the blog: Embarrassingly, too many years ago

Current amount of followers: 150 some-odd

What do you post about: Writing, teaching, rants

Do you have other blogs: Yes...my blog of faves: Lostmetaphors!

When did your blog reach its peak?: I’m not quite sure it ever did but Lostmetaphors had a major post the other month about Pokemongo

Do you get asks on a daily basis: Nope...I wish!

Why did you choose your URL?: I wore pumas once and liked Camus once.

Lemonade or iced tea: Arnold Palmers all the way

Cats or dogs: Both but I can’t imagine being able to take care of a dog. I am so lazy.

Coke or Pepsi: Coke

Day or night: well...the early hours of the morning apparently

Text or call: Text. I’m one of those people who hates talking on the phone.

Makeup or au natural: Did I mention how lazy I am? I liked makeup and my sister insists on buying me expensive palettes, but I forget about them.

Light or dark hair: I am dark-haired.

Shorter or taller: I am short.

Intelligence or attraction: ??????

City or country: I’m a suburbanite. I like visiting the country (and working there) and I like visiting the city, but I can’t really imagine not living in some cookie cutter place.

@the-em-uh-lee @mslibrarianreads

[camusinpumas]

if i could get out of bed

if i could get out of bed, i would open the windows and invite in the breeze to sweep away the dust that has settled on heavy books with too hard covers weighing me down even when i try to open them with my nose still lying down, head to legs diagonal across the bed avoiding the oppressed center from years of slumber

if i could get out of bed, i would cultivate a garden and revive the dead rose bush outside is sun is photosynthesis is rain showers that renew vitamin D on my skin is good for me but too much is worse that burns me too that worries me too that without trimming the ivy to creep into the fence wrap around the gate crawl into the bed and rope me in

if i could get out of bed, i would travel and vacation backpack and camp rough it out or pamper myself self-care self-discovery self-love identify myself identify the world’s geography learn mountains grow up oceans grow under land never erodes the piranhas though they surround the raft that is my bed would my feet peep out from one end then there goes my toes

if i could get out of bed, i would meet new people go to parties find my friends family make small talk ask what’s new how are your kids how is your new job are you happy i ask are you happy are you even happy are you even present are you who you say you are your pictures show you smiling you smile now while i dream in my bed i haven’t showered for days

if i could get out of bed, I might shower i might take a walk i might do normal things maybe do heroic things or maybe just do some work lots of work lots of responsibilities papers piled up on my desk files unzipped on my desktop thoughts scattered in my headdesk i try i try i try to move and eventually i do i get up i take care of me my cat and then before the night truly ends i find myself there again undercovered first afraid to turn off the lights then too tired to turn off the lights only the lights are already off

[camusinpumas]

Book recommendations!

I’m interested in reading the latest and greatest well-researched books out there for education. Not only am I preparing for National Boards, but I feel a little out of touch with some of the theories out there and am looking for new ideas to revitalize my classroom and my pedagogy. Please recommend a book or two! I’m especially interested in classroom management, how to best incorporate 1:1 laptops, and best practices to engage students. I’m also sort of interested in teaching when you have a mental health condition. I teach high school English (mostly 9th and 11th graders, all levels of EC/ESL-inclusion and honors) so any best practices for that would be great too (I love Jim Burke’s The English Teacher’s Companion). 

I’m going to tag a few education tumblrs that I follow so I get some good recommendations--hope that doesn’t bother anyone!

@girlwithalessonplan

@teachingwithcoffee

@fineinthemorning

@edukaition

@girlcanteach

Thanks in advance!

[samanthainsecondary]

EDD for ELA Teachers: What’s your favorite classroom poster? What makes it good for an ELA classroom?

[camusinpumas]

"People using the word 'literally' incorrectly drive me figuratively insane." Kids always ask me to explain!

[camusinpumas]

So in 2012, I started a company to teach girls to code, and what I found is that by teaching them to code I had socialized them to be brave. Coding, it’s an endless process of trial and error, of trying to get the right command in the right place, with sometimes just a semicolon making the difference between success and failure. Code breaks and then it falls apart, and it often takes many, many tries until that magical moment when what you’re trying to build comes to life. It requires perseverance. It requires imperfection. We immediately see in our program our girls’ fear of not getting it right, of not being perfect. Every Girls Who Code teacher tells me the same story. During the first week, when the girls are learning how to code, a student will call her over and she’ll say, “I don’t know what code to write.” The teacher will look at her screen, and she’ll see a blank text editor. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think that her student spent the past 20 minutes just staring at the screen. But if she presses undo a few times, she’ll see that her student wrote code and then deleted it. She tried, she came close, but she didn’t get it exactly right. Instead of showing the progress that she made, she’d rather show nothing at all. Perfection or bust.

Reshma Saujani (Girls Who Code)

[readingwithavengeance]

The Blogger Summer Reading Program starts tomorrow!  Check out the signup post for more about the rules and such.  Don’t forget, you can sign up at any point that the program is running, even after it starts!  (But please don’t take raffle entries for the weeks you weren’t participating.)

But now, for what you really care about.  Prizes!

We’ll be doing a two-part Wonderland themed prize pack for the US winner.  Each host is contributing to the goodness, and my part will be this SIGNED ARC of Heartless by Marissa Meyer, plus Heartless themed tote!

Be sure you’re following Bekka at Pretty Deadly Reviews for the rest!

For international participants, we’ll have two $15 GCs from Book Depository.  Good luck to everyone, and let’s get reading!

[camusinpumas]

Incisors

They are getting longer. Intrusive and protruding, poking into my bottom lip. Medicine men, one by one, wiggle and tug. I shrug. Spectacles, monocles, glasses and eyes, still no one can tell me why my teeth are tearing a hole inside my mouth.

We must remove them. Make an appointment with the surgeon, the good doctor. Names on cards, leagues away until my head pounds harder than my heart, which in fact is weakening.

I know what I need.

The teeth want what the teeth want.

[camusinpumas]

Napowrimo Day 6: Food

Day Six

That first bite of the date and the energy rushes electricity in, little sparks in the muscles, massive metropolitan neurons firing help me That second bite to avoid the seed and sweet tooth gumming pain, the bones feel stronger, the sun leaves as quickly as my gulping water nourish me Next shoveling burying the bodies fast food down the esophagus know to push farther, know to pump stronger, know to— leave me I feed it I feed the worm I feed my paranoia Do I have ulterior motives? maybe Do I think others think I do? definitely Am I neurotic? absolutely at iftar I wonder if anyone listened to my stomach growling before whether the emptiness in my gut could really be filled each night each day I hear it again run

[camusinpumas]

I never realized that I signed up to be an entertainer.

There is a lot of pressure in the teaching industry to perform well. The key word here is perform. That’s what you’re doing when you get up in front of a bunch of kids and try to learn them a thing or two.

Everything you do is suddenly judged and evaluated and it doesn’t end in the classroom. I have to remind myself to be a model citizen whenever I’m in my school’s town. I have to psych myself up to go to the Wal-Mart there. And now that I’ve moved closer to school, I feel awkward going to places nearby wearing my shorts. Sounds a little extreme but I’m anxious that way.

When I hear comedians talk about getting laughs and attention from the audience, I’m suddenly reminded of the sinking feeling I get when I know I’ve lost authority. Like I would be in the middle of teaching and I would feel that no one is really listening to me. That confidence level lowers. But there are also times when I do get the attention of some students and sometimes maybe even most of the students and my confidence level rises. There are a few kids who are ALWAYS checked in and for those kids, the best recommendation I write for them are about how they are such great students, they can make a teacher feel good about themselves.

But I don’t know if I ever realized that teaching was such a performance-based job. Yeah, we joke about being people who don’t ever want to shut up and like being at the center of attention but recently I have been so FORCED into going from an extrovert to an introvert that I almost wonder if I am being drained/burned out just because the whole damn thing feels so fake. And I have tried being more authentic in the classroom/being open with students. Once, I think I even told some kids about my Graves Disease. But then that made me feel worse because it was like crossing some boundary and then that also felt so fake. Like I was trying too hard to make a connection.

Honestly, I just want to talk about books, but now I’m reading all this literature that’s all like “successful teachers connect with their students and know to be both authentic and caring without being cold but also not cross boundaries.” God, that is a thin line and it is very, very difficult.

[camusinpumas]

Not quite for napowrimo.

Whoops, already off track for my 2016 Napowrimo. Didn't think I could get by without writing something today so I decided to do some word vomit. Went to an interest meeting for National Board certification and the speaker asked something that I had been questioning myself a lot lately: "Why do you think you are ready for this?" A colleague of mine who was also there admitted that she wasn't and that it is just something that she just has to go for or she will be too afraid to do it. We can come up with a thousand excuses about why we aren't ready. And that is so true...for everything! When has anyone ever truly felt ready for giant life challenges or what we call "adulting" these days? If we all waited until we were truly ready, we wouldn't commit to marriage or pregnancy or, for me, even teaching at all. God knows my generation already has trouble committing to Saturday night plans much less big life decisions. My biggest thing that I worry about whether I am even ready for was and still is buying a house. It is a lot of responsibility and I needed a lot of help. My parents are not great at English and when they bought a house, it was very different from my situation. I had to read a lot of scary legal documents on my own. I kept questioning any and all of the decisions I was making. I badgered all of my homeowning friends and colleagues. And I still feel like I mucked up half of what I have done. I grew up a ton and the consequence is me feeling lonelier than ever. I lost a bunch of friends and am still feeling like I am losing touch with more. And it wasn't about who could stick with me through the thick and the thin but just realising that people all have their own thing going on and my own problems don't fit in with other people's schedules. And I guess that is what true adulthood is. It's a little selfish on everyone's part, and it's also why we say things like, "I said I would try. It wasn't a promise." I like to think that I try really hard to make myself available to people and responsibilities alike. But I haven't really found anyone counting on me for anything and now I question whether I am truly needed or not. But then again, I guess maybe some of the kids need me, which makes me feel good about jumping into National Boards.

[camusinpumas]

Napowrimo Day 5: Seed Names

Day Five

A girl named Tendersweet Rises to the title of Imperator Next to her, a Runner Who comes around only on Washday(s) They say he has an Oxheart But also a Bachelor’s Button They try to live in a White Galaxy Thinking what it means to be Perpetual That they sleep on Adirondack Even outside during Hardwinter(s) Discover life by Huckleberry(ing) Unravel the True Heart Live by a Stout Sword Eyeward to Even Star

[camusinpumas]

Napowrimo Day 4: Cruelest Month

Day Four

And the cruelest month goes to… August the last summer days the hottest sweat swamps too lazy to boulder a watermelon not to mention year after year trips are mentioned, trips are planned, and never do I get to join in any of them not even with my family the crickets and cicadas are too loud and that’s when I start developing that autumn hunger when I feel that once again things will seem too compartmentalized I don’t remember what is whole again oh no not another fall poem