Sorry I haven't really written in a while. I find that I write when I either feel like life is going completely bonkers, or when it's absolutely fantastically wonderful and I just need to share. But...life has been pretty normal lately. The Chinese herb version of antidepressants has really kicked in (or perhaps the mega-hormone producing pharmaceuticals have worn off), and I feel....well, normal. It's almost like opening my eyes the first time after Lasix. Everything was so clear and perfect, like a new pair of glasses, but almost permanent. And I've been meaning to write about that, but life was just so luscious I needed to go enjoy it for a while.
But this post isn't really my post. I check the Common Sense Homesteading blog on occasion, and Laurie, the author has posted a blog hop. Her question was "what have you done this week to live well." I'm cheating though, because I want to talk about what I've done this month (which does include this week, right?).
I've been working with an acupuncturist/herbalist and a counselor to get me healthy, both emotionally and physically, because I've had a rough go of it even before Iraq and the accident, and well, everything else. About a month ago I really started to make a breakthrough. I can't talk about living well without explaining how clearly now I can see the place I was in, and it wasn't good.
I recently posted about trying to catch up with laundry, which is somewhat synonymous for putting my life back in order. A commenter was stunned by how difficult a time I was having handling something like 1/4 of what she had to do around the house. Okay, maybe not stunned, and definitely not judgmental (because you're awesome) but surprised nevertheless. I've got to say it was a little bit of a catalyst for me to get out of my rut.
So for the past month, now that my spirit has been lifted, I set upon keeping my house in order. I figured that I wasn't really living well if I was ashamed of myself. Yes, you can go on about different standards of living, how I shouldn't be ashamed of myself, but it's no good, I knew my house wasn't where I wanted it to be. Now, before I give you this idea that I'd end up on an episode of Horders or Clean Sweep, life wasn't even close to that, but lets just say it took a full week of work to put things to rights. And that's without any distractions like a husband around or kids to keep me off track. It was a pretty full week.
Every day since that lightbulb went on, I've managed to stick to a morning routine. I get up and make my bed. I make sure no clothes are randomly strewn about the room and that my shoes are put away. I shower, change, you know, normal morning stuff, and then go into the garden and either water the plants or pick some greens I then fix breakfast for me and my husband and take my herbs along with a probiotic drink. I then basically go to work. As a bonus, once a week I've been cycling (except for that one week that involved way too much rain). Overall my mornings take 2 hours, and while I've been getting later and later to work, I haven't needed an alarm yet.
Now that I've started maintaining my house I've been able to look into things I haven't been getting done. While I haven't written the notes yet, I have purchased the cards I need to send for sympathy, congratulations, and happy whatevers that I'd really like to send off soon.
My husband, inspired by regular breakfasts I suppose, has started baking sourdough bread weekly and keeps the kitchen tidy. He's also been keeping up his side of the bedroom and limited clutter to his office.
Additionally, because my house is more in order, when we had friends over this weekend I only needed to scour the house for 3 hours before they got here. If you think that seems bad, this guest is allergic to cats and we have 3 cats and 3 floors (and we didn't bother with the basement). Now lets see if I can keep the house organized, and clean for the next week!
I think the original question was posed so that I could give some sort of advice for living well. I don't really have much advice really. I think that if I've learning anything from the past month it's possibly that if something seems wrong in your life, and you're trying to fix it, eventually you'll be able to get where you're going. It just takes a bit of persistence.
My version of living well includes health, self respect, love, sharing, and community. Keeping my house organized has allowed me to live well in each of these categories this week.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Involuntary Service
When I was activated for duty in the reserves it was under "Involuntary Orders". I was going weather or not I wanted.
I feel a little bit like that now. I got to work on Tuesday and found out my job description was changing. We're facing a budget shortfall, and to make up the difference, we've added an ESL course to our summer workload. Too bad we couldn't add an ESL teacher too.
I have some background in ESL, although I never did get fully certified. I even taught an ESL course my first semester teaching. But I wasn't expecting to switch classes this summer, and I'm a little worried.
First of all, my boss, who has a background in psychology instead of education, will be teaching my regular GED class. He's a pretty capable guy, at least I would think so, but teaching is no easy thing to learn. I stayed up late last night trying to find any material I could give him to help prepare him for a classroom. Today when I asked if he was receptive to information, and he took the literature, but seemed to think he'd be fine on his own. He's taken Ed Psych, he said, and I guess to him that's all a person really needs....
And I'm a little insulted. I offered to help in developing some lesson plans, and while he said he'd listen to me, he also said he wouldn't guarantee that he'd listen to my advice..."because it would be a good chance to introduce the students to a different method of teaching". So he thinks the method of someone who has never taught before will be more effective than my own?
I think that in general there's a trend in education to think that it's something anyone can do with or without training, and with or without experience. I've got to tell you that there are very few "naturals" out there who don't need any help getting started. Teaching is a delicate balance, and how many people have you known that can just pick up a bike for the first time and just ride. Even if you're talented it takes time and practice. I'm not saying my boss questions my ability to teach, but he must have at least somewhat bought into this new trend if he's not scared to death of being unprepared for the classroom.
But mostly I'm worried about creating a whole new curriculum for a group of students I don't even know yet. We don't have test scores, or levels of speaking and writing ability. In fact, we're not sure how the assessments will be made, or by whom they'll be made. It's going to be a lot of work pulling a program together within the next month.
For continuity, it probably would have been better for me to continue teaching the GED class and my boss to teach the ESL group. Perhaps he wants to teach the GED class in case he has to eliminate my position in September. The money we will get only alleviates the budget problem until the end of summer, and then we're out of luck. He could want to keep the school going without me. Or perhaps he thinks ESL will be the more difficult class to teach and that time and experience teaching have made me the better choice for the job. I guess only time will tell.
I guess I could choose to leave now, but it won't be easy to find another job. And I really like my job. I'm rather hoping that my boss can find the funding needed to keep us open at least another year.
I feel a little bit like that now. I got to work on Tuesday and found out my job description was changing. We're facing a budget shortfall, and to make up the difference, we've added an ESL course to our summer workload. Too bad we couldn't add an ESL teacher too.
I have some background in ESL, although I never did get fully certified. I even taught an ESL course my first semester teaching. But I wasn't expecting to switch classes this summer, and I'm a little worried.
First of all, my boss, who has a background in psychology instead of education, will be teaching my regular GED class. He's a pretty capable guy, at least I would think so, but teaching is no easy thing to learn. I stayed up late last night trying to find any material I could give him to help prepare him for a classroom. Today when I asked if he was receptive to information, and he took the literature, but seemed to think he'd be fine on his own. He's taken Ed Psych, he said, and I guess to him that's all a person really needs....
And I'm a little insulted. I offered to help in developing some lesson plans, and while he said he'd listen to me, he also said he wouldn't guarantee that he'd listen to my advice..."because it would be a good chance to introduce the students to a different method of teaching". So he thinks the method of someone who has never taught before will be more effective than my own?
I think that in general there's a trend in education to think that it's something anyone can do with or without training, and with or without experience. I've got to tell you that there are very few "naturals" out there who don't need any help getting started. Teaching is a delicate balance, and how many people have you known that can just pick up a bike for the first time and just ride. Even if you're talented it takes time and practice. I'm not saying my boss questions my ability to teach, but he must have at least somewhat bought into this new trend if he's not scared to death of being unprepared for the classroom.
But mostly I'm worried about creating a whole new curriculum for a group of students I don't even know yet. We don't have test scores, or levels of speaking and writing ability. In fact, we're not sure how the assessments will be made, or by whom they'll be made. It's going to be a lot of work pulling a program together within the next month.
For continuity, it probably would have been better for me to continue teaching the GED class and my boss to teach the ESL group. Perhaps he wants to teach the GED class in case he has to eliminate my position in September. The money we will get only alleviates the budget problem until the end of summer, and then we're out of luck. He could want to keep the school going without me. Or perhaps he thinks ESL will be the more difficult class to teach and that time and experience teaching have made me the better choice for the job. I guess only time will tell.
I guess I could choose to leave now, but it won't be easy to find another job. And I really like my job. I'm rather hoping that my boss can find the funding needed to keep us open at least another year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)