SOLC#30: Expert Advice

For the past few years, my work out routine consisted of stretching for a few minutes then going on the treadmill and running for as long I could push myself. A few times I dabbled with the weight lifting machines, but I just didn’t find much interest in them.

Over a month ago, I heard a rumor. I heard that our elementary P.E. teacher was giving personalized workout regiments to some teachers. I immediately asked her about getting my own personalized workout plan. She asked me some questions and did a basic consultation of what I wanted to work on. By the next week, I had me my own plan.

When I saw this plan, I was surprised at how detailed and long it was. She created three different categories of workouts for me: cardio, circuit and core. Then, she listed different workouts for each category. I admit that I’ve been only doing the cardio ones recently. They are the easiest to figure out what they are exactly.

After a long day of being with my students, going to a meeting, then doing some prep work for the next day, I finally made it to the gym by 5:30pm. I had a good cardio workout where I used the treadmill, elliptical, rower, and bike. I know that without her workout plan, I probably wouldn’t have pushed myself to try to use the other equipment at the gym. Also, a lot of these workouts are much harder to complete than what I normally did before. These workouts are challenging, but a good goal for me.

I was reminded of our roles as teachers again. As the experts in our classroom, we need to consult with our students, and know where they are. We need to constantly be pushing our students to reach new levels. We need them to find value in the advice we give them. We need to support them with specific goals for them.

SOLC #1: Do A Lil Dance

I’ve decided it was time to start working out my writing muscles again and join the March slice of life challenge which is run by the  two writing teachers.

Like all good challenges, there’s an element of difficulty, discipline  and dedication.  It’s not going to be easy  to blog everyday. I have a hard enough time blogging two times a week, but that is why it’s a challenge. However, I know that in end, it will be worthwhile. Not only because there are great writing prizes given away to the teachers, but I will have accomplished this with other writers from all over the world. Also, I will be practicing and improving my own writing craft. On that note, here is my slice of life for today.

Do A Lil Dance

I eyed the two skirts and two pairs of pants hanging next to me in the tiny forever 21 fitting room. I decided to try on the stonewashed ash colored skinny jeans. Feeling lazy, I decided keep my black leggings. The jeans should fit over the leggings. I slipped my right leg into the pants, it made it up past the calf. It wasn’t going to move any further. I took them off. I took the leggings off. I started all over again.

My second attempt. I slid the jeans on my right leg first. Then, I slowly pulled them up. It was obviously the leggings I were wearing that was problematic, not the size of my legs, nor the size of the jeans.

I slid my left leg through the jeans. And slowly I began to pull them higher and higher until the jeans reached my hips. I stopped. It was time to do the dance. If you are a female you know what I’m talking about. You wiggle a little to the left, then to the right. You hop on one foot then the other. You shimmey your bottom as you carefully squeeze the denim on top. Then you suck in and hold your breath as you gently zip up the zipper and pray that the button fastens. Then you smile.

My fashion friend told me the rule is to buy jeans that are really tight when you try them on because they start to loosen. Then you have the perfect fit after you “break them” in after a few wears.

The jeans didn’t make it pass the hips. I tried on the next pair of jeans. These actually fit and no dance was needed. However, I decided that I didn’t need another pair of jeans. Maybe next time, when I’m feeling a little more 21.

Challenge #1: My Life as a Blogger

I’ve decided to join the Edublogs teacher blogging challenge in an attempt to blog more this year! The first challenge that I’m going to complete is to write about my life as a blogger.

My Life as a Blogger

It all started in a Barnard college dorm room, with an old Dell P.C., and xanga.com. Yes, I started my life as a blogger on xanga.com. (This was a blog site similar to what wordpress and blogspot is like, but not as complex and fancy in the late 90s to early 2000. )  I even managed to convince many friends to join as well. It was fun, exciting and kind of scary, putting your life out on the Internet. I loved posting photos and writing about all sorts of things of the typical college student. It was a good time and I think some people still do use it. That lasted a good number of years, but disappeared quickly.

Now fast forward to 2010, where I decided to start my own teacher blog. After a failed attempt to keep a food blog after moving to Korea, I thought maybe a teacher blog would be better. I think I was partly inspired after meeting Stacey, who has an awesome blog called Two Writing Teachers, at the Reading and Writing project summer institute this past July.

The purpose for starting my blog is that it will be:

• a place for reflection on my own practice as a teacher
• a place to share ideas with other teachers all over the world
• a place to allow friends and family a peek into my classroom
• a place to inspire others

For the extension activity, I’ve created a wordle about the purpose of my blog~!