Self-Care in the Midst of The Resistance, Vol. 2 âPresent and awake. Love yourself. Love your neighbor. Move from a place of connect. May all beings be happy and free. Present and awake.â
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@everyfiredies
Self-Care in the Midst of The Resistance, Vol. 2 âPresent and awake. Love yourself. Love your neighbor. Move from a place of connect. May all beings be happy and free. Present and awake.â

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Self-Care in the Midst of The Resistance, Volume 1
When you need a laugh, watch Season 4, Episode 11 of Parks and Rec. Not only will you get to hear a short clip of âGet On Your Feetâ by Gloria Estefan several times while adults awkwardly shuffle across an ice skating rink almost falling over, but youâll also get to meet a three-legged dog named Champion.Â
my lessons keep writing themselves
âIn my opinion, the board is purple.â I say it, write it out, and knock on the white board to clarify.Â
âIs it?â Slow head shakes and hesitantly raised eyebrows are my response.Â
I repeat, âIn my opinion,â emphasis on the introductory phrase, âthe board is purple. Is it?âÂ
From the smart guy in the back of the room, âWell, it is your opinion, what can we say?âÂ
âYou can show me evidence.âÂ
And for a few minutes, they look around, their expressions  a combination of language-learner what-are-the-words and teenage-learner what-is-this-teacherâs-deal.  One of them spins her Chromebook to a page of image search results: âThatâs purple.âÂ
I push it: âThatâs just a picture on the internet.âÂ
I pull out a handful of colored penciled and point out the labels. I get out the a beginner textbook with labeled colors and, pretty sure, confuse the heck out of a less proficient girl before I get all of them to agree itâs a trustworthy source. We have the conversation about presenting evidence. We are all satisfied with my point. And then I rewrite the sentence and repeat:Â
âI believe that the board is purple.â A pause, a question:Â âIs your research from that textbook going to change my mind now?â Â I let it sink in, two minutes from the bell.Â
And then after school, I see the then-latest about 3-5 million nonexistent voters and the current presidentâs belief.Â
Bring. It. On. I canât do anything about the completely off-kilter big picture, but I can do my part to teach these current-and-future citizens how to think.Â
Keep keeping
Itâs been a while since Iâve been articulate, and since Iâm rusty, Iâm just going to share this here and say that I feel like a tiny thing against so many bricks.
They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city. From our room we can hear them, but Nenny just sleeps and doesn't appreciate these things.
Their strength is secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.
Let one forget his reason for being, they'd all droop like tulips in a glass, each with their arms around the other. Keep, keep, keep, trees say when I sleep. They teach.
When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be.
- âFour Skinny Treesâ by Sandra Cisneros
Me every evening of the first month of school
"Is it socially acceptable to go to bed yet?"

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Well Played, Utah
I think Utah is on to something.
Teachers donât need training. They just need to, as the Washington Post put it, âmeet some minimum criteria.â
The thinking behind this is it will be possible to fill all the stateâs open teaching positions this way. You know, instead of paying qualified people what they deserve and providing them with support and respect. That seems hard. This is waaaaay easier.
And I LOVE IT.
I say, letâs not stop with teachers!
What about doctors? Can they practice without any training? Seems solid. Like, we all HAVE bodies, right? How hard can it be?
Lawyers? Donât they just pop into court in a nice suit and shout? I have seen SO MUCH Law and Order. Objection? Overruled.
Dentists just tell you to floss more. And even that seems suspect these days.
Why stop with the professions! I declare war on the licensing of drivers. What a waste of resources! All cars will be autonomous soon enough anyway.
See, I am in my fifteenth year of teaching and if there is one thing I know about this job itâs that it is totally easy and anyone can do it.
I am sure that the 42% of Utah teachers who quit within their first five years did so for reasons unrelated to the fact that they live in a state which believes they can literally be replaced by ANYONE.
Since this job is all summers off and being done at three, I am sure the candidate queue will be around the block. Replacing the teachers rather than repairing the system is an excellent idea. I bet these new teachers will be great with no preparation. Not one of them will quit. Ever.
Because this problem is SOLVED.
Talking about classroom management with other teachers
@everyfiredies and me when we had lunch this week
Swirls make me sassy!
Americans
What does it mean to be an American? This is the essential question for my American Lit class and they do a final, culminating project to answer this, which involves interviewing their family and friends.
For this 4th of July, I present some of my favorite answers.
âTo be American means to be born in America and have guns and eat McDonaldâs.â (Studentâs brother, age 9(
âTo be American means to be free you donât find this freedom anywhere else. A lot of people donât know because they havenât tasted the shit thatâs in other countries. No one else in the world has this freedom we have.â (Studentâs father)
âIn America we have a lot of pride, freedom and opportunity. If we donât do our duties as citizens and take advantage of chances, our freedom doesnât mean anything. Everyone should vote, pay taxes and obey laws. When we take advantage of opportunities and work hard to get what we want, we feel good about ourselves because we earned what we have. In America we be whoever we want to be. We have the opportunity to shape ourselves but we have to be committed and persistent. There are people who donât want you to succeed, but they are just obstacles and you have to get past them. When you get to where you want to be you will be proud of yourself.â (Student, age 17)
âBeing an American means that you are part of a society that is quick to judge and likes to believe the first thing they see whether or not it is true or they are being fed lies the media wants us to believe. But when the country is hurt, everyone comes together to show our pride and we stand as one.â (Student, age 17)
â Growing up in the Philippines and coming here was a hard thing to do. My mom moved me and my siblings when i was 15 for a better life because it was getting so bad over there. The change was different and now that Iâm older I see why my mom moved us here. A better education, more freedom and not having to sleep at night worried if we were gonna wake up the next morning.â (Studentâs Mother)
âMost American people are basic. But we all have our own story too. They gotta do what they gotta do. If it means going to work that is in a whole different city then so be it. If it means that you gotta sell drugs just to get by then so be it. We live in a world where we just judge things right off the bat.â (Student, age 17)Â
âIn America money is success and money is power.â (Student, age 17)
âNot everyone in America believes in the same things. Some people may think aliens are real and others donât. But no one has the right to say that someone can not believe in that.â (Student, age 17)
Happy Independence Day!
@mollyrockstar and I are somewhat neighbors, and knowing the context of her students' neighborhoods (mainly because I live near them) and backgrounds makes this especially poignant. Kids are kids anywhere you go, but kids with the backgrounds and challenges that her students (and my neighbors) have are a special group of resilient folks who know America is different than the one presented by all the rhetoric on television.
All of our society's rumblings in the last few weeks and our approach to the hottest part of summer remind me of how Romeo & Juliet begins, and I just feel that this summer "we shall not escape a brawl," no matter how much Benvolio warns us.

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The first day of my definitely earned summer vacation has consisted of: - breakfast burrito from the best local spot - iced coffee - a NAP - 3 x-files episodes with the hubs - drunk history episodes while actually drunk Hello, summer. I actually forgot you were real for a while. I was also reminded by the ever-so-kind Facebook that at the end of last year I felt a wonderful, happy closure on the year. But this year, it just feels icky. No closure. Just icky. It was a doozie, to say the least. But, it's over. I survived. And I have some time before the next one starts. And I'm currently drunk so everything seems ok.
Would I rather be on summer vacation right now? Outside enjoying the sunshine and a book? Sure.
But thereâs good news about the last weekend of grading:
1. Itâs the LAST weekend of grading
2. Itâs their BEST writing, and they have no time to revise it, so I just get to leave comments like, âYou should be so proud of your hard work!â and âThis is amazing!â and âWay to go!â
I really canât wait for GoogleDocs comments to support emojis and gifs.
No, wait you donât understand.Â
That cat became an icon THIS MONTH AND IS STILL ONE.
thatâs Jo-Pawveski, a stray who wandered onto the ice and past the nashville predators bench during round 2 of playoffs. They eventually picked her up and sent her to the humane society.
Here she is.
The SAN JOSE SHARKS won that game and attributed it to her, naming her after the Sharks captain: Joe Pavelski. When they found out she was a girl, they changed her name to Jo instead of Joe.
She became an instant good luck charm after that as the Sharks won every game at home that series and moved onto round three.
Since then, every game, they stack pucks and stick a idol to Jo for luck.
This little cat has had merchendise made out of her. Sheâs literally almost replaced SJ sharkie as maschot of the team.
I mean. Iâm not making this up. I HAVE A RALLY TOWEL OF HER THEY GAVE OUT FOR GAME 1 OF THE 3RD ROUND. I OWN THIS FUCKING THING:
FURRIES HAVE BEEN SHOWING UP DRESS AS HER.Â
She had her own livestream to check in on her.
SHEâS IN THE PREGAME OPENING ANIMATION
And so I know what youâre gonna say here.
Well⌠what happened to Jo, though.
Good news, This week, as Sharks made their first Stanley Cup, Jo and another Kitty were adopted.Â
And that kids, is the story of JO PAWVELSKI.
The stray black cat of the San Jose Sharks.Â
Iâm beaming with shark pride and I ainât even that big into hockey
@svartsvensk
I donât give a shit about the Sharks yet I am here for this!
The Cardinals had the rally squirrel a few years back. I love it.
I live in San Jose, a few short miles from what is known as the Shark Tank, and this is the only thing that matters to me about them getting into the playoffs.Â
I kind of want one of those shirts.
When you thought you were done with grad school stuff and youâre planning to grade papers all day and you get that email that says, âSorry Iâm an incompetent communicator but you have this gigantic thing due and Iâll only accept it until Wednesday and youâll get an incomplete if you donât do it.â
Year 5
Last week I realized that instead of clicking at least 5 times through different parts of GoogleClassroom to check a studentâs work, I can just search for their name in my Drive and see all the assignments they have and choose the one I want. This saves a lot of time and clicks.
I felt like a goddam genius.
And then I thought, âI wish I had realized this super obvious thing in September.â
And then I thought, â(insert names of first year teachers here) probably already do this because they are actual goddam geniuses.â
Every year Iâve been a teacher, something happens each year that defines it. First year is just the year of survival because teachers are just overwhelmed by the amount theyâre learning every day. You donât know what you donât know. Second year, you know what you donât know, which means you improve a lot, but you still have a long list of things you want to do better. Third year, you hit your stride and start becoming the teacher you really, authentically are. Fourth year is the fine-tuning year. You feel confident, youâre good at it, and you can start weeding out the fluff and focus on the high-leverage things that matter.
This yearâs defining experience for me is not being the youngest one anymore, and working with teachers who are younger, quicker, and savvier. I LOVE IT.
The first and second year teachers in my department are kick ass. They know more about equity than I did when I started. They know more about fair grading practices than I did. They are more willing to try new things and are less afraid of losing their jobs. They actually learned about quality instructional technology and know what to do with these devices that were thrust upon our students without much warning and definitely without any training. They are starting where I was my third year of teaching in some respects, and I love working with them. And I think this is the first year Iâve experienced genuine collaboration, not just superficial collaboration where I say that we need to do a thing, and everyone says OK, and then I explain how to do the thing. This year, I can ask how we should do the thing, and we all make suggestions and ask questions and decide together what to do. And I can go to them and say that I donât have the answers and they try to help instead of look at me with blank, lost stares. So, I can genuinely rely on them. And, honestly, Iâve needed that this year.
In addition to not being the youngest and savviest, I also felt my first rumblings of âthings were fine before (insert new thing here), get off my back about integrating (new thing), will ya?â
My students learned just fine last year without these devices, so telling me that now the only way to engage my students this year is by incorporating that device will result in my most dramatic eye roll. Yes, I will use them when it makes something easier and better for my students. No, they will not replace everything else. Receiving this message from the tech lead at my school is the first time I felt disrespected in this way, as if my previous years of teaching somehow wasnât effective. And for the first time I really felt that resentment. I had cerebrally understood it before, but I had never really felt it. And now I get it. And it sucks.
So, that is my year 5. The year I wasnât the quickest with technology, the year I didnât know the most about anything, and the year I learned what it means to authentically collaborate. I have arrived.

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5
The number of bites I took before I realized I unintentionally made my healthy banana bread even more healthy by forgetting to include the sugar. đŠ
Today a student said to me, "Ms. G, I feel smart in your class." It's possibly the most fulfilling thing a student has said about my class. Partially because of who he is and partially because who I am and entirely because it's a universal teacher goal.