Today, I am grateful to be able to relax. I had lunch with my buddy Rob at a new place for me. I love trying new food! Ethiopian food is delicious! Then, we went to the pool to cool off! After dropping my son off with his mom, I picked up some flowers for my apartment! Today, was a good day!
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Today, I am thankful for spending time with TSEA and celebrating the end of the school year! WE have accomplished a lot in our first year under the leadership of President Rodrigo Palacios! WE have achieved MAJORITY STATUS!!! This means a majority of certified teachers teaching in Tempe Union High School District are members of TSEA. WE are getting organized and have big plans for next year, or making those plans at our leadership retreat coming up! OUR next goal is to start the hard journey towards SUPER MAJORITY STATUS which means 75% of all certified staff. WE GOT THIS! #unbreakablesolidarity #unionstrong Today, I am grateful for my Father and what his future looks like. My Father spent 36 years of his life in Education. He is a teacher, a coach and an administrator. He was my 5th grade teacher. One of my favorites :) I love my Father with all my heart. I was very sad that I was not able to be at his retirement party because of our school schedule. I know that we will party when I see him in a few weeks when I travel back to South Dakota this summer! I am thankful for my Mother who planned the party to celebrate. She does so much for our family and I am very appreciative of that. I am thankful for my brother and sister to attend and celebrate. I am thankful for my aunts, uncles and cousins that were there to laugh and celebrate! I am thankful for the former teacher and coaches that showed up to recognize how awesome my Father is. I am thankful for the family friends that chose to take time to say kind words to my Father. I am thankful for my STM coaching friends to come and be a positive part of the celebration. I can't wait to give my Father a hug and spend time with him. It cannot come soon enough! Today, I am grateful for the relationships that I have with my students this year. Had myself a little phone party at my desk. Phones are a problem. But, I don’t abdicate my responsibilities of teaching just because it is “not in my standards.” I don’t understand that fucking mindset. To get to this point, I have spent so much time and energy and patience to develop positive relationships with these 6 students. I have talked with them. I have joked with them. I have helped them understand something in psychology, I hope. I have asked them questions. They have asked me questions. This was the interaction…I said we need to be off our phones, they chose to be on their phones, I said put your phone on my desk and then moved off of it. Not a fight. Not a power trip. The students take a minute. I don’t wait and stare and yell. I move off of it to the next thing and let them make a decision. They normally after a minute make the decision that is good. Then I make fun of them when they come and get it at the end of and and I wish them a good day and they normally do the same. We are moving on. Monday, I will ask them how are we going to limit the distraction and come up with some version of what they say that is good for me and them. We still have a few days left together. Teaching is fun, fr fr no cap. Today, I am grateful to have been able to attend my daughters last track meet as an 8th grader! I love watching Kayleah compete in things that she enjoys! I am proud of her hard work and dedication to be her best! Good job little girl! Today, I am grateful for finding some movies that made me feel all of my feels. the half of it All The Bright Places Anonymously Yours JJ+E These movies all dealt with relationships. These movies included aspects of dealing with mental health issues. These movies included how relationships are impacted when dealing with self-harm and/or accidental trauma. JJ+E deals with racism and xenophobia and nationalism and how people are treated when they are the supposed "other." Anonymously Yours is in Spanish and I was able to follow the story while watching it in Spanish! If you watch these films, let me know. I want to talk about them. Today, I am grateful for trees and the shade they provide. Today was students' last day using specific class time to be out of the classroom to be able to record their podcast episodes. It has been interesting and infuriating to experience trying to find spaces where students are allowed on campus without being accused of doing something wrong. I believe our students need time to be away in order to process and think about what they are learning and wanting to say. I believe in creating experiences for students to create something from what they learned helps students think about their thinking in a different way. 99% of the students said they had never created a podcast before and the 1% was in my class last semester when we did a project of creating a podcast. Today was freaking hot and the trees were great for keeping somewhat cool. Today, I am grateful to be able to a mental health day and spend the day with good people. I met Otto this year and this year has been one of my most enjoyable years in the last few years of teaching. I owe much of that to him and our two class periods that we co-teach. I met Madine this year and his retirement is both dope and sad because I was only able to be his colleague for one year. I met Mowery this day and he is a retired Tempe High Math teacher. Teaching is a cool profession because you have the opportunity to meet people. I know I am not everyone's cup of tea but being accepted in and invited to events is cup-filling. I am a firm believer of mixing ages of people together to be able to have conversations that range in topics and open up the opportunities to learn and think about things in a possibly different perspective. Today, I am grateful for my experience at Arizona Education Associations Delegate Assembly! I love getting together with like-minded individuals who have a passion for education and just, equitable schools for all students. I was able to listen to Governor Hobbs talk about how the State Budget is a step in the right direction for Public Education and Educators but there is still a lot of work to do. This was a great way to kick off the event because her words celebrated the huge victory of having a pro-public education governor but also acknowledging the difficulties of getting things done when there is a majority in the state legislature that does not support public education and wants to expand vouchers. Public Education is a common good that when fully funded and educators are respected and treated as professionals. I love the work the direction of NEA, AEA and what we are doing as TSEA and what it means for our collective power! Today, I am grateful to be able to attend my sons end of year concert. He is getting so big and has come a long way from turning his back to the crowd for the whole performance. I cannot believe he is going to be in 2nd grade next year! |
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Header (above) - Black Hills, SD, 2013 Portrait (below) - Me! Compadre High School, 2021 Dylan WinceI am not a writer. Archives
May 2024
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