Take that! Butt Pecked.

Saw the funniest thing yesterday.

I was walking by pond at my school watching the ducks drinking in their natural ducky fashion,

When one ducks PECKS another in the ass! hahaha poor thing almost drowned, went underwater for a couple of seconds.

I LOL'ed! :)

Lesson Learned: Humans aren't the only creatures that do weird, unexplainable things.

Laters,
Tuma
Life is Funny

GETTEL: Personal Vision of Teaching

Last post, I mentioned my personal vision and how I would attempt to convey that image via video. Well, the video is done and I thought I'd share. Today is a short post. So, boo hoo, you don't get my usually rambling nonsense, but final's week has me beat. I actually have a paper I should be working on, but alas I procrastinate, the pandemic of college students everywhere.

So anyway, in the video you see two of my main teaching philosophies:

1. No one is perfect and students should not be expected to be so. Instead, teachers should embrace their students' imperfection, while looking for what makes them special.

2. College is not the only answer, or even the right answer. Teachers should not be teaching solely to get their students into higher education. All of your students got into 4 year schools this year, Whoop-dee-doo. Are they truly happy, is the question. Are they following their  dreams or your own, or their parents. Success doesn't come solely with a college degree.


Without further adieu...

Until next time,
Tuma
Life is Funny.

Striving to Become the Greatest English Teacher to Ever Live (GETTEL)!

Can we say "yay" for high goals and expectations and a teeny bit of conceit? Yes, I believe I am capable of becoming an amazing English Teacher. So, mote it be.

Today, I introduce to you WORDLE!
It is essentially a site that generates “word clouds” from text that you provide, giving greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text (totally not my words, as if it weren't obvious. Wordle's own description of their site).

I've been writing a personal vision statement for one of my teach courses, essentially addressing what kind of classroom I hope to create, what kind of learning I hope to take place and what kind of teacher I hope to be.

I copied and pasted my entire 9 page paper into Wordle and VOILE!

Click for larger image, doofuses! *said affectionately* :)

Cool, huh? So, evidently my students are very important to me. I mean it's even there twice, nope make that THREE times! So is learning (or learn). Dreams is pretty noticeable. Nice. "Must" is obvious too. Does that mean I'm going to be the Nazi-Tyrant type of teacher? Pfftt..yeah right! Five-feet-four, weighing 100 lbs soaking wet (if she's lucky) me be a Tyrant? No way!

I plan on using this image for a video I'm creating to illustrate my personal vision. However, I'll probably won't use this exact one. I'll go back and copy and paste most vital parts of my paper, that way I'll get an image more in line with my true vision of teaching.

Since you can't tell what kind of teacher I may be based on this. Below is my course description for an imaginary course and the ending of my personal vision. Prepared to be awed...AWED I tell you! :)

Course Description (9th grade English):

This is your first English course of your high school career. My mission is to foster a love for literature that will sustain you through your entire education. Why is English important? It’s not only because you need to be able to read difficult novels and write amazing essays. English or more specifically Literature allows us to visit worlds we only dream of. It allows us to understand others and their points of view. It helps us to better understand ourselves. Through Literature, you can fall in love with your enemy, fight an epic battle to the death, or suffer the bitter taste of betrayal. A big idea in this course is that Literature is timeless and reflects human nature and values. People haven’t changed much over the course of history, their issues and beliefs still apply to us and hence by reading we can come to further understanding of ourselves, our peers and our society.

Personal Vision Excerpt:

I am teaching to support my students and help them achieve their dreams, whatever those may be. And not the dreams of their parents, or friends, or society, but those secret dreams, hidden in the deepest depths of their young hearts. Those special kind of dreams that are fragile and easily crushed by an insensitive teacher, parent, friend or society. And if those dreams are already crushed by the time they get to me, it’ll be up to me to gently and carefully find all the pieces and tape them back together and then work to strengthen the heart they’re hidden in so the dreams are never crushed again!


Nice, eh? C'mon admit it. That's what the comment section is for...to INFLATE my ego! haha ^___^


Until my next nutty post,
      Tuma
Life is Funny

Yoga Virgin No Longer!

Child. Downward-Facing Dog. Three-legged dog. Half-moon. High lunge. Lord of the Dance.

Warrior. Upward Salute. Crane. Four Limbed Staff. Cat. Dolphin. Full Boat.

Plank. Happy Baby. Bow.  Cobra.  Locus.  Sphinx. Corpse.

Reclining Big Toe. Legs-up-the-wall.

So, what the HECK am I talking about, you ask?

Poses, of course. Yoga poses to be exact. 

Today, I had my first Yoga session. Boy, let me tell you—yoga is no joke!

The Pforzheimer’s Honors College at Pace University, of which I am a member (and still cannot pronounce the name of), holds various events throughout the year. We are required to attend two events per semester and the one hour yoga session was the last one for the Fall semester. I explain this so you understand that I did not attend this event with a burning need to give Yoga a try. Quite the opposite actually and quoting myself (Which is totally the cool thing to do. Really.) “I'm really not in the mood for bending like a pretzel (is that yoga? or something else. I don't even know the difference lol), but I need one more event” (Facebook stat, 12/08/11, 9 hours ago). Yes, the citation was necessary; I am an English major after all. 

However, I digress. The point was: I did not really want to go do yoga on a Thursday afternoon. Instead, I wanted to go home, possibly eat donuts and finally get around to watching Season one of Dexter. No one more than I would promote the advantages of watching a crazed psychopath serial killer turned cop versus bending like a pretzel. Speaking of pretzels Auntie Anne’s has THE best cinnamon pretzel sticks and THE yummiest lemonade. You all should go get some. Like right now. 

Right. Back on topic. I wanted to watch Dexter while eating donuts, but instead I found myself bending and folding in ways I do not think *insert deity here* ever intended for me to bend. And bend I did. 

I’m not quite sure how I feel about yoga yet. Some poses were really fun and felt sooo good. Then, there were others that didn’t feel quite-so-good. However, that can probably be attributed to my lack of flexibility, balance and all-around loserness. ;)

Here were some of the more “fun” poses:

P.S. All pictures from http://www.yogajournal.com/

The Warrior Pose:

This one was kind of fun! However, instead of inhaling and exhaling like I was supposed to be doing, I was extolling my own virtues as a warrior in my head.

… Lame, I know. =)

                                            

Half Moon Pose

This one was fun! It wasn’t easy, but once I got it, I was like “Weeee!” ^__^

Downward-Facing Dog

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this pose at first, because the blood rushing to my head was no fun. However, we did it so many times that it kind of grew on me!

Happy Baby Pose:

This one was one of my favorites. HAHA It was just so much fun and we even got to rock side to side. I felt so carefree. Loved it!

The “not-so-fun” poses:

P.S. All pictures from http://www.yogajournal.com/

Full Boat Pose:

This one was so hard to manage. I know it’s called the full boat pose, but I was more a rocking boat in the eye of a storm! I couldn’t hold my balance at all. I learned an important lesson though: Skinny girl butts are not meant to hold us up in weird positions!

Crane Pose:

We tried this towards the end and it was impossible for me. I just couldn’t get up off the ground and when I finally did…I ended up nearly flipping over! Lol It was pretty funny after the embarrassment faded. 

One girl, who is a total Yoga Pro, stretched her legs out and up until she was on her head. I was in awe—jaw-dropping, mouth-opening, drooling-just-a-little awe!

Cobra Pose:

This one wasn’t too hard actually. I think it was just me not being flexible and my lower back muscles not getting enough stretching on a regular basis. Why call it Cobra though? Guess I can see the resemblance. But aren't other snakes just as bendy? *shrugs*

 

And the Holy-Crap-Thank-God-That-Woman-Took-It-Easy-On-Us-And-Didn't-Do-These Poses:

P.S. All pictures from http://www.yogajournal.com/

Heron Pose:

What the heck is this?! If human legs were meant to shoot up straight like that then we would have been born herons. Did someone think that just because both species’ names began with an “H” it would fly (lol Pun was unintended, but it works. Do herons fly, though? Too lazy to Google the answer)?

Standing Split Pose

What the bloody hell?! I cannot even do a regular split of the on-the-floor variety, let along this one. Looks so painful. Ouch!

Firefly Pose:

Just a few words for this pose. Never. Never in a million years. My puny arms cannot and will not hold my weight, no matter how little I am! 

Well, that’s all regarding the loss of my Yoga virginity.

Namaste!

Tuma

Life is Funny.