my resting heart rate when i'm sitting is around 55 beats per minute, which is considered slow. tonight, i took my pulse - counted it out for a whole minute just to be as accurate as possible. only 45 beats per minute when i'm lying down!
i thought that was slow so i took it again a minute later. yup! 45 again!
i wonder how that affects me...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
teacher recognition
one of my 2-period students is a transfer student from another school district where he got kicked out of for possession... his mom is a teacher at my school, one who all the students love and speak highly of. i was a bit worried when she first called me to ask about his progress because it seemed like she would be constantly checking up on me! i guess maybe i thought she might turn around and criticize me for his poor grades.
however, i am glad she is so involved in his academic progress because she made him be more accountable for his time to her, and ever since he has been doing more work and turning more assignments in. he's been getting my signature on his daily agenda every time he finishes his work, and he raised his grade considerably. it really is a testament to how students who have a supportive home environment can do much better than when they are left to their own devices.
about a week ago i stopped seeing this student in my class, and i found out why on tuesday when i met his mom for the first time in person when i was picking up my mail in the staff lounge. she introduced herself to me and shook my hand, and she told me that her son was in the hospital being treated for the problem that we had discussed over the phone. she then told me she was so grateful for all the accomodations and extra help i was giving her son. she thanked me for being the type of teacher that cared, and told me that he always had good things to say about me. it was weird hearing that from another teacher, but i really appreciated hearing it from her - especially since i had only heard good things about her too!
most of the time i am in my own bubble in my classroom. i don't see many other teachers, usually i just see the ones that work in my hallway. although my students like me enough, i don't normally get feedback from a colleague. compliments such as the one she just gave me don't come very often, but they can be reassuring in a time like this - when i am looking at the school system in despair (budget cuts, program changes, and so much more are depressing! but that's another topic for another post).
i guess i'm just saying it's nice to have heard something encouraging and positive about my job...
however, i am glad she is so involved in his academic progress because she made him be more accountable for his time to her, and ever since he has been doing more work and turning more assignments in. he's been getting my signature on his daily agenda every time he finishes his work, and he raised his grade considerably. it really is a testament to how students who have a supportive home environment can do much better than when they are left to their own devices.
about a week ago i stopped seeing this student in my class, and i found out why on tuesday when i met his mom for the first time in person when i was picking up my mail in the staff lounge. she introduced herself to me and shook my hand, and she told me that her son was in the hospital being treated for the problem that we had discussed over the phone. she then told me she was so grateful for all the accomodations and extra help i was giving her son. she thanked me for being the type of teacher that cared, and told me that he always had good things to say about me. it was weird hearing that from another teacher, but i really appreciated hearing it from her - especially since i had only heard good things about her too!
most of the time i am in my own bubble in my classroom. i don't see many other teachers, usually i just see the ones that work in my hallway. although my students like me enough, i don't normally get feedback from a colleague. compliments such as the one she just gave me don't come very often, but they can be reassuring in a time like this - when i am looking at the school system in despair (budget cuts, program changes, and so much more are depressing! but that's another topic for another post).
i guess i'm just saying it's nice to have heard something encouraging and positive about my job...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
my plants
taking a picture of that orchid i just bought reminded me i have to update on my other plants, which aren't faring so well right now. my poor tropical plants that were sent in the mail don't look like they've grown much, and in fact, my pineapple guava plants lost their leaves - i think i overwatered! at any rate, here's the one month update photo:
at least there are new leaves on my avocado seed - you can see them inside the seed!
and the plant is starting to grow up and out of that seed... i can't wait till there are real leaves outside the seed!
i also have another avocado seed - i'm soaking it in water for 2 weeks before i stick the toothpicks in it, which i read only after this other seed sprouted. we'll see how well they do compared to each other!
at least there are new leaves on my avocado seed - you can see them inside the seed!
and the plant is starting to grow up and out of that seed... i can't wait till there are real leaves outside the seed!i also have another avocado seed - i'm soaking it in water for 2 weeks before i stick the toothpicks in it, which i read only after this other seed sprouted. we'll see how well they do compared to each other!
i only spent a dollar sixty
i went across the street to return a movie to the redbox in the stater bros, and uncharacteristically started wandering the aisles. i quickly realized i had no dog and therefore had no business browsing the dog food aisle, and i turned to leave the store when the cashier told me, "everything on this rack is ten cents." it looked like there wasn't anything i wanted on the shelf, but i looked on the bottom rack and realized that there was all sortsa brand name sunblock lotions, which normally retail around 7-8 bucks. and then there was this orchid plant on the top rack - it's price tag said $24.99, which makes it a 99.5% discount! the other guy browsing the racks was like, "it's probably dying already", but i just take it as a challenge. and as an incredible value. at any rate, i bought the 16 items displayed in the picture below for only $1.60.
that's an orchid plant, 4 bottles of facial sunblock, 2 bottles of coppertone sport spf 50, 3 bottles of hawaiian tropic sunblick, 5 bottles of banana boat sunblock, and a sponge for the kitchen sink.
simply amazing!
that's an orchid plant, 4 bottles of facial sunblock, 2 bottles of coppertone sport spf 50, 3 bottles of hawaiian tropic sunblick, 5 bottles of banana boat sunblock, and a sponge for the kitchen sink.simply amazing!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
visiting my grandma
my grandma was born in 1915, which means that later this year she'll turn 94 years old. she got alzheimer's several years back, and while i don't know all about that disease, what that means is that we have trouble communicating with each other. a couple of years ago, my family on my dad's side all met up in maui to visit her, and she would mumble/stutter a lot, and it was mainly in ilocano, which basically meant i didn't understand a word. now, she doesn't speak any language but smiles.
when she recognizes someone she breaks out with a huge smile and even sometimes starts laughing. last night she did that, she pointed at me and started laughing! i thought it was hilarious, cuz it was like she was making fun of me, so i started laughing too, and she just started laughing harder.
the only other thing i can say about her now is that she wants to eat everything! yah, yah, i know, you're probably all saying, "so that's where you get it from!" but honestly, i can't remember ever seeing my grandmother eat. she was -always- in the kitchen cooking for us, and she never sat down to dinner with us. she would always say she wasn't hungry and she preferred to cook more food. i always just figured she had picked at the food while she was cooking and wasn't hungry anymore. even when she sat down with us, she didn't eat with us, she would just put more food on our plate.
now? she's eating everything. you have to watch her carefully to make sure she doesn't grab the paper napkin off the table and start eating it. she was sitting by me earlier, and i was doing some calculus work on a piece of paper. she reached over, picked up an imaginary piece of food off my paper, and stuck it in her mouth and started chewing. she kept on doing that until i put a cookie on my paper, and then she picked up the cookies and started eating those. i kept on doing that till my mom decided to feed her a grapefruit. when she was done, my mom left the grapefruit rind on the table. i continued with my calculus until i realized my grandma had picked up the half-grapefruit rind and had started eating it! i had to wrestle the rind out of her strong hands and put it out of reach for her to stop chewing the rind. she has a healthy appetite, though, and i'm glad to see her eat =)
later on tonight i was standing in the kitchen and realized someone had put their arm around me - and i turned around and saw that it was my grandma! she had walked all the way over to me, grabbed my arm and tucked it under hers, and then dragged me across the kitchen back to the living room couch. we sat down on the couch together, and she just kept on looking at me and kept on laughing.
it's nice to be able to spend time with her even though we don't get to communicate in the typical way... i'm enjoying being able to feed her lunch, sit next to her at church, and just see her look at me and laugh and smile.
i guess i'm just glad we're sharing a lot of laughs this weekend =)
when she recognizes someone she breaks out with a huge smile and even sometimes starts laughing. last night she did that, she pointed at me and started laughing! i thought it was hilarious, cuz it was like she was making fun of me, so i started laughing too, and she just started laughing harder.
the only other thing i can say about her now is that she wants to eat everything! yah, yah, i know, you're probably all saying, "so that's where you get it from!" but honestly, i can't remember ever seeing my grandmother eat. she was -always- in the kitchen cooking for us, and she never sat down to dinner with us. she would always say she wasn't hungry and she preferred to cook more food. i always just figured she had picked at the food while she was cooking and wasn't hungry anymore. even when she sat down with us, she didn't eat with us, she would just put more food on our plate.
now? she's eating everything. you have to watch her carefully to make sure she doesn't grab the paper napkin off the table and start eating it. she was sitting by me earlier, and i was doing some calculus work on a piece of paper. she reached over, picked up an imaginary piece of food off my paper, and stuck it in her mouth and started chewing. she kept on doing that until i put a cookie on my paper, and then she picked up the cookies and started eating those. i kept on doing that till my mom decided to feed her a grapefruit. when she was done, my mom left the grapefruit rind on the table. i continued with my calculus until i realized my grandma had picked up the half-grapefruit rind and had started eating it! i had to wrestle the rind out of her strong hands and put it out of reach for her to stop chewing the rind. she has a healthy appetite, though, and i'm glad to see her eat =)
later on tonight i was standing in the kitchen and realized someone had put their arm around me - and i turned around and saw that it was my grandma! she had walked all the way over to me, grabbed my arm and tucked it under hers, and then dragged me across the kitchen back to the living room couch. we sat down on the couch together, and she just kept on looking at me and kept on laughing.
it's nice to be able to spend time with her even though we don't get to communicate in the typical way... i'm enjoying being able to feed her lunch, sit next to her at church, and just see her look at me and laugh and smile.
i guess i'm just glad we're sharing a lot of laughs this weekend =)
Friday, February 13, 2009
dude... having this site blocked at work really cuts down on my posting! i guess i feel most like writing about my day/thoughts during 6th period, when there are no students in my classroom.
here's a random listing of stuff i enjoyed this week. maybe i'll get a chance to expand on the list later...
=====================
update:
here's a random listing of stuff i enjoyed this week. maybe i'll get a chance to expand on the list later...
- i read "the alchemist" this week. loved it! my student recommended it to me (i have over 100 books on a shelf in my classroom for the students to read - we get 23 minutes a day for "ssr" - sustained silent reading. i guess the thought is that if we can teach them to love to read, they'll learn for life.
- we saw minsky's on wednesday. enjoyed and laughed... but y'know, while i knew it was a musical about a burlesque show, i wasn't expecting to see the burlesque show... it was surprised, but i think the family friend i ran into over there was even more surprised - she bought tickets for all her sons and daughters for her son's bday. whoops!
- maison akira was yummy...
=====================
update:
- i also started and finished "funny in farsi" on the plane. it was a good book! i laughed out loud and read some of the funnier parts to my brother on the plane.
Monday, February 2, 2009
reading the one year Bible
for a few years now i've been thinking i should start reading the Bible again, but it was always hard to start. then, all of a sudden, on dec 1, i just woke up early and opened up the one year Bible and read that day's reading. no decision, no resolution, i just did it on a whim. the next day, when i woke up, i thought, hey, i have time, let me read it again! well... 2 months later, i'm still doing it! i suppose it's habit by now!
i've been enjoying this new habit, too! everyday, there's at least one verse that stands out to me. sometimes, it speaks to me and addresses the issues in my life - i feel like those are little nuggets of hope that encourage me through hard times. sometimes, they're verses that make me go "hmmm..." - i have a lot of questions about what i'm reading now! sometimes i think it's just the translation or a grammatical thing, but sometimes it leads me to question the theology i've taken for granted all my life.
today's verse that made me think was matthew 22:32. "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
the question that brings up in my mind is: does this mean that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living? Jesus was addressing the sadduccees who didn't believe in resurrection. was this just an answer to them, or is this a way of Jesus telling everyone that your soul goes on to live with God? the commentaries at the bottom of this webpage all point to some type of resurrection and that they are indeed living - contrary to what sda's have typically been taught.
i find it so interesting - like i'm making new discoveries!
i've been enjoying this new habit, too! everyday, there's at least one verse that stands out to me. sometimes, it speaks to me and addresses the issues in my life - i feel like those are little nuggets of hope that encourage me through hard times. sometimes, they're verses that make me go "hmmm..." - i have a lot of questions about what i'm reading now! sometimes i think it's just the translation or a grammatical thing, but sometimes it leads me to question the theology i've taken for granted all my life.
today's verse that made me think was matthew 22:32. "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
the question that brings up in my mind is: does this mean that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living? Jesus was addressing the sadduccees who didn't believe in resurrection. was this just an answer to them, or is this a way of Jesus telling everyone that your soul goes on to live with God? the commentaries at the bottom of this webpage all point to some type of resurrection and that they are indeed living - contrary to what sda's have typically been taught.
i find it so interesting - like i'm making new discoveries!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
so much stuff to write about
i find it ironic that the more stuff i have to blog about, the less time i have to put my thoughts down on "paper"...
this past week, i've felt like blogging every day and every night and every morning as i woke up - however, the only down time i've had was while i was at work, and i can't access my blog while i'm at work. maybe i can start emailing myself what i want to post... at least it'll all be written and all i have to do is go home and copy-paste into a post. hmmm... i'll have to figure out a system that works.
mostly, i've been wanting to write about faith and how faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains. and the faith talked about here is probably the question i've been mulling over: am i supposed to have faith that God could heal? or have faith that God will heal? it seems a little presumptuous to say God will heal, haven't we been taught to say, "not my will, but yours, Lord?" but then it seems like we're supposed to have enough faith to say, this WILL happen because i have faith and because i asked. i'm a little confused on the topic... but suffice it to say that I'm asking for that type of faith, at least enough faith to know that i can/should ask for something.
there's so much more to say but sleep is setting in... i'm not gonna fight it tonight...
g'nite y'all!
this past week, i've felt like blogging every day and every night and every morning as i woke up - however, the only down time i've had was while i was at work, and i can't access my blog while i'm at work. maybe i can start emailing myself what i want to post... at least it'll all be written and all i have to do is go home and copy-paste into a post. hmmm... i'll have to figure out a system that works.
mostly, i've been wanting to write about faith and how faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains. and the faith talked about here is probably the question i've been mulling over: am i supposed to have faith that God could heal? or have faith that God will heal? it seems a little presumptuous to say God will heal, haven't we been taught to say, "not my will, but yours, Lord?" but then it seems like we're supposed to have enough faith to say, this WILL happen because i have faith and because i asked. i'm a little confused on the topic... but suffice it to say that I'm asking for that type of faith, at least enough faith to know that i can/should ask for something.
there's so much more to say but sleep is setting in... i'm not gonna fight it tonight...
g'nite y'all!
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