Bronx Student going to ACI

Ok, since the majority of the people that read my blog went to Albertson, I figure that this will be a good forum for some "leaving for college" suggestions, both for going to C-Town and for just going away to college.

So here is the scenario... Last year in addition to teaching math, I led the school "band." That is a story on its own. One student was a senior. He was 19 years old, only three years younger than me, which was weird, so the first thing I asked him was what his college plans were. Well, to summarize, after a lot of applications, all of which were responded to with acceptances, he is going to go to Albertson College in the fall.

Obviously, he has never been to Idaho. He is going to leave New York City on the faith that I am right that he will actually be happy at ACI. School starts in a couple of weeks, so he is winding down on the final preparations. So, if anyone has any suggestions, advice, professors to avoid, etc, he reads my blog page, so this would be a good place to post them. Thanks for the help! I just know there are things I'm forgetting.

Mid-Vacation Update

I am about halfway through my vacation right now. Seattle was EXCELLENT!! I took lots of pictures with my palm pilot (Zire 71), which I will post when I get back to NYC. I am at my mom's house right now on her dialup connection, so until I am back to a faster line, I am not going to post all the details of my trip.

Tomorrow I am heading to the Boise/Caldwell area. I think that I will be there until Wednesday night, but everything is loosely scheduled as long as I make my flight out of SLC on Saturday. Again, anyone in the area who wants to get together, let me know. I want to try to make sure that I see as many people as possible. I miss everyone very much.

Ok, that's all for now. Time for laundry.

Sex Appeal

"You look as good as that candy bar that you're eating. In fact, you look better."

If there is any one aspect of living in New York City that will actually drive me into insanity, it is the constant come ons, one-liners, and sexual look, glares, and stares. Sex permiates every venue that the city has to offer. Flirting is acceptable, and a wink or two here or there can still be flattering, but I am talking about shoved in your face, molested with words while you walk to the store type of a sexual atmosphere.

I have heard many people say this, and I must agree, that New Yorkers have more sex than people in other cities. The average marriage age seems to be 35-40 here, allowing the complete span of the 20's for oats sowing. Until that day of marital bondage, it seems that men, especially those of the old and gross quality, think that any female who dares to walk outside is begging for an obtrusive comment or action. NO!

About a month ago, I was on the subway alone. I was wearing shorts. Not short-shorts, but shorts nonetheless. A greasy man sat down across from me. The car wasn't crowded, but there were a few other people. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed when the man "readjusted" himself, as all girls have often caught some man do. But then he kept "readjusting" to the point where it had been a good ten constant minutes of this action and I was now feeling completely dirty and violated. Did I mention he was staring at me the whole time?

For two weeks after that I didn't leave my apartment except to go to classes and the store. When I did go out, I would dress "frumpy" so as not to attract any attention. Today, I bought a new shirt and a new pair of shoes. I wanted to walk a mile or so in the new heels to see if they will work at all on my Seattle trip, so I wore them to walk to the bookstore. I was eating a candy bar when the above comment was made by a man probably in his mid 40's. And then he just kept walking right next to me. It was the middle of the day, so I wasn't exactly scared, just angry and saddened. Half of me wanted to elbow him hard in the stomach and run off, and the other half just wanted to cry because I am so sick of those things. What really makes a girl start to hate it the most is the fact that I actually just did nothing. I didn't make a belittling comment back, I didn't say "go away"... I just froze, like I always do. Five minutes later I can think of 50 comments to reply with, but at the time... silence. I just kept walking with this man next to me, virtually defenseless against his words, allowing myself to be thought of as a mere object of sex; Allowing a complete stranger to entertain ideas about me as he walked which I did nothing to interrupt.

Something like this always happens right before I leave town to go home. Last year was the worst date ever with the guy who tried to convince me that girls can pee standing up and then laughed at me because I "didn't know that." Yeah... whatever. There may be just as many losers and icky old men per capita in Idaho as there are in New York City, but at least they don't advertise it. Ahh... Idaho....

Vacation Time!

Before I forget, I will not be posting anything for the week that I am in Seattle, since I won't have any internet access. I leave on Saturday and will be there until I go to mom's house on August 13. I am going to go to Boise for 4 days or so between August 13 and 20, so if anyone has days they would like to get together while I am there, or certain days that they can't, please drop me an email and let me know so that I can try to work around people's schedules. If you aren't sure if I have your phone number, send me that too.

For those of you who have left Idaho, I am sorry, but that was your own bad move. You will have to come to me.

I will probably post one more time before I leave. Otherwise, happy blogging.

My Job

Since many of you don't have the specifics of what I'm doing here in New York, I figure since I'm doing nothing, I would write a little about it.

I came here as a member of hte NYC Teaching Fellows, an organization to bring teachers to NYC. Every year, they hire around 3,000 new teachers, only a dent in the approximately 12,000 vacancies a year. Of those 3,000, a third were math teachers.

Last year I taught at Grace H. Dodge Career and Technical High School. It wasn't as bad as a lot of schools in the Bronx, but it wasn't easy. To answer the question that I am asked the most often, I was never scared of my students, nor did I ever have any reason to be. On the other hand, after seeing someone get jumped at the bus stop a block from my school in the middle of the day, there are times when I was scared of the other students.

Next year, I will be at a different school though (my choice). I will be teaching math still, but at the Frank Sinatra School of Arts. It is still a public school, but of a much different caliber. In NYC, at the end of 8th grade, the students all have to apply to high school. If they are not accepted into any schools of their choice, they go to a "zoned school" which is just the closest high school, and usually the really scary schools. Almost every high school here has a theme, from music, to cosmetology, to aviation or boat making. The emphasis at Frank Sinatra is dance, music, and drama.

I am excited for many reasons. First, there will be air conditioning. Second, it is only 15 minutes away. And third, I will be able to relate more to the students. I loved my students at Dodge, but I will never understand them. To compare the two schools, look at each of the school report card links to the right. Especially look at the number of suspensions, police department incidents (which is VERY underreported), and the precent meeting grade level in mathematics, all on page two of each report. Frank Sinatra is only 4 years old though, so its data will vary a lot more, but admissions are based on an audition and previous academic records.

Also, instead of teaching Freshmen, I will be teaching Sophomores and Seniors.. YAY! I am just all around excited. I will leave it at this for now, since in September every blog entry will be something about my work, Im sure.

Free at last!!!!!!

Today was finals day. My first test, in discrete math, took me about an hour and a half to complete. It wasn't bad, although I realized that I messed up on some of the graph theory stuff. As a side note though, graph theory was really interesting and it seems like there could be some very useful computer science applications.

The second test was in my Modern Algebra class. I know that since the word Algebra is in the title, it sounds easy, but it's not. The course code was Math 7700. Discrete was Math 0700... so, as you can see, Modern was WAY up there on the math chain. It was the highest code offered.

Two weeks ago, I really thought that I would fail the class. I studied for hours and hours, typed out ALL the definitions in the book, and then got a whopping 49 on the test. YUCK!! But on the second test I got a 82, and I think I did fine on this one. On one of the questions, the teacher said he didnt mean to put it on the test, but when he first did it, it seemed easy because he did it wrong. I was only 1 off on the answer, and most people were about 4 to the eighth power away. I was really proud of myself.

And now... FINALLY... my summer vacation begins. This is what I worked 12+ hour days for 9 months, put up with cursing, yelling, fighting, whining, and pawing for. And then there were the problems with the students... hahaha... But seriously... I earned a break. I have a month until college classes start back up. I go back to work on September 6 and students show up on September 13.

Until then... I leave Saturday, August 7th, to go to Seattle with my Mom. (Shout out to my Mom!) THen on The 13th I go back to Idaho, and I fly back here on the 21st. After that, Cleaning and MaryKay selling is in my schedule, and hopefully a trip to St. Louis sometime to see my Dad. (shout out to Dad too!). (For everyone else... those shout outs are just to see if my parents really read these like they say they do.)

And tomorrow... Sleep in.. Go to the mall! Yay!!! Finally.....rest.....