One, One! Get Some!

I love having a senior Crew! Looping students with their teachers is probably the best idea that all those progressive education advocates have going for them.  My kids are so genuinely excited to see me and be back in school, its impossible not to be excited with them!  Besides, I get to spend all year making up cheers that rhyme "eleven" with single syllable words.

Tuesday: It was move in day... I had to move out of my garage into a real classroom this year.  No more four-square during class time :(

Wednesday: First day with students! First day wearing heels to work!  

                                                      

Thursday:  My intro to classroom norms involved some yoga, so I had to rock some pants that allowed me to move. 

                                                         

Friday: "You could be a farmer in those clothes", and I was. Check out all my kiddos getting their farm on!

   

                  

Shortchange

Our union made sure to navigate the district away from another year of salary freezes, but you can bet we will be feeling those budget cuts elsewhere this year.  Our staff retreat, for example, is a clear reflection of how our funds have steadily diminished since I started 4 years ago.  In that first year, we loaded up cars and caravanned up to Estes Park to spend 48 hours bonding in shared bunks over cafeteria food while taking in the Rockies, but this year it was a mere 7 hours at Montclair Park in Denver.  While the location and duration have shifted, its refreshing to be part of a community that has not allowed the financial crunch to change our traditions. I value our time together outside the building.  Taking the serious conversations into a not so serious environment shapes the culture of our staff each August--it reminds me how lucky I am to work in such impressive and enjoyable company.  It also helps that we can wear whatever we want...
Friday:

I went through a phase in my mid-twenties where I thought I had to start wearing long-ish shorts to be "proper", but now that I've hit late-twenties,  I say fuck it.  When you're pushing oh-so close to 30, might as well flaunt what you've got, and I've got me some skinny little legs that are tanned and toned from miles of running and hours of yoga this summer.  So, inspired by my new appreciation for my physique, I sought a trend to match (you will NOT catch me sporting any half-shirts no matter how much of a comeback they may be making),  and I was totally getting excited about rocking my short shorts with tights to roll my summer essentials into fall faves!  I am all for a trend that increases my wardrobe without cracking the wallet.  However, today all my opaque-Hue hopes and patterned-DKNY dreams were shattered as I learned  that we have instituted a new dress code in which our skirts/shorts can be no more than 2 inches above the knee.  Damn you, professionalism!  So, this might be the last you'll see of my shorts after all...sad sad day.
Monday:

Those private school bitches win this round:

"The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one".

      Oscar Wilde mustn't have taken the summers off in his job or he'd know that this should really read "the best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without a paycheck".  I'd happily take another few weeks of "summering" in Tuscany like a fancy heiress, but my bank statements have interrupted with all their matter of fact about mortgage payments, HOA fees, health insurance, and gas prices.  After a big  vacation to Lucca, Italy and various domestic adventures to Chicago, Philadelphia, Park City, and Los Angeles, I am acutely aware that the Hilton sisters clearly don't jet set on a teacher's salary.  I do love me some shopping while traveling, but my tight budget really restricted my spending to the essentials--food and wine.  So, sadly, Teacher Sweaters will not abound with new duds from fancy foreign up-and-coming designers.  My daily outfit challenge will remain limited to the duds currently housed in my closet, good finds from my mom's vintage keepsakes, and sale steals at the mall.

    Perhaps Wilde was searching for a job in the midst of a massive economic crisis in which hundreds of overly-qualified applicants find themselves competing for the same two openings posted and reposted on dozens of different online job boards.  Sending cover letters and resumes into the internet void for a few months sure kills morale.  I was lucky enough to make it through 4 rounds of interviews with the Hillel at Stanford University, only to lose out to the other finalist, but the process taught me a few things about my life and goals: I am not ready to leave Boulder, I still love teenagers, I want to lead another Girls Outside hut trip, and if I'm not a teacher I won't have anything to blog about.

   As a newly tenured staff member, you can expect to see lots of flip flops and pants that are dangerously similar to jeans.  Suck it dress code, I've got tenure, Betch!

Its hard to see how rad my belt is.
Thursday:

Apparently no one in my district has heard this one lately, "What did the 5 fingers say to the face?"  SLAP. 

These are the socks that I win in.  

Write a Blog about it...

     Well, I tried.  Now that I've looked back at my whole school year through my own eyes, I'm a bit disappointed in my dwindled efforts at the end of this academic calendar.  Through the lens of my blog, my year was really not as dismal as I have felt for the past two weeks.  I guess my Grandma was right.  When I saw her two weeks ago she told me to keep a journal because it would help me put life into perspective.  This isn't exactly the "journal" my Grandma was thinking of, but I think her point is correct.  There were some highlights to this year that I have lost sight of in my angsty quarter life crisis drama of late.  The first annual Girls Outside hut trip, for example, was a massive success.  The whole process, actually, was an incredibly empowering experience.  Kelsey and I came up with the money, pulled of the logistics, and safely guided 11 girls into the mountains!!  I was reminded of the radness that we created when 2 of my girls appreciated me during our closing community circle this morning.  Its been a trying end of the year and I've felt like I teaching again in the fall would break me, but reading my own words has given a bit of perspective and makes me a little less terrified at the prospect of returning for year 4.  If year 4 comes to pass, the blog will have to be better!  Better pictures at the very least!  I plan on investing in a new digital toy for my trip to Italy anyhow, so two birds with one stone.  

     In other reflections, I've learned that I should stick to relationships with my shoes.  My Frye boots are as durable now as they were when I bought them this winter.  I forsee a long and fulfilling relationship with my Frye's.  My pink ballet flats have yet to disappoint--they still make me smile each day that I put them on.  It could be the Carrie Bradshaw talking (I watched Sex and the City the Movie last night)... I guess only time will tell.

      To be fair, I am missing some pics, but I do pinky swear, Girl Scout honor, that I did not repeat any outfits this year!

It turns out I own a lot of clothes...

Appalling really.  Its a terrible habit, but I can't imagine giving it up.  Forcing myself to wear different outfits everyday is not a challenge of resources but of motivation compounded by the added step of chronicling of my choices--double motivation.  I am likely the worst blogger on the face of the earth.  Perhaps saving myself from said title by my pesky habit of taking a picture of myself after work each day.  So, I have maintained the documentation of my outfits.  The depth of back-posting makes it difficult to recall my thought process on most of these days.  Fair to guess it was somewhere between exhaustion and exasperation.  The year isn't wrapping up poorly, but May really seems to be dragging her allegedly springy feet!  My collection of shorts and dresses have not received fair representation this final trimester--sad story.