The Inquisitive Teacher

The Most Successful Summer EVER

That’s right, folks. This summer was the most successful summer that I have ever had! In July, I taught at a college prep program. I spent my days laughing and learning. I taught from 8am to 4:30pm everyday. It was AMAZING. I designed an entire unit on feminism! The students were very responsive, and by the end of the week were saying: “Down with the patriarchy!” I was impressed. I really fell in love with teaching, and working with high school students is definitely the place for me! I took my PRAXIS in July and passed (by quite a bit !

My mother came to visit me in August for two weeks.  It was so nice seeing her, and someday I hope she’ll be closer. I miss her presence in my life.

The new semester has began. I start my student teaching in January! OH MY! I am so excited..and nervous!! I really want to be this amazing teacher that inspires and facilitates discussions and deep thinking. I hope whatever co-operating teacher I’m teamed with fits my teaching style.  I’m taking an ASL class this semester that is KICKING my HEINY! I’ve never felt so inadequate before! And, it’s a nice reminder to me what some of my students are going to feel when they enter my classroom.

The Duggar Family

I’ve always had negative feelings towards large families. I fully believe large families are breeding grounds for abuse, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. It’s so sad, however it does not surprise me that Josh Duggar abused his sisters. And, even more sad, it’s not surprising that the parents didn’t react appropriately. What bothers me most, is that the Duggar parents had 6 kids already. 5 children were potential victims of Josh. The parents decided to KEEP HAVING children. That’s 13 more potential victims for Josh Duggar.  The parents didn’t make any arrangements for actual counseling, nor did they remove Josh Duggar from their home. He could still be molesting his younger siblings and the parents don’t even seem to care.

I read a yahoo news article that stated,

“if victims who have been abused by a family member feel that their family is siding with the perpetrator — and in turn feel not loved, not supported, and not as important to their family as their abuser is — they are at even greater risk for negative health behaviors.” (Source)

These feelings are all to familiar to me. I am a victim of sexual abuse. And, these are the feelins that have afflicted me the last four years. I even had my parents deliver a message of bribery from my older brother. “Don’t press charges and I’ll give you the 10k that I’d spend on a lawyer.” My parents tried to get me to accept ‘hush’ money, instead of my brother receiving SOME kind of punishment for his actions. How have I coped with these feelings? How do I even continue a relationship with my parents? I don’t know. Some days I hurt less then others. Some days my parents call and speak about him, and those days are truly awful.

When a victim and an abuser belong to the same family unit there will always be hurt feelings and tension. It’s as simple as that.

A Lull

My life is currently on pause. My semester ended two weeks ago, and now I’m waiting for my two, new fantastic jobs to start up. My first job is a English tutor at a local Nursing college. I’m being paid more per hour than I ever have before! And, the experience this job will give me fits into my career goals perfectly. I haven’t done anything yet- well, I did some online training things that had to do with policy. No training for actual tutoring. Supposedly, I’ll be contacted when a student needs me. I know it is the beginning of the semester, but it seems weird to me that I haven’t done anything yet.

I also have another job working at a local college prep summer program. I’m just waiting for my background check to clear. I’ve done practically nothing the last two weeks. I took practice PRAXIS exam, but that’s it! I did really well on the practice (104/130). I lost points on questions about poetry. I’ll need to study that. I’m going to hit the books..soon.  I plan on taking it in July.

One of my goals is to lose weight and exercise more. I’ve been using myfitnesspal religiously. I’ve almost lost 10lbs! Today I did 20 minutes of kickboxing, and a little yoga introduction. I really want to hike in the mornings, but the lovely husband wants to get our sleep schedule on track first. (Did I mention I’ve been doing nothing lately, so I can sleep in as much as I want….yeah. Bad idea for me!)

I really want to create some valuable teaching material and lesson plans this summer, but I’m sure where to start.  Should I just pick a book and start doing some lesson planning using that as a base? I also have a long list of books I want to read this summer. Maybe a little schedule will do me good.

8:30 am-Wake, eat breakfast, work my body-cardio.

9:30-shower, dress. Read 15 minutes.

10ish-lesson planning

noon-1pm-clean and lunch for me. Make lunch for the lover.

12:30-3: Non-tv/computer type entertainment. Crafts, go for a walk, write, read, color.

3-3:30-work my body-yoga, or non-cardio.

3:30-5- Study for Praxis

5-end. Make dinner and spend time with the one I love.

Sleep by 11pm.

…And, that schedule makes me look lazy! haha. I’m really in limbo until my jobs start! Nevertheless, I think I’ll give this schedule a try tomorrow!