New Places

At long last I shall produce pictures of my new room,  In another three months I'll get around to posting pictures of my new living quarters as well.  Don't get your hopes up though.  This is all about all I can give you of my new home:

It's a beautiful boa constrictor named Rod.  He belongs to my housemate Randy.  Someday I'll actually tell you about the move, but let's start with the classroom.  I probably spend more time there anyway.  Last year, as much as I loved my old classroom, I requested to move rooms.  I had two requests: a window and a bigger room.  I still don't have a window, but my new classroom is much bigger.  This summer, I used to the fact that I was moving as a reason to spend a much more time and money than I had before to decorate and set up my room.  Here's a few overview pictures.

If you're not a teacher, you might not notice, but those are bigger, newer, sturdier desks than my old classroom had.  My old room wouldn't have fit 40 of these babies, it barely fit 40 of the little rickety ones.  Not only that, but the room is big enough for me to have set up the desks in my favorite (so far) configuration, rows of pairs.

Zooming in to look at specific elements of my room, this bulletin board has been in the plans since my first year of teaching.  I finally have a bulletin board dedicated to letting my students get to know me.  It's got pictures of my family, my childhood, my crazy hairstyles, and my various adventures.

Next, we have the trophies.  Since graduating from high school, my trophies from high school debate, mock trial, and elementary school spelling bees have gathered dust a variety of places.  They've lined the top of bookcases at my parents' house, opposite of my sister's collection of similar trophies, and later they were packed into a box to be stored in my bedroom closet back home, right next to my junior year prom dress.  A few years ago, I almost took them all to the trophy shop to be cannibalized for spare parts.  However, last year I started a debate class.  Now the trophies are proudly displayed along the top of my cupboards.

When my debaters ask if I've ever debated, or if I've ever won a round, I just point to them.  They're still gathering dust, but now they're gathering dust with purpose, which is about all you can hope for high school trophies.

Next to the trophies is this sign.

I inherited it from a teacher who left year.  She though long and hard about who to give it to, and decided that I fit the profile.  I was truly flattered.

Another addition to my classroom this year, is this framed poster from postertext.  I found on a google offer just before school started and fell in love.

It's the entire text of Grimm's Fairy Tales, with a beautiful representation of Red Riding Hood and her wolf shaped from the words themselves.  I use Little Red Riding Hood for an example for about 300 different concepts, and I knew I wanted this picture from the moment I saw it.  

Of course, no classroom of mine is complete without my pirate flag.  I bought it my first year of teaching, and it's hung over my desk in three different classrooms at two different schools.

You'll notice that in front of the flag, floating over my desk are a small flock of paper cranes.  These represent books I've read this year.  In fact, I have cranes all over, some for decoration, some for motivation.  I challenged my students to read 40 books this year, over several genres, and for every book they read, they fold a paper crane as well.  Books that are 400 pages or more count for two, and so far we have put together an impressive amount of paper cranes.  The school year is only one quarter over, and I have over three hundred.  So far my students have responded well to this, and it's been a great way to see how much they've read.  Each color of crane corresponds to a different class.  I even give my students small paper cranes folded from fancy paper on their birthdays.

Here are cranes for decoration:

Here are cranes for the books they've read:

This is my desk at the end of the term, or it would be my desk, if it weren't covered in paper.

Look!  The teacher next door came in and offered me a donut!  I win!

7th Graders

The room is dead silent, everyone is bent over their journals, when a student comes up to me at my desk.  He tells me he is fighting off a cold and begins to describe his symptoms.  He's sneezed, he says;  he coughs, he tells me; and he has a lot of mucus.  Finally, he gets to the reason he's telling met his:  he wants to call his mom to have her make a doctor's appointment for him later.  

Talking to 7th graders requires some patience and faith.  Faith that there is a point to what they're saying, and, given enough time, they will eventually get to it.  

Made My Day

If you look through the pictures, you could swear that turtle is smirking.

Escaped tortoise impounded after stroll through neighborhood.

Oh, I guess I'm Crazy Then.

After all the exciting weight losses and gains over the last two years, I only have one pair of dress pants that fit at the moment.  Because of that, I've been wearing skirts a lot.  Out of all my skirts there is one that gets far more compliments than any other.  The English teacher next door asked me where I had gotten it a few weeks ago.  After thinking a moment I responded, "At a free store at an anarchist venue in Tucson."  It's true.  It was my first trip to Tucson with Cuny and we had stopped at Dry River, the local venue for bands and home to the local Anarchist collective and free store.  They had this skirt, it fit, and I loved it.  

Then, this morning, my teacher friend noticed the brightly skirt I wore today.  "Is that another anarchist skirt?" she asked.  I looked down at the skirt and said, "No.  It's just another hippie one.  I got this at the reggae festival in Tokyo."  

Then I realized that my life is pretty awesome.  Some day this spring I'll have dreads again, then I'll be the hippie teacher who wanders around barefoot and sits on the floor and teaches her students to chain themselves to trees.  I can't wait.  

Picture Source

Highlights of a Day

In the last 24 hours:

After not exercising more than once for weeks, I climbed for an hour and then went to a grueling yoga class. During the final meditation, as the trembling slowly ceased in my limbs and the blanket of sweat on my skin evaporated, my mind and body had a little chat.  We'd been feeling disconnected from each other lately, so it was a good chance to reconnect.  During our conversation, my body requested that I go vegetarian again.  Since my mind and body communication is usually a battle over who wants to eat the most cookies, I immediately made the goal.  Vegetarian again.  I will probably still eat meat on occasion--socially at least.  But no more buying it, fixing it, or eating it on my own.

This afternoon, after teaching four classes in a room in which the fans were not running, it was so warm that my projector was overheating.  During the journal discussion, one of my dear, sweet, 7th grade girls raised her hand when I asked, "What are places, people, and events that have influenced your personality?"  I called on a few students, and then when it was her turn, instead of contributing to the discussion, informed the whole class and me, "You have a shiny forehead!"  Oh really?  Thanks for mentioning it.

It's My Turn to Ramble about My Pet! Finally!

After almost four weeks with Zhivanna, I can wholeheartedly proclaim that I am completely in love with her. Currently she's basking on an impromptu log I rigged up out of a rolled up rug, a towel, and some shoes so that she could eat breakfast and bask in the living room while I checked my email.  Now she's venturing off, peering over at me frequently to see if I'm going to bother her.

Things I have learned about my tortoise:  She's curious and undaunted. Wandering is what she likes best.  I almost wish I had a bigger apartment so she had more room.  She is nearly always in motion.  Sometimes she does laps of a room, circling the perimeter, stopping to sniff anything interesting or squeeze herself under something too small for her. I've watched her investigate every corner of my apartment, constantly seeking out a challenge.  If there are three ways to get over, through, or around something, she will pick the smallest opening or the hardest climb.  Although she'll pause and pretend she's not there when you're looking at her, if you're just sitting there, she'll climb over your feet and inspect your toes closely to see if your red toenails smell like anything edible.  When I let her out to roam around, she doesn't hide in a corner and attempt to escape like many reptiles/hampsters/guinea pigs when you let them out.  So I can let her out to have free run of the apartment when I'm home, checking only occasionally to make sure I have a general idea of where she is.

She also thoroughly explores the apartment looking for things to climb.  And boy howdy, can an Agrionemys horsfieldii climb.  I saw this picture on the internet:

Picture Source

And I had noticed Zhivie's penchant for summitting whatever she could.  Anything she thinks there might be a slim possibility she could climb, and she'll spend fifteen minutes trying.  She purposely crawls over shoes, piles of clothes, pillows, and anything else in her path.  However, I didn't believe she could really climb as well as the picture above made it look, until a few days ago when she was in my bedroom and proceeded to climb a nearly vertical yoga mat.  I hadn't seen her in a while, so I went to check on her.  At first I couldn't find her, but that's because she was several feet higher than I'm used to looking.  I have evidence:

No wonder they chose turtles for ninja mutants.  

She hung out on top of that mat for ten minutes, climbing up a little, down a little, to the side, trying to find a way to get higher.  I finally took her down and put her back in her enclosure because I was leaving the apartment.

I've also learned that tortoises are smart.  If she knows I'm taking her outside on the grass, or to wander around my apartment, she hardly struggles at all when I carry her.  She knows me.  She reacts differently to me than to anyone else who comes over.  She doesn't draw back when I reach for her to pick her up or to scratch her head unless I startle her.  If I come over to her enclosure, as soon as she sees me she get as close to me as she can, climb as high as she can, and then reach her neck up expectantly, "asking" to come out and wander.

And as far as pets go, she's pretty dang convenient.  If I'm gone all day, all she needs is to have clean water and some veggies left out for her, and I can be gone from sunrise to sunset.  If I'm home, she'll spend hours wandering around the apartment, stopping every once and a while to check on me.  Her breed is from the semi-arid regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, northeast Iran, Northern China, etc.  Because of this, Russian tortoises will wait to go to the bathroom until they know there's more water available.  This means she usually pees or poops or both when she's either eating or drinking.  So, instead of needing to change her entire substrate, all I have do is wash the dish.  And even when she does pee or poop on the carpet (It's happened.), it takes about 30 seconds to clean up.

All in all, I'm very glad she's mine.  I look forward to having her for decades to come.

Also, turtle yawns are adorable.

Zhivana

Meet Zhivana, the beautiful little Russian tortoise that I brought home yesterday.  After years of pet cravings, long debates with myself and other people over whether or not I had a kitten/puppy/furry creature appropriate lifestyle, and wandering through the pet store multiple times in the same day for at least half an hour each, I have finally taken the plunge.  Zhivana is mellow enough to not mind if she sits in her enclosure all day while I'm gone, but social enough to like exploring and having her head scratched.

A bigger and better enclosure is in the works in the next few months, but apparently Rubbermaid has an unwitting monopoly on temporary reptile housing.  Seriously.  Ask the most reputable tortoise forums on the internet, ask pet shop owners.  Rubbermaid is where your reptiles live until you build them elaborate homes.

So far she is still getting used to her new home, so I've tried not to stress her out much, but here are a few pictures.  So far her favorite foods are romaine lettuce and green peppers.  She'll eat carrots when the rest is gone.  The largest she'll grow is about 8-10" and she could live 25 years with proper care.

Her nickname is Zhivie.