Ok, so for those that don’t know, I got a job teaching and my first week just ended.
We started on Wednesday and I can’t express how intense it was. But I am basically going from 5:50 am -7:00 pm mon-fri. It is very intense. But some exploits from this week that I found interesting:
One of my students had his head down in 2 of my classes to sleep. I approached him the first day when he did this stuff and asked him what was going on. He would just keep telling me he never gets sleep because of his neighbors. So, this went on for all 3 days. Though, when I asked about him, he is really bad at math and it was because of that he had his head down. I can understand the want to escape these situations, but the funny part came in when he was causing a ruckus one Thursday before his head went down. My TA confronted him about the noise (they knew each other for a few years) and when the TA walked away, the kid, under his breath say, “yeah, fuckin walk away.” The TA, turned round, walked up to him and said (loudly), “What did you say? Don’t make me embarrass you here! Cuz I WILL do it!” The kid backed down sharply and put his head back down after a couple minutes of sulking to himself.
Because they are high schoolers, I don’t see a problem with keeping the students accountable and responsible for their actions. Teachers can only do so much and encourage so far. It must come from the other end too. Now, I will try and reach him over this year and battle with him about this, but it will be difficult.
In another class, another student power-struggle is in effect. I’m trying to get he “popular” student to get on board and work because he will guide the class with what he does. But on Friday, being math was the last subject for these particular students, it was completely ridiculous trying to get them to do work. But the “popular” kid decided to put his head down (has some deeper issues) the class ran smoothly. No one made outbursts, almost everyone participated in the lesson and the rest paid attention. So, I’d say overall, things are on the up and up *knock on wood*
Sorry for not updating… well, for those that actually check this. Anyway, I moved into the new apt a few weeks ago and it’s quite nice. Despite the ridiculous heat that’s going on right now. I didn’t think I’d have the problem where I’d have an apt too big for one air conditioner at full blast to at least cool it moderately. Anyway, we just had a HUGE storm and I took a short video from out on my balcony. Though, the video is too large for this blog, so I won’t put that up and don’t care enough to actually find a way.
My mom and brother just came and visited me here which was nice. Though, it was really funny watching my mom flip out when we walked into “dangerous” parts of Harlem. Anyway, I may find a way soon to put that video up.
So, in preparation for my upcoming move to Harlem, I have rented a UHaul. This means that I will be driving in NYC for at the very least, an hour and a half.
So, for you Grand Theft Auto fans, more specifically the recent one where the city was based on Manhattan and the other boroughs. Though I do not believe the insurance I got on the van would cover a massively slow-motioned jump onto an overpass into another car, I do believe that I will get a few obnoxious people yelling and me, which may turn into a little fight.
I’ve been thinking that it might be a good idea to have a bat in the van with me just in case someone believes that I’m so bad at driving that they must do something about it.
Now, in leu of the having an epic car chase, I do believe that I will have plenty of pictures that will make up for it…. well, hopefully at least. So, tune in this weekend for another hopeful installment of… well…. what i’m hoping is fun.
So, I have been dealing with a bunch of brokers through this whole process of looking for an apartment. Some have been really helpful and nice while others made it seem like they didn’t give to shits about renting me the apartment they showed. I suppose it’s just like anyone that has a job… some care and some don’t.
Though, there is a huge stigma attached to brokers. They are despised nearly as much (at least in the NY area) as lawyers are. Now, I’ve never understood why or really have been given a reason. I’ve just been told, don’t deal with brokers if you can because they are crooks.
I signed a lease today and have a broker that showed me the apartment a week or so ago. He was really nice and very energetic. He clearly wanted to rent me this apartment. Now, the apartment was explained to me as having all utilities included in the rent. There was no mention of the broker’s fee (which is usually a month’s rent). I thought that was pretty good considering the budget we were working with. So, I continued with this and tried to get the apartment closed for Sochead and me. Continue reading…
So, as anyone that’s lived on 4th Davis and has experienced moving, both to and fro, hates their lives after.
NY moving is something of a sport in itself. Seeing as NYers do lots of moving in their lifetime, Goodwill, Salvation Army and other thrift stores are in abundance of so many things. Going from the mecha that is Goodwill on New Circle to the tiny ones here, you’d think the selection would go down. Wrong!!!
I was hoping to get a grill for the balcony and saw a sign a couple weeks back for an electric grill, Weber brand (f**k you erik, lol) Q-140. I thought, hell, I’ll look up how much this thing will cost, and turns out it’s about $219. For an grill that’s flippin expensive, though, as I found while meandering the numerous thrift stores in Manhattan, that there is a mecha Goodwill in Harlem. It has 3 floors and is ridiculously clean. I went looking for furniture and sure enough, they had the Weber grill, almost in mint condition for $50.
I also went past a store that is called “The Demolition Depot”. This place was really cool because it has pieces of old buildings for sale. I didn’t think these things were going to be all that expensive but I saw a piece that had the seal for the Department of Education and as I thought it’d be funny to have it I looked up the price. Though I forgot the actual price, I think it was roughly $13000.
Currently, Sochead and I are trying to find a couch and TV stand that is at a reasonable price such that we don’t have to get fucked by the Swedish powerhouse known as Ikea (powerhouse and swedish just don’t sound right…. oh well).
But hopefully I will have pictures of the apartment sometime this weekend to put up online.
It has been a while since my last post but I feel like this one was too good to let pass by. Anyway, I have a T-shirt which says, “5 out of 4 people have a problem with fractions”. I wear this relatively frequently and thus far I’ve only gotten the people that will look at it and just laugh or comment on it being quite clever or something…. where the basic jist is that they understand what it is saying.
Tonight, I went to the grocery and was waiting to pay for my groceries when the woman behind the register asked me what was up with my shirt. She said it in a very odd way, almost as if she knew she was supposed to know it, but wanted clarification. So, I told her that “well, you can’t have 5 out of 4 people…” *blank stare*
I went further to say, “well, think of it this way, suppose your four people *pointing to her and 3 others* are trying to work on a problem, well, I can’t take five of you all out because there aren’t 5…” Continue reading…
Since Libra’s had two posts on the Vibram 5 Finger shoes, I decided I would give one of the alternatives for those who actually want to wear something that isn’t so noticeable. Here comes the Nike Free.
Designed to give you that barefoot feel without making it look like you’re wearing a foot glove, the Free 5.0 helps you find your natural gait. Most people who are running and walking while wearing modern athletic shoes land on their heel because it is the most padded part of the shoe. This doesn’t work very well when you are barefoot (try it for a day). The Free does not include this extra padding forcing you to change your landing so that you touchdown with the middle part or the ball of your foot.
If you want to learn more or see the Free in action, check out this video of some athletes in training. I’d recommend the hq version.
That is a quote coming from Mr. America himself, Stephen Colbert. For all those who know his power over the viewing public and Colbert Nation, you know it will be true soon enough.
Even though we call it by another name, since the other name is somehow given to a sport where you only touch the ball with your foot less than 1% of the time, soccer is the most popular sport in the world and also one that we have never excelled at as a country. So it came as a huge surprise when we upset the #1 team in the world, Spain, in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup 2-0. Soccer is finally starting to get people to notice since the US team is actually playing right there with the legendary countries. In the following clip, Colbert debates the pros and cons of soccer along with an interview with Alexi Lalas about the US team. He also asks the pressing question on some people’s minds: Is it time to care about soccer?
Simply because I want to say something to what is going on with my contract outside of the comment section of my previous post, I will talk about it here.
So, despite the fact that NYC has a hiring freeze (which as I’ve been told will lift in August) I am still under contract with NYC public schools and am required to complete my 2 years teaching in a high needs school. To be high needs, I am pretty sure it dictates that a at least 50% of the students in the school receive free lunch. The question of, “if a person doesn’t get a job, what happens?” hasn’t been answered yet. It has simply been brushed over and they say, well, do your best to find a job.
So, now that I have said that, I will continue to the job market. I went on 2 interviews this week. I haven’t heard back from the school from monday’s interview for some reason (I’ll talk about it in a bit) and the one today went pretty well, so I should hear back in a couple weeks. Continue reading…
Ok, so I am unemployed and do not live in a real room (with a door that is). Though, I finally got off my lazy ass and did something about one of those. I got a listing of all the new schools in NYC and the charter schools and spend basically all day today just reading up on the various philosophies of the schools and emailing them.
I got through the Manhattan schools today, which most of them were in Harlem, which is great considering I want to live in that area. But what’s even better is that I have an interview on Monday with a school and I also get to do a demo lesson. This is a middle school, so I will teach either 6th, 7th or 8th grade (if I get the 6th grade job, I’ll have to pay like $150 or so to get my certification extended from 7-12 to 6-12…. which shows everyone how much training they want teachers to have to an additional grade, hahahaha….). I have been trying to think of something fun to teach and work on, though I can’t think of anything. If anyone remembers a topic they found particularly interesting in middle school, please let me know!
The apartment search will begin soon, maybe around the first week in July.
