B3DA Day 2

2011-04-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

Almost missed morning,
then, advised by some trusted
friends. Laundry later.

Dashed to library,
enjoyed strolling with no coat.
Woot! for Spring coming.

Trash out, blog posted.
Evening now devoted to
laundry and folding.

This is fun to do.
And hard to stop once started.
Writing haikus rules.

"Screw you guys! I hate high school!"

2011-04-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Gretchen, I'm 26 and I decided to do this blog because I've never done anything like this before. Truthfully, I may not be tech-savvy enough to pull this off, but we all need challenges, right? So, I'm jumping in and how big a splash I make is anyone's guess. So, here goes.

The title of my blog comes from my job. I teach 6-12 Spanish at a very small school and our mascot is The Vikings. Being a foreign language teacher, like any job, has its challeges, but I often feel the biggest is expanding students’ experience beyond small-town Iowa. I know teenagers are self-invovled all over and as important as verb conjugations and vocabulary are, if I can get a student to acknowledge that views and opinions, which differ from their own, are also worth exploring, it’s a good say. When I have students that won’t even try to look past their own noses I feel as out of place and as strange as a viking who speaks Spanish.

Now, the title of my post comes from a movie, “She’s the Man.” It stars Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. It’s a modern take on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” I chose it because as difficult as balancing classes and swimming and band and friends was when I was a student, the classes and teacher meetings and coaching and administration and teaching students is that much more daunting now. I sometimes wonder how, when choosing to be a teacher, I skipped over the fact that I’d be going to high school for way longer than the mandatory 4 yrs most others endure. After four years, I’m considering graduating on to something else. What that might be I can’t be sure. Hopefully, as the month progresses this blog can be a distraction to give me time away from my own life so I don't fall into the same isolation and lack of perspective my own students sometimes demonstrate.

This Viking Speaks Spanish

B3DA Day 2

"Screw you guys! I hate high school!"