I Blogged!

But not here. :-) Check out my guest post over at Ankhesen's blog: http://www.ankhesen-mie.net/2011/11/unicorns-guest-post.html

If you're wondering why I don't blog, it's not because I don't have anything to say (well, right now I don't because I lost my voice, but that's another story). My best stories come from work, but I'm hesitant to put them in the blogosphere. I'm going to try to put up some relationship posts before the end of the month, provided that I feel better. I'm still lurking around the Internet in the meantime. :-)

Can You Ever Really "Not Mean It"?

I always (jokingly) tease Z of attracting weird "friends", especially female ones. He's very much the type to always offer "a shoulder to lean on", and in the past some of his friends treated him as the right guy to hold down the Friend Zone/play pseudo-boyfriend when they were feeling lonely. Of course anyone who would use you like that isn't really a friend, but I digress.

I've mentioned this before, but when we first got together, I told him not to be surprised by some of these friends' words and actions going forward and once again I was right my suspicions proved correct. This time, a friend attempted to impress him by using an offensive word for gay people, Z and his best friend called her out on it, she got defensive, end scene. And did I mentioned this all happened on Facebook? (Gotta love the public smackdown.)

Besides the fact that trying to fit a slur for gay people into the word "professional" is a) stupid and b) makes no sense, I was a bit surprised that said friend tried to go with the "I didn't mean it" (no really, this fool said, "I was trying to mix the words 'antagonistic' and professional') excuse. Not because I don't expect people to get defensive when they get called out on stuff, but because it was obvious to anyone reading that she was trying to impress Z with her wit, and generally when you do something that the person you like doesn't agree with, you fall all over yourself apologizing to get back in their good graces.

Let the record show that saying "I didn't mean it" when you say something offensive makes you look both weak and foolish. Weak because you won't stand by what you said (so why did you say it?) and foolish because 9 times out of 10, the person speaking had enough metalinguistic knowledge to know the connotations of the word she's using. There's few things people can do to me that will get them cut off for the long-term, but unapologetically acting an ass definitely counts.


What say you, readers? Does it really matter if you meant it when you hurt someone's feelings? Have you ever had someone lash out at you when his/her attempt to impress you backfired? And does it make you feel weird when someone says something offensive when the implication is that you would laugh/appreciate what he said? 

**On a lighter note, the first week of school is done, and no school tomorrow for Labor Day (yay!). One thing I love about my kids is that they are so excited about learning--last week I said, "We're going to work on phonics" and they all went, "Yes!". :-)

First Day of School

Surprisingly, the classroom still looked somewhat like this at the end of the day! It's me versus 25 2nd graders, and on a scale of 1-10, I rated today a 5. I'm very excited though; I know my class is going to be awesome!

Funny story: I am a novelty at school because the kids don't understand how a person not of Spanish-speaking descent ended up teaching a bilingual class. Some of the parents were like to their kids, "Well, I guess they got rid of the bilingual class and you'll be learning a lot more English." Then I opened my mouth and the kids were like, "Whew!" They also loved my "artifact bag" activity--basically you put 4 things that are important to you in the bag and then share them with the class. I can't wait to see what they bring (or not...) :-)

Book Review at Socialite Dreams

My review of "When I Get Where I'm Going" is being featured as part of Socialite Dreams' "Beauty AND Brains" series. If you are looking for a good end-of-summer read, check it out. :-)

Moderation...in Moderation?

Even though my blog has been gathering cobwebs for a minute, I still frequent other people's blogs in my free time, and occasionally someone will link to something or make a comment that spurs me to click on another site. More often then not, I stumble upon blogs that interest me, but my biggest pet peeve (well, second to excessive typos) is a lack of moderation that makes the comments section a shitshow.

I'm probably overly critical, but I see no point in writing about "hot" or "controversial" topics, as most of the blogs that interest me do, and then letting your comments be a free-for-all, especially when commenters violate rules that you set in the post. I'm most skeptical of so called social justice/activism blogs, which bring out more kooks than some radically offensive websites--if you care that much about being a safe space/counteracting negative media/blah blah blah, shouldn't you start with your own space?


I don't think any of the blogs I'm referencing care about my opinion of their moderation policies (if you're reading this, I'm pretty certain you are not on that list), but I think this trend is a staple of basic etiquette that's been missing lately on the "new" blogs I've stumbled upon. 


What are your thoughts? Am I asking too much, or is anyone else annoyed by good blogs with crappy commenting sections?

Whew!

Today was the last day of summer school, and I am exhausted! It was a fun day, because we played review games, gave out awards, and gorged on salty, sugary snacks. (My co-teacher and I get more hyper than the kids when we eat junk--I blame the lack of sleep.) Some summer school highlights:

• The student we nicknamed "Cookie Monster". He was such a funny, roly-poly of a kid who loved to talk (and write) about food (sometimes to the point of TMI, like his journal entry about how eating lots of tacos kept him in the bathroom all night). He earned the nickname after he wore a Cookie Monster t-shirt to school one day (side note: those are extremely popular in SoCal, for some odd reason), and he was voted "Best Dancer" on the last day of class. When he grows up, he wants to be a social worker, but sometimes he forgets the term and says he wants to be a "social studies". :-)
• My students (rising 7th graders) were obsessed with finding out personal information about me and my co-teachers, especially our first names. On the last day, we played a trivia game where we showed them facts and they had to guess which one of us it referred to--I loved how my kids used sophisticated logic to figure out the answers, e.g., the fact was "I wanted to become an interpreter in high school" and they were all, "Well you speak Spanish, and you told us once that you want to become a Spanish professor, so it must be you!" Where was that rationality when I was teaching them about arguments in non-fiction texts?
• Student interactions were always pretty interesting. We had one kid that tried to bully some of the other kids, and he failed miserably. Even the quietest kids in class would stand up to him if he tried to be tough, and I think he learned, at least a little bit, that trying to make people afraid of him was a losing game. It didn't help that none of our kids have hit puberty yet, so they're all still under 5 feet with teeny voices.
• After school on the last day, all of the teachers worked together to plant in the school garden and to paint a mural in one of the hallways. I'm allergic to LA plant life, so I helped with the mural, and it looked incredible when we were finished.

I'm tired and I have a lot to do (I'm moving on Friday, plus I have PD and all that for school), but summer school was definitely a fun--albeit challenging, at times--experience. Now I'm really excited to enter second grade in the fall. :-)


**Today (Monday) wasn't really the last day of summer school--I started this awhile ago and just finished the post today.

Whoever Said Teaching Was Easy Lied

That's what I have to say 15 minutes after getting back from school after my first week of teaching. These 6th graders are giving me a run for my money, but apparently I rock at behavior management. :-) So now I'm going to do what all good teachers do on a Friday afternoon--hello, happy hour! ;-P