I like getting enough sleep. An itinerary is good, but if you lesson plan for a living, sometimes it’s nice to go off the plan.
Play it by ear. Make a (short) list of places or things to must-see or must-do and let the rest fall into place.
I’m not the go, go, go type. Doing as much as possible for a day or two is great, but I like to leave room for a low-key day.
Our plans changed yesterday, so we swapped our Zion trip with our chill out day. The plan was to go Monday, better weather. We spent most of the day there today and went from rain, to balmy, to sunny, to cold, to snow, to mostly cloudy and bearable.
Jackets on. Jackets off. Have the sunglasses on you because you may need them in two minutes. We considered canceling because we didn’t have the right gear, but we did have enough.
Algunas veces, no se me ocurre que no sé una palabra en #español. Puedo estar platicando con alguien y tengo que parar y pensar en lo que quiero decir.
Una vez, estaba leyendo un libro a una clase de segundo grado. Era un libro de no ficción sobre animales #bioluminiscentes. Discutimos diferentes tipos de animals y empecé con la pagína con…–vuelan cuando empieza a oscurecer…estos..puedes ver las lucecitas volando. Son #fireflies en inglés–les expliqué
–¡Sí maestra, son fireflies!–
–Pero ¿comó se dice en español?–
Otra maestra, confundida como yo, empezó a buscar la palabra.
–Ahh, luciérnaga!
Todos empezaron decir la palabra.
–Luciérnaga, luciérnaga, luciérnaga!–
Continuamos con el libro. Siempre tengo momentos cuando no sé lo que no sé.
How Do You Say #firefly?
Sometimes it doesn’t occur to me that I don’t know a word in #Spanish. I can be speaking with someone until I have to stop and think about what I want to say.
Once, I was reading aloud to a second grade class. It was a nonfiction book about bioluminescent animals. We discussed different types of animals and I started with a page about “…they fly when it starts to get dark…they…you can see little lights flying. They’re #fireflies in English,” I explained.
“Yes, teacher, they’re fireflies!”
Another teacher, just as confused as me, began looking up the word.
“Ahh, luciérnaga!”
Everyone started chanting the word.
“Luciérnaga, luciérnaga, luciérnaga!”
We continued with the book. I always have moments where I don’t know what I don’t know.
I struggle with staying off my phone. #everything lives there. I’m not the #techie type, but it has gradually choked out all resistance I once had to keeping up with the times (and #Joneses). Every Sunday, my screen time notification lets me know how much of my life bled into #cyberspace.
This week will be different. It won’t be the ghastly #imnotsaying hours it is every week. Nopity, nope. It will be less. I’m cutting it in half. People say researchers say setting your phone to #grayscale will significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on your phone.
#bluelight #screenaddiction #doomscrolling all of the things will improve. So they say. I had to look up directions, because, you know, the #reel I watched went too fast and there I am, taking another #screenshot to add just one more photo to my 10,000+ collection I carry around every day. How much would that weigh in actual #photos?
Is it the #placeboeffect? I have reduced my time, although not by half. It’s about a third. What I have noticed is I #cantfindanything. My apps are organized just so…by #color. I have slowed my scroll because I have to read my screen. (Funny how I’m always telling the kids “Slow your scroll and #readyourscreen!”)
My bank account is a little happier, but Amazon is not. I’m not clicking on useless items to bulk up my #shoppingcart. I’ve taken less screenshots because I’m not scrolling as much. My messages may be a bit off since I’m struggling to find the right #emoji 😃
I do turn it on for a few minutes, especially if I’m getting (more) photos from family members, but overall, I switch it back. It’s #cumbersome to toggle back and forth and I’m not creating a shortcut. Also, it isn’t hurting my eyes. Well, my eyes don’t necessarily hurt, but it isn’t as jarring.
How long will I maintain this? Who knows. I’m curious to see how much of a difference it makes. I can go on with my life #inlivingcolor.
This week, I’m writing in #hashtags. A #postitnote I scrawled on last week led to yesterday’s tip of the day which made me think about how we use them.
Are there #grammarrules? What would #strunkandwhite say about them? Is there a space between a hashtag phrase #likethisone or is it only attached to the #word it connects? If you need #punctuation, (like this comma next door) do you attach it or skip it? So, the boldfaced sentence I just wrote would look like this if I skip it:
If you need #punctuation (like this comma next door) do you attach it or skip it?
But now it #doesntmakesense above because I took out the comma.
Oh, hmmm, what do you do with #contractions? Do you use them or skip them as in the previous #singlesentenceparagraph or #singlesentenceparagraph?
#doesntmakesense
#doesn’tmakesense
#doesnt #make #sense
#doesn’t #make #sense
Perhaps this is a great time to understand and observe how #grammarrules are made and why they exist. Are we now the future #old #cranky people who invented these #dumbrules? Don’t even get me started on #citations…
Way back in my #college days, there was a sub shop, or was it a pizza place? Taco joint? Anyhow, this place advertised #twofer Tuesday and you’d get two for the price of one. I figured since it’s #SOL Tuesday and March SOL #challenge, I’d write two posts. As if this challenge isn’t enough.
Here’s to post #1, my introduction to making myself squirm in my writing seat a little (#alot) more than usual.
#funny how #writing happens. #solchallenge has ideas swirling in the universe. they were bound to #collide with mine. i moved a #postitnote to one side of my desk this afternoon. last week, i #jotted a #sol draft using #hashtags! in full form, i left it at work and #cantremember anything that was on it.
About first loves, her middle school self "She's so cute but needs a big booty, a big booty-licious butt!" Endless ribbons, all colors and textures resemble tangled spaghetti at one end of the table buttons fill a small Mason jar nearby today was meant for cleaning messes not making them, but crafting wins–at least she's off her phone "The first person you date isn't necessarily the one you love..." "Umm...hmm.." I've learned to nod in agreement Listen No need to comment No need to disagree Just listen, while draft ideas struggle to be written She's quiet now, concentrating on re-stuffing a critter she's making from unworn socks The washing machine whirrs through it's Saturday load of laundry Why must weekends skip through time in such a hurry? She stitches the project closed, the one with the big, booty-licious butt "Our school has a confessions page..." "There's this influncer..." Laundry needs drying We save daylight later tonight but didn't the day just begin? She sews I draft She's talking again
Friday nights in Texas usually means football in the fall. On the cusp of spring, it’s baseball. Winter one day, spring the next.
A chill in the air vies for attention letting us know “I’m not done with you yet.”
Tpyos
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren’t distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
–Randy K. Milholland
Tpyos bother me, mostly when wen they're my own mistake, not anyone else's although I do notice them in porfessional settings, such as formal publications online in a book an email form someone important
I take a second look how did it make it past editors? did anyone proofread?
I'm the type who usually proofreads most days including fly by the seat of my pints text messages and yes, I resend revised messages
auto-correct I HATE it! Fixes words that didn't need fixing and changes the enteir meaning is there a name for that?
If you were to have a superpower, what would it be?
I like to think flying, teleportation, or the ability to predict the future might top my list, but no. The ability to go a whole day of teaching without going to the bathroom might top my list. I think most educators have that one built in, so there’s no need to wish for it. I think about weaknesses that come with superpowers and the downside to having something special so I can’t ever answer this question because I take it way too seriously.
However, I do have a superpower.
I can smell weird things. Weird things other people can’t smell. When I was expecting my first kiddo, I smelled cow manure. My husband and I were driving on the highway and I smelled it. Odd though, there aren’t many cattle trucks around here. Sure enough, a few minutes later, we passed one. I smelled it from about a mile away.
Last week I kept getting a whiff of some grandma smelling perfume. At work. I checked my desk. Is it my lotion? Everything I use is unscented. What could it be? Valentine’s Day flowers are long gone. Did a student leave something? I forgot about it until I sat at my desk this morning.
“Do you wear perfume?” I ask work bestie.
“No, the scent gives me headaches. I haven’t worn it in years.”
“Same,” I agree. “But don’t you smell something perfume-y? Like old perfume? Grandma perfume from when we were kids?”
She comes over to my desk and starts sniffing. “Is it your lotion?” she asks.
“No, it’s unscented, but it does have a cosmetic type smell. Wilhelmina, stop messing with me,” I announce.
“Wilhelmina?”
“Yeah, my class ghost, remember?”
We both start sniffing, like those cartoon hound dogs that put their noses across every surface, going up and down every object on and around my desk. The computer monitor and keyboard. The drawers, open and closed. A stack of papers. Dog man book marks still sealed in the packages. I reach for the ones in the acrylic holder and sniff. Nope.
Sniff, sniff, whiff, sniff…
A stack of books. Maybe it’s a book? One by one, she goes through a stack I’m working on, opening them and moving them to the counter as she eliminates each suspect.
“Aha! This one smells funny. It smells like powder. Is it this that you’re smelling?”
I take a whiff…BINGO!
Never suspecting the book, it never occurred to me to sniff through the stack. I move it to the cart of new nonfiction books, far away from me.
It may take a little longer to nail the culprit, but I’ve still got it.
Nerds Beget Nerds 