early musings...

so far my curiosity has ...

-led me to spend a day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Joanna and I had free admission to a new exhibit about a real sunken pirate ship discovery and I later found out this week that one of my favorite students this year was at the exhibit on the same day around the same time! I had never been to that museum, it was pretty cool and the exhibit was awesome.

- made me want to read every single unread book I have on my book shelf. If only there were more hours in the day!

- encouraged some good discussions and questions from my classes about careers and college (that is the theme of this week school-wide) I had my students do an interactive scavenger hunt type lesson on the internet where they researched a college of their choice, how much it costs to go there, what the average GPA is at that school, etc. THEN they had to research a career of their choice, what the requirements for that career is and how much money they will make. Some of the awesome/hilarious things that have come up in conversations
"Miss, I want to be three things for my career! A judge, a loan officer and a real estate agent!" - PS
"Miss, I want to go to Oregan because ducks are tight." - BR
"Miss, what do you do in all your free time in college?" "You study, duh. " -LG answered his own question
"Miss, can you smoke weed and drink in college? And bring your own game system? And spend the night with girls?" - DG
"MIss, I think I want to go to YOUR college" "I want to go to college now!" - JC
"Miss, why aren't you an actress if you studied acting in college?" - AS

and by far my favorite quote of this whole week (and this student was totally oblivious to the movie Forrest Gump and completely sincere when he said this to me...)
"Miss, did you know that life is like a box of chocolates because you never know what you are going to get! My dad told me that!" - DG of course

While in reality, most of my students come from families that don't have college grads in them, the bright side is that they are not discouraged at the ripe ages of 7th and 8th grade. They are very curious and excited about what college is, they just need to become invested in the work that it will take to get them there. Last year I was very resistant to enthusiastically jump on board for college and career week because I felt like a sham talking to them about my magical 4 year experience like it was something that they would never attain. But this year, I am 100% on board, more from the perspective of instilling and planting the seed NOW that college IS attainable, and even though it may look different for them than it did for me, that getting them excited about the possibility of it may be the little spark they need to remind themselves what lies ahead during high school. The cool part about teaching 8th grade is that they still believe everything you tell them, they are very impressionable and trust what you tell them is true. They are not yet jaded by the defeat that they are stuck where they are and the stress of high school and young adulthood has not yet kicked in for them just yet. I am proud when I talk to my students this year about KJ winning a scholarship for college last year and defying the odds of having her essay win. I know that my students this year are even MORE capable of achieving their goals, I just can't give up on telling them that EVERY DAY.

Coming up next for 8th graders is teaching Shakespeare, the modern version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I am super excited but a little overwhelmed with how much pre-planning that requires. Thinking about teaching Shakespeare gets me more and more excited for my job next year and the possibilities that await!

Other news, tried a juice fast today and made it all the way until 6:30pm at which time I had to make myself veggie pasta for dinner because I was unhappy and with a headache. Don't know if I could do that again. Also did not make it to yoga tonight because I was working on organizing t-shirt making for the soccer team tomorrow. SInce we don't have enough uniforms for all the girls to wear to school on game days, tomorrow they are designing their own t-shirts with spray paint and templates that I cut out and made tonight. Sad I missed yoga, and now anxious to see how 22 girls are going to get to spray paint t-shirts tomorrow. Yikes.

Super busy, but really honing in on curiosity every day. Giving love and knowledge to my students until the very end of it!