Introversion

I have one student that frequently eats in my classroom and he frequently points out things about me that he finds strange and unusual.  Today lunch started with him telling me I'm unusually happy most of the time.  I just can't think of any reason not to be happy (other than the fact that my 30 minutes of peace and quiet are being interrupted).  He continued to tell me that I am a strange person.  Apparently, young people are supposed to go out and be the life of the party and center of attention all the time.  He views me as a person that is alone all the time and doesn't socialize.  At this point in the conversation I decided it was time to take a break from the math lessons and teach him a new word:  introvert.  He found the concept to be completely absurd and asked me if I would be one of those old ladies that is in a book club and reads books all day.  I wouldn't mind being a 24 year old who does that!  I unfortunately have a job so I have to leave the book reading for my evenings.  I searched "introvert problems" on pinterest and found these practically perfect images.

2013

I used to think I was too cool for two holiday traditions: wearing green on St. Patricks Day and setting New Years Resolutions.  Time has passed and I've become a not-so-cool math teacher and got over my New Years Resolution thing (I still refuse to wear green on St. Patty's Day).  I actually put some serious thought into what I wanted to accomplish and wrote some pretty good resolutions, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I only kept one - travel somewhere once a month.  To be completely honesty, I really didn't even do that because I didn't take a trip in January, but February through December were good.

Without further ado, here is my 2013 vacation year in review:

February - Las Vegas - Hoover Dam

March - Utah - Easter Sunrise

April - Denver, Colorado - "Before I die" wall

May - The Grand Canyon

June - Lake Powell

July - Carlsbad, California - Rachel's wedding

August - Utah - Tracy's wedding

September - San Diego, California

October - Austin, Texa

November - Utah - Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

November - Utah - lights at Temple Square

December - Utah - Annual Romantic Breakfast/Kimball's 25th Birthday

December - Utah - Christmas Day at Snowbird

Illness

I have found myself to have fallen ill to a very serious disease.  It's called senioritis.  85% of high school, college, and graduate school "seniors" are victims of this disease.  The most common symptoms are procrastination, motivation to complete any tasks that are not related to homework, inexplicable headaches, a lack of sleep, and beginning final projects at 8 PM the night before they are due.  Good news is, most victims of this terrible ailment are able to see a light at the end of the tunnel (although that light may be the sun coming up after an all-nighter).  One more day, and then one more semester.  I can do this!

Theme Song

Let's talk dating for a minute.  I was looking at Facebook yesterday and noticed that most of the pictures of me that have been taken in the last year and a half are pictures of me at my friends weddings.  Cool.  My social life in Phoenix has been more of a complete lack since I moved here last May.  The main reason for that is the fact that I work so much.  And most of the time, I'm honestly ok with that.  I love my job and I love my students and I am almost always happy when I'm thinking about them, but every few months I start to go a little insane.  Luckily my temporary insanity is always just in time for fall break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or spring break so I can take a few days to recharge.  Anywho, as of late I've been attempting to broaden my social circle and occupy my weekends with something other than a stack of papers and my research project.  Anyone who was concerned about my mental well-being and my ability to meet people will be happy to know that I've been dating lately.  It's true, I really have!  My roommate commented Friday night that she was surprised to see me at home and not out with someone.  I'm really not sure how this all started happening.  I've found myself meeting and going out with more people in the last month than I did in the year prior.  Then again, it wouldn't be too hard to beat that considering the fact that I was basically dating one person followed by no one.  After my last outing I noticed a completely unintentional post-dating ritual of mine.  Every time I go out with someone, I find myself listening to the song "I Just Haven't Met You Yet," by Michael Buble within 24 hours.  I got a little chuckle out of that as I was driving to church yesterday morning, singing all the words of my new theme song.

Insult Bombs

For some reason my kiddos are obsessed with my appearance and my personal life.  They are also extremely inconsiderate and rude when talking about their two obsessions.  The good thing is that they're just high schoolers and I know you can't take anything they say to heart.  Here are some of the wonderful things they've said to me:

• "My mom always wears sweaters like yours.  I think they're so ugly."
• To an aide, "finally, I get to work with a teacher I actually like."  To me, "don't worry, you are my second favorite teacher in the room"
• "You're so fashionable this year.  Last year you looked ratchet all the time.  We would look at you and be like, 'you know she didn't even try today.'  Seriously, you'd wear these big baggy cardigan's all the time."
• "Ms. Sansom, you never match"
• "Hey Miss, what would you do if there was this girl that liked you, but you didn't like her back....wait, never mind.  You're not the type of person that dates.  I'll ask someone else."
• "Do you have a boyfriend now?  Lately you've been getting ready and your outfits match"
• "I like to imagine that you just have songs about math on your iPod."
• "You have friends?!  I didn't know you had friends!"

I guess my goal of teaching my students to be decent, kind human beings hasn't really played out quite yet.

I found this in another teacher's room and thought it was hilarious.  The level of talent in desk art has skyrocketed this year.  I am quite impressed.  

Resolutions

At the beginning of the year I set six New Years Resolutions.  I don't think I have ever actually accomplished all my resolutions.  In fact, I don't think I have ever accomplished one resolution.  I was all about five of them and the sixth was more just for fun.  The sixth also happens to be the only one I've actually completed and will go down in history as the first New Years Resolution I have ever kept. Go ahead and give me a round of applause.  My sixth resolution was to go on a vacation every month of the year.  Some were not that glamorous, but every month this year so far has included at least one weekend out of wherever I was currently living.  My holiday plane tickets are booked so, unless something goes terribly wrong, you can consider this resolution checked off.  Here's a little recap of my last two vacations

For September I was going to go to Flagstaff for a weekend of hiking, but that didn't happen.  The last weekend rolled around and I hadn't gone anywhere so I jumped in the car after school and drove to San Diego to see my friends Rachel and Andy.  The weekend involved lots of eating, sleeping, walking, and talking.  It was actually quite perfect.

Arizona gives teachers the most wonderful gift every October - a full week for fall break!  It's spectacular.  I went with my roommate to her parent's house just outside of Austin, Texas.  This vacation also included a lot of sleeping.  We did spend some time at the University of Texas and checking out Austin, but my favorite part of the trip was sitting at the lake house next to the fire or on the balcony and relaxing during my time off.

Monday. Bah Humbug.

It's 10:06 PM and I am in lying in bed thinking, "how is today over?"  Seriously, where did Monday go?  We didn't start off on the right foot today.  When the 4:30 AM alarm went off I managed to convince myself that the battle with my running shoes and the pavement was not worth it.  That was a bad idea because I then continued to convince myself waking up wasn't necessary until it was after 6:00 and very necessary.  Next I realized I hadn't bought groceries and had no food for breakfast or lunch.  Breakfast turned into the only thing I could find in the fridge - a tuna fish quesadilla.  Then that quesadilla ended up on the floor.  It's ok, blow on it twice, brush it off, and it's good as new.  Then that same quesadilla ended up on my car/garage floor.  Once again, blow on it twice, brush it off, good as new.  The copy machine ran out of paper, I realized 6 exams were MIA, I lost the 45-day surveys, and realized I never made a powerpoint for the lesson 5 minutes after class started.  The nice thing is I've become extremely flexible as a teacher and somehow made it through the day.

I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but if I could, these would be their self-portraits

Now I'm going to brag.  My students scored a 75% average on a really hard test last week.  Their first test was a 65% average.  Booyah!  I literally skipped out of my classroom after I graded their exam on Thursday.  My other class scored an 87% average on a quiz today that I did not think they were ready for.  In the middle of everything going wrong this morning, I found four, sweet letters from past students in my box.  Today we started systems of equations which I love and in 4 days I'm going to Austin for Fall Break.

Systems of Equations are my favorite because we bring out the Chickens and Pigs