Amandoo’s Handle of Realitumtum

Sometimes my tendency towards rhyming makes it hard for me to think freely. I need to get on the Miss Rap Supreme show pretty fast. Because we all know I can frizzle stizzle, and I’ve just been waitin to get the ghetto out of me now that I’m done school. Sure, maybe I’m supposed to be a sweet role model for the children, the future, I hope to teach, but maybe achieving this odd dream of mine is something worthwhile, something silly enough to give both myself and the children a laugh or two.

So odd of me to have a blog where I want to share both everything about myself and nothing personal. I keep it true to a fine-tune and I think that shows through it all, and now I’ll give you something interesting to reflect on:

What It Is.

DONE!

so happy to finally be done three long years of mastering my life. soon enough i will have the qualifications to teach French in any high school here in Piyay….or really any other state as well. it all depends on how much they like me. and I like myself a lot. I actually grew to be a very competent teacher, or rather, I have the potential and ability to continue to grow into a competent teacher.

yay!

I am too excited. now it’s time to look for a Summer job and send out packets to potential Fall school jobs. YAY!!!

Ron Paul anyone? Remember Ron Paul tomorrow when you head out to the ballet poles. Please remember this man when you think of happiness, hope, and freedom.

Also remember that after tomorrow I am basically done with my Master of Arts. I do say basically because I have to go and turn in and present all of my stuff stuffs and stuff, but seriously. Watch out people!

I’m going into the world with a vengeance and never looking back. Well. I’ll probably keep spinning my head all wildly around like a vagabond.

Quality blogging to follow……………procrastination lessening? yeah. right.

yes ladies and gentlemen, that’s right. i’m almost done student teaching. and the craziest part?! my last observation went really well today. so yay! yay for that. i am really glad. i have never felt better (besides being insanely tired and overwhelmed with finishing up) but the end is so close (almost) nothing could bring me down. i will be done over two decades of school.

and then i have to find a job in a school. student teaching has been good. a real good look into the life of a teacher. and i like it, and sometimes i don’t. so i will look into other jobs as well. but i may as well try teaching for a bit now that i’ve done so much of the work for free.

oh will there be celebrating! probably about 8 or 10 parties. you might be invited to one of them.

woohooooo!

“Alicia Keys Blames White People, Admires Black Panthers”

I don’t like to get into celebrities much, except if they need a good roast.

Alicia Keys moves awkwardly. When she’s standing up playing piano in that one video, she looks like more than a fool. And then I read that article.

She says: “‘Gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. ‘Gangsta rap’ didn’t exist.”
What? I don’t quite get the context of the second sentence. First sentence? She might have a point. But then she goes and gets into it to make more awkward statements.

Also: “Keys, 27, said she’s read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck “to symbolize strength, power and killing ‘em dead,” according to an interview in the magazine’s May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.”

How is that doing any good? I’d also like to have known more about what she meant by “killing ‘em dead”. Isn’t that making more hatred and racism?

If she’s trying to make some sophisticated point, I don’t think she’s doing a good job.

And, as someone commented on that article- if you really want to make a point, keep more of your clothes on. Otherwise not doing anything to aid the gangsta-rap-warfare, and you’re degrading yourself and contributing to the cheapening of womankind by trying to use your body to further your career.

That’s a whole other subject. This is enough for today. Well…here’s a closing point:

Alicia Keys, you look dumb in this picture

how can we get children/teens these days to think? what can they make of the world?

they are addicted to constant flashy input and changes in technologies and ways of communicating. they are addicted to computer games, video games, texting and instant messaging, and all sorts of technologies.

they are in a competitive society (ameriduh) that bases grades and rankings on an odd, mismatched actual-intelligence-to-performance scale. they want to do the work for a grade, not to learn.

i try my best to plan things that the students will enjoy, and i still fall short.

there is less respect out there now than ever, and i can think of a few reasons why. ameriduh is so relaxed and falsely intimate (think facebook status updates: Julie is laughing at Robert who is drunk on the floor). and don’t even get me started with politics and the structure and values in society.

i’m saying a whole bunch of things. but mostly i was surprised that when i asked students to think and put some things they knew and had recently learned together…some of them couldn’t even begin to start thinking. they can memorize and repeat. often times without it even getting in their head. five seconds later someone will ask “what does that word mean?” that we were going over, or, “what are we doing?” and i said it and wrote it on the board.

well. who knows. it could still be partially my fault that i don’t spend 17 hours a day planning lessons. but i think it is a change in attitude and in how much thinking children do. they don’t have to be creative these days, the toys and the technology is creative for them. everyone gets a medal for trying, but then there are the SATS and the PSATS and the PSSAs and the ranking and tracking and the testing and it gets them all messed up.

i don’t know how to think right now, but i just can’t believe the amount of work a good teacher has to put in and can still feel like an entertainer and a disciplinarian (sometimes more like a babysitter), and occasionally a magician. all that and more before you can just be a teacher.

blippity bloppity doo.

I’m a little bit sad, but you can’t dwell on that. Sadness is only appropriate for so long as a means of dealing with something, and I know the importance of letting sadness happen and letting it come and go, but you must keep moving through life. Accomplishments, goals, progress, and change. What motivates you to move forward?

I’m a little sad, but I could watch this video 20 times in a row to make me smile.

Little Guinean Boy Dancing Happily to Guitar

And sometimes you need something to take your mind off the sadness, and it can help you move forward.

I realize more and more how important holding on to what I love and strive for is…what I mean?………. I do want to teach and I think that will be a fulfilling, challenging, and worthwhile endeavor…………….and once I am making money doing it (albeit not that much, but hey…I’m sick of being a “poor college student” and I’m not even a college student anymore!)…….but once I’m making money from the work and it’s my main focus, I will happily and heartily put my energy into both making time for my passions, and making my interests a part of my everyday life.

Writing, music, walking, reading, more music in a variety of ways, singing, talking with friends, helping children learn foreign languages :), and maybe even some form of volunteering. I feel like teaching is volunteering in a way too. It’s such a full-time job. Right now it has the potential to take up literally all of my time besides some sleep.

But yeah, back to the video. Sometimes little things happen in life and help you get through whatever it is you’re going through…sadness, fear, anxiety, bla bla bla…anything difficult can be aided if you open your eyes……………………..etcetera.

You can HARDLY disagree with this video in any way, shape, or form.

At least not in any way that I’d really listen to.

Yes. Just yes.That video again gives me hope.

“Wazzup”

I am happy for that little guy, and happy to say that I am a good, well-rounded person who is by no means boring enough to be described in a few words like “good, well-rounded”.

The reason I blog is to remind you that I am busy, busy with student teaching so that is why I have not been blogging (lame excuse, but my future depends on it). I also was reflecting on my past and I realized how happy I am to say that I successfully studied abroad and helped French children paint when I had no idea how to do it myself. I braved painting during the adult classes and speaking French with real French adults. I was a nervous college student who had some views, but they were general and “liberal” and these people both made me speak French in conversations with them, and they made me declare and defend my position.

I hated it at the time. Now I see that it was one of the more important parts of the studying in France experience. It made me a better human in so many ways.

There were plenty other of these instances where I grew (or was forced) to become a more well-rounded, opinionated person and I look back on them so fondly I can hardly believe I haven’t been to France since!

There are so many reasons why I benefited from studying abroad and so you should do it. No matter what your major is, no matter how old or young you are. At least get out there and travel, or learn a foreign language.

It can really change your life. I am happy now living off of those memories. I am happy to think about where that experience has and will take me in the future. Yay!

Yay for the humongous irony in this photo of a wonderful billboard from some small town: “English is our Language: No Excetions. Learn it.”

I like the online commentary as well. Some people are humorous and witty “That’s funny: they left out the ‘r’ in “excretions”!” and some are, for lack of a nicer word, DUMB. “Actually it’s the “p” that they left out. Its meant to say “no exceptions.”” Duh.

Check out the choice commentaries. I really like the mix of people online and how some are smart, some are stupid, and my favorite ones poke fun of the dumb ones in a witty way such that they probably don’t even realize it (sad. but not really).

Another good comment?

“america has always been a melting pot with different languages spoken. this is nothing new. get over it and start worrying about real things like what the federal government is doing to the economy, not the immigrants who are doing the jobs that you don’t want to do.”

Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. We have our foci all mixed up. Truly. Constantly. For some it gets worse and worse as they continue to watch the same TV channels and take in the same sensationalized froofy news (blech).

Another great commentary? “Seth’s Blog” - Why bother having a resume? Some very good points made here.

Why should I have focus on a perfectly formatted paper document resume when I have so much more to show online or in projects I’ve done. I know that they want your portfolio when you get an interview, but in this day and age I am sending my resume through emails a lot and if I don’t attach a cover letter it makes it even less personal.

I know I am actually a fabulous person. With real potential to be a great teacher. So now I need to refine my portfolio and ask the right people for a couple of letters of recommendation and see what I can swing. I know I can continually word my resume better (I almost always want to re-write my blogs but fortunately for other imperfect humans out there, I don’t, so you see the rambling mumble-jumble of me and my life as it continues)…continuing on the resume-wording thought….there will always be people who have spent hundreds of hours poring it over, rewording it, using the right type of phrasing to make washing dishes sound like a cultural cuisine conquest. You know what I mean. Seth is right. In the world of today, if you really do stand out, and want to prove it, see if you can get a human to be in contact with, and make something of yourself…show the side that brings the words to life, and be a real woh-man!

Love,
A too-tired-and-unfortunately-constantly-semi-sick-little-worker-penguin, looking for handouts (and not the kind I’ve spent many hours creating for our children), because I teach your children with 60/70 hours of work a week…for no payment, for negative payment actually (I have to pay my school to student teach )

PS (Give me money and I will give more other good stuff back to the world) Yeah. Anybody?

I guess jobs could eventually fill this hole in my hall.