life as a first grader....then and now

17 years ago, in september 1991 (god i'm old), i was starting the 1st grade at ps104 in brooklyn. i was the skinny, dorky asian girl who didn't know english very well, but still managed to kick my classmates' butts in all subjects at school. everyday, i remember going to school with a 20-pound backpack (i was probably like 30, 40 pounds at most), with all my notebooks (one for each subject), folders, pens, pencils, all that junk. i always had so much work to do, even in first grade! reading, writing journal entries, math problems, math workbooks (CIMS, anyone?). there was this prize thing, where students who did well in academics earned star stickers and whoever had a lot at the end of a certain amount of time got prizes. a good way to earn stickers would be to finish work as quick as you can (and accurate), and i pretty much monopolized that (dang, didn't realize i was so competitive even as a 5-year-old.). anyway, the point was, there was a lot of work to do.

now i'm a teaching assistant in a 1st grade ctt (cooperative team teaching) class, which consists of 60% general ed students and 40% "special ed" students. all students in all 1st grade classes learn things the same way, ctt classrooms are no different except that there are 2 teachers (a gen ed and a special ed teacher). anyway, i've been there for a week now, and i've come to realize that students are taught in SUCH different ways now. for one thing, they don't even have notebooks!!! each student has a clipboard and a mini dry erase writing tablet, but even that hardly gets used! they all have tables and chairs, but they're not sitting there much, only for 20 minutes of reading, 20 minutes of writing, and 15 minutes of snack each day. the rest of the time, they sit on this big rug in the middle of the room and talk and "learn." they never get homework, they barely do work all day, but they are learning. it's so interesting how teaching styles have done a complete 180 and is now so much different than it used to be.

it's so interesting...i wish my peers can sit in the class and see how learning is now, and how different it is from the way that we grew up.

on a slightly different note, i have 4 vivid memories of 1st grade:
1) talking about the elections, and really wanting to vote for bill clinton (lol) - it was such a big thing for 1st graders. funny though...i'm a democrat, but i feel like we were brainwashed to be...
2) knowing our addresses and phone numbers were real important, so our teacher gave us stickers for know what they were. i had known both since i was 4, but my 5-year-old self was kinda embarrassed by my street name. all my classmates' streets were a (#) street, or (#) avenue, but mine was parrott place. i didn't like to be different, so i pretended i didn't know what my address was. and then my teacher drew a big parrot on the board for me to refresh my memory. now that i think about it, it was so sweet of her to do that for me!
3) going to the mcdonald's in manhattan mall (which closed recently), and thinking that i was awesome cos it was definitely the coolest mcdonald's. if you've been there before, you know what i mean - retro-looking and stuff.
4) getting a big cut on my forehead and getting left with the scar that is still above my right eyebrow.

weird, i know.
but 5-year-olds are pretty weird.
and i guess you can say my 22-year-old self is just as weird, if not more.
:)

new beginnings

so at the end of last week, i found out that teaching fellows (which was supposed to start in november) will not be starting now until late june. it screwed up a lot of my plans, including HAVING A JOB and adequate health insurance. thankfully, God is gracious and has provided me with 2 jobs in the meantime. starting tomorrow, i'm gonna be working as a teacher's assistant with josh and elaine at their school, and then going down to after-school program when school is over.

i'm really so excited to be a teacher's assistant. it definitely doesn't pay nearly as well as teaching fellows would have, but i'm glad to be getting the experience that a lot of people don't normally get. i was placed in a first grade ctt (cooperative team teaching) class, which is 60% gen. ed kids and 40% special ed kids. it's the new, modern form of special ed classes. the kids are adorable - ALL of them. it's so ridiculous how cute they are, haha. so while i'm nervous that i'm gonna screw up and horribly influence these kids' lives some way, i'm beyond excited to finally be in a classroom!!! AHHH!

anyone know of more part-time jobs? i really need to start saving money and not spending so much. this weekend, i was driving home from bing and i got a flat tire :( that cost a good $200 to get a new tire, so even less money than before -_-

eh, whatevs, God's been so awesome - just waiting to see what else He has up His sleeve for me :D

SO FRUSTRATING

I HATE ARROGANT, STUBBORN PEOPLE.

YOU CAN'T DO IT ALL ON YOUR OWN!

people really need to get off their high horse and humble their damn selves.

for the first time in...20 years??

so most, if not all, of you know that i've now graduated from college and will not be going back to school. at least not in the fall...hopefully the spring. first time in 20 years...it's definitely the weirdest feeling in the world. people around me, left and right, are all preparing to go back. everyone's excited, there's lots of back-to-school shopping involved, and the new semester gives everyone a fresh start.

for the first time in 4 years, i'm not moving in to a dorm room. even weirder. instead, i'm currently "renovating" my room at home. moving back in after 4 years in college is gonna be an interesting ride...not sure how things are gonna be. but it's alright...i went to ikea today with the 'rents and we bought a bunch of stuff...hopefully i can get everything done in the next 2 weeks. i need to paint, clean everything (vacuum, wipe, dust, mop, the works), unpack all my stuff after 4 years (everything's in boxes or plastic drawers), and rearrange all the furniture + the new stuff i bought. then i need to decorate. yeesh, it's gonna be a rough 2 weeks. hope to get it done by...september 5th!

on another note, guess who the running roots champs are? yep...we won :) too bad this year we decided to play for a boston team (cornerstone church)...next year maybe we'll start a new york team with all-stars and give boston a run for their money :P

have fun with the start of the new semester, kiddies. be good, and study hard! everyone else, let's hang out :)

how to lose lots of money

i went to foxwoods on my way home from rhode island with my family tonight.

i sat with my grandma at the slot machines while she played, and since i was bored, i decided to put $10 in. that was the minimum.

i lost it all in 2 minutes. literally.

ugh..

bad dreams?

the last 2 or 3 times i've been home, i've been sleeping on my own bed with all the sheets on and everything. when i wake up in the morning, the sheets are all completely off my mattress and everything is all tangled. not sure why.

this morning, i woke up and the sheets were still on, so i proudly told my parents. this was their response:
me: my sheets are still on my bed!!!
dad: isn't that normal...?
me: yea, so what. i'm still proud.
mom: does that mean you didn't sleep??

only my parents. haha, funny to me, maybe not so much to you.

anyway, off to rhode island i go :)

underwear on head + hail storm?!

i wore underwear on my head today to camp for a short period of time. real underwear. yes, i looked dumb. but why?

because i'm arrogant. haha. i went bowling with my campers and 3 other counselors on friday, and one of my counselors and i decided to bet against the two other counselors. whoever had the lowest combined score would have to wear underwear on their head for the morning until pool time. this meant in front of the kids. my team had one the first game (no bets made), so we figured we could just easily snatch the second game. our arrogance got to us and we ended up getting whooped. what hustlers. anyway, lesson learned. don't need to wear underwear anymore.

in other news, there was a freaking HAIL STORM today?? some time in the morning, what started as your normal summer thunderstorm quickly turned ugly and fierce. before we knew it, leaves were quickly blowing by and we could NOT see through the windows outside. i've never seen a storm as bad as this one, and i could understand why my campers were scared. (imagine being anxious and having to witness a crazy storm). anyway, one of the windows was open in one of the rooms, and one of the teachers managed to scoop a couple of pieces of hail (pretty big chunks of ice) in. it was crazy. when the storm finally let up, leaves were EVERYWHERE. yes, everywhere. and there was ice all over the floor!!! it looked like it was snowing. crazy...who knew that could happen in august??

gosh, interesting day of events today. and 6 more days of camp left. very sad...i feel like there's been a lot of "ends" to things in the last couple of months, and it's been tough to deal with. soon everyone is going to go back to school, but not me. for the first time since i was 2 or 3, i am not starting school in september. it's really a weird feeling -_-

eh. peace out, homefries. and stay dry :)