Class of 2015

I was so proud of each and every one of students as they walked across the beautiful stage in Mayer Theater at Santa Clara University on June 10th. It warms my heart to that my students graduation ceremony is at the … Continue reading

Prom 2015

One of the end of the schoolyear events that I always look forward to is prom. It’s the only dance that I attend during the whole year. It’s mostly juniors and seniors that go, and it’s my favorite afterschool event … Continue reading

Fresh Start, Apple-Picking and Classes

I feel like each day feels really long, but the weeks and months go by quickly. Fall and Christmas are two of my favorite seasons, so I am trying to soak up every small moment. I officially had my first … Continue reading

Year Two, To-Do Lists, Blue Beast and SCU

So I fell off the blog writing planet. My apologies, but life turned into one hot mess. But I’m back now!

I started back with professional development at my school basically the first week of August. It was a surprising return to work after a lazy, delicious week and a half in France, and a week in Holland with my dear old mum.

This year I am teaching 4 sections of Intro to Art, and one new honours class called Visual Communications. It has been a big change jumping from teaching 3 sections last year to having 2 preps and teaching 5 classes this year. I’m also in my second year of BTSA, which is this huge project that feels like insane amounts of busy work.

In September I started at Santa Clara University for my Master’s program. It has been the worst experience of schooling in my life, but I have already invested so much there, that leaving now seems like such a waste. I can go more in to detail at a later point, but for now I am just putting my head down and finishing my masters and getting the hell outta there. I thank god, that my good friend Annie is in the program with me, or else I would have given up on SCU a long time ago.

About 3 weeks ago, I was in a car accident on the freeway. I was shaken up and pretty sore, but overall I am fine. My beloved blue beast of a Prius, was not fine, it was totaled. It was my first accident where I had been the driver.

Losing my car was such an emotional blow to me, it was my first brand new thing, that I got to pick out and own all by myself. Afterwards I struggled with feeling guilty, even though it was not my fault at all, I still felt a sense of loss over losing my first car. I have been unbelievably blessed by kind and giving parents (and a super awesome and helpful brother) who are helping me with all of this headache and drama of being in a serious car accident.

We got money from the insurance company pretty quickly, but I wanted to do some research on cars. I looked at a few others, but am pleased to say that I am going with another Prius. For now, I am lucky enough to borrow my mom’s car while my parents are out of town. My brother has been amazing over the last few weeks, he was a giant help with the whole car mess, and overall we have been hanging out a ton and getting along famously (which is rare for us), so that’s nice.

So, in short, life has been busy, some days better than others, but still pretty good I would say. I am trying to remain positive. I have a job I love, a great itty bitty apartment that is all mine, and in the future, a bigger paycheck. I voted (yahoo!) and have been trying to stay on top of all my different areas of life. But to be fair, my to-do list is out of control! Even my to do lists has a to-do list! I am so behind on my Christmas shopping, usually by now I’m done.

But, life is still pretty good. Hows yours? How are things? How has your week been?

-S

Vans Custom Culture Shoe Competition 2014

Over the last few weekss, I had four industrious students work on designing a pair of shoes for a high school art competition. Hosted by Vans Shoe company, they send high school art teachers 4 pairs of free shoes to … Continue reading

Work, Testing and Becoming a Yearbook Teacher,

Work has been busy, and it occurs to me that I haven’t really talked about what the Roomie and I do during the day.

The Roomie and I work together at a small charter high school in san Jose. I teach two periods of intro to art, and then work as the site testing coordinator for the rest of the afternoon. I tackle a combination of paperwork from MAPS (Measure of Academic Progress), CELDT (California English Language Development) CAHSEE ( California High School Exit Exam) and most recently added PSAT and SAT Testing for our school. I organise, assist proctor, proctor the tests, and then collect and ship all the documents back.

In one aspect, it is nice that I teach for a bit, and then get to format the rest of the day any way I choose. But, it is also a lot of paperwork to read through (Dull stuff too), and mind-numbing test proctoring. I have been playing a lot of catch-up in both sections in addition to starting my BITSA training.

Also, I am the yearbook coordinator for our school. Getting that program ( a club at lunch really) up and running has been a lot of fumbling in the dark since there aren’t many notes left from my predecessor. He has been helpful, but I am making a lot of decisions that I hope will pan out well!! We shall wait and see.

The Roomie is also working hard, and teaches the girls soccer team after-school. We get home most days around 6, and dive into dinner and cuddle time with the pups. They sorely miss us, so we try to give them lots of love when we are home. Our days are long but the weeks tend to fly by. We have been very busy with the quarter ending this past Monday, so writing posts has somewhat fallen to the wayside. Now that I have had a few weeks of work under my belt, I am hoping to build gym time and blogging time back into my daily life. I also just got a Canon Rebel Xti from work to play around with for yearbook, so expect more photo saturated posts coming soon!

Today and tomorrow Roomie and I are at a professional development session at our sister school in Hayward. Tomorrow my group (the art teachers), are hitting up museums in San Fran, so expect a photo filled entry tomorrow!

Happy almost Friday! (it feels like one to me since we don’t have students for two days!)

Ps. What should I be for Halloween? I have no clue! 

Love,

-S

Summer Weddings, Premieres and a 3-Day Week

The wedding yesterday was beautiful! It was at a local farm with in a beautiful meadow called Hidden Villa. Stefanie and I had gone to high school together, and kept in touch in college because we both were studying art. She is the rare gal that marries her high school sweetheart.  I had seen their romance from the very beginning and their wedding was a lovely start to their new life together. The cake was fantastic, a kind that I had not had before, called champagne cake. She had asked a few of us to make desserts, so there were 8 additional yummy things to sample, including my lemon bars!

She painted all these bottles that made up the aisle.

She painted all these bottles that made up the aisle.

I loved her lace dress!

I loved her lace dress!

She started tearing up when she read her vows.

She started tearing up when she read her vows. This is post-kiss!

I liked the doors that were at the end of the aisle.

I liked the doors that were at the end of the aisle.

We danced in the barn after dinner.

We danced in the barn after dinner. She made all these artistic details that pulled it all together so well.

The champagne cake.

The champagne cake.

The weather could not have been more perfect, considering the weekend before it had poured all day! It was warm and sunny until late in the evening. All in all, it was an amazing day.

Today I took care of things about the house, lazed with the pups watched ridiculous amounts of T.V (the good wife premiere!!!) and prepping for school. This week we have only three days of school, which fits in perfectly with my birthday on Saturday.

Hope you had a fun and relaxing Sunday!

Love,

-S