potpourri

[constance]

More bullet-points for your reading pleasure.

• I love my friends from my erstwhile office very dearly, but man, that doesn't mean I'm blind to their faults, one of the biggest of which is that they keep sending me those goddamned chain emails. You know, the ones that insist that if I don't send this to my entire contact list the angels in heaven will weep and my children will get sick and my dogs will eat me alive in the night while I sleep and I will never find another pair of jeans to fit me as long as I live.
  
  Something mysterious about me is that for some reason I can't just delete these as soon as I realize what they are, and get on with my life, which is what I do with most delete-able things I find annoying. No, I must sit and read every word, getting increasingly balky and furious, until by the end I am fuming "ALL RIGHT THEN, BASTARDS, DO YOUR WORST" as I pound the delete key.
  
  Today there were three in my inbox. And so if tomorrow you hear that I was killed when a plane came crashing through my roof, you will understand that mysterious chain-letter forces were at work, and you can remind me of my folly when next we meet.



• I had lunch with my aforementioned work posse this afternoon, and came home with a burning desire to go back to college and get another degree, something far away from the unstable tech industry, something that doesn't involve sticking needles into other people's skin which I AM SORRY I CANNOT DO IT MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACH OKAY, something that involves small children -- in short, a degree in elementary education -- and I am counting on you to either offer words of encouragement or else remind me how many different kinds of hell it would be to teach for the next thirty years or so. Would you want me to teach your children? Be honest.



• I've been dreaming in fanfiction lately. I've had dreams about Frank and Alice Longbottom. Dreams about Anne of Green Gables. Dreams about Dream. (Actually, the dream about Dream was actually a crossover featuring the Longbottoms.) Dreams about Peanuts. I do wonder if I've somehow lost my capacity for original dreaming, but in the meantime, I'm mostly waking up smiling bemusedly, which I have to say is not at all a bad way to wake up.



• I am a sucker for that trendy pale aqua/chocolate brown color combination. Anything that can possibly be produced in those colors is something that I am instantly drawn to. And yet I understand from certain people that it is not universally popular. Do you have any feelings for these colors? I ask merely for information.



• Leory the new dog is improving daily, looks-wise. His fur is shiny and growing longer and there are no bald patches at all any more; he has this trick where he sneaks his 60-lb. carcass onto my lap in tiny, gradual stages that I find completely irresistible; and if there is anything at all in the world better than looking over at your dog and as soon as you make eye contact he jumps to his feet and trots over (because he is absolutely incapable of walking anywhere) as if he's been waiting patiently for you to notice him, I want you to tell me what it is because I need most of the inspiration I can get these days.

Anyway, hi, everybody. I hope you're all okay.

Comments

[tilney.livejournal.com]

I think if yo taught my children they would grow up to be imaginative, sensitive, thoughful, gently obsessive (I mean it in the best way individuals. In a word, yes, I think that with the good judgement you seem to have you might have a go at actually trying to get a bunch of screaming semi-demons (sorry, my personal bias is showing) to pay attention to you. :)

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, I have this picture in my head now of holding a hundred or so literal imps of satan spellbound. It would be kind of cool to try this; too bad I don't personally know any demons!

[aubrem.livejournal.com]

I adore the blue and brown. I also adored the pink and brown of last year.

I think you would make a good elem teacher because you would be interested in each child as an individual. You take joy in the small things. I would love for you to teach my children. From what I can see the job needs a strong sense of humor though - do you have that? I know you have a marvelous sense of whimsy but how about outright laughter in the face of chaos and mayhem?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Me too on the pink and brown! I was working on a fanfic website and almost went with a pink and brown format, in fact -- in fact, the livejournal prototype is still pink and brown.

I think I have both a sense of humor and a pretty finely developed sense of the absurd. But I'm not sure who doesn't think these things about themselves -- I don't know if I'm the best judge, in the end.

[somniesperus.livejournal.com]

I think you would make an amazing elem school teacher in a perfect world, where teachers are actually paid enough and class sizes aren't full to bursting and people aren't crammed in trailers and the kids' parents aren't crack addicts. (My mother and my sister are both teachers.) As it is, the best advice I can give is to find a very wealthy district with a good tax base, where the schools might be properly funded and there might actually be enough teachers to go round.

You WOULD be a fantastic teacher. Forget my kids, I'd love you to teach *me.* But I'd be afraid you'd get burned out and discouraged, and I would hate to see that happen to you because you are so lovely. :\

[tofty.livejournal.com]

These are the things I worry about too, the parents and the conditions of the schools, the possibility of getting burnt out. And of course it's possible to get burnt out working at any career, and goodness knows I'm feeling burnt out right at this moment; but somehow teaching seems to be a more, well, flammable career than most.

Thanks for the answer, sweetie -- it's given me something to think about.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

The ever-eloquent somniesperus beat me to all the good points about elementary school teaching. On the other hand, my cousin's been at it for 10 years now in one baaaaadass neighborhood, and he still hasn't cracked, so who knows? (It's a draw, by the way, on who I'd rather have teaching my children- you or him. In the best-case scenario, you both would, exclusively, till they both graduated college.)

You know, my whole year of semi-immersion in the public school system saw me vaccilating wildly between, "Dang, I want to do this full-time!" and "What kind of crack was I on to even agree to 5 classes a week?" Then again, I don't quite have your rapport with children. What age group are you most drawn to, by the way?

I love the pale aqua and brown combo, too; both with and without the addition of pink. It's my second most compelling color combination after pale aqua and lime green.

Yay for Leory getting shinier! And no, there isn't anything better than the eye contact-initiating-the-trotting-over thing, unless it's the Lab-centric, "OMG I'm so glad to see you that I need to quickly go find something to carry around in my mouth while I circle you wildly or I may combust from sheer excitement!"

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I can see myself vacillating in this way too, even in between the particularly rewarding or disturbing episodes. as I said to Telanu, it just seems to be one of those professions one would be easily either exalted or despairing over.

As for my rapport with kids, I wouldn't say that I'm universally beloved by any means, and I expect you do pretty well along those lines! *pokes you* Ideally, I'd want to teach first through third grade, where kids are old enough to be expected to settle down and learn but maybe still a tiny bit awed by authority in general.

Ahhhh, you're right, the dancing-around-with-things is particularly delightful in dogs. Neither of mine does it, but Titus, the bbd-greyhound who was to be mine before my vile-indian-giver mother changed her mind, has a whole arsenal of toys he employs to this purpose. My personal favorite (and his too) is the stuffed Ogre that's about four times the size of his head.

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

Others have expressed my concerns about the problems of teaching as a career, but I do think you'd be good at it. Do you have any professional experience with kids? If you really think you might want to do it, I'd suggest that you find a volunteer opportunity with kids and check it out. I've been a nanny and a Sunday school teacher and really loved it, but I know I can't be satisfied with the salaries available to teachers in the kinds of places I like to live.

That aqua and brown combo is beginning to grow on me a little. I like it better than the chocolate brown with powder blue that preceded it. Greener is definitely better to me. What I do like a lot is deep coffee brown with pistachio green and little touches of bright red. In general I've always favored the warm jewel tones, especially magenta. I really like the jewel tones with a neutral, say hot pink, orange, and royal blue with a golden brown. I always think of those combinations as "Missoni" colors.

*feels unreasonable urge to send you a Tibetan love charm chain letter*

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I worked as a nanny and in day-care centers all through college, so I do have professional experience with children.

Money's not as much of a concern to me, really. I don't live in the expensive markets that I believe you prefer -- in fact, if I stay in Macon which I'd prefer to do because my house is here, I'll remain in one of the most reasonable "urban" markets in the country -- and so a living wage is much lower for me than it would be for you. Not only would a starting public-school teacher's salary easily support my life in GA, but it would also be actually more than the money I made at my last job, which paid shockingly badly for the tech industry.

And as I mentioned above, I share reservations about the system in general, and was as horrified by Shame of the Nation as anyone. Without a doubt my biggest concerns would be for the conditions in the schools here. (Especially because I'd probably stay in Georgia for several years after graduating; the financial aid structure for education programs in this state means the longer you stay here, the less you owe on loans.) And since nothing I've seen about the way this state and my city are run gives me a whole lot of faith that the schools will be especially productive or well-funded (though that would be something I'd want to look more carefully into), yeah, definitely a worry.

[tinderblast.livejournal.com]

I heart Leory. Why can't he sneak onto my lap?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

He has told me that it is because you have not been formally introduced. We must take steps to remedy this oversight.

[tinderblast.livejournal.com]

That's true. Now I have to add 'uncommonly polite for a contemporary young pup' to his list of glowing attributes.

You have connections

[(Anonymous)]

Cammy / Rebs,
This is chris. You are in luck! I work at Educational Research Service and could probably get some good advice on where to go to school or what the jobs are looking like or salaries paid to teachers (i do that!) or ....OR you could come work for us. No, we don't work with kids directly, but we do help a lot! And we have a bunch of job offerings opening up. yay!

Re: You have connections

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I do have connections, don't I?? That's definitely something to think about, the think-tank route -- I don't suppose I could work for them and still live in Macon, though? I will probably be going to Macon State, who of course are pleased to fund my education and that is very important, but as for markets and salaries, hit me, baby! I'd love to see some of the stats (especially, right at first, in GA).

[leestone.livejournal.com]

Funny, I'm the reverse of Amelia--I prefer the powder blue/brown combo to the aqua/brown. However: pink, powder, aqua, whatever...I like them all with brown. Brown is so phenomenally underrated. We've discussed this.

I have lots of opinions about you as a teacher, all of which are positive. But I think I'll go call you to discuss them in person instead of typing it all out. ^_^

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Chocolate brown is without question my favorite neutral; really, I like it with just about any pastel.

Yay for phone calls! I am walking over to my phone right now so that I might beat you to the punch. :D