Pre-poetry micro-challenge: Weekly edition 2 - Focus

As you know if you've been following, I've been working on building the habit of habit-building, and of doing things for specific sustained periods, few at a time or singly. The first month of school has been a trial by fire, and I think I'm still surviving, though I can't say I've come through unscathed. However, I have not pressed the snooze button a single time this month so far. That habit at least I feel I can say I have developed to sustainability.

Pre-poetry micro-challenge: Update (or: Day-what?)

                                                       

It's become obvious to me (and maybe to you, if you've noted the paucity of posts in the past weeks) that the quotidian scheduling of this challenge is incompatible with my new school-year schedule.


At first I was sad, figuring I would eventually just sort of "time out" and abandon the challenge. However, in keeping with many new ways of thinking that seem to have stolen over me over the past two or so months, I realized that just because I wasn't keeping up with it as I'd originally hoped, didn't mean I had to abandon the project entirely or start over in order to maintain the illusion that everything I do is perfect if I do it at all. After all, I could see that I was actually getting something out of it. Turns out this "forming a habit of forming habits" thing is actually where I needed to start. (Talk about "starting from where you're at". Who knew applying teaching methodology to myself could effect measurable results?)

PCIMOS: Week 2, Day 5 & 6 journal

I've had a significant work-related triumph this weekend. Finally solved a problem that's been bothering me about my math program!

Week 2: Project CIMOS and The Reason

Well, I haven't been able to really write anything down since figuring out the plan for recording thoughts! However, there are a few things I've noted down, to put up when I got the chance.

First, where my motivation to teach is concerned -- through talking it out with several helpful people, I realize that maybe my motivation has felt low because I've been contradicting it with another, more external. I mean, who wouldn't want to be friends and have fun with the kids they work with? But you have to get the academic and official stuff done too, and sometimes it seems like too much fun might "get in the way" of that. I think I was working on the assumption that until I had fulfilled all the curriculum/reporting requirements, I had to shelve the idea of doing the fun, simple things. With a serendipitous change in perspective brought to me by the very kids themselves (my true motivators, of course!), I realize that this doesn't have to be the case.

In search of a reason: Something to work for this month

My first GIMP creation: Teaching Time
I need to find something motivating to work for this January.

 

 
I find myself really unmotivated to go back to school Monday. I know, we all do, twas the season and all that. But this past term was actually the most painstaking, stressful four months of my life so far, and although I keep trying to tell myself it'll get easier, my body and soul don't believe it yet.

Foxit: A PDF reader that's less "librarian", more "university bookstore"

I was having some issues with books. I needed a way to access my important reference documents from anywhere without having to wheel a carry-on to and from work each day. PDF you say? Sure! Sadly Adobe Reader treated my PDF files like library books -- worse, like library books on CD-ROM. No marking up, no highlighting, I couldn't even use a bookmark! I need to be able to refer to these docs quickly and efficiently, without wasting time leafing through each time I open one. As people discovered prior to the updated iterations of most e-readers, if you can't make notes or mark one or more places, electronic files can be worse than useless. Getting Adobe Acrobat at $150 was, of course, out of the question, as I hadn't been paid in nearly three months (no longer the case -- woohoo)! Enter Foxit, an excellent all-round solution.