Classroom Cleanup

Room 233, that's mine. I've finally figured out the maze that is our high school to get there without having to question my route, and I dread when the students come and I have to walk through the locker bays when they are full of rowdy teenagers.

It's a big classroom, with just a small window looking out into the courtyard of Whites Creek. And it's all mine. That's the cool part. I can do whatever I want in here, decorate my way, throw away what I want, use what I don't throw out, and most importantly find ways to inspire mathematicians!

So first of, let's take an inventory. I walked into my room yesterday and found:
3 large desks
1 podium, every inch of which is covered with doodles
1 sort of podium with folding leaves on either side
2 bookshelves whose paint and wood are chipping off, full of Algebra 1 books
3 fans, one broken
3 computers (all post 2005 at least)
2 monitors
1 printer (minus the power cord)
1 phone
1 gigantic mess of wires
32 desk chairs for the kids
2 large cabinets, both full of crap, one locked with a key I don't have
1 bookshelf, again full of Algebra 1 books
3 white boards, all dirty, some lined with sparkly and polka dot liners that teachers like to use to make things look cute
2 half hexagon tables

You get the general idea. Lots of crap. After moving, and re-moving the chairs into a suitable formation, I moved the desks--glad that meant moving the chairs again. I made myself a nice little area to sit and work, and set up the 'While you were out' table as well as a place for the crates that will hold all my students' work.

Today I tackled the orange closet of math history.

Useful things I found in the closet:
Geometry and Algebra 2 textbooks
Lots of Protractors
Lots of compasses
Big pieces of construction paper
what has to be at least 5 reams of computer paper
a TI-83 (WAHOOO)
Cool math activities
Math in the world binder of activities
CDs to help me make tests (For Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Pre-Calc and Calc)
an easel that I don't know quite what to do with yet, but there as to be something cool I can put on it.
Mrs. Henley's lesson plan binder (did someone say re-use?)

Not so useful things I found in there
6, count them 6 floppy disks--you know, those plastic things you used to store stuff on
Lesson plans from Advanced Calculus, FROM 1998
a chain, a 3 feet long metal link chain
a tape holder for giaganto tape that leaked sand
TCAP tests
Paper Airplanes (apparently this was geometry class work, I'm down, maybe these should go in the helpful pile)
Student notebooks
Mr. Watkins' end of year checkout list (apparently he didn't need it)
Tennessee Language Arts standards from 1993
plastic covers for electronic equipment that was NOT in the mystery cabinet.
a large piece of cloth with lisense plates from all 50 states

Oh, and were you curious what was in the white styrafoam cooler? Umm, it's scary. old tennis balls, a wooden tennis raquet, a puzzle, shoots and ladders, scary graduate dolls, some plastic green leafy things-what?

Here are my before and after pictures:

Before:


After:


Pile o crap


You get the idea, I have my work cut out for me. At least I am not Mr. Proctor, he has scary snakes in jars and other weird biology things to work with. Not to mention drawers and boxes full of lab equipment in no particular order. Good luck to you, sir!

Tomorrow is decorating time. Geometry builds bridges and I intend to build two to track student progress above my white boards. Hopefully creative juices will be flowing and the parent teacher store will have just what I need....and maybe some floppy disks too.

Ch-ch-changes

Well, it's been a while since I last posted (shocking), since the CF walk I was accepted to Teach for America and asked to be in Nashville, my new home, in 3 weeks. Wait, what? Quit my job, pack up my life, do some pre-institute homework, take a teacher test, get finger printed and move across the country all in 3 weeks? Wow.

I did it. And I lived to tell about it.

So now is teacher prep time. A week and a day before the students arrive, and I can't believe what I've already seen. I taught summer school in Atlanta while I learned to lesson plan and manage behavior (or at least was taught how). I was shocked at the level of my 8th graders basic math skills--they saw a negative or a decimal and freaked out, they count on their fingers and have trouble with basic multiplication tables I learned in 3rd grade. This is why I am here. That is unacceptable--how did these kids get to 8th grade, and now high school, lacking such basic skills? I saw a disconnect between teachers and administrators, between school goals and student goals, and between students and their investment in school and achieving. I hope to keep writing, not only so that I remember my feelings, my first impressions, thoughts upon further reflection and ways I think might fix this, but also so that you, whoever you are, realize what an injustice is going on in our back yard. Yes, I know, melodramatic for AlyTalksALot, but it's true! So yes, my main cause is fighting CF, and I am still working hard to fight my own CF and raise money to fight it for everyone else, but now, I have a new crusade, and that is somehow, tackling the public education system, starting with Whites Creek High School in the Metro Nashville Public School district.

Here goes nothing

Why We Walk

Getting people to walk in the Great Strides walk is like getting a really athletic kid out in dodge ball--really hard unless you make a concerted effort at just that one kid, instead of blindly throwing balls across the line. So I've been working on reaching out to individuals to ask them personally to walk. That, as we say at Google, isn't 'scalable,' so I'm hoping to make a personal connection with you, my reader, here.

I thought I would write a bit about how important it is for me to have people come out and walk, and why it's so important in the grand scheme of things to walk, not just for me.

1) Great Strides is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest national fundraiser. Your participation, and your being there makes it even bigger. It says, 'Hey world, we care about this disease, and we aren't going to stop caring until it's cured.' Think how great it is to have a big crowd of people showing their support and raising money to fight this disease. Means a lot, and every person counts.

2) Walking and doing active things is something I've done my whole life to keep myself healthy. Active fundraisers remind me how lucky I was to be able to participate in activities like this. Remember, for a lot of kids and adults with CF, this 5k walk in the park is too much activity for their diseased lungs. Do it for them! Walk for those who can't walk, use your healthy lungs to breathe in that fresh ocean air!

3) You walking, just showing your smiling face, more even than you giving money (although I will not turn that down) makes little ol' me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I know most of my friends don't think of me as 'the sick girl with CF' and I am happy for that. However, when it comes time to come out and support CF, it means so much when my friends support me, and recognize the hard work I put in every day to make sure I am not 'the sick girl with CF.'

Lastly, number 4) My mom is coming out for that weekend. I thought it would be great for her to meet my friends and see the time commitment and investment I've made in my community. Plus, I'd love for her to meet you all. 'Oh my goodness, Aly, look at how many people you got out to walk!' That's what I want my mom to say :)

So, in short, your presence means the world to me. If you are scared to ask people for money, it's understandable. But just tell them all the stuff I just said. Tell them there are kids with CF who want to live healthy normal lives and their money can help that. Tell them 90 cents of every dollar they donate goes straight to research. Tell them $5 is enough.

Thanks for reading, now go sign up!

The Power of Two comes to Google

After reading their book I thought it would be so great if Ana and Isa could come to Google and give a talk. Hopefully that would raise awareness in the Google Community about this disease, and perhaps make people more inclined to participate in things like GREAT STRIDES!

Anyway, here's their talk, thank you YouTube...please fast-forward thru my lame intro ;)

Great Strides For Cystic Fibrosis

I'm walking to raise money for a cure for CF! Please join me! Or donate to the cause :)

Home Stretch

Sadly, 2 months later I am still in the same predicament--need to write/revise essays, would rather watch football and play on the internet. Lovely. Luckily I am ALMOST done. Phew. This process has been rough, and what they say about learning all sorts of things about yourself while you write b-school essays is true, as cheesy as it is.
Here's what I've learned
1) When I get stressed out my body shows it--on my face, my belly and in my lungs. I can't lose sight of all the important stuff like taking care of myself (the stuff I wrote all my essays about) just because I am busy with work and b-school apps.
2) I am very good at procrastinating. Favorite ways to do so:
a)check email, even though I didn't get anything new from five minutes ago when I checked.
b) Facebook (sigh) yes, it's true, I like it. Read status messages, look at pics, you know, the usual.
c) online shop without actually purchasing anything, this morning I almost bought a suit at Jcrew bc it was on sale and I reasoned that should I get interviews (knock wood) I will need a suit...

In all seriousness though, I did learn a thing or two about me. I think I am pretty tough and resilient--I work hard, set high goals and don't really let anything get in the way of me achieving them. I definitely need help along the way though. Throughout the writing process I realized that I like to just spit stuff out on the paper, read, revise and then get comments from someone else before I keep going. Not sure if this is the best method or not, but a big shout out to all those someone's who helped me with these essays--I am not sure I could have done it without the insight from friends, family and coworkers on whether or not I am portraying the right picture of myself (and doing so without run-on sentences and comma splices)

That's all, as I said, home stretch, gotta finish up--might even turn this bad boy in tonight, but I kind of doubt it ;)

Procrastination Station

B-school essays are hard, maybe if I write all wordy and fun in my blog and on yelp I'll be able to write in b-school essay speak...or at least will just get to put off writing essays for a little longer.

This weekend I was meant to spend all my days writing, here's what I did instead:
caught up on Grey's Anatomy (well, almost anyway)
caught up on Gossip Girl (folks, that means watching FOUR episodes, ew, gross)
watched the Harvard Yale Game (really?)
Fixed two of the three necklaces I've been meaning to fix for 6 months
ate half a box of cereal
bought turkey broiling pans in an effort to see if my oven would fit two birds at once (no, it won't if you're curious)
spent a lot of money on oldnavy.com
wrote a yelp review
sent pictures of my nephew eli to all my friends
looked at pictures of eli (x4)

Oh, and made some progress on my 'activities list' and wrote half of two essays.
Awesome.

It's much more fun to make fun of myself and my antics, or let you know that fundraising is going well than to try to say how great i am without sounding conceited--I mean, how do you do that? I have yet to figure it out, especially when the question is: what do others admire most about you. "they love my good looks and sparkling personality" yowza, we're gonna need some work there.

The good news is, hard work pays off, I went to the doc a few weeks ago and was told my lungs are normal! Like, they are as functional as a person without CF--wahoo for pulmozyme, my vest and hypertonic saline. Keep it up CF foundation and researchers.

Oh, and in case you are curious, the event at Rogue was great. Everyone loved trivia and drank a lot of beer. Nice work people.


CF Young Professionals will be back and better than ever in 2009-so stay tuned :)