so i interviewed with Riordan, a private all-boys Catholic school today. 90 minute long interview. Better than what i could've hoped for. nice clean sunny rooms, young faculty, respectable kids, collaborative department.
If i do get the position, i will miss skyline though =( especially when i remember why i went into teaching in the first place. once i become a good teacher and get some administrative experience, maybe i can come back to oakland and help run a small school...
i wish wasn't so burned out. otherwise, i could really appreciate the fact that the past couple of days at school have actually been pretty good. if people were to visit my classes now (with the exception of 6th period), i think they'd be pleasantly surprised to see my kids all on task only a minute or two after the bell, all doing things to get their work and grades up, and somewhat interested in the course material. these are the same kids that care so little about school that 10% of them skip the first couple of weeks every year b/c it's "useless" of course, it doesn't hurt that i'm no longer doing taxonomy. i'm covering viruses now, and with ebola, sars, hiv and herpes, these kids are pretty interested. it's just too bad no one knows what's going on next year, so i'm still forced to go out and job hunt =(
well, i stayed at home after work today for the first time in a while.nice to have a quiet evening at home, albeit boring.
for good old fashioned fun, go
here to learn about real ninjas.
i'm laughing my balls off as you read this. gotta check out the hate mail section after you read the first page
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Words cannot express how i feel. It's as if i have a reason to live. I just got my bike and with percy's help, i rode around for an hour. all the stuff from driving school back in october came back. the only problem is that the bike is so heavy, when i go slow and turn, i have to be pretty careful. otherwise, it's a since to ride.
things haven't been looking so good this past half year. but who knows, maybe things will turn for the better. i'm supposed to interview for riordan (a private all boys catholic school) for a position soon.
still dealing with crap emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. but i'm getting by (thanks ellen. =)
Sunday, May 04, 2003
so testing this weekend went by ok. i was pooped after doing 10 burpies, and that was just the warmup. i always get nervous before tests and competitions and then i get really weak. lisa liu ran the test though, so it was pretty fun. they did make me do trithalon with peter and the other red belt candidates, so that might mean that they'll double promote me, which would kind of suck cuz the belt comes with a lot of expectations. doesn't matter too much i guess though, as long as i can still test for my black belt at the end of next summer.
watching nigel test was amazing. it's always fun watching him manhandle people and then let them down so gently with his little giggles. he did some really cool come alongs and falls which were different from what our club has been teaching lately; he even added some wushu stuff like the jumping inside fall.
oh, i ended up agreeing to buy my new "death machine" as some of my friends call it. it's a suzuki katana 750cc. all i need now is some gear and some insurance, and i'm ready to add some incredibly stupid risky acts into my life. but it'll be fun!
one thing that i've thought about lately is the drop in membership in ucmap the past couple of years. i know i haven't been in the organization that long, and people say that it goes up and down, but i can't help but worry about all of ucmap. wushu numbers have dropped a lot, and quality has been pretty bad compared to the "old days" but maybe that might change when li jing comes back. and hankido's numbers seem to be a low point too. there's all this debate about testing and the quality of our members in hankido too. it has dropped, both quality and quantity (at least among the colored belts). if only people didn't push themselves just for tests and rank. rank is so meaningless anyways. but our society is so bent on people needing tests to motivate themselves. just like education. if we had no tests, so many less people would study. but i'm no different in some ways. it's good that we have tests to make a goal for people to shoot for.
k, i have no idea where i'm going with this...i have total food coma cuz i just got back from eat at pho hua hiep, the pink pho place with HUGE portions.................
nap time....
