Not sure what sparked this, but it was sparked so here it is. Once again not proofread.
Often times people ask me, "why are you a vegetarian?" Well, here it is.
Once upon a time a 13 year old girl had a few environmentally conscience friends.
As you may know, I was a very angsty teen and tried my hand at any non conformist actions available to me in my little world. Once I began researching how the animals are slaughtered and processed for sale, I decided it just wasn't an acceptable practice. I will spare you the details, they are available through numerous radical agencies if you are interested, just search. I knew my love and compassion for animals ran deeper than that of my domesticated friends. Then to learn that the meat packing industry is not only cruel and unusual, but the products they output are incredibly unfit to consume and the industry itself is a huge detriment to our atmosphere and o-zone, I decided to pass. I don't wear animal products, I don't eat them. I also don't tell others what to do with their bodies and lives. I accept that not everyone feels this way. I married a non-vegetarian and i love him. He does sacrifice how much meat he eats due to me being the main dinner cook. I appreciate that he is understanding of me, and does not try to change my beliefs, so I show him the same courtesy.
This mutual understanding and love for each other's belief systems brings me to this:
If everyone would understand that we are not all the same and that we are a diverse culture and society, we may not have so many problems. We as people tend to get so hung up on what people around us are doing or not doing. Before you judge someone for their personal morals, take a long look in the mirror and examine yourself. You may think someone's religion is an abomination and silly, but think of it as an outsider. How does your religion look to them? If we aren't killing or hurting each other because of our beliefs than is it really worth stirring up problems by telling someone what they believe is wrong and they should save themselves? If a churchlike institution works for you, it doesn't mean it works for everyone. The same goes both ways. For my athiests and agnostics-if you choose to not have a firm foundation in the existence of higher dieties, that is your choice. I don't think my pagan, christian, muslim, etc. people are crazy for believing there is. Leave them to their faith. The same principles go for sexuality and sexual preference. The way people act towards gay couples is like they feel they are trash hoarding bubonic plague victims. It is utterly disgusting. I know people that say they are not against gay and lesbian people, but they always have negative comments about them. I will be against gay unions when I learn that everytime a gay union happens, a natural disaster wipes out a village or a random person has a tragic accident. Seriously, these people believe in the true concept of love without boundaries-take notes. If we could all love our partners in life without boundaries, what amazing marriages we would have!
I just get so disappointed when I read about how hateful people are.
When I was growing up neighbors were saviors. My neighbors took note of our familily's misfortunes and made a gesture of support. My father had been laid off, locked out, and on strike with the steel union. I will never forget the way my neighbors pulled together to help us. I look around my neighborhood now and think, who are these people? I don't know, I don't care and it is truly sad. When I was living back east, this didn't happen. I grew up outside of the city and we took care of each other. When I moved out and moved into the city limits, I still saw how people took care of each other. When I moved here I noticed a change. I bought my house and the only one to come over and say hello, was a 70 something german woman down the street. Out in my parents community people still have that great neighborly outlook, but they are older. Is it a generational gap? I will be the first to say that I don't like neighbors, but this was not the case until we bought our house here in AZ. Well, there was one neighbor in our Youngstown, Ohio apt. that I hated too, but he broke in and stole my stuff.
Seriously, lets just agree to disagree, clean up after ourselves in life, and learn to be compassionate and accept the differences of our fellow humans.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
No seriously, I do love my job. Really, I do.
apologizing in advance for typos-I hate proofreading. Before proceding on this blog post please note that I place no blame of the stresses associated with my job on any particular person or dept. It is the way it is-and we all have to deal with what is handed to us. I love the people I work with and work for and am thankful for those co-workers, classified and certified, that make my school a great place to work.
Just want to give some people a perspective on what it is to be a teacher.
Today was mostly good. The kids were decently behaved today, I had a pretty pleasant work day and a great time at zumba tonight. However, my stack of papers is growing and I hate grading so I avoid it like the plague. I have an entire weeks worth of papers to grade still. It is sad that I still have my last week's reading and spelling tests only half graded and we are taking this week's tests tomorrow. UGH!
I recently was asked by more than one person, "What do you do that you stay so late all the time?"
This job, for those that don't understand, is very demanding. We have a list of people to please on a daily basis that includes, but is not limited to; apprx. 28 students, their parents, their step parents or alternative families, our co-workers, our administration, academic services dept., speech dept proffessionals, reading coaches, district office reps...the list goes on. We are pulled every which way and expected to achieve high scores and work over time every week with out any pay. Then we have observers several times weekly taking notes on our procedures and management skills as well as the way we teach our content. We have to supply our own tools for our jobs which includes, file folders, manipulatives for math and lang arts, copy paper (occasionally), and numerous other odds and ends things that should be supplied for us! We share our kids with multiple departments and they spend half of their time in multiple classrooms with multiple people and when they do well we share the credit, but when they do poorly we take the burden on ourselves and it could cost us our jobs that we don't get paid much to do anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but it gets trying dealing with the 'politics' of it all. We are constantly asked our opinions on matters that have already been decided upon mostly by people that have not been in a classroom in years or ever. We are told we have to have uninterrrupted amounts of lang arts time and then they pull random kids out for other services. They also tell us to push math now, and want to use our alotted 'uninterrupted' reading time for it...AAAHHHHHH make up your minds! Then we have papers to grade, lessons to plan, units to theme and just when we do it in the requested format-they change it. We are given programs and not trained on them. We are told to not teach to the test, but are looking at performance pay. We have weekends off-except that we don't. Oh, and summers-forget it! We stay at work to clean up our classrooms for a week after and go back to set them up several weeks early.
In short-teachers f'ing rock! Find one, hug them (or not, I am not a fan of close proximity with strangers) and thank them for their dedication. Then slip them a twenty-trust me, they need it.
Just want to give some people a perspective on what it is to be a teacher.
Today was mostly good. The kids were decently behaved today, I had a pretty pleasant work day and a great time at zumba tonight. However, my stack of papers is growing and I hate grading so I avoid it like the plague. I have an entire weeks worth of papers to grade still. It is sad that I still have my last week's reading and spelling tests only half graded and we are taking this week's tests tomorrow. UGH!
I recently was asked by more than one person, "What do you do that you stay so late all the time?"
This job, for those that don't understand, is very demanding. We have a list of people to please on a daily basis that includes, but is not limited to; apprx. 28 students, their parents, their step parents or alternative families, our co-workers, our administration, academic services dept., speech dept proffessionals, reading coaches, district office reps...the list goes on. We are pulled every which way and expected to achieve high scores and work over time every week with out any pay. Then we have observers several times weekly taking notes on our procedures and management skills as well as the way we teach our content. We have to supply our own tools for our jobs which includes, file folders, manipulatives for math and lang arts, copy paper (occasionally), and numerous other odds and ends things that should be supplied for us! We share our kids with multiple departments and they spend half of their time in multiple classrooms with multiple people and when they do well we share the credit, but when they do poorly we take the burden on ourselves and it could cost us our jobs that we don't get paid much to do anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but it gets trying dealing with the 'politics' of it all. We are constantly asked our opinions on matters that have already been decided upon mostly by people that have not been in a classroom in years or ever. We are told we have to have uninterrrupted amounts of lang arts time and then they pull random kids out for other services. They also tell us to push math now, and want to use our alotted 'uninterrupted' reading time for it...AAAHHHHHH make up your minds! Then we have papers to grade, lessons to plan, units to theme and just when we do it in the requested format-they change it. We are given programs and not trained on them. We are told to not teach to the test, but are looking at performance pay. We have weekends off-except that we don't. Oh, and summers-forget it! We stay at work to clean up our classrooms for a week after and go back to set them up several weeks early.
In short-teachers f'ing rock! Find one, hug them (or not, I am not a fan of close proximity with strangers) and thank them for their dedication. Then slip them a twenty-trust me, they need it.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
nothing in particular
I enjoy having these three day weekends, but it is much harder to face work when I come back. I have enjoyed my weekend thus far, even though it has not been very busy or social. I do enjoy hanging out with Jeff though. I have caught up on laundry and light cleaning and both the Penguins and the Steelers kicked ass on Saturday. City of champions again...? YES! :) My Dad came over to watch the game which was really nice.
I spent most of today watching movies and checking out hotels for our trip to San Francisco in February. I hate making decisions and every hotel I check I over think all of the reviews and pricing. I love planning things, but I hate making final decisions. I am very excited to meet up with our Ohian firends when we get there. I have decided I really need to see some old and good friends lately. Then after our trip we are hoping to see more friends in March. Faith, Kyle and baby Elyse are possibly traveling out to see us then. I have my fingers crossed and my hopes high for that!
Let me start this part by saying, I love my job and the people I work with on a daily basis. They are helpful, reaasuring and kind. I have one of the most rewarding jobs there is, not monetarily, but emotionally. If it wasn't for this job I don't think I would make it in this town much longer. Jeff seems confident that he can get a job anywhere in the world, but I prefer a solid job with good benefits not just any job. When stable and decent jobs become available else where and this market begins an upward shift I see us seriously getting out of here. I don't know if I can start over again somewhere else, but I truly don't want to be here forever. The road ahead is uncertain and I hate uncertainty and change. However, sometimes I need it regardless of how much I protest. We have a few years left here at least, so it isn't a huge choice as of now, but I still find myself thinking about it.
I spent most of today watching movies and checking out hotels for our trip to San Francisco in February. I hate making decisions and every hotel I check I over think all of the reviews and pricing. I love planning things, but I hate making final decisions. I am very excited to meet up with our Ohian firends when we get there. I have decided I really need to see some old and good friends lately. Then after our trip we are hoping to see more friends in March. Faith, Kyle and baby Elyse are possibly traveling out to see us then. I have my fingers crossed and my hopes high for that!
Let me start this part by saying, I love my job and the people I work with on a daily basis. They are helpful, reaasuring and kind. I have one of the most rewarding jobs there is, not monetarily, but emotionally. If it wasn't for this job I don't think I would make it in this town much longer. Jeff seems confident that he can get a job anywhere in the world, but I prefer a solid job with good benefits not just any job. When stable and decent jobs become available else where and this market begins an upward shift I see us seriously getting out of here. I don't know if I can start over again somewhere else, but I truly don't want to be here forever. The road ahead is uncertain and I hate uncertainty and change. However, sometimes I need it regardless of how much I protest. We have a few years left here at least, so it isn't a huge choice as of now, but I still find myself thinking about it.
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