e-vent

While emailing my former dept chair from Chicago I found myself in the middle of a good ol'fashioned "Lisa Roll." When I was a kid I would get on a rant about one thing or another and get real cranked up and just go on and on and right when you thought I got it all out I'd say, "and another thing..." and just keep right on rolling. So my parents named it a "Lisa Roll." Most of my rolls were back in high school regarding my shitty volleyball team. This one is a positive roll. Here is an excerpt:

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Did I tell you Chris and I taught together? We had the most amazing opportunity at University of Washington! For the last three weeks in July we taught Energy through Chem, Bio, and Physics to incoming and outgoing gifted 6th graders at the Robinson Center of UW. We had 24 cute little guys and 2 college TAs and practically an infinite budget. I carpooled during the schoolyear with a science teacher who passed it along to us because he could no longer teach it.

We went to a solar cottage community, and a hydroelectric power facility, and several professors guest lectured. Gifted kids are awesome! Not to mention teaching with Chris was so much fun! The first few days were tough but we caught our groove really fast. The hardest part for me is not having a clue about many of the science concepts. I loved teaching science though. It was a really cool change. The absolute best part was watching these students interact. Normally, they don't fit in too well with their peers (as the parents informed us). They LOVED the class because everyone there loved learning and noone made fun of you for being the smartest person in the room.

we had an Energy Science Fair the last week, which was hilarious in and of itself. The parents came to watch (and videotape of course). Many of them stayed to talk with us after and tell us, with tears in their eyes, how nice it is that their child is coming home loving the school day instead of crying that the other kids picked on them for being so smart. All of these kids scored in the 95th percentile on standardized tests. They can continue with the summer courses through the end of 8th grade. Some then decide high school isn't for them (before going!) and then go to UWash for high school. It takes them 1 year to finish "high school" and continue on college courses through UW! Can you believe it? One of our TAs was 19 and had enough credits already to graduate from college.

Anyway, I had to geek out about that to you cuz I knew you'd dig it! The weird thing is that many teachers I told about the experience didn't seem at all interested for themselves. They nodded and said wow a few times. I definitely got the impression working with gifted children wasn't appealing to them. Weird to me. I loved it! Obviously! ;)

I enjoyed CorePlus although it is difficult to teach. I felt I learned more math in one year than my six years at Hinsdale. Not to mention I felt my teaching management style improved the most too. It was great I only played 1 game all year because the rest of the we actually used the book!

It is true I left the classroom. I haven't even cried about it yet. I may return someday who knows. I love Seattle and don't want to move. I took a $15,000 pay cut to live here and don't see the salary schedule improving anytime soon. The teachers here are quite complacent that it'll never change and they can't do anything to bring on change. So sad and defeatist. I could pursue admin but it is a 24-7 gig out here where they work you to the bone, although the salary jump is huge. Truthfully, I want to try something else and see what it is like. Mid-October I start classes for a fast-track program in Microsoft Database Design Certification. Eventually, I would like to get into Business Intelligence and help companies interpret the massive amounts of data they collect through databases. I think my math teaching background will be a natural fit for explaining the data so anyone can understand. We'll see where life takes me. I will finish the program in mid-April and look for a full-time year round (gasp) job. I hope to still take time to teach the Energy course. I realize that is a pipe dream but it is ok to dream.
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Told ya, the rolls are LONG