The first few years after graduating college I was so focused on having a career, moving to the city, starting graduate school, and trying not to fail at life. In the process it felt like l stopped having time to do many the things that made me happy and made me feel more like myself. I felt like a less authentic version of myself somehow.

In February of 2014 I left my job doing community management/marketing at a technology company and in March I started working as a technology associate at an independent school downtown. The transition from working in an office to working at a school came really easily to me, I immediately felt happier. Over the past year I have had a lot more time to do the things that make me feel more like myself. All of these hobbies were things I had tried before in the past, in high school or college, and it felt great to finally have my life sorted out enough that I could get back to doing them. Here’s what I was up to in 2014.

Pottery

From May-August I took several ceramics classes at Mugi Studio. I took a ceramics class in college but we only had three weeks to work on the wheel, which is what I am most intrigued by, so I was happy to have three months to work on my skills. By the end I was able to reliably center the clay on the wheel each time. (For those of you who have never done this… it is NOT an easy task.) I wish I had more time to practice at the studio, but once work started back up I just couldn’t commit the time to it any more. Maybe I’ll take another class this May.

Photography

I bough myself a fancy camera with my 2013 tax return. (I got my tax return on the same day I received a job offer- score!) I have not taken the time to learn how to use it properly because it has a really nice guide setting that does most of the work for me. In the future maybe I’ll try to improve my skills, but for right now I’m really satisfied with the massive quality upgrade from my last digital camera (and my iphone.) Here are some of my favorite photos from the year. (I didn’t take any picture that I’m in, so photo credits to Sam, my Dad and my friend Ben.)

My Nana with her youngest grandchild.

Sam and CC walking on the beach in Michigan.

St. Joseph, MI.

With my college friends at a summer BBQ

Cookie swapping

Our Christmas card photo.

Music

Every Friday morning at school there is a jam session made up of about four or five teachers that play jazz songs and solos. I decided to break out my trumpet, which I hadn’t played in over seven years, and join the jam group. It’s been fun to have a reason to pick the trumpet back up because I thought I was probably done with it for good. But it has also been pretty challenging because I have never played jazz solos before.

I also finally brought my acoustic guitar into the city. My apartment is so small that the guitar is sitting in a wall mounted stand, not taking up any extra floor space. I just play my guitar here and there when I feel like it, but it’s still nice to have it with me.

Reading

Goodreads tells me that I read 18 books in 2014. I only read 5 books in 2013. I participated in a book club with some of my friends, and I also participated in the faculty/staff book club at my school. I also was able to read a bunch of YA books for fun. It’s been so relaxing and nice to get to read for fun again. The two best books I read this year were probably Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Roots by Alex Haley. I have a feeling both of those books will stick with me for quite a long time. I set a Goodreads goal for myself of reading 30 books in 2015, which is a lot for me. We’ll see how I do!

Crafting

In addition to ceramics I also had time to do a little bit of crafting this year. One highlight was gold-dipped leather earrings that I learned about from the blog Merrick’s Art. I made them for most of my family and friends and everyone really liked them. I shared them on my Kollabora page and they were even featured the next day in the Kollabora blog post curating good postings on the site!

Designing/thinking about curriculum 

I had to take a curriculum and instruction course this spring. The class was a lot of work but also the most rewarding and useful class I’ve taken at Teachers College. It was so useful that I almost thought of the class as a hobby, because I was able to learn more about some of my personal interests.

The class was great because it made us think about how curriculum is written and consider the power that comes along with designing a curriculum. One example that stuck with me is Apple’s 1971 article, The hidden curriculum and the nature of conflict. I’ll simplify it here, Apple talks about how often times curriculum is designed to generally avoid talking about conflict. He specifically highlights science and history. Both historians and scientists have a lot of conflict in their fields, debating the results of studies or debating personal narratives about historical events. But this conflict is overlooked in schools, leading students to think that history and science content is just a list of facts, dates and formulas that can’t ever be debated. That is a problem that needs to be changed with a curriculum that addresses conflict. This is just one example, we talked about lots of different things that you need to consider when writing a curriculum. (A bit overwhelming, really.)

Instead of working on a technology curriculum, I decided to work with the social studies group to design a high school African American Civil Rights Movement curriculum. Here’s an abbreviated version of the curriculum we developed.

I was really happy to get to work with some students who were in the social studies education program, that was the other program I was considering at Teachers College. My classmates introduced me great curriculums like Stanford University’s Reading Like a Historian. I also spent more time this year learning about more about curriculums that focus on anti-oppressive, inclusive humanities education, like Facing History and Ourselves and Teaching Tolerance. I’m not currently teaching social studies, but these resources are still great professional development for me in the meantime.

Teaching

In my role as a technology associate I am not required to do any teaching at the school. So I typically wouldn’t consider teaching a hobby, but I have been trying to fit it in where I can. This makes my job more enjoyable and helps me feel more connected to the students and teachers at the school. I was lucky enough to be able to do my Master’s student teaching with the lower school technology teacher, so I’ve been teaching technology classes to 4th graders. I also helped plan the Hour of Code the school hosted in December. We had about 50 students in grades 2-7 that spent an hour learning introductory-basic programming skills.

When I started in March I also started advising Gear Girls, an after school club for middle school girls interested in technology. The club has about 15 girls this school year. They take apart computers, make paper circuits, learn basic programming languages (Scratch, Codecademy HTML/CSS class, etc)  and soon we’re going to start making Rube Goldberg machines and learn about simple machines. We also have the girls learn about female role models in STEM fields. It’s been a real joy to plan out what activities we’ll do in Gear Girls and it’s been great getting to know these students- it’s certainly a highlight of the week.

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As you can see, I had a lot of interests that began to fall to the wayside over the past few years. Upon reflection I can see that 2014 was a really great year, and it was a year where I learned more about who I wanted to become and I began to feel more comfortable being who I am. I hope I continue on this positive track in 2015.

I like coupons. Recently I went to Rite Aid to use my $2-off coupon for two Pantene products, which just so happens to be my shampoo and conditioner of choice. I reminded the man at the counter to not give me a bag- I’d put the bottles in my reusable bag I always carried with me or even just chuck them in my purse.

I also had to remind the man to use my coupon, and somehow in the process of handing over my coupon and paying for my shampoo the man snuck the bottles into a plastic bag.

Several weeks ago I went to Duane Reade to pick up a candy bar. Of course they had a buy one get one half-off sale so I indulged in a second candy bar. (I then proceeded to go back to work and eat two full-sized candy bars which I don’t recommend.) Once again, in the act of paying for my candy, the woman at the register snuck my two candy bars into a plastic bag. It honestly would have been easier for me to hold the bars in my hand.

I’m often annoyed by my constant and failing battle with avoiding plastic bags.

Did I want a bag for my small candy bars? No. And most of society probably didn’t.

Did I want a bag for my jumbo-sized shampoo and conditioner? Probably. But wait! I had a huge purse with me and I would just chuck them in there.

Is a reusable bag more awesome than a plastic bag? YES. A plastic bag has to be carried in your arms, while a reusable bag can be lugged over your shoulder for easy transport- especially valuable in the city or when you are trying to unload every grocery bag in one haul. 

I have no idea why but associates always rush to put my stuff in a sucky plastic bag. I always go to the counter making a conscious effort to ask them for no bag, and sometimes it still winds up in a bag!

There has been debate over whether or not NYC should even allow plastic bags anymore, or charge a 10 cent fee per bag. Personally I’m fine with banning bags or charging fees for them, but there is another, much easier thing we could be doing that I’m amazed isn’t promoted more often. Force retail associates to ask us if we want a bag.

We should have posters next to that ’employees must wash hands’ sign that say ’employees must ask customer if they want a bag.’ (Perhaps not in the actual bathroom, but you catch my drift.)

I think many people will start to realize that they actually don’t want a bag, because they are sick of looking that that pile of 40 bags they already have in their closet that they will eventually just throw away next spring cleaning. Or because a reusable bag holds more at once. Or because all you got was a pack of gum and why would anyone need a bag for that?

Just think of how many bags we could save if we just were given a choice in whether or not we wanted one before we got one.

I moved into my first NYC apartment on August 4th. A year and one week ago I started my internship at foursquare, so it’s been almost an entire year (minus a break in the late fall) that I’ve been commuting to the city 5 days per week.

This morning I woke up at 5:45am. At 6:00 I looked at the clock and realized I wasn’t going to fall back to sleep. The day was nice so I decided I would go for a run in Central Park. I live two avenues away from the park but I hadn’t visited yet since I moved in. The run was lovely as I ran past a large pond (I’m sure it has an official name), weeping willows, dog owners, and other runners of all ages and sizes.  Running is actually easier in the city than at home where everything is so hilly!

It’s been nice to easily stay after at work to do something with coworkers or go to an event. I never have to drive or worry about train times.

So although I’ve sort of been in the city for over a year, I’m excited to finally be here full time. I’ll build stronger relationships, meet more people, do more things and really making the most of those 3 hours I’m not spending on a train everyday. And my back appreciates it!

I read this article earlier in the week. I find it interesting that right at the time that I was interning these unpaid intern debates began.

Internships are weird to me, but I’ve spent the past year accepting them as a fact and sometimes even a privilege. I paid full tuition to be a student teacher for a semester. That means I paid money to New Paltz so I could wake up at 5:30am get to school, teacher 120 students, plan units and lessons and grade work. I would typically get home around 4:00 and prepare work for the next day.

I interned at foursquare… that was a sweet deal. I got paid to be there and it was a great learning experience. I had a short stint at Hot Bread Kitchen. That internship was unpaid, but they were always thankful and appreciative of any work I did. World Wide Workshop paid for my transportation and it was a good learning experience as well.

I would never want to sue any of the companies or school I interned with. I thank these people for the privilege of getting to learn from them and build my skills.

But with that said, I’m not crazy about unpaid internships. Legally you can only offer an upaid internship if you promise to give compensation in the form of an education or mentorship. (See this really good video here for a clear run-down and what is ok and not ok in internships.) If someone does work for you they should be compensated. If you can’t pay them then you don’t need the help enough. I like the idea of internships being required as a part of graduation for school, similar to what I did for student teaching. But I shouldn’t have had to pay full tutition that semester. You should be required to have an internship in college, but you should see a smaller tuition bill the semester that you have your internship. After you graduate college you should not be allowed to have an unpaid internship. Sure, you might be learning, but you still should be compensated because you are a skilled worker. If you can’t pay someone minimum wage then they shouldn’t give you their time.

I don’t know if lawsuits are the best way to address this issue. I wonder why these two interns put up with these internships if they now want to sue the company. Why not just quit the internship? But I do think that a lot of companies are using  “unpaid” interns to get free workers to do their mundane tasks, and that’s not ok.

Does someone ever say something to you that immediately angers you, personally offends you, and you just want to SNAP at them with some clever retort? For about 20 seconds (plenty of time to embarrass yourself) you shove it to them. You know you’re right, you know they’re wrong, so you make your point so strongly and so aggressively that you know they heard you and they sure are an idiot now for even trying to cross you!

Not sure what I’m talking about? Let’s use Mitt Romeny as an example:

Romney knew he was right. He knew that guy was wrong… you could tell Romney was just WAITING for someone to ask him about that 99% of this country. But yes, at the end of the argument he did say, “America is right, you’re wrong.”

This is the first, and perhaps only time in my life Mitt Romney reminded me of myself (a version of myself I don’t like). I remember with my students they would do something and I would get so angered by it… i would talk to them sternly and very defensively, just like Romney does here. But in the end you wind up looking crazy, heated and frazzled. Any points you were trying to make with your stern talking disintegrate in your anger and frustration.

Here’s something  I saw while student teaching. We (my mentor teacher and I) reassigned the students seats but one student refused to sit in his new seat. Finally after some coaxing we got him to sit in the seat… nobody was stern, nobody was angered. If i was there without my mentor teacher I might have given him a long winded speech about disrespect, he was acting immature, it was a simple action to sit in his seat, everyone else was doing it. But my mentor teacher didn’t make a big deal about it so I took her lead… I thought that was that.

But at the end of class, when everyone else was getting up for lunch, my mentor teacher went up to him and privately told him “you can actually stay seated for the next 20 minutes, to make sure you remember where that seat is.”

He was caught in a trap. My teacher never was angered but she made her opinion known, this student would sit in his assigned seat. She never acted frazzled, angered, personally offended. If you want to make a strong point… if Mitt Romney had really wanted us to believe that we should unite as a nation and forget the notion of the 99%, then he should have said so in a cool, collected fashion. That is something I could have listened to. I might have disagreed, but I would consider his point a valuable opinion.

The next time someone says something to you that immediately angers you, personally offends you, and you just want to SNAP at them with some clever retort… don’t do it. Take a breath, remember its not a personal attack on you, you don’t need to become defensive. Share your opinion, you want to be heard, but do it calmly, and if at the end they still don’t agree that is ok. Because they might disagree, but they will consider your point a valuable opinion. I think Obama does that and it will be one of his attributes that takes him farthest in this upcoming election.

Note 1: This isn’t meant to be a political post.
Note 2: Yes, I did just give you all advice that I don’t always follow myself… we’ll work on it together 😉