What I've Been Up To Lately - SPring/Summer 2025

I've pretty much stopped using social media, so I post the occasional status update here, instead.

Professionally

  • May marked the finish of year number twenty-two as an educator!
    • That's officially enough years that, when I meet a teacher and tell them how long I've been doing it, they get wide-eyed and usually say something like "I'll never make it that far."
    • It was a pretty difficult year in a lot of ways.  But the difficult ones are the most rewarding ones.  I was able to meet most of the challenges and jump most of the hurdles, and in the end, I'll remember this one as a year I'm really, really proud of.
    • I took way fewer pictures than usual since I use my are phone to record my classes for sharing and study so often now, but what I love about the ones I did take are how often the kids were smiling.
  • One class of 7th grade science on the schedule, too.  The only other year I taught 7th grade was the year after the Covid shutdown, and it was such an unrewarding experience that I vowed never to do so again.  But this year, teaching one section of 7th grade science opened the door for one of my colleagues to start a new initiative at the school, so I went with it.  The new initiative is going great, and I absolutely love the group of kids I ended up with.  It has been the great surprise of my school year.

Writing

I didn't publish much during the spring.  I spent a lot of my limited writing time on my nieces' and nephew's graduation letters.  I really, really enjoyed writing those, but they took a really, really long time.  Around those, however, I did publish three pieces that all had elements of writing that were new to me, and all three got a lot of views (by my standards, at least).  
I spent all summer doing a deep dive on Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics and its fit with cognitive science.  New type of writing for me.  I really enjoyed it and it felt like a good exercise form to grow as writer.

Personally

  • I didn't travel at all this summer, and it was incredibly to focus on normal life stuff instead.
    • I walked through the woods to the Emory University library almost every morning, wrote for an hour or two, and walked home.  What a serene and energizing way to start the day!  This picture is part of the trail on the way.  I mean, c'mon.
  • My parents and I found a new favorite restaurant and had a weekly lunch there.​​
  • A friend of mine owns her own beauty supply retail store, and I like to work there on occasion to help out.  Yes, really.  No, I'm not very good at it.  But it still helps give her time to go to wholesalers, do the taxes, and such.  I had plenty of time to do that almost every week this summer.
  • I also got to spend a day with my almost-two-year-old "niece" nearly every week, which was heavenly.
  • I also figured out how to get almost anywhere in my general area safely without driving.  Time in the car has never agreed with me, and this summer afforded me the time to figure out how to further minimize it.
  • All in all it probably sounds boring, but it really wasn't.  Plenty of time for friends and family, reading, reflecting... it was really a great summer.

Travels

  • None to speak of since the last update

Media

  • Books - ​
  • Nothing else notable on the book front.  The lighter stuff I read while reading The Brothers Karamazov didn't really shine, either.
  • ​I'm a big Kendrick Lamar fanboy, and I have loved his new album GNX.
  • Also in the music realm, discovered Jonathan Batiste on a podcast interview he did.  Listening to a lot of him right now.  Got tickets to see him live in April!