{"id":6792,"date":"2013-05-07T17:22:34","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T21:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/?p=6792"},"modified":"2013-05-07T20:41:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T00:41:11","slug":"this-post-is-not-really-about-teaching-its-about-other-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/07\/this-post-is-not-really-about-teaching-its-about-other-things\/","title":{"rendered":"This Post Is Not Really About Teaching; It’s About My Usual Shit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my professional life, I’m graded on a rubric. Did you know that? There are six standards upon which teachers are evaluated, and for each we are deemed Developing<\/strong>, Proficient<\/strong>, Accomplished<\/strong>, or Distinguished<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A couple weeks ago, I was out with some friends, one of whom is also a teacher, and we got to talking about the rubric. For shits and giggles, I suggested we use it to rate ourselves in other aspects of our lives.<\/p>\n

Honestly, I can’t remember much—we were a couple cocktails in—except that Meg rated herself Distinguished in both Being Alone and Handling Her Shit (a super-accurate self-assessment), but I’ve been thinking about it lately, and here’s my self-evaluation.<\/p>\n

Developing<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Dressing myself. I still don’t know what looks good, what to buy, or how to put it together. It takes a ton of emotional effort for me to dress up. All I want to wear is jeans, my Obama hoodie, and<\/p>\n

\"these<\/a>
these guys.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But I’m getting better. I wore skinny jeans<\/a>, for Christ’s sake.<\/p>\n

2. Dating\/being in a relationship. You know how everybody’s always like, “Gahd, another<\/em> Taylor Swift break-up song?! When is she gonna realize that the only constant in all these situations is her<\/em>?”?<\/p>\n

Yeah, I realize it’s me. I do. I’ve done a lot of work and put myself out there, but clearly\u00a0I need more practice\/support\/guidance.<\/p>\n

To that end, two things:<\/p>\n

(1) In a maneuver I’m calling Amy’s Last-Ditch Campaign to Get Inseminated by a Dude She’d Like to Chill with for Awhile\/Maybe Forever (ALDCGIDSLCAMF, for short), I joined Match Fucking Dot Com. For one<\/em> month. ONE MONTH, and end scene—I shall forever abandon my Sisyphean online dating endeavors.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0(2) to quote Homeland Security: If You See Something<\/em>,\u00a0Say Something<\/em>\u2122. Friends, you have to tell me when you see the metaphorical spinach in my teeth, OK? If there’s some invisible-to-myself road block I’m throwing up, let your girl know. For real.<\/p>\n

Proficient<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. You know, as recently as a few months ago, I would’ve put cooking in the Developing category, but I’ve had some pretty consistent victories lately. ‘Member those carnitas<\/a>? <licks chops><\/p>\n

Also, I marinated chicken<\/em>. (Me, out on the town with friends: “You guys, I’m marinating chicken\u00a0right now<\/em>.” Friend: (pause) “Is it… is it in the fridge?” Hahaha. I couldn’t blame her for checking—I’ve made some questionable judgment calls<\/a> in the past.)<\/p>\n

I made Chinese chicken salad with it.<\/p>\n

\"There's<\/a>
There’s marinated chicken up in there somewhere, swear to god.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That sludgy business in the jelly jar? Homemade sesame-ginger motherfucking salad dressing. Booyah.<\/p>\n

I mean, every once in a while, mistakes are made.<\/p>\n

\"Nothing<\/a><\/p>\n

In hindsight, there were a number of points at which a different decision could have rendered a more desirable outcome.<\/p>\n

But for the most part, I’m feeding myself yummy, healthy things, so I’m gonna go ahead and declare myself Proficient in the cooking department.<\/p>\n

Hubris? Probably.<\/p>\n

2. CrossFit. Listen, I’m never going to be competitive. That’s OK. But I’ve been lifting heavy objects for nearly three years, and I’ve got pretty skrong, y’all (265-lb deadlift last night—what what!). And my form on most things is solid. Coach Rich watched me doing snatches the other day, and he said, “God, you’re so good at that.” :)<\/p>\n

3. Storytelling\/hosting storytelling events. If you’ve seen me at the Monti, I think you’d agree I’m getting better and better.<\/p>\n

Accomplished<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Teaching. I’m a good teacher. I’m not an exceptional teacher. I don’t take work home with me, and I don’t blaze any pedagogical trails, but I try to do cool things with my students, and I work hard to improve my practice every year.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Fostering dogs<\/a>\/getting them adopted. Git yer dogs here at Amy’s House o’ Pit Bulls!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Blogging. I have a readership. It’s small but, based on a pie chart I only sort of understand, I believe very loyal. (Thanks, guys!)<\/p>\n

Distinguished<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Jackshit.<\/p>\n

Except one thing that I won’t share here because this is a family show. ;)<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Now you go. Don’t be shy. This is not about judgment. It’s about personal growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my professional life, I’m graded on a rubric. Did you know that? There are six standards upon which teachers are evaluated, and for each we are deemed Developing, Proficient, Accomplished, or Distinguished. A couple weeks ago, I was out with some friends, one of whom is also a teacher, and we got to talking … Continue reading This Post Is Not Really About Teaching; It’s About My Usual Shit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15,5,125,14,7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animules","category-cookin","category-dating","category-fayshun","category-gluten-freek","category-teaching","category-liftin-heavy-objects-over-ma-head"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6792"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6846,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions\/6846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avidbruxist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}