So You Want To Teach?

Have you signed up to join the Blog Revolution Project?

Matthew tagged me. Blame it all on him!

With round 3 of TAKS testing coming up next week, we all could use a little break.

The rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Got it.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
1998. Wow, I don’t really know! Ha. I was finishing up my sophomore year of college.

I was actually finishing the second semester following a major traumatic car accident. For the music people out there, I failed my fourth semester jury as a direct result of a collapsed right lung. It made playing my horn difficult. That made practicing miserable. As a result, I didn’t practice.

I was playing in orchestra, wind ensemble, horn choir.

I pledged Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in the spring of ‘98.

I didn’t start teaching private lessons until the fall of ‘98, so I wasn’t really spending any time in schools. Just went to school and went home.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

1. Practice my trumpet, specifically looking to increase my range and endurance…I am so out of shape
2. Pass out solos
3. Pick up my shirt from the dry cleaner
4. Memorize mariachi music (with the help of two of my best trumpet beginners from three years ago) for my first public mariachi performance tomorrow, followed by a wedding on Saturday
5. Teach

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Granola bars, fruit, carrots

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Be completely out of debt forever
2. Put $10,000,000 in a money market and in each of four categories of mutual funds (growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, international)
3. Live off of the interest in the money market, leave the mutual funds alone and use them to completely change my family tree
4. Give $10,000,000 a month to Gospel For Asia, Voice of the Martyrs, and The Dalit Freedom Network

5) Three of my bad habits:

1. Procrastination
2. Selfishness
3. Not praying more

6) 5 places I have lived:

1. Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
2. Texas/Mexico Border

No more specifics, but that’s it.

7) 5 jobs I have had:

1. Best Buy Customer Service Representative (cashier)
2. Temp Agency Data Entry
3. Private Lesson Instructor
4. Band Director
5. Freelance musician

8) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:

1. Jonathan. Even though he lists me as a math teacher on his blogroll, he’s still cool. I must admit, there is something deep in my soul that would love to spend a year teaching math. The problem is that I don’t want the pay cut and I don’t want to deal with kids who don’t choose to be in my class. Plus, I dread the idea of grading tests or homework and inputting grades.
2. Waski_the_Squirrel. I am too lazy to remember to visit any website each day. I wish he had an RSS feed on his blog so I could add him to my Google Reader list and contribute more. One or these days I’ll figure it out and tell him how! [READ HIS RESPONSE]
3. Kelvin. This college freshman has been commenting quite a bit on my blog lately. His passion for teaching is contagious. I’m interested to watch his growth and development as he approaches student teaching and begins his first real job somewhere down the road. [READ HIS RESPONSE]
4. Benjamin Baxter. Student teacher. I’m looking forward to his entering the teaching field and seeing how it all works out. It’s really exciting to me to consider that people will have access to the blogging knowledge base before entering the classrooms. I look forward to reading about his experiences.
5. Edwonk. This guy has been blogging for a long time. Awesome stuff. He is the inspiration behind one of the most popular carnivals on the web.
6. Lorelle. She’s an incredibly active force behind blogging, edublogging, and WordPress, three things I love! And she seems real enough and cool enough to accept this tag and work it into her schedule. If you have a blog, you need to subscribe to her blog. If you only subscribe to one blog, it should be hers.

If you haven’t checked out the SYWTT Forums, go introduce yourself there.