Teacher, teacher

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Monday, Monday….

How did you get here so fast?

As you know, I finished up school last Wednesday and had a lovely few days off where I slept in and learned some new dancing skills ;) Well today I started my position as a writing teacher for the summer program held at my school. Teaching summer school is different than a regular school day because the group of kids is significantly smaller (10-15 in a group) and the day is shorter too! My regular school day runs Monday to Friday from 8:20-2:40, but summer school is generally Monday to Thursday 8:00-12:00. The program, which is 20 days, focuses on building reading and writing skills and preventing the “summer forgetfulness” that happens when children are out of school for the summer. It is all about filling in the gaps and giving students a good base to start the next school year with. I really enjoy working with a different grade level of kids for a short time. This year I will be working with second and third graders (who will be entering third and fourth grade in the fall) for 10 days of the program. Teaching the writing piece brings me back to my days before I found my love of teaching math!

Did you know I have ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher? When I was little I used to play school ALL THE TIME. I would dress up in my mom’s long skirts and heels and carry around a coffee mug filled with water. I would make my brother take made-up spelling tests and played “school” every Friday in elementary school. I mean, what kids do you know leave school and then pretend to be back in school when they get home? I often used milk crates to create desks in the spare bedroom in my house so I had my own “classroom”. I am fortunate in the sense that I just have always known what my perfect profession was. You know how what they say:

“Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”
(SOURCE)

Here is a little background of my teaching career:

2004: Graduated from the University of Maine, Farmington with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education
2004-2005: I taught grade 3 in Benton, Maine (I got offered a job before even graduating!)
2005: Returned to Massachusetts, began working in my school district as a permanent substitute in a grade 6 position
2006-2007: Taught 6th grade Reading and Social Studies
2006: Got my master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction in Literacy from Lesley University
2006-2010: Taught self-contained (meaning I taught all subjects) 4th grade
2009 (I think): Received my C.A.G.S (certificate of advanced graduate studies) in Mathematics Education through Lesley University
2010-2011: Taught 5th grade math

As you can see I’ve taught a variety of grade levels and subjects. To date my favorite position would be my fifth grade math position. The upper elementary grades allow me to maintain high expectations of students and develop more independent thinking skills while preparing them for middle school. Teaching math only allows me to prepare in-depth, quality lessons and gives me ample time to reflect and rework them when necessary. Math lessons are always on my mind!

What did you want to be when you “grew up”? Did you go with that career or find another that suited you better? Are you still in the process of finding what you want to do when you “grow up”?

Interestingly enough, even though the hours are shorter and the groups are smaller, I still can’t get up when my alarm goes off. I guess a downside to teaching summer school is that my body is in summer mode. Summer mode means I get easily sucked into watching hours of crappy Sunday night television on E! (Have you seen the Ice T show?!)

This morning I hit the snooze until about 7:00 and while I showered I popped two Van’s waffles in the toaster for a delicious waffle sandwich made with peanut butter and banana. Then I stopped at Dunk’s for a French Vanilla iced coffee.

Since I got out at noon I headed to my parent’s house to have lunch with my dad. I also went to the mall to pick up some warm-weather friendly running shorts and shirts. I got aocuple pair of Nike Tempo shorts and Dri fit shirts. Crossfit’s WOD is outside tonight and seems very different from what we have ever done!

I think a nap may now be in order :)

Catch ya later!

Ho it Up, Ladies

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Good evening! Boy this weekend flew by. I was happy to see the sun for the first time in three days so this afternoon I got my butt to the beach in hopes of catching some rays. The sun had a different idea.  It thought it should play hide and seek behind clouds.  The beach got cold, so I packed up and headed home.  Better luck next time?!

Anyway….

Yesterday I woke up and headed to bootcamp. I had thinking about skipping, but I would’ve had to super late cancel and I had no real good reason not to go, so I got up and changed and headed to Avalon Crossfit.  It had been raining earlier in the morning, and though the ground was still wet, it stopped and we headed outside to the track. It was cool out so that made for great workout weather.

Warm Up

  • 20 alternating lunges
  • 20 jumping jacks
  • 10 air squats

Since it was my fourth Crossfit class of the week, and the third day in a row, my legs were super sore.  I really felt the burn in the lunges and squats.  My hamstrings are super tight today.  I think I need to spend some time with my foam roller tonight :)

  • 50 ab mat sit ups
  • 400m run
  • 225 jump rope singles
  • 400m run
  • 100 push ups
  • 400m run
  • 125 squats
  • 400m run

The workout was awesome even though I was skeptical at first.  It seemed like a lot to do! I had to push myself, especially through the push ups (which I modified on my knees) and with the squats (I felt these a million fold!).  I finished in 23:30 and headed straight home to meet Amy for a very special date ;)

I quickly showered and got to eating some breakfast, which Amy so graciously picked up. A bagel with cream cheese…

and a mimosa.

At 1:30 we met my friend Andrea and the rest of her lovely bridal party to get some bachelorette festivities going. First stop: Gypsy Rose for some pole dancing fun.

Lexi, our pole dance teacher, met us in the office area and promptly brought us into the changing room filled with sky high boots, bootie shorts, and told us to find something fun to wear before class. I would’ve thought I’d be a bit more self-conscious while trying to pick out a costume that would make me look like a “ho” (Lexi told us to “Ho it up”) but it was a lot of fun! I wore knee-high black boots, black bootie shorts, and a pink, diner-waitress dress that was SUPER short.

We walked in and went over some ground rules and then Lexi gave us a little dance. The room had three poles in it and was dimly lit with strips of white light ropes. There were several sayings posted on the wall as well: “The pole is your friend” and “sexy is a state of mind” were my favorites.

We started out class with a group strut from on end of the room to the other. We were given a few pointers and then Lexi put on “Free your mind” by En Vogue and we were off.

We then learned a little floor dance that started with the go-to exotic dance move: the booty circle. It kind of is like doing the hula-hoop, but sexier of course! After that it was our signature dance move for the night. I am sure everyone who came in contact with us after that was super impressed by our group’s booty circle skills.

Next up: the pole. We learned three different pole spins during class and they were way easier than I expected them to be. I was kind of a natural ;) We were told to “trust the pole and trust your body”. 3 girls lined up at the poles and Lexi gave us all individual instruction and pointers as needed. I flung myself around those poles until I was dizzy and got all three spins by the end of the class. Woop Woop! It was so much fun!

The icing on the cake was our final lesson of the class: the art of picking up a $20 bill with your butt. Yes folks, that is now a skill I have actually acquired. The key was to do booty circles on your way to sitting on the chair.

As you can see, I look more like I am going to the bathroom than exotic dancing my way to picking up a $20 with my butt cheeks, but I was successful!

We were given about 5 minutes to mess around on the pole while Lexi got changed and then we took one last group photo before changing up and heading out. Andrea was given a special certificate declaring her and exotic dancer!

Pole dancing was such a blast. At first I thought I would feel uncomfortable or look dumb and make a fool of myself but it wasn’t like that at all. Lexi had such a good way of making us feel comfortable right from the start. I would definitely do it again ;)

After dancing we headed to the one-bedroom suite on the 27th floor of the Sheraton near the Prudential. THe views of the city were ah-mazing. We had Regina’s pizza (duh!), mixed some drinks, played some games, and got ready to head out for a night on the town.

It was a really fun night and I was happy I got the chance to celebrate her upcoming wedding with her. If last night was any sign of things to come, that wedding is going to be a blast! The rest of our festivities, my friends, will remain a special memory for Andrea and her girls!


Have you ever gone pole dancing? What did you think? What was a memorable bachelorette party you’ve attended?

Monkey see, monkey do!

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This morning I woke up this morning feeling refreshed. I was in bed by 11 last night, and I didn’t have to work today, so there really isn’t any reason I shouldn’t feel refreshed, right?

I woke up feelin yesterday’s WOD in my armpits, well the area around my armpits, and legs. It is such a good feeling to know that I kicked my own butt yesterday. I was ready to get right back into it today.

But first, I had breakfast.

The Smart Start cereal and blueberries were a great combination but I found my stomach grumbling about and hour later. At that point it was too late for me to eat something else because when I eat too close to Crossfit I get tummy troubles, and I don’t enjoy them at all. It really cramps my Crossfit-style (pun intended, I am funny :) )

Class today was lead by Tristan so right away you should know it was awesome. There were 5 of us today, including another lady! It was great to have someone to share a bar with during the strength portion of the class.

Warm Up: 3 rounds using PVC pipe

  • 10 pass throughs
  • 10 good mornings
  • 10 air squats

The pass throughs really felt amazing in my armpit/chest area!

Strength

  • 5 x 5 push jerk
  • 10 weighted back extensions
  • 20 ab mat sit ups

WOD: outside on track, 5 rounds

  • 100 m sprint
  • 100m walk
  • 100m sprint
  • 100m walk

I am not a fast runner. In high school, my softball coach made a comment that I run like a turtle. I take offense to that when I think about it now because it isn’t like I don’t try to run my fastest! My fastest just happens to be slower than, well, everyone. This WOD was a good way for me to get in a little speed work in a non-intimdating way.

Tristan’s tips to gain speed were to build up speed as fast a possible and lean forward to gain momentum. The first lap I could feel I was keeping my shoulders straight. I was also not getting a jogging start (anticipating) the sprints very well. As a result I was running pretty slow (even for me).

For the second lap I watched the other girl in the class. She was super speedy. For each sprint portion she started with a light jog at the end of the walking in anticipation for the sprint. Then, when she hit the line, she leaned forward and took off.

Monkey see, monkey do. I was impressed with myself.

By the last two laps I was able to correctly maintain a pace that allowed me to sprint through the end of each straight portion of the track.

Post workout I made a smoothie.

In the mix:

  • frozen strawberries
  • frozen banana
  • 1/2 cup almond milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
  • ice

It tasted just like a Starbuck’s smoothie.  This mixture is a keeper :)

Up for the rest of the day is a little bit of puttering around for some wedding related festivities I have coming up for my cousin Casey. Anything that involves shopping makes for a good day in my book!

What’s on your agenda for this weekend?

~L

A Brand New Look

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Good morning! Everyone notice something different about the site? Yup! I gave myself a blog makeover, and the best part is that it was free :)

A couple of weeks ago, Ali and I were discussing blog related things and I had mentioned that the part of blogging I dislike the most is the uploading of pictures from my camera, into iphoto, then onto WordPress and into a post. It is so time consuming and for some reason it annoys me a lot. She suggested uploading and editing my photos into a free program called Picasa.

Yesterday I finally uploaded the program and got sucked into the wonders of photo editing for the entire afternoon! Oh boy this is going to change the way I post with pictures for sure!

I created a whole bunch of collages to make a header and it took me a while to get the size and layout right:

Too big!

Too small!

Typo. Can you spot it? (I spelled “quit” as “quite“

Just right!

I also changed the theme of my page by using a free theme through Word Press. I think the blog is now clean and simple. I love it!

What do you think??

After spending my entire afternoon playing with Picasa, I was looking forward to a night out with coworkers to celebrate the retirement of our school’s beloved secretary, Miss Phyllis. Miss Phyllis is the BEST secretary a school could ask for. She knows the names, numbers, and family members of every student in the building. She will drop anything to fix the copier when it has a jam or is out of toner, and will make 90 copies of my kids math homework without complaining once. She is kind and caring and is going to be missed by the entire community. Miss Phyllis is truly irreplaceable.

The soiree was at the Winthrop Arms which is a restaurant/hotel that overlooks the ocean. It was a rainy night and the restaurant lounge was very comforting. It was a cozy spot for a party.

I had two glasses of wine over the course of the night.

A plate of appetizers help my appetite over until dinner.

Entree:

The chicken limone was topped with melted cheese and asparagus and came with a couple roasted potatoes. I ate the potatoes and the cheesy asparagus off the to of the chicken. The food wasn’t bad but I sometimes do not enjoy chicken at restaurants.

Dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice cream and an unpictured piece of strawberry shortcake. Yum!

On today’s agenda is 11a.m. Crossfit class. The WOD calls for us to be outside so I am hoping the rain holds off.

See ya this afternoon!

~L

Like a Virgin

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Hey kids, happy summer!  Today is my first day of my summer vacation and I already did the first thing on my summer to-do list: slept until my body told me it was time to get up.  Waking up to an alarm (then hitting the snooze button every five minutes for a half hour) really bums me out so all I really wanted out of my first day of summer vacation was to wake up on my own.  Now, that may have been 7:00 a.m., but it was without an alarm nonetheless :)

Then I did something I haven’t done in two weeks: I went food shopping!  We literally had NO food in the house.  I mean, when the cans of fruit and mini bags of Doritos that Jack was living off of got scarce I knew it was time to go.  I stocked up on a whole bunch of fresh produce including a pint of blueberries that were on sale, strawberries, bananas, and a quarter of a seedless watermelon.

Food shopping at 8:00a.m.is far less stressful than on a Sunday afternoon.  I even made it to Trader Joe’s to buy some whole wheat pizza dough for Pizza Monday and a bottle of Two Buck Chuck.

Have you ever tried this stuff?  It is only $2.99 a bottle and isn’t half bad!  I actually have only had the red wines but if the white is as good as that I will have a new go-to wine.  If not I can stick to the $2.99 red wines.  See, a win-win situation!

After food shopping I headed to Tristan’s 11am Avalon Crossfit class.  I love taking classes with Tristan but when I am in school I can’t make it to his afternoon classes.  This means I only take classes with him for bootcamp or when he is filling in for someone else.  Today’s class was different than the those other classes though.  First off, it was much smaller (I really heart small classes).  There were 4 of us (and I was the only girl).  With the class being so small I was able to really hoard Tristan’s attention and get him to answer every question I had.  It was just like the good old days when we did onboarding together :)

I got there before anyone else so we chatted about protein for fueling after a workout.  I just got a new Whey Protein powder today on trip to Trader Joe’s and wasn’t sure how much to put in a smoothie.  He said one scoop should be plenty because the purpose of the protein after a workout is to get protein digested as fast as possible after a workout.

Warm up was pretty straight forward: 3 rounds

  • 5 inchworms
  • 10 air squats
  • 15 jumping jacks
Strength:
  • 5 x 5 front squat
  • 10 pull-ups (modified with a thick band around my knees)

Front squats are hard for me because I do not have the flexibility in my wrists that I need to correctly hold the bar across my shoulders.  One of my elbows (the right one) is always high than the other too which makes me lopsided.  I can squat like a champ though with a modification where I rest the bar across my shoulders and criss cross my arms to keep my elbows up and the bar in place.  I did my first set with just the 45lb bar, the second set with 65lbs, and the last three with 75lbs.

Pull ups were tough.  We were working on dead hang pull ups and using the thick band around my knee I could do 4 in a row (woop woop) but then it got so hard and I would have to do like 1 and 1/2 then take a break.

WOD:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps
  • Kettle bell swings (16kg)
  • push ups
  • ab mat sit ups

Today I was like a Crossfit virgin (sing it with me: “Crossfitting for the very first tiiiimmmeee”).  Let me explain:

When I started back in January I was so eager to improve and get stronger and faster.  Every class I really pushed myself.  I tried heavier weights and scaled down if needed.  I always started as close to prescribed as possible.  Somewhere over time though, I got lazier and didn’t push myself the way I should have.  I started with the lower weight kettlebells, did push-ups on my knees, underestimated what I was capable of.  Actually, I just went with the motions.

In Crossfit, however, they say something like “If you do the same thing you will get the same results”.  I want to get faster and stronger.  I needed a fresh start and a little pep talk from Tristan sure went a long way. We discussed the fact that I am kinda scared to be the last one finished and have been struggling to push myself because I don’t want to be the last one (even though I know it is a ridiculous thought). He sympathized with me, but explained that to get faster and stronger I need to go heavier and take longer (at first).  He encouraged me to not let finishing last hinder me from really progressing.  He strongly suggested always going for as close to prescribed as possible and said if I needed to drop weight or modify as I go to do so.  He encouraged pacing myself so I could move continuously through the WOD and take small rest breaks if necessary.  

No pain no gain I guess?!

My renewed Crossfit mantra: Go big or go home.

  • I went with the 16kg kettle bell and used it for the entire WOD.
  • I also did “real” pushups for the 21-18-15 reps, resting a little between then modified to my knees for the 12-9, and went back to “real”ones for 6-3.
  • Ab mat sit ups were a piece of cake ;)

I finished in 14:32 (or something like that), at least 4 full minutes after the guys.  I feel AMAZING.

My run to and from Crossfit totaled 2.25 miles and served as a great warm up pre-Crossfit and a form of post-workout torture on the way home.

Upon walking in my house I made myself a giant glass of chocolate milk and procrastinated doing anything else of my summer-to-do list.
Hey, I was off to a pretty good start ;)
When have you approached something you routinely do with new eyes?  What brought about the change?

Thing I haven’t Done

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Hey everyone!  Happy Saturday!

I haven’t blogged in over a week, but that isn’t the only thing I haven’t done in a week!

I also didn’t:

  • run (with the exception of an 8k road race last Sunday and a 5k run Thursday)
  • Crossfit
  • do laundry
  • go food shopping
  • cook a home made meal
  • make my bed when I got up
  • wake up without hitting snooze or resetting my alarm
  • shower
OK, I did shower, but I didn’t do much else.  Sometimes life just calls for you to take a break and I guess, as you can see, when I take I break I take it from everything.  Why discriminate right? ;)

Unfortunately one thing that happens when I am not on schedule is that I feel more stressed out and cranky than normal!  I am sure if you asked Jack he would agree that I was probably one tough cookie this week to put up with.

Today I decided it had to end.  I had to get back on track with my Saturday morning bootcamp class.

I always liked the bootcamp classes because I am a fan of the circuit type workouts where you do timed intervals for each exercise.  Our WOD in a regular Crossfit class includes these types sometimes too but usually is a certain amount of reps for a certain amount of rounds.  For a while I thought that because our bootcamps would be outside that we wouldn’t be doing circuits until winter because we had access to a track and could run instead.  Tristan never disappoints though, and he must’ve read my mind, because today’s class was what I would consider my dream bootcamp class.

Warm Up
  • 1 and 1/2 laps around the track
  • 30 jumping jacks
  • 20 air squats
  • 10 push ups
Bootcamp:
stations with a partner, two 30-second rounds for each exercise (totaling 2 minutes)
  • (A) jumping jacks
  • (A) burpees
  • (B) bear crawls
  • (B) bicycles
  • (C) side steps
  • (C) Thrusters with 15lb weights
  • (D) kettle bell swings with 14kg
  • (D) jump rope singles
  • (E) push-ups
  • (E) walking lunges
  • (F) shuttle runs
  • (F) ab mat sit ups
  • (G) grape vines
  • (G) mountain climbers

Then we did the whole circuit again but for just 30 seconds a piece.  I love the 30 second intervals because I can do anything (bear crawls and mountain climbers mainly) for 30 seconds.  It keeps the workout flowing and moving at a fast pace, which I LOVE!

It was such a good workout and I felt strong and happy to be getting back at it.  The sun got very warm toward the end so I was a sweaty mess by the time we were done.  I have got to get myself some unrestrictive summer workout clothes so they only thing that makes the workout hard is, well, the workout! (and not overheating because of clothing thats too heavy).
What haven’t you done this week?

~L

Clif Bars and Energy

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Before I headed to Avalon Crossfit tonight (and after drinking my water ;) ) I had a Chocolate Chip Clif Bar.  They are pretty high in calories (240) so I don’t eat these babies just as a regular ol’ snack.  I save ‘em for pre-workouts and choose Luna bars or Clif Mo-Jo bars as my snackies because they have around 190 calories a bar and seem more fitting for a snack.

These things are my go-to workout fuel (if it’s not broke, don’t fix it!). When I first began my on-boarding sessions with Tristan I had sent him an email explaining that sometimes during the classes I felt shaky and lethargic.  While he acknowledged that part of the reason I felt that way was because my body may not be use to such high intensity workouts, he also sent me some really good information about properly fueling for a high intensity workout.

 Tristan’s Tips on What to Eat Pre-Workout:

  • Try to eat something 1 to 2 hours before your workout (any closer than that, and you won’t have enough time to digest much of it).
  • Though everyone is different, try to eat 20 to 30 grabs of protein and 50 to 60 grams of carbs. Avoid fat for the most part, because it will just slow down absorption in your stomach. The carbs should be “simple,” so they digest easily, like bananas, Clif bars (woop woop :) ) oatmeal, etc.
  •  Post-workout is just as important, because if you wait too long to eat afterward, your body might start “eating” away at your muscle to repair the damage done from the workout. Try to eat more quickly digestible carbs and some protein within an hour after your workout. You can have something small, even like half a Clif bar, to tide you over until you have a real meal.
  • Try experimenting a little bit with portions and different foods. If you like bananas, then one day you should add one to your lunch, another later in the day, then eat whatever you usually would pre-workout.

I used the tips and found for myself that having a Clif bar 1 1/2 to 2 hours pre-workout was the best for me.  I also love bananas and eat one for breakfast everyday, but one a day is plenty for me.

Tristan and all the folks at Avalon Crossfit are really knowledgeable and approachable about anything that I have ever needed from food to hydrating to modifications!  If you are interested you should call Tristan up and set up an onboarding session.  In my opinion you won’t be sorry.

Wednesday’s WOD:

Motto: “Steady is fast”

Warm-up:

  • 10 Turskish get-ups with 4lb kettle bell
  • 10 air squats

Skill/Strength:

  • 5 x 5 Squat clean
WOD for 4 rounds:
  • 100m run up and back (200m total)
  • 5 turkish get-ups with right side (I used 8kg)
  • 5 turkish get-ups with left side
I finished in 13:35 and followed the motto “Steady is fast”.  I usually move in slow motion for a lot of what we do at Crossfit and try to get the form right.  I also think (and I may be the only one who thinks this) that it hurts way less if you go slower.  With that being said I am never winning any prizes or beating any records.  Today, however, John gave me the unofficial honor of the “Perfect Form for Turkish Get-ups”.  *SMILE*  For those of you who don’t know what a Turkish get-up is, take a looksie below:
I did that but with a kettle bell instead of the guy’s wife :)
After we cooled down with a few stretches and talked a little more about push-ups.  Then I headed straight to the liquor store Jack’s parents for a couple of beverages and some Regina’s pizza.  I had Pizza Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday this week.  Do you think I need an intervention??
Tonight I chose to try out something light and fruity: Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry.  At 95 calories it is light enough to eat with pizza and sweet enough to hide the fact it is a Michelob (I am a Miller Lite girl all the way).  Definitely a different alternative to some of the heavier summer beers out there.

Tomorrow is Thursday people, let’s rejoice!

Night

~L