The happenings.

If you're into Tumblr, get ready - get set- GO, to the link below which is my spot in this little 'verse .

http://jitterbug-kt.tumblr.com/

Saying little 'verse makes me think of Mal from firefly. But I'm really quite excited to share this on here, not that I have a huge following--maybe someday.

Today is my family picnic and I'm super geeked. I'm sure my instagram is just going to blow up with the amount of use it'll get in the next day and a half.

Also coming up is the Poster Symposium for my lab work. Lauralee and I will have a booth in the atrium of the lab building at WMU's campus and we'll present our research to peers and scholars.

Honestly every-time I even think about it I get a little queasy because, while I adore speaking in front of people I often feel out of my element in our research and it's pretty high brow information--and I know that I need to explain it simply. I worry how I will do that....

And everyday that passes is one day closer to being in Ireland. I cannot wait I've probably packed and repacked my suitcase in my mind a hundred times. I want to be prepared to learn, and experience. I am probably driving the family and boyfriend mad with how much I go on about it all but,  I can't help it! It makes me so happy.

I hope to share that happiness with you oh nameless audience.

Until next time.

I fail at this, so epicly it hurts.

I'm sorry blogger, I am--it's just TUMBLRS easier.
My blog moved there. Not that I really have kept up with this one or any of the stuff I said I would like ya' know my lab work. Which was freaking sweet by the way if Organic Chemistry is your jam. If it isn't well...humbug to you sir.

To be very serious, Organic Chemistry and this internship was one of the hardest things i've ever done. I was thrown into very heavy academic material given a two week crash course then expected to do research. UM. It was like a recipe for disaster except, I worked with wonderful people like Lauralee and David our Graduate student. And the now infamous Tyler poster who is our proverbial hero.

It takes a village to raise a child, and it took a village to get Lauralee and I up to snuff on Organic Chemistry. But once we were the time flew by our research took off and we were really starting to get the hang of it near the end. Learning how real science works was fascinating. I grew so much as a person by understanding all that goes into one step of research all of the processes, all the notes, all the harried hours of problem solving. And I wouldn't trade a minute of it. Not a single-moment. It was frustrating often, but I met loads of new people and I gained the value of patience and real problem solving. It's something I hope I can look back to with happy thoughts.

To do and to be, a post of things to come

I haven't posted in MONTHS.

I'd say that this was in large part, not my fault. But it's not like an overwhelming amount of people can write here on this old blog so, yes it is. I didn't write partially because I felt I was too busy. School-work, the usual suspects here. AND because I was lazy--mostly that.

Now luckily I have good news. Or at least something to share. In exactly two days I'll be moving back into the dorms at WMU to be a fellow at the ExpeRts program and do scientific research.

WHHHAAAAAAAAAAT. 

Exactly. 

I will be doing things more of note and I'll be hoping to document them for you nameless, faceless, probably person-less audience. I'll also work up to the other exciting thing about to occur in my life (thanks to the grace of God). My study abroad trip to Ireland. I know, be as excited as I am.

Most people congratulate me and assume this is because I have some strange need to pub crawl in a different country.

And while being able to purchase alcohol, is a definitely a privilege and a benefit of going to a different country, it wasn't on my top ten list of reasons why I decided to go. But thanks, cashier, school secretary, undergraduate adviser, stranger, movie ticket-ripper, etc. and other who have all made the same, almost annoying now, comment.

"So what are you gonna study pub crawling?" HA. HA. Hahahaa.

NO -_-' .

Get a new catch phrase.

With that thought i'll probably leave you all here now, so that I can pursue more important activities. Like my methods practicum online course to better understand research practices and lab protocol.

ORRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Nerdbrother Vlog, videos.

I'm not a real adult #sorrynotsorry

P- is for Patience

I think many people myself included struggle with patience.
Patience is a skill that is sought after and only attained by an awful lot of diligence and perseverance. I know for myself that this week I really noticed myself struggling with the 'dignity of a person'. The respect each of us deserves by right of our humanity. I work at a day-care as many of you know, and I often tell people who wonder how I do it that my little co-workers are people too. Equal and worthy of my utmost respect and care, they deserve it.

Admittedly that is difficult, sometimes you just want to hurry a long the twenty-minute story about oranges, that so-and-so has been going on about. However--I finally found a solution to the frustration I was feeling, and the impatience that would leap to my tongue.

I would breathe and think to myself--this is a child of God. God knew them before they were born, knew their likes and dislikes, He knew THEM. He breathed life into their soul--God is testing me and teaching me RIGHT now. And I'd make eye-contact with that child-again, at one point I got very emotional while doing this because they looked so earnest and so joyful that I was giving them attention. And I'd read something recently that struck me like a thunderbolt like God was speaking in my ear "I am everywhere--and in everyone". So when I want to rage, or shout, or feel especially impatient or exasperated. I now try to count down from 10 and remember that everyone I meet harbors Jesus in them. And if I wouldn't say, whatever is about to come out of my mouth to, the Lord. Or if I wouldn't act a certain way if it were God. I shouldn't do it to another person. No matter how much they might 'deserve it'.

Not that I don't still struggle with this! It's a hard battle waged every day amongnst my knee-high friends. Although I do find this among the 'Big' people too. On the side I also work at a couple other jobs, one of which is a stagehand position in which I work with interesting people from all over the globe at different places and stages in their life.

One struggle God put on my plate this week. Was a continual struggle with the patience and dignity this time not with a child but with an adult. Which is far harder, I was working with an elderly man who wasn't all there.

It was hard not to get frustrated when he'd say things that didn't make sense, or did something on set incorrectly or told you a really long story that didn't make sense--or kept back talking you. And the rest of my crew were griping and complaining about him. Walking away abruptly in the middle of his stories or pulling out their cellphones so as to ignore him. I couldn't bring myself to do this--I felt guilty and so ashamed at my frustration and anger. I offered all of it up to God because again, the moment I made eye-contact with this elderly man. All I could see was the loneliness the--I just need someone to listen. My heart broke a little bit. I felt pulled by God to listen, it seriously felt as though God were whispering in my ear. "Look at me, this is the face of Jesus, I am here too."

I was just struck, I couldn't look away or be knowingly rude to this man. And I challenge my readers if you're out their to try that this week. To look at the faces of everyone you meet and to remember that they are children of God and that Jesus resides in them too. You'll see a difference in the way you treat them, I guarantee it.

"For to love another person, is to see the face of God" - Les Miserables
"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" - Mathew 5:5 (The Beatitudes)

We must not be defined by our deficits

     I am one of those people that ‘used’ to hate math. Who hears the phrase so often abused in classrooms “You’ll use this every day—Math is everywhere”. And I laugh—or used to.

   Until I realized, they’re right.

   This took years—twelve in fact, before this concept would really sink in.

    I was diagnosed in the second grade with a pretty severe form of a learning disability known in layman’s terms as ‘dyscalculia’. This affects everything from my spatial reasoning skills, simple mathematics, telling time, estimating distances, to the proper usages of grammar.
    And I said I don’t use math every day. Oh how I lied to myself when I said those words. I let my ‘disability’ consume me. Define me, they (parents,teachers, coaches, mentors) said “Ya’ know Kaitlyn, you’re bad at math”.

   And I believed them—every time. How could I not? My peers were racing ahead of me they had no problem multiplying multi-digit numbers and here I was struggling with 7 X 4. I knew I didn’t get it, so I agreed. I internalized that I was ‘bad’ at math—and this feeling like I was never going to get better. So why should I try?
     I’ve not quite come full circle but I’m training to become an educator, I am in college and I am appalled at myself  first and foremost, and in some ways I am also frustrated by my previous teachers, for not having any one, that helped me break that ‘mold’. A mold I built for myself that I’m ‘bad’ at this so why should I care? Why should I try?

    Why should I try?! What an awful way look at my own education. I can now at least after much reflection, answer myself.

 You should try because;

1.      1.  It’s embarrassing to not be able to read an analog clock quickly.

2.      2. You go out of your way to avoid any situation involving math—you let fear dominate you.

3.     3.  You are going to stand in front of a classroom teaching a subject you LOVE, but other students may be struggling with …the same way you struggled with math. And you HAVE to reach them.

4.      4. You should try because, math can be fun. And I do use it every day.

I use it when I:

1.      Read a clock

2.      Estimate how long it takes to get to work, with multiple variables including—traffic, whether or not I’ll need to unbury my car from snow, and sleeping in as much as I really want to.

3.      Want to sing a song—and need to read music.

4.      Whenever I write anything—language is math, grammar is just another equation.

5.      Need to bake cookies for the family Christmas party, and realize I need to double the recipe.

6.      When at the daycare I measure out exactly how much medicine to give a crying baby, or how much formula they’ve consumed.

7.      My actual real life finances. My income versus my spending, how am I saving money?

    Why should I try? I know that I should try for every issue I’ve listed above. I also know that the saying ‘easier said, than done’ is much more applicable.

       To those out there that struggle with something—truly struggle. You know what I’m talking about, that gnawing fear when your presented with something you’re ‘bad’ at, know you have to figure it out because either an entire class is waiting on your response, or a test is coming up and you need to prove that this material matters. And it’s a war every time, you have to re-hash old issues, you have to wade through old mistakes before you can even pick up your pencil. You are filled in that moment, with doubt, with fear, with anxiety, with anger—and this hopelessness, and more than that—in my case at least, this apathy. That is an awful lot of baggage a student is bringing behind them, when you give what I call ‘oral pop-quizzes’. Where you randomly, or not so randomly call on students to give answers to seemingly ‘easy’ questions. As an educator we need to be aware that those ‘pop-quizzes’ may not be all that they’re cracked up to be.

Back to the matter at hand—that student is always wondering ‘why should I care?’ When their least favorite subject comes up, we need to notice this.

    Because ‘why should I care?” is a valid question when we apply it to perhaps, more specialized problems and answers. Adiabatic’s for example is an important formula and equation for Geo-scientists to know. Your average person, off the street? Not so much.

And yet I went through 12 years of education believing that because, I was bad at math I shouldn’t even try. It wasn’t going to help me in life, to learn it so -why should I bother?

     To me this says more about the current way we look at education. We focus so much on not only student’s deficits, but also these out of context situations that simply aren’t relatable.

Great educators transcend that, they make it apparent why  “Fences” or “Things Fall Apart” or “Antigone” are still great literary pieces and devices, why and where the quadratic equation is actually relevant in your daily lives outside of school, in addition to doing your own taxes or balancing a checkbook.

Relevancy is an issue I have with education—a lot of the time I feel it’s done poorly. Students don’t buy ‘corny’ real world examples. They do, I think acknowledge REAL ‘real life’ situations. Such as why “Things Fall Apart”, is still a relevant novel even though it’s set during colonial period Africa—because it’s a story of the loss of culture, of language, of the familiar. It is the downfall of a father; it has these elements that can reach everyone.  

   That’s what good education is. Knowledge, Relevancy and Applicability.

     That’s why it took me 12 years to really understand why I was bad at math. I am bad at math not because of my disability—but despite of it. I am bad at math because I didn’t push myself hard enough. That is a harder pill to swallow.

    I can’t blame my ‘dyscalculia’ when I know deep down the real root was my inability to try—because I didn’t see the relevancy behind it.

     I can say now that at least I understand how I can do better, how I can push myself to not let my predisposition weigh me down. I can also say that I’ve learned something invaluable about what will make me a better educator.

      Knowing that students will struggle—for lots of reasons. One of the main ones is relevancy, after 12 years of struggle—and with a lifetime ahead of me. I hope I don’t forget that lesson.

      My inability is the greatest tool at my disposal my perseverance what will make me successful. Our weakest points must also be where we draw strength.

        I can only pray, that God will give me the ability to share that with others, to share with students that I understand ‘struggle (s)’ but we cannot let ourselves be defined by them. We are more than our greatest weaknesses.

Praise for the deserving

     Happy Humpday everyone! I hope your Wednesday's were all wonderful. I'm prepping like crazy for Valentines day, I'll post about my frugal and beautiful cards and gifts coming up in one of the next few posts along with some stuff for those of you going into--or already in college. Now--in the words of Monty Python, it's time for something completely different.

     I'd like to take this moment to share with all of you the beautiful work of a friend of mine. I'm completely enraptured by this song and her rendition of it. "Peter" covered by Olivia in the video originally by Daughter.

    The lyrics are below, and i'm just hooked. I can't say enough good things about Olivia's unique voice nor the way I think she just completely captures the meaning of this song for me. It's eerie, sorrowful, with this edge to it, -shivers- gives me chills. {Every. single. time.} If you like this and want to hear more follow the youtube video, on to her page.

"Peter, can I go back home?
I flew here under false pretense
I thought it would be fun
But the lost boys have all moved away
And one of them's locked up
I know you think you're still a child
But I couldn't give a f**** (Changed in this version)
You're twenty-one

Oh Peter,
I can dream no more
I've been chasing all of yours
That I've forgotten what it was that I wanted
That I want

No I won't be your doll
So please don't you ask me to
You see that I don't look so good in yellow
Like other dolls they do
Like other dolls they do

Oh Peter
I am not naïve
I see the way you look at her
You don't do that for me
Oh it must be love
And we both know it's not with us

No I won't be your doll
So please don't you ask me to
You see that I don't look so good in yellow
Like other dolls they do
Like other dolls they do

Oh Peter
He walks beside the lake
While I lie beside an empty space
Waiting for the sirens
Just waiting for the sirens

No I won't be your doll
So please don't you ask me to
I won't shut my little painted face
Like all your other dolls they do
Like all your other dolls they do
They do"

The importance of washing our hands

I think most of this goes with out saying, but if you wanted a really simple easy way to explain it to children or for a reminder. This is what I'm putting out to the ole' internet.

On this note, if you really wanna be healthy as a teacher- I can't tell you how much it means for me, for you to teach your children to wash their hands properly. The informative picture below is a great tool and covers the basics. It even includes songs to sing and times when we should wash our hands.