#i just stopped in the middle of my maths revision to write this because i couldnt stop thinking about it

[candy8448]

I was thinking about the stakes in tears of the kingdom:

(A small analysis essay)

(Ill be using words that will hopefully not out any spoilers)

In breath of the wild you had to defeat ganon, the stakes were that if you didn't defeat ganon in time zelda would be too weak to hold him any longer and the kingdom of hyrule will be doomed.

However in totk, there is nothing like that. There is no urgent stakes for defeating ganondorf. Everything is almost at a standstill, everything has been waiting since the begining of this Hyrule and there is no time limit for fighting ganondorf. In fact, ganondorf is kinda just waiting for link at the end.

And then i remembered, this game isn't about saving Hyrule, Hyrule is fine, everyone is actually kind of excited at these turn of events. There is no current evil they should be concerned of other than the gloom which is easily dodged.

This game is about finding and being with Zelda.

It's been that from the very start.

From the moment you wake up on the geat sky island you are given the objective to find zelda

Everyone who is close to you is asking where is zelda, you are told to investigate each region because zelda was spotted there, not because a great evil has arrived and they are in danger (even though that is also the case, zelda is still at the forefront of your concern)

It's only later in the game, once you have almost everything done that the goal becomes defeat ganondorf but even then, it is because you now know what happened wih zelda and need to make sure her efforts were worth it. Once you know that zelda's goals are to defeat ganondorf, that is when you join her in her goals rather than looking for her.

Even until the very last second of the end credits scene it is about getting to zelda, saving zelda, making sure zelda is okay, standing by zelda...

Breath of the wild was about regaining your memories, doing what you can and gaining forces to aid in defeating ganon because that is what you are told to do by the king at the begining, a role told to someone who has no memories, no way to make a decision of what he wants to do. This is even so in the memories, he is a soldier that must do as he is told, no choices made by himself alone. The game is about rebuilding and defeating an evil before it can stop that healing. He, We are a slate that has no job to do other than save everybody in time.

In tears of the kingdom, we have those memories, we have those experiences, he has the connections and emotions to decide for himself what he wants, not a duty to the kingdom. He got to chose what is important to him and he got to put that front and center in his life, above duty, above a role, above anything else,

And he chose Zelda...

#is it silly that i kinda made myself emotional while writing this? #i just stopped in the middle of my maths revision to write this because i couldnt stop thinking about it #i do a little ramble #the legend of zelda #loz #totk #loz tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom #loz totk #botw #loz breath of the wild #breath of the wild #link breath of the wild #zelda breath of the wild #link tears of the kingdom #zelda tears of the kingdom #totk ganondorf #ganondorf #ganon #calamity ganon

[marshmallowprotection]

Hi, I'd like to ask for a match-up if you don't mind. This might be fairly lengthy or idk sorry about that. I use she/her and I think I'm pan although I would much rather not use labels for something as fluid as sexuality. My love languages are quality time and acts if service.

I've been told that I seem unapproachable to those who dont know me, which is understandable since I'm reserved around others most of the time. However, that's not the case at all with my close friends. I'm far more relaxed and expressive around them.

I'd say I have very low self esteem and find nothing to like about myself so I rely heavily on external validation, but only from people who mean somethingto me. I fear being perceived in a way i don't want by them so that sometimes leads to me being insincere with them at the start of relationships.

This will be a cliche but I've had my gifted kid burnout lol. It lead me to have a horrific work ethic like even right now I'm procrastinating on revising for an exam lmao. As for my grades they vary according to how much the subject interests me. Like I score really well on subjects like Math, English and psychology but in subjects like chemistry and physics, they're insanely unpredictable depending on if I liked that topic or not (anywhere from 40-100[which is sad tbh wish I was more consistent💀 also idk the us grade equivalent]) so I'd say interest plays a really important role in my actions.

That being said I gain and lose interest in stuff pretty quickly so it is really hard to talk about hobbies or likes and dislikes lmao. But a general trend that I've noticed is I unironically like pretentious shit lol. Psychology, law, philosophy and literature interest me very much. Other than that I've recently been getting into astrology bc of a friend and it's kinda fun?? Lol. Oh and for what it's worth I'm a Capricorn sun and moon and Virgo rising.

I also really like writing and have a collection of poems, some of which are embarrassingly edgy but in my defence I wrote them while having an emo phase back in middle school. But I still enjoy writing poetry and other short pieces. I also like singing and I think I'm slightly above mid at it idk. Other than that I like spending time with people who don't drain me on good days.

I tend to mess up a lot in relationships bc idk I somehow end up convincing myself I'm not worthy of them so I self sabotage a lot. Idk if this is relevant but I struggle a lot with mental health but I sought help this year so slay. I can also get pretty obsessive over them due to my pretty bad mental health. And uhhh like idk but if those feelings are not returned it just crashes and burns lmao like I end up hating them, which is honestly awful on my part, but I have to hate them too get over them. But eventually that hatred fizzles out into indifference but idk.

But uh sad stuff aside, I love passionately lmao. Like I spoil the fuck out of my friends and people I love. Handmade gifts, surprise trips, playlists or idk, just lying on the bed vibing in silence I just like hanging around with them. I make all of their problems mine and don't stop until I make them go away completely, or if I can't, I feel guilty about it. I'd say I like helping people. I want to be a therapist because I want to help people feel better or at least let them have some semblance of peace. Seeing that my efforts have made someone feel better makes me inexplicably happy.

And after all that would looks matter lol idk. But like it's safe to say that I'm conventionally ugly lmao. But I don't really mind it. I've made peace with it.

Ok that was genuinely long so sorry about that ahaha. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and have a great day!

I match you with...

Jumin.

You're the kind of person that is hyper-vigilant about everything that you do. No matter how you came to be this way, it's something that you're aware of and you have a hard time turning off. You are aware that actions have consequences and decisions can do things to other people. One of the things about being an empathetic person is you are constantly checking yourself. It means that you're a good person who always tries their best, but it also means that you wind up limiting yourself in other ways because while you try to emotionally regulate others, you forget to emotionally regulate yourself.

In that case, you need somebody in your life who knows how to remind you that you come first. It's important to help other people but don't take off all of your clothes in a blizzard to protect somebody else and leave yourself with nothing. So having somebody in your life that knows how to take care of other people is important. It makes you a powerful duo in your own right when you're having a good day, but it also keeps the two of you in check when you need a reminder that you need to be taken care of. Jumin is your man for that reason. He can be there for you and you can be there for him.

You’re passionate, too. You like to create with your hands and that leads to you sitting around with Jumin as you work, and he chuckles in approval, working on his projects at the same time. He loves to watch you make something out of the tools you have! It inspires him to focus harder on the hobbies he has. It’s meant to be methodical... but you remind him that it’s a creative endeavor, too. A labor of love molded by your hands. You inspire your lover every day just by being the person that you are. Love is strong and true, and you never have to be afraid of looking over at him and not seeing the same love-filled eyes. It’s always there in his heart.

#mod kait #ask #anon #matchup

[nxrthmizu]

| snakes | Suna Rintarou

»»——⍟——««

song | Trust Fund Baby - Why Don’t We 

pairing | Suna Rintarou x Reader 

words | 1.8k 

warning(s) | The reader has undertones of someone who’s sort of mean and sadistic? The story also relates the reader to a snake. I like snakes. I think they’re cool. But if you’re scared of snakes and you’re uncomfortable with the idea of being referenced to a snake,,, don’t read, I guess?  

author’s note | I rewrote this five fricking times and I still hate it but I’m not writing this again so have this 

»»——⍟——«« 

Confidence. 

He could feel it radiating off you in waves. Your presence diffused into the gym, alerting every person in the room of your arrival. Attention was drawn to you like moths were drawn to the light, every pair of eyes magnetised to your form by the gym door. 

Kita instantly rushed over to greet you politely, the details of your conversation too far away to be heard. For a brief moment, Suna registered just how well the two of you looked together. 

L/N Y/N, the representative and top student of his class, the newly-elected second-year secretary of the student council. No one doubted that you would take the president position in your third year, not with the ‘perfect student’ image you had going on. 

Kita Shinsuke, also top in grades, captain of the volleyball club, well-liked by the staff and students alike due to his politeness and nature. 

The two of you looked like a perfect imitation of what a modern royalty would be like. A combination of grace, elegance, and a face that was hardly fazed by anything. Something similar to bitterness ate away in the bottom of Suna’s heart as he turned away, muttering about putting more practice into his blocks. 

“What was she looking for you for?” He overheard Aran asking. 

“Oh, she’s filling in some missing information for our club. She came over to clarify some details.” Kita answered easily. 

Suna wasn’t really surprised when a couple third years, belonging to the student council committee- Showed up on the doorsteps of your shared class, asking to see you. Later on, he learned that the entire council body had brought up your name when asked which second-year should be elected as the secretary. You were well-known, even among the third years, as someone who possessed high intellect and organisation abilities, so it wasn’t a shock that your name was the one that nearly everyone suggested. 

If only they knew. 

If only they knew that you weren’t completely that ‘perfect student’ act that you’d put up. 

If only they knew just how cunning, sly, and sarcastic you really were. 

»»——⍟——««

If Suna had to describe you in one word, it would be snake. 

You were the definition of elegance, grace, and beauty. Every movement you made was meticulously calculated and not a single joule of energy was wasted or passed off as inefficiently used. There was never a hair out of place, and your skirt was never creased, no matter how long you had been sitting at your seat. 

Of course, Suna hadn’t always thought of you as a snake. It was only after that one fine summer day in his first year that his perception of you took a 180 turn, revealing to him what you truly were like. 

He had been on his way home, bag slung over his shoulder, when he caught the slight noise that seemed like a whimper. Never one to leave his nose out of someone else’s business, Suna slunk around, careful to stick to the shadows until the shocking sight befell his eyes. 

“So, you’re the one who’s been bullying [your brother’s name]?” The voice that dripped from your lips was distasteful, as if the junior high student that you had cornered in the alley was a filthy peasant compared to your royal status. “You don’t look very fierce now, do you?” 

If sarcasm was an art, then you’d probably be a DaVinci-level expert. He would even go as far as calling you a prodigy. And if there was a championship for the world’s most sarcastic human being, he would instantly sign you up. There was no doubt that you’d take home the no.1 trophy in that category (not that you weren’t already taking home trophies in other competitions, of course, he overheard that you recently dominated an advanced maths competition). 

“I— I’m sorry!” The student shivered under your piercing gaze. “I— I won’t touch him again, I promise—!” 

The laugh you responded with was overly sweet, combined with something from a Disney movie villain. If the movie also, by chance, happened to have ‘horror’ as its’ genre. Your eyes carried a maniacal threat that Suna believed wholeheartedly that you were capable of carrying out. “Bold of you to assume I’d even let you do it again.” You whispered, just loud enough for Suna to catch your words. 

The junior high student scrambled off, too busy getting away to notice Suna by the entrance of the alley. He slipped away before you reappeared at the beginning of the alley, having fixed your hair and flattened your skirt. 

You looked like a snake that had just finished a very satisfying meal. Suna could hardly believe that he had just heard you— the pride and joy of every teacher, the ‘perfect student’— spitting insults and threats at 200 words per minute, all while maintaining a ‘polite’ and ‘sweet’ tone. 

He was a little breathless after the whole ordeal. He could barely imagine what you would say to him if you’d caught him listening— But damn, part of him wanted to find out if he could withstand your literature-form venom. Truly, you were a snake— A creature that could hold its’ elegance even as your tore your prey apart (verbally). 

Suna always liked snakes. 

»»——⍟——««

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with L/N, Kita.” Aran teased, Suna overhearing as he stepped into the locker room for morning practice. Freezing in his tracks, the middle blocker curved right round the bend, staying out of sight. “There’s been a lot of rumours about how nice the two of you look together.” 

The volleyball captain only hummed in response, which, for some reason, pissed the hell out of Suna. 

“Come on, tell me something.” The other third-year complained. “She’s really pretty, I’d totally see why you’d go for her.” 

Something about the situation made Suna’s blood boil. He bit back his rising anger, setting aside the cause for the moment. Why was he getting so riled up? He never cared much about things in general, anyway, so... So why was the image of you and Kita, matching polite smiles on your lips— Why did it make him so furious he had to physically resist the urge to punch a wall? 

“The two of you do look nice together, though.” Aran continued as Suna pushed down the urge to strangle his upperclass-man. “Gives me the vibes of—” 

Before Aran could finish his sentence, the dark-haired middle blocker marched into the locker room, apologising for how loudly he had slammed the door open. “Sorry.” He drawled lazily, restraining the lava-hot anger in his blood. “I pushed too hard.” 

»»——⍟——««

You didn’t even blink, much less jump when Suna appeared abruptly by your desk. Instead, you simply set down your pencil and gave him a warm smile. “Can I help you with something?” 

Ever the helpful class president, Suna bit back to himself. No, no, he wanted you to like him. Not get a bad impression of him. “Do you... Think you could help me with the physics homework?” 

“It’s due tomorrow.” You said slowly, both of you aware that the assignment was well over forty pages. “Have you... Tried it?” 

“Yes.” He answered. “I’ve got a few questions I need help with. Are you free to stay back today?” 

This raised a tentative eyebrow from you. “Don’t you have volleyball practice?” 

Dammit, why did you have to have such a good memory. 

“Academics are more important than the club sometimes.” He shrugged. “I’ve got permission to skip.” No, he didn’t. 

“Alright then. I’ll meet you in the library after school.” 

»»——⍟——««

He watched you through hooded eyes as you reviewed his work. So you did know how to let loose, Suna murmured to himself in amusement, eyeing your untucked blouse and the beige sweater you’d thrown on in a defence against the library’s air-conditioning. 

“You’ve got most of the parts down, which bits do you need help with?” 

The rest of the time was spent going over the questions, your patience filling the silence along with his occasional ‘ohs’. Your handwriting flooded through his homework in neat rows, providing an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide on how to work through the questions, for revision purposes. 

“So.” 

You broke the silence, the two of you walking side by side, leaving the school together because he offered to buy you some food as a payment for the tutoring. 

“Are you going to tell me why you faked confusion and asked me to tutor you?” 

He winced. How could he forget that you were always straight to the point? 

“What do you mean?” The look on your face clearly said ‘feigning ignorance, eh?’. 

“I’m going to be frank with you,” You deadpanned. “You’re among the best at physics in our class. Some of the questions you asked me to help you through were ones that had been discussed in classes, and I know that you are listening even though you have your head on the table.” 

Alright, so he had under-predicted exactly how observant and attentive you were. 

“Then why did you agree to help me?” 

“You saw me that day, didn’t you?” 

He stopped walking. “Which day?” 

“That day. In our first year. When I threatened that junior high kid in the alley.” You stopped too, to turn your expressionless gaze on him. “You’ve looked at me differently since that day. I heard someone else’s breathing at the alley, but I didn’t see anyone so I figured they’d ran. I guessed it was you.” 

“... Yeah.” 

“You don’t seem to mind.” 

“Mind what?” 

“The fact that this...” You gestured to yourself. “Is a lie. This whole ‘perfect student’ image is an act that I put up to please my parents. I’m actually someone who has really mean thoughts. I could be a really toxic friend. I’m also probably a sadist.” 

Suna blinked quietly at you, running your words through his head a couple more times for good measure. “You remind me of a snake.”

In that one sentence, you realised that if there was one person in the world that was going to be fine with your personality the way it was, that person would probably be Suna Rintarou. The two of you continued your walk to the takoyaki shop Suna offered to buy you food from, continuing meaningless chatter on the journey. 

“Is that a good or bad thing?” 

“I like snakes.” 

“That’s cool. Me too.” 

“Why?” 

“I don’t know, I think they’re pretty cool. They’re like spiders, except they’re not insects. I don’t like insects very much.” 

“Hmm. I like snakes cause I think they’re really elegant. And pretty.” He paused for a moment. “Like you.” 

»»——⍟——««

taglist. @mrs-kuroojinguji @procrastination-lady @miel-meraki @shoyosun @aka-a-shii @shibayamasbae @churochuu @seijohlogy @dearsukuna @whootwhoot

Haikyuu!! gen taglist. @owlywrites @hikari-writes @whootwhoot @folkloeren @our-tall-slytherin-queen

#suna rintarou #haikyuu!! x reader #haikyuu!! #haikyuu!! fluff #what even is this #fluff? #suna rintarō #suna #suna x reader #inarizaki #inarizaki x reader #cady writesss « #cadowly's songfic december

[langblrwhy]

New Year’s Goals

September

I DID IT BETTER :) I wanted to do 90% this month and I did! I had to make a small list on the last week to remember me the topics I was procrastinating and I finished everything on time :))))

1 Try 2 new foods every month (food, beverage, recipe) + no meat for 2 days)

I didn't ate meat for 2 days

1 rice without meat

2 radish

2 Be fluent in esperanto and active in the community

I've been doing stuff on BEJO, translating stuff, calling people to speak, etc.

3 Practice having conversations via audio and video

I practiced a couple times.

-Bonus: Write a 10k fiction in french and publish it on Wattpad

I wrote this on the beginning of the year, and I didn't wrote a single page since then. My problem is not the french part, but the creative part. I have an idea of a romantic sapphic love story, but that's it, also I tried to write this month and I wrote 209 words and that's it, I have no ideas.

And I also don't feel the need to write a third fiction at the same time, so after explaining myself, this topic will continue here, but as a bonus.

4 Try to study russian again and focus on the basic

I revised the alphabet and sing along with songs as a way to better learn the alphabet.

5 Watch a movie every week and put them on doesthedogdie/ (at least the less popular movies)

1. Gemini (Japan, 1999)

2 Scary Movie 4 (USA, 2006)

3 Upside Down 3 (Brazil, 2019)

4 Moving (Japan, 1993)

5 Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (USA, 2014)

6 Read 5 books (I want to finish a book in october)

I read many chapters of Crime and Punishment, I finally passed the middle.

I read half of a book in Esperanto called "Island, Men and Love", it's a short gay book.

And I finally started reading The Communist Manifesto from Marx and Engels (people lied to me, it's not extra easy as I expected lol, but maybe is easier than the others political and economical books, but this won't stop me)

7 Finalize 1 art every month (it doesn’t have to be good, just finished)

I started a lot, but didn't finish a lot, but I finished a couple, so yeah.

8 Doing some exercise every week

YEAH, I've been walking on my garden for like 40-100 minutes almost every day and I glad I started, I feel relieved, I love walking.

9 Try to make listening podcasts an habit

Yeah! It's not an habit, but I did it.

-Bonus: Learn toki pona

Nope.

10 Write a fiction in esperanto

I did and I finally have a clear idea of the plot.

11 Try 1 new thing per month

I painted some stuff on my walls.

12 Interact on virtual groups (telegram, tumblr, whatever)

I did.

13 Be more proactice and publish my stuff somewhere online (draw, fiction, whatever)

Sadly I just published stuff on instagram, but it's enough.

14 Sketch every week

I did :)

15 Study spanish, focusing on write, listen and speak

I watched the last 8 episodes (1 hour each) of La Usurpadora with spanish subtitles.

16 Study french, focusing on write and listen and speak

I want to rewrite the french and spanish topic too.

I just want to study french, read news from francophones countries, watch youtube videos etc, that's enough for me. I'm not talkative and I don't plan to travel to Europe in the near future, so I don't really need to focus on that.

Whatever, I didn't studied anyways lol :c I need to study, for real

17 Study whatever theories (such as astronomy, lingustics, ecology, whatever)

I studied marxism (besides the manifesto, I also listened 2 podcasts about it), primitivism (a couple texts my primitivis friend send me) and Cowspiracy is a documentary about veganism, climate change and ecology (it's on netflix).

18 Study for vestibular (mathematics, physics, geography, philosophy, sociology, biology, chemistry, history, english, portuguese, brazilian literature and essay). For october: math, write 2 essays and practice (observation and from imagination) drawing

Not enough, but yeah.

17/18 = 94%

I'm glad I did all of this and I want to this again in october, I want to do 80% now and do everything with more intensity, because I have no routine, so I procrastinate A LOT.

#new years goals #goals #glowup #glow up

[whatisahyunjin]

member: stray kids; lee know

genre: fluff

plot: you are stressed because of your exams and minho is here to help you

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

imagine sitting at your desk at 11:30pm scratching your head to try and get the math problems done. for the nth time you think you have found the solution but the answers don’t match. frustrated, you let your head fall on the desk.

“(name)ie~”

you groan as minho’s voice reaches your ears.

“what do you want? and why are you here at this hour?”

“it’s friday? we have sleepovers on fridays..?” he replies with a raised eyebrow.

“not today hoe, i have to study”

“whhaaattt,” he pouts and approaches you, looking over your shoulder at the math problems and your messy rough work, doodles decorating the page here and there.

“can’t you study tomorrow?”

“dude the entrance exam is in 10 days. and if don’t do well i’m not going to get a good college”

“i told you to drop out,” he said plopping down on your bed.

you roll your eyes and get back to work.

“you can stay here but don’t disturb me”

“what’s the fun in that?”

you and minho have been friends since childhood. he is your neighbor and you two used to do everything together till middle school. now he’s a busy trainee and you’re a physics enthusiast.

°°°

a week later minho was over at your house again, playing games on his phone as you sat on your desk again trying to get something in your head. giving up, you rested your head on the table again.

minho looked up from his phone after two minutes and he noticed how your body rose and fell in an irregular rhythm. he walked over to the desk and rubbed your back.

“hey are you okay?”

defeated, you just shook your head.

“look up”

you shook your head again.

“(name)”

when you didn’t move at all, he forcibly made you sit up straight to reveal your red eyes and wet cheeks.

your bestfriend helped you stand up and guided you to your bed where he cuddled you to his chest while soft whimpers escaped your body.

“how am i gonna do this minho? i still don’t understand half of the portion! i just wasted my parent’s money and time for nothing!”

“hey calm down okay? you did not waste anything, you’re going to do good. and what if you don’t get a good college? it’s what you’ve learned that matters. i know that you have understood everything, i have seen you work hard throughout the year. you’re just not confident in what you know. don’t stress about topics which you don’t know, but the topics you have understood, do them well. you’re gonna do great!” he gave you a small smile.

you looked at him and smiled back after a moment. god knows what you would have done without him. he had always been there for you in toughest situations.

“no more staying up till late. for the next two days, you’re going to relax, stay healthy, revise and go to bed early. i’ll stay here with you”

“okay,” you hugged him tight, grateful for everything.

°°°

it was a month after the exam and you sat with your best friend on your bed, your laptop in front of you.

“it’s taking too long to load,” you cried, running your hands through your hair.

“babe, chill”

you hit his arm repeatedly, when a page appeared, telling you to enter your name and exam seat number.

with shaking fingers, you put in your name and your number, which you had byheart.

as you were about to hit enter, minho stopped you, turning you around to face him.

“listen, whatever might be your score, you are not going to get upset and depressed, remember that you’re still young and there are tons of other things you can do. but i know you’ll do good.” he smiled as he put his hand on top of yours and you pressed the enter button together.

the site loaded for 2 seconds and there you saw your name and a glorious rank of 189 out of the 1 million students who gave that exam.

you squealed happily and jumped on minho, hugging his neck tightly while his hands went around your waist. he laughed and ruffled your hair.

“i told you you would do great”

you wiped a few tears that had leaked from your eyes and smiled at him. then you did something you never thought you would do.

you kissed him on his lips.

it was obvious that you did it in the spur of moment, overwhelmed by the emotions but it left both of you shocked.

you pulled back quickly while minho was blushing like crazy.

“uhh-”

“can you do that again?” he asked, looking at everything but you.

“what-”

he grabbed your cheek and connected your lips again into a deep kiss. you climbed into his lap and he pulled you closer than ever.

the kiss broke when the both of you gasped for air and rested your foreheads against each other.

“minho-ah”

he hummed in response, signalling you to continue.

“thank you for everything”

“anytime love,” he laid back on the bed with you on top of him, finally at peace.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

sorry i haven’t been able to write lately, i have been busy with my own studies haha (fml) please follow and reblog for more!

#lee know #minho #stray kids #lee minho #stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines #stray kids au #stray kids fanfiction #stray kids fanfic #hyunjin #seungmin #stray kids han #woojin #bang chan #changbin #felix #han jisung #jeongin #jisung #stray kids chan #hwang hyunjin #3racha #stray kids felix #stray kids i.n. #kpop #han #chan #jyp #stray kids hyunjin #stray kids minho

[howtosurviveaphysicsdegree]

Taking a day off

Spending Saturday afternoon writing a blog post as I told myself I’m giving myself today completely off studying - I shall not touch a textbook today. I’ve been quite drained and stressed this week and I think it’s because I just haven’t been giving myself any days off or breaks longer than half an hour for a sandwich at lunch. So today I have just had a good old clean of my flat, scrubbed the sink, did some laundry, went for parkrun with my flatmate this morning, and have sorted out all the recycling bins. It sounds pretty standard but honestly I keep ignoring the “non critical” adulting tasks and it was making my flat a bit unpleasant lol with so many pieces of paper and notes strewn across the floor that I have finally taken the time to file. I’ve also spent some time reading my running magazine, and a popular science book (How To by Randall Munroe - i really recommend) as I’ve not spent much time reading (other than textbooks) recently and it’s something I really enjoy. I’ve become a lot more conscious of my use of social media and I’ve stopped just mindlessly taking out instagram whilst I’m waiting for the bus or whatever, and just taking those moments to occupy myself without just distracting myself with social media (this was prompted by listening to this podcast episode of The Deliciously Ella podcast - I love it!!) I do think I need to start committing myself to taking (at least) a full day off per week because otherwise I get far too caught up in work I forget what else I enjoy. Particularly from a place of suffering with anxiety for many years, sometimes you do end up getting so worked up about the little things, that you lose the reasons why you’re doing what you’re doing, for me I had been considering dropping out of my degree, but I realised that the reasons I was considering dropping out was from fear of not being good enough - which is a shit reason. I’ve just taken a step back and said to myself “No, you have as much of a right to be here as everyone else does. You study physics because you enjoy it, if you still enjoy it, which you do, then you should keep going”.

Highlights of this week were my maths lecturer buying me a hot drink and a cookie and having a nice long chat after I had a mini meltdown in maths workshop. It really made me feel a lot better, and, like, less terrified of my lecturers, because I’m damn scared of most of them.

Everyone’s still struggling quite a lot at the moment but I think we’re all starting to get there, as, well, we’re over 2/3 of the way through the semester now so we’ve got over the mid-semester hump, and so we’ve only got to hang on for a few more weeks until we go on revision week then exams, then Christmas!!!!! I’m already super excited for Christmas and hot chocolate and mulled wine and ahhhh cute lil Christmas trees.

I’m thinking of starting a 50 days of productivity (not 100 as I have Christmas break in the middle and I fully intend on NOT being productive and just enjoying the heck out of Christmas I won’t lie). I’m hoping to start either tomorrow or Monday!!!! :D 

How’s all your first semesters going??!

#uni #freshers #freshers 2019 #edinburgh #edinburgh freshers #physics student #physicsblr #studyblr #physics studyblr #science studyblr #physics #physics degree #semester one #midterms

[pianoperson]

Revised Cradlesona Character Sheet

Because I got more ideas for my Cradlesona so :’)

Also I made a new artwork!! (I was trying to shade but it looked too ugly sooooooo)

And here’s the updated character sheet!! (Also posting it now because I’m writing for the school event ongoing)

CRADLESONA CHARACTER SHEET

Basic Info:

Name: Angel Burnham

Nickname: None; call her Angel

Birthday: December 12

Age: 22

Height: 150cm

Blood Type: O+

Physical:

Eyes: Her right eye is a natural dark brown color. Her left eye, however, is a mix of colors that resemble a galaxy. It used to be the same brown color as her right eye until she first performed magic. When using magic, both her eyes take on the galaxy colors. Nobody knows why this is the case, although Angel has a feeling it’s because of her heritage.

Hair: Dark brown hair; in some angles, it looks black, while in others, it looks brown

Accessories: Two rosary bracelets on her left wrists and a St. Benedict’s ring on her left middle finger

Features: Other than her left eye, nothing too significant

Illnesses: Aside from allergies to most seafood except fish, none

Social:

Affiliation: Neutral initially, Red Army after two months

Occupations: Originally worked as a waitress in a cafe, but days after she discovered her magic, she was recruited by the Red Army to help them in the war

Relationships:

Blanc and Oliver: These two were the first people Angel met when she first arrived in Cradle. Blanc had been nothing but kind to her while Oliver was more merciless with his words; nevertheless, Angel was able to get along with both of them. Blanc had even given her a tour around Cradle. Angel stayed in their home for a few days until she requested to stay in another place. Blanc and Oliver also helped her find a job.

Fenrir: Fenrir and Angel became immediate friends when he stopped by Blanc’s house. He even gave her a food tour around Cradle. Fenrir found out her new home when he visited the cafe she worked in and since then, he has made occasional visits. He was there for Angel after she learned about her magic and also helped her move out of her apartment after she was recruited by the Red Army.

Lancelot: Angel found him intimidating. She even disliked him for not allowing her to go out of Red Army HQ on her own. However, after finding out about what he had to go through to keep Cradle (and her) safe, she realized he is actually kind.

Jonah: Angel found him very attractive the moment she first saw him during her tour around Cradle. She saw him eating mille-fueille while having a lunch break in another cafe and found it really endearing. When she was made to serve the Red Army, Jonah was assigned to be her (main) bodyguard. They grew closer because of it.

Edgar: Angel found him sketchy, despite his kindness to her. Much to her annoyance, Edgar teases her about her crush on Jonah. However, when he teases Jonah, she either enjoys the show or joins Edgar. Sometimes, if Jonah is really busy, Edgar takes the role of bodyguard.

Kyle: Angel likes his chill personality, especially since she grew up in a lax environment. Kyle has brought her out to the bar he goes to twice. The first time went off without a hitch. The second time, however…

Zero: Because of his quiet nature, Angel doesn’t know him that well. They do talk about their annoyance towards Edgar. If Jonah and Edgar aren’t available, Zero is her third bodyguard.

Personality:

Angel has Filipino and Cradle blood. She was born and raised in 21st century Philippines, having a pretty decent life with a loving family, enough sustenance, and (as decent as it can get) WiFi. Although her elementary and high school taught her, Angel isn’t particular about manners. She can act properly if necessary, but she prefers to let loose and be chill.

When you first meet her, you might be intimidated by her serious expression. However, once you try to talk to her in a friendly way, you actually see she’s really friendly and great to talk to. She’s particularly energetic if you talk about similar interests, such as Pokemon, TwoSetViolin, etc. (sadly no one in Cradle knows about those things). While Angel likes to chat, she is an introvert and can get tired easily during hangouts.

Angel is generally a relaxed person. She would rather go with the flow than organize things because for her, things become messier if she does plan it. She acts chill around people, never trying to get mad at anyone because for her, it makes it much easier in the long run. This is also because Angel hates conflict and problems and would rather stay away if she can.

However, in unfamiliar settings, Angel gets very tense. If she is made a leader, she gets easily nervous and can break down. She wishes that she was more confident, however, so she can be someone people can look up to. In very familiar areas, however, she has more confidence, to the point she can seem arrogant.

Because of her relaxed nature, Angel tends to laze around and not finish whatever projects she herself started on unless there are more people involved in it. This also causes her to not have many passions for things. However, she has two things she really likes: astronomy and music. Stars always make her feel better and she gets excited over space. As for music, she is a pianist and a flutist. Music is the one thing where she feels confident and very much like her ideal self. After discovering magic, however, she had a rocky relationship with it for a while. Angel also likes maths, writing, and drawing, partly because it makes her feel smart but mostly because she likes doing it. She tends to get lazy with those three, however.

Angel is also an honest person, never one to tell a lie. She can also be blunt, especially when the situation calls for it. She is also a very loyal friend, not wanting to turn her back and hurt them.

Deep down, she hates herself to the point where every time she’s asked what positive quality she thinks she has, she wouldn’t be able to give a response. She wants to be good enough for people to even want and appreciate her but feels like she isn’t. Sometimes, she feels like telling someone but she fears she’ll burden them.

Because of this low self-esteem, she attempts to raise it up by counting her blessings every day. Occasionally, this causes her to be arrogant in a way, but she really doesn’t intend for it to be that way. This awareness of her arrogance tends to attack her ego, bringing her self-esteem back down.

Family and History:

Angel is actually from the 21st century who recently graduated from college with a degree in music. While walking back to a condo her family owns, Blanc bumps into her and drops his pocket watch, which she picked up. The rest is history. 

Angel’s family is actually a mix of two worlds. Her mother was a Cradle citizen, born into a family of magic users, while her father was from the Land of Reason. Her mother, dared by her friends, entered the Garden on the full moon via teleportation and accidentally ended up being transported to 21st century Earth, where she met Angel’s father and fell in love. They hid this from Angel and her other siblings and she only found out during a chance encounter with her mother’s parents. Because of the magic and resistance to it being passed down, she inherited both abilities, which are most powerful in music.

Skills and Special Abilities:

Magic: Angel can cast magic like typical magic users. When she uses magic normally, it’s far from the power of magic users such as Lancelot and Harr. However, when she plays piano or flute, her magic becomes much stronger, possibly stronger than the aforementioned two. Using it, however, can cause fatigue, fever, and even fainting.

Magic Resistance: Due to her roots in the Land of Reason, she also has the ability to nullify magic, making her one of the most powerful people in Cradle– and a target. Strangely, when she makes TwoSetViolin references, her magic nullification ability is more powerful. (It was how she even found out about her magic resistance. She remarked “iNtErEsTiNg” once and the nearby lights went off. The crystals in the light bulbs were newly installed.)

Pianist: She has a decade and a half worth of experience.

Flutist: While not as experienced with the flute (only having played it for around 5 years), she can still play it.

Writing: She writes in her spare time.

Drawing: She’s less confident in her drawings and would rather not show them to anyone. She does draw in her spare time. 

Paired with: Jonah

Life in Cradle:

Angel just recently graduated from college when she first encountered Blanc, who bumped into her. Blanc seemed very antsy and, after apologizing to her, ran off. He dropped his pocket watch, however. The same thing that happened to Alice the Second occurred, except Blanc actually was nearby when Angel was falling to 19th century Cradle.

The portal closed immediately after Blanc caught Angel, so she was trapped in the unknown world.

On the first days staying in Cradle, Angel was nervous, even with Blanc and Oliver helping her. Often, she was reminded of how tense she was.

During one of the days Blanc showed her around, Angel saw a troop of Red Army soldiers, being led by Jonah. Angel found him attractive and kept glancing at him. 

Eventually, Angel asked Blanc if she can get a job and her own living space, since she didn’t want to burden him. Blanc helped her find a job as a waitress in a cafe and got her an apartment to stay in.

She found out about her magic nullification abilities when she moved in to her apartment.

For two months, she carried a rather mundane life as a worker in a cafe. There was a day when, during break, she ate in another cafe at the same time as Jonah (and found him cute as he ate his mille-fueille).

A few days after the news of the former King of Hearts being assassinated was announced, Angel was eating out with some friends from work. The restaurant had a piano, so she decided to play Sonata Pathetique mvm. 3. Midway through the piece, she heard screams and shouts of pain. That was when she found out that she was unleashing magical attacks through her playing and started to panic when she realized her hands were moving on their own. That was when an explosion occurred.

She was brought to Kyle thanks to Oliver. She was the only one who survived the fiasco, which was dubbed the Night When Death Sang. She also found out her left eye changed color.

Because of the fiasco, she was fired from her job. 

She encounters her Cradle family by chance near the fountain in Central Quarter. They bring her to her house and decide to teach her how to control her magic.

A week later, Red Army declared war on the Black Army. The next day, they faced off. Angel was nearby when it happened and was praying in her head for nothing bad to happen. That was when she accidentally repelled Lancelot’s magic, confusing everyone. It was enough for Blanc and Oliver to arrive and stop the conflict.

Two days after the face-off, Edgar finds Angel in her apartment, taking her to the Red Army HQ. There, Angel is made to serve the Red Army by using her magical abilities against the Black Army.

Because of what she did at the restaurant, however, Lancelot orders his officers to be Angel’s bodyguards whenever she goes out. Jonah is her main bodyguard. 

#ikerev #ikemen revolution #cradlesona #my art

[kramersamantha]

Lesson 1: Document Document Document

MONTY ADAMS*

1st Quarter - 2008:

Mini-Skateboard

Spare mini wheels

Mini screwdriver

click...click...click...click...whiiish...wheeeee

Grinding the board on the edge of a desk then SLAM SLAM...”hehe nice”

In a classroom. 20 other students. Cooperating teacher looks at me for an answer.

This was my first year of teaching. One student. Would he take me down? Would I let him? Would they let him? Who could stop him?

2nd Quarter - 2008:

AXE body spray

Blue

Orange

Mini can

Value Pack

Spritzz....spritz....SSSSSsssssssss......”aaahh nice”

Coughing. Sighing. Complaining. 

“Miss...do something!”

What now?

That’s the moment as a first year teacher when I had to find my voice and find my way. Monty wouldn’t take me down. He wouldn’t derail every lesson, every day, all year. Or would he? He wanted to. He could if we let him. So what do you do?

LESSON #1 Document Document Document

It was this early in my career that I learned to keep a paper trail. I didn’t know yet what I would need it for, but when I didn’t know what else to do, I stood in the back of the room and wrote down everything.

9/2/2008 

Period 2: Monty asked to borrow a pen rather than take one out of his bag.

Intervention: I asked him to take out his own and he complied

Period 5: Monty took a very long time to fill out the book receipt.

Intervention: I sat next to him and walked him through each blank space, it was completed successfully.

Period 6: Monty clicks the end of pen on the desk for 10 minutes. He refused to take out his notebook.

Intervention: Mr. Shell from the middle school came up and spoke to him. He told him to act like he is in the 9th grade and that there is plenty of room back in Junior High if he wants to do 8th grade again. Reminded Monty that his "mom fought hard to get him here but MS Franklin Heights would take him back in a minute."

Period 8: Monty was talking out. Later he wouldn't fill out the note card about himself. Monty wouldn't take out his notebook or take notes.

Intervention: I asked him if he wanted to dictate the work to me. He did for a few minutes and then took over on his own so that he could participate in the activity that was going on in the classroom.

THINGS ESCALATE QUICKLY...

9/12/2008

pd 1 8:45am Class is doing work in Math and the instructions do not allow calculators. Monty takes out his calculator and begins using it do his work.

Intervention: Both teachers in room ask him to put it away multiple times. He is told it is not allowed and he needs to learn how to do these exercises without a calculator. He refuses and ignores the teachers. When I get my notebook out to write down his behavior, he stops using his calculator and puts his books away. 

pd 2 9:15am Monty does not want to sit in his seat for the Quiz. He finally sits but then picks his desk up and bangs it on the floor. 

Intervention: Ms. Kang tells him it is unsafe and not appropriate for the classroom. He still does it. Kang goes to get the Dean. Monty says to me, "Ya get Ms. Corn. I wanna talk to her right now!" Ms. Corn is in a meeting and can't come to the class. During the Quiz Monty taps loudly on the desk and whispers to classmates.

9:35am Ms. Kang begins lesson and Monty yells out, "Shit!" Another student says, "Watch your language?" Monty responds, "What up nigga?" 

Intervention: Kang tells him to talk in a professional way. He says, "I don't wanna talk professional! I'm not professional."

pd 5 11:15am Monty comes into class with a note that he was just with Ms. Corn. He slams door, sits down and puts feet up on the desk. Then says, "The F**king nigga teachers got me in trouble for no reason. I don't wanna be in this school."

11:35am Monty is banging loudly on desk to a rhythm, singing along with himself, "Uh…hey…uh…hey…soul….my bitch."

Intervention: I ask him to stop banging because it is impossible to teach with the banging. He stops and then starts clapping loudly to the same beat and sings the same tune. 

11:40am Ms. Curtis hooks her computer up to the LCD projector.  On her background is a picture of her son. Monty yells out, "Ugh! Get those niggahs off the screen!"

Intervention: He sees me write it up and says, "See, now she's writing me up for saying niggah."

And on and on and on...

Have you had a Monty? What happens to them? 

Well I could write for three days on all of the incidents there were between September and December, and the pages of anecdotals I was forced to type from my handwritten Composition Book for the lawyers at the inevitable hearing that took place after he was jumped on the street outside of school and both kids went away for a while.

LESSON #2 The Most Extreme Cases Usually Take Care of Themselves (more on these later)

What did I learn and how did it impact who I am as an educator and a leader?

The hundreds of interventions we tried and used and tried again and tweaked; that’s the “win” here. We may not save every student. We learn from each case and make it better for the next one, and help ourselves to help other students who are crying for help. 

SO here it is. Interventions we used that began to fill my toolkit that I would take with me wherever I went and with whoever I was working:

WITH ONE STUDENT!

Prompting

Redirecting

Refocusing

Positive praise of appropriate behavior

Clear expectations

Repetition

Directions read and explained

Direct Language

Verbal prompts

Non-verbal prompts

Student conferences

Timer for work completion

Timer for breaks

Timer to take data on off-task

Tallies of foul language

Tallies of aggressive behavior

Point system for on-task behavior

Planned ignoring

Assigning seats

Moving seats

Removing materials

Providing additional materials

Scaffolding tasks

Chunking tasks

Kindness

Soft-spoken encouragement

Jokes and laughter

Build Rapport

Modifying classwork

Modifying homework

Modifying assessments

Pair with preferred group

Pair with non-preferred group

Monitoring duties

Leadership opportunities at school events when possible

Referral to the Dean

Lunch detention

After-School Detention

Conference with the Dean

Functional Behavior Assessment/Behavior Intervention Plan

Edible incentives

Work related incentives

Conference with administration

Conference with guidance

Counseling with guidance

Teacher collaborative meetings

Parent meeting with teacher

Parent meeting with guidance

Parent phone calls with administrator

Parent meeting with administrator

WITH ONE STUDENT! 

EVERY STUDENT DESERVES THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT THAT “MAYBE THIS ONE WILL WORK...” UNTIL YOU’RE OUT OF ROAD...OR UNTIL THE STUDENT HITS THE POINT OF NO RETURN.

Recap:

Lesson 1: Document Document Document

Not because the lawyer needs the data, that may be the reason at first. Ultimately, the paper trail you keep becomes your road map and personal professional development. Reflect, rethink and revise the action plan to achieve a greater result next time. There’s always a next time. 

Lesson 2: The Most Extreme Cases Usually Take Care of Themselves 

Unfortunately, teachers are the first line, and an extremely crucial component, in the growth and development of children when they are in our care. But we don’t have them with us ALL day, and it is often in the unstructured and unsupervised hours, they have free will to do what they impulsively will do. It is then that they end up making the bad decisions that remove them from our classrooms and schools, and thus out of our hands without warning - and there’s nothing we can do about it. 

Just as students do, they come into our classrooms temporarily and they are told we will teach them. More often though, we are taught many lessons from our students and it is those lessons that we take with us after they have left out doors.

#students #teachers #firstyearteacher #interventions #teachertoolkit #papertrail #toughtstuff #specialeducation #behavior #plan #learn #language #try #worth it

[sobdasha]

01 - just furubana things

This is not so much headcanons as it is that--much like I can't do mental math because the numbers don't remain pinned in place if they aren't literally, y'know, pinned in place with pencil on paper--I can't keep track of details and have zero concept of the passage of time without an actual timeline of events for myself.

So instead of using 20 scraps of paper I'm just dumping what I've accumulated here and calling it fic-adjacent and maybe adding in some headcanons as I go.

–

How the heck old is everybody anyway

?? - Hinata (according to my Fruits Basket timeline, she was born in March 2000, no clue how old she is now) ??? - Hibika (I have……...no clue……...I mean, since she was able to just run off to Paris at the drop of a hat, I'm assuming that means she's graduated high school??? But also she is the child of Ayame and Mine and is a Souma so like………….anything………..is possible……… I assume Hibika and Kinu are close-ish in age because they are good friends) In college - Kinu (what year though?? I'm guessing, since her plans aren't finalized, that it's still early. IDK if Michi asking her if college is fun is strictly for exposition, or implies that Kinu has just started her first year of college) 12th grade - Hajime, Michi 11th grade - Mutsuki 10th grade - Sawa, Sora, Riku 9th grade - Rio? Leo? I don't…...have my hands on volume 2 yet…….I don't know what they went with……… 8th grade - Chizuru 7th grade - Shiki (also these three are apparently all good friends and in the Go club together, I'm going to picture Akito having to have set up play-dates with Saki and Ayame when the kids were younger. I know technically Shigure could have done it since Aya is his bff but it's funnier if Akito has to) - somewhere in 9th to 7th grade are also Kou and Hajime's nameless little bro which is killing me, but idk what years ?? - Mina also ?? - Hajime's nameless and faceless little sis which is also killing me

Also! Who! Is that! With Sora in the New Year's bonus chapter of volume 1??? Is it someone we have met? Is it someone we haven't met? Is it some random person??? I don't think they particularly look like anyone listed above… (A part of me is kinda hoping…I mean, it looks kinda like Kakeru…I think it would be great if that was Kou. Michi looks like Komaki but acts like Kakeru, so if Kou acts like Michi he must look like Kakeru right??? THE POINT IS I want Kou to be at the fancy Souma New Year's because I want it to be true that Kakeru just becomes an honorary Souma attached to Yuki because it's inevitable and Akito just gives in and accepts it)

When I actually started writing down what was happening as I read…

sometime when people are bitty - the stairs incident

Day 1 of FBA - It's probably April 1st, it's the very first day of the school year and Sawa's actual first day of high school (although they've already had the entrance ceremony) - Sawa meets Mutsuki - Sawa takes her lunch outside before Amane can talk to her - Sawa meet-cutes Hajime by stepping on his face lol - Sawa doesn't get to talk to Mutuski (idk I guess he was gonna ask about her life and sneakily work around the topic about if she remembered the Souma family???) - Sawa runs over Hajime's little bro because she's so freaked out, and the little bro picks up the I.D. and gives it to Hajime, although like Hajime lives out of town and that's why he's living in the Souma house without his parents??? Because he lives too far out of town to attend that school??? So how did Sawa run over Hajime's little brother who is in middle school presumably out of town??? Did Hajime just grow up out of town and they moved back to Tokyo to inherit the dojo and Hajime was like "…….it's too far to walk to school I'm moving out" like Mutsuki did who is implied to live in town but just can't be arsed to walk that far???????

Day 2 of FBA - Sawa's second day of school - Hajime returns Sawa's I.D. on the way to school - Mutsuki appoints Sawa to the student council before she even arrives that morning - Ruriko comes in before classes start to confront Sawa about it and interrupts Amane's chance to ask Sawa out to lunch - Mutsuki is already texting Shiki - I guess the interludes might be that day??

Some time passes???

- Sawa flashes back to being introduced to the student council, and Mutsuki isn't wearing his sweater vest, so I assume this means it's a different day from Day 2, although it could be a typo

- The day that Ruriko has come to have lunch with Sawa to ~educate her~ that prompts Sawa to have the flashback, when Sawa later goes to student council we see Mutsuki in his sweater vest again so I assume this is once again a different day. That means it's been at least 4 days that Amane's been trying to ask Sawa out to lunch when Riku gets pissed about it.

The next day - Sawa is properly introduced to Riku and Sora, and then Sawa asks Amane out to lunch, yes I'm purposefully saying "asks out" every time, because I originally thought "Short black hair = Akito's child" and "I WANT TO SHIP THESE GAYS" and I want to treasure that feeling okay - Sawa punches out a cooler and meets Michi - SUKIYAKI PARTY - Sawa meets Kinu

The next day - Sawa was so happy about the sukiyaki party and her upcoming lunch date that she gets a fever and has to miss it noooo

And then after that Volume 2 jumps to early summer and I stopped keeping track

Miscellaneous stuff I wanted to keep in mind

I feel it's heavily implied that Shiki hasn't attended a family New Year's since The Knife Incident specifically. Which...really sucks for Shiki, that Akito has so strongly embraced the high road of "you can't pick your family you just have to deal, head of the family is my responsibility and I just have to deal", and even into the next generation a lot of the Souma family remains really toxic and that's the environment Shiki's growing up in. I assume Shiki's immediate household is not bad, but unfortunately it's right in the middle of a neighborhood of toxic assholes. Which is why, Mutsuki says, he wanted to get Shiki out beyond that environment and Sawa was super convenient for that among other reasons.

Hajime apparently grew up out of town, when Kyou and Tohru moved away so he could learn the dojo business from one of Kazuma's friends. This means Hajime and Mutsuki did not grow up together, which is sad, but according to Kinu they're still thick as thieves whenever they are together so that's really damn cute. The past year they've lived together is the longest visit they've ever had and like, Hajime helps out Mutsuki in the garden, Hajime--although insulting Mutsuki's lack of cooking ability--kind of implies that he does actually let Mutsuki help with the cooking when it's just them? Even when the results are probably worse than any time his little siblings tried to show Hajime they could totally help in the kitchen? Ughhhhh they're too cute.

I am presuming that both Mutsuki and Shiki live in town, and that's probably a large part of why they seem to be pretty close (closer than Shiki would like lol) despite the four-year age gap. I like to think it's also because Yuki also seemed pretty determined to Salvage Relationships, like with his mom, and so I like to presume that after the incidents of Fruits Basket Yuki informed Akito that they were going to reconnect as childhood bffs whether Akito liked it or not lol. So if Yuki and Akito are close, probably Mutsuki and Shiki are close too. And thus why Mutsuki is so concerned for Shiki's well-being and pushes really hard to set Fruits Basket Another in motion lol, like he's happy he's improving Sawa's life but his most immediate objective is Shiki's health and happiness. Like Shigure, only not an asshole and his plan is for everyone to win.

Yuki loves his son dearly and supports him so much but even so he's banned himself from Kaibara High School because he can't take Takei being so extra loooool I hope he sucks it up at least to come to graduation. Even though. Takei will--instead of talking about the graduates--okay he'll have talked a little about the graduates, namely Mutsuki--spend the entire graduation giving a speech to celebrate and congratulate and honor Yuki instead. As Yuki just sits there. Being stared at by all the other parents. With a long-dead smile on his "why is this happening to me" face. You know why this is happening, sir. But you came anyway to support your son. You are a good dad. Ganbatte. Have a drink afterward. (pray to anything you hold dear that your beloved child hasn't recorded this entire thing and sent it all the family including Akito who, surprise surprise, is also dying of secondhand embarrassment and doesn't appreciate this at all. Maybe Akito can take you drinking afterward.)

I will never be over the fact that the people closest to Yuki are all having multiple kids and there's Yuki and Machi like "ONE AND DONE." Why do they need to have another child after Mustuki? Mutsuki already has an older sibling in Michi, and possibly Hibika as well. And then Mutsuki even gets a little brother, Kou! And maybe Chizuru counts too! Like thanks for doing all the work for them of making Mutsuki not an only child. (They just…..didn't know what they'd get out of the Souma genetics grab-bag, and the idea of having to [have the housekeeper] clean up more sparkles was just…)

I'm revising my headcanon such that Hajime was the one who thought it would be cool to go to the same high school his parents did (because it's a theme, in FBA, about how it's cool to love your parents assuming they're, y'know, good parents who love you back, and thus how cute it is when kids are pleased to be like their parents), but unlike Mutsuki Hajime did not realize that as a ridiculously conventionally attractive Souma he would be a famous legacy student and if he had known this from the start he might have said "screw it" and just gone to school locally lol. Mutsuki on the other hand was fully aware of the shit he was getting into when Hajime first ventured the idea and Mutsuki embraced it. And then it all worked out perfect because it turned out Sawa would attend there too!

#sobdasha fic adjacent #fruits basket #fruits basket another #new year old fics #it was gonna be new year new fics to emulate new year new me but #i'm still trying to whittle down the stack of really old stuff soooooo

[nancyleeeeeeee-blog]

The right decision

This is a story about a boy name Todd. He used to be the smartest in his class, but ever since he started to play video games, his grades started to slide. It all started from that day…

Todd, a sixth grader, he has the best grades in every class. Jack, Todd’s best friend, he has the lowest grades in every class. “Jack, you really should start studying because we are going to be middle schoolers next year.” Todd was very concerned about Jack. “Nah, its fine, I can handle it.” Jack replied in a very casual way. Todd gave Jack a very speechless look and walked away.

“Hey Todd, may I go to your house today? Or do you want come to my house?” Asked Jack while he was catching up with Todd. “Why?” as Todd said that, he stopped and looked back at Jack. “Um because… I need help from you…” Jack looked down and mumbled to himself. Todd was not sure what Jack just said but still nodded. Todd thought Jack needed help, so he decided to go to Jack’s house.

When they arrived at Jack’s house, they took their shoe off and sat down at the desk. Todd took out his books and was about to start with his math homework, then noticed that Jack was playing video games. “Why are you playing video games? I thought you needed help from me.” “Yeah, but I want to play video games first,” Jack said and didn’t bother to look at Todd. Jack annoyed at Todd, since I’m at Jack’s house, then why not play video games with him? Todd thought.

When Todd was thinking about the video games, Jack waved and yelled at him. “Can you hear me?” Jack noticed Todd has not respond to his actions, so he stopped. After some deep consideration, Todd decided to play video games with Jack because his parents didn’t allow him to play and on the other hand, he rarely played video games.

Todd found it fun playing video games, and forgot about his homework. When he got home he was still thinking about the video game he had played at Jack’s house. The next day when he got to school, he realized that he didn’t do his homework because he was distracted by video games. When Mr. Wilson, their Math teacher, asked for their homework, Todd freaked out and panicked.

“Todd, come up and answer number 1,” said Mr. Wilson while he was finishing writing on the board. “I… I… didn’t do my homework…” As Todd said that, he looked down and his voice got weak and feeble. “Sit down Todd. Allison, come up and answer it please.” Said Mr. Wilson as he shook his head. Allison, the most intelligent girl in their class. “Todd, please come to my desk.” Commanded the Mr. Wilson. Todd stood up from his chair and walked behind Mr. Wilson. “Mr. Wilson… I’m sorry…. I… I forgot to do my homework…” Todd said it in a regretful way while lowering his head. “Where did you go after school? You should be going home not to somewhere you shouldn’t be.” Mr. Wilson was not mad at Todd, he is more worried about him. “I went to Jack’s house and played video games…”

Mr. Wilson told Todd that it is his own responsibility to turn his work in. Mr. Wilson sighed and told Todd to go back to his seat. Todd had a bad day, he barely payed any attention to the classes, although he was fixing up his work and turn it so he can get his grades back.

When school was over, Todd neither went to practice or Jack’s house. All he wants to do is go home and revise all the work he owed the teacher. Todd regretted the choice he made that day at Jack’s house, he hoped he could make future decisions more carefully. Todd understood that time doesn’t go backwards, so he looks forward and began his work.

After a few weeks of hark work, Todd made up the previous assignments he missed, and he could finally participate in practices and games. Todd felt very pleased and decided if he wants to play video games, then he had to plan his homework ahead of time.

The purpose of this piece is to tell a certain lesson and entertain children. In my children’s book, I told a story about a kid name Todd not being responsible for his homework and all he does when he get home is play. He doesn’t care about school work, even if his grades are sliding. It represents my best work because I tried to entertain children and teach them a lesson. The strength of this piece is that I was able to tell a lesson through my story, and I think my weakness is that my sentence structure. I have learned that we, as a student, shouldn’t and can’t procrastinate, we need to be independent and turn in our work on time. The problems I have encountered throughout the year was my sentence structure, word choice and vocabulary. I have learned how to structure my sentences and make it better.

[mimmerr]

The #5DayCPDChallenge

During this time, some of us are finding an extra few hours here and there to catch up with hobbies and interests. I for one am catching up on reading, writing and exercise. But I also realised I could use my time for CPD. 

As this relates to school, I think it would be hypocritical of me to not consider my own workload and well-being whilst doing more CPD. So I tried to limit myself to 20 minutes per day unless the resource material was longer than 20 minutes. In those cases, I may have had a break halfway through or simply stopped. 

The first thing I did was write a list of subject areas I wanted to know more about. I then chose a range of them so each day was varied. From there, I asked #edutwitter for CPD on those topics or simple Googled for ideas. Or I used @lauratsabet ‘s CPD list here.

So here is my first #5DayCPDChallenge. It is crucial that if you are taking up the challenge (and are posting about it) that you credit where you have taken the CPD from and that you state that your notes are your own views, rather than copying what trainers have said word for word. We don’t want to plagiarise someone’s hard work! So keep in mind that the notes below are my views and questions, not what has been said verbatim from the source.

I have also only used free online sites rather than journals and books.

Day 1: Middle leadership 

I chose Middle Leadership because I simply think it’s good practice to revise leadership skills. 

I did the first five parts of this open learning course from the Open University. 

Here is my reflection on what I learned:

Leadership filters into so many tasks that many models can be used to describe and classify them. As a result, it is better to use these models to think about one’s own practice rather than prescriptively. One of these models is more incentive/punitive based whereas another is more dynamic and involves more mentoring aspects. Teachers may lean towards the latter approach but having everyone equally involved in all areas can lead to ethical issues such as lack of representation and inequity. 

Leadership is in itself dynamic because one’s style will change in each situation. Therefore, it is important to have thought out one’s leadership style and according strategies to suit different situations.

Day 2: Phonics

As a KS2 teacher, phonics isn’t part of my daily routine. I have used it to support children and I’m very thankful to have been trained in this area. In the future, I’d love to lead English so knowing phonics inside and out is going to be essential. So I threw the question out to Twitter, where Geoff directed me to phonics expert Debbie who suggested I look here. She also runs her own phonics CPD. 

I watched the video on the website, revising the different parts of a phonics lesson.

My takeaways: 

Handwriting links far more to phonics than I thought it did. 

Talking about the meanings (and different) of words is really important for children to build their vocabulary and comprehension.

There was a really nice spelling activity which could be adapted for KS2, where by teachers scaffold learner’s understanding by writing lines for each sound, then children fill in.

Day 3: Girls’ maths

I wanted to see if there were any differences between girls’ and boys’ maths because I wasn’t sure it was a founded view in education. I used this study by NCETM on children’s views of maths and how teachers can treat girls and boys differently in lessons.

How could someone use this research in class?

Using single sex pairs in Maths to see if it improves mathematical talk.

Colour coding lollypop sticks to help target girls in Maths questioning.

Being careful with stress heavy language that increases fear of failure. 

Day 4: Behaviour

I listened to this podcast by Naylor’s Natter where David Weston interviews Tom Bennett, founder of researchED all about behaviour. There are discussions on zero tolerance and exclusions as well as some good strategies to use in class. This podcast reiterated some strategies such as teaching good behaviour habits (e.g. tidying/walking quietly) and always remembering that behaviour needs to be unpicked and handled in a range of ways, not just through punishment.

Day 5: Educational research

I haven’t done any research since my dissertation at University many years ago. So I wanted to revise how to carry it out should I continue my academic studies. I started with the real basics, using NFER’s first How to Guide on planning research. I’ll be continuing to use their guides over the coming weeks to full research how to research.

What I learned: 

To answer some research questions, it is best to use both quantitative and qualitative methods but this isn’t appropriate for every question.

Questions need to specify participants and a clear goal; it is useful to write more than one question to help with this. 

Consider how research will be presented e.g. in school presentation or CPD or even within newsletter.

I’ll be trying to keep up with my CPD away from the blog. I’ll be retweeting sources I have used on my Twitter (@mimmerr). Don’t be afraid to take on the challenge yourself and nominate another teacher to write about what they have learned.

#education

[seventeen-scenarios-blog]

[DRABBLE REQUEST] Tutor!Jun (G)

Request: High school tutor Jun Requested by: respectchinaline anon Genre: Fluff Word count: 2,282  Warnings: None!

A/N: it's my first time writing 2nd pov, and I really hope I wrote it to your liking!

-Hoshit 💕

“See me after school in the homeroom” the message reads, and you curse internally. Mr Kim must have finished marking the math papers already, and you knew that you had bombed the paper spectacularly, turning it in with half the questions undone and a smiling sun doodled at the top of the paper. Math was just hard, and you knew that you should have studied, but it wouldn’t have made a large difference, honestly. Too bad Mr Kim would never accept that explanation.

You knock on the door, and are granted entrance almost immediately.

Mr Kim sits at the table, a serious expression on his face, and the test right in front of him. You notice the many red marks on the paper and sigh.

“You should know why you’re here,” Mr Kim starts, and it is hard to look into his eyes as you sit down in front of him.

“I, as well as your other subject teachers, have discussed this matter, and we think that you need a math tutor. The fact that you are doing well in other subjects but failing math so badly means that you’re smart but not applying yourself to math! I’ll give you another chance, at the end of year examinations, you need to get at least a B in the paper, if not I’ll have to call in your parents.”

Mr Kim’s words seem to hammer themselves into your head, and you nod, already trying to plan your revision schedule. Wait, tutor?

“Mr Kim, tutor?” you must have heard him wrongly, having outside tuition help was common practice, but from your teacher’s words, he seemed to be implying that he had arranged a peer-tutor, which is rare.

“Yes, I’ve arranged for one of your classmates—ah, here he is now. Come in!”

A knock on the door interrupts Mr Kim’s words, and a dark-haired head pokes in, before quietly closing the door behind him and taking the seat next to you.

Wen Junhui. Transferred to the school two years prior from China, hangs out with a bunch of noisy and yet popular kids, top of the class for math. You’ve barely spoken to him in the two years that he’s been in your class, just because he didn’t seem to talk much to anyone except his friends. Besides, you’ve got your own friends, and there was simply no need to interact with him before.

“Junhui, I trust that you’ll bring her grades up!” Mr Kim chirps and you suppress the urge to roll your eyes. The favouritism was strong in this one. You were lucky that the rest of your grades were good, Mr Kim would definitely have called in your parents if you were anything like the last-place of the class.

“Yes, Mr Kim,” Junhui replies quietly, sneaking a glance at you as if to reassure himself that he could.

“Go on now, make your arrangements, I won’t interfere,” Mr Kim shoos us out of the class and the door closes behind us quickly. You wonder about the mental state of Mr Kim, surely that seems like split-personality disorder?

Junhui touches your arm slightly to gain your attention, and when your eyes make contact with his, he smiles and starts talking.

“So, I’m free on Tuesdays and Friday for tutoring, are you okay with these days? We have about three months to the last exams for the year, so two days a week should be enough to get you a B.”

You nod.

“How about my house? It’s better than trying to get a table at the library.” You suggest, and Junhui agrees quickly, typing down your address in his phone before waving bye, saying that he needed to meet his friends.

Tuesday arrives unannounced, and you are home, waiting for Junhui to arrive for the tutoring session.

There is a knock on the door, and you bolt out of your room to answer it, straightening out your appearance hurriedly on the way.

Junhui enters cautiously, following you to your room as you give him a rushed twenty-second tour of the house on the way to your room, and is visibly relieved when you enter the room and motion for him to sit at the second chair. You take out all the work you’ve done, and sit in silence as he checks through the ones you had problems with.

“Did you multiply the question number into the equation?”

Junhui’s voice lifts at the end, incredulous at the solution you arrived at. Ten minutes in, and Junhui’s patience seems to be running out already.

You sneak a look, and Junhui seems to be stifling his laughter. Or maybe he just finds this all funny.

You redo the equation, “this time don’t multiply everything by 3! That’s the question number,” and obtain the answer, with Junhui sighing with relief.

You move on, and he begins explaining the concepts of complex numbers, a topic that you fully admitted you didn’t understand at all, and you work hard at taking notes. Despite your best efforts, your long-time affliction of falling-asleep-when-math-is-being-taught sets in, and you find yourself trying to muffle your yawns.

Junhui’s voice is deep and soothing, and it rides and crests gently against your ears. Before long, you find yourself lulled to sleep, the melody of his voice a lullaby to your exhausted mind.

She’s fallen asleep, Junhui realises, and he stares at your head, resting on your hand, tilted in his direction.

How adorable, he thinks, as he suppresses a laugh at how your face is squished and your lips vaguely resembling a duck.

Sighing, he packs quietly, since there was only ten minutes left and you wouldn’t have absorbed any more information even if he woke you up. He looks at you, deep in sleep, and cannot resist the urge to rearrange your sleeping position to a better one.

Bending down, he moves your hands and head carefully, until you are face down on the table, with your hands cushioning your head.

He laughs a little at how you’re such a deep sleeper, then picks up his bag and leaves, shutting the door quietly behind him.

You wake up with a start an hour later, and blink in sleepy confusion when the seat that Junhui was supposed to be in is conspicuously empty, before looking at the clock and realising that Junhui probably left after you fell asleep.

Groaning, you pick up your phone to text Junhui your apologies, and stop short.

The only message you have is from Junhui, and simply reads, “Hope you had a good sleep! Study well and I’ll see you on Friday!”

Smiling, you text him back a quick okay, and resolve to work harder on math to make up for falling asleep.

That resolve lasted for all of five minutes, for when Friday finally rolls around, Junhui is staring at you in despair and your math homework still full of blanks.

You smile sheepishly. At least you’ve done the ones that Junhui taught on Tuesday!

Junhui sighs, and shakes his head.

“What am I going to do with you,” he groans, “at this rate you’ll be at a D and that definitely wouldn’t look good on your result slip.”

You shrug, and Junhui laughs in exasperation.

He starts explaining the first of the empty questions, before stopping all of a sudden and staring at you, looking like he had something to say yet no words forming on his mouth.

“Junhui, just say what you want to say,” you mutter, a little worried because Junhui did not seem like someone who would hold back on what he thought.

Junhui begins cautiously, hesitating before saying, “what if we can come to an agreement? I’ll treat you to a meal if you study hard during all our sessions, and if you get at least a B, we can go see a movie as well.”

You are stunned into silence. Junhui was barely a friend, and yet he was willing to do more than what was necessary for you to make sure you do well? A warmth spreads from your heart, and Junhui is at the center of it.

“Sure,” you agree, and Junhui smiles. Up close, his dark hair, dark eyes and wide smile are a lethal, and you realise that he really is quite attractive.

“Now, apply what I taught you and finish this integration question.”

Or he might actually be the spawn of the devil.

Over the months, Junhui and you spend more and more time together, studying math, then gradually more and more subjects together, until you become regular studying buddies.

Towards the examinations, all other school activities have ended, which means Junhui and you meet multiple times a week to study, Junhui’s determination to do well rubbing off on you more than you would have liked.

A week before the exam, and Junhui finds you sleeping on your books, highlighter smeared onto the pages as it seems like you fell asleep while in the middle of highlighting a not-so-important line.

Two days to the exam, and Junhui is relaxed and laughing at your frazzled self, desperately trying to copy down everything you need into a summary sheet.

Five days into the exam, and you call Junhui at 2am while shredding notes, because “tomorrow is the last exam and I’m not going to learn anything new anyway.” Junhui has to sing a Chinese ballad to calm you down and convince you to go to sleep.

Then the last exam is over, and you enjoy about 2 seconds of freedom before Junhui drags you off for ice cream to celebrate, and you yell as he tries to buy too many scoops of ice cream.

The day before the release of the results arrives, and Junhui is there comforting you as you panic, because what if you weren’t good enough? But Junhui is warm and his smile is the same as ever, and you are comforted, for the time being.

The bell rings, and your heart sinks. Doomsday. Lessons have ended for the day, which means that the results will be released soon. You follow your classmates as they file out of the door to the school hall where the homeroom teachers await with the results.

You stubbornly stay at the back of the queue as the teacher starts handing out the results to your classmates in front, the first murmurs of relief and sadness starting.

As you slowly inch closer to the result table, Junhui appears by your side, having already take his results, and whispers, “let’s open our results together at the pavilion in fifteen minutes?”

Junhui’s name is shouted by a group of boys, and he heads off, mouthing “fifteen minutes, okay” as he jogs backwards to meet them.

A quick okay, and you receive your results from a suspiciously cheerful Mr Kim, dodge your friends as they crowd around discussing results, and bolt to the toilets.

The awareness of the result slip burns into your palms, and you splash water hurriedly on your face before rushing to the gardens.

Junhui is already there, sitting down with his result slip face down on the table.

“Took you long enough,” he calls, with all the languid ease that comes from knowing that he definitely did well for the exams.

You sit, and Junhui flips his exam results over nonchalantly, barely sparing them a glance. He makes a noncommittal noise, and you sneak a peek at his paper.

All As, you whisper, almost reverently, at Junhui, who snorts and nods, gesturing for you to do the same.

“No,” you stubbornly shake your head, “I’ll look at it in sequence.”

A deep breath, and then you slowly slide your hands down the paper, uncovering the result slip one subject at a time. A mix of As and Bs, as expected, but your hand stopped short before Math, as if an invisible wall was there, blocking your hand’s path. Junhui leaned forward eagerly, trying to look at the grade through the cracks between your fingers.

A beat, then as your hand oh so slowly moves down a little more, eyes screwed shut, and Junhui rips your hand away from your paper, laughing.

Your eyes open in panic, and a 78 greets your eyes. Your brain seems to have shut down in confusion, slowly trying to fit the number between the cut-off marks for each grade. A, you laugh softly with disbelief, then louder, until Junhui and you are both howling with relief, screaming in joy and jumping up and down.

A split second urge, and you surge forward to hug the laughing boy tightly, whispering your thanks over and over again.

Junhui stills, before his arms slowly drop down to rest on your back, and he hugs you back, hesitatingly at first, before gaining strength and his arms encircle your body, pulling you close to him. His chin rests on the top of your head, and the both of you stay there for a while, entwined, as it sinks in slowly.

A soft I’m proud of you drifts down from above, and you smile, disentangling yourself from Junhui and hitting him playfully.

“It’s thanks to you, Junhui.” You beam at him, and he snorts.

“Of course,” he says with all the confidence in the world, and continues, “so where’s my reward? I’m not a cheap tutor you know.”

You gasp in mock offense.

“What happened to ‘I’ll treat you to a meal and a movie’? I got an A, isn’t it time for you to fulfil your part of the deal?”

Junhui laughs, and acquiesces with grace, grabbing your hand and starts in the direction of the school gates.

“How about now?”

#seventeen #svt #seventeen scenarios #seventeen fanfic #seventeen drabbles #jun #junhui #wen junhui #jun fluff #jun scenario #jun fanfic #jun drabble #scoups #jeonghan #joshua #hoshi #wonwoo #woozi #dk #mingyu #the8 #seungkwan #vernon #dino #diamond life scenarios

[mailplate3-blog]

Desmos Pre-Conference 2018 Recap

This is a quick blogpost that I’m using to recap just some of the information from the Desmos Preconference before TMC18. I was dealing with some other stuff when I returned from TMC, and then I had to take a short few-day jaunt to see my parents/aunt/uncle. Now I’m finally home and starting to do things like write college recommendations and think about my new class for next year (Algebra II). But I’m afraid if I don’t take the time to reflect on some of what I took away from the conference, I will not end up using it. But at the same time, I feel like it’s so much stuff that to do it comprehensively, it will take too long and that’s keeping me from starting. So here’s my pledge: I’m just going to do what I can, and not worry about being incomplete, and then I’m going to #pushsend.

Tonight, I’m going to #pushsend on the desmos preconference day.

I went to one session, led by Heather Kohn, David Sabol, and Mary Bourassa. These three desmos fellows shared how they use Desmos in the classrooms. Here are a few gems:

Heather often creates handouts to accompany activities. For example, for Will it hit the hoop? she has a spreadsheet for kids to fill in (e.g. “Predict, Screens 5-11” “Analyze, Screens 12-19” and “Verify, Screens 20-26”). 

I shy away from doing cardsorts (or even short activities) on desmos because I tend to have some groups finish way earlier than others. But this would happen even for paper cardsorts! So here are some tips. First, just so all groups start at the same time, you can pause the activity on the first screen (which you can have be an introductory screen). When everyone is ready and logged in, you can then unpause the activity which allows everyone to start at the same time. More importantly, you should create a slide after the cardsort/activity which links to another activity or has some extra practice for those kids to work on. And for extra fun, you can have this slide be a “marbleslides challenge.” But one tip is to use the teacher dashboard to pace the activity to the slide before the challenge, so that you can make sure kids aren’t rushing. (You can check in with the first group done and ask them a few questions to make sure they’re getting things.)

You can do a Which One Does Belong on Desmos (example: go to https://student.desmos.com and enter 5CK W7N). Have kids vote on which one doesn’t belong. You can then display how they voted! If no one picks one, after they finish and you discuss, you can have them go back and everyone has to pick the one that wasn’t picked… and then explain why that last one might also “not belong.”

David was worried about how kids will access desmos activity knowledge later. There’s a lot of digital work and verbal work in class, but then things aren’t archived. So here’s a great example of how David deals with this. He used Andrew Stadel’s “Math Mistakes with Exponent Rules.” On day 1, he used the first day PDF to have kids work the problems in class. Then on day 2, he screen grabbed the second day PDF and made a desmos cardsort (sorting them into true/false) and used the dashboard to showcase wrong answers and have class discussions. Also, after the cardsort, he had a screen that said: “Make a FALSE statement that a classmate may think is actually TRUE.” Then that night he created — using what kids wrote for their false statements — a paper copy with all these FALSE statements (sometimes there’s a true statement that a person wrote!) where kids had to identify the errors!

 A great question in a desmos activity is to show a lot of work/visualizations/etc. and write: “What would you tell this student to reinforce what they know and correct their errors?” If the student work has some nice thinking and some subtle not-so-good thinking, this often will lead to solid class discussions.

Mary uses Desmos occasionally for assessments. There were only a few questions, but they involved deeper thinking (e.g. given a graph of part of a parabola, can you come up with the equation for the parabola?). The presenter asked her kids to do all their written work on paper handed out for the test. Yes, students could revise their work/answers based on what they saw on Desmos, but that had to be reflected in words/notes/changes on the written paper. So a student guessing-and-checking on desmos with no supporting work will not garner credit. (For students who finish early, put a screen with marbleslides challenge.) One big note: make sure that at the end of the test, every kid goes to a blank last screen, and then PAUSE the activity. That way kids can’t come back and rework problems or show other students particular questions on the assessment.

Rachel K. (attending the session) said that she often had kids project their laptops up to the airplay and lead the class through something they found/built/figured-out on the Desmos calculator, or will have one kid lead a desmos activity on the big screen.

I often worry about how to lead effective discussions on activities that kids are doing. For pre-existing Desmos built activities, there are “teacher tips” that help teachers figure out what to focus on and how to facilitate conversations. But more importantly, whether Desmos built or random-person built, every activity has a teacher PDF guide (Click on “Teacher guide” in the top right hand of the screen for the activity.) You can print this out and use this to help you come up with a specific list of things you want to talk about, and stop at those places (e.g. questions, places to pause, etc.)

After the session, I talked with Heather about this feeling I had when doing long activities with Desmos. Although I was constantly checking the dashboard, and walking around listening for conversations, I often felt useless and bored and like I was doing something wrong because I wasn’t … doing much. She let me know that she also feels this, but that’s part of it. Letting kids engage. But I realized that some of my best classes (without desmos) have me circulating and listening but not doing too much beyond that. I was “being less helpful.” So I think I just have to make sure that when I’m not doing much, it’s because kids are doing good things mathematically and conversationally, and that’s because I��ve orchestrated things to be that way.

As an interlude to this wall of text, here’s my favorite nerdy math picture from the day.

Yes, indeed, you see a 3-4-5 right triangle, and a visualization of the oft-taught “Pool Problem.” In Starburst. My kind of math manipulative!

For the remaining two sessions, I worked on playing with Computation Layer and refamiliarizing myself with it (I spent 3 days earlier this summer spending huge swaths of time on this… a huge shoutout to Jay Chow who helped immensely with this). Having CL experts in the room and granting myself three hours to play with CL was amaaahzing. I first reacquainted myself with some of the basics (a lot of which I had forgotten, but it came back fairly quickly) and then I decided to start trying to “desmosify” this calculus optimization activity.). I didn’t get too far in, and so far this is no better than the paper version of the activity, but I am proud of what I was able to do with my CL chops! (You can see what I made here.)

The keynote session was given by Robert Berry (the new NCTM president) and he gave an overview of the recent NCTM book Catalyzing Change (which I have bought but haven’t yet read!), talked about some big picture NCTM things (advocacy, membership, financial health), and then told us what has been happening on the ground level. He ended his session talking about technology and what excites him about that. He said that “Technology that supports and advance mathematical sense-making, reasoning, problem solving, and communication excites me” and that “Competence is about being participatory in mathematics – with each other, with the teacher, and with the mathematics.” He then said technology can be used for good or evil based on how technology affects the following things in the classroom: 

Positionality [how students engage with each other, their teacher, the curriculum, the technology, etc.]

Identity [how students see themselves]

Agency [how students present themselves to the world? how do we create structures for that to happen?]

Authority [“shared intellectual authority”]

His latest NCTM President’s Message is precisely on this. Also, Robert is a totally awesome guy.

That’s me on the left, him in the middle, and friend and TMC keynote speaker Glenn Waddell on the right.

Lastly, Eli (founder of Desmos and super nice guy) showcased a new desmos feature for teachers: SNAPSHOTS. You can read about it here, but what I love is that it allows teachers to facilitate discussions more thoughtfully in line with the 5 practices. (I’d love any help finding or coming up with problems at the high school level that work well with the 5 practices… Most examples that I’ve seen are at the middle school level so it’s been hard to wrap my mind around how to find/create problems for a precalculus or calculus class that might make this approach work super well.)

My favorite slide of his was:

Eli keeps things simple, which allows me to read slides like this and think: “wait, in what ways does my teaching do that?”

And with that, it’s time to #pushsend.

Source: https://samjshah.com/2018/08/04/desmos-pre-conference-2018-recap/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more