Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

writing View Comments
Aug 312006

It’s amazing how much of my time is spent writing, editing, or teaching writing these days. (Now if I could just earn a little money from it…)

It’s equally amazing how many of my clients and students are completely surprised at how many silly mistakes I catch when I’m editing.

If you intend to share what you’ve written, it is imperative that you proofread it. Check for flow, punctuation, spelling. Does it make sense? Does it read well? If you aren’t sure, have someone else read it! An extra pair of eyes can show you things in your writing that you may not have noticed before, both good and bad.

Remember, when you publish something, it’s out there. Sure, you can edit it, but it’ll save you time and face if you’re careful in your pre-publishing checks!

Posted by Rebecca at 12:27 pm Tagged with:

Think for yourself

finding my path View Comments
Aug 312006

Amidst all this talk of feminism and empowering girls lately, it should be noted that I did point out that I also try to empower my boys as well. Despite all appearances to the contrary, this world spends more time forcing conformity than promoting individuality. In the case of education, this more often amounts to little more than having to do everything a specific way, even if the currently taught way doesn’t make sense to the student. In our quest to validate the cost and existence of creating standardized assessments, we’ve almost robbed students of the opportunity to explore topics and find their own way to correctly arrive at an answer, create a project, prove they know the information.

I spend a lot of my tutoring time trying to encourage my students to trust themselves, to become familiar enough with the material to be able to arrive at the right response their own way.

This article, found via the Carnival of Capitalists, has some great suggestions for making yourself a more independent thinker, and a lot of it is the advice I give my students. Ask questions. Challenge the status quo. Follow your gut. Speak boldly. By practicing independent thinking, you help declutter processes, clarify policies and projects, and generally earn yourself a reputation as a troublemaker!

It occurs to me that because I do these things without a second thought, that’s probably part of why I come across as a feminist, too. Well, you better fear me, because I’m teaching every kid I meet to do just the same thing! Ah, the influence!!!

(insert evil laugh here)

Posted by Rebecca at 12:50 am

Playing as a teaching moment

teaching View Comments
Aug 302006

I was once advised to consider pursuing a Montessori teaching certificate because of my fascination with informal education. Montessori believes that children can learn effectively through play, which can be carefully crafted into an informal learning experience without ever being transparent.

Case in point, last Friday I accompanied a friend to his department’s picnic. We spent the afternoon at a beach in Ballard walking and playing and eating and chatting. It was a very relaxing afternoon.

At one point, I grabbed an ice cream treat and went to sit on the swings. A mother and her little girl (who couldn’t have been any older than four) came up and took over the swing beside me. The little girl plopped down on the swing while her mother asked her how many pushes she wanted. The girl thought for a moment before asking first for fifteen, and then settling for thirteen. Her mother pushed her, counting each push out loud.

I couldn’t help but smile as I watched them. Without being obvious, the mother was instilling number sense in her daughter. They had somewhere to practice counting that didn’t feel stale or rote, and the little girl was having a great time.

If you have the opportunity to play with little ones, look for ways to incorporate a little bit of learning or practice into your play time! They’ll benefit from it!

Posted by Rebecca at 12:48 am

Inspiration by color

creativity View Comments
Aug 292006

It’s not unusual for an idea, a concept, a project to grip your imagination so tightly that you can’t do much else until you create with it. But how many tines have you had the same problem with a color or a color combination?

I’ve long suffered from being haunted by color combinations. I can’t explain it, but it’s not unusual for a color or color combination to try to infiltrate every fiber of my being. It tries to come out in my wardrobe, my decorating, my design work. It’s crazy!

For a while, I was releasing my inner color demons by finding the right colors in embroidery floss and creating macramé bookmarks, just to have the combination somewhere nearby until the infatuation had run its course.

How about you? Have you ever been stalked by a color or color combination? How do you deal with it?

Posted by Rebecca at 1:16 pm Tagged with: ,

What kind of entrepreneur are you?

finding my path View Comments
Aug 282006

The Business Opportunities Weblog recently shared a post on the nine types of entrepreneurs.

Despite all of my attempts to sabotage myself, I think I’m actually a blend of the adviser, builder/creator, and the communicator/trainer. I’m looking to build my corner of the world around my teaching, writing, and artistic capabilities, each of which come fairly easily to me. When I remember that, it helps to still the negative voices in my head looking to stop me routinely.

Take a look at the corner of the world you’re trying to claim. What kind of entrepreneur are you trying to be in your own little corner?

Posted by Rebecca at 9:23 am

The tomboy vs. the feminist

animation, anthropology, gaming View Comments
Aug 282006

I’ve spent most of my life being called a feminist. Last week, I was actually dubbed a “geeky feminist”.

The problem is, I don’t see myself as a feminist. I see myself as a tomboy.

I’ve always preferred action figures to Barbie. My cartoon choices have nearly always been the action cartoons (oddly enough, my favorite manga/anime are both shojo, or girl-style). While I threw the occasional tea party and designed fashions for my dolls, I preferred playing G.I. Joe and Transformers with my guy friends. I’ve never really kept girl friends unless they were other tomboys.

When you run one of those gender tests over my writing, the test always says I’m a guy. Most guys accept me as one of the guys, so much so that they will literally forget I’m a girl. My (all male) roommates have actually thanked me for not being a girl.

That’s me…I’m just one of the guys. Always have been, probably always will be.

I’m assertive. I’m fairly straight-forward. I don’t see that I shouldn’t be able to do whatever I want. When I’m told what I can’t do, I take it as a challenge and prove the person wrong. I’m not overly concerned with fashion, but do at least bother to look simply put-together.

I’m also the one the directors like to put the girl algebra students with when possible. I’m apparently a good role model for girls in math.

Does any of that make me a feminist? According to friends, family, and strangers, yes , it does. Not a militant feminist (as I was accused of after a series of door-holding incidents in ninth grade), but a feminist nonetheless.

Granted, most of my experiences with feminist has been with the militant type. The ones who are oppressed by men and aren’t going to take it any more. The ones who eschew traditional roles solely because they are traditional roles. They’re scary, and I really don’t want to be identified with them.

I’m now being told that because I don’t let my gender define what I’m capable of, because I encourage my fellow women to challenge tradition and only accept it when it’s their own decision to do so, that makes me a modern feminist. By encouraging my fellow women to find their choices, research all the options, and then to follow their instinct, I’m a modern feminist.

But the tomboy in me says, “Yeah, but I do the same with my boys, too. I’m forever telling them to trust themselves and do what’s right for them.” Does that lessen my feminist appearance?

A friend told me I need to read the modern feminists, but I honestly don’t have a clue where to begin. Maybe there is a way to reconcile the tomboy, the coach, with some version of feminism. Any suggestions?

Posted by Rebecca at 12:46 am Tagged with:

Developing a brand is a lot like sculpting

finding my path View Comments
Aug 272006

I’m still working at developing my personal brand, but it’s slowly dawning on me that I’m really not developing anything. If anything, I’m discovering.

Not unlike a sculptor, I’m slowly and methodically taking bits away and adding bits in to create this image of who I am perceived as, because it has also occurred to me that a brand is honestly more what others take away than what you put forth. If you can make the two match up, then you’ve succeeded in living the life you want to live.

In that vein, I almost feel like I’m looking at the external perceptions of myself and trying to make them match up with what I see behind the scenes, trying to make those talents and traits that make me so sought after at work more obvious to those who don’t see me on a daily basis.

It’s been an interesting journey exploring myself through this attempt to develop my brand. I think I’ve elarned more about myself in the past month or so than I learned when I had to go through all the personality testing in grad school.

Originally posted to 100Bloggers

Posted by Rebecca at 11:42 am Tagged with:

A disturbing find in the Lego store

animation View Comments
Aug 272006

Over the weekend, I introduced a new friend to Bellevue Square. I introduced him to a number of things, actually. Perhaps the most disheartneing was the Lego store. It used to be such a nice store…now it’s all kits and open space.

I was looking through the big kid sets when I made the rather joyous discovery of some Avatar sets! That was pretty cool…right up until I looked at one of them closely.

The box showed the characters that came in the box. As expected, Aang was there, his little arrow wrapped around his little peg head. Sokka and his pet Momo were included, too.

Conspicuously missing was Katara, Aang’s friend and water bending teacher, Sokka’s logical sister. She travels with the guys. She’s always helping to solve their problems. She’s an all-around cool kid. She deserved to not be left out! I was quite unhappy.

Somehow, Lego and Nickelodeon missed the memo that it is actually unacceptable to leave out the token girl, especially from a fairly gender-neutral cartoon. (Avatar has enough of a blend of action and touchy-feely that I think it’s fairly safe to not assume it’s a boy cartoon. In fact, it was my girl students who made me watch it to begin with.)

Naturally, this happened not long after posting on the token girl and then discovering that post was picked up by a feminist carnival. I was simultaneously trying to claim I’m not a feminist while screaming about the fact that the girl was left out of the Avatar set.

It really does bother me that Lego and Nickelodeon thought it was acceptable to leave Katara out. That’s the kind of precedent the token girl doesn’t need! (It’s also so very, very eighties…those two need to do some serious catching up with the times!)

Posted by Rebecca at 12:42 am Tagged with:

A change of approach to motivating

motivation View Comments
Aug 262006

I’ve been struggling with motivation issues for nearly a month now. Normally, I set up a to-do list and giggle with great glee as the list gets shorter and shorter. I like shrinking to-do lists, but for some reason that simple joy wasn’t enough to keep me moving.

Yesterday, it briefly occured to me that perhaps I should approach my list differently to see if it re-energizes my motivation. I wrote out every single task that I need to do, no matter how small, and erased my whiteboard. The space normally reserved for my to-do list is now labelled “I’ve accomplished”, and I write every completed task, no matter how small. Seeing the growing list seems to be keeping me motivated to keep adding to the list, so this is working for now.

Sometimes, motivation flags because we get into ruts. Changing my mindset is helping me work around my motivation issues. What helps you when your motivation goes on vacation?

Originally posted at 100Bloggers

Posted by Rebecca at 11:25 am

The manager as a team player

finding my path View Comments
Aug 252006

At work, I exist in this weird role where I’m not quite one of the teachers, but I’m not quite part of the management. For the most part, it works. When I need to be a teacher, I’m a teacher. When I need to be more mangerial, I’m a manager.

One day, I got to thinking about this situation, thinking about how often this has been the case for me. At school. In volunteer positions. I seems to often find myself walking this fine line between manager and grunt (if you’ll pardon my expression). It occurred to me that people have long responded well to my managerial style, and as I sat there trying to reflect on my current situation, it dawned on me why.

When I was in leadership development in high school, one of the lessons drilled into our head was that you should never ask someone to do something you yourself aren’t willing to do. I embraced that theory as a teenager, and it’s still very much a critical part of my leadership style. I make a point of working right alongside those I lead.

In a lot of ways, it’s very freeing. Everyone can see I’m in there trying to get the job done, and so they feel encouraged to get the job done. Because I’m busy trying to pull my weight, I delegate tasks to people and then trust them to follow through. It’s amazing how that encourages my team to try just a bit harder, because they feel they have a say, that their say counts.

I hear horror stories about people working with managers who stay removed from the team for fear of losing that sense of who’s in charge. I just can’t do it. I need to be not only visible, but an active part of my team.

Originally posted at Slacker Manager

Posted by Rebecca at 11:47 am Tagged with:
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