The short version of this story is if you need a freelance teacher, trainer, writer, or editor, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
The long version of this story is that with so much pressure on our kids to succeed, working in a extracurricular teaching center (and paying the bills off that paycheck) is becoming more challenging.
My blogs have actually all been suffering for the past couple of weeks while I’ve tried to figure out how to resolve this situation.
If we can get the pages working on this blog, then I’ll put up a page to help everyone understand what I can do for them (Basically, if you need something taught, either by a teacher or a written document, there’s a very good chance I can help you.) Otherwise, like I said, contact me with potential projects.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:09 AM EDT
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According to my goodreads account, I’ve been reading a lot lately (a book or two each week, not counting manga). I guess that shouldn’t surprise me. At the beginning of August, I sat down with the list of books I wanted to read and hunted them all down in a local library system. On one hand, I cleared out almost the entire “writing” section of my list (yes, my list is broken down by topic or genre). On the other, I’ve spent so much time reading that very little writing has actually been accomplished.
Yesterday, I finished Writing for Comics with Peter David, and turned to an empty shelf. Everything on hold with the library is either about Montessori education, is a Myth book by Robert Asprin, or is one of a handful of Rush CDs. My “to-read” list still has some books left in it, too! (And I need to go in and add some more.)
The point is, I have read all the writing books I wanted to read (at the moment). Instead of hiding behind “learning my craft”, I can now return to “developing my craft”.
It’s a bit weird.
I’ll be forcing myself to take a more active role in another of my creative outlets. I’ve landed a gig teaching jewelry design at a local Michael’s. They want me to come in later this week and create the pieces that will serve as examples of what can be learned in the class.
At first, I didn’t worry too much about it because the last time I was up for a teaching job at Michael’s, I created a curriculum. I pulled that out after I got off the phone Thursday and choked. The curriculum, which was supposed to be a bunch of technique-driven projects, is far better suited to become a how-to guide on jewelry design.
I’ve been scribbling ideas in my jewelry notebook off and on all weekend, but I think it’s going to come down to listing the techniques I know, and then building a project list from them.
This week will definitely be a practicum week.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:15 AM EDT
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Many people need silence in order to focus on their work. I watch those people try to enforce that need on students who are actually auditory learners. It drives me up a wall frequently.
I’m not an auditory learner, but silence causes my mind to start wandering despite any efforts on my part to stay focused. I turn on music or a television show or a favorite movie while I work because it helps ground me, helps my mind to not wander because it’s singing along or picking out voices while I get a ton accomplished. Therefore, I sympathize with the student who wants to listen to their iPod while they work. My rules are fairly simple: As long as they keep working and I can’t hear their music, they can listen. (Luckily, I have pretty cool students, and they have no trouble abiding by those rules.)
People are all different in how they cope with noise. You just have to find thre compromise when you’re working with someone whose background noise needs differ from your own.
(Inspired by this lively debate on Lifehacker)
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:00 AM EDT
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“Continuous reinvention is not branding.” (
Source)
I’m struggling through a lot of self-exploration and overanalyzing right now because I’m trying to bring form to my online presence. As things stand right now, I’m spread all over the place, and it’s become a pain to update and share things. I’m also trying to determine what my content and visual brand should be. What will truly express who and what Rebecca is?
I’ve been working on this for a couple of months now, and the picture is slowly coming together. But while I’ve been thinking and shifting and re-thinking and re-shifting, a company I spend far too much time admiring went through its third rebrand in five years. The very next day, I found the above quote on Troy’s site, and it just resonated.
If you want to be known for change, then a continuous reinvention is fine. Change is your brand. For those of us not as comfortable with change, a constant re-brand is a cry for help, a clear sign that something is wrong with the company (In the case of the company mentioned above, they are in trouble and are trying to figure out how to get themselves out of it.) While I can adapt to change, I’d prefer people be able to look at something I did and say, “Oh, that has Rebecca written all over it.” When I set my brand, I want it to be something lasting, something that will be able to grow with me and still show who I am.
I will have to say, though, the current rebrand looks good on that company. I hope it works out for them, and I hope it lasts longer than eighteen months.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:48 AM EDT
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One of my students came in a couple of weeks ago unable to focus on his work. He’d just come from a tennis tournament. He’d played worse than he’d played in a very long time, losing to students who weren’t at his level. This student has an older brother who went to state every year of high school, and the student’s goal for this year is to go to state for the first time. He was furious with himself.
I let him vent for a few minutes, and then I offered him some advice: Try playing for fun. Tell me what happens.
The problem with competitive people is they often lose sight of why they started doing something. They’ll take up something because it looks interesting or they just need a change of pace or they want to relax. Invariably, they’ll start measuring themself against others doing the same activity, even when there is no point to the comparison. In no time, they’ll burn out of the activity because they either feel the have no one else to beat, or because they feel they’ll never be able to beat other people.
When you always play to win, to knock down someone else, you really will lose. Even in a non-competitive activity, if you’ve become competitive, then you’ve robbed yourself of valuable learning opportunities. You’ve robbed yourself of the opportunity to make friends with a similar interest. More importantly, you’ve more than likely lost sight of why you even started the activity to begin with.
The student came in the other night, sat down in front of me, and said, “I started playing for fun this week, and my game is already getting better.” I smiled and handed him a math worksheet.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:06 AM EDT
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