Podcasts: Great Thing or Greatest Thing?

This is the third installment of Exceptionally Awesome People of Exceptional Awesomeness (EAPEA?) and this one includes a bunch of people.

I am your typical millennial (I don't think I care for that term, by the way) in that I am yolked to my phone. Yes, it's an iPhone. I am a cliche. *ahem* Anyway, one of the greatest things about having a smartphone and a regular walk or bus ride to campus is the podcast. I love so many of them. Come with me while I get completely obnoxious about the things I love.

First up, Welcome to Night Vale. Please, if you haven't checked this one out, drop everything and go listen to the pilot. A friend described this podcast to me as "if Stephen King wrote The News of Lake Wobegon". Seriously? Sold. It's hilarious and weird. A strange little desert town's community radio DJ keeps you, dear listener, up to date on the goings on in Night Vale. From the cat levitating in the station bathroom to the mysterious dog park citizens are forbidden to enter, you'll be amused, confused and addicted. All hail the Glow Cloud.

Next, anything from NPR. Now, I'm a Grade-A public radio fan girl but I'm not kidding. Choose your poison. Economics? Music? Current Events? Humor? They do it all. I have so many favorites. This American Life, which is, to quote Summer from The O.C. (yes, really) "Is that the show where those hipster know-it-alls talk about how interesting regular people are?" Yes, Summer, yes it is. Bonus? They regularly feature hilarious people like David Sedaris, the late David Racoff and Sarah Vowel. Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me was one of my first podcast loves. I've been listening for years. WWDTM as it's abbreviated in tweets, is a weekly news quiz show. Peter Sagel and Karl Kastle are at the helm with a rotating panel which includes Tom Bodett, Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca, recently Nicko Case and a variety of others. It's NPR's Daily Show.

My newest favorite is Here's the Thing from WNYC. This one won't need a big sales pitch. Alec Baldwin interviews everyone. Kathleen Turner, Loren Michaels, Kristen Wiig, Andrew Luck and Dick Cavett to get you started. This one is great for fighting boredom while driving long distances with a boyfriend sleeping in the passenger seat.

Radiolab. Just, Radiolab. It's deliciously nerdy science with wonderful hosts and an impressive array of topics. It's not so intellectual or specific either. Whatever topic they address, they do it in a way that anyone can easily become engrossed. I recommend starting with the Symmetry episode.

Best part? 100% completely free. I love technology.

Go forth and download.

I taught my first lesson. It didn't go well.

This is going to be a no picture post because it's about kiddos I teach, just an FYI.

In my program we have what is called early field experience our first two semesters. What this means is that we spend a day or two per week in a real classroom observing and helping a real teacher. They want us to know what we're getting ourselves into as soon as possible. This semester I am in a kindergarten classroom.

On Tuesday I taught my first lesson. It was a science lesson on sinking and floating. It's kindergarten so the content was pretty basic. I wanted my students to understand that some things sink and other things float. I also wanted them to compare and contrast the objects we tested. What do all the objects that sunk have in common? What about the ones that floated? I brought in a bunch of things for them to test: an acorn, a leaf, a crayon, a rubber band, a house key, etc.

Everything started off fine. We talked about what it meant for things to sink or float. I went through the items we would be testing and had them guess what each item would do when we dropped it in the water and then it was time to test! This is when things started to get ugly. See, I did not anticipate just how excited kindergartners could get about buoyancy. The first time an object did what they had predicted they cheered. They cheered like they'd just won the World Series (Go Sox, by the way!). So each time they tested something they'd go crazy and I (with the help of my very patient, very experienced classroom teacher/mentor) had to bring them back to a manageable level. Oy. I have a thing or two to learn about classroom management, yet.

Next up is my math lesson: shapes. I teach that lesson in a few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

We're moving!

We bought a house! In just a few months we will (most likely) never pay rent again! The home search was much more brief than we anticipated. We spent a few days scouring listings online and managed to find two houses we found interesting enough to look at. We made a low ball offer and ba da bing, ba da boom. Homeowners!

The house is just on the other side of town which means this will be Boyfriend and I's first move that does not involve getting new driver's licenses. Since we're in school full-time we're giving ourselves plenty of time to get all of our things moved over. By the new year we will be in our new place! We'll have more space so each of us will have somewhere to put our desks. No more office/dining room!

The house does not have anything major that needs to be done but it hasn't had much updating since it was built in the late 80's. It is generally bland inside and out. This is exciting though because we can out our own mark on the place.

That brings me to some of the resources we will be consulting as we tweak and improve. My parents will be on speed dial, of course, because they have decades of experience taking on DIY projects of all sorts. They are experts at biting off more than they can chew and figuring out how to make it work. I have a sneaking suspicion this skill set will be helpful. Another great resource I will be finally be able to capitalize on is the blog Young House Love. It's a very popular home blog in case you haven't lost several hours to this fantastic family and their amazing taste.

We have plans for projects big and small. Of course we'll have to take silly things like time and budget into consideration. Psh!