So why am I looking to take ballet?

Everyone has their theories on dance training. Some dancers are adamant about keeping their dance “pure”, ie. not studying other forms of dance. Others relish in cross training. I’m in the latter category.

I love Middle Eastern dance, don’t get me wrong. However, I do get bored occasionally and like to check out what’s there. Although I love Odissi and Bharatanatyam, I think I want try a “Western” classical dance. A lot of dance friends have said ballet has improved their posture, arms, and carriage. It looks like something that could fun and ultimately improve my Middle Eastern dance. I have decent posture, arms, and carriage, but I could always improve.

Going to ballet will also help familiarize me with ballet terms. A lot of dance teachers use them, even those without much ballet training. Rather than have to guess at what second position is, I hopefully will be able to understand without much thought.

I’m not convinced ballet will be something I love, but I think it can indeed be useful and enjoyable.

 

The value of Twitter for the Middle Eastern dancer and teachers

Lately, there has been discussion of what good is Twitter for. A lot of people seem to think it’s for the extremely narcissistic. Why else does someone need to know what you’re doing at any given moment? While I’m sure that is true for some,I think Twitter is can be an extremely valuable and useful for tool.

For dancers, I think it is an excellent way to communicate with others. I find out a lot of information I wouldn’t normally be privy to, like what it’s like to be a professional dancer. It is a small glimpse and is very interesting. As a dance student, I’m more inclined to take classes or workshops from a dancer I see frequently being talked about in a positive manner on Twitter. There is also the human element that is appealing, that you can grow to like the person.

At my office, we’ve been talking about Twitter. No one is particularly pro-Twitter; many are neutral at best. When I was in grad school, two profs created Twitter pages. The one was particular useful, because we could tell where he was since he did his research off-site. That was useful for when we needed help. The other prof’s page was funny and gave him quite a colorful personality. I’ve heard of schools using it to make announcements to the school. I’m thinking about starting a Twitter page for my students so that they know when things are due. They seem adverse to logging into email and using the college class management system, but maybe they’d use Twitter.

While I don’t believe that Twitter is the ultimate piece of technology, I think it can be quite useful. Don’t discount it until you try it.

 

 

Santa, can you hear me?

Aziza is releasing a new instructional DVD, right before the holiday. I think it’ll be a winner. The title is “Hands, Arms, and Poses.” Aziza has fabulous, well, hands, arms, and poses. Her other DVDs that I’ve seen (the veil one and the practice companion) were good in terms of information and production quality. If you are familiar with her vaguely, she is an absolutely charming person.

And if anyone wants to gift this DVD to me, I won’t complain.

 

A week until break

I’m preparing my students for the next exam, which is fast approaching. I forgot how long the semester system can be; when I was doing my graduate degree, we were on quarter system. That means we would end right before Thanksgiving. I used to prefer the semester system, but now I’m not so sure. Perhaps it’s just what you’re used to at the end of the day.

Although I enjoy teaching, I could use the break myself. It’s just nice to relax, you know? Relaxing is relative, though. I finally received more edits in the mail for my thesis, so that’s how I intend on spending my time, hustling out those edits. It would be nice to have a real break, but at the same time, I’d rather be finished with my thesis than have a break break.

I’m starting to get settled more things. I think this weekend I may finally start doing yoga again. I’m starting to incorporate little dance practices for when I go back to dance class (I’m thinking next month, right before the New Year). I’m surprised that shimmy is still there and that I can still isolate muscles. I suppose muscle more really does exist.

 

So where have I been?

Moving and working means I’ve been quite busy. Last week, I was keeping myself afloat best I can in life. I luckily have been able to keep myself ahead of the game with the students, but I’ve also had a mound of grading to do. Then I come home to clean, figure out how I’m getting certain items I don’t have (pots, pans, whatever) from Craig’s List or otherwise. My cats have been adjusting, as well, which has been some work; my one cat was having a hissing fit with the other two.

Last week, besides the moving stress, was a bit stressful because students like to argue grades. I’m not sure if it’s the nature of the beast, being female, or being young (or a combination), but a handful of students have mindblowingly crazy attitudes. It varies from telling me that I’m not fair for holding their grades to the syllabus, which they not only received prior to me but also we talked about when I did arrive, to being mad at me when they don’t understand what’s going on in class because they were absent and refuse to visit me during my tutoring hours. I’m not trying to be mean or harsh, but sometimes I’m astounded with the lack of accountability on the students’ behalf. I understand life is hard, but you have to take control of things. Thank goodness it’s only a handful, but they can sour things fast. I luckily have some fantastic students who may not totally understand physics, but they’re willing to work at it and not become accusative.

I’m also trying to make decisions on the rest of my life. Do I go to grad school next year (or rather, try to)? What kind of job do I want? And so on. Our work schedules for the next semester have not come out yet, which is stressful. While everyone at work insists that they keep people on as long as they can, there is no guarantee. I’m not trying to be negative or think for the worst, but the reality is I have a contract for so long. So in addition to trying to make long term plans, I am trying to keep my options open for the shorter term.

During my spare moments last week, I’ve also been exploring dance options. I discovered that the studio I used to attend offers a work-study program for dance classes, so I applied to there. I’m also looking at taking a drop-in ballet class. Once I have a feel for my job situation, I’ll likely return to Odissi classes here (or possibly Bharatanatyam). I would love to find a Flamenco class, but I a) don’t want to overextend myself and b) don’t know where one is.

A good part of me is interested in establishing a social life here of sorts; the last time I lived in the area, a bunch of my friends were here. They have either moved away, or we’ve gone very separate life paths at this point. I don’t want to go out all the time, but it’d be nice to hang out with some other people.

So that’s me in a nutshell for now. I think that I should be able to update more frequently next week, but who knows?

 

I’ve moved

To a completely different apartment than the last one I had described. This one was simply a better deal. The apartment has more than enough space for me and three cats. I have a room I intend on using for a dance/yoga studio, which is nice. It’s plenty of room for veil. I’m also on ground floor, so if I resume to louder forms of dance (Flamenco, Odissi), noise won’t be much of a concern.

It is weird having my own space and having to maintain it after literally living out of a suitcase for the past 2 months or so. It is strange to be alone and only surrounded by cats. I don’t mind it necessarily, this is just s change. I feel like I’m slowly getting myself into a routine. I’m a fairly habitual person. I’m not so stuck in my ways that I won’t ever change, but I do appreciate consistency to some degree.

I will resume blogging more once I have better internet. I am currently using the town’s wireless internet (no contract, first month only 1 dollar), but it’s spotty.

 

Cheaters never prosper

I had my first bout with cheaters this past weekend. Kind of soured the weekend, even though I can’t take it personally. Cheating bothers the heck out of me. Besides the idea of people learning to learn and enjoying it, it just makes me uncomfortable to have that dishonesty.

Cheating is a really bad idea. In the best case scenario, you leave a bad taste in the mouth of the person grading you. They may not be inclined to bump your 59.45 to a 60% (and a D-), meaning you failed the course. In the worst case scenario, you face major consquences. If being an ethical, upright person isn’t enough of a reason to not cheat, the consequences of cheating listed in your academic handbook should scare you straight. You can get kicked out of school in some instances or fail a class. The latter situation damages your GPA and possibly puts you behind in class. You may also have to retake the class with the same professor, who may remember you as that person who cheated.

In the situation of getting kicked out, that is a doozy to overcome. Don’t rely on what your friends tell you, that the school doesn’t enforce the cheating policy. It’s like drunk driving. Many may get away with it and get lighter sentencing, but you may encounter the people who follow the books. In your eyes, it may be unfair that you’re the only person who was punished, while everyone got a slap on the wrist, but the law reads how it reads. My school has a 3 strikes policy. Strike one, you get warned and fail the assignment. Strike 2 (which can happen any year, with any class you take), you fail the class in which your second cheating occurrence happened. Strike 3, you’re out. You wasted a lot of money and time to walk away with nothing. You may have also ruined your chances of finishing a degree, at least for a long time.

In short, don’t cheat. Believe me, I didn’t enjoy talking to deans on what to do or failing these students. It really can hurt you in the end.

 

Happy Halloween!

I applied for an apartment on Thursday. The location wasn’t 100% perfect and it is small, but it will do for now. I always take apartments with a grain of salt. You can’t have it all, unfortunately. The important part is that it meets my basic criteria. I’m also glad to be finished with the struggle that is apartment hunting in Boston. I can’t imagine what apartment hunting in NYC is like, since I imagine it may be worse. Boston has a competitive market that is very expensive. Chicago apartment hunting was a walk in the park compared to here.

My Halloween plans aren’t much of anything. I get to grade . My firm final date for late labs was Wednesday. Not only is it a huge workload for me to keep grading labs from way back when, but it also not beneficial towards the students. They can’t improve their writing (in principle) if they receive no feedback whatsoever. I noticed, even when students are mad about lower grades on lab reports, they eventually become better writers if only for the grade.

Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone!

 

My general test taking and grade tips

Tomorrow my students have their first midterm. Some of them were thankful to have a practice, some of them- well, not so much. Unfortunately, I’m afraid some of them won’t take the tips and advice that I’ve given to them to heart (I have a few “too cool for school” types). These are actually things that I noticed affect some people near and dear to me or things I’ve learned the hard way.

• Study ahead of time. No brainer, but I’ve seen this happen numerous times
• Do your homework. You just create extra stress by trying to learn things a few days before the exam when you should actually start learning the concepts when they’re introduced.
• Actually do the physics problems like you would on the exam. Just looking over doesn’t help matters. You have to actually figure and struggle a little. Watching the teacher do examples is not learning. I find some students think that watching me repeatedly do examples will make things click. It more than likely will not. I probably could do examples until my hand bleeds and I die, and there’s a good chance that they would not learn the topic at hand that well. Note taking, in my opinion, can be passive.
• Sleep well before an exam. Cramming the night before (or period) rarely helps matters and just adds to stress.
• Try not to worry too much after you take the exam. It is literally out of your hands, and you more than likely need some time to recover and work on other schoolwork.
• If you are concerned now about your grades, speak up! I think grades are like financial debt. It is bad when you are in bad places with them, but you cannot do anything about it until you acknowledge that. Also, like credit card companies or loan people, most professors/teachers are willing to work with students and help them figure out what to do and how to improve their grades. However, they aren’t going to be favorable with that if you are doing this last minute.
• Believe you can succeed. Thinking you can’t do something is defeating, because you have already convinced yourself of that. Try to think that you can weather the class/exam.
• There is light at the end of the tunnel. As much as I hope people enjoy school and class, I recognize that people end up taking classes that they don’t like, either because of requirements or because the class turned out differently than expected.
• You have to keep your eye on the proverbial prize. You may hate the class/professor/topic, but you’re in a class and you should at least be concerned about passing so that you don’t lower your GPA/not meet requirements to graduate/etc. At the end of the day, your lack of progress in a class only affects you.
• Be nice to those around you. Professors and teachers like helping people who have a good attitude, not the students who are hostile or apathetic. You don’t have to be genius to be liked by many people; effort and the right attitude means a lot. Even if you don’t love the person, you should definitely be nice. Yelling at them, treating them poorly, etc. is really just unprofessional (would you yell at your boss?) and doesn’t help your case for getting help or advice. No one likes dealing with nasty people.

Does anyone else have tips to succeed at school? I know to some people these sound corny, but I think you have to keep all these things in mind.

 

The apartment hunt continues

It seems like nothing will pan out. The short of it has been:

• The realtors have often behaved as though they’re doing me a favor. I think my time in Chicago has made me expect really good customer service; it was a sticking point for many people I knew.
• My employment is an issue. That is to be expected, since I only am employed through December.
• According to some people, I have no significant rental history. I find that perplexing, because I have 3 years of renting faithfully.
• No one wants to negotiate. In Boston, the rental season starts in March and goes through August/September. If you have not rented a place out, it becomes much harder. Realtors have been offended if I ask if they would remove/negotiate the fee or lower rent by $100. I actually had one tell me that the landlord would rather see the apartment sit empty than lower the price. That doesn’t make sense to me, because they have to pay for heat anyway.

I need positive vibes for this one. It feels like I’m climbing up a 90 degree hill at times.