"The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best"

I like NEVER post anymore.  Shameful!

Here's an update on my life. 

I survived student teaching in the elementary school and had a wonderful time as the drama teacher at PS 314.  I'd love to have a job as a drama teacher in an elem school, but with budget cuts there's like NO way I'll get such a dreamy job.  My cooperating teacher was awesome and gave me wonderful resources in case I DO get such a great job.

I performed in two Theatrix shows this year and plan on doing one more.  It was a ton of fun.  I really missed doing theater, so being able to perform here at NYU has been amazing.

Straight A's last semester, fuck ya!

Got married Jan 5.  It was a wonderful day.  We were in FL for a while and had a lot of fun with family.  I love my wife, love my family, it was great!  Pics are on fb.  

I got placed at Gramercy Arts HS as an English teacher for this semester.  I am very excited to be in an arts based school!

I am the dramaturge of NYU's upcoming production of "Sonia Flew."  That's been going great. 

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!  It's 115 Arborway Drive in Braintree!  I can't wait to move in this May!  Nice place for the puppies, future children and me!  See it here http://www.realtor.com/realestatea…

Mikaboo told me to post that she got a new facebook.  Feel free to friend her "Mikaboo Pantaleo"

I am a MA Certified English teacher.  Applied to one school so far.  Looking for more openings as they come.  Praying for a job!  Really really really praying.  In this economy... I am a little scared :( 

Just realized that this list is def not in order of importance

Well... needless to say, a lot has been going on.  Lots of excitement.  This post hardly does a good job explaining everything that has been happening in my life, but it's a nice little summary :)

fun

When I woke up this morning and checked my email, this is what I found...

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Hi,
Weds afternoon you will meet me in Manhattan.
We will hang out and then go to the Titanic Exhibition for free through my work because Jeff was nice/silly enough to put you down as an employee here on the list to get you in free, too.
You will do this with no complaints.
You also are allowed to get me ice cream if you behave.
[BEEHIVE?!]
-Nikki
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Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I'm on a roll this week and feel wicked accomplished.  This week I have...

• Finished my Drama in Ed research paper
• Finished my Drama in Ed final paper
• Finished my Action Research Writeup
• Got Nikki a job
• Organized a potluck at my place
• Finished my Storytelling paper
• Brought in 6 resources for Teacher Resource Day
• Sat through Adolescent Development (that's a true accomplishment)
• Co-wrote a final kindergarten lesson plan with Jeff and Barbara
• Finished my final for my Drug/Alcohol/Mandated Reporter class
• Wrote two journal entries for my Differentiated Instruction class (one in response to a class I did not attend)
• Got my blinds looked at
• Convinced the blinds guy to illegally fix it for 150 instead of replacing it for 850.
• Pottytrained a puppy
• Cheated on my diet and still lost weight

Aaaand the weeks not over yet.  Tonight I am going to Jeff and Heidi's with the dogs.  Tomorrow is the potluck and Sunday is a storytelling performance that I have to attend and then write about.  Talk about productivity!!

While I am really sad that I don't get to see Nikki very often since she goes to school and comes home the second I leave for school, I do get a lot of work done in the quiet apartment.  

Attached is a picture of Linus looking drunk and exhausted

Woot!
-Lily

I haven't posted in a while so I guess now is a good time.  Nothing too eventful is happening.  The semester is wrapping up and I am just struggling to get all of my work done.  There are just so many papers due soon.  This week I finished up three important papers, so that is a good feeling.  I am really glad that I finally completed my Action Research Project because that was a really long process.  It was a good experience though.

I just recently found out that I passed my MTELs and that's a giant relief.  I still kind of think that it was a mistake though.  When I left after taking my English MTEL, I walked out of the building with a girl who had also just finished her English test.  She asked me how I did and I straight out told her that I failed.  I guess I can own a lot of this to test anxiety though.  I just remember getting the test and reading the first few questions and just shaking my head and freaking out in my mind.  I kept telling myself to just stop now.  Just throw away the test and I'll try again in a few months.  For some reason, I just kept going.  Probably due to my curiosity about what these test questions look like.  Well, we all know the ending of this story.  I am just thanking the literary Gods for helping me through that test.  I will never have to take it again and I am one step closer to becoming an English teacher in MA.  The time can't come sooner.

I have been doing research for my student-teaching placement.  For my first semester of student teaching, I will be placed in an Elementary School (since I will be certified to teach drama to all grades.)  I chose a school for the learning disabled in the Upper West Side.  The facilities look amazing and I really liked the schools mission statement and focus on differentiated instruction.  I feel that learning disabled students may benefit even more than average students with drama because it does away with sitting down and shutting up (to be blunt.)  After that semester is over, I will be placed in a public HS somewhere in the city (hopefully close to my apartment) and then I will be done with NYU.

Nikki and I got a new puppy named Linus.  He is really really cute and playful but much more stubborn and timid than Mika was at 3 months.  He is Mika's biological brother.  They are really cute when they play together.  They play tugowar together and then take naps on eachother.  It's too cute.  I just hope that Linus can be trained as well as Mika is.  Mika is such a smart dog and she sets the bar high for little Linus.  He's really cute.  He has a very similar face to Mika but is tricolored (but the only brown he has is over his eyes like eyeshadow, haha.)

The more that I study dramatic activities in the HS and Elem School, the more I wish that I could be a drama specialist in an Elem School.  The arts are being savagely ripped from schools due to budget cuts though.  Some elem schools here in the city have an art teacher, a music teacher and a drama teacher.  The drama teacher has a very similar schedule as the art/music/gym teacher meaning, the drama teacher gets to see every student in the school at least once a week.  I'd love to do that, but having drama teachers in the elem school is getting more and more rare.  That saddens me.  Well, hopefully HS will have a space for me.

I am getting really really nervous that I wont be able to find a job in MA once I graduate.  I'd love to work at one of the Braintree public schools (BHS being my first choice, but I am also certified for middle schools as well.)  I also wouldn't mind working in Weymouth or Quincy but I don't want to have to drive 20-30 minutes every morning to get to work at the ass crack of dawn.  I'm just hoping I can get a job quickly so that Nikki and I can work towards getting a permanant residence somewhere.  We will probably have to rent an apartment for a year before we can get a house.  I just want everything to go incredibly smoothly after I graduate.  In my perfect world, I'd get my HS English/Drama job or Elem Drama specialist job and be set.  Too bad my world is very far from perfect.  I guess if all else fails, I could be a Teaching Artist until I can find a more dependable job.

This turned into a really nerdy post, sorry guys.  I guess this is what has been going on in my mind lately.  The real world is coming closer and closer every day and I just hope that I am ready.  NYU is doing everything that they can to prepare me but I'm pretty sure that I wont be 100% prepared.  Talking about life doesn't get you half as far as actually living it.

I guess that's it.  Sorry for being nerdy and whiny.  I just worry.  It's the Jewish mother within me.
-Lil

So... I have a stress fracture on my ankle.  I literally got this injury from running around like an idiot, hahaha.  I don't have a cast because only time heals a stress fracture... no need for anything like that.  It just sucks because I don't have a lot of opportunities to stay off of it since I go to school.

It's been fractured for like 2 weeks now but I was too stubborn to go to the doctors or take care of it.  I'm dumb, but I'll never learn.  I have to keep an ugly bandage thingy on it and it annoys me, haha.

And that's the news.  Stay classy, San Diego
-Lil

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- What I create will be just for you.
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- You will receive your item before the end of the year (or sooner).
- You will have no clue what the item is going to be. It could be a story or poetry. It could be a piece of handmade jewelry or an art doll. I may draw, paint, collage or knit something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to repost this meme and make and send out five surprises of your own.

<3 Lil

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean... it depends on the tone of voice but usually, "Oooh God, I'm in trouble!" unless it's a somber tone then it is more like "Oooh God, who died?"  If it is  a happy tone, it's usually just "Oooh God."

All in all... the only thing that stays normal about that I think when someone says, "I need to talk to you" is that I think "Ooh God."  The rest is dependent on who it is and the tone.

Fin

In 2008 I...

Moved...three times

Got accepted to NYU, Columbia, Fordham, Brooklyn College

Graduated

Began NYU

Got engaged

Went to Disney...twice

Got a puppy

Got fish

Killed fish

Got a promotion

Lost a relative

Got inducted in a million honors societies with greek letters

Lost and gained the same damn 10 pounds over and over

 It's been a very very very long year, but it was a pretty good one :)
-Lily

Heyy.  I thought that I would share a poem that one of my classes wrote collectively.  The class broke into four groups and wrote a line and then passed it for about twenty minutes.  This is the outcome when everything was put together...

Why Teach?

I teach to learn, to encourage balance, to encourage growth, to pursue
my higher self. I want to teach because I would like to bring about a sense of well-being to students in our society. Because I want to share my passion of theater. I teach because if the world is to change, it will be changed by the youth. Because I am a man of few words. I can’t wait “till every summer when I have off. Because I like kids. I teach because knowledge is worthless if it’s not shared. Because I choose to disagree OUT LOUD!!!! I feel like I gotta go….. Because I want to cultivate imagination. I teach to inspire thought, and safeguard against manipulation. Because I am Man. I can’t wait for recess. Because I want to give a better education than I got. I teach to make a difference. I teach to inspire. I teach to make a change. I teach to better the lives of children. I teach to teach what I have learned. I teach to expand their thinking. I teach to grow as an individual and as a teacher. I teach in hopes for a brighter future for our world. I teach to change the world. I teach to guide students to be respectful, proactive citizens. I teach to see their smiles. I teach to give students information they might not otherwise learn. I teach to be a role model. I teach to be a strong force in their lives. I teach to make them laugh. I teach to make a learning environment fun, yet instructional. I teach because it is in my blood. I teach to learn when I am learning to teach. I teach to believe. I teach because it is a profession and not a job. I teach because I want to be the same as the teacher who changed my life in my middle school. I teach because I love to learn. I teach to inspire a new outlook at the world. I teach because I have hope. I teach history to help “us” learn from our mistakes. I teach because when I die, my students, and my students’ students will stay. I teach because I believe that no student should be “just another statistic.” I teach to discover a life. I teach for anyone who ever felt invisible. I teach because it is more than sitting behind a desk and answering email. I teach because it’s a silent way to influence people. I teach because the voices tell me to. I teach because I build on people’s fate. I teach to laugh. I teach to learn. I teach to share my passion in the arts. I teach to make a difference. I teach to stay in touch with my language and my culture. I teach because this world is great and I want others to see this. I teach to perpetuate my favorite narratives. I teach to connect with others. I teach because I care. I teach to see things from a different view. I teach to escape. I teach to remember. I teach to better express my thoughts. I teach because I can’t stand working a desk job. I teach to see children grow into thinking personalities. I teach because I love teaching. I teach to laugh. I teach because I want something to do with the voices and minds of the future. I teach to share my voice and mind with our future. I teach to learn from others. I teach to be heard. I teach to see the look on a student’s face when something finally clicks. I teach because I know I can help to create that moment where it clicks. I teach to influence the lives of my students. I teach to listen. I teach because I have been inspired by those who taught me. I teach to inspire those who come after me. I teach to face new challenges. I teach to start over. I teach to see growth, passion and happiness. I teach to open pathways never imagined before. I teach to meet new people. I teach because that is my one and only calling. I teach as a calling to the future.