Danielle Blog

Application is sent in

February 22, 2008 - Posted by danielle- 7 Comments

Well, my job application is officially sent in. I’m excited/relieved and nervous all at the same time. Well, not a lot nervous, just a little bit – because it is now out of my hands.

I talked to someone who is in the department yesterday. It was a bit of a fluke that this class I’m in had a panel on tenure, and someone invited a woman from the department and school where I’m applying. I asked her a few questions that helped me get a bit of an inside scoop. One of the things she mentioned is that she doesn’t think there are many applicants…
… so I’m hopeful.

She also said that the teaching example for the interview is really hard, because people are reluctant to participate in the interactive learning techniques. But she also said that they definitely don’t want someone who just lectures the whole time. So, it is necessary to use these discussion-style small group activities, even if it doesn’t go quite as well as you’d hope. All in all, very useful information.

I think this merits a celebratory Starbucks! decaf, of course.

Flowers for Friday & Fuzzy Friend Friday – blue roses

February 15, 2008 - Posted by danielle- 6 Comments

I got these roses from HB for Valentine’s Day!

Aren’t they beautiful?

And of course, the Girlie-girl had to get in on the action and investigate.

Ice skating pics may take a back seat for a while

February 10, 2008 - Posted by danielle- 4 Comments

I haven’t spent time working on any ice skating pictures this weekend like I thought I would. What have I been doing with my time? Well, I’ve been busy with church, reading things for school, and working on a resource sheet for a presentation that is coming up. And when I have had extra time to relax, I’ve been using the time to read a fluffy book that helps me unwind.

There have been a few things going on with me that I thought I’d share.

1. For Lent, I’ve committed to three things. A) reading the bible everyday – specifically chapters of Matthew and the Psalms. B) Praying everyday (I’ve let that slide ’til now). C) Going to church weekly – that is pretty easy, since I already do it. Of course, during Lent, there are services on Wed nights too and those are the ones I’m singing at. Doing the bible study and praying in the mornings is what I’m now doing during breakfast when I would normally be editing pictures. I will still probably make the blog rounds during that time too. But maybe not as much of that either. I’m not sure.

2. I taught some labs this week. I LOVED it. And I learned a lot about what makes me happy in the process. Teaching in small groups like that where I have direct interactions with students really makes me happy.

3. There is a teaching job I’m going to be applying for that requires that I polish up my CV & Teaching Philosophy. I also have to generate a cover letter and a Research Statement – I’ve never done a research statement before, so that will take some time. The Preparing Future Faculty class that I’m in will cover those things this semester, but it won’t be until later.

I hope things are going well for you. See you!

2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships – part IV – pairs

February 5, 2008 - Posted by danielle- 5 Comments

I have more pairs pics. A lot of them are similar lifts and poses, but I am posting these partly for myself (you know, for posterity), so here they are.

Caitlin Yankowskas & John Coughlin

Chloe Katz & Joseph Lynch

Brooke Castille & Ben Okolski

Amanda Evora & Mark Ladwig

This is the start of the routine by Rena Inoue & John Baldwin. I love the energy of this pose. And it is also noticeable how much shorter she is than him; this is the case with almost all of the pairs. Can you imagine how hard it would be to match strides while skating with such differences in height? It just seems impossible.

Another pic of Inoue & Baldwin – note that they finished in second place.

I like this photo, because you can see how as the skaters get better at skating together, they skate really closely to each other. See how close their feet are on the ice?

At the end of their routine, before they took their bows, John Baldwin got down on one knee for an extended period of time. At first, no one really knew what was going on, and then, the crowd got hushed and expectant, because it sure looked like he was proposing. In the end, he was! And she said yes, and they hugged – at which point I got over my shock and actually took a photo. It was fun to witness a proposal for marriage in person. Have you ever seen one?

There was another time when we caught the aftermath of a proposal (the clapping), when HB and I were having our anniversary dinner out at a nice restaurant last year. There was someone he knew from work sitting at this special table overlooking a lighted cave, and that guy ended up proposing!

Well, that is all that I’m going to post of the pairs. More skating pics to come though. I hope you aren’t tired of them yet. But if you are, well, like I said, I’m doing this for me too.