Jess profile picture

Jess

So we must love while these moments are still called today

About Me

Maintaining friendships, playing with my 6 year old, traveling, camping, trying to break my Pepsi addiction, eating Ethiopian and Indian food, taking bubble baths by candle light, burning candles that smell like wine, drinking tea, snuggling under warm blankets, lots of pillows, sleeping in late, taking walks on nights with warm breezes, listening to music, experimenting with hydroponics, living in cities, organizing, overanalyzing, academia, learning, thinking things through from multiple angles and sometimes arguing a point of view different from my own, working with medically fragile children and children with other special needs, searching for a school for my daughter that meets with my philosophical expectations, redefining myself periodically. Interesting fact: Reading research gives me chills!

My Interests

The student is not expected to think much or discuss much, to contradict or contest – she listens and takes in, she receives a world predigested and interpreted, meted out in discrete bits from others who, she is assured always know better....
When teaching toward freedom, students need to know that they are valued as individuals, that their humanity is honored and that their growth, enlightenment and liberation are of utmost importance. Together students and teachers should explore, inquire, investigate, search, ask questions, criticize, make connections, draw tentative conclusions, pose problems, act, seek truth, name this and that phenomenon, circle back, plunge forward, reconsider, gather steam, pause, reflect, reimagine, wonder, build, assert themselves, listen carefully, speak, and so on. The desired outcome is that students would not blindly accept information from those in authority as fact, but that students would become individuals who will continue to develop minds of their own.
(William Ayers, 2004)

I'd like to meet:

Someone who understands my need to overanalyze.
People who can harmonize.

Music:

Music with depth. Devin Greenwood, Amos Lee and James Taylor, of course. (Devin's imput on my music loves!) Also, Indigo Girls, The Cure, Talking Heads, Phish, moe., Cat Stevens, Peter Paul and Mary. I really like The Weeds too!

Movies:

The Notebook

Television:

Law & Order: Criminal Intent; Crossing Jordan; Gilmore Girls

Books:

So far Izzy and I have conquered Ramona the Pest, Alice in Wonderland, Little House on the Prarie, Little House in the big woods and Ramona the Brave.

My Blog

Warm December Rain

When I first came to Pittsburgh, it was because Pitt happened to have the exact type of graduate program that I wanted (and because my brother was here to help with Izzy)...not because I believed the ...
Posted by Jess on Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:53:00 PST

Fame

I have been listening to the Fame theme song repeatedly since this morning when the children at my daughter's theatre camp did their warm up exercises to the song. How funny am I?
Posted by Jess on Thu, 10 Aug 2006 04:55:00 PST

The day has finally come

I presented before my graduation committee yesterday...and I am cleared for graduation (assuming that I complete the rest of the documentation from my current practicum placement, of course)!! The mot...
Posted by Jess on Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:16:00 PST

Life is good...truly.

It is 3 AM. After pulling several all nighters...I fell asleep with Izzy around 9:45 PM. I just got up to put the finishing touches on the third copy of my portfolio. Who would've ever thought today w...
Posted by Jess on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:29:00 PST

Just a thought...

I was thinking today that I really miss hot tea during the summer.
Posted by Jess on Sun, 16 Jul 2006 09:37:00 PST

Myspace

So today I was checking my myspace account on the computer at the library. The teenager next to me was also on myspace. She looked over at my computer screen and noticed that I was on myspace, and the...
Posted by Jess on Fri, 14 Jul 2006 06:35:00 PST

I know that I am an idealist

My mood has been unusally stable as of late, but something shook me to the breaking point today. Izzy sat on my lap and I read her a book as we waited for Izzy's pediatrician to give her a well-child ...
Posted by Jess on Sat, 24 Jun 2006 09:49:00 PST

A weekend without Izzy

This weekend without Izzy is not intended to be fun...I am hoping to be productive, which means staying away from myspace. Hard to imagine but true, here I am on the tail end of my stint as a graduate...
Posted by Jess on Sat, 03 Jun 2006 11:25:00 PST

Engagement of the mind

How satisfying it feels when my mind is clear, engaged and able to concentrate it's efforts on actually completing what it sets out to accomplish.
Posted by Jess on Mon, 26 Dec 2005 03:49:00 PST

Fireworks

Fireworks are magical when viewed through the eyes of a 4 year old.
Posted by Jess on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST