Nervous haibts

Like a mentioned in class today, I discovered my mom and I both have the same nervous habit for picking our nails. I noticed it yesterday as we were waiting in my Gramps' room for Macken Funeral Home to come and pick my Gramps up.  It was awkward due to the situation as well as the silence; I don't do very well with complete silence.  I am left wondering if this example of nonverbal communication is something that in inherited or learned from watching, nature vs. nurture. 

http://www.divinecaroline.com/sites/divinecaroline.com/files/styles/slide/public/shutterstock_104835665.jpg?itok=U6OwjULp

Earworm!

My mind has been a little distracted the last couple of days, and not just by my 4th quarter stresses (grading, Baccalaureate, senior trip planning, graduation planning, packing my room...), but by an earworm.

Definition from Wikipedia: An earworm, sometimes known as a brainworm,^[1] is a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing.

source: http://theskinnyon.typepad.com/.a/6a01348010bbb6970c01543592fdcc970c-800wi

 It isn't abnormal for me to have a song in my head; that's pretty typical. What isn't normal is that it has been the same song since Sunday afternoon. It just plays on repeat in my brain! I find myself humming it, bopping my head to it, and even absent-mindedly writing it's lyrics on students' journal comments rather than the intended note! 

This is a pretty serious case of psychological noise!

Now, in case you were wondering what song it is, or maybe you are looking to have your own earworm, here you go:

 

A little "downtime"

Part of my son's  bedtime routine includes bedtime hugs.  His bed is a loft-style bed, so he often gets to choose if we do hugs on the floor before he climbs the ladder or from his bed after he climbs up. 

Yesterday, I was able to finally return to the gym after over a week and a half off, and I did back-to-back Zumba and kickboxing (I love kickboxing!).  Anyway, last night's class included a lot of squats, which isn't normally a problem, but I hadn't done any in a while, so my body was feeling it a little bit. 

Okay, so back to last night.  My son chose to have hugs on the floor, but due to the squats, it wasn't the most comfortable for me.  He asked why, so I said it was because I did too many squats at Northgate. He asked what a squat was, so my husband and I explained and demonstrated.  This is what happened next:

Murphy: So, you had to get down low to the ground to do squats?
Us: Yes...
Murphy: And Mommy spent a lot of time down low doing squats?
Us: Yes...
Murphy: But, I thought Mommy liked having "down" time.  *smirks*

Do you get it?  Downtime (relaxing time)  down time (time low to the ground, down)

There is some wordplay I hadn't expected from a four-year-old!  His verbal skills amaze me daily.

Neil and Noise

This morning, my first block class, Enriched English 11, was viewing the second half of Dead Poets Society.  It was the scene where Neil was alone in his room after he was told by his parents that he would no longer be able to act; just before this scene, Neil did an excellent job of playing Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream. 

For those not familiar with this movie, it is a really intense part. There isn't any speaking, just quiet and suspenseful music.  Just as the scene was reaching its highest point of intensity, the construction workers outside began to drill in my wall loudly.  It completely ruined the moment and disconnected people from what was happening in the movie.  I was incredibly disappointed in the timing of this physical noise.

Source: http://www.speedlivin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Neil-Perry-Dead-Poet-Society.jpg

Room Supervisor

I had a very important job today; I was a room supervisor for the ACT test.  One of the responsibilities of this job was the very closely monitor the students testing in my room from 9am to 1:15 pm. That gave me a lot of time to make some nonverbal observations.  One thing I inferred was that the Math test was the most challenging for the Juniors in my room.  During that test, students were constantly shifting weight, bouncing their legs, running hands through hair, and even dropping pencils.  There was definitely a tenseness to the air in the room.  Students were also incredibly focused during the Reading test.  Their heads were down, and I didn't see any wandering eyes.  Eyes seemed to bounce from the test booklet to the answer sheet and back again; that's it.  When I gave the five minute warning, about half the room jumped. That was the only test the warning startled them.  I observed that the students in the room were pretty spent after the Writing test.  Most of them looked dazed and half asleep.  Those are just a few of the observations of nonverbal communication I made.

Sometimes it's tough...

Sometimes it's tough being a speech coach and past speech teacher. I feel like I am much harder on other public speakers, particularly adults. Although I found the advertisements and other visual aids helpful in illustrating nonverbal communication in Patrick's presentation today, I was incredibly distracted by the fact he continued to pace (step forward and backward) throughout the entire presentation.  I also struggled with the "uhs" and "ums," but after a while, I was able to ignore them. 
I know I'm guilty of moving around and using the occasional filler words too, but I find it so much easier to spot other people's use of them over my own. The same goes for proofreading; I am really good at proofreading other's work, but when it comes to proofreading my own, it's like my mind knows what is supposed to be there rather than what is there.  I guess it's a matter of perception in that case.  

Tuesday Night Noise

Source: https://media.licdn.com/media/p/7/000/1f5/34c/39de0a1.png

Almost every Tuesday evening, once the weather is nicer, I participate in charity 5k races at Terra Loco in Rochester. Terra Loco is a running story by Trader Joe's and Apache Mall, and every Tuesday night when the weather cooperates they host an organized 5k race followed with snacks and raffles.  It's a good time, and each race raises money for a different organization; the races are only $5 each, too. 

A lot of Tuesdays, we make the race a family affair, meaning my husband, son, and I all participate, or just my son and I do it together.  He's got the 1-mile run down, but 3.1 miles is a bit too much for him yet, so I push him the B.O.B. stroller I've been running with him in since he was less than 6 months old. 

One of the challenges of pushing Murphy while running is my inability to hear him well.  Whether it's because of cars passing, people passing. or the one ear bud I allow myself to wear when it is the two of us, there is a lot of physical noise that gets in the way of hearing Murphy well. I usually say "wait until we aren't by the cars" or something to let him know that I can't hear him, but I want to, and will be able to soon; that way he doesn't feel like his message is any less important.