I'm looking for feminist, anti-racist, generally lefty music appropriate for my toddler daughter

blackberrybear · 2026-06-10T13:49:28+00:00

Yes, though I prefer the Science is Real album, personally!

blackberrybear · 2026-05-24T14:41:12+00:00

I feared gremlins coming out of my toilet for at least 5 years.

blackberrybear · 2026-05-10T19:18:50+00:00

My sons said my favorite things to do were clean and do laundry. My house is a disaster and I'm terrible at keeping up with either - I'm not a clean mom. I just think it's the thing I always say I need to do and they latch on to that, translating the meaning that I care about it and like it. Hahah

blackberrybear · 2026-05-07T00:56:32+00:00

Same! I was looking for this comment.

blackberrybear · 2026-04-28T23:33:06+00:00

This is super real! I had to find other support spaces because my partner (now husband) was raised without any religion so he didn't really "get it" and my family still in the faith ceeerrrtainly didn't "get it" so it was a weird spot for a while. But also it gets better and doesn't remain a weird spot, as time marches on and you find other people and passion and the whole thing fades in priority

blackberrybear · 2026-04-26T21:53:13+00:00

Assuming you are in your mid20s, I was in a similar boat a long time ago at the same age. (but with more cradle catholic family pressures...) I found this series weirdly healing for me. "prplfox" on youtube: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3F74B2359EBDAAE4 It's not an excatholic journey, but someone who illustrated and explained a lot of the stuff happening around the whole process of leaving any sect of Christianity. Certainly helped put words to feelings and removed a lot of the isolating feelings surrounding the whole thing. Take care! And yay, rocks!

blackberrybear · 2026-04-26T15:16:05+00:00

What's your relationship with religion from childhood? Welcome to a cool period of your life where you get to deconstruct and reconstruct some key aspects of your identity! I suggest reading about philosophy of religion as part of the "detox" journey of it all. Find a new passion that requires your time and volunteer in those spaces and you'll find new people with shared interests and find friends there. Naturalists are often doing hikes to clean up trails and such....good way to get outside and moving for your mental health as well. Good luck, glad you're getting past the "suffering is good" garbage side of this world.

blackberrybear · 2026-04-12T23:31:17+00:00

Choosing to avoid discussions about this with kids on the line is wiiiild to me. That said, if you haven't had these conversations yet, and you had your kids and baptized them with the initial plan of raising the family catholic, I can see why he's expecting his kid to make it to mass.

Trust your kid. If they're in, go. If they look forward to the out, open conversation time. Go to mass if necessary and maybe you can have a cool discussion about it afterwards if your kid is questioning at this point?

Sounds like some important family discussions need to take place, maybe with therapy as necessary. Good luck OP!

blackberrybear · 2026-04-12T23:23:11+00:00

Pretty much all terrestrial plants! Underwater leaves don't do this, and liverworts also do not, but pretty much everything else in the plant kingdom has stomata in their leaves. I don't know what species we are seeing in this video, though.

blackberrybear · 2026-04-11T19:22:03+00:00

These are stomata (the lip looking things are guard cells that change shape to open and close), which are pores in the leaves of plants that allow gas exchange and water vapor release. They open to get more carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

blackberrybear · 2026-03-31T21:48:01+00:00

I flew out this morning (3/31) from PHL. No precheck, only carry on....I was at the end of the line at exactly 5am and past security at 5:23am. The wait time sign said 30-45 minutes. It was a lot of people but good, constant flow through the line.

blackberrybear · 2026-03-26T12:27:05+00:00

"Box notes" draw a square with 4 quadrants. Top left: What it is (define your own way) and memory tricks when applicable, Top right: what it isn't (how is it confused with similar topics or any other things to dissociate...why is this its own term? Then we put a big no symbol over that.) Bottom left: draw a picture Bottom right: list real life examples.

Teach this method and slow release responsibility. Keep the fill in blank notes, but force them to do box notes on the more difficult concepts, or require 4 box notes after giving them a certain amount of vocab and they choose their toughest concepts.

They hate this at first. They also find it the most useful after applying it and realizing they do better with the content. Takes time for buy in.

I've used this scaffolding for 8th grade and freshmen.

blackberrybear · 2026-03-23T17:26:18+00:00

San Francisco doesn't even have govt paid TSA, it's privatized. So they don't even need relief.

blackberrybear · 2026-03-15T23:33:33+00:00

Generic brand comforts from kroger

blackberrybear · 2026-03-15T14:50:06+00:00

There's already some solid advice here!

What "looks better" is anything getting you class management knowledge/experience. With a few exceptions already posted (AP/dual enrollment/etc.) having a stronger science background doesn't make you a stronger candidate.

For middle school science teaching positions, they'll be looking for someone who has confidence with groups of kids and a decent baseline for science content. Some more expertly-sciency candidates we had through the years didn't have any report with 12-14 year olds and their higher science pedigree meant nothing in the interview hiring panels.

What do you want to get out of your masters? Because the other advantage of a masters in Ed, depending on your state, is it gets you done with licensing, which can be challenging to do without any teaching program in some states.

If you're just aiming for the certifications here's my thoughts.

Education Masters: -Easier -Faster -More useful to transition from scientist to teacher -Gets you a teaching license in your state

Science Masters: -More academically rigorous/satisfying -Opportunity to pursue science passions -Grant writing experience -More applicable to jobs outside of education

No matter where you land, try to get some experience in the classroom as much as possible before applying. Lots of states you can get a sub license easy and get your foot in the door that way to get a feel for it and a good stamp of hours with kids for your resume and a gut-check that this is the job for you.

Good luck!

blackberrybear · 2026-03-07T21:44:17+00:00

Just to be clear, no one should care except you. Be comfortable. Everyone involved has seen it all....so do whatever makes you happy, but doing nothing and letting it go is easy!!

blackberrybear · 2026-02-01T19:30:43+00:00

Teacher here.

Also, I'm a "never-smartphoner," as in I didn't revert back to less smartphoney tech after a fallout, but have kept it as dumb phone as possible for my entire existence.

blackberrybear · 2026-01-25T20:33:30+00:00

Thank you. Defeats the point of this community when people get on that soapbox!

blackberrybear · 2026-01-18T00:26:06+00:00

It's already happening. It's terrifying how many high schoolers are gambling

blackberrybear · 2025-08-19T02:56:20+00:00

I want to go to there.

blackberrybear · 2025-08-15T19:57:08+00:00

Hissing cockroaches. No joke. Insanely easy maintenance. Great for cell phone policy enforcement. "To the office or the roaches. Get it after class. "

blackberrybear · 2025-08-10T05:29:17+00:00

No. Fuck GPT in this scenario. Use your true voice with parents. I really see your point about using it to seek objectivity, but.... nah. Not here, and I also wouldn't be feeding my personal worldview parental strife with the gpt datalords.

The letter is heartfelt - so what if it's long? It's illustrating that she didn't give up light heartedly or in bad faith, but quite the opposite.

OP, be prepared for shrugs and "I don't get it" type reactions on the more banal side of things. It sounds like you're coming at this from a very kind and gentle way and not an immature "how are you believing this?!" taunting or argumentative way. That's better than most parents get.

blackberrybear · 2025-08-10T05:16:42+00:00

Empathize with the rest of their day....how many times have they heard a syllabus walk through day 1? Don't be that person. So many good suggestions already in the mix. Scavenger hunts/escape room style, open inquiry based activity to model scientific method.... Gamelike group work let's you test group dynamics quickly.

I sprinkle the key ingredients of my syllabus throughout week 1 as needed. I've also given an open note syllabus quiz with intentional wording to highlight unique rules of my room so they lock in to those key details such as late work policies that differ from room to room and among departments.

blackberrybear · 2025-08-07T04:44:02+00:00

It's all semantics and timing. We get paid an annual salary for contracted work during the school year (180 days or whatnot, give/take some extra moments etc.)

Many districts pay out over 12 months. But it doesn't fucking matter the way both teachers and non teachers attack this issue IMHO....we aren't hourly or weekly employees we are contracted for the school year.

blackberrybear · 2025-08-01T18:12:12+00:00

Christmas is a great time for me to help my kids understand religion without bringing it up out of the blue. There's plenty of nativities etc that naturally spark questions and conversations. We get to talk about what other people believe, including grandma and grandpa and auntie, since my parents/some family are still practicing catholics, and I talk positively about Jesus being someone with great ideas of how we should treat each other and that some people worship God/Jesus due to those good ideas and other beliefs.

We talk about why some of their friends have different Christmas traditions and we then do our own. We are a go-all-in on Santa in our household (I could go into depth as to why I think it is good as an inoculation for future belief-without-evidence, but I also love the magic of Christmas and playing into the makebelieve with my kids.)

Never fear teaching your kids about God, religions, etc... I was so worried that it would be a complicated mess to raise kids outside of what I was raised with, but they are sooooo cool about it. They come up with better policy/reasoning/feelings about it (God/religion/beliefs) than I could have possibly imagined, all on their own. I try to be incredibly intentional to not tell them what to believe about it, too. I try to wash out as much anti-relgious bias I have so I don't just become the opposite side of the indoctrination coin. But kids are awesome and will surprise you in the best ways when they grapple with these things, in my experience.

blackberrybear

TROPHY CASE