My Pre A to Z Declaration

I am so impressed by people that write ahead, schedule posts, and stay so organized. Let me just say that is not me. I am a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal.

Tomorrow is the first day for A to Z. I have not yet written a single post. I am not following a formula and each post will be unique and a surprise even to me!

I am writing about Gems, Minerals, and Rocks as they relate to jewelry design. When I think back to my first foray into making jewelry, it was threading beads onto memory wire. Memory wire is stiff coiled steel wire designed to hold its shape. Not the best thing to construct jewelry with in my mind. It is very difficult to work with. Then I moved onto making beaded jewelry using drilled beads or stones. Then I tried wire-wrapping which was not my forté.

I found that I enjoyed designing my own pieces from stainless steel sheet.

My husband and I happened upon a salvage yard and purchased some raw gemstone material. From there I took lapidary classes and learned to cut and polish the stones myself. I do not cut faceted stones like diamonds. I cut cabochons.

The next logical step was combining some of the stones I cut with my own designs. I also purchase stones as well.

So, this is where I will leave you. I consider myself a hobbyist and a lover of tools, metal and rocks.

Let’s see where this journey takes us.

 

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Throwback Thursday #32 – Report Cards and Progress Reports

Surprise, surprise! It’s me, pinch hitting for Lauren this week so she could attend a few appointments today. She will be back next Thursday tackling the first of our abbreviated prompts for the month of April.

If you care to join us, it’s easy.

• Write your own post sharing your memories and leave a pingback to this post in the comments.
• You can use the photo above in your post to make it easier to find.
• Tag it with #TBTMemory or #IRememberWhen.
• If you do not wish to write your own post, feel free to tell your story in the comments below.

This week’s prompt is: Report cards and Progress Reports.

You can use the questions that follow to spark your memories or you can answer them as they stand. It is totally up to you.

1. Looking back now, would you say you were a good, fair, or struggling student?
2. How often were your school efforts reported to your parents?
3. Did you receive letter grades, i.e. A, B, C, etc?
4. Was your behavior reported on your progress reports or report cards?
5. In what subjects did you excel and which subjects were a challenge?
6. Did you ever try to change your grade? Turning a C into a B for example?
7. Did you keep any of your report cards?
8. Did you get rewarded for good grades? Punished for ‘bad’ grades?
9. Did the subjects you excelled in prove to be where you excelled in life?
10. What was your biggest detraction from your school work?

My post follows:

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Looking back, I would say I was a good student overall. I was a rule follower (and still am) so it made school much easier. That is not to say I did not get into trouble once in a while, though.

The subjects I excelled in were related to language arts, music, and visual arts. I did okay in math, science, and history but they were not my favorite classes. As an adult, I love history, but my teachers could make history as palatable as dry burnt toast. I did not get bad grades, I just did not enjoy those classes as much.

I never tried to change grades on my report cards. I would never have considered such a thing. I was on the honor roll until my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and honestly, I could have cared less about school or grades at the time. The only “bad” grade I received was in Algebra –  that deserves an entire post to tell that story!

I always found being graded or rated or evaluated on anything stressful. I think because I always tend to set high expectations for myself and it stresses me out!

I do not recall being punished or rewarded for grades received. There was always an unspoken expectation to do our best – no excuses. My only real distraction from school was my mother’s diagnosis.

I ended up in a career where math was very important. I could at one time read hexadecimal and binary. I am an excellent troubleshooter and problem solving is one of my strong suits. I aced all my algebra classes after high school – go figure.

Still, I do think my love of words and art and music are all still my most enduring interests as an adult. I love history now that I can find interesting resources outside of the dry, sanitized versions presented in school.

I did not keep any of my grade school or high school report or grade cards. I do have a few from my college classes. And of course, I kept my children’s grade cards. I think they enjoy looking back at them as adults.