 The beginning of the holidays and end of the year is always a reflective time for me. As I wonder what the year ahead holds and ways to intentionally better myself, I am simultaneously flooded with memories. This year, my husband and I are applying for international teaching jobs. Doing so has got me thinking of the little things and behaviors I learned along the way. Welcome to my random collection of tips in an equally random order.
1. Be aware of wardrobe If you are attempting to make connections and build friendships within the community, a few pieces of locally-admired clothing can do wonders. Wearing kitenge in Uganda and Euro-styled pieces in Switzerland did almost as much for me as learning the language, when it came to signaling that I was keen to adapt, learn, and connect. 2. Invest in your retirement While international teaching can be more lucrative than teaching in your home country, you have to keep in mind that you're missing out on the pension plan that might balance out the scales. About a decade into international teaching, I read "Millionaire Teacher" by Andrew Hallam and immediately started a Roth IRA and traditional brokerage account, only wishing I had known to do so earlier. 3. Dig into what is specific to your locale "When in Rome," rings true to me. After a few weeks or months in your new country, consider what is unique to where you now are. Or, perhaps a better way to say it, what does that country offer that other places don't? In Uganda, I thrived on loads of volunteering. In Switzerland, I traveled around Europe and took up hiking. In Cayman, I learned beach volleyball and scuba diving. It may seem obvious, but a specific sit-down to reflect and then mindfully choose what activities to focus on is hugely helpful! 4. Protect your pearly-whites Very specific one here. If you grew up in a country that adds flouride to the water, please purchase toothpaste/mouthwash that contains flouride if you go to a country that does not. I never had a cavity in my life until I spent three years in Uganda, unfortunately aware that my foundation of flouride 5. Read local authors (and get a library card if available) It's been really helpful to me in understanding and appreciating other cultures, to specifically read authors and works from countries where I live and even travel. Short stories, folk tales, memoirs: all helpful. Checking out the special history books under lock and key at local libraries is a sort of treasure hunt. What are some of your random tips from time abroad?
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 I've been an educator for most of my adult life, but have only been a parent for about two years. And yet, there are already some interesting crossover lessons I've been reflecting on concerning classroom management and intentional language.
I've always run my classroom management on the dual ideas of "be firm an consistent" and "purposefully front-load to avoid the need to dole out the firm and consistent logical consequences." (Front-loading in my classrooms looks like creating classroom rules together, developing safe and secure student relationships, and making learning as engaging and individualized as possible to list the basics.) What's interesting to me now, as a parent of a toddler, is how much raising one child is similar to teaching an entire classroom full of children. Both work best in a positive environment based on developmentally appropriate benchmarks that cater to individual interest. Obviously, my toddler and I are not creating house rules together, but you can bet good money that once that activity is age appropriate we certainly will be! But the underlying concept of thoughtful front-loading is foundational. Good parenting looks exhausting at the beginning, but pays off in almost exactly the same way that good teaching can feel intense in the fall, but make it a breeze by spring! As for intentional language, it's already been in my practice for years to give as many directions as possible in the positive form (i.e. "Walk safely," rather than "Don't run!") That is even more necessary for the younger children. I've been amazed how many times a day I catch myself saying no, not, or don't and having to fix my language to better support my toddler. By the way, some references for this are here: Responsive Classroom Article and Montessori Article. I'm grateful for some new resources that have guided me into adding even more intentionality and specificity into my language. My favorite takeaway with this concept is that all of your language reflects your values and aims. Rather than saying, "Be careful," I now say something like, "Notice where your body is in space. What could happen?" Certainly, sometimes I say "Stop," or "Danger." But when we're not on the boundary of an emergency, I am crafting as much of my language as possible to allow my child to build the skills he will need. I hope for him to focus on positive actions to move him forward in life. I want him to notice his body, his surroundings, and the emotions/needs of the people around him. I aim for him to be thoughtful and answer questions for himself. I desire for him to have the sense of agency and competency to choose his actions. I would love to hear from other teacher/parents to hear what other crossovers you've found! What crossovers hit at older ages? How has becoming a parent strengthened your teaching practice? *Photo credit: rawpixel.com  Trying my hand at AI-generated coloring books on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has certainly been a learning experience full of thrills and hurdles alike. Throughout, I've continued to reflect on one main takeaway: our current market is completely focused on quantity.
This is no surprise; I sometimes feel helpless against the globe-destroying rampages known as capitalism and consumerism. Yet somehow, I'm surprised to see how completely this idea has penetrated into every corner of the market. I wanted to make a series of interesting, high-quality coloring books the like of which I had never seen before and therefore would be proud to create. Oh no no. One must make dozens and dozens of books. One must pay for ads for these books so that they even show up. One must constantly be churning out new products. And one must make content about those products. And that content must be on oodles of platforms. And one must do everything possible to build "the brand." And one must use multiple paid programs to help discern which niche could possibly be successful with the perfect combination of SEO/keywords and posting, posting, posting. Today I watched a youtube tutorial on how to use a specific program that will take information from your blog and turn it into hundreds of different postable images/ads. Is that incredibly efficient? Yes, absolutely. Does that then promote everyone posting everything all at once all the time? Yes, that too. [clicks "post" with hot dog fingers] It's... not as it should be. The way the market currently runs leaves very little space for high-quality products to be sold. This market encourages more and more and more, while leaving less for both buyer and seller. You see, I don't want to inundate my Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram with ads. I don't want to create a Pinterest business account. I am not interested in creating a TikTok account and then linking that to all my other accounts which can then be programed to share the media I post. I get it, sure. I understand the need for publicity and advertising. I am aware of the competition and how important it is to have a following. But I'm not interested: it feels like just such a lot of a lot. Lots of posts, lots of ads, lots of products made just to fit into a niche market. I would argue it feels soul-less. As an educator, a parent, and an entrepreneur, I am very curious about how to navigate this with my values intact and how to support the next generation as they inherit a saturated sort of life. How to turn a profit on a smaller selection of products I believe in will still take some amount of content creating, posting, and advertising. I'm still figuring out what that balance looks like. I would love to talk about this concept with any entrepreneurs out there who feel like you can't win unless you spit out more, more, and more. How can we find the happy medium of good quality with beneficial quantity? Also, an additional thought is, what does this all look like when combined with continually-improving-AI? *image credit: Chris Rubin  If you're familiar with the idiom "look before you leap," then you're in the right territory for my take on it: "research before you act." Fore example, I won't purchase anything new online without doing at least an hour of research on the product, cross referencing reviews and technical aspects. So when it came to opening an Etsy shop, I poured myself into research to try and have everything set up according to advice, rather than having to go back later and seek out advice if my handmade products weren't selling. Here are the best bits I've learned from those videos and from my own experience.
Those were my top three takeaways for deciding whether or not to start, and then how to start. Please be in touch with your own tips or questions. I'm sure I'll be writing in a few months to update on how it's going. Cheers!  Shall I list the ways - that I keep my presence active online? Honestly, it feels like it'd be simpler to tell you what I don't do. But for clarity's sake, I'd like to go into more detail. For the last few years, it's gone as follows:
In the last few months I have added:
The purposes for being on all of these platforms is for the furthering of my teaching career and, now, for side gigs. As an international school teacher, I find obtaining the next high-quality post to be an extremely competitive situation. Running a website and teacher twitter account seem to be the new "having a masters degree," as in something that used to be considered extra and now feels expected. Fortunately, I find keeping a portfolio and teaching account very rewarding and am grateful for the documentation of the projects I've completed over the years. As for some of these other platforms, they're either experiments or necessary means to ends. But more on that in future blog posts... Please let me know if you have questions about getting started on any of these platforms. Cheers! Maybe you've just signed up for MidJourney and are struggling to generate your images or perhaps you're just wondering what MidJourney might be like. Here's my take on prompts specifically for coloring books.
I've been primarily using MidJourney to create coloring books. I have had lots of ideas, but have been limited by what MidJourney can currently do. To illustrate the point, I tried eight slightly different prompts in my quest to generate a simple black and white image of an ape. All images above in the photo gallery with descriptions below. Prompt #1) "coloring page for young children, thick bold lines, no color, no shading, no background, simple, a basic realistic happy Ape, cartoon style -- quality 0.25" Notes here: "no shading" doesn't tend to work. I've had this confirmed by other users too. Also, you can play around with the quality of the MidJourney output and only go to full quality once you've upscaled an image. However, I found that going any lower than 0.75 really affects what it can generate. Prompt #2) "cartoon of a friendly ape, thick bold simple lines, white background, children's coloring page style -- quality 0.25 Notes here: note how much quality at 0.25 affects the generations. Also, leaving out "realistic" and focusing on friendly and cartoon drastically change the images. Prompt #3) "cartoon of an ape, thick bold simple lines, white background, children's coloring page style" Notes here: Images 2 and 4 had some potential, but the hands/feet were off and it wasn't quite the image I was after. If I liked everything except the hands/feet I would've carried on with regional editing. Prompt #4) "cartoon of an ape, children coloring book page, white background" Notes here: notice how coloring book page turned into actual coloring materials. Oh Midjourney! I think this happened because of how little information I included in the prompt otherwise. Prompt #5) "coloring page for young children, no color, no shading, no background, simple image, thick bold lines, a basic realistic happy Ape, cartoon style -- quality 0.25" Notes here: I was playing around with Prompt #1 but changing the order of some of the prompts as Midjourney does put most importance on the beginning words. Also, you can see the 0.25 at play here again. And you can see that the "happy" and "cartoon" overweighed the "realistic." I find that happens quite often. Prompt #6) "coloring page for young children, thick bold lines, no color, no shading, no background, simple outline and shapes, a basic realistic happy Ape, vector style." Notes here: not much difference between 5 and 6. Maybe "vector image" was helpful in my attempts for a simple but bold image? Prompt #7 "an ape for a coloring page for kids, no color, vector cartoon style --quality 0.25" Notes here: Hopefully MidJourney will learn all things hands, feet, fingers, toes, paws, etc soon. But for now, be prepared to have to regionally edit those. Prompt #8 "style of coloring book, vector lines, thick bold outline, simple basic image, black and white, ape --quality 0.25 Notes here: I would argue that none of these are simple basic images. This is where I stopped attempting this specific line of images. I have found that MidJourney struggles to make simple images and prefers to cook up intricate, detailed images instead. I hope that helps! I'm currently taking a hiatus from Midjourney until I've built up multiple ideas so that I can get my money's worth out of the month's membership. Cheers, Jess  Last year I read 72 books. This year I had a baby and didn't quite hit 20. That's life for you! A good portion of my books this year were read in hopes of feeling prepared for labor and motherhood. I consumed far more non-fiction than in past years and think I will continue that trend in 2024. As always, let me know if you want to chat about any of these reads as some of them would make fantastic conversation starters.
1. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - heavy, poignant, Cloud Atlas meets Cloud Cuckoo Land 2. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell -detailed, intimate, slowly and subtly suspenseful 3. Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin -informative, helpful, full recommendation to all pregnant people! 4. Red Seas Under Red Skies and Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch -started this trilogy in 2022, 2nd book was a layered pirate heist, 3rd was "eh", honestly has put me in the mood for more NF reading 6. Mind Over Labor by Carl Jones -interesting, a little woowoo 7. Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown -very much outside of my comfort zone, interesting, broadening 8. Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan -love this short adventure so much I re-read it, mind-bending, expanding 9. Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent -informative, helpful, and also gets my recommendation for preggos :) 10. How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan -listened to this one and it took. me. forever. really interesting content though! 11. How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler -yummy yummy ocean creatures 12. Hunt, Gather, Parent -highly recommend for parents of kids older than 2 (will be rereading later) 13. Cribsheets by Emily Oster -***my number 1 recommendation to expecting parents, super informative 14-16. Beartown Trilogy by Fredrik Backman -Backman can be so very dark and so very heavy even with his reflections and lighter elements. This series felt like a burden on my heart, though it was beautifully written and immersive with the characters and towns. 17-19. Golden Compass Trilogy by Philip Pullman -John and my nightly read-alouds for most of the year  In September, I was curious about AI and jumped onto Youtube to see which platform was recommended for visual artists. I then stumbled across a Paul Marles video showing viewers how to use Midjourney and Canva to create coloring books to sell on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP.) Being quite spontaneous, I jumped right in and starting making coloring books that day. Two months later, I've made 23 coloring books and have them all posted on KDP where they are making a small amount of money most days.
It's been quite the ride so I'd like to share what I've learned in hopes of making your journey on KDP easier. (For those who have been asking, KDP is different than becoming a seller on Amazon and selling products. KDP allows users to create content that Amazon publishes upon an order.) First things first, fair warning that your cut of the royalties is quite small. For my each of my Space Series books, I include 40 images on 8.5 x 8.5 white paper. For these specs, the printing cost is $2.84 a copy. Currently, each book is posted on Amazon for $7.99, and for each sale, I receive only $1.95 as my portion of the profit (25% of the listed price.) Secondly, setting up a base of clients to get ratings, reviews, and a better spot in the listing is tricky. You have to find as much of a niche as you can while making sure there is still a market. And then it seems you have to dabble a bit in advertising. I started by just asking my friends and family to purchase and leave reviews and ratings. While there were many generous purchases made by my caring community, very few left the ratings/reviews that were the vital part. So I tried an Amazon Ad since they offered a $100 promo. It was a bit of headache to actually get the credit applied to my account, but in the end, I spent around $8 of my own money to make around $55 in profits, so that was a helpful exercise. However, despite far more purchases I'm still lacking in reviews and ratings. Thirdly, if you'll be using AI to generate some of your coloring images, it's more difficult than you think. I'll be writing another blog on that soon! My best tips are to find what prompts work for you in as few words as possible so that AI can focus on the unique element of the prompt. For example, writing "no shading" doesn't seem to work yet so you might as well leave that out of the prompt. Toy around with the differences for you with "black and white" vs "no color" vs "vector image" etc. The element that tripped me up was missing "AI Oopsies" and only realizing after I received my own copies of the coloring books that there were horses with 5 legs and dogs with 5 paws or birds with 1 leg. AI is learning and growing and will probably be able to do these things soon enough, but for now you have to be vigilant in your visual checks of the images. And if possible, avoid hands. Dear goodness the hands [rubs forehead stressfully!] So my first three months have been a mixture of experiences, but I would say I'm still keen to keep learning and creating. So far, I've only netted $131 in royalties. Keep in mind that I've spent around $80 for Midjourney and advertising. My hope is that this endeavor is a slow burn as making $50 over 3 months of hard work is obviously not worth the time put in as of yet. So here's to the journey and tinkering with what works!  I spent 13 consecutive years of my career as a full time teacher or tutor. Then I had a child, and now my career isn't the focus in this season of life. Yet, I still am keen for ways to stay creative and active. I still crave intellectual stimulation. And I still want to be a financial contributor in my household. But how to do that in a world where childcare rates seem absurdly high and part-time job rates seem confusingly low?
Quality remote jobs have thousands of applicants. Tutoring online does not bring in enough money (through all of the companies I've interviewed with/researched.) The internet is full of videos about ways to create passive income for yourself that promise figures that are, frankly, unrealistic. As a stay-at-home parent, I'm currently making small but consistent amounts of money through the following outlets:
One difficulty is in building up my base in all of these endeavors. For the kitchen gig, it hasn't brought any further opportunities around town. For the YMCA, it takes a while to build up a class following which would allow me to teach more classes. For tutoring, I'd love to build up my tutoring clientele, but am currently struggling to do so. I've put up flyers on all the local community boards, ran an ad in the newspaper, and put my. name on a list of tutors at the local school. And I have one student. And I was a teacher here last year! And finally, for online books and art lessons, there's just a lot of competition! Even trying to find niches, use the right keywords/SEO, and experimenting with paid advertising hasn't gotten me too far yet. Hopefully this last endeavor is a slow burn. While this blog post isn't especially helpful or clever, I post it to share the realities of what finding side gigs is like in the US in 2023. I will keep you all updated should I find increased success and can share the love.  My reading selection this last year is quite varied! It's an interesting practice to look back over a year's reading selection and look for the patterns that formed consciously or unconsciously. I did intentionally reach for women writers and writers from diverse backgrounds. I toyed around with writing a novel this year, so I read mostly fiction, specifically dystopian series, as a study of sorts. I started 2022 as a part-time tutor, living in the Caribbean with lots of gym/beach time for reading so I made a goal of reading 52 books this year and overshot by about 20 books! I probably won't read this many books in a single year again until retirement. As always, let me know if you want to chat about any of these reads as some of them really left a mark and I would love to discuss your experience of the text!
1. The Glass Face by Frances Hardinge -Blessings on the curiosity of more imaginative people than I! The use of Faces to remark upon society in the middle of a tunnely new world. So fun. 2. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge -As always after these period pieces, so glad to not be in petticoats, not have to be separated out as the gentler sex, not be dismissed in matters of intelligence. Of course, there are still elements of this, but I would much rather be a woman today than one a few hundred years ago (or even 100 years ago.) 3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern -Such delicious imagination for visuals. Plot and imagination were just fine, but it was the visuals that caught me for this one. 4. Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West -Completely new images, names, and ideas for God. Almost felt heretical in its novelty and freedom. 5. Lamb by Christopher Moore -so perfectly satirical that it actually delivered some deeper reflections on my traditional understanding of the Christian religion 6. Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah -Kristin Hannah writes wounded women well. Dear Lord, the suffering. Takeaway, as often, is the power of story. 7. Evolve Your Brain by Joe Dispenza -Repetitive, but the last 200 pages are fascinating 8. Raybearer and Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko -Wakanda meets Harry Potter, yes please! You gotta love to see a brown girl as a well-written protagonist making amazing, revolutionary moves. 9. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Kline -Very cute, Frederik Backman-vibes. 10. Send For Me by Lauren Fox -lovely writing style, interesting to see the effects of WWII from a distance of time and space 11. A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan -so very interesting! Neurodiverse writer...the perspective and shared thoughts are fascinating and lovely. There is some cursing and sex for those of you who avoid that, but if you don't - I highly suggest for a wonderful trip into someone else's brain 12. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman -I seem to like epics where the protagonist has to both question their sanity and also leave an old way of living behind. Excited to read that Mr. Gaiman plans to write another novel in this same setting, as the complexities of the world he created would be lovely to hear more about and return to at some point in the future 13. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout -I found this so heavy and so sad. That being said, a few sentences and a few images have stuck with me since the weeks reading it. It is sometimes helpful to see fictional sorrow. 14. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern -Layers upon layers upon layers. You certainly have to suspend your disbelief with this one. But I like the imagery, symbolism, and secret society aspects. 15. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue -I seem to like stories that flip a normal set of values upside down. What do you value most when you've been granted a form of immortality? And how do you outsmart a greater force than yourself while staying within your values? 16. Piranesi -I found this to be as gloomy as the scenery you stay in for most of the short read. The bit of mystery being unravelled was interesting enough that I kept at it. Not sure if I would recommend it. Though it is unique and well-written, it just made me feel very heavy. 17. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden -I've not read many Russian folk tales, so it was interesting to learn of some of the myths. As often in these books I've been choosing, I'm left with the question of how to get beyond fear? So many of these characters aren't afraid where/when/how others are. 18. Like a Mother by Angela Garbs -Quick little thing with lots of eye-opening facts. (Louis XIV, what?!) 19. How to Be You by Jeffrey Marsh -Quick, positive, interesting take on some psych ideas I've become very familiar with. I specifically wanted to read a transgender author and learn more, but this is less of a memoir and more of a self help selection. 20. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell -As always, the continuing takeaway is I'm so glad to live in modern times. Also, this was the most specific picture of a mother mourning her son that I've ever read. Wept through a few of the beautiful and striking scenes. 21-24. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins - Yum. So fun and sharp for YA! 25. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout -I went back for more "fictional sorrow" as I wrote after the first book's reading. And the first review still holds true. You get a bit more idea into how Olive came to be Olive - and more space to see how to approach Olive-like people in reality. 26-27. Flame in the Mist/Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh -Little bits of Japanese culture all through here mixed in with the mystical adventure. It was a fun ride with enough small twists and mysteries that kept me page-turning. Love a strong female protagonist. 28-29. The Wrath and the Dawn/The Rose and the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh -Little bits of Arabic culture, but otherwise, same review as previous series! Fun, light read. 30-32. Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson -The perfect series to read while (still) waiting for the 3rd Kingkiller Chronicles book to come out 33. The Midnight Library by Brian Haig -Interesting. Not mind-blowing, but quirkily and lightly interesting. Little mind nuggets now a-stewing. Recommend for anyone in a rough season or at a fork in the road. 34. The Humans by Brian Haig -This has made me chuckle aloud quite a few times - was not expecting that! Alien narrator perspective is where it's at. 35. The Buried Giant by Kazuo -Not for me, personally. I found this piece to be plodding, heavy, slow, and burdened. I kept waiting for the mist to clear. It left me with a few half-thoughts to mull on, but that's about it. 36. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green -Lovely collection! These "reviews" both made me chuckle and made me think hard on some elements of our culture. Glorious quotes, wonderful topics to mull over, fun facts, and an honesty and interconnectedness that ties it all together. 37- 39. The Legend Series by Marie Lu (Legend, Prodigy, Champion) 40-41. Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo 42. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates 43. Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad 44. (Oops, book #2) Kingdom of Copper by SA Chakraborty 45. What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine 46. Witchmark by C.L. Polk 47. A Girl is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 48. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 49. Expecting Better by Emily Oster 50-56. The Queen's Thief Series (Books 1-6) by Megan Whalen Turner 57. Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 58. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin 59-60 Children of Blood and Bone & Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi 61. Normal Family by Chrysta Bilton 62. The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson 63. House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber 64. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson 65. We Were Liars by E Lockhart 66. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 67. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch 68-73. Harry Potter Series, Books 1-6 by J.K. Rowling 74. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr |
Jessica LaneBeing a lifelong learner means intentionally seeking out experiences that enforce growth and personal development. Archives
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