Durrrrr.

Work is silly. We've been asking if we could dress up nice for New Year's Eve tomorrow night for our big $25K giveaway. Everyone else will be dressed up for the celebration, we'll be giving away tons of money, and it would be the ONE time that we get to dress up nice. Diner supervisors get to dress up. Floor supervisors dress up. Pit bosses dress up. Managers dress up. Why can't we, for ONE NIGHT dress up? I asked my manager about it. He said he'd talk to them upstairs about it. Why can't he, as our manager, make a decision about us? Why does he have to talk to the people upstairs? They're not our managers. They probably don't even know what our uniforms are. They probably wouldn't know who we are without our uniforms on!

So that's a no-go. And it's stupid. I have half a mind to just show up in my suit. What're they going to do? Send me home to change? Okay, I'll be back in an hour! No, I wouldn't do that. But seriously, jeez.

I got my PLT (Principles of Learning & Teaching) scores back from the test I had to take a little over a month ago. Before the scores came in, however, I got something in the mail from the organization that gives the test; a certificate of excellence, stating that I had done extremely well on the test, scoring in the top 15% of all test takers in the past years. Then after I got my scores back, I scored above average on the test, and got 40 points more than the cut-off score for South Dakota. Sooooo, that made me very happy. I do know what I'm doing!

We have baseboard heaters in our apartment that are probably the originals with the building. I think this building was built in the 70s or so, so everything in here is about 25 years old, give or take, if my estimation is right. Anyway, about three weeks ago when we turned on the heater, this really acrid, putrid, electricy burning smell was coming from the heaters. We turned it off and didn't use it again until just recently because it really hadn't been THAT cold outside. Well, we needed to use it again recently, and it still smelled horrible. We left a note for the landlord yesterday, and he happened to be in the building at the time, clearing the sidewalks of snow and other chores around the building. While he was busy, and before he got the note, we rearranged the furniture in the bedroom, 'cause the bed was up against the wall with the heater. He came and looked at it, but said that he couldn't see anything, so he called the electric company, and they're going to come in on Tuesday and look at it for us. Until then, we keep the door to the bedroom closed, and it's a chilly 20* in there at all times. Brrrrr.

Well, I've rambled on for long enough. To those of you who've made it this far, congratulations, you win a cookie!

*sigh*

Well, it's all over now. No more school at Black Hills State University. No more student teaching. No more taking tests. No more classes. What am I going to do with my life?!

I guess I could start by getting the apartment orderly and neat, and maybe finish some crochet/knitting projects that I started back in the summer and didn't have time to finish during the school year. Then I could play some of the games Aaron got me for Christmas (so as to keep me out of his hair while he's at work), and then, I just don't know yet. Schools are closed for the week, but I want to get my name into the schools in Spearfish so I can get some substitute teaching jobs for the rest of the school year.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. On Sunday, Aaron and I went to his sister's house, where all of his family had gathered; we had a great roast dinner with trimmings, desserts, and snacks. I got to meet more of Aaron's family than I had in the past that day. The on Monday morning, we went to his parents' house to have Christmas breakfast and open presents. Aaron's brother was there that morning, too. After that, we drove to Gillette to visit my family and have Christmas dinner/lunch and open presents with them. We spent lots of time with our families, which is more than I can say for last year or the year before that.

I'm pretty pooped from all the family gatherings these last couple of days, and I have a few days to recover before I have to go back to work on Friday. I'll start working Monday nights at the casino, which will put me up to 30 hours a week instead of 22 hours a week. Much better for the paycheck, and that way I won't be home 4 days a week, bored out of my skull. I'm also working all night shifts, so that won't interfere with substitute teaching.

We didn't have a white Christmas, either. The big snow storm that was supposed to hit us last week went South to Denver, and completely missed us. I can't remember the last time we had a good amount of snow. Over a month, at least. But I guess we're supposed to get a big storm here in the next couple of days, but it could do the same thing that this last storm did, or go up North to North Dakota. Who knows. I'd be happy without snow because I hate having to drive from Spearfish to Deadwood when the roads are covered in snow...that hill is some scary stuff.

At last, at last!

Well, the time has come!! As of 12pm this afternoon, I am a graduate of Black Hills State University! I walked across the stage, shook hands with the president of the college, and got my fake diploma! (The real one will be mailed to me in February, I just got the shell for it today).

Mom, Dad, Ashley, and Uncle John all came up from Gillette to see me graduate. Aaron's parents, Shirley and Randy came, along with Aaron's sister Alecia and her youngest daughter, the Abby-gator.

We had a small get together at our apartment afterwards, which was nice, and my cooperating teacher, Kathy came to visit, which was great! I'm glad that my parents got to meet her and that she got to meet my parents. Also, my parents got to meet Dr. Austin, the professor who observed three of my lessons and evaluated me on them. Both Kathy and Dr. Austin had nothing but good things to say about me to my parents, so that made me feel really great.

Dr. Austin really gave me a lot of the confidence I needed in order to help me get as far as I did. He gave me constructive criticism, asked me great questions that made me think about my lesson and how I dealt with the children, and praised my good points.

Kathy was wonderful to work with. I don't think I could have been more lucky in my placement for student teaching. She is a wonderful teacher who knows what she is doing. She's updated on teaching styles and techniques, knows the new strategies, and implements them in the classroom. She teaches very similar to the way we were taught to teach in the college. I loved working with her, and even though it was a lot of hard work, it definitely paid off!

Six Days

So, here it is. Graduation from Black Hills State University. Five and a half years of college, and I will be graduating with a degree in elementary education, licensed to teach small children about math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. What HUGE responsibility!

I wasn't excited to graduate from high school. High school was no big deal. It was easy, I hardly even tried. Sure, I didn't ace every class I took, because I didn't try that hard. I know I could have done better if I'd really cared that much. But it was just something you had to do to get out of the way of getting on with your life.

Now I have put so much time, effort, sweat and tears into these last few semesters of college (the ones that made the most difference for me), and in a week's time, I will be walking on the stage, getting a diploma. I will finally be "grown up" and moving on with my life!

How weird is that? 24 years old doesn't seem old enough to start being a grown up, having a career, and taking on BIG responsibilities. 30 sounds like a better age to be doing that to me.

I plan on substitute teaching for the remainder of the school year, and then looking for a job near the end of that year and during the summer break. Will I find anything good? Will it be in the grade I want it to be? Will I even do any good on my own? Now's the time to see, I guess.

Whew. It's been a long journey, and this last semester of student teaching in the 4th grade classroom has really opened my eyes to what being a teacher is like. This whole semester made me realize that I want to do this. Or at least give it a try to see if I'm any good at it. Before this semester, I didn't want to do it. Didn't want to continue. But I had on semester left to go before I could graduate, so I might as well finish, right? Right. And I'm so glad I did.

Evaluation!

Well, I finally got my 1 year evaluation from work last night! I'd been there for one year in AUGUST, but I just now, 4 months later, got the evaluation. Anyway, it went really well, and I scored all "Superbs" and "Commendables" on it, giving me a $.20 raise. With 4 months of back pay, that turns out to be about $200 that I'll be getting added to my next paycheck. Nice.

My supervisor said the reason that I didn't get the evaluation right away like I should have was because of everything that was going on in the cage with the schedule changes and people not being happy about it. Everyone in the cage was hired under the knowledge that the schedule they were working might not ALWAYS be their schedule. So when their schedules changed because I needed to work different hours, they got mad at him and myself. So he had to remove himself from the situation for a while before he could give me a fair and objective evaluation, which I really appreciated.

So that went well, and I'm getting some extra money, and there's no hard feelings anywhere, so I'm happy with that now.

Speaking of evaluations, I also have my last evaluation from my college professor in my 4th grade classroom this Friday. I'm not really sure what I want to do during the time that he's there, though...so I have to be thinking of that. I might do a Power Point presentation or something, because my cooperating teacher in the classroom is impressed with my technology skills, and that I should show those off. Not that a Power Point presentation is THAT impressive, but whatever. :)

I got my envelopes with my graduation announcements stuffed, and now I need to take them off to the Post Office and get stamps and mail them out. I know that 90% of the people I send them to aren't going to be able to make it (not only because of short notice, but because of distance), but it's still nice to let people know that after 5.5 years of college, I'm finally done!

I wasn't excited for my high school graduation. Big deal. High school was a breeze for me, and I didn't have to try very hard at it to graduate. Granted, there were times I could have tried HARDER and gotten better grades, but I just didn't really have to put forth that much effort towards passing grades in high school. College, especially the last year, has been MUCH more challenging (obviously), and I have put forth much more work towards graduating college. I am so ready for this. And a little excited/nervous about it.

Well, that's my update for now. As I am having less and less control of the classroom now, I'm having more and more free time to be on the computer for leisure and not work. I still need to get some things typed up for my portfolio, but that can wait for another day. Heroes is on, and I need to relax a bit on the couch. Until next time!

Quick picture update!

While I have a little bit of free time, I'm going to set up some pictures on here from Thanksgiving vacation. There's not a lot and they're not very exciting, but who cares. It's an update!

Oh, and I graduate in 2 weeks! YAY!!!!

Here's a hat I'm knitting for Aaron currently...it's turning out really nice the way the colors melt into each other.


Smelly!



Thanksgiving family picture. What a good looking family!


Beulah, Wyoming, on I-90, taken from the driver's seat, going 75mph.

three weeks

On Monday, I start taking over the classroom for three weeks. The only thing I'm really struggling with is what to do for our Writing Workshop. I can't think of a topic for the kids to write about. Otherwise, it'll go well, I'm sure.
As for an update on the LAST three weeks or however long I've been away, here goes nothing.

We did owl pellets the next Monday, when I substituted for my teacher, and one of my girls passed out because she wasn't feeling well and hit her head on the table leg. She was gone for the rest of the day, but back the next day with a big red mark on her eyelid.

I started teaching Science, which is a subject I will teach each lesson in twice; once to my kids, and once to another teacher's kids, as my kids go up to her classroom for Social Studies.

We've begun multiplication, and so far, they've done really well in it. Better, in fact, than they did in subtracting three-digit numbers and borrowing.

Last Monday I was also substituting for my teacher, and one of my boys fell on the playground and broke his arm right above his elbow. He has pins in his arm that are exposed right now, and can't come to school until they put a cast on it. That'll be in another three weeks. So that's just great. We have to come up with LOTS of homework for him because he's so talented, he'd get the regular assignments done in a snap.

My teacher jokes that whenever she wants one of her students knocked off, I just have to sub for her, and she told all the other 4th grade teachers that if they wanted to get rid of a kid, just have me sub for them. Pfft. The kids mostly came out okay!
I was in yet again for my teacher THIS Monday, as she has laryngitis and couldn't speak at all that day. No one got hurt that day, though.

Tuesday was our Halloween party, with games in the upper gym for an hour and a half, lunch, and then the party at the end of the day in the classroom. It was so much fun, and the kids were all really well behaved.

On Wednesday, a kid came to me after getting a drink and said, "Someone spilled something on the wall out in the hallway. I noticed it when I was getting a drink." So I went out to look, and on the wall in the corner was something pink that looked like Silly String. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a paintball that had been broken open against the wall and was dripping down the wall. "That's weird, the paint is still really fresh. This must have just happened," I said to him. "Well, I don't have a paintball gun or anything like that," he says. "I wasn't suggesting that you did, but thank you for telling me about it." and I went to find the custodian so it could get cleaned up before the paint dried.

Turns out it was that kid who threw the paintball because he was mad at the teacher. He go In School Suspension (ISS) for all of Thursday, and we didn't have to see him all day. That was rather nice. However, he was right back at it on Friday, taking out a handheld video game at the beginning of class and not paying attention. That was taken away from him. And then he got into a knock-down, drag-out fight on the playground during morning recess, and spent the rest of the day in ISS. *sigh* When will they learn?

So that has been my last three weeks, give or take a few stories. Life is going well at the player's club desk. I've finally gotten comfortable speaking over the intercom system to announce winners and calling people up to the desk, and the other girl finally got her support license, so she can hand out prize money and pick winners out of the barrel. Having my days changed to just working three a week has been wonderful and very helpful when it comes to student teaching, and I'm so glad I pushed so hard to get it taken care of. My new manager is pretty cool, and he's only a year older than me, so he's easy to get along with and joke around with, too.

I'm nervous to start my three weeks as the main teacher in the classroom, but everyone says I will do fine. I just have to get my stuff organized and figure out what I'm going to be doing for each week, is all. Next week we're only in school for three days, then a full week the week after that, and then three days for the week of Thanksgiving, so I will actually do four weeks in the classroom, as I have to have 15 consecutive days as the main teacher. Not a big deal, though. Those four-day weekends will help out in planning!

So there ya have it. An update! Don't expect another one until December because I really don't think I'm going to have the time, sorry!

Happy Birthday to me!

When I got to school this morning, my cooperating teaching had gotten me a card and a little goody bag with some teachery sticky notes, some body spray in pear flavor, and a little pencil holder for my desk! That was so sweet of her.

The day went on without much incident, but the children were being nicer than usual. I can handle that! I wish they would do that every day! Then, my teacher had me go out to her car with 3 helpers to get some soda for the Accelerated Reading/Math program, and when we came back, everyone was gone, and all of the lights were off in the room. Where'd they go?? And all of the sudden, "SURPRISE!!!!"

Oh, it was the best thing ever! I've never had a surprise party before, and I wasn't even expecting it! I guess while she was teaching science and I was making some copies for her, she and the class got together to plan it, along with them all signing a card for me! And they kept it a secret all day long. I was very impressed with them!

Today was easily the best day with the 4th graders so far!

Player's Club

Last night was my first night at my new position of the Player's Club desk. A lot of people didn't know that I was moving over from the cage to the club, and they were surprised to see me over there last night. A lot of people were happy for me, but I think the cashiers in the cage weren't so happy. Not unhappy with me, but unhappy in general. As I was cashing in a poker chip at the end of the night, the graveyard cashier said that he offered to change his shift around so we could work this out. One of the cocktail waitresses wanted to pick up some more hours, and my manager knew that, but didn't offer her the position, either. So it seems there was either a LOT of miscommunication over the month, or that my manager didn't really care if I left or not (despite him telling me he didn't want to lose me in the cage).

So that's a little frustrating. Fortunately, I am working the three busiest nigihts in the casino, so while my hours have been cut severly, I'll still be making about the same (if not maybe more) in tips, depending on who wins the cash drawings throughout the evening. So that is definitely an upside to the ordeal.

Training went pretty well last night, and I caught on to the computer system pretty quickly. However, since we were having our drawings, and you have to earn points on your Player's Club card to get into the drawings, people were coming back every 20 minutes or so to check to see if they got enough points for a ticket into the drawing. That was a little redundant, but oh well. I think I'll like it over there, and I start "officially" training tonight with my new manager, because he wasn't there last night, and I just kinda showed up.

what a week!

Wow, the week started off with a bang with the Fall Fitness Festival, and just kept getting better. Or just kept going. Or something. We got a new student on Wednesday, and my teacher wasn't kidding when she said it only takes one bad egg to disrupt the whole basket. Wow, and we thought our kids were bad until this one showed up. Demanding, sneaky, obnoxious, loud. No one knew how to respond to her, not even my teacher. In all her years of teaching, she'd never encountered anything like this.

Thursday we had two assemblies, which messed up everything. One was to kick off the annual pie sales fund raiser, and the other was the Harlem Ambassadors, formerly known as the Harlem Globetrotters. Today was picture day and a walk around the school with Governor Rounds, along with television crews and question and answer time for him.

The boxelder bugs are taking over the apartment. I broke one of Aaron's wine glasses last night. The bed frame almost fell apart for no apparent reason last night, and I have some kind of thing in my eye that's not quite a stye, but treated the same way. I think it's called a chazalion or something like that. Basically it's the same thing, except instead of a plugged up/inflamed eyelash folicle, it's a duct that is plugged in my lower eyelid and it hurts and is swollen. Ouch. It hurts to blink!

I got some prescription ointment for it thanks to the college nurse practitioner, and hopefully it will be gone soon.

Well, that's enough of that...time for dinner!

school and work don't mix

Well, things are starting to get a bit more complicated when it comes to getting some time off from work so I can have more time for student teaching. My supervisor doesn't seem to understand how important this is, and isn't willing to bend to give some people overtime (a whopping 2 hours of overtime each week) for two and a half months until I finish with student teaching. And you know why? Because it cuts into his bonus for that quarter.

Pissed me off so much.

I had my first formal evaluation from my college supervisor, and it went really well. He made some very kind comments to me that made me feel much better about my teaching ability. See, up until Tuesday, I wasn't sure I had what it took to actually teach. But then he said that I have a natural ability for teaching, and this is what I should do. He said that I have a certain presence, or command of the classroom. If he hadn't known better, I would have been the "professional" teacher, not the student teacher. He liked my detail, discipline, and my organization. He said I was one of the better student teachers he's seen, and that this is something I need to persue. Also, something that struck me as odd is he liked my choice of vocabulary that I used with the children, and noted that I must be high on Gardner's Linguistic Intelligence. In other words, I speak well, and I take pride in that. Only being around me for an hour, he was able to pick up on that. Strange. But it's true. I cannot stand to listen to people who say, "I seen it," or, "But he done that." It makes my ears want to bleed.

He also brought up working, however, and how my cooperating teacher is worried that it's interferring with student teaching. I agree, it is, and something needs to change. But try as he might, Marvin can't find someone to replace me for one night a week. And that's just not going to work. But he also WON'T just let me come in late on Mondays or Tuesdays and give someone else some overtime because of his bonus. That's bullshit if you ask me.

So I've been offered a job at the player's club desk working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. It won't interfere with my student teaching at all, I'll be able to keep the same pay wage, and I alread know and like (mostly) everyone over there, and it'll give me a chance to get to know some of our VIP players a little better.

I just need to let my supervisor at the cage know that if he can't get something figured out by Monday, I gotta go. He said first and foremost he has to look out for the casino (meaning his wallet), and then he looks out for us. Well, I also have to look out for myself first and foremost, so that's what I'm going to do. He's had a month to get something figured out, and it's not happening. I can't wait much longer.

But, I had best get going. The Halem Globetrotters are coming to the school today!

Spelling woes

In my classroom, spelling assignments are due on Thursday, and we take the test on Friday. This is to ensure that if someone forgets to do their assignment by Thursday, they will have the next day to turn it in, and it won't be counted as late. So today, spelling assignments are due. And I have stated this to the class. When the kids turn in what they've got, I start correcting and make a list of the students whose assignments I don't have. And it's a LONG list.

I write their names on the board, reminding them to find the assignment and turn it into me, or to finish it and turn it into me, or it will be late. Many of them say, "But I already turned mine into you!" To which I reply, "It's not on my desk, so that must mean I didn't get it from you." End of story. On my lunch period, I even went to the copier and made copies of the assignment for the students who hadn't turned theirs in yet, figuring they lost it or left it at home.

As I am correcting math assignments, one of my young men approaches me and says, "I will be turning this in on Friday," holding up the sheet I had just Xeroxed for him. "No, you have 30 minutes to work on it now, so you will do it now. It will be late if you turn it in on Friday." He sits back down, and I get back to correcting.

Five minutes later, if that, he is back at my desk. "But I have half of this finished at home, so I'm going to finish the other half of it tonight and turn it in on Friday." Getting frustrated with him, because he has everything else turned in and nothing better to do with his time, I tell him that he needs to sit down right now and finish the paper that he has in front of him because it is due today. No excuses. He tries to protest, and I tell him, "No," pointing to his desk that he needs to sit down and do it right now (like I had told him earlier).

I turn away from him, signaling the end of the conversation, and get back to correcting the rest of the spelling assignments that are slowly pouring onto my desk. About 10 minutes later, I turn around and notice the boy isn't doing anything. Not thinking much of it, I go back to my papers.

But wait. He hasn't turned in his spelling. Why isn't he working on it? I turn back to look at him more closely. He's sitting at his desk, scowling and crying. I turn away. After a few more minutes, he is still crying. Hmm.

I go up to my teacher. "Do you know why Fred is crying?" I ask her. "Nope," she replies, busy with something else. "Oh," I said, thinking. "I must have made him cry, then," I said, thinking about the spelling assignment. She asked why, and I told her. She of course was not too worried about Fred, because more often than not his is obstinate and rude, and spelling is due today.

But, only a month into school, and I have made my first student cry. I think I have arrived. Heck, it only took my teacher 2 weeks to make Fred cry...I wasn't too far behind her.

socks!

I re-learned how to knit over the summer due to boredom, and bought a few books with some fun patterns. Truth be told, the only thing I've managed to make out of the books are two hats, both of which are WAY too small for me.


Well, I decided that I wanted to make some socks. I had know idea how to read the directions, and one of the blackjack dealers at work suggested going to this local yarn store (LYS) because the lady who runs it could teach me how to make socks. So here they are, after a couple of months' work - my first pair of socks!!



Here is the first one I made...the cuff looks a little weird, and it's a little saggy.


Here's the second one I just finished, and I did the cuff's ribbing throughout the whole leg of the sock, and they seem to stay up much better.

national talk like a pirate day

a day off!

Tomorrow: a day off from school, and a day off from work. How did such a glorious thing happen? Well, it wasn't so glorious, really...I am sick as crap, thanks to one of my beautiful little fourth graders. Last week, she gave me a big ol' hug before leaving school. And then she was gone, sick, for the next two days. And guess who's sick now?

So I went to work last night, not feeling so hot, working in the 90* heat, with smoke that was worse than usual, and staying up way past my usual bedtime of 10pm.

As soon as I got home from work at 1am this morning, I called in sick to work, and came to school in the morning. My cooperating teacher suggested that I stay home from school tomorrow, and I also don't work tomorrow, so I get a whole day off with no work or school! But I have to sit at home and not do anything for a day. w00t. Except hack up a lung or two.

subbing

I'm substitute teaching for my teacher on Monday because she will be gone to the other side of the state that day. I'm nervous, because I don't feel like I've been with the kids long enough that they'll do what I want them to do the entire day, but I will sure as heck not take any crap from them!

Life otherwise has been alright. Things at work are really slow, except on Tuesdays when they bring in the old people busses between 4-6pm that hang out for a few hours. It's quite annoying because they don't know what they're doing or how to work the machines, and they bitch about not winning and all this crap. Well, stay home next time. Jeez.

Still trying to work out a new schedule for work so I can have Mondays off, or at least not have to go in 'til 5pm. Marvin brought up the idea of me working at the Player's Club desk on Fridays, and having a girl who works over there come to the cage on Mondays. If she's up for it, so am I. I can talk on the microphone (at the proper volume, so as not to be blasting out my fellow cashiers over the speakers), and pass out Player's Club cards and coupons. It'll help me to get to know the names of a lot of people better, as most of the time, I only know someone's name at the cage if they want to write a check.

So that's the news for now. I'll try to tell you how Monday went as soon as I can. :)

the first two weeks

On the phone this afternoon, Dad asked me if I was ever going to update my blog. Well, I was just thinking about doing it, so here it is. My first update in two weeks. Man, I'm good.

The first week of student teaching was cake. It was only three days long because they started on Wednesday, and I didn't do much except get a feel for the students and the classroom and the way my teacher teaches. There actually wasn't much teaching going on because it was the first few days of school and there was a lot of "getting to know you and me" things going on, along with paperwork galore that needed to be passed out and turned in.

On Friday of the first week, my teacher told me she wanted me to start teaching math next week. Oh crap. Seriously? After I've been there for three days? Ho-kay!

So I started teaching math, place values, which is apparently the most difficult part of the book. Glad I got to take a crack at it.

My teacher is very lenient with the children. Or she doesn't pay that much attention to them because she is so good at blocking out annoying things in her life. Not quite sure yet. I feel sometimes like I am being too hard on the children when they are doing something wrong or annoying me, but she says I'm not, and that she needs to be more "hard" on them, as well. Works for me.

We have a few children who are very, how shall I say, interesting. One is of in la-la land all day long, and only pays attention when it's time for math. Another is a new girl from Georgia who has made fast friends with one of my least favorite little girls in class. (Only because that little girl does things she knows she's not supposed to, and watches you as you watch her doing it wrong, and looks you write in the eyes.) Two little boys are in special education and are pulled out of class every once in a while. One little girl is not only shy, she's stubborn about her shyness. She uses it as a crutch, because she knows she won't have to participate if she keeps it up, even one on one with you. Another little girl is 9, wearing makeup, big earrings, shrug-sleeved peasant tops, with the sleeves pushed down off the shoulders, but it really sweet. A boy just moved here from Alaska, another from Wyoming, and of course the girl from Georgia. One little boy falls asleep during my math lessons because he already has everything done and is bored out of his gourd.

*Sigh* It's a lot of work, and I'm only doing one subject!

Also, my teacher seems (at best) disorganized. She's been teaching for 30 years, LOVES what she does, and is great, but sometimes I wonder what she would do if she didn't have me there to help her do all the stuff after school (photocopies, making posters/bulletin boards, etc.) and during school. How would she get it all accomplished?

Who knows. Next week I'm still doing math, and I'm sure I'll be helping with science and reading when the time comes. We've also been doing DIBELS and Benchmarks testing this week, seeing where the students fall in their reading abilities. Some students did great and are reading at 7th grade levels, but other students are doing miserably and are reading at 1st grade levels. It's very frustrating and discouraging. My teacher said that last year her entire class was a class of readers, but this year, we only have one REAL reader, and I can tell, because whenever we finish with something, he dives into his book. Which is great, and he's and awesome kid, but I just wish the rest of the students were like that, too.

And the entire class seriously has attention problems. I'll give a direction or ask a question, and I'll even write the information on the board for them, and they don't get it. They say, "What were we supposed to do?" "I don't get it." "What do we do when we're done with our math?" I've gotten to the point where I just tell them, "Phone a friend." Because I'm not going to tell six different students what to do when it is written on the board and I have already explained it twice. I don't have the time for it. They're going to have to learn to pay attention. Sure, there's a couple of kids who are in special ed. and need the extra help, and that's fine, but the other 20 children in the classroom are not, and they know what they need to be doing. Grr.

I guess if it were my classroom, I would run it a little differently, but she has her guidelines established, and she is THE teacher for right now, so that's how things are going to be. Maybe when I have my three weeks in the classroom as the teacher, things will be a little different, but these students are no longer primary students - they are intermediate, and they need to start acting that way. That's all there is to it.

And with that, I am pooped and need to veg out in front of the television for a little bit. Until next time!

and so it begins...

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday have mostly been spent in my teacher's classroom. The teacher who I will be student teaching for, that is. We have been putting together bulletin boards, name tags, mail boxes, calendars, making copies, moving files, and tons of other stuff.

She's a really nice lady, my cooperating teacher. She's been teaching in Spearfish for 30 years, and really knows her stuff. She teaches science, while her students will go to another teacher's room for Social Studies. I'm glad that she teaches science, because that will hopefully allow me to use the science kits that the college has for a week-long unit that is required of all student teachers.

I'm getting really nervous now, however. On Monday, we all meet at the college campus with our supervising professors, go over our portfolios (which I still have a couple things I need to tweak on it), and I'm sure we'll learn some more valuable information that we can use during student teaching. There is one professor in particular that I pray to the gods isn't my supervising professor because I don't like her due to her crappy attitude towards me last semester. Grr. Anyway...

So on Wednesday I will go in to the first day of school. I will get to meet all of the children, learn about them, and learn what is going on for the school year. I honestly have no idea what my cooperating teacher has planned for the curriculum of the school year, and that makes me a little nervous, but oh well...I'll learn as I go.

Also something that could be problematic: We are required by law to stay at the school until 3:35pm or something like that. Well, I've already requested from my boss at work to show up an hour later than usual on Mondays and Tuesdays, the nights I work. That would have me showing up at 4pm instead of 3pm. Well, with this newfound information about having to stay until 3:35pm, that's not going to happen (going in at 4pm, that is), as it takes about half an hour to get to Deadwood and get clocked in and ready for shift change on time. My cooperating teacher said that there's a very good chance my supervising professor will say that I have to stay until 3:35pm, just like all the other teachers do, and that I should talk to my boss again about the schedule.

I just hate doing that because we've already changed it once. I go into work tomorrow morning, but I'm not sure when my boss works, so if he's not there, I'll have to leave him a note of some sort, explaining to him that I wasn't aware I had to stay in the school that long, and could we please push back shift change AGAIN. *sigh*

Hopefully that's the only problem I run into with this whole working while student teaching thing. My cooperating teacher said that most professors want you to only work on the weekends, but to not work during the school week while you're student teaching. Obviously they don't have to do that themselves, or they would not recommend it, because they couldn't afford to pay rent, electricity, and other random bills that are slightly necessary in this world. Grr again.

Wish me luck!

the last week

This is my last full week of summer vacation. Starting on Monday, all student teachers will meet at Black Hills to find out who our supervising professor is going to be (the college professor who will be grading us and obvserving us throughout the student teaching process), and to do one last final check on portfolios. Then Tuesday is the first day of school as a student teacher.

I've been having dreams about student teaching, and it makes me nervous. That means it's finally getting closer and closer. This month flew by so quickly, I have no idea where the days went. Fortunately, near the end of summer, Aaron and I got to spend a lot of time together, which was really nice, compared to the rest of the summer. However, he started training at his new job this morning, so I have the whole apartment to myself for the rest of the day (until I have to go to work, that is). It's kinda nice, but I feel like there's no structure in my daily activities, like lunch time or anything like that.

Aaron and I finished up clothes shopping for my student teaching, which included about six new pairs of slacks to wear while teaching, as I only had about four pairs before. Now I can mix and match quite a bit more than I was able to before. I also picked up a couple of new pair of shoes to wear. I've been trying to get ahold of my teacher I'll be student teaching with, but she's not listed in the phone book, and the two websites that gave her email address were wrong, and she hasn't been at the school each time I've tried calling to get ahold of her. The school finally did give me her email address, and so far the email company hasn't sent back an "email undeliverable", so that's a good sign, I suppose.

Two more days of work, and then I have the last three full days off from work and school until school gets out in December. Once school starts, I will be teaching five days out of the week, and working four days out of the week, two of those four days being on the weekend. So basically, seven days a week, for four months straight. I'm so not looking forward to that.

But now that I've been at Cadillac Jack's for a year, I'll have some personal days and paid vacation days that I can use when I get stressed out or have a big project to work on, and I'll get paid for it. I love being able to do that!

Kool Deadwood Nights starts on Saturday the 26th and goes 'til Monday the 28th, so if you like classic cars from the 50s and 60s, come to Deadwood and check it out. Parking is a pain, so be prepared to search and search, and then pay out the wazoo for a parking place!

the bat hat!

So last night at the bar, Henry says that he wants me to make him a hat, a Bat Hat, to be precise. I asked him if that meant he wanted the Batman logo on it, or bat ears on it, and he wanted a black hat with bat ears on it, like Batman's hat.

Here is a picture of the drawing Henry sent me today.

I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to do the eye holes for the "ski mask" part of the hat Henry wanted...as you can see, he wanted to be able to wear it flipped up, and "normal" looking, and then be able to flip the brim down for eye holes. I managed to figure out how to do the eye holes, and it worked out quite well.

After an hour or so, I finished the main part of the hat, but then the tough part came; the ears. I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to construct the ears. I thought about stuffing the ears, but Aaron pointed out that the stuffing I had was white and would show through the black fabric. Then he mentioned something about wires, but all we had was a wire clothes hanger, and we didn't want it to poke Henry in the head and give him an infection. Finally, Aaron and I managed to figure out something with crocheted triangles and clothes pins that had been taken apart and colored black with a Sharpie marker. I sewed the clothes pin parts to one side of the ear on the inside, and then sewed ear halves together. The final step was sewing them to the hat itself.

Henry came over halfway through the process; I was still making the ears and putting them together, but the main part of the hat was finished, so he tried it on, and much to all of our amusement, he looked like Mushmouth from Fat Albert. We figured with the ears on, it would look better. You be the judge.

i wasn't even on vacation. okay, maybe a little one.

Sorry about the extremely long hiatus of blogging that I have been on. All kinds of things just happened at home that kinda kept me away from the doldrums of weekly blogging about my life, but they were actually things that could be blogged about and of interest to others!

First of all, on July 27th, I headed back to Gillette to see my good friend Lacey. We've been friends since high school, but she has since moved to Montana, and now to Oregon, and she hasn't been to Gillette in about four years, and I haven't seen her in about two years, so that was really great. The reason she was back was because of a couple of weddings that were happening that weekend - friends of hers (and kind of mine) were getting married, and she wanted to be there for them. We spent time hanging out at the bars, catching up, talking about this and that, and it was a really good time. Our friends Scott and Brett were also able to join us in Gillette, and the four of us had a great time.

Pictures to be posted on Photo Journal.

Then after that, work got a little hectic, I filled in for someone in the middle of the week, and then on a Sunday, Aaron and I had driven to Rapid City to see one of his good friends who is in the Air Force and will soon be stationed in Korea, so we wanted to get some hanging out time in before she left. The next week was the week before the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and things were starting to get hectic. Aaron quit his job the Tuesday before the Rally, which left them hurting for cooks, but he had been putting up with promises that were not being fulfilled for months and months, and was just sick of it, so he left.

After that, he and I went to Rapid City again to find me some more clothes for student teaching, as most of what I owned was long-sleeved and more winter/spring related clothing. We found me a ton of great things, and had a good time.

Then came Rally. I worked the first four days of Rally, and then had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, and I decided that Aaron and I needed to have one last (first) hurrah! for the summer and that we needed to go camping in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. We chose the Big Horns over the local Black Hills because of the motorcycle traffic and just the need to get out of the area for a while.

This was mostly a "shakedown" camping trip, as we spent most of our time in preparation for the trip at Wal*Mart or the grocery store. However, after raiding Aaron's parent's house for camping supplies that they hadn't already taken with them on their current trip, we didn't need to buy much more else for ourselves.

We spent both nights in the Big Horns, but on the second day, we drove out to Cody, Wyoming to hang out there a little bit. During the first night, neither of us slept very well because the ground was hard like a concrete block, so we were up with the Sun and out of the mountains by 9am. We headed to Cody, and as we were almost there, the both of us were quite tired. We stopped at the Cody city park and parked the car in the shade of some trees, put the windshield blockers up, and took a nap for about an hour and a half in the car. Then we ate a sandwich lunch in the park, stopped by the Sierra Trading Post store to pick up some shorts for me and tried to find a pair of sandals for Aaron, but were unsuccessful in that area...

And we headed back to the mountains! This time, we had a hard time finding a camping spot that wasn't reserved or taken, but in time, we did find one, along with a moose, some sheep, and a softer place to sleep.

Although the ground was softer, that didn't mean I slept much better for the first part of the evening; I was having spider dreams. Dreams that they were on the tent wall, on the floor, and in my sleeping bag. Aaron said he could hear me moving around and brushing the "spiders" off of myself, and when he asked me where the headlamp was so he could go outside, I pointed and said, "Over there, by the spiders." He was a little confused. Fortunately, the spiders were all a figment of my imagniation.

We went back through Shell Canyon and saw the Shell Falls, which were very pretty, and headed back home on Friday morning so that I could get some laundry done, as now everything we had with us reeked of campfire smoke, which was quite strong.

Aaron just went in for an interview today as a service technician for customers with an internet service provider in Rapid City. It went well, and he's going back in tomorrow to fill out some paperwork, and starts training at 8am Monday morning. I'm really excited that he's finally going to be employed again.

On the way back from Rapid City today, we stopped at the local yarn shop here in Spearfish, and I talked to the owner, who got me set up with some sock yarn, knitting needles for the socks, and a pattern to go by so I can start knitting my first pair of socks. I'm really excited!! She said if I need any help at all, to come in the shop and she will help me with it. Which is great, because I learn better by watching someone else than by reading instructions on a sheet of paper.

And that's what's been going on!

back aches

Yesterday while driving to Rapid City, I noticed that my lower back was starting to get sore - but it always seems to do that when I'm sitting in a car for longer than half an hour, so I didn't really think much of it. However, when I got back home from Rapid City, it was still sore, and quite tender, with some sharp pains if I moved my leg the wrong way.

For some backstory, about 5 years ago I lost control of my car on an icy neighborhood road and smashed into a parked car. Aside from some whiplash and seatbelt burn on my neck, I was fine. Until a few months later, when I started having pain in my lower back, to the right of my spine, just around the hip bone. I went to see my dad's doctor upon his suggestion because when Dad hurt his back, the doctor was able to help him find ways to make it better. The doctor told me all I had was some muscle pain, and that it was not a pinched nerve, as I thought it was. If it was a pinched nerve, I would have pain in my cyatic nerve, something I hadn't yet experienced until a few years after the accident.

I had gone for a couple of years with no back pain until yesterday. Now, I am in a considerable amount of pain, and not sure what to do about it. I don't have health insurance, although even if I did, I'd have to meet a $2,000 deductible before they would even start paying anything, so insurance or not, I'd pay for the doctor's visit. I've had people suggest that I go to a chiropractor or an acupuncturist, which probably aren't covered under health insurance, anyway, so I think I might do that this week after my work week is done.

I mean, if I'm still having "muscle" pain from an accident five years ago, I highly doubt it is muscle pain. And if five years after the accident I'm still having pains, I think it's time to do something about it. There are seven chiropractic/acupuncture clinics in Rapid City, so Monday I'm going to call them and get rates and whatnot.

Wish me luck!

unibeavers and tiger heads

Wednesday afternoon Aaron and I went to a place called Roma's for lunch. They serve Italian food that is quite tasty. They also provide each table with a butcher paper tablecloth and crayons to keep you occupied while you are waiting for your food. Every time Aaron and I go there, we create some kind of masterpiece on our tablecloth, but Wednesday's was particularly rediculous.

After drawing pretty waves and coral and fishies and whatnot, Aaron decides we need a Viking ship to adorn the tops of the waves. And since he couldn't draw a mermaid to adorn the front of the ship, he came up with the next best thing; a unibeaver. What is a unibeaver, you ask?


THIS is a unibeaver. The mythical creature is part beaver, part unicorn, hence the large horn protruding from its forehead. Drawn by Aaron, who, after labeling the poor creature, was so busy laughing at it he was almost crying. It was rather rediculous. He'd originally drawn the beaver without a nose, so I told him he needed to put one on. After placing it in between his eyes and being laughed at for this, he decided to make it a horn, and thus, the mighty unibeaver was born.

And now you might be asking about the tiger head. That is another bit of Aaron rediculousness that occured today during our quick trip to Rapid City to find me some clothes to wear next semester when I do my student teaching.

At the cash registers were some stuffed safari-like animals, $5 each, and 100% of the proceeds go towards a children's organization. And how could I pass up the opportunity to help children AND give Ben a friend?! I couldn't, so I bought myself a little stuffed tiger. I told Aaron he had to name the tiger. What wonderful name does he come up with? Tiger-Head. Yes. That poor little tiger has been dubbed Tiger-Head. Why? Because he is a tiger and has a head. A little redundant, yes...but apparently that's how you go about naming things these days.

He then told me I needed to come up with another name for it before Tiger-Head sticks. Any thoughts?


Ben and Tiger-Head

new cashier.

So we have a new cashier working with us in the casino. She's never worked in gaming before, but supposedly had worked at a bank about 10 years ago. It sure doesn't show. I guess a few of the other cashiers aren't getting along well with her, although she seems oblivious to this fact, and they don't want to work with her.

I work with her for two out of my four days at work, in the mornings. At first, I didn't really notice anything, and was just happy to have some help in the cage near the end of the shift so I could get things taken care of and someone could watch the window for me. Usually we get really busy around 2pm, an hour before shift change, and it doesn't give me a lot of time to count everything down like I need to. But with help now, it's much easier.

However, she seems to mess things up a lot. She doesn't listen to what you tell her, she butts heads with supervisors. One of our supervisors won't even go into the cage when she is working there. We work with that supervisor this coming Saturday and Sunday. I'm interested to see what those two will do/say. He can't ignore the cage the whole day; he has to get keys out for other employees and do overrides on large jackpots and handpays.

I have had a few run ins/head buttings with her last weekend; she will have an idea in her head that she believes is correct, and she won't listen to you. Which is amazing, as she has only been working with us for two or three weeks now, and only works three days a week. We obviously have more experience/knowledge than she does, and she knows it, she's even said that to me, and yet you have to tell her something two or three times before she will even think of listening to what you're suggesting. That just doesn't seem right to me.

Also, we're not very busy during the weekend mornings, and having her come in at 10am to help me is a little bit early, as we both just end up sitting around and twiddling our thumbs. I'd rather have help just during the last hour of the shift, so I can get things counted down and entered into the computer (correctly) than have her there not doing things right and asking my customers if they are winning, losing, if they hit something big. Those just seem like too personal of questions to be asking people she doesn't know very well. I simply ask people how they are doing when they approach the window. If they want to divulge information about their winnings or losings, that's fine, but I'm not asking them if they've won or lost anything. I don't think customers would like that.

Well, that's my little rant about our new cashier. Stubborn, thick headed, and a loud mouth. I hope she simmers down a bit, because I don't really care to work with her, and I hate splitting my already meager tips with her. It's really bringing down my weekly average. I was supposed to be earning more money this summer, not the same amount of money as I did in February when everyone was cooped up inside. *Sigh*

Anniversary

For my parents' 24th wedding anniversary, I decided to get them each a video iPod, since they'd been using out-dated technology for a couple of years, and I wanted to get them something really nice for all the really great things I've gotten from them or they've helped me with. Their anniversary isn't until the end of August, but I'd ordered the things at the end of June, 'cause I had the money at the time.

Then last week, I get an email from dad, saying he can't figure out the shuffle feature on his current mp3 player, and that he could buy the manual online, along with some more discs for the thing. I told him that I had the stuff he needed in my car, and to not bother with it. Truthfully, I just didn't want him spending any money on anything like that when I already had something for him.

Then I get a message from my sister; "Dad just ordered a new mp3 player!" Crap. I tell her to tell him to cancel it, cancel it! She didn't know how to get him to do that without letting on to what was going on, so she just flat out said, "Cancel your mp3 player, Andrea's getting you an iPod."

And because of that, Mom thought I was only getting one iPod, for the two of them to share (aww, that'd be sad), and probably wasn't TOO thrilled when she got home that evening and saw Dad and I with stuff sprawled all over the kitchen table, getting his iPod registered. Amidst the boxes and wrapping was HER iPod box, which she was then thrilled to see.

I stayed and help them set everything up and figure out how to transfer music from the computer to iTunes and then from iTunes to the iPod. Good thing I was there to help them; I thought the things were pretty darn self-explanatory, but I guess when you're not used to a product, they aren't quite that easy.

All in all, a good experience, despite the fact that I had to deliver the gifts a month and a half early to prevent the purchasing of any other mp3 stuff.


Also, I found out that the loud, stompy neighbors who live above us are having another kid. Isn't one running-all-over-the-place toddler enough for you guys? It appears they won't have the child 'til November/December, so by the time IT starts running around the apartment, Aaron and I will have moved to a different place. Hard to say, though. I just don't want to be around for TWO of them. Ugh.

Before...

...After

grrr.

I will admit that I am guilty of doing this on a rare occasion...but very rare, mind you...talking on a cell phone and driving.

I was stuck behind a truck on the entrance ramp to the interstate doing about 45 mph the whole way down...you are supposed to excellerate on the ramp, not just dawdle along. Then the truck, upon nearing the interstate itself, brakes, and pulls towards the shoulder, for no apparent reason. Probably not paying attention. I pass the truck as I get on the road and head home. I get off the interstate and head down Jackson Blvd.

The truck I passed is now riding alongside me. He's pretty close to the dotted line, but I have plenty of room, so nothing to worry about. Go through the stop light, and approach the bridge. I notice the truck is looming awful close to me. Then I realize the truck is trying to merge into my line. Or more appropriately, into ME! I hit the brakes and slam on the horn, which wakes the phone-stupid driver out of his zone and puts him back in his own lane. Do I get an apology wave? Anything? No. As I pass the truck and consider flipping the driver off, I notice the passenger doesn't even look over to see if I'm okay or give me an "I'm sorry" look. Nope, nothing. Jackass.

Pull your head out of your ass, hang up your phone, and DRIVE.

happy 4th

It's little late, but oh well. I had to work last night, so I didn't get to see any of the fireworks coming out of the "open cut" in Lead. Nor did I get to see the parade, because it started at 3pm, which was the time I needed to be in the cage. So I had to show up half an hour early to miss the parade, and find a parking spot (that I had to pay for because tourists took up all the free parking). *grumble*

I had to work last Independence Day, as well, at night, so I couldn't see any fireworks then, either. Maybe next year...

I love seeing the rediculous things that people wear to celebrate the 4th of July; red, white and blue is fine, yes. But getting your nails painted patriotically with stars and stripes is a little silly. As is a muscle tank with stars and stripes on a 60 year old man. So are the red, white, and blue Mardi Gras beads that old women are wearing. And hats with red, white, and blue flowers or explodey things on them. And giant bangle bracelets sporting our nation's colors. Ahh, yes, yesterday was a feast of fashion don'ts.

That was about the most "fun" I had all day yesterday...except for the eight dollars in silver 50 cent pieces that I found at work near the end of my shift. Score.

have you ever passed a math class??

So the diner at work has a new host who is still in high school, and apparently hasn't been trained very well. Tuesday night, he comes up to the cage with a dollar bill and asks how much is in a roll of pennies. I tell him 50 cents, and he says he needs two rolls. About an hour later, he comes back up with a 10 dollar bill, wanting to know how much is in a roll of quarters. 10 dollars, I tell him, and I also tell him how much is in each roll, and to remember that for next time. He kinda gives me a "whatever" look, and walks away. A couple hours later he is back. He slaps a 100 dollar bill on the counter and asks how many 20s are in that. I tell him four, to see if he will catch that I am lying to him. Nope, he sure doesn't. He says that he needs some 20s, in that case.

So I grab five 20s out of the drawer, but when I count them out to him, instead of saying "20, 40, 60, 80..." I just say, "One, two, three, four," and keep the fifth one hidden from sight. "Thanks!" he says, swiping the bills off the counter, and walking off. Three steps away, you can see him counting the money. "No! That's not right!" he shouts at me, coming back to get the rest of his money.

I don't know if that's someone I would trust at my cash register...

head stalks

Have you ever seen a small lima bean plant sprouting out of the ground, just before the leaves open? Okay, kinda keep that visualization in your head...only skin colored.

Yesterday I have a dream that I am at home, doing my hair, when I notice that I have these small tab-like bumps on my forehead, that appear to get longer and rounder as they go towards my hairline. Along my hairline, they are little stalks of skin that are growing out of my head. I pluck one off, not quite sure what to do with it, as that kinda hurt, and I still have about a dozen more of them to go. So I take it to Mom, who is in her bathroom, getting ready for the day. I show it to her, and to my surprise, she is not disgusted or horrified by what I am showing her, but simply offers to help me get rid of them.

I pull my hair back to where she can easily get to them, and I'm not sure how she did it, but she managed to remove all the little head stalks that were growing from my scalp, leaving only small ouchies on my forehead that could easily be covered by hair.

Now...I'm not sure what these growths were, why I got them, or anything like that...but that was one bizzaro dream.

molting

Well, in the week since my sunburn, I have had what could be considered BURNS, as I was glowing red for about three days, and then my shoulder turned all hard and leathery for a few more days before the first three layers or so of skin started sloughing off, revealing bright pink new skin underneath. Gross. That phase of my molting has finished, and now just the very top layer of skin is peeling off my arms. I don't feel quite so itchy or disgusting anymore.

What was funny is that only a few days afterwards, I went back to Gillette because Dad's shop was holding their summer picnic, and I had the day off. When Dad and Mom each got home, they asked, "Where did you get that horrible burn?" because they didn't believe I'd gotten ALL of that sun from the mere 3.5 hours spent outside with them at Cook Lake.

Aaron and I finally had an afternoon off together this weekend that I didn't nap away, so we went to Rapid City for something to do. He had a gift certficate to Red Lobster, so we ate dinner there, and then were going to go to a movie. By the time we made it to the theatre, they were already starting their 7:30pm showing, the mall was closed, and we didn't want to hang out in my car in Rapid City for 2 hours 'til the next movie showing, so we drove back to Spearfish with enough time to change clothes (it was getting cooler outside), and head over to the local theatre to see X-men 3. All in all, okay movie, but pretty dark and dreary. Good special effects, though, as always, but a strong lacking in the new character developmental part of the movie.

Then I was invited out to see Superman Returns by Henry, one of Aaron's good friends, and some other of Aaron's friends, so that was pretty nice of them, especially since Aaron's still at work and I would have been bored outta my skull all night long. That movie was also good, but I had nothing to compare it to because I've never seen a Superman movie, only watched the TV show with Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher. The Adventures of Lois and Clark, or something like that.

It's kind of weird that I've seen two movies in the last week, when I can't even remember the last movie I went to see. I saw Harry Potter in November, and Aaron swears we saw something else after that, but I can't remember what it was for the life of me, so it can't have been that important. Also, Pirates of the Caribbean is coming out next Friday, and I think we're going to go see that the following Sunday, as long as Aaron still has that day off. That will be a lot of fun, as well, I think.

Not much else going on in my life right now, just working on picking up the apartment a little, getting some things done around the house, and keeping myself entertained while home alone.

Until next time!

who thinks to put sunscreen on their toes?!

(My mother, of course, after having burnt everything from the top of her head to the top of her toes when she was probably younger than me.)

But can I live vicariously through my mother's mistakes? Of course not.


After Tim at work took some time off and I filled in for him, I ended up getting today off, and my parents were spending the weekend at Cook Lake, so I wandered on over (taking the long way) to visit them. Knowing it was going to be at least in the 70s today, I slapped on flip flops, jeans, and a tank top, brought my hoodie, just in case, and headed out. After spending about 4 hours out in the sun, (which equals more time than I have spent in the sun all summer combined), I am now a crispy critter. But only on my arms, chest, half of my face (because I didn't move with the Sun), and the tops of my toes. The rest of me still looks like the underbelly of a fish.

Man...that's gotta be attractive.

wild bill days

This weekend in Deadwood marks the start of Wild Bill Days. There are rodeos and who knows what else going on during this time. It'll bring in TONS of extra people (cowboys) to the casino, and we're going to be swamped. Parking is going to be a bitch over the weekend, and I'm working the swing shift tonight and tomorrow night (normally I have Fridays off and work weekend mornings), and I will have a second person in the cage with me for help, which will be nice, except I find her a little dull to converse with. And that she's weirdly opinionated. And speaks to customers in a falsely high-pitched "nice" voice when they approach the window.

Meh, whatever, it's only for two nights, and then I get Sunday (Father's Day) off. Thank goodness, I HATE working Sundays. We lovingly refer to that day as "Free-loader Sunday," as all the coupon-toters come in to get their free money, free breakfast, and free food on floor, without so much as spending $10 the entire time they are there. They are regular customers, in at the crack of 10am, and very demanding, thinking because they are there so often, they should be entitled to this and that.

Since I have Sunday off, and my parents are going to be camping sorta near by (closer than going home), I will go visit them for a bit and have lunch/dinner with them before they head back to civilization.

I finished up a second shawl, this time in bright pink (not the best of colors, but I was mostly testing out my size-reduction of the piece), and am working on crocheting a purse. I'm a little more than halfway done with the main part of the bag, and once that is finished, will need to work the handle and stitch up the bottom of the bag, and I think it'll be good to go. I'll post pictures later.

kangaroos and a wedding

So Aaron got Friday off so he could attend the wedding of someone who used to work in the kitchen with him. As soon as I found out this news, I made plans to go to the Roo Ranch, as well, because, if taking the right path, it was on the way to the wedding. I'm so sneaky.

The Roo Ranch was fun, but getting your picture taken with a joey for $15 was a little out of my price range, so I opted not to do so (and I was wearing a white shirt). There were kangaroos, wallaroos, and wallabies at the Roo Ranch, all in pens. Our tour guide was probably hung over, 22 years old, and a football player for the university. Rockin'. I would have taken pictures of the roos, but they were just all in pens, inside or outside, and that's a little boring - pictures taken through chain link fence.

After the trip to the Roo Ranch, Aaron and I picked up a co-worker, Bryce, and headed for the wedding. We were a little late, but weddings never start on time. Right? Actually, this one did, and it's the first wedding I've ever been to that ever started on time. By the time we arrived, 5 minutes late, the "wedding march" was already playing. The wedding took less than an hour, the shaking hands of the wedding party was awkward 'cause I hardly knew the groom, let alone his new wife and family, but I survived.

We skipped out on the reception, figuring it would be lame (I guess her family is big into not drinking...), and headed back to Deadwood to drop off Bryce and lose some money before heading back home to Spearfish.

A quick change of clothes and we were at the bar, where I ran into someone who's blog I used to read (until he discontinued it, which made me sad, 'cause it was good to read). He knew who I was through my blog, and I knew who he was through his blog, although this was the first time we'd met face to face. He'd conversed with Aaron in previous times, and Aaron had even asked me, "Do you remember so and so? He had this blog..."

So he's working at the bar and comes up to the table, "Hey, it's Andrea! How are you doing?" I must have looked weirded out or something (even though I wasn't, 'cause I knew exactly who he was), but after that quick little greeting, he hardly stopped by the table or made eye contact. Maybe he thought I was freaked out by it? Who knows.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, and no one wants to read that. Aaron has tomorrow off, so when I get home from work, we can DO something! Hooray!

Oh, I crocheted a beautiful shawl over the last couple of days...but after trying it on, discovered it is entirely too large to wear without looking silly, but the shell pattern in the stitching turned out wonderfully.

Here is a close up of the shell pattern.


And the whole thing on the floor, pardon the skeins of yarn and crap all over the place...


And this is when I first started the project, one skein into it. Just trying to capture the shell pattern.


I'm going to make one in pink, but instead of starting with 20 shells at the bottom row, I think I'll start with 15, which seemed like a good size when I folded it over. Plus it won't take nearly as much yarn or as many hours to make.

Last night at work we got a call from our graveyard cashier, who said he would not be coming in to work at midnight because he was sick. After many failed attempts to call the only person who had the next day off, we finally got ahold of the day shift cashier and worked out a plan. I would work all of swing shift and the first half of graveyard, and she would come in at 4am and work the last half of graveyard and her day shift.

Wow, did that make for a long night. Swing shifts are already nine and a half hours long, so by the time I got done with that and half of graveyard, it was a 13 and a half hour long night/morning at work.

Getting home and trying to fall asleep at a quarter after 5am was difficult, as well, since it's light outside and we have white curtains that do little more than block vision, but not light. By the time I woke up this afternoon, Aaron had half an hour before he had to leave for work. What a wasted day.

Fortunately, yesterday was the last day of the work week for me, and I have three days off in which to laze about and work on crochet things.

And that's about all the news I have...I know it's pretty exciting and whatnot...

scarf

This took me about three hours to complete, while I was waiting for my loads of laundry to wash/dry, and then of course folding the laundry.



It's a scarf, and this is just a close up shot of it to show the pattern on the borders. It was really simple to make, once I deciphered the "sl st" and "sc" and "sk" coding. I know it makes for shorter directions/patterns, but I'm just learning how to read crochet patterns, and they are still a little confusing to me.

skullholder

This is something I created from my Stitch 'N Bitch: The Happy Hooker crochet book. It's probably the coolets pot holder on the planet, but it's about twice the size of a normal pot holder for some reason. Oh well, I'm sure it will work just fine.

why did it have to be 4th grade?

Well, I think these three days off from work have helped my cough somewhat, but I still have it, although it's not as horrible as it was on Tuesday, nor is it as frequent.

I talked to my dad last night online, and he and Mom are going to Las Vegas this weekend for Mom's birthday, so that's pretty exciting for them. I wish I could go along, but it must be a "parents only" thing because a couple of their friends are going along with. Ahh well, I get to see gambling every day I'm at work.

We finally kicked one of the coupon scalpers out of our casino. He's a person who comes in every day (and on every shift, so three times a day), with a "Buy $10, get $2 free!" coupon. The cashier will give him $12 worth of cashout tickets for the machine, probably a $10 and two ones, or a couple fives and a couple ones...whichever. He'll disappear for about 15 minutes or so, and miraculously come back with a ticket for $12 every time. I think I may have ranted about him last week or something. So anyway, one of the floor supervisors told the coupon guy, "We know what you are doing, and it's going to stop. You're not allowed to use coupons here, and you're banned from the casino." The coupon guy said, "Wow, that's a little harsh. Can't I just gamble here, but not use coupons?" So the floor supervisor agreed to that. But guess what? When you don't actually gamble because you're picking up a free $2 from us every day, it's hard to come in and gamble at all. So guess who we haven't seen at the casino for a while? That's right. Oh darn.

We've been having beautiful weather here, but unfortunately, the warmer the weather becomes directly corresponds with the size of the spiders that I find lurking in the apartment. *Shudder* I hate those little buggers, and Aaron doesn't believe in killing things, so I just end up using hairspray or Pledge and drowning them in toxic liquids. Makes me sleep better at night, that's for sure!

I met with my cooperating teacher who I will be student teaching for next semester, so that was exciting. It's not starting to feel more real or anything like that, as we've only been out of school for two weeks so far, and that leaves another three months until school starts up again...but I know I'm going to have to start reviewing 4th grade content standards for South Dakota, and see what the little buggers are learning so I can be prepared for the semester.

Even though I don't really want to keep doing this, I'm going to; with one semester left, I have to, pretty much. Then I'll be done. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm prepared enough to be responsible for 10 and 11 year olds for three whole weeks (yikes!), but I know that once I get submersed in it, I'll do fine. I'll get the hang of it, and I'll just go with the flow. Hopefully the teacher will have quite a bit of what she wants them to learn mapped out for the semester, so I can just go with that and do my own little variations or twists on her ideas. I don't think I can come up with a whole semester from scratch, just coming out of college! Eeep! It's gonna be scary...but it will all be over soon. Enough.

it's baaaaack

A couple of new things have happened since I last posted a real post. First off, Aaron got a promotion and a raise at work. He's now going to be a supervisor/manager of the Swing shift cooks, having the same "power" as the supervisors out in the dining area. That's a great thing for him, except now he's ended up working six days a week, with a ton of over time, so that stinks...but he'll be making more money, so that will help things a bit.

I got my car back from the shopt this afternoon, good as new! The door is brand new, and they even put the stripes back on it so it matches and everything. I was pretty impressed. After I pulled out of the driveway, I turned the a/c on because it's about 85* outside today, and then went to roll down the window 'til the a/c turned cold. Then...*POP!* The handle to the window popped off! Fortunately, I was still on the same block as the body shop and just put it in reverse and parked back at the shop to have him fix it real quick for me. I guess those things just snap right on...

It's nice to have my car back, but that 2006 Buick LaCrosse rental they gave me was super nice compared to my car...now my car feels all dinky and tiny compared to the rental. But now I don't have to crawl in through my passenger door to unlock the driver's door anymore, and that's a good thing.

I'm still fighting off the last bits of my cold - runny nose and hacking cough that scare Aaron away from me, but I think it's starting to get better and go away finally. I feel much better than I did last week at this time, which is fortunate, because I had to miss a day of work for the cold, then I took off two days previous to that for Aaron's graduation, so I missed three out of my five work days this week. Suck.

Nostril Shot

Ashley didn't want to look at the camera, which is the reason for this picture.

blech

I stayed home sick from work today upon the insistance of Aaron, despite the fact that I had already missed work on Saturday and Sunday for his graduation. However, having barely made it through work last night, this was probably a good idea.

He also insisted upon me going to the doctor to see what it was and to get something to take care of it. I was hesitant about going to the doctor, as I don't have health insurance, and I wasn't sure how much a visit would cost (88 dollars, I would later find out). You see, in my family, you don't go to the doctor unless you have a bone sticking out of your skin, you are projectile vomiting, or you are bleeding profusely. If one of those three factors is not present, you take care of it yourself.

And that's pretty much what I'm going to end up doing, because the doctor told me I had a virus. She told me it as a good idea to stay home from work tonight, and gave me an excuse from work for the day, and she told me to push liquids and take over the counter medications for cough and cold.

Which was what I was already doing. Thanks to Aaron, because I wouldn't have taken that icky red cough syrup (still tastes the way I remember it from when I was four), and I wouldn't have called in sick to work tonight, and I'd probably be the most miserable girl on the planet right now if it weren't for him.

One interesting thing that's never happened to me before: I was blowing my nose (sick, I know), and it blew my eardrums outwards, and I instantly lost my equilibrium and all sense of balance and almost fell off of the examination table. That was a little scary.

After a year of not coming down with any sort of cold or flu or bug, it has finally hit me, I think. Last night, we went out to the bars, a bunch of Aaron's friends, Aaron, and I, and celebrated his graduation from college. When I went home last night, I thought I was getting a sore throat from the smoke inhalation at the bars, but it's still with me through most of today.

I think what happened is this: I had my guard up and was running at full steam for so long during this last semester, that my body didn't let me get sick while I needed to work on school. But now that school is out, my body has let down its guard, and I'm finally getting sick. I've heard that people get the shingles after getting done with methods - that's how stressful that semester is.

But at least I'm sick now, when all I have to worry about is work, and not school or homework :)

**UPDATE**

While doing my five loads of laundry tonight, I had checked on the dryers a couple of times to see if the person before me had taken their stuff out yet. There was a set of sheets in the dryer for over half an hour. I had a lot of laundry to do, and we only have a certain time frame in which to do it, so I take their laundry out of the dryer, put it on top, and threw my stuff in.

An hour later, I come upstairs to get my stuff out of the dryer. Get the stuff out of the first dryer, but the second dryer is empty. What the hell? So I check the garbage, hoping no one would be enough of a jerk to do something like that, but find it empty, as well. Then I see that my clothes have been thrown into one of the washing machines. Still soaking wet.

Whoever had left their sheets in the dryer for over half an hour had enough gall to take my clothes out of the dryer (when it was still running) and put theirs back in (stealing my quarters, of course). Jackass. So now I'm pretty pissed off. Who does that? Honestly!

The end is here!

Well, after a semester of projects, tests, field trips, first graders, and workshops, I am finally done with this semester. It was a lot of hard work, but not as horrible as everyone made the methods core out to be. I only say that because I survived it.

Now it's back to the way I like things; no responsibilities, except calling my teacher I will be student teaching for next year, and she's on a field trip right now, so I have to call her back on Monday. Also, I finally got things squared away with the insurance company, and the auto body place agreed to do my car for the amount of the check they'd written for me, so I get to bring it in on Monday morning and I'll get a rental car for the time my car is in the shop. It will be so nice to be able to unlock my driver's side door from the outside again!!

Okay, so I have some responsibilities this summer. I'm really, really, really going to try to work out and lose some weight. I've gained much more weight than I would have liked to over the last three years here at BHSU, and it's time to go. I'm also going to work harder on keeping the apartment kept up, as power cleanings once a month suck, and make me realize what a bunch of slobs we are in here. Yuck.

Graduation is tomorrow, so that will be exciting. Okay, the ceremony itself will not be exciting, because I'll be sitting through 9.5 million peoples' graduations, just to see Aaron graduate...but the party afterward will be good!

After we took our last final yesterday, our entire group of girls from the classes (minus two) went to Guadalajara's for lunch, and we all ordered daiquiris or magaritas...it took four people behind the bar to get our drinks ready. I'm sure they hated us, but we tried to tip them well. That was a good time, and even two of our teachers stopped in to give us our grades for the semester, and eat lunch with us.

I guess I can go back to my Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet book and work on making some things in there while I wait for the boy to wake up so he can go get his hair cut for graduation.

*Giant sigh of relief*

so close, i can almost taste it

Well, this has been just about the most frustrating week ever. I had to resubmit articles and rationales for my portfolio, resubmit pieces for my writer's notebook, spend time with a teaching doing those things...a teacher I don't really care for.

She's the kind of teacher who is not consistant with her grading. Not only from person to person, but within the notebook she was inconsistant, so that was quite irritating, but I got my grade up to a passing grade (it was not before, sadly), and will be doing fine.

We have three finals left for the semester, one tomorrow and two on Thursday, so I will spend much of my time studying for them tonight and tomorrow night (when I'm not watchingn Lost, of course).

Our entire class has decided we are going to the local Mexican restraunt after our last final on Thursday and treating ourselves to magaritas! I'll have a daiquiri, since I don't like tequila...but close enough. It will be good times. We definitely need and deserve the break!

We had the strangest weather today. I woke up and went to my first final, and it was raining. Yay for rain! It's May, that means spring is coming! After the first final, our class is waiting outside in the hall, waiting for a room to open up for us to hang out in (all 18 of us are in a block of classes together, so we hang out together), and one of the girls came inside from a smoke break to tell us that it was snowing. Indeed it was. Wet, heavy, gross snow.

That only lasted a couple of hours, though, then it was sunny and breezy, but slightly cool. As I'm sitting at home, waiting for my mom and sister to get here, it starts hailing. Then it lightens up again. As we're leaving, getting ready to go to dinner, it starts hailing again, and is then raining by the time we leave Sanford's. Weird.

Well, like I said, three finals to go, then Aaron's graduation on Saturday. This will be exciting. Our parents will meet each other for the first time, and I have the weekend off of work so I can relax and enjoy myself, because I hate being the only person around a bunch of drunkies who isn't drinking. And then begins the summer of relaxation (and working off the 3 million pounds I put on over the last couple of years).

Wish me luck!

almost over!!!!

Friday was my last day with the first graders, and then Monday brought on the beginning of Hell Week. On Monday night I can't really do anything because of school and work, but I managed to get a little bit done before I had to go to work. Tuesday night, I spent seven hours in the computer lab, working on homework. Today, I think I only spent four hours in the computer lab, BUT! I won't have to spend any more time in the computer lab! The last assignments due are tomorrow and Friday, and I have them done!

At the beginning of the week I had to complete:
Service Learning Project
Themed Unit
Case Study
Practicum Notebook
Field Trip Assignment

I managed to get almost all of that completed in two days. I don't know how I did it...and I don't know if the quality is top notch, but it's gotta count for something, 'cause I sure spent a lot of time in that computer lab, slaving away over a cold keyboard.

All I have left to do is to write up something real quick for a Science thing I did a long time ago, organize my D&R binder into categories (the teacher provided us with a binder full of articles we're never going to read, and then has us categorize it...*eyeroll* What a waste of time). I also have to meet with my portfolio advisor tomorrow because I got my portfolio back on Monday and had some "does not meet"s in there, three rationales/one artifact, and they didn't like my philosophy of education. Something about getting hugs from children sends up a red flag about physical contact with students. Made me kinda mad, especially because it was good enough to get into the College of Education in the first place, but apparently not good enough to student teach next year.

The binder and portfolio don't have to be done 'til Thursday the 10th, however, so I have a little bit of time. This is going to be the first weekend in MONTHS that I'm going to be able to come home from work, shower, and nap for three hours without feeling guilty that I haven't done any homework!! I'm so excited!!

Also, Aaron's graduation from BHSU is the following weekend, and my parents are coming up to meet his parents (and be there for his graduation celebration), so that should be exciting. I'm just really excited for school to finally be out (7 more days!), and to figure out what I'm going to do with all my free time!! Maybe I'll catch up on lost sleep, first. Then figure something out. Yeah...that sounds nice.

Finals are next week, and they'll be cake compared to this week. Wish me luck, anyway!

1st grade

Today was my first day back with the kiddos. They weren't so horrible today, although some of them were particularly annoying.

My day started off wonderfully with a death-defying trip down the highway to Belle Fourche, which had been plowed ONCE, a few hours back, and was covered in slush and ice underneath the slush. I almost ended up in the ditch a couple of times, did some fishtailing, and wow. Scary. I was a little shaken up, hot, tingly, and had a fast heart rate by the time I made it into the school safe and sound.

I am not fortunate enough to only have the usual 4 day week with the 1st graders this week, as they are making up their snow day from last week this Friday, so I get to spend all five days with them. Joy of joys. This should be interesting! I have two more lesson plans left to teach, and after talking to my teacher about a couple of ideas I had for my technology lesson plan, I feel even more lost, because she didn't think either of those ideas would work with her class or with the subject matter/style of teaching she was doing right now. She said we'll think of something, though.

The ride BACK to Spearfish from Belle was much less horrifying, as the roads had been plowed and it had stopped snowing and was warming up outside. I guess they postponed classes at BH 'til 10am again this morning, and then decided to cancel classes all together, which baffles me because the roads really weren't THAT bad. Not as bad as last week, anyway, but what do I know...

I guess I'm going to have to write my lesson plan for tomorrow while I'm at work tonight, as I definitely won't have time to write it AFTER work. Or the energy to write it, either. I hope tonight at work is more busy than yesterday...I made a whopping $13 in tips yesterday. That's probably about the saddest tip day I've ever had. Ever.

Well, I'm going to go get ready for work and watch some TV for a bit. Hope the roads going into Deadwood are clear!

it was terrifying!

More snow than the city knows what to do with! By 4:30pm yesterday, only the main roads had been plowed. How are we supposed to get to the main roads if the secondary roads haven't been plowed? Chalk it up to good ol' City of Spearfish to get that figured out.

Aaron and I were invited to his parent's house last night as it was his father's birthday. We had a great meal of filet mignon, veggies, shrimp, and strawberry cake. Mmm mmm good. We had decided to walk to his parent's house, as they only lived a couple of blocks away and the parking lot to the apartment hadn't been plowed yet. This also gave us an idea of what the roads were like elsewhere in town, which weren't very good. The sideroads had been driven through, but not actually plowed. And from the looks of it, only trucks had driven through those roads, as the snow between the ruts was still rather high.

Having no food in the apartment, Aaron and I decided it was time to wander out of the apartment, for fear cabin fever would set in. Aaron was already getting antsy and needed to get out of the house. We decided the best plan of action was to go to Wal*Mart to get us some groceries. Our land lord had been plowing the parking lot, and it looked like enough people had driven through the secondary road we lived on that we could probably make it to the bottom of the hill and out onto the main road.

Boy, were we wrong. Piled up directly behind us was a ton of the snow that had been in the parking lot, packed pretty hard. I guess I was supposed to be giving Aaron signals or directions, or something, so that he wouldn't back into the snow pile. I figured it was pretty easy to not back into the snow pile, so I didn't really do anything, and he slid right into it...even though the wheels were cranked to the other side. After much struggling, tire spinning, and chipping snow out from under the tires with the ice scraper, we were free at last!

The main roads were pretty good. Fortunately, the snow was very wet and slushy, so it was already melting during the warm, 40* day. With the forecast for rain and 60* the next day, this could get scary. The only really bad part about going to Wal*Mart was trying to make it across the bridge over the Interstate. There was the biggest plow I had ever seen in my life...with a plow on the front taller than me, and an additional plow on each side. What was it doing? Getting off the bridge, and onto the Interstate, which was still closed at that time. Did he plow any of the bridge he was on? Nooooo. That would make sense. Kill two birds with one stone. Who would want to do that around here?

We had the most fun (see: terrifying) ride across the bridge! There were huge bumps all over the place, and it had hardly been plowed...it had probably been plowed near the beginning of the day and hadn't been touched all the rest of the day, when we got another 5-6" or so. Somehow we managed not to careen off the bridge or into any other vehicles that were crossing the bridge, and we made it to Wal*Mart. I was almost expecting a repeat of my last Wal*Mart experience in the snow, but fortunately, that didn't happen.

However, the wonderful crew at the 24-hour a day Wal*Mart had neglected to plow the parking lot. The entire parking lot was covered in two feet of snow, with some vehicles hopelessly buried in from having to work all day there. Instead of trying to park in the lot, the 10 or so vehicles that were there just decided it was easier to parallel park alongside the front of the building where the snow had been cleared. Talk about curbside service!

After Wal*Mart we headed back into town to pick up some wine for Aaron's dad. He had a hankerin' for it and they were stuck stuck stuck in their driveway from the snow, with no means of escape. So we stopped by Safeway for him and picked up some wine, and drove by Aaron's parent's to drop it off. We had heard the school was opening at 10am the next day, and couldn't imagine that was possible with the amount of snow that had fallen, but there was someone plowing the parking lot (and they didn't do a very good job, lemme tell you that, from the way I had to park this morning).

Because we drove by the school to look at the parking lot progress, we took an alternate route to get to the apartment. Unfortunately, the way the snow had been plowed (and because some dude was standing in the middle of the street we needed to turn onto), we had to turn around and come at the street from the other direction. We decided maybe it would be easier to just take an alternate route all together, instead of turning around, and saw a truck pulling out of a street onto the main street we were on. Okay, here we go!

We made it one block into the street, with snow scraping the bottom of the car. Nice and clean, now! And about a quarter of the way up the second block, up a slight hill, we got stuck. Hmmm. This was not good. But since we made it UP that far, it would be pretty easy to make it DOWN that far onto the main road again (and turn around, like we had originally planned).

Since all this has happened, the snow has been melting at an alarming rate. We haven't had the rain they predicted from yesterday, but it will be 70* tomorrow and Saturday, so I can only imagine the fun we're going to have sloshing around through everything. I guess Deadwood got more snow than we did, and Lead got 59 inches. Yikes. Can't imagine having to clean up all that on the streets!

And there is my long-winded story about our trip to Wal*Mart and almost dying a couple of times. Mom says I tell long stories, like a southerner. Must get it from her.

Portfolios

The portfolio for the College of Education is due today. I have no idea if mine is good enough, but it has everything in it that I'm supposed to have.

I have 16 artifacts, 4 more artifacts will be added to the portfolio during my student teaching next semester, for a total of 20 artifacts. This means that there are two artifacts for every one INTASC (Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium) standard.

Each artifact has to have a rationale, stating what the artifact is and the context in which it was created, an analysis of what was learned, and an explanation of why this artifact demonstrates our competency in this INTASC standard.

I ran into some problems here and there because there were some classes that I took in Gillette instead of here at BHSU, so I didn't have the required artifact for a certain standard and had to come up with my own self-selected artifact. The final one was really a pain last night, and I hope what I put in will work.

I just need to get two signatures from my science teacher for 2 late artifacts (we haven't completed the assignment yet that I want to put in the portfolio), and I think I'll be ready to turn it in. Oh, and I need to get back an assignment for a grade, then correct anything in there she wants corrected, and put it in the portfolio, as I already have the rationale written up for it.

Sounds like a bunch of gibberish, doesn't it? Well, it kind of is, and most people, even some of the faculty members at the College of Education think it's something we shouldn't have to do. It's too much work for something that employers aren't even going to look at. That's what I've heard from many people, anyway. I mean sure, it makes us think more about the work we've done in classes...but still, it's just too much.

Well, wish me luck on this; I have to recieve at least a "Basic" in every INTASC standard's rationale in order to be able to student teach next semester. If I don't get at least that, I have two weeks to resubmit the artifact or rationale that was found faulty by at least two out of three portfolio reviewers.

Yikes. I'm nervous about this. I think I have everything I need to turn it in, besides some white out in a place where I wasn't supposed to sign yet. And the math stuff and signatures, but I'll get those this morning.

School wasn't cancelled again today, like it was yesterday, but they did start it two hours late, at 10am, so we'll all be missing our first class, Reading Methods, but still have our second class to go to, and then I can hole up in the computer lab and work on other assignments. Wooo hooo!