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!

SNOW DAY!

Black Hills State does not cancel school as easily as say a public school would cancel. But when you have three feet of snow, the Interstate closed from here to Rapid City, well then, that's the best kind of day to cancel school!

Except that our portfolios are due tomorrow and I wanted to talk to Rachel about an artifact I'm having troubles with. Hmm. Maybe I'll give her a call later today. But this makes it a two day week at school...no school on Monday, none today because of snow, and no school on Friday for the College of Education for whatever reason. I also needed to get two late artifact sheets signed by one of my teachers today...guess that's not going to happen, either.

I have a lot of stuff to work on today...I'll probably do some laundry since I don't have work or school today, and get some more homework done, start working on some of the other projects that are due the week after next.

I'd take some pictures, but it's so white and windy outside, I don't think it would show you much. But here's a link to the BHSU webcam, showing the campus green.

Furry Grass

Taken outside the living room window this evening after a freak snowstorm began last night. It was 80* outside yesterday! How did this happen?!

Anyway, I thought the grass looked cool, so there ya have it.

computer herpes

After owning three computers and never having contracted a computer STD, it finally happened. On my brand new computer. *grumble* A friend of mine sent me a message on MSN that said, "Hey, is this you?" with a link that looked like an MSN member profile, with my email address on it. I clicked on it, and it downloaded the virus. Which got into my Norton Internet Security. I couldn't uninstall Norton to reinstall it. My auto-protect had been disabled and it wouldn't let me enable it. Aaron looked at it because he's a computery person, and he said it was the worst virus he's ever seen, in the sense that it was so deeply embedded into everything and how it locked up everything.

I ended up having to reformat the computer (again), and now I can't find the driver for the internet, so I'm back to the ol' lappy for the time being. Just have to wait for aaron to get home to fix it for me, as he knows where all the CDs for the computers are...and I don't.

Fortunately it didn't wipe out my computer and kill everything, like all of my school work I've got saved on the computer from the past FIVE YEARS. That would have been devistating. Especially with less than a week to go until portfolios are due. I would have cried.

But that's my quick update for now...

getting there, slowly but surely

Well, things are getting slowly under way. I only have to write three rationales and put four more artifacts in my portfolio for the College of Education. I can't believe how far I am. I actually have much less to do than most of the other girls in my block of classes, which really surprises me!

With only a month left of school, you'd think things wouldn't be too bad. Well, I've got a service learning project, a themed unit (which should try to tie in with the service learning project), a field trip assignment, and some other random small things due in the last four weeks of school. Plus one of those weeks is spent out in the field at the elementary school in Belle Fourche where I've been doing my junior field experience, so that won't be so bad; I just have to teach two more lesson plans that week, one using technology somehow (which is hard, because they're not a very technologically advanced school), and the other just a regular lesson. I also have to journal and reflect on every day I spend in the field which takes up about two hours of every evening after I get home (except Mondays because I have to leave the school early to make it to work on time, and by the time I get home at midnight, I'm too tired to journal).

Slowly slowly slowly getting things finished up. I've brainstormed a ton of ideas for my themed unit and service learning project, I just need to put them on paper and in the right sequence now, and the field trip is going to be kind of a pain in the butt, but I'll survive.

The field trip assignment has to do with Monday the 10th when our class took a trip to the Wildlife Sanctuary here in Spearfish. BEAUTIFUL animals live there. White tigers, Siberian tigers, "common tigers," a liger, lions, a lion that lives with a beagle, peacocks, cats, chinchillas, ocelots, lynx, bobcats, coyotes, panthers, cougars, camels, pigs, ponies, goats, fowl, dogs, a half dog/half wolf, bears - you name it, it probably lives there.

The facility has over 18 tigers alone! They have more tigers than they do dogs. It was amazing to hear each of their stories and learn why they were living at the facility. I must say, there are some crazies in Minnesota who think it's a good idea to keep tigers as pets.

So anyway, we have to write up a field trip plan - note to parents, permission slips, classroom management, a lesson plan to do involving the sanctuary somehow, everything. So we went to the sanctuary first, so we could see what the facility was like, so we could plan a field day around the sanctuary. It was really an incredible experience to see all of those animals, living less than 10 miles from my apartment...I had no idea there were that many animals living there.

But yeah, that's my update for the week. I've been staying after school in the computer lab for anywhere between 3 and 5 hours a night when possible, getting assignments done. I'm ready for a break! Thank goodness it's Easter!

Oh, and a happy 21st birthday goes out to my roomie, Jill! *smile*

Insurance Gripes

This is getting freaking rediculous. My car was hit March 12th. It is now April 6th, and I don't have my car fixed. I have been swapped over to a more local insurance branch in Rapid City, to a new appraiser and a new insurance guy. Well, I've had pretty good contact with the insurance guy, but every time I try to get ahold of the appraiser it's after hours, so I leave a message, letting her know I need to talk to her.

She had left me a message saying that they had gotten the estimates in and that they were disallowing the wheel alignment because there was no frame or suspension damage, and that they had adjusted the price of the labor a little bit. She then told me that the check was in the mail and that I could start repair at any time.

Well. Isn't that convenient for her? Call and leave a message. Don't verify any of this with me. No. I did not say that it was okay for that to happen. This is my car. It's going to be fixed back to new, before the guy hit me, and that's all there is to it. I don't care how much money they're trying to save, this is their problem now, and they're going to pay what it's going to take to do this. End of the line.

I have left her three messages, all to no avail. I have called the other insurance guy out of Rapid City and let him know that I hadn't been able to get ahold of her. He said he'd try to get ahold of her and have her call me. Nothing. So I left another annoyed message on her voicemail, letting her know that I needed to talk to her now and that it was not okay that she sent the check with a different amount than the esimtate without my approval, or my dad's approval, for that matter, as he is the one they keep calling and sending things to.

Grr. I'm really freakin' sick and tired of this. On Wednesday it will have been a month since I haven't been able to unlock my car from the outside. A little rediculous, no?

Casino Mike

So a week ago, these two guys come to the cage where I work and end up getting my phone number from me because I'm a big dummy and haven't been hit on in a long time (except by Aaron, of course), and don't know what to do. He'd given me his phone number first, which was fine by me, because I had no intentions of calling him in the first place. Well, he'd called me the very next night, but did not leave a message. I kept his phone number with me so I would know when he called and know not to answer the phone (tee hee). A couple of days went by, and he called again Thursday night just as Aaron and I were coming in from getting some groceries. I recognized the phone number as his, so I asked Aaron if he wanted to answer the phone, but he declined, so I just let it ring. Still didn't leave a message.

Then he called two times yesterday, while I was at work, finally leaving a message. It went something like this:
Hey Andrea this is Mike, I dont' know if you remember me or not, um, you gave me your number at your work a week or so ago and I've tried calling a couple times but I always get your voicemail, so you probably have been wondering whose number this is showing up on you caller ID. Well it's me, Mike, and I'd really like to talk to you and maybe hang out, get some coffee sometime, get to know eachother, my phone number is *****, hope to hear from you, bye.

Well, the reason you have been getting my voicemail is because I am not answering the phone! Then, I'm taking a nap today after I get off work 'cause I'm pooped (stayed 'til 12:30am, got home at 1am, up by 6am to go to work by 7:30am), and I have my phone set as my alarm. It starts ringing, but it's not the alarm's ringtone, but I'm zombied out, so I don't know, I just open the phone and close it to activate the snooze. Then it starts ringing again, and I look at the screen, sure enough...it's Casino Mike (which is how I have labeled him in my phone book, even though he's the only Mike in my phone book). No voicemail again, but I'm sure the reason he'd called was because I'd picked up the phone, then hung it back up. Whoops. So once I get up from my nap, I look to see how many times he called. THREE times between 4pm and 6pm.

Now...you think he'd get the hint...wouldn't you? I don't know. I'm just going to keep ignoring the phone calls and hope he does get the hint and not come back to the casino and seek me out again. I've been trying to think of a good reason why I've never answered the phone or called back aside from, "Well, like I told you when you saw me at the casino, I'm really busy this semester and don't have a lot of time to go out and do anything." Because I can't just say that my phone broke conveniently after he got my number, because it always rings before going to voicemail, instead of going directly to voicemail, which would indicate that my phone is on. Not off and broken.

Any ideas? Besides just answering the phone and saying, "Hey, I should have told you that I am in a serious relationship when you first talked to me, and I'm really not comfortable hanging out with you right now. Sorry."

Ugh. I'm so dumb. Aaron knows about all this, and thinks is was pretty dumb, and I'm just going to have to deal with it, which is true, and I know that...but blah. It all started when the guy noticed that I wasn't wearing a ring on my left finger. "Oh, no ring, that's a good sign." So I have started wearing the opal ring my mom got me for my 16th birthday on that finger. It's not a diamond, but I'm not traditional, so it works. Ha.

And there's my blonde moment of the month.

In other words, Mom and Dad stopped in after I got off work and brightened up my otherwise crappy day (no sleep, being asked if I think this job is boring because I've been making silly mistakes at work, being $200 short at the end of my shift, and just being crabby in general). Oh, and seeing the baby cows tromping around in the field on the way home helped a little, too. *smile*