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!