I thought I would take a few minutes to stop into my blog and see how things were. A little dusty, it seems, so I guess that means I've been neglecting my blog due to the fact that I just spent the last week in a different town in a classroom full of 17 first graders. I will never ever teach first grade, that is for sure.
Then straight from that into work, tonight is our Employee Appreciation party, so Aaron and I will stop in there for a little bit; I'm going to play in the poker tournament and learn the game (since I can't play the slot machines or blackjack due to my position in work as a cashier), and hopefully win some money!
School started off with a bang today, we're already getting into bigger and harder things, and I have so much crap to do! I had to video tape my first ever lesson with the kids last week, and now I need to preview it so I can hand it in to my teacher so she and I can preview it together *gasp!* I hate watching myself on camera. Hopefully I didn't do anything too dumb.
Made a book, wrote some lesson plans, need to create a story board, write another couple of lesson plans, and some other random things. We have this week of school, next week in school, then SPRING BREAK! I'll be staying here, of course, but that's THREE WHOLE DAYS of no school OR work!! And SEVEN whole days of no school! Can life get any better? Probably...but not at the moment.
Aaron got up earlier than me this morning (not sure how that happened, since he didn't have class 'til 12:30 and I had class at 8:00 this morning...but he made some cinnamin rolls before I went to class and sat up with me for a while when I was getting ready for class. What a guy.
It'd been really bitter cold outside the last few days last week, but I think it might start warming up a little...You know it's cold outside when the high of 16* feels like a heat wave!
But that's just a quick little update of what's been going on in my life the last week or so since I got on here the last time. I probably missed a few things, and there are probably some funny stories I could tell, but I just can't remember them.
Until next time!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
sugared up kids
Omigod it's been a week! And quite a week it has been. On Monday I started my Junior Field Experience at my elementary school with the first grade class. Wow! They are a handful! I won't even go into details, but I come home every day exhausted from them, and I'm not even the one teaching anything (yet!)!
Tomorrow I teach my first real lesson plan to the class, which has to be videotaped for my Language Arts professor at the college, so she can review it. It's weird to write lesson plans for first graders, as we have always practiced writing lesson plans for 3rd grade and up.
We got some snow yesterday and today, and I had quite a bit of trouble getting out of my parking spot tonight at the apartment; I was parked with the nose of my car facing downhill, and a car parked in front of me. I couldn't pull straight through the spot, because of the other car, and I couldn't back out of the spot because of the ice. It took me over 5 minutes to get out of my parking spot. And I almost slid into the truck parked next to me (you had to be there...). Yikes. But I did make it out unscathed, and found a more level parking spot to leave my car in when I returned.
Valentine's Day was exciting at the school, and the children were hopped up on sugar today. When I got home yesterday, I slept for about an hour and a half, then woke up when Aaron returned from the store, where he bought ingredients to make us dinner - shrimp and scallops over linguini noodles, garlic bread, and some fizzy Korbel champagne (tart and bubbly...weird). It was a really nice dinner, and very thoughtful of him. I wish I could be more thoughtful like that...but I can't cook, and I can't ever think of anything to get him.
And that's about it for the last week. Busy, exhausting, and kinda fun.
Tomorrow I teach my first real lesson plan to the class, which has to be videotaped for my Language Arts professor at the college, so she can review it. It's weird to write lesson plans for first graders, as we have always practiced writing lesson plans for 3rd grade and up.
We got some snow yesterday and today, and I had quite a bit of trouble getting out of my parking spot tonight at the apartment; I was parked with the nose of my car facing downhill, and a car parked in front of me. I couldn't pull straight through the spot, because of the other car, and I couldn't back out of the spot because of the ice. It took me over 5 minutes to get out of my parking spot. And I almost slid into the truck parked next to me (you had to be there...). Yikes. But I did make it out unscathed, and found a more level parking spot to leave my car in when I returned.
Valentine's Day was exciting at the school, and the children were hopped up on sugar today. When I got home yesterday, I slept for about an hour and a half, then woke up when Aaron returned from the store, where he bought ingredients to make us dinner - shrimp and scallops over linguini noodles, garlic bread, and some fizzy Korbel champagne (tart and bubbly...weird). It was a really nice dinner, and very thoughtful of him. I wish I could be more thoughtful like that...but I can't cook, and I can't ever think of anything to get him.
And that's about it for the last week. Busy, exhausting, and kinda fun.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
happy days
Today marks the 11 month anniversary of Aaron and me, my sister's 22nd birthday, AND my mom getting a promotion at work!
I think we should all get a pat on the back.
*PAT*
I think we should all get a pat on the back.
*PAT*
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Sunday, February 05, 2006
treasures
Last night at work, a couple gave Tammy a roll of quarters to cash in, since our slot machines don't accept coins, only paper money and cashout tickets, which they print for you when you cash out of that machine. She said after running them through the machine that "some of them looked weird," but after pulling a handful of quarters out of the bag, she couldn't find any weird ones.
Well, she went to lunch, and I started looking through the quarters in the bag, pulling them out by the handful. And guess what I found? Seven dollars' worth of silver quarters! Ranging in date from 1935 to 1964, I think the last year they made them with silver. Tammy and I split the quarters, since she's the one who recieved them, and I was the one who found most of them, searching through over $200 in quarters. It seems to me that each of them are worth at least two dollars each, which doesn't seem like much, but it's eight times more than their face value, so that's a pretty good profit.
I think if I sell any, it's going to be the ones from the 50s and 60s, and I'll keep the 30s and 40s that I have. I'm going to check on eBay and see how much people are buying them for because there's a guy at work who's interested in buying some of mine.
That was just as exciting as finding the red seal five dollar bill back in October!
Well, she went to lunch, and I started looking through the quarters in the bag, pulling them out by the handful. And guess what I found? Seven dollars' worth of silver quarters! Ranging in date from 1935 to 1964, I think the last year they made them with silver. Tammy and I split the quarters, since she's the one who recieved them, and I was the one who found most of them, searching through over $200 in quarters. It seems to me that each of them are worth at least two dollars each, which doesn't seem like much, but it's eight times more than their face value, so that's a pretty good profit.
I think if I sell any, it's going to be the ones from the 50s and 60s, and I'll keep the 30s and 40s that I have. I'm going to check on eBay and see how much people are buying them for because there's a guy at work who's interested in buying some of mine.
That was just as exciting as finding the red seal five dollar bill back in October!
Saturday, February 04, 2006
new stuff
Well, it's been a while since I updated, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Work and school are going well so far, but we haven't really gotten into the meat of the school year. I tried contacting my cooperating teacher today, but she was in a meeting, so I'm going to have to try on Monday if I have some free time.
In order to prevent myself from becoming sick whilst around a class full of six year olds, I bought some Flintstone vitamins with Calcium and some Halls Defense strawberry lozenges with Vitamin C. Hopefully that will help. I figure if I've worked at a casino dealing with dirty money for almost six months and didn't get sick, I can handle a bunch of snot-nosed kids, too.
W2s came in, and I sent them off in the mail to my dad today. Aaron ran some figures...if I claim myself as independent, I get $700 more than if my dad claims me. This is the last year he's going to be able to claim me, though, because I'm old, so I'll probably just do that, anyway, and get a buttload of money next year.
School's going to get rough soon, I can tell. I signed up for a test that we have to take before student teaching...$40 for a registration fee, then $75 for the test...so I got to pay $115 for a stupid test. I'd better pass it on the first try, 'cause I sure don't want to take it again.
Hmmm. Anything else? I think that's about it, really. I don't have a whole lot of time for anything else, although Aaron bought me Mario Kart for the Nintendo DS, so hopefully we'll be able to get a WiFi connection set up and I can play against Jill some time. And kick her ass. Hahaha.
Alright, I'm tired and need to crash. G'night!
In order to prevent myself from becoming sick whilst around a class full of six year olds, I bought some Flintstone vitamins with Calcium and some Halls Defense strawberry lozenges with Vitamin C. Hopefully that will help. I figure if I've worked at a casino dealing with dirty money for almost six months and didn't get sick, I can handle a bunch of snot-nosed kids, too.
W2s came in, and I sent them off in the mail to my dad today. Aaron ran some figures...if I claim myself as independent, I get $700 more than if my dad claims me. This is the last year he's going to be able to claim me, though, because I'm old, so I'll probably just do that, anyway, and get a buttload of money next year.
School's going to get rough soon, I can tell. I signed up for a test that we have to take before student teaching...$40 for a registration fee, then $75 for the test...so I got to pay $115 for a stupid test. I'd better pass it on the first try, 'cause I sure don't want to take it again.
Hmmm. Anything else? I think that's about it, really. I don't have a whole lot of time for anything else, although Aaron bought me Mario Kart for the Nintendo DS, so hopefully we'll be able to get a WiFi connection set up and I can play against Jill some time. And kick her ass. Hahaha.
Alright, I'm tired and need to crash. G'night!
Friday, January 27, 2006
A True Friend
Okay, so I'm probably the last one on the planet to see this, but I don't care, I thought it was cute; a friend sent it to me in an email, so obviously ignore the "send this to 10 friends" part at the bottom, since I don't expect you to send my blog addy to anyone else.
Are you tired of all those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound
good, but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of
promises that really speaks to true friendship:
1. When you are sad - I will help you get drunk and plot revenge
against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
2. When you are blue - I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
3. When you smile - I will know you finally got laid.
4. When you are scared - I will rag on you about it every chance I get.
5. When you are worried - I will tell you horrible stories about how
much worse it could be and to quit whining.
6. When you are confused - I will use little words.
7. When you are sick - Stay the hell away from me until you are well
again. I don't want whatever you have.
8. When you fall - I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass
This is my oath...I pledge it till the end. Why? You may ask, because
you are my friend. Send this to 10 of your closest friends, then get
depressed because you can only think of nine.
Remember: A good friend will help you move. A really good friend will
help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Assignment Accepted!
Well, I found out today where I will be doing me Pre-Teaching Practicum this semester. The Practicum is a part of my semester where I will be going inside an elementary school and observing a teacher and how she teaching, picking up ideas and whatnot from them. I have to observe for 90 hours, and the university gives us three whole weeks off of school where they cancel classes so we can spend five whole days in a row at our school with our cooperating teacher. We won't actually start our firsrt week of observation until a week into February, but I'm going to get ahold of my teacher on Monday to say "hi" and maybe get a tour of the school.
We also have to teach four lesson plans, while the teacher reviews us, so that's going to be a little scary, but I think it'll be okay. My cooperating teacher is a first grade teacher, so I get to hang out with little kids all day for three weeks; that'll be fun. I was hoping for a slightly older grade, say fourth or fifth grade, but I forgot to put a grade level preference, so I think I just got a classroom that was open, which is fine with me because it's the school I wanted to go to, out of the like, 20 choices I had, that was the school I'd ranked number one.
Anywho, the school is called South Park Elementary, which makes me giggle, but I hope there are no Eric Cartman's in my class!
Oooh, I'm so excited. I like little kids...they likes me, too. I'll let you know how everything goes once things get started. But due to confidentiality, I probably won't be able to say too much or give too many details. Oh well, no big deal.
We also have to teach four lesson plans, while the teacher reviews us, so that's going to be a little scary, but I think it'll be okay. My cooperating teacher is a first grade teacher, so I get to hang out with little kids all day for three weeks; that'll be fun. I was hoping for a slightly older grade, say fourth or fifth grade, but I forgot to put a grade level preference, so I think I just got a classroom that was open, which is fine with me because it's the school I wanted to go to, out of the like, 20 choices I had, that was the school I'd ranked number one.
Anywho, the school is called South Park Elementary, which makes me giggle, but I hope there are no Eric Cartman's in my class!
Oooh, I'm so excited. I like little kids...they likes me, too. I'll let you know how everything goes once things get started. But due to confidentiality, I probably won't be able to say too much or give too many details. Oh well, no big deal.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
stuff
Wow, I spent way more money than I thought I was going to...I went to buy some more clothes for school today, as I only had about enough outfits for four days of school...and yikes.
Oh well. I have enough money, which is weird, as I'm not used to having that much money, so it's nice.
Lost is new tonight, so I will be glued to the TV for an hour or so. It's the only slot of TV time that I actually plan for; anything else I watch is by the total random chance that I land upon it while channel surfing.
Oh, I also washed my car today because I could no longer tell what color it was from all the dust and crud on it. Going to the car was is fun now, 'cause there's lots of suds and foam that are different colors! first you get pink, then orange, then yellow, then blue and green. Your car looks like a cotton candy factory exploded all over it. And it smells good, too...weird.
So I was productive today, and I feel a lot better.
Oh well. I have enough money, which is weird, as I'm not used to having that much money, so it's nice.
Lost is new tonight, so I will be glued to the TV for an hour or so. It's the only slot of TV time that I actually plan for; anything else I watch is by the total random chance that I land upon it while channel surfing.
Oh, I also washed my car today because I could no longer tell what color it was from all the dust and crud on it. Going to the car was is fun now, 'cause there's lots of suds and foam that are different colors! first you get pink, then orange, then yellow, then blue and green. Your car looks like a cotton candy factory exploded all over it. And it smells good, too...weird.
So I was productive today, and I feel a lot better.
stupid technology
What did people do before alarm clocks? Sleep in 'til Noon every day? 'Cause that's what I'd do.
Last night I made sure my alarm clock was set for 6:30am, then went to sleep. The only problem? I forgot to turn the alarm on. Yeah. I slept through my first class this morning. I didn't want to walk in halfway through class and be yelled at or something. So I just didn't go, 'cause I'd already missed so much of it. I'll talk to the teacher today if she's in her office and see if I can figure out what they talked about today. The bad thing about missing one of these Methods classes? You don't really take a lot of notes; you are given some kind of scenario, and asked to discuss it with your group, then talk about it in class and learn more on what you're supposed to do. So missing a class means you miss out on quite a lot. Damnit. I was so mad at myself when I woke up this morning and realized the alarm hadn't gone off.
But other than that, I have been able to stay on top of things so far; getting reading done, doing the little assignments they've given us. I just need to keep up with this "no procrastinating" stint the whole semester, and I think I'll be doing okay.
One of the women at work took her Methods block last semester, and when she realized I was in it this semester, asked me how many days a week I'm working now, and when I told her four days, she gasped, saying she'd only worked one day a week when she was in Methods. Great. She said she can't wait to talk to me in two weeks and see how things are going.
That kinda scares me, because if she only worked one day a week...and I'm working four, AND I'm a procrastinator...Ugh. But I'm not going to BE a procrastinator this semester. That's all there is to it. So I probably won't be blogging a whole lot, and if I do, it's to release some steam about classes and how stressfull they are.
If all my hair is gone by the end of the semester, you know why; I either pulled it all out, or it fell out due to the stress.
Wish me luck!
Last night I made sure my alarm clock was set for 6:30am, then went to sleep. The only problem? I forgot to turn the alarm on. Yeah. I slept through my first class this morning. I didn't want to walk in halfway through class and be yelled at or something. So I just didn't go, 'cause I'd already missed so much of it. I'll talk to the teacher today if she's in her office and see if I can figure out what they talked about today. The bad thing about missing one of these Methods classes? You don't really take a lot of notes; you are given some kind of scenario, and asked to discuss it with your group, then talk about it in class and learn more on what you're supposed to do. So missing a class means you miss out on quite a lot. Damnit. I was so mad at myself when I woke up this morning and realized the alarm hadn't gone off.
But other than that, I have been able to stay on top of things so far; getting reading done, doing the little assignments they've given us. I just need to keep up with this "no procrastinating" stint the whole semester, and I think I'll be doing okay.
One of the women at work took her Methods block last semester, and when she realized I was in it this semester, asked me how many days a week I'm working now, and when I told her four days, she gasped, saying she'd only worked one day a week when she was in Methods. Great. She said she can't wait to talk to me in two weeks and see how things are going.
That kinda scares me, because if she only worked one day a week...and I'm working four, AND I'm a procrastinator...Ugh. But I'm not going to BE a procrastinator this semester. That's all there is to it. So I probably won't be blogging a whole lot, and if I do, it's to release some steam about classes and how stressfull they are.
If all my hair is gone by the end of the semester, you know why; I either pulled it all out, or it fell out due to the stress.
Wish me luck!
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