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.