teach, grade, eat, sleep, poop

That's basically my life. I had a glorious week off for the holidays but now I'm back at school. It's a new trimester so I have a whole new group of kids, which is nice but also weird. I got really attached to my first group of kids and now they're gone. A lot of them still come back to say "Hi" which I love because I miss them. It's been fun getting to know this new group. They seem like another nice bunch. They are definitely quieter than the first ones. Sometimes too quiet. I'll ask a question and hear crickets. I hope this will change. I'm getting better at staying on top of grading but I still have a lot of classroom management skills to sort out. I also have to start writing my TEAM paper soon. And on top of that, we have exemplary lessons due at our department meeting on Tuesday. Which means I have to fill out this ridiculously long lesson plan format and then present it to my fellow unified arts teachers. One good thing that happened today: I remembered my teaching certification was going to expire this month and I started the process to upgrade it. The bad news is it costs $200 to upgrade to initial certification status. boooo.

Non-work stuff. Karl got me a sewing machine for Christmas! I'm so excited to make something. I just have to figure out where to put it. I got Karl a Wii. He's been asking for one for about 3 years and I finally got it. It's been really fun for both of us. The Super Mario Bros. game it came with is highly addictive! I can't wait to get some of the dancing games :)

Working Girl

Two things:

First, I love the movie Working Girl. Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack. The 1980's. The hair. The makeup. The clothes. So many great things in one movie. See below:

Second, teaching is hard. People tell you it's hard and they're right. I am working 10, 11, sometimes 12 hours a day and that's just at school! Then I come home and work some more, planning for the next day, correcting, re-typing recipes, shopping for food, etc. And yet, I'm still behind on things I need to do! I have a mountain of things to grade, my classroom is unorganized and not really decorated the way I hoped it would be, and just a million other things. The good news is, it gets easier. The first year is supposed to be insane. I am really looking forward to the day I have it all together, like Melanie Griffith does at the end of Working Girl. 

And now I am going to listen to "Let the River Run" by Carly Simon- the 1989 Academy Award Winner for best Original Song and theme to Working Girl- and hopefully feel inspired.

Welcome to Tolland

I finally got up enough courage to move out of my parents house and into an apartment with Karl. It was a lot harder on me emotionally than I thought. I shed a lot of tears and sometimes I still feel sad about it. I feel like a chapter in my life is over because I probably won't ever live with my parents again. It was safe and comfortable there and I liked being so close to them. But this is what I need to grow and become and adult. Moving out was definitely the right thing to do and it's okay that it was hard and that I still feel sad sometimes. I only live about 25 minutes away from their house and I've been back there almost every day since I've moved so it really hasn't been that big of a deal. It just feels weird.

I'm still getting used to our new place. Overall it's nice but it definitely wasn't cleaned as well as it should have been. Karl and I have spend many hours cleaning the place which is good but also bad because it makes me angry! I just keep wondering WHY these things weren't cleaned BEFORE we moved in!! Anyway, our bed frame arrived today so we're going to put it together tonight so we won't have to sleep on the floor anymore. Our couches should be here soon, I hope. Raymour and Flanigan keep pushing the delivery date back and I'm getting annoyed with them. I think once they get here it will feel a lot more homey. I don't feel completely comfortable here yet and I guess that's normal. I'm sure in a few more weeks I'll feel better. 

You're Hired

I got a teaching job. I can't believe it. I'm going to be in charge of a whole classroom of students. On one hand I know I can handle it and even though it will be a lot of hard work, it will also be a lot of fun. And on the other hand I'm really scared because I know there will be some rough days ahead and I just hope I can stay positive throughout the whole thing. I'm really excited to have a career though. That's the best part. I feel like I am building a life for myself and that life will include a steady job, a house, and maybe some pets.

I'm already looking to move out which is also really exciting and scary because even though living with my parents has been stressful at times, it's also all I've ever really known. The only time I lived away from them was during college. I basically haven't experienced much and I am looking forward to doing more and actually living like an adult. I AM AN ADULT after all, even though sometimes I can't believe I'm 27. But it's time to just get out and do stuff instead of just thinking about doing stuff. I am ready.

Pin, Mark, Sew

Today was the last day of my student teaching. I didn't update the blog but I was finally placed at my old middle school with one of my old Family and Consumer Sciences teachers. She teaches all sewing courses so I had to learn how to sew and how to teach it pretty quickly. It wasn't ideal however it ended up being a great experience because clothing construction is my weakest area of FCS. I learned sooooooo much over these past 4 weeks. Teaching the classes was exhausting but I'm happy I did it.

The best part is....she's retiring at the end of this year! And I just submitted my application for her job. I was almost late with the application because I was waiting on a recommendation letter, but it all worked out.

I still have a lot of ARC work left to do but the end is almost here. Graduation is on May 10th and then we have one final class on May 13th. I can't believe I'm almost done. It doesn't seem real. I keep thinking I'm going to do something really bad to mess this all up because so far things have been working out very well for me. I have this bad habit of sabotaging myself. Not intentionally but somehow I always do something wrong. It's not good.

Anyway, right now I'm not going to think about all that. Instead I'm going out to ION with Karl to celebrate the end of student teaching!

I wanna know right now

I'm a little frustrated about my student teaching placement, or the lack there of. ARC was supposed to have placed everybody by now but me and 3 other people are still waiting. We know we are going to be in Manchester but we don't know what school or who our cooperating teachers are going to be. The other Family and Consumer Science people have all their information and know what classes they are going to be teaching but I don't know any of that yet. I feel left out and like I'm starting 10 steps behind them. Family and Consumer Sciences covers a wide range of subjects so I REALLY want to know what classes I'm going to be teaching.

Student teaching is supposed to start on March 28th, which is about 2 weeks away. I'm trying really hard to stay positive because I know I can't control any part of this situation but it's difficult. ARC's hands are tied because they are waiting on Manchester to give the final word on where and who we are going to be with. So I'm thinking, "why is ARC wasting their time with them? Why don't they find a new school district that operates a little faster?" Plus, Manchester has had a rough year this year. They are going through some changes and dealing with a significant gang problem at the high school, so maybe this isn't the best year for them to take student teachers. So WHY wait on them?? Obviously, this is more complicated than I realize. I'm sure it takes a lot of effort and planning to place 130 student teachers but EVERYBODY else has been officially placed except for the ones going to Manchester. I know this for a fact because when I e-mailed ARC to find out more information on my status that's what the woman who coordinates all of this told me. I know that all school districts have problems so that shouldn't prevent Manchester from having student teachers but I just don't understand what is taking them so long.

In some ways I'm looking forward to teaching there because even though it's only the next town over, it is a much more urban environment. I know suburbia, so it will be nice to be exposed to something different. But this waiting game is getting old. Luckily, I won't have to start teaching classes right away. The first few days will be observation days. By the end of the first week I should be teaching at least one class. And by the end of the second week I should be teaching all of the classes. But I would still like a heads up on who I'm going to be working with and possibly contact him/her before I start.

The Praxis

I just found out I passed the Praxis II for Family and Consumer Science content knowledge.
I took the test on January 15th and I got my results today on February 8th.
The minimum passing score is 168, I got a 188.
The average score range is 163-177.
A perfect score would be 200.

When I first got the results I felt so relieved. I called Karl and he was way more enthusiastic about it:
   "You could have given an extra 20 points to the person next to you!!" he said.
   "Yeah" I said.
   "You're going to make a million dollars and I'm going to be the trophy boyfriend I always dreamed of!" he said.
   "I'm going to make a million dollars" I said.

And then I posted "I passed the Praxis II!" as my facebook status and my friends started to virtually hi-five me. And I guess I really needed their support too, because then...

I smiled. I smiled a truly joyful smile. A smile that said be proud, be happy, be excited. And then I put my arms up over my head and continued to smile and I thought, "Wow, I'm going to be a teacher soon."