doing the math
I hate this point in the semester where I start calculating how lazy I can be and still get an A.

- posted by Alicia @ 2:19 PM |

 

Dog who runs in snow.  
- posted by Alicia @ 10:17 AM |

 

Snow!  
- posted by Alicia @ 10:17 AM |

 

Evil Melody is barking at the turkey bones sitting on the counter. Grrrr.  
- posted by Alicia @ 10:15 AM |

 
Breakaway over and over
I have issues. I am THIS CLOSE to being done with this stinking semester. Five postings, one project, and one reading test. But I just can't get it done.

Instead I am collecting cool blogs, listening to Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson over and over again, and listening to the toilet run every 5 minutes in the bathroom a few feet away.

Oh well. Mondays were never meant to be productive, right?

At this rate I will not substitute at all this week. Today is UNPRODUCTIVITY DAY. Tuesday I am getting a hair cut and working on my case study project. Wednesday I will go to the high school to get any details about the school project squared away (including counting the books in each 100s section according to Dewey of the Nonfiction section). Thursday I drive to Austin. Friday I go looking at Apartments and hope I get the cool 1st floor one I want. Oh the counterspace!

I promised myself I would work until 2. At that time it was a full hour and a half of work. Unfortunately all I have to show for it is one posting, several new blogs to read, and some memorized song lyrics.

- posted by Alicia @ 1:58 PM |

 

Melody while playing with Cristina over Thanksgiving break.  
- posted by Alicia @ 4:45 PM |

 
Happiness
because my sister is home for Thanksgiving.
because it snowed last night and I was driving and the roads were very clear and I could see the snowflakes coming straight at me like the flying windows screensaver.
because i do not work today.
because it is Wednesday and that means the Ask Ausiello is all new.


- posted by Alicia @ 11:54 AM |

 
Potpourri
1. The move to Austin is official. While region XIII does not want me and is "unable to respond to telephone or written inquiries relative to this decision", I have found another way. I even paid my first tuition payment and bought my first two books.

2. My sister is coming home today. Good news: My sister is coming home today. Bad news: the bathroom needs to be cleaned for her.

3. I haven't substituted in the last two weeks because I have been busy with Library School work and W-S job and the catering job (which I quit) and other things. Oh, yeah, and I don't like getting up early by a ringing telephone telling me to get out of my warm bed and go be with kids who don't like me. Who knew? Next week I intend to get back on schedule. Hmm maybe not because

4. Next week I am going Apartment buying in Austin. Woo hool. Crossing the fingers and toes and everything that a one bedroom remains in the place I want it.

5. Today is my 24.25 birthday. Which means only 365 days until I am 25.25. If that isn't special, I don't know what is.

6. I found my battery charger which means that I can finally take another picture. And it may snow tonight. Not much, but wow. I love it.

- posted by Alicia @ 1:24 PM |

 
you know you are a dork when...
sitting at Mass the other day, the Priest was talking about the Sacraments. He said that the Eucharist is a Sacrament of ___. My mom finished the phrase with Initiation under her breath while the priest went on to say Healing. The answer was both. My mom got confused and looked at me. I wanted to say, "I guess the Sacraments are more like gmail with the labels than other emails and their folders. The sacraments can have more than one category attatched to them." I didn't say that however. My mom just would not have understood.

- posted by Alicia @ 5:21 PM |

 
Poor Manners
Yesterday at work we were serving turkey, dressing, and gravy. It was all served up on a paper plate and with a fork. Twice (T.W.I.C.E.) I saw women (not ladies) taking a bite of turkey and then walking away, leaving the plate half eaten sitting on the counter. Is the concept of taking the entire plate, eating it or not eating it, and then throwing it away so foreign?



- posted by Alicia @ 3:54 PM |

 
Substituting: Day 4
On Friday I substituted in a third grade classroom. Eeek! I was a little bit scared about teaching a class so young, but I wanted to try. Also I got the job over 24 hours in advance, so I thought that the teacher would have great lesson plans. Well that was not to be. I arrived at the school a good 35 minutes early. After I had signed in and went to the classroom, I found a lesson plan book open, but no letter to the sub, etc. The lesson plan book was written to the teacher by the teacher so she could understand it but some person off the street (me) could not. So then I went to the office to ask for some clarification. They said they would send someone to assist me.

A nice other third grade teacher came by. She said the teacher had been sick so had not been able to make good notes. I later discovered from the kids that she had been out all week. Tuesday they had a sub. The sub left this note on how she had not "connected" with the children. I didn't quite understand that, but not my business. Wednesday they were not able to find a substitute so the children were divided into several different classrooms. Thursday was veterans day and they had no school. Friday was my turn.

Overall things went very very well. The kids were charming. I managed to go with the lessons the teacher wrote, although I ended up substituting worksheets and had to fill an hour completely on my own. I ended up bringing Matilda by Roald Dahl and read 44 pages of it throughout the day while the children drew pictures. The class had three specials that day. Lucky me! The music lady came to the classroom in the morning and then we went to Art and Library in the afternoon. I sat in on the Library class and was bored (as the kids were too). The lesson was ok, but it was not taught in any context and they really didn't get to practice any so if I went and asked them today how to access the Ebsco for Kids site, I doubt they could. I am more and more in favor of flexible scheduline for libraries of all ages. Or of not boring librarians.

One of the girls asked me if I had a daughter. I told her no. She said that she had seen someone who looks just like me. They said she had glasses like me too. I later saw this girl (Kindergarten or 1st grader) and she was too cute. She had on jeans and a red turtleneck and a bluejean jacket and her hair was half-up in these little side ponytails. She was just adorable. I was complemented by the girls who thought she was my daughter.

All of the kids wanted to know how old I was. I let them ask me but I never told them. It was humerous because guessed everything from 6th grade to 200 years old. The smart ones concluded I was in my 20s or 30s.

At the end of the day, I had notes from some of the students (besides the excuse note from one student's mom: "Please excuse Ashley. We had things to do this morning." Short, to the point, evasive. I love it!) One note must be from one of the talkers in the class. It says: "Dear Teacher, I am Sorry for not listen to yeo can you for give me Please." It says PS something but the page is torn in half and I cannot get it. Second note: A heart drawn in many colors, LOVE is written in the center. Also unsigned.

Favorite note: A full page of notebook paper. A sun and clouds on the top of the sheet. The right hand upper corner has an angel made out of one of those erasers that fits on the end of a pencil. The eraser is gray and is covered with a piece of masking tape. It is a masking tape covered pencil erasor with a yellow halo and wings. It is weird. In the sky are little psis (as in the greek letter) flying around. I think they are supposed to be birds but they look more like the greek letter psi. At the bottom there is a cute picture of me (me with very large lips) and the girl that drew the picture. It is very cute.

- posted by Alicia @ 4:01 PM |

 
Substituting: Day 3
Yesterday was my third day to substitute. I was way excited because I thought that perhaps I might be subbing for my 8th grade teacher. The name was the same (the spelling was different but I didn't know that until the next morning when I saw it on the computer) and the grade and subject were the same. It would have been really cool. A very huge coincidence, seeing as how I am living 4 hours west of my junior high. But she (my former teacher) moved away. Who's to say that she didn't move here?

Anyway, I was excited. But alas, it was not her. It was for a language arts class. Or so I thought. Turned out, I didn't have my own class. I was subbing for a lady who did school within a school. So she goes into other classrooms that are having language arts and does... something. What she does I have not yet figured out. So I just hung out and helped students, answered questions, got them pencils, gave them "the look", told them to get on task, passed out booklets, and went home at 11:45. That part was the best.

Overall this school was better than the last. The kids were more what I am used to. More attentive and respectful. It might have been different had I not had another teacher in the room though. There is that.

I was very lucky to get to see four different language arts teachers and how they teach. It really was a great opportunity. I got to see the good and the bad and compare what I thought about all of them. Two of them were better than the other two. One spent entirely too much time passing out papers. It annoyed me.

Now onto finding another subbing job for tomorrow.

- posted by Alicia @ 6:36 PM |

 
An entire book!
Looking at my post from my first day of subbing in the other school district, I mentioned that there was only one paper air plane.

Well my day last week included not only two paper airplanes (one of which I picked up, ripped up, and threw in the trash) but a kid who rushed through his packet, turned it in, then opened his book of paper airplanes and started creating complex paper airplanes. I remember looking down at the book, seeing where it came from, and just being thankful that he was utilizing the school library.

- posted by Alicia @ 3:42 PM |

 
What a week!
What a long week it has been. I have been procrastinating on my school work. Procrastinating and reading too many fun books instead of doing things I should be doing like working on the Tables for my Case Study and working on my Webquest and fun things like that.

Well here was my week:

Monday: Can't really remember. Oh yeah. Had a DG meeting that lasted about 3 1/2 hours. I was at the house for about 7 hours and missed going to work. Which means (according to the new policy they are actually FOLLOWING!) that they have to write me up. But don't you worry! I am armed and ready. I have the names of the seven names of people I called to take my shift and the names of people that couldn't work because they were scheduled to work then too. Ah what a mess.

Tuesday: Presidential Election Day! I stood in line for an hour and 15 minutes. It was amazing. There were several people with kids who had to keep them entertained while in line. There was one lady who brought her knitting to do. One guy who was studying something. I saw two neighbors from the neighborhood and we talked about the construction. Here is the amazing part: My neighbors (litterally!) and I bonded together as we asserted our civic responsibilities to vote! We voted one way or the other, for or against Kerry and Bush, pro or against the new arena. But we all showed up and got it done. My dad voted at 6 something in the morning and said it took him about 1 1/2 hours to get through the line. My mom voted after work after 5 o'clock. It took her about 15 minutes. Go figure.

Wednesday: Monday afternoon I got my codes to be able to sign up to substitute in Wichita. So then on Tuesday I signed up for a job and promptly questioned my sanity. I went to the library and made some copies of some forms to leave for the teacher and for the office. So anyway, on Wednesday I woke up at 4:00am to go sub. 4:00 my time but 5:00 my tv alarm time because I forgot to change the clock off of Daylight Savings time. I slept for another hour and then got up and got ready and left the house by 5:45. It was too dark to be awake. I arrived at the school at 6:18 I believe. That's what I put on the sign in sheet anyway. The secretary explained that I was in a strict school. Or non passing or something. Anyway, the school was different than regular middle schools. I did not know this before signing up. Everything was going well until 8:40. That is when the kids first showed up. Actually I had to go retrieve them. I trailed along the teacher across the hall and she called for my students and they lined up behind me like little uniform wearing, oh-how-can-we-ruin-this-sub's-day ducks.

It was a social studies class. The teacher (I actually met her in the morning before school started) left behind a packet dealing with the Constitution and Amendments dealing with Elections. So it was a pertinant topic and something I could talk about. The school has a block schedule and so I only had 4 classes. They were all very very talkative. But we got through the day. At the end of the day I thanked the teachers that were helpful and therefore soooo valuable and one took my sub # and said he would request me. He said that I had done better than most. Up until that point I didn't really know what I was up against. I had done well? Was I not expected to do well? On the way out of the building I saw another teacher who said, "Well, at least you are not leaving in tears."

My final evaluation of the day was this: no one killed eachother and I think they might have learned something. That was enough for me.

Thursday: Well one day of subbing in a week was enough for me. I just played worker girl at my two jobs and let that be that.

Friday: Went to the high school library for the morning. Shelved some books. Ahh the peaceful repetitive nature of shelving! Then cataloged a book. Count it: one. Then went home. Then to work, then out to dinner.

Now today is Saturday. I have gotten some work done but not much. Need to go to church either today or tomorrow. Need to go to Inspiration and Initiation. Need to complete applications for teaching certification program, get an apartment, make mucho money, and continue life.

- posted by Alicia @ 3:18 PM |