|
|
week 1.
Fri, Sep 2 2005 01:31PM |  |
| It's Friday afternoon, and I've just completed my first full week of school. Fourth year. This week was okay...I'm not going to lie and say it was super. I was super-busy, losing out on sleep and not getting a lot of my homework done on time.
I spent about 7 hours at activities, not including sending recruitment emails and planning upcoming events. And not including today's band event. This seems about a normal load...except that sending all of the emails and planning shit really ads up.
I told Slaughter that I would sub for them this year, so that I wouldn't have to work a weekly shift but I'd be able to pick up some shifts on weeks when I had more work. But, I heard that they really needed people, so I worked 15 hours this week. 15!!! Insanity! One night I closed (midnight) then woke up at 6 to do homework.
I have about a billion hours of class, and even more homework. I feel like I could manage going to all the classes, or doing the homework, but not both. For example, on Mondays I have class from 8 am - 7 pm (with a 1.5 hour break), then I go straight to pep band. So Mondays, I can't start homework until 9, and by then I'm too tired to do it. (I'm whining, I know.)
But have no fear, it's not all bad! Here are some happy things:
-We have had a bunch of new people come to pep band events, which makes all of my (hundreds) of hours of recruiting efforts feel a little more worthwhile. Now that we don't have to publicize ourselves anymore, I won't have to do so much work.
-Tuesday night was sign-up night for swimming, and I saw a lot of familiar parents. A few even mentioned how much they'd love for me to teach their child again, so I'm doing what I can to see that that happens. I also start babysitting one of my former students on Wednesday.
-The Banned is playing at the Nats game in one week! I'm really excited to be on the field, to see the Nats play again, and of course--to see my family! I'm going to try to go a night early to have a birthday dinner with them but I need to find some passengers for my car (because there's no way I can pay for this gas by myself). | | 2 comments |
| |
|
|
the schedule.
Thu, Aug 25 2005 05:41AM | |
| 1) Language Bloc part 1 (Teaching Reading)
Read LOTS of children's books and make tri-fold displays of reading centers. Yay for Scholastic book orders...and my SEVEN textbooks!!!
2) Teaching of Elementary Science
Learn 5th grade science and how to make it fun, all the while lamenting the existence of the SOLs and No Child Left Behind. (read: screw you, Bush!)
3) Teaching of Elementary Social Studies
Learn about working social studies into the daily curriculum, in the wake of NCLB.
4)
5) Teaching a Modern Foreign Language
self-explanatory, nothing too exciting, but it was fun the first day.
6) Curriculum and Instruction (2 cr. ) & Field Experience (1 cr.)
Four hours/week and only make 3 credits. Don't get it? Neither do I.
7) Spanish Grammar Review & Composition
I'm not in Spain anymore but I still get to write 8-page papers! Rock on!
Total damage: 18 credits and $700 on books. |
| Me
Sat, Jul 23 2005 11:43AM | |
|  | | I recently found a bunch of decent pics from last summer. See "People" for a few others. |
|
la casa
Wed, Aug 24 2005 01:17PM | |
|  | Taken at the last "Cena de Viernes" in the fall of 2005 (before I went to Spain). We did secret santas that night and I got a cute mug from Amy, our Graduate Advisor.
I'm really excited about being back in the house this year. There are a lot of people I became friends with last year and hope to get to know better this year. I've also already hung out with a lot of the new people so I'm really happy.
Oh yeah, and I won the raffle for one of the two parking spots. And I have a single. So it seems the transition will be pretty smooth =D | | 1 comment |
| Kimberly's backyard
Tue, Jul 12 2005 05:32PM | |
|  | | More Long Beach Island pics in "Summer 2005" album. |
| |
Liz Phair!!!
Sun, Aug 7 2005 09:32AM | |
| Thursday night I went to Liz Phair's acoustic concert at the Birchmere. It was awesome. I went to a normal/plugged concert of hers last fall, which was very different but also very cool. The biggest difference here was that she played a lot more of her older songs the other night, and they had a sound that was pretty different than that on the albums. With only two acoustic guitars accomanying her voice, her singing sounded a lot better than usual, and you could more closely listen to the words. It was really great. There is a review by The Washington Post that gives a pretty accurate description. All in all, it was a really good performance.
The Birchmere is a Music Hall, which means it's completely seated. There are no assigned seats, but you get a line number when you check-in, then seat yourself and have food before the concert. It's a different sort of venue but I thought it was good for this concert because you could really sit and listen. There wasn't too much singing along from the crowd, but at a normal concert there would be, and I think a more traditional club would work better for that kind of concert. |
|
Kindergarten
Wed, Aug 3 2005 07:19PM | |
| So this little girl comes to my school wearing a bright pink and silver cardboard crown, the kind you'd wear if it was your birthday.
Teacher: Wow I really love your crown! Are you wearing it because it's a special day?
Girl: Yes!
Teacher: Oh, what's special about today?
Girl: It's a school day!
This is just one example of why I want to teach kindergarten! Really though, kindergarten and first grade are both spectacular. I've seen so much progress in just three weeks. Not all of these kids are braniacs or anything--far from it. But it's just so nice to see that a kid who drew the same stick figures and no letters during writing time every day for three weeks, today drew a kite and wrote sounded out "KIT" by himself. <ND> yesssssssssssssssssss </ND> |
|
Tegan & Sara
Thu, Jul 21 2005 07:39PM | |
| Oh, how I love Tegan and Sara. Monday night I saw them at the 9:30 Club with Gayle. It was my second T&S concert and it was absolutely amazing. Compared to most of my music favorites (Tori Amos, Wilco, Nickel Creek, Radiohead, etc.), Tegan and Sara are still developing musically, making each time they come out with an album or perform that much better than the last one. In comparison to the concert I went to last October, T&S played more of their older stuff, but in a variety of interesting ways. The club was actually pretty full for a relatively unknown Canadian band, and people seemed to know the words, which was fun. The opening band, Communique, was also very good.
Any other T&S-lovers out there? A few pics are in "Summer 2005." | | 1 comment |
|
Blockus
Tue, Jun 28 2005 03:09PM | |
|  | | The awesomest game, EVER! You start with one piece in a corner, each turn adding one piece to the board, connected by corners with another piece your color. It's such an evil game. The player with the fewest blocks left at the end wins. In other news, my mom is horrible at Clue and cheats so that no one else can win either! |
| |
Sudoku
Tue, Jun 28 2005 02:53PM | |
| Screw the crosswords, I've finally found a puzzle that I like!!! It's a logic puzzle that has recently become popular in Britain. The Washington Post premiered the daily puzzle this week. It will get harder as the week goes on. It says that "the easier puzzles might take 30 minutes to complete" but it takes me more like 15. It's awesome, check it out!
http://www.sudoku.com/
In other news, I am NEVER going to Florida. Two shark attacks in three days!!! Like I needed another reason to avoid that state. | | 2 comments |
|
John Warner...and books.
Tue, Jun 21 2005 02:00PM | |
| I love it when the Senate writes me back, even to disagree! I emailed John Warner a nice form letter (with some personal comments) about why I think he should have voted against the nuclear ban on filibustering against judicial nominees. He wrote me a nice form letter saying how adamantly he disagreed with me. Well, at least I tried. I'm worried now but I'll be more worried when they start to limit my right to choose...
In other news, I just finished reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It was a good read...I was kind of disappointed by the ending at first, but when I finished, I was content with the way it was resolved without resorting to a predictable, happy ending.
Now I'm reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. It's written from the point of view of a boy who has autism but also is gifted at math. It's fascinating and I think it's a good insight into the mind of someone who has autism, keeping in mind that most children who have autism are not savants.
On the trashy side of my life...I was very pleased with the outcome of last night's Inferno II season finale, and look forward to tonight's season premiere of Real World. Yes! | | 1 comment |
|
Finally, a job!
Tue, Jun 21 2005 01:44PM | |
| I haven't posted in forever so here is an update (this will probably bore everyone that doesn't know me):
I was in Charlottesville from May 15 - June 10. I had three part-time jobs: working at the gym, teaching swim lessons, and babysitting. So I worked a lot, played a little, but ended up having a good time and making a lot of money so I'm really glad I decided to spend some time down there. I even got to hang out with Kim and Ally a bit. Babysitting is a gold mine...I have some regular customers lined up for the fall which is exciting, and I was hired to keep working at Slaughter so I guess the fall will be filled with the same jobs.
Last week, I was a live-in nanny for 8 days for three kids while their parents were in Scotland. They're close family friends, a lot of fun, and pretty independent. So it was a good time all-around, but it kind of sucked to be so close to my family friends when I couldn't be with them. I also spent a few mornings at Campbell School where I am going to be a teacher's assistant in the mornings for summer school. I had fun and am really looking forward to it.
The only problem with all the good times was that I had no work as of yesterday...when I was offered a job! YAY! I started working for a small company in DC today. It was pretty fun. I worked on basic web design stuff, which is awesome, because I think it's fun but lack skills, so it was a good task to begin on. I doubt I will keep doing stuff like this though, I think they were just using me to catch up on work that should have been done a while ago (posting presentations from international conferences and formatting the layout). |
| |
summer reading
Tue, May 31 2005 08:53PM | |
| Yesterday was Memorial Day. Mine wasn't the most patriotic ever...but it was the first day off I had in a week so that was really nice. I spent some time making my "family" album, so check it out. I thought I'd make it through the day without a barbecue but then Ally and Steve invited me over for a burger and I eventually convinced them that we should make cookies (yay!).
Today, I finished East of Eden. It was a beautiful book. I can't really describe it to you, or even quote it, because the meaning will be lost to you if you don't read all 602 pages. I became interested in reading it last summer when both my mom and my friend Michelle were reading it. It's my favorite Steinbeck book that I've read to date but I don't really remember The Pearl or Of Mice and Men (although I remember appreciating the latter, which I've read twice).
I sometimes choose to reread books that I read in high school because I tend to whip through books and not really remember or value them in the long run. I've already reread The Catcher in the Rye, and I plan to reread To Kill a Mockingbird and the Scarlet Letter this summer. For new books, I plan to read Memoirs of a Geisha, Sense and Sensibility, Life of Pi, and the new Harry Potter book when it comes out. Probably The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. (looks like I won't have time to find a summer job...)
Any other recommendations for me? I'm interested in children's books too, maybe I'll crack into the Series of Unfortunate Events. My recommendations to you:
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Fast Food Nation, Reviving Ophelia, and Like Water for Chocolate (Spanish version preferred), Dave Sedaris for lighter reading | | 10 comments |
| |
|
ai4r
Welcome to Annie Land. It's like Candy Land, only better, because I always get the snowflake card and go to Queen Frostine's magical iceberg. Sweet.
