HAPPY SPRING BREAKKK

Hey everyone... Happy spring break!!! Hope everyone is enjoying resting and catching up whatever it is you have to catch up on (read: I finished a paper yesterday and have more work to do... UGH) I'd like to post a link to a good friend's cause that he's trying to fundraise for. It's called the Courage Classic and it's a 157 mile bike ride in the mountains. (Crazy right?) The best part is that it helps raise money for Children's Hospital of Colorado. So not only are you enCOURAGing someone to ride for 157 but you are enCOURAGing change to be made at Children's by giving. It's an awesome cause and worth donating in anyway you can... So help, please if you can. Thanks and go back to sleep!!! xoxo


http://www.couragetours.com/2012/dhiwolfpack

WHOA... a normal day?

Friday was strange in that it was a totally 100% normal day! No TCAP, no crazy anything! It was strange to try to get back into the swing of things... Even if it is just days before spring break. I'll be honest, I felt like I was coming back from summer break to pre-season... It was crazy trying to remember how to teach! Trevor and I both noted that we felt totally out of practice. After completing my evaluation I realized that I'm starting to get close to becoming... GASP, a real adult! This future I'm working so hard to create is getting closer. This weekend I'm planning on applying for jobs (I've already cranked out 2 cover letters) and thinking seriously about my portfolio and other crazy things... Ay ay ay

TCAP lady style

So today's TCAP adventure was... feminine... It was funny because one of the girls I test had just gotten her period. Now the actual getting of the first period is mortifying and I still vividly remember telling my mom all the while hoping my dad wouldn't hear. It is a clear memory for every girl. However, after telling your girlfriends, you kind of just want to walk around feeling special. This girl is different... so naturally the way she handles this passage differently. EVERYTHING about TCAP had to do with periods, lady stuff, puberty and the works. Needless to say, my awkward took over HARDCORE... I was dyyyyyyying. It was definitely a learning experience in grace for me. I needed to figure out a way to bring our conversation back around to TCAP... This isn't family life girl this is standardized testing! AHHH it was not easy for me to keep a straight face and to keep on task with the TCAP.

TCAP yet again...

So today was day 4 of 6 for tcap testing... I'll be honest, the approximately 4 hours I spend in a CLOSET testing these 2 girls is brutal... I mean sitting staring at a dot on the table brutal. I've been thinking a lot and working through scheduling of my life in addition to reworking some of my curriculum unit lessons. When I say that it sounds like I make huge progress on my life but here's the deal, tcap is also a vortex of blobness. Your brain literally melts... What made today was worse was that I had to go to rocketry in the afternoon. Now if you don't remember what my previous rocketry experience was like, I got told I suck. So needless to say I was SUPER pumped to be going after spending my morning in the brain vortex....

Reflections....

So with all this introspective thinking time I've been given lately, many thoughts have crossed my mind. One of which I would like to share with you. For those of you who don't know, every year I was away at school (either high school or college) my dad would send me a letter in the fall. I cherish and love these letters more then anything... And to be fair he also sent them to my brothers. I looked forward to the advice my dad would give me for the upcoming school year or his own personal reflections because I knew he had some wonderful sage advice. The letters are now currently on the walls of my bedroom at my parents house but I've been thinking lately how I'd like to frame them. As much as I hate to admit it sometimes, my parents are right just about all the time on everything, and sure I occasionally get my own zinger in there but that's not the point. The point is that now, 8 years after my first letter, I'm starting to listen to all the great advice both my parents have given me.

With the scary upcoming job prospects I have (read: job applications and interviews etc;) I'm trying to hold onto all that great advice since I'll be jumping into the pool blindly. I'll be honest, applying for jobs is scary. Having already been rejected I'm afraid of putting myself out there again. Knowing how hard it is to get a job... I'm just getting ready to step up to the plate and am unsure of how it'll go.

A friend of mine from Sewanee has started a blog about food (he's a football player so eating is his specialty ;-) ) and his recent post was about trying new foods. While he was actually talking about trying new foods I read it a bit differently. I read it that one can never know what the future holds without just moving forwards. I totally agree with that concept because the truth is we really never can know what is in store. So really why not jump forwards?

Now I can say all of this stuff but the truth is I can't preach without practicing... So I'm logging on to the DPS website and just jumping... I'm not saying I'll apply for any jobs tonight but I definitely am going to try not hold back from the future any more... So here goes... wish me luck...


(here's the link if you want to see his take on the future http://chattanoogafoodie.tumblr.com/)

AQUARIUMMMM

So today was our long overdue field trip to the aquarium!! I was so excited... Like bursting with happiness and greatness... so excited! It was great! We walked through the aquarium on self guided tours and then we had a fun classroom experience on sharks. I was freaking out about how awesome every single awesome second. Yes I just said awesome twice because I seriously was pumped... Sure there were a few moments of freak out but man, the kids were so into everything that was going on, I was just so happy we were there!

Yesterday was honestly, awful! I spent the morning doing TCAP then went to seminar so I didn't even spend anytime with the kids... LAMEEEEOOOOOOOO

TCAP + feeling sick = death...

So let me just paraphrase the day... I felt sick from about 7am until... um... still now. It's been a long rough day, in addition to that I also had an observation this afternoon. So there was no time for decompressing and feeling sick. It sucked... I literally feel like shit. It is awful.... And despite all of this, there are just a few things that aren't adding up in a few areas. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm getting a feelings it might just be time to move on...

TCAP death... DAY 1

So today was the first day of TCAP... needless to say it was AWFUL... Our first session we were literally IN THE HALLWAY. Me and two students in the hallway... The 1-2s were running around, stomping on the ground just being generally obnoxious. It stressed me mainly because they freak you out so much about administering the TCAP (aka lose your job, shame, job loss, SHAME) luckily both of my girls finished in enough time and without drama. The second test we took in the CLOSET next to the elevator and the cafeteria.... And did I mention that despite it being in extended time neither girl used it? While we were LOCKED IN A CLOSET.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH It was literally so hard not to talk to them, not to smile at them... To basically be a robot. I left for lunch having basic not functioning. My brain literally didn't turn on until approximately 1pm.... Ugh... day two tomorrow

A calm monday... how strange..

So today was oddly enough a calm Monday. With a few absences and a math test, the day seemed to progress without the usual insanity that is Monday. The only part of the day that was draining like always was duty... And as Trevor says, "you can't spell Monday without Duty..." haha who knows... Anyways, despite the day being fairly boring, my mind was elsewhere... A lot of things are weighing on my mind.... The best part is though that tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday I will get to sort everything out while I am watching a few students take the TCAP. Can't you feel my excitement? Its practically tangible right? Yeahhh.... I'm pumped. To be fair it will be fun to just get to think and process my life but for 12 hours this week? YIKES. I'm pretty sure that no subject and no person in my life will be safe from at least 10 minutes of scrutiny at some point ;-) get exciteddddddd

So to sum up last week..

There was a little bit of everything... Stanley interviews and taking a child to the principal's because you know, I suck, to having a breakdown about my curriculum unit, it was a long freaking week. On tuesday when I had to go to the principals office despite the fact that this wasn't my first visit taking a child it was definitely really difficult. I had an unexpected run in with emotions and guilt. It was definitely hard for me but Trevor was great and talked me through it. It was a great bonding session between us because we both had a tough last 40 minutes of school just separately. Wednesday was a blur of interviews and other crazy things. The end of the week went by in a blink with a hiccup of trying to figure out how to get a job with DPS. I was trying to finish one lesson from my curriculum unit and this girl who I totally adore just was frustrating me. I reminded her of one of the expectations and instead of saying oh yeah thanks for reminding me she flipped out at me. It just totally broke me down because I'm already feeling insecure about my project since we haven't gotten to any of the fun stuff yet and it just seems difficult. I know I'm pushing the kids in different directions then they have gone before but seriously... They need to give me a chance! Ugh, I'm trying so freaking hard... This week we'll finish up that lesson, do our science lesson and finally our art project.... I'm praying that it will get better and that the kids will figure out the fun things we will get to do now that the hard boring stuff is (almost) out of the way!