Today, my last day of freedom before teacher inservices begin. Tomorrow, 8.30am. Oh boy.
Anyway, instead of a last hurrah, I get to prep for the two teacher tests I have to take for my Texas licensure to clear. That begins bright and early Saturday morning. The material will be all the same sort of stuff on my Oregon licensure tests (Texas doesn't trust any of them Northern states). I think the history section will be the most difficult for me, as I have no head for dates. Luckily, there is a 250+ page review booklet for the content test and a 50+ page review booklet for the pedagogy & professional responsibilities test.
I'd really much rather do curriculum--that's how much I hate these tests.
The day will be broken up midway by Bruce's promotion ceremony, where I hope to escape all remarks about my age and unmarried status. The combination of overly-friendly Texans and nosy military types makes it unlikely, but one can hope.
Car is fixed!
31.7.07
augh
30.7.07
omph
But I like it--does that make sense?
I could absorb all day.
phew
That's always nice.
You do know that the speed limit on freeways around San Antonio is between 65-70mph? Not a good speed to have a blowout.
Lesson learned.
(The only bad part is I think the garage had to send my car out to get aligned, which almost certainly means I am spending more than I need to, had I gone right to a tire shop in the first place. But I did not know of a good tire shop and I was in panic mode anyway. I should be grateful that I am not in a ditch right now.) (And I am.)
29.7.07
pre-prepare
Here is the lovely and delightful Bernina 830, the newest addition to my household! She's a hulking metal beast of a machine that sneers at those newfangled supercomputer sewing contraptions and willingly chews up yard after yard of fabric (that's good chewing, not destructive).
I bought a yard of gorgeous watercolor fabric to make pillowcovers (Bruce helped choose) and it is now washed and dried and awaiting the box o' notions Susie packed up so I can cut and pin etc. to my heart's content.
That's the good news. The bad news is that my car is in the shop. I've had alignment issues and, starting two/three weeks ago, I had vibration issues. Both have successively worsened (mayhap they are connected!) and I had to cancel all my errand-running today after my fear of car shaking to pieces at 65mph on the freeway overcame my fear of bad hair due to lack of product. So I am down to a squeeze or two of my beloved Graham Webb and no transport; I left the Honda at the mechanic's with a sad little note and dropped my keys in the after hours slot. Inservice begins early Wednesday morning. I hope I have a car by then. Ag.
Back to some good news: I downloaded and printed out the Texas curriculum guidelines for the classes I'm teaching, something I should have done months ago. So all I have to do now is process those 40+ pages and cross-reference them with the following image:
Yes, those are the teacher's supplementary materials for the 7th grade Literature course--not the English/Grammar portion, oh no; that is just for Lit. Do note that lacking in the photo is the elephantine teacher's manual.
Imagine this table with the following added to the stacks: the 6th grade Literature and the 6th grade English/Grammar materials, then the 8th grade Literature and the 8th grade English/Grammar materials, and then the 7th English/Grammar stuff. And all the teacher's manuals (the 6th grade Literature has SIX huge wirebound manuals for the SIX sections of the text). I have not the storage space!
Instead of being overwhelmed by all that, I'm going to pretend it does not exist and just proceed as usual.
Lucky me, though, will be stuck here at home for two days with naught to do but build my coursework. Build build build!
PS: Bruce loves The Container Store!
27.7.07
ah, memories
From a version of Theseus and the Minotaur:
We give a special thanks to Ms. [me] for her participation in making the stage [I had to build a huge shadow play stage], but most of all, for giving us the opportunity to have this experience.No problem, kids. I live to create false-stone pillars and façades for the (literal) support of the performing arts.
From a presentation of Atalanta's Race:
Thanks to Ms. [me] for helping us with our puppets and for giving us our construction paper. And for giving us time in class.Aren't you glad I'm the sort of teacher that allows her students paper and time? It's because I care so much.
A superlative thank you from the program advertising a retelling of Persephone:
Thank you to Ms. [me again], who gave us ideas and supplied all her love and caring. She is the best in the whole universe.I know exactly the student who wrote that up and it cracks me up.
The upper school building is infested with crickets. They tell me this is normal for Texas summers, especially during the wet times. Alive and dead and in various stages of decomposition, the whole place smells like a pet store. I take care not to walk around barefoot.
Teacher in-service begins next week! I hope I'm ready.
24.7.07
cold burn
Do bad things happen in threes? I've lost count. Or am I supposed to start over, now?
When are those good things supposed to happen? One person's good is another's sorrow. I'm on the wrong plane.
I just want to throw up (my arms) and scream I don't know what the hell I'm doing. No one does, really; we just fake it as best we can. But what if you can see through someone else's smokescreen (which they inhale and relish like a fine cigar: poison) and there's nothing you can do--they just keep toking it in--so the best you can manage is no response at all.
That's no good. Or, it is good to keep a general sense of sanity but it isn't what he wants, what he deserves as determined by fuzzy logic, what he Should have. Should is greater than/equal to what he wants, by his math. Of course; he explains all.
Either the logic is not tempered by feeling or vice versa. I can't tell. I used to think it was the former but recent (and time is relative; one man's recent is another daughter's yesterday) loss (and subsequent restructuring [very hasty job]) suggests the latter. There's a randomness I never saw before.
Tabula rasa. scrape scrape scrape
21.7.07
brew baby brew
We recently welcomed a new being into our lives. Here is the very lovely and wonderful Technivorm KBT 741. Ugly name, gorgeous coffee. (The whole thing looks like this. It is a beast.)
Bruce and I spent a ridiculous amount of time driving around aimlessly today. There are still some gaping holes in my Teaching Wardrobe and I thought a visit to the local vintage clothing stores would be fun. I should not have bothered. (Vintage is usually code for "old and overpriced" clothing, but I am trying to move beyond my conservative style and I abhor malls.) (Next time, I stick with thrift stores.)
I looked up three promising shops--two had extensive websites that sold clothing. I noted addresses, MapQuested a route and we set off!
All three shops were closed. Permanently. Two closed their physical shops within the last few months and are now only virtual stores, apparently . . . ? Argh! Wasted time, wasted gas. Me trying not to let that ruin my day.
So I came home and ordered some things off nau (lots of sale items) and Boden (Boden actually had Fall clothing out; finally--and at 10% off. Their entire summer line is one sale, BTW) and just hope some of it fits. I also did a very good job of sticking to my Professional Clothing Shopping List (one splurge on a faaaaabulous coat) and purchased a few things that I might not have a few years ago, stylewise.
I need to scour the internerd for traces of myself before school starts to make sure my students don't find anything incriminating. I, of course, will track down and monitor their MySpace pages. Gossip is very good to know for classroom management purposes.
Back to the coffee.
17.7.07
kiss my summer goodbye
I spent yesterday and today in the classroom. My stars! I am exhausted. I forgot what it is like to constantly work and be thoroughly engaged for hours on end. Spending five straight hours beginning to sort out a classroom and prep for 125 students is wearying in a way seven straight hours working at the pottery studio is not. The main difference is I can do whatever the hell I want at school and don't have to work with idiot customers. I may have idiot students once the year gets going, but it is my job to coax them into enlightenment.And you must agree, it is much easier to deal with guileless kids than vapid, thick-headed grown-ups. Kids know they don't know everything! Adults assume they do--or at least assume that what they want is how it SHOULD be. Gah.
Anyway, I am learning all sorts of new things. New school, new culture, new world. Frustration #1: No stuff. As a new teacher in a spankin' new classroom, I do not get the benefit of years of teacherly detritus that old classrooms gather. Them is valuable detritus, lemme tell you! So, clean slate, you say: space to create and grow. This is true. But the fact of the matter is I had to steal scissors and stapler and etc. from the next door classroom (I really hope that teacher doesn't show up) because I have to order everything. Including everything for the students--I'm talking school supplies. Pencils, paper, binders, notebooks, scissors, the whole shebang. On the first day of school, the students bring naught but their bags and themselves.
How many packs of paper do you order for 25 students? And that's just my homeroom class--do I also include paper for the 100 other kids? Do I have a class box o' paper or pass reams out on the first day? I don't want to worry about this crap.
My list of wants and list of questions are competing for length. List of wants is winning right now, but may not be able to hold the lead for long.
Other complications arise. I knew I'd be teaching 6-8th grade language arts. I knew there are TWO sixth grades and TWO seventh grades and ONE eighth. That makes approximately 125+ students to take care of (am not looking forward to grading long papers). Today I found out I am also in charge of social studies for BOTH sixth grade classes (50+ kids).
I obviously should not be blogging right now. I should be sleeping in the hopes of stocking up on shut-eye.
Then there is the meshing of the teacher's teaching style with the school. This could get interesting. First off, I hate basal readers. Those are the typical "reading books" many schools use to teach reading. They are clips of short stories, plays, poems, etc. I grew up on basal readers but have never taught with them. They are a pain in the ass.
"But Sarah," you ask, "whatever do the children read? What do they read?"
They read BOOKS, dammit. Picture books, short story collections, plays, young adult literature, middle readers, poems, novels, magazines and the like. They read the books and then they do kickass projects! Woot!
I'm starting to realize how nice I had it at my little, underfunded school in Boston. They had no money for fancy-dan basal readers. They had lots of class sets of books instead (also very old, very intimidating grammar texts) that we read. We read them and then did kickass projects! I had no choice but to make my own material (or dip into the teacherly detritus--old school, built-in bookshelves that had collected all sorts of things).
I also had three distinct sections of language arts for each grade; that was also a 6-8th grade gig, though much smaller--maybe 60 kids total. Each class had me separately for Writing, Literature and Grammar/Vocabulary. Lots of time!
At my new job, I get each class (6A, 6B, etc.) four times a week for 50 minutes. I guess I get to decide which sections will be for grammar (I hate grammar; I'd rather have them read and write all day and figure out the grammar as they go) and what sections to cover that damn basal reader. Then there is the unlovely English text. I kind of miss the old Boston grammars because they were straightforward , cut and dry. None of this flashy photo and design business. Do the textbook makers think they are competing with video games?
Tomorrow: Find cool posters for classroom. I only have a few here and there is a whole lotta wall to take care of since there is only one whiteboard and one bulletin board. I need more boards. And another bookcase and a filing cabinet. I think the school will pop for those.
I did find these on Allposters.com:
Campbell's Soup I, 1968
Will Power
Reading is Fun
Off to paw through my closet in search of more teacher stuff.
14.7.07
the menu
I have not been eating well the past couple of months. Many of my meals were scrounged instead of planned. I put off eating until I feel tired (because no food in stomach!) and end up having cereal for lunch and/or dinner. It is not healthy! I do not like this!
Tonight I sat down and wrote out a dinner menu for next week, see above; click to make larger. This took hours. I am picky. Bruce has texture issues. I tried to balance each meal and include items that are already in the refrigerator or cupboard. Meatless meals. VEGETABLES, mmmm. I also wanted to simplify the ordeal by not using all new recipes. I love trying new dishes, but that always takes longer.
The menu may be too ambitious. I already scratched the original plan for Thursday and put in a cop-out cheese & crackers & sushi night. Then again, it is important not to stuff one's self. We shall see!
it's in the blood
I had an excellent conversation with Susie the other day and found we both loathe the Prairie Home Companion radio show. SERIOUSLY. I never brought it up to other people because I thought they would shun me for wanting to burn Lake Wobegon à la Cuyahoga River style. Oh, yeah. Where'd your woe be then, huh, Keillor? Would it be . . . gone? Take that and stuff it down your north-midwestern gullet and LIKE IT. I am alone no longer!
By the way, although the above photo looks as if it documents Susie gleefully scheming a scheme to facilitate potential lake-burning, that is indeed the Willamette River with World Famous Steel Bridge in the background.
11.7.07
out the window
Ahh, first full day back in Howdy-Ma'am Land. Skies not so blue, breezes not so cool, air not nearly as smooth going down. But I've got a cat on my lap and a guy to help me eat the vast masses of pesto I'm going to make tonight.
I picked up my framed artwork today and am unsure about the results. The mat is wider than expected and the images look somewhat dwarfed. I don't know if it is just me and my chronic perfectionism; judgement will be passed after Bruce gets home and I can bounce ideas off him.
Bruce wants you all to know that none of my plants died under his care. The tomatoes are ripening to the tune of one or two a day, oh boy oh boy.
Speaking of which, it is time to give them a drink.
10.7.07
the salt in the air
What a fantastically relaxing and fun week I had in Boston --- Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Ipswich and, in the foto above, Newburyport.
Tonight and tomorrow are about catching up, cleaning up and starting to get set up for school.
I cannot thank everyone enough for last week. You are all made of awesome.
9.7.07
cameraphones suck
I am stealing some of Dana's broadband to catch up on email and other internet happenings. I did not bring my computer with me and therefore cannot upload fotos from my actual camera. So I am making do.
Boston is great.
I am wearing long sleeves.
Sally still loves me (in her own disdainful, slightly violent way)
I'm eating a lot of good food & drinking lots of good drink & walking my ass off. My feet are still adjusting.
[soy is bad]
Back to the desert tomorrow . . .
1.7.07
In honor of my upcoming trip:
Kristin can really knock 'em down. Look how small the bowling ball is! She is a veritable giant in the alley!
Believe you me, Meera and Ross really are this happy-fun to be around. That or they've managed to fool me for years now.
Big Balls, originally uploaded by arahsae.
I'll be back soon with more photos!
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