Not Quite Grown Up...

I have arrived.

2008-07-24T22:06:00.002-05:00

After a long three days in the car, watching the thermostat go higher and higher as I drover further and further south, I have arrived at my new home. I have set up my room, more or less. (There were a few obstacles, the biggest being that the Ikea bed I purchased would not fit into my car, and was immediately returned in favor of this bed purchased off the internet.

Last year when I graduated, I was given a gift certificate to a teacher store which I finally used a few days before the left the Midwest. Tomorrow I am going to bring that eclectic collection of teacher stuff (border, stickers, posters) to my classroom. MY classroom. I will finally get to see the room. School doesn't begin for a few weeks still, but I cannot even imagine how to start planning until I see what materials I actually have available to me in the classroom and what my room looks like. I don't know that I'll be able to do a whole lot until new teacher training which isn't for another week still, but just seeing my room and familiarizing myself with the space will hopefully help.

Hiatus: Over
New life: Begin

Move!

2008-07-17T23:45:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow I'm cramming everything I can into my Corolla and starting my drive from the Midwest to the Southwest to begin my new life as a first grade teacher. (Did I ever mention that? That I'm for sure teaching first grade?)

Maybe in a week or so, once I'm pseudo moved-in (aka: I own a bed or some suitable substitute, and my clothes are no longer layered between books in moving boxes) I will actually write more often than once every, oh, three months or so.

I'm excited to move, and terrified to teach, so nothing's new there. Hopefully more intelligent introspection to come!

Likely transparent request

2008-05-06T22:08:00.004-05:00

Okay, so it seems that there is someone who visits here every once in a while who (according to my stats counter) is coming from Mountainous Southwestern State's capital city (named after a bird which presents itself in Greek mythology). Um, if you exist, would you mind leaving me a comment or sending me an email? I have a question to ask you...

RBOC: Really random and really boring edition

2008-04-29T22:14:00.006-05:00

Things I feel compelled to share with someone, even if that someone is the hypothetical people of the Internet:

- Thanks for all the congratulations. When I think about moving to the Southwest and teaching in Large City I alternate between feeling an anxiety induced nauseating terror, and a guarded hopeful optimism. My time is currently split about 75:25 (Terror:Optimism). I'm expecting the two to average out a bit more as time goes on. At least, I'm hoping the two average out a bit more as time goes on.

- The State University, which will be a conveniently short drive from where I will be moving, has an interdisciplinary PhD program in Applied Linguistics with a concentration in Educati0nal Linguistics. I dream of some day applying to the program. It's doubtful that it will ever happen, but a girl can dream.

- I just impulse bought a new book. I realized I still had gift card money left on my Amazon account, and decided to spend some of it.

- Today I taught a third grader about the "cut" and "paste" functions on word processing programs. It was awesome -

Student: "Ms. Grownup, I typed my introduction down here at the bottom, at the end of everything else. But I need to make it be up at the top because it's the intro."

Me: "Okay. Highlight what you want to move, and then press "apple" and "X" at the same time on the keyboard. And don't freak out because what you have highlighted is going to disappear.

Student: "Okay." (She held down the apple and the X keys, and gasped. Because everything disappeared!)

Me: "Good. Don't worry, it'll come back. Now click where you want the paragraph to go. And then type "apple" and "V" at the same time."

Student: (She did as instructed, and her paragraph appeared at the top of the page.) "Whoa!! Neat! How'd it do that?!

She then jumped up and ran to teach this super-cool new cut/paste feature to a friend. I love technology and teaching kids how to use it to their advantage.

- I had a conversation with a student about mammoth extinction. He was insisting that "no one will ever know why mammoths are extinct." I was trying to ascertain whether that was something he had read somewhere, or something he was making up. Since I do know several different theories people have as to why mammoths have become extinct. I tried to explain archeology to him in a very, very small nutshell. I think he was starting to get it, but then we had to change subject.

- Also with the same student; he said that no one would ever know what happened to mammoths until we died. I asked how we would know when we died -

Student: "Because we'll be in heaven" he reasoned.

Me: "Okay, but how will that help us know about the mammoths?" I continued to question.

Student: "Because the mammoths will be in heaven too and so we'll be able to know then. Because all animals go to heaven and people and mammoths are animals.

Me: "Okay," I relented. That was well-enough reasoned for me for the moment.

- I finally watched Juno. I cried at the end when she was giving up the baby. I kind of hate that I cried at the end when she gave up the baby. I don't know what to think about that movie. (I know my reaction is a half a year too late. I'm slow to watch movies.)

I made a (terrifying) life decision!

2008-04-24T19:55:00.005-05:00

So... I did it. I took a leap, made a decision, and faxed in my signed "letter of intent" to work at an urban school district in a large city in the Southwest. I won't know until the end of May what grade or at what school I will be teaching.

Shortly after I submitted my intent, I received a phone call informing me that I was being offered another job! This, a position at a school district in a rural border community in the Southwest. This was a position that I had been flirting with the idea of, but didn't think that I would actually be offered. Apparently though, I did a good job of convincing the (phone) committee who interviewed me that I was seriously considering moving to this very rural border community. And I was seriously considering it. I would have loved to for so many reasons; I enjoy the rural lifestyle, I student taught in a small, kind of run-down, sleepy town and really liked that feeling, I would be working with the student demographic who interests me, and the district would be close to Mexico which is always neat. And also the people who interviewed me seemed really nice (my would be principal, a coworker, an assistant, and a parent) - when I voiced concern about being able to find a place to live down there if I were offered the job, they all reassured me that the town has a great community, and I would always be able to find a couch or floor to sleep on if I couldn't find an apartment right away. However, the one huge downside would have been the fact that this town is so rural - 2+ hours away from the closest medium-sized city, and I would have very few "peers" in the town.

So...I guess it's a good thing that I eliminated this rural border possibility by accepting the offer in the Large City before I was forced to make a decision between the two.

(And, embarrassingly, it is a little boost to my self-esteem that there are two districts who wanted me (and well, maybe more had I turned down this first offer and waited to hear back from other places).)

In trying to convince myself that I made the right choice (because I did and it will be good) I will make a list of the positive aspects of moving to the Southwest and working in this district.

1. The students come from the demographic I would like to work with.
2. The district has a new teacher mentoring program, which, even if poorly implemented, should be better than no new teacher mentoring program. (Right?)
3. The district is located within fairly close proximity to a University with a pretty strong Education program. (For my grad school aspirations.)
4. The southwest has nice weather.
5. I get to start an adventure!

Of course, there are downsides as well.
1. The Southwest is really far from the Midwest. (Google maps charts it as longer than one full day/24 hours by car.)
2. What if I hate the heat and sunshine? After all, I'm used to wearing long underwear through mid-April. What if I miss the absurd clothing layering I go through to keep warm in winter?
3. I'm very pale and have a family history of skin cancer. I will have to liberally apply sunscreen every day. (It sounds ridiculous, but it's true.)
4. I don't know how to make friends. How does one make friends in the real world? I have absolutely no ties with anyone in Large City, or even in Southwestern State at all. (This I would have to go through most anywhere.)
5. What if I really do like it and never want to move back to the Midwest?

Regardless of the "pluses" and "minuses," I made a decision and I am excited. I'm taking a risk and we'll see what happens! I will experience my dream of living among cacti, (well, when I leave the city). I do know, from past life events, that I adjust quite well to new places, and this will be another opportunity for me to experience a great adjustment. This will be at the least a year of my life, at the most...who knows?

Whatever it is, it will be good.

So confused!

2008-04-20T22:15:00.004-05:00

Last weekend I was offered a job at a school district in Large City in Southwestern state. I have to let them know within the next...four days whether or not I want to work for their district. I don't know what school I would work at or what grade I would teach.

There are other schools I am waiting to hear back from. Some schools I have done screening interviews with, and the screening interviews went fine, I think they went pretty well.

So I have several theoretical options, one true option, and a handful of most-likely-not options.

I have no idea what to do. Do I take the one offer I've been given? Do I decline and wait to hear back from other schools (most of whom are just now starting to hire externally) and just hope that someone else will hire me? I don't know, I don't know, Idon'tknow.

I don't want to be snotty and decline this offer, which would be a great offer. There are a lot of things I really like about the district. The demographic is one I really want to work with (high percentage of English language learners). There seems to be a fairly strong new-teacher mentoring type program. I think the pay is okay.

With all these positives going for it, shouldn't I just take the job and be done with it? I wouldn't have to worry anymore. I would still interview with principals to see which school I would end up working at, so not everything would be decided. But it would be so nice to just know. To be done with all this uncertainty.

On the other hand, I don't want to just take the first thing thrown at me. My other theoretical possibilities are good too. I think I would be happy enough at any one of them. In general I'm a fairly optimistic and go-with-the-flow person overall, so I truly feel that I would meld myself to fit anywhere. But these theoretical possibilities are just that - theoretical. They aren't offers. What if I declined this one offer I've been given, and then no one else wants to hire me? Then, I'm the idiot without a job who could have had a job had she been less choosy or indecisive or over-confident.

The thing is, in the long run, it just does not matter. Most of these places would be completely new-to-me places, so I would have to learn to adapt to the new city and the new job. And if I teach for a year or two, and absolutely hate it, I can pick up and go somewhere else to teach. I can give up teaching and apply to attend graduate school full time. I can give up teaching and apply for a completely different type of job. I am so lucky that I have the ability to decide to move wherever I want to and live there for however long I want to (as long as it ends with the school year - I would never desert a class in the middle of the school year).

My "endless possibilities" are frustratingly open. I have nothing holding me back from going anywhere, really. And I have no real preference, really. So this decision thing is causing a whole lot of mental anguish.

I guess, in four days, I will have made some decision. Whatever decision that ends up being. (In the meantime, I have more interviews scheduled, to add to the confusion. I wish people would stop interviewing me.)

Filling out all those applications pays off.

2008-04-14T21:05:00.005-05:00

So...

I got offered a teaching job at a school district in a Large City in Southwestern State.

I haven't a clue as to what I should do about it.

I have to decide within the next 10 days, though.

In the meantime, I am waiting to hear something back from a school district I interviewed with in a Medium-Large City in Southwestern State (I should hear back within the next 3 days), and I have a phone interview scheduled with a school district in a Rural-Border-Town in Southwestern State in about a week.

I had this whole complicated Life Plan set up with a very specific schedule that I hoped to follow. Up until this point, I had been following the schedule, but then was worried that I wasn't going to be able to find a teaching job by April as I had originally hoped - especially after so many people I talked to told me that they didn't get hired for their first jobs until July or August. Now though, with things oddly speeding up, I might know really soon. Like, within the next 10 days. A thought that is simultaneously terrifying and an incredible relief.

Additionally, I think that I love interviews. Really, where else do you get a captive audience to listen to you spout out your educational goals/philosophy/beliefs/experiences for 30+ minutes? It's fun! Really fun! I want to a job fair, scheduled four interviews - three with schools I wanted to work at, and the fourth at a school I didn't really care for but thought I'd interview with anyway. When I was told that one of the schools would offer me a position, I canceled the last interview. But I almost went through with it anyway, just for the experience of it all. Interviews can go up there on the list of things that seem very out of character for me to enjoy, but which I nonetheless am competently and confidently able to pull off. (I am incredibly quiet, very introverted, and though I deny being shy people don't believe me. However, I am always excited to give presentations or speeches, and an interview must go into that category somehow.) At least, I'm competent and confident from my perspective, this may or may not be indicative of my actual performance during interviews, but regardless, I feel good about it.

Ramblings about teaching applications and a plea for help.

2008-04-07T23:54:00.002-05:00

After much (much) deliberation, I finally decided to apply to work as a classroom teacher at the school I currently work at (as an aid-type-person). I absolutely love the school, the staff, and the students. So I'm not quite sure why it was such a tough decision, and why I still don't really think I want to work at this school permanently (or at least semi-permanently). I think I had hoped to get at least a little bit further away from home, even if I continue to live in Home State. This is actually the first application I have submitted to a school in Home State, so maybe that's where my conflict lies. Also, I work at a small school and I know all 28 kids who would be my students next year. And I'm not sure how them and all their energy will fit into the classroom that would be mine. (Again, this is all silly theoretical stuff, since I haven't even been granted an interview for the job yet. I've gotta avoid counting, housing, and feeding all my chicks before I've even gotten the eggs.)

Aside from that application, I have applied to work at, I think, seven schools in Southwestern State, three schools in College State, and one school in Midwestern State Neighboring College State. Apparently, that only puts me at 12 applications. Considering the fact that I spend all my energy researching schools and filling out applications, it certainly feels like more than just 12. Also, I think I probably need to throw a lot more applications out there.

Luckily, filling out these applications is a bit like pulling off a band-aid. The first 8 or so caused bouts of nail-biting and intense introspection. By now though, I've gotten the basic cover letter down and I've answered enough of those "short answer" type questions that I have a basis for those too. I only obsess over applications for like 5 days now, as opposed to the two weeks of days yore.

My current worry is the teaching portfolio. While my college prepared me wonderfully for a career in education grad-school, they did not do a whole lot to help me figure out how to get a job. This includes absolutely no discussion of a teaching portfolio beyond the statement that, "you should have one." This puts me at a disadvantage over those people who spent their whole student teaching creating beautifully scrapbooked/crafted/html-ed teaching portfolios. If anyone has any advice on what a teaching portfolio should include or look like, I would very much appreciate some ideas.

Did I really change that much in three months?

2008-03-25T14:02:00.003-05:00

I'm preparing for my fake interview, (at least, I'm telling myself it's fake to calm my nerves a bit). In preparing, I was looking at my Binder of Everything from student teaching. In it, I found this lovely note sent by my CT to my professor in mid August:

"I just wanted to let you know that NQGU is doing beautifully with Student Teaching! She is conscientious, helpful, knowledgeable, and very good with the kids! These are all things that I am sure you already know about her. She is fitting in well at ST School and has adjusted remarkedly [sic] well to our schedule and the unique ways we do things in a dua1 1anguage school. "

Now, I want to know what happened between August and November that made this glowing review change into a relationship that I still, nearly five months after last seeing her, absolutely cringe to think about? And more importantly, why do I still care?!?!

Why it is important to listen closely and think before you act.

2008-03-24T20:03:00.003-05:00

The other day I turned on my cell phone after school. The screen flashed "New message!" so I dialed my voice mail.

Verizon Voice: "You have one new message. To play your messages press 1."
Me: (In my head - "Okay!" I press 1.)
Voice mail: Hello. This is Skjfksldj Ljlksdjfd from School District Number 12. We would like to set up a screening interview with you for early next week. Please call us back today to set up a phone interview. Our number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Me: (In my head - "Oh, yipppie! I don't remember the name or phone number, so I need to listen to the message again.")
Verizon Voice: "End of message. To delete your message press 7. To save you message press 5..."
Me: (In my head - "Save!" I press 7.)
Verizon Voice: "Message deleted."
Me: Nooooooo!!!!

After a short freak-out, I became thankful that I at least remembered which school district called me. I called back the HR department of District 12, and awkwardly explained that, "Someone called me and left a message asking me to set up a screening interview. But I accidentally deleted the message instead of saving it, and I don't remember who it was or what number I was supposed to call." This, of course, is a fabulous way to prove to a school district that I am smart, organized, and should be in charge of 25-30 of their children for 6.5 hours a day. After being connected to the appropriate person, I unprofessionally babbled my way through setting up an over-the-phone screening interview.

Now, I know that a screening interview means that I will just be interviewed for the district at large, I guess to see if any of the schools want to look at me more closely. But, what is asked in a screening interview? I don't have an over-the-internet portfolio, so I can't show that. (Though I suppose I should make one.) Will the person just be asking me interview questions? ("Describe an effective teacher." "Tell me about a success/failure you have had with students." "How would you manage a classroom?") Will something else be happening? I didn't have one of these for my current job.

Also, I bought the cheapest cell phone at the cell phone store. And the really poor reception I receive is a direct result of that. I'm trying to decide if I should mention that I get poor reception at the start of my call, so that the person understands why I may be frequently asking her to repeat what she says, or why my responses may be delayed as I try to decipher her garbled voice.

I wish that a different school/district had asked for an interview before this one. I actually want the job I applied for at this district, whereas at some of the others districts to which I applied, I would like the job, but working there wouldn't be much different than working elsewhere. I wish I had a "trial" interview to screw up on a bit before this one, that I actually want to succeed at.

I'll do my best. And prepare by answering the list of 30 practice interview questions I have. Oh, and also by reading over old notes I have from education professors reassuring me that I'm smart and knowledgeable and competent enough to be a teacher.

New Way to Organize

2008-03-09T22:04:00.003-05:00

I decided to come up with a new way to organize my books. So, I organized them by color. It may not be the best organizing system. But it is creative and pretty. White, beige, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, turquoise, dark blue, green, brown, black. It's like an oddly deformed rainbow.

Yes, there were many other things I perhaps should have been doing, instead of arranging my education books by color. But...now they are so pretty...

In more productive news, I did send out a handful of job applications. I'm starting to get the hang of it, though I do still get hung up on some of the "short answer" questions. I'm getting a little better at just letting go, accepting that my responses are as good as they're ever going to be, and hitting the Send button or putting the application in the mail (depending on the district).

Go Test! Go Test! Go Test!

2008-03-03T21:33:00.002-06:00

So, the children start big-time NCLB testing soon. Some of them will do great. Some of them will do okay. Some of them will struggle.

We recently had a big "pep rally" to pep the kids up. It came complete with teachers dressed as cheerleaders, face paint, a whole lot of cheering, singing, and dancing, and teachers running through paper banners with the name of the test on it.

It was hilarious, both because it was really cute and fun, and because it felt to me like its whole existence was kind of sarcastic. Of course, that was probably just in my head. But the whole point of the assembly (k-5 students attended, though not all of them will be tested) was to get the kids excited and ready and enthusiastic for The Test. And The Test is so ridiculous in so many ways. And like I said, many of the student will do really well, and many of the students will not. The pep rally felt like it was mocking The Test, in a way.

It was saying, "You may take up two weeks of instructional time. You may test our students on a year's worth of material 3/4 of the way through the school year. You may make the teachers pull their hair out in frustration, at times. But look! A pep rally! Pep Rallies are ridiculous too! But at least they're fun! Whoo!!! Go Test! Go Test! Go test!"

I need to stop obsessing and just send out applications...

2008-02-26T20:50:00.004-06:00

In my continued filling out of job applications, I have two problems.

1. I'm seriously bad at answering the "what are three reasons you want to be a teacher?" question. And the fact that I have a hard time coming up with three concrete reasons doesn't seem like a very good sign for my future as a teacher.

2. I'm afraid that I'm going to sound too "liberal," "idealist," "hippy," "naive," "deluded," or whatever you want to call it, when responding to many of the questions, again such as "what are three reasons you want to be a teacher?"

Why do I want to be a teacher? Because I want to be an advocate for my students, because I want to show them that learning can be fun and useful and valuable to them, because I want to help them develop into educated global citizens.

Is that too sappy?

A little bit of optimistic pessimism.

2008-02-23T09:32:00.003-06:00

I just found a school that I have absolutely fallen in love with. Which is bad, because they'll only hire Highly Qualified X State teachers, and I don't even have my license from Y State yet, so... I can't apply for an X State license. But oh wow. It feels good to at least be excited about a teaching possibility, however improbably the reality of getting the job actually is.

I've been feeling kind of "meh" about teaching, as in I cannot imagine teaching full time for a year, or two, or 10. But this school, it has an extra something going for it, which I could see being able to hold my interest for a while.

Again, I'm not going to get the job, and that's okay. (Though, applying will be a first step in getting rejected.) But, it's just good to realize that I can still get excited about teaching and that I can imagine myself sticking this whole teaching thing out for at least a little while.

Grr. Arg.

2008-02-21T17:11:00.005-06:00

I just got a wonderful letter from the State Board of Education. I expected it to contain my teaching license, finally.

But no, no it did not.

It contained a note and a blank fingerprint card. Apparently the FBI didn't like the fingerprints I sent them THREE MONTHS AGO and are requesting a new set.

This means I'm not going to get my teaching license until three months from now! And my temporary license is going to expire soon enough. And I can't apply for licenses for other states until I get the license from College State.

Which means I'm NEVER going to be able to get a job. (Which I know isn't technically true, but it's a whole lot easier to get a job when you HAVE A LICENSE. And have at least applied for the license for whatever state you are hoping to work in.)

And I can't figure out how to find a person to talk to at the State Board of Education to make sure I'm sending the new fingerprint card appropriately, and to beg for an expedited sending of the fingerprint card.

It's not fair!!!

I'm going to go sit in the corner and throw a temper tantrum now.

NQGU and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad job applications

2008-02-20T20:14:00.004-06:00

Everything I try to write in the short answer portion of my job applications ends up sounding horrible. EVERYTHING. Cover letters aren't even my problem. It's those questions, "What instructional strategies would you use in order to prepare lessons and instruction to meet the needs of all children in your classroom," that are driving me crazy.

I could easily write a 10+ page article on the topic, but I don't know how to sum it all up in one short paragraph.

I'm doing what I was doing before. I'm hoarding half filled out job applications. And as before, half filled out does just as much good as not-at-all filled out.

I'm going to go stare at more applications. Maybe some inspiration for writing clear, concise, and brilliant responses to really important questions will come to me. Maybe.

Example number two.

2008-02-13T20:14:00.002-06:00

This is the second example of why I'm kind of a bad teacher-type-person.

I was going to buy the children pencils instead of boring valentines for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, I work with too many kids, and I couldn't find any inexpensive decorative pencils, so I ended up not being able to do that. (The exact same pencils I found for $2/14pack in College State cost $5/14pack in Home State. Crazy.)

I should have just bought little valentine cards instead. I didn't.
Will they notice? Probably not.
Will I feel guilty? Yes.

I need a geographical change.

2008-02-12T21:23:00.005-06:00

Perhaps in contrast to the sentiment expressed in my last post, I actually am actively looking for and applying to teaching jobs.

I currently reside in the midwest (home of even more snow).

I am thinking about applying to teach in kind of randomly chosen school districts in the southwest (home of much less snow).

I have a question for people who have at some point in their lives acquired teaching jobs -
Is it a bad idea to blindly apply to school districts? Or rather, apply to school districts based only upon what I can find out about the district and the town using a combination of the district website, wikipedia, and ZIPskinny? Will I end up in a really bad situation if that is what I do, or is that how people usually find jobs?

(At the same time, I'm applying to teaching jobs in bilingual schools throughout Latin America, which is a post-in-progress, at the moment. Needless to say, these out-of-the-country schools are my "reach schools," in college application speak.)

Untitled due to lack of creativity or motivation.

2008-02-12T20:26:00.000-06:00

Lately I've been thinking I'd make a horrible teacher (for various reasons). The following is one example of my heartlessness.

Scene: a 3rd grade boy, Teddy and girl, Madison are bickering at the computer.

Teddy: Ms. GrownUp, Madison keeps telling me the answers and I don't want her to.
Me: Madison, let Teddy figure out the answers on his own.

One minute passes.

Teddy (whining): Ms. GrownUp, Madison is still telling me the answers, she won't stop.
Me: Well, then tell her to stop telling you the answers, you can deal with this on your own.
Teddy: But I did, and she won't stop.
Me: You can work this out on your own.

I walk away.

Three minutes pass.

Teddy: Ms. GrownUp, Madison called me a sissy girly girl.
Me: Just ignore her. It's time to clean up anyway.

Boy walks away.

Two minutes pass.

Students (en masse): Mrs. Teacher, Teddy is crying.

Classroom teacher looks over at Teddy who is in fact crying (not unlike a sissy girly girl). The students all stop what they're doing and watch. None of them make fun of Teddy for crying (as I just did in my parentheses which shows my true level of maturity).

Classroom teacher takes Teddy and Madison out of the room to talk to them. I laugh silently on the inside at the fact that I thought 3rd graders were above crying, though apparently that was a misconception. I hate myself a little bit for finding this so humorous.

End scene.

Dwelling on my future.

2008-02-06T18:18:00.001-06:00

The glut of snow days we've been having in the Midwest these last few weeks has been giving me way too much free time to dwell on my future. I don't like this.

No more snow days, please.

Teacher Clothes Redux

2008-02-05T22:33:00.000-06:00

For the 90% of people who come here searching for teacher clothes (and really, I don't understand why google thinks you all want to come here when you type in the search term "teacher clothes") I have three words for you, Ann Taylor Loft. Teachers get a discount, and they have the only stylish petites section I've ever seen. And if you wait until they have a sale on already reduced items, and you use your teacher discount on top of that, you can actually afford the clothing. Suffice it to say, about 75% (and growing) of my teaching wardrobe comes from The Loft, 15% comes from Limited, and the remaining 10 percent...well...actually, after my last Loft shopping spree, the remaining 10% probably come from Ann Taylor Loft, too. (I go through a fairly limited rotation of clothing, so I don't have an extreme abundance of Ann Taylor Loft clothing, but that which I do own, I wear very often.)

And that's the last I'll say about that. Happy dressing.

Linguistic Loans

2008-02-05T18:40:00.000-06:00

Wonderful, wonderful conversation serving as an example of the influence of the English on Spanish use in US society.

I had the following conversation at the end of the day with a 2nd grade male who speaks English quite fluently, but does get pulled out of the classroom for English Language Development. His home language is Spanish.

Boy: Do you know a word in Spanish?
Me: I know lots of words in Spanish!
Boy: Can you tell me one?
Me: Yeah, well, which word?
Boy: Do you know "apple"?
Me: Yes, manzana.
Boy: Right. Umm... how do you say "folder"?
Me: Carpeta, right?
Boy: No...carpeta is carpet.
Me: Hmm, mmm, okay. Yes. I think it can also mean folder.
Boy: No. No, folder is...um...umm...
Me: There are different ways to say it, but I'm pretty sure carpeta is one way to say folder.
Boy: No, because carpeta is carpet. Folder is... ....
Me: ...
Boy: Oh! Foldér.
Me: Okay.

Carpeta is a commonly used English loan for "carpet", though it also means "folder" which makes it all a little confusing. As far as I know, foldér doesn't mean anything in Spanish, aside from being an English loan taken from "folder." Overall, it was a really fascinating conversation.

Random bullets of moments so far.

2008-01-30T22:01:00.000-06:00

- Due to being closely located near several forms of loud and/or inconvenient forms of transportation, (who know it was possible to get stuck in airport traffic on the highway, and then get stopped by three different train tracks once getting off the highway?) this school will be called Transportation Central Elementary, TC Elementary for short. I have yet to figure out a convenient way to get to TC Elementary, seeings as how it takes me anywhere from 25 to 65 minutes to get there in the mornings. Traffic is quite unreliable (which is a big change from my rural student teaching placement, wherein my big traffic worry was getting stuck on a one-lane road behind a slow moving tractor).

- I was finally told I was “pretty” and “beautiful” (by a kindergardner) on my fourth day at school. I was first told I was “too beautiful” on my first day of student teaching. I must have lost my appeal. Or College State kids are more easily impressed than Home State kids. (I was told that I was “very pretty” again by a different student on my seventh day here at TC Elementary.)

- On my second day as I was leaving school I walked past a custodian and said goodbye to him. “Goodbye,” he responded. “You know,” he continued “You look like you could be a student here.” I agreed. “I hope I didn’t offend you,” he added. Oh, whatever, I thought. I’m used to it. And I am. (Though it is a bit irritating, nonetheless. So if you have a tiny young colleague, please don’t tell this person that they look like they could be a 10 year old. It’s not a great way to boost their self esteem.)

- In the computer lab with one class, two boys started chatting in Spanish. “Habla en ehngles,” interrupted the teacher in oddly accented Spanish. “I don’t like them talking in Spanish because I don’t know what they’re saying,” she explained to me. (I, maybe inappropriately, added, “Oh, he was just telling the other boy to do X with the computer.”) This provoked PTSD-type flashes back to my student teaching experience.

- In one class the teacher had the students watching a totally and completely non-academic video. If a teacher had done that at Student Teaching School, he or she would have been tarred and feathered on the spot. The principal would have found out and the teacher would have gotten into huge trouble. Apparently, it was not inappropriate here. (I need to comment, I am not judging this action on the teachers part - just commenting. From what I've seen, this is a very competent teacher. I was just a bit shocking coming from the school I had come from.)

- Connecting with the above comment, the school seems so much more productive than Student Teaching school. The schedule is so simple (It runs on a 5-day cycle, just like real life! The kids have the same teacher all day, except for specials or pull-out help).

- I’m not used being called Ms. Grownup. I’m having a really hard time responding to it. When I was student teaching I officially went by Ms. G., (due to my cooperating teaching and I sharing a surname) although in reality the kids usually just referred to any adult as Teacher. At TC Elementary, I officially go by Ms. Grownup, and some of the kids actually do call me that. Though many of them get lazy and just call me Ms. Grown or Ms. Gr…what’s-your-name-again? (Well, actually they call me Miss or Mrs. Lastname, but that is one thing that I don’t fight.)

- There as a magnet on a teacher's desk that said, "Miracles are made in the classroom" or something along those lines. I don't know why they bother me so much, but sayings like that truly offend me. Nothing that happens in the classroom is a miracle. It is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of the teacher and the students. There is no "miracle" there. The teacher plans an effective lesson, the students interact well with the lesson, the teacher, and each other, and then, yes, good things can happen. But what is happening should by no means be considered a miracle. It is the result of a series of deliberate actions made by the teachers and students.

- Hopefully some day soon I’ll find the will/energy/initiative to write something real instead of random bullets. (Or, even more optimistically thinking, maybe someday I’ll find the energy to apply to jobs for next year. Um, that’s my main goal right now.)

They hired me.

2008-01-14T19:22:00.000-06:00

Yay.

Now I wait by my phone.

2008-01-10T12:05:00.000-06:00

I forgot how bad I am at interviews.

(Especially when I am too nervous to sleep the night before, so despite going to bed with the possibility to have 8.5 hours of sleep, I ended up only sleeping for about 2.5 hours. Not a great way to start it all off.)

I look really good on paper.

I look pretty good in action.

But in interviews? I kind of suck.

Now I have to wait a week to see if I suck more or less than the other candidates.

(And, I know you're supposed to have questions prepared to ask. So I prepared six questions. And the principal answered every single one before I could ask them. She's too comprehensive. I had to kind of re-ask things she'd already told me, but with a slightly different focus so that I didn't look questionless.)