blogging/life/anythingthatrequiresgoodtimemanagementskills

So there's been like this HUGE spike in traffic on my blog lately from some person(s) Googling the term "heat for the seat paddle". I have a picture that I linked to in a blog that I wrote when my Grandpa died back in February. It's really weird because now that blog post discussing the things I will remember/miss about my Grandpa has over 50 views. I really don't know why this term is being repeatedly searched for, but it's kind of amusing...that is, as long as the person entering those keywords isn't looking to buy one to use on their children, but is hopefully reminiscing about something funny as I was. 

In other news, I had something funny happen at work this week and I was just looking up YouTube videos in an attempt to find an example of what I wanted to talk about, and while this video doesn't exactly depict what I am going to discuss, it is still funny to me because it's done by a girl who moved from Chicago to LA, the flip flop of what I did (of sorts).  <---Click it, do it! I was trying to find a video of Chicagoan vowels, haha. But wouldn't you know it, there aren't any results for those search terms :P Maybe I'll have to video some Chicagoans and post it myself :P So, my story. I was working with my reading groups and we came to the spelling part of the lesson where I dictate words to the kids and they write them on their white boards. The word was "slot" and as I scanned their boards I noticed that one of the students wrote "slut". Aaah!

I can assure you this was not intentional as it was written by a student who probably does not even know the meaning of the word. I sounded out the word again and the student was able to get the correct spelling. I told Boyfriend about this when I came home and he said that it was most likely because of my accent that the student wasn't able to sound it out right. What the what?! My accent? I don't really have one. I kind of regard Californian speech as the standard now, due to the massive impact Hollywood has on seemingly everyone. He said if I would have said it with a Chicagoan accent that their probably would have been no confusion. To try to explain to those of you who are unfamiliar with Chicagoan accents, say the word "black". That is how people here say "block". The "o" sound is very high and somewhat nasal-y. The teacher in me feels like I should teach all this silly Chicagoans how to properly pronounce their vowels :P

A couple of other funny quotes from the week:

A conversation between me and a second grader playing with a plastic die (you know, as in dice, but just one so grammatically speaking it is just a die) at recess:

Student: I'm gonna roll the dice.

Me: What number do you think you'll get?

Student: I don't know! I'm not a robot!!

A conversation between me and a fourth grader whose class I supervise for indoor recess:

Student: You're like the best teacher ever. I think you're the nicest teacher at the whole school.

Me: Aww, thank you.

Student: I mean, it's like you're one of us. A student. You never yell at us and you understand us. 

(So glad to know I'm viewed as a student :P)

A 7 year old came up to me at recess and said the following:

Student: *snaps at the beginning of each word, while moving his hand from side to side* 

(snap) Nobody (snap) messes (snap) with (snap) me!

A 2nd grader talking to me at recess:

Student: Nobody wants to play with me.

Me: Well what are you wanting to play?

Student: School.

Me: Well how do you play school?

Students: First, you come outside and sit down and be quiet. Next, you listen to me talk. A lot. Then you take a really hard math test. 

Me: Well, sweetie, I don't know that people want to sit down and take really hard math tests at recess. Is there a different way you could play school?

Student: No. I really like math. Hard math. It's really fun.

...Needless to say, he never found anyone to play with him :/

***I'd like it noted that I started writing this blog post on September 30th. It's October 9th now. I'm trying to not be so fail at blogging/life/anythingthatrequiresgoodtimemanagementskills.***

Thank you, Rosh Hashanah

I just changed the design of my blog. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet but I think I'll give it a while to let it grow on me. Interestingly, the old picture I used for my blog background 

was a picture that I took when MelSav and I took our initial trip to Chicago last September. Little did I know that just 6 short months later I'd be using that very L line nearly every weekend. The house that Boyfriend and I moved into is just a few minutes walk to the Kimball stop on the Brown Line. I don't exactly believe in fate, but I think it's interesting that of all the Ls I could have taken a picture of, I took a picture of this very one that would have major significance later :)

Anywho, I didn't start a blog post to talk about the fact that I have a new layout, haha. There are a few things on my mind that I wanted to write about. I've been meaning to squeeze out a post since Friday but it just didn't happen until now. I'll recap.

Friday: I had an absolutely fantastic day subbing for a third grade class at my school. I had never subbed a full day before and was moderately nervous on my way to work, but took some comfort in knowing that I'm familiar with our school and it's procedures and routines so I wasn't working in completely uncharted territory. I had very detailed sub notes written along with the entire day mapped out for me on the SmartBoard (every classroom at my school has one!) so the day was super easy. 

Class started at 8:40 and I told the kids that I'd know all their names by 10:00. They didn't really believe me. At 9:25 as we transitioned into a different activity, I told them all that I'd learned their names. They of course wanted to take time to test me on everyone's name right then and there, but we had tasks to complete and I told them I'd prove it to them by using their names to call on them. I think my ability to learn their names coupled with the fact that they know I'm an existing school employee really helped to set the tone for the day and I immediately felt as though I had their respect, which is HUGE (and is something I'll discuss in another paragraph a bit later). 

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better first day of subbing experience and I hope that I'm able to do it again in the future! I see my reading groups Monday-Thursday so technically I'm available to sub on Fridays in lieu of my planning periods, so we'll see if another opportunity presents itself! Fingers crossed! :)

Also Friday as I was driving to my afternoon job, someone pulled up beside me to tell me that all three of my brake lights were out! Scary! I was absolutely convinced that I was going to get rear-ended and was so, so thankful that I didn't. 

Saturday: I took my car in to the shop that is literally half a mile from our house. It turned out the problem was just the brake light switch and I had my car back by the early afternoon. Yay! Around 3:00 Boyfriend and I started on a bar crawl for a friend's birthday. We went to 10 different bars in about 10 hours. We were both really good about pacing ourselves and neither one of us got too sloppy at all. There were about 25 of us and it was so fun to be a part of a massive group of people occupying the L and entire sections of bars. We also enjoyed some special pricing at a few of the bars which was just an added bonus :) After the crawl was over we met up with a girl a work with and I had fun chatting with her and getting to know her better. A fantastic Saturday indeed :)

Sunday: We slept in super late which is really hard for me to do now that I'm waking up early for work everyday so I was shocked to see 12:30 on the clock when I woke up! Haha. Our day was mostly spent watching/screaming at the Bears as they attempted to beat the Packers. For those of you who aren't from the Chicago area/don't know much about football, the Bears-Packers rivalry is one of the longest standing in the NFL. I personally don't find it as scary as the Chargers-Raiders rivalry, but it's definitely a long standing and deeply rooted emotional tradition in here in the Chicagoland area.

We made some absolutely amazing chili for dinner that night using as many of our homegrown veggies as we could: tomatoes, habaneros, bell peppers, anaheim chilis. I love, love, love having a garden and I'm really sad that the growing season here is quickly coming to an end. We plan on keeping some plants going inside using grow lamps during the cold months, like our pineapple and plumeria, but the only edible things we'll have are the herbs growing in the kitchen window. Dear Spring, please come quickly! Haha. I'm actually looking forward to the Fall and Winter here. It will be my first Chicago Christmas :) I'm just going to miss our garden a lot, but we already have plans for next year's! We can spend the off season perfecting our ideas to hopefully have an even more successful garden in 2012.

Monday: My first day of reading groups. I brought home my Teacher's Editions to look over my lessons for the week and Boyfriend was surprised to see just how scripted the particular program I'm working with is. It was amusing to see his reaction, haha. I had already met most of my kids from working in different classrooms and seeing them on the playground. My fourth grade group was a piece of cake. I only have 4 kids and while they can be a bit chatty at times, they're easy to redirect and they seem to be interested in the program.

My fifth graders are another story. I have a full group of six kids-4 boys and 2 girls. The kids' personalities are all SO different from one another's. It's not at all that I was expecting a group of drones, but they all vary from each other so much that it's been challenging for me to find ways to appeal to all 6 of them at the same time. I know that six kids is nothing compared to an entire classroom, so I don't mean to sound whiny. I'm just trying to find the best way to capture my students' attention and keep them engaged as active participants during the 40 minutes we have together.

Another issue I've been facing with my fifth graders is a lack of respect for me. One student in particular has no problem just talking over me and is constantly interrupting me. We had a discussion about how they should behave when they are with me and how they should treat me when they are in my room. Interrupting Boy was surprised to learn I was a "real teacher", not just a Reading Interventionist. Once I told them that, another boy suggested that "We should treat you the way we treat our classroom teachers. We should just pretend you are them." I praised him for his idea while I thought to myself, What a novel idea, dear child. I know that I can't use my own years in school as my standard for behavior because it was my personal experience, but it's so weird to me that students would think that adults of varying levels are worthy of different amounts of respect. Maybe I'll put up one of those posters in my room that says, "Treat others as you would like to be treated", just to serve as a reminder to my students that a little bit of respect can go a long way.

Their behavior was not at all enough to make me hate my job or anything like that. I'm well aware that as we establish our new routine, the students will try to test their boundaries with me. We've discussed setting up a positive reward system and they seemed receptive to that. On Friday, my co-worker and I are going to brainstorm about how to better organize our room and how to reward them for good behavior. Definitely looking forward to getting those two much needed systems in place.

On a not so fantastic note, Monday also brought with it the shock of Boyfriend being let go/fired from his job. It's a rather long story, so just know that he didn't do anything to cause it. You should also know that Boyfriend and I are extremely financially savvy and sound so we will be completely fine as he looks for another job. Fingers crossed that something comes his way soon. Hopefully with a company that helps its employees go back to school for their MBAs. That would be ideal! :)

Tuesday: And now it's Tuesday. I'm adjusting to life with a boyfriend who doesn't work bar hours anymore. It's weird having him home when I get home from work. Definitely a nice and welcome change because I'm kind of addicted to that boy and spending time with him. It's just that our entire relationship has been spent with him working the hours of 3:00pm-??? so having such a major daily lifestyle change is something that will take a little while to get used to and develop a new routine around.

Today is my mom's birthday and it feels weird to be spending it apart. We have always made a point of spending each other's birthdays together as a family. For some reason birthdays are more important to spend together in my mind than holidays. I think it's because on that one day, a birthday, we are celebrating one individual person whereas holidays are something that millions of other people are doing at the exact same time and it doesn't feel quite as unique as a birthday. That's not at all to say that I don't feel like that holidays are important, it's just that to me, having a day to celebrate one loved one is better than Christmas or Thanksgiving. We had an hour long phone chat this evening so at least I got to spend part of her special day with her in some form :)

I'll try to blog again on Thursday since I have no school that day. Thank you, Rosh Hashanah :)

What.the.crap?!!?

I'll be using more bullets again today. It takes some of the pressure off of writing when I know I don't really need to worry about making a cohesive paragraph. I really don't know where these blogging rules came from that I hold myself accountable to. 

There are things I should be doing, so I need to make this speedy. 

• I subbed for 1st grade today! Only for an hour to cover the teacher while our school conducted grade level TACC (Teacher/Assistant/Coach Conference) meetings to discuss reading and math interventions. It was so great to be back in the classroom again, if only for a short time. First grade doesn't at all intimidate me 'cause I've been there done that and I was able to not only be an effective sub, but to enjoy my time there as well :)
• Speeeeeaking of subbing, I'm doing it again tomorrow! But this time ALL DAY and for a 3rd grade class. I'll be going to my afternoon job an hour late tomorrow, but to me it's worth it to be able to have the opportunity to sub and show my principal just what I'm made of and that I'm a "Yes" girl :) Wish me luck!!
• Today I got my reading groups assigned and got my materials. I'm so bringing home my Teacher's Editions to read this weekend. Haha.
• I had an hour and a half long convo with Twinsie today. It makes me happysad to talk to her 'cause it makes me realize how much I miss her all over again. Blast these 2,000 miles between me and all 99% of my loved ones. I told her, and I quote, the "best story she's heard all month" and she laughed so hard she was wheezing and coughing and achey. I will not be repeating it here, but it is quite the doozie :P She also gave me some very good and much needed advice about not being shy about speaking up for myself to ensure that I'm doing everything I can to work toward my goal of having my own classroom next year. She is most definitely my sister from another mister. <3 <3 <3
• I got my haircut last Thursday. It is/was beautiful. I honestly got Thursday night-Monday night off that visit to the hair salon in terms of how long I "wore" my hair for before I had to wash it and do it myself. Don't worry, I use dry shampoo in the days I don't wash it wash it :P I really want to straighten it again tonight but I'm kind of lazy. We'll see if it happens or not. 
• I managed to go jogging on Tuesday night for the first time since August 24th. Still trying to figure out how to best work that into my schedule. I actually ended up taking my running clothes/shoes with me to my afternoon job and then I changed there and went running on this jogging path near their house. It worked out rather well and I think I'll try to do that as often as I can until it reaches the point where the sun is setting at like 4:07pm like it does in Winter here, haha. 
• I had a moment of genius-ness and as a result I now have THE BEST birthday planned for Boyfriend next year. It's 6 months away but I've already got a general outline. I'm keeping it all a secret from him though. I'm probably going to end up outdoing myself because it will be a difficult birthday to top in the future, haha. It also means he's gonna have to be super creative if he expects to match my level of expertise for surprise plans :P Poor guy has our anniversary, my birthday, and Christmas all within 3 weeks of each other! 
• Twinsie and I talked about this tonight: I'll be 27 in three months from today. What.the.crap?!!? How has 27 snuck up on me so stealthily? Eeeesh, that sounds old. 

I'm sure I could continue writing lots more, but I want to shower, watch the season premiere of The Office, and nap before Boyfriend gets home. I stopped by his bar earlier and he was having a super busy night, so I'm sure I still have like 4 hours before he gets here, haha. But if I don't go now I'll just procrastinate for-evvvvv-errrrr!!! Ready, set, go!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Well, in the style of my dear Twinsie, I will be posting this blog in bullet form. While I have struggled with writing short, succinct bullet points in the past, I'm going to try really hard to limit myself to 5 sentences per bullet, haha. 

This week's happenings:

• I had a pretty smooth sailing week at both jobs and even had Tuesday off from my afternoon job. I spent it doing a whole lot of nothing but it felt good to just relax. 
• I went to a training on the curriculum we'll be using for Reading Interventions. I've yet to receive my groups of kids (we have the placement meetings this Thursday and groups start next Monday the 26th) but once I get my class lists, I'll start lesson planning using some or all of the Voyager, Read Natural, and Quick Reads programs. Super excited for this next chapter to begin!! I'll keep you updated :)
• I went to my first brew fest with Boyfriend and a few friends yesterday. I am not a beer fan, and didn't really find any beer that I really liked at the fest, but there were plenty of cider booths that I frequented until they ran out of their stock. We had intended to stay the night (the fest was in Racine, Wisconsin) but upon seeing the seedy establishment that Boyfriend had booked, we decided it was best to just drive home late at night. The motel wasn't quite as scary as the one MelSav and I stayed in in Oklahoma on our long drive from home to Chicago, but it was still gross and I didn't want to sit down on the furniture. Haha. 
• Speaking of MelSav, I'm reading a book per her recommendation titled "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. It's a book about building a strong marriage based on understanding the love language your partner speaks. Obviously Boyfriend and I aren't married, but the principles in the book can be utilized in any loving, committed relationship. The 5 love languages are: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. I had Boyfriend rank those in order of most to least important to him. His least ended up being Words of Affirmation which is in fact, my most important. Haha. I'm not reading this book because there's anything wrong in our relationship--I just like to be the best at everything I do, which includes being a super amazing awesome girlfriend :)

And now I'm ending this post here, because I started writing it on Sunday night. It's Thursday now. And there are things I want to write about and I don't want to have to change the verb tense. Haha. Kbai.

Questions and Requests

So far at my new job, I've received lots of questions and requests. This week I've gotten requests from two different students. Not the typical, "Can I go to the bathroom?" or the like. These were requests that made me smile :) One student asked me to please teach third grade next year while the other was pleading for my presence in fifth grade. I'm definitely going to mention it to my principal that I've already received requests from students wanting me to be their teacher next year :) ***(Side note: My OCD is telling me that I used the base word "request" far too many times in this paragraph but I can't think of a good synonym so it's staying. Boo :P)***

The second grader actually said I should do something like this: "Ok, so what you need to do is go up to Ms. Insertmakebelievelastnamehere (a current 3rd grade teacher) and say, 'I'm taking over! This is my class now! You may leave!' " Bahaha! This boy is gutsy, I tell you. It was hilarious hearing his game plan for how to make me his teacher for next year. Truth be told, I'd love to have the little guy in my class some day. He's a great kid. Though really I'd love to have any little guys or gals in my class. I'd just love to have a class. Sighhh, patience!! :) It'll happen eventually, right?!!?

I also keep getting asked how old I am, to which I respond 135. It always catches them off guard as they try to figure out if I'm telling the truth or not, because teachers never lie, right?! 

One question I do always lie about is when they ask if I have a boyfriend. If I was married I would answer honestly, and that's not at all to say that I'm embarrassed/ashamed of Boyfriend because he's not my husband. It's just that I feel like a husband is something you admit to having, whereas a boyfriend, at least in a professional setting, is something you usually don't go around advertising, at least not to the students. I might be completely alone in this way of thinking, but it's just the way I choose to conduct myself. I'd rather err on the side of professionalism than be seen as a blabbermouth. 

I just love watching kids' minds at work and seeing what kind of questions they come up with in their attempt at interpreting the world around them :) One of my absolute favorite things about teaching.

I had indoor recess duty for the first time today, and honestly now I hope it rains everyday :P Haha. I had such an easy day only being responsible for watching one fourth grade class in their room. Much better than my day yesterday where I broke up a violent fist fight between two fifth graders at lunch recess. Eeeesh. While I definitely hope that never happens again, I now know what to do if another situation like that should ever present itself. 

Ok, just wanted to write a quick post (I had one particular Twinsie in mind while I jotted this all down :P). Boyfriend and I are off to cuddle in our glorious chair-and-a-half and watch "The Departed" :)

I'm working on it

I have this problem where I think about blogging, start to blog, and then as I'm writing feel like my post isn't going to be interesting enough so I just abandon it. There are nearly 10 half-written blog drafts that are seemingly going to just sit there eternally unfinished. I think know I put entirely too much pressure on myself and am most definitely my worst critic (aren't we all?), but I really am trying to put that behind me. I'm in the midst of attempting an overhaul of my life. I've felt so out of balance since I started my new job and I'm really struggling to find some type of happy medium. 

The most ridiculous part of my life that is "oh-so-off-kilter" is really that on most days, I work a combined total of about 5.5 hours between both my jobs. That's it. Five and a half measly little hours. Which sounds like an enviable piece of cake, but since they are a couple hours (and about 25 miles) apart, it's not as easy as working one solid block of time. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly grateful to have both of my jobs, I just need to figure out how to make it all work. And I also need to come to the sad realization that the amount of time I'm used to spending with Boyfriend/the amount of time I like to spend with Boyfriend, far exceeds the national average. But what can I say? I'm greedy and head over heels in love with the most amazing boy ever so it's kind of hard to NOT want to spend immense amounts of time with him. 

Boyfriend and I have been carpooling to work together lately. My afternoon job is in the same city where he works, and we both start at the same time, the only difference is I get off between 6-7ish and he stays into the wee hours of the night, which means I usually don't hang out there waiting for him to get off. Instead I take the train and then the L home, which takes about an hour and a half. I just bring a book and use that time to read and unwind, but it usually means I don't end up getting home until after 9. And by that time I feel like the night is nearly over and I reside myself to an evening of procrastination and moping. That is the part of my day that I need to change. The more productive I am on the week nights before Boyfriend gets home, the more free time we have on the weekends. And it's not like we are disgusting people who live in a dump, but it's easy to let things get a bit cluttered when we're feeling busy (lately I just can't seem to ever complete laundry in a timely manner) so that coupled with the fact that we live in a very old house that always needs something done to it means it's easy for a little old weakling like myself to feel overwhelmed and just shut down. Again, I'm working on that. 

I also need to find the right time/way to fit exercising back into my schedule. By now when I get home from my second job, it's usually too late to go running by myself since the sun is setting earlier than it was over summer. And as anyone who struggles with motivating themselves to work out can relate to, it's nearly impossible to make myself get up early enough before work to go running. It's really my only option though so I just have to stop making excuses and start doing it if I want to lose those 4 of 8 lost pounds that have recently returned :/

So all of that in a very large nutshell, is my explanation for why I suck at life blogging lately. And again, I'm working on it.

In other news, my morning job as a Reading Interventionist is going extremely well. I pretty much love everything about it. And my side duty as a Playground Supervisor is growing on me as well. The weather has been pretty amazing lately and it's so nice to be able to spend time outside, though I'm sure I'll be singing a completely different tune once December rolls around since they actually allow the children to go outside and play in the snow during recess. As someone who comes from the Land of Nearly Eternal Summer (aka, Southern California), I personally consider snow to be an inclement weather condition which should be avoided at all costs, with a small exception for sledding, because sledding is THE ONLY good thing about Winter. But here at the North Pole, recess in the snow is the norm so I will undoubtedly be buying myself one of those floor length winter coats, haha. Overall though, I love the school, the staff is great, the building itself is beautiful and well appointed, and with such a fantastically diverse student population, not only am I learning a lot about other cultures, I almost feel like I'm back home :) 

My afternoon job is great, too. The girls are in 4th and 7th grades this year. It's fun watching the older one try to gain more independence. And the younger one is such a phenomenal student that it blows my mind. She actually came home on Friday wanting to study for a test that was a week away! She loves exploring problems and has a great ability to recall detail. It also doesn't hurt that she's in my favorite grade to teach this year so when homework comes home, she enjoys hearing about when I taught my class that concept/story/idea. We went in search of a Junior Girl Scout sash last week and ended up at a local school supply store that carries them. We looked around the whole store at all of the deliciously fun borders, books, classroom organization aides, and whatnot and it definitely made me long for my own classroom. I do have my own classroom at work now and hopefully once my reading groups actually start (now that I've finished my assessments), I'll be able to get some classroom decoration goin on in there. I told my 4th grader that when I get a real classroom of my own someday, (I'm aiming for the 12-13 school year!) that she is more than welcome to come help me set it up. She was so excited. I'm thankful to have such great kids to work with :)

With all that said, I think it's time I get off the couch and go tackle those three piles of laundry that are looking at me, just itching to be folded. Send me positive thoughts as I attempt to find balance in my new little life. And hopefully I'll be back to writing on a regular basis soon. I'm working on it :)