It really happens. I kid you not.

Hi, hello, greetings! I should be showering right about now, but I figured I'd give myself a bit of time to get the blog back up to speed. 

While I haven't been as productive as I'd like to be in the blogging world, I have been moderately-very productive in the exercise world. I say moderately because there have been a couple days here and there where we haven't worked out, but the past 2 days I've had a for real excuse since I've been battling a cold that I think I picked up at the testing location for my Illinois teaching certification (no joke there were over 1,000 people all testing at the same time) or on my ride home on the Red Line. For those of you, which is honestly probably all of you, who are not from the Chicagoland area, the Red Line is the El that I consider to be the most germ-laden. Whenever I'm on it, I feel as though my skin looks something like this:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX5sJwqVymy_w9zXVQ48O7bKpdG9pDXhmaWSsNPwaepXDF0KlLgxhcIuyXdseZLscX3gsj1tw29wuB_sCuzQB3p8OvxafiuLPA5JNEgxDY2pJEPLshroyUQqAP8evwB6FQFlQWuutU-xmf/s1600/germs.jpg

And lo and behold, approximately 72 hours after riding the Red Line, the tell-tale signs of sickness set in. Curse you, filthy El.

For those of you paying attention, yes I did just cite the source where I found that picture. Our kids have been working on projects where they have been learning to cite their sources so I figured I'd practice what I've been preaching. 

I've got some super funny kid stories, mostly revolving around two of my favorite students. I know we're not exactly supposed to have favorites (it's not like there are rules against this type of thing) but you just can't help finding some kids more fun to interact with than others. 

In one of my math groups, I have just two third graders. Today I told them that they could earn five minutes of free time at the end of math if they had good behavior. They worked really hard to earn it and I decided to treat them with a game of Pictionary on the Smartboard. They absolutely love using the Smartboard, and to be honest, so do I. Even though it's just a fancy, electronic whiteboard of sorts, it's still really fun. To make the game fair, I told them both to just pick animals to draw. 

On the first boy's turn, he drew a three-legged animal with floppy ears and a bunny tail. It was a dog. On my first turn I drew a pretty awesome flamingo. It was totally obvious that it was a flamingo. When I was done drawing they both just stared at me blankly like, "Umm, what?" I wrote the word pink. No response. I started writing out the word "flamingo". Blank stares. I made the noises they make. Nothin. These boys truly had no idea what a flamingo was/is! So much for my super easy drawing!

When the second boy had his first turn, he started off drawing another animal with a long neck. At first I thought he was just copying my idea of the flamingo, but eventually his drawing turned into something like this:

Sadly, I couldn't take pictures of the student's actual drawing, but I assure you, this reproduction is spot on.

Any guesses?

Well, clearly it's a giraffe. With bird legs. Just two of them instead of four. 

I helped the other boy guess giraffe because he was absolutely stumped. He, in turn, created something along these lines:

Are you as befuddled as I was?! The correct answer is: a snake that has just eaten a deer.

"How morbid!", you might say to yourself. Well yes and no. Yes because who draws an animal that has another animal inside of it?! But no because this is actually a really good thing. And by that I mean it shows that I am effective as a teacher beeeecaaaauuuussseee, today during our language arts session, we read a story about snakes and how they live, including how they eat their prey. We then Googled pictures of snakes that had just eaten and we saw a picture of a very large snake that had consumed a small deer. It really happens. I kid you not. 

So while his Pictionary choice was not what I would have chosen, it was flattering to see that he really did pay attention to me during language arts. 

It's almost 10:00 and that's the time I told myself I'd post this and move on with my evening. I'll be back again soon. Perhaps this weekend if my sickness doesn't evolve into some crippling, debilitating disorder. Gah, I hope not. I'm subbing tomorrow! 

Happy almost Friday!

-A

I bit off more than I could chew

Dear 3.2 average readers,

I promise I have not abandoned my only recently renewed little blog. I admittedly think I bit off more than I could chew with the vow to blog every day. While it's definitely not impossible, it's also not the easiest thing to do and requires time management skills that I am still acquiring. From here on out, I will blog when I can and not feel bad or guilty for not finding the time to squeeze it in. 

I have three major events/happenings/goals on my plate right now that are taking up most of my days. They are, in chronological order: 

1. The Illinois Teacher Certification test that I'm taking this Saturday. For my teacher friends and others in the know, it's the equivalent of the CSET. Those of you who aren't of the teaching persuasion, it's basically a test of my knowledge of the subjects I'm responsible for teaching were I to have my own classroom. The California version of this test was split into three parts and I took all three on one day and passed so I am fairly confident I'll be able to do the same here. Thankfully this one doesn't begin until 1:30 in the afternoon so that in itself will be much less stressful than the CSET with its ungodly 7am reporting time. This test is one of two that I have to pass, along with the completion of a course on the exceptional learner, in order to clear my credential and obtain an "Initial" status instead of the "Preliminary" status I have on my Illinois Teaching Certificate now. 
2. The frequently aforementioned Soldier Field Run. Boyfriend and I have been alternating between running and P90x to help get ourselves in shape for the upcoming 10 mile run we signed ourselves up for. Today I ran for speed instead of distance and was able to complete one mile in 8:55 which is an absolutely HUGE accomplishment for me. I have a widget on my phone that is counting down the days until the race and it's a mere 46 days away. We've got a lot of work to do. 
3. And finally, "Apply for Jobs for Next School Year" season has officially begun. I spent two and a half hours working on one application on Friday. Eeesh. I also have a widget counting down until the last day of school. As of today we're at 56. In a perfect world, I'd secure a job for next year sometime in the next 56 days but the odds of that are slim, though I'm remaining optimistic. I'm determined to find a classroom to call my own :)

And now, my friends, I'm off to watch an episode of Dexter with my handsome Boyfriend and slobbery pup. I'll be back around soon :)