Well here I am staring down the start of a new year. I am a bit intimidated by it all. In just under 10 days, Andy will be gone for the duration of the year. That means I am stuck with handling everything with the new house, taxes, my job, the cars, shoot everything. One would think that I managed pretty darn well on my own while in graduate school. This should be a snap. Somehow, being out in Kansas, over 700 miles away from any sort of relations, seems so much more difficult.
I plan on sending lots of packages and hoping that family and relatives will send some too. I am excited to use Google's talk feature - hurray for video-conferencing. For right now, I know that most of his battle will be against the dreaded paperwork, but still I am frightened.
As for my expectations for myself for this year, the big one is to try not to be too much of a workaholic, get my exercise on, do some more knitting, and possibly try some new recipes (although with only 1 person in the house not sure how often that will be). I would like to explore more of Kansas as well but I would need to do all the driving myself :oP. Lastly, I hope that we can manage to sock away some money this year - I don't need much in way of food and shouldn't be doing too much shopping, although every now and again I get the urge.
That is about it. Not totally gung-ho about the new year but now super depressed either.
Fancy That...
I have yet again managed to forget entirely about my blog. Needless to say, I have been busy teaching. More worrying than teaching on most days.
I hope since I have gotten into a rhythm with school, that maybe just maybe I can manage my time a bit more judiciously. Also, I would like to keep a better record of my memories for the upcoming year. Andy is deploying again with the 1 ID Division Headquarters - so I will be by myself for well...I suppose a year. We will see how things play out.
I suppose the big update is that I only have two more classes left in the alternate route program - internship, and a survey on the "exceptional" child. For the internship this semester, I need to write up my Teacher Work Sample by April. Primarily, it is 25 pages (more pages than I think is necessary) of information about the school, the community, and my unit of teaching. I tried to play it smart and collect all of the data from a unit on triangles that took about 3 - 4 weeks. My problem is that it needs to get typed up and handed in during the middle of the school year. Why not ask for it to be completed during the summer semesters - when I do not have to spend a good majority of my time grading and creating lesson plans? Poo.
I also managed to get the Praxis PLT exam out of the way. Surprisingly enough, I came up with 12 essays in about 2 hours time. Trust me that is difficult seeing as I really could care less about any of the writing assignments I have to do for my classes. It also didn't help that I only spent 1 summer on the topics covered - compared to all the college students in the room who had 4 years of education classes under their belts. Score one for the home team.
I am somewhat sad now - our Christmas guests have left. It was fantastic to have everyone out for the holiday. I only wish that we had asked everyone to stay longer. We now have a quiet empty house and it doesn't really help my being productive for school. I have a couple of presentations to write and I would like to get about a week ahead on my lessons. Lots of fun I am sure.
Anyway - I plan to post my New Year's Resolutions tomorrow. I have a few I hope to keep. But I am going to spend one more day relaxing and then going out for a fancy dinner tonight at Harry's. Probably our last big date night out before the deployment. It should have been New Year's Eve reservations but we were late in calling. But tonight works fantastically.
I hope since I have gotten into a rhythm with school, that maybe just maybe I can manage my time a bit more judiciously. Also, I would like to keep a better record of my memories for the upcoming year. Andy is deploying again with the 1 ID Division Headquarters - so I will be by myself for well...I suppose a year. We will see how things play out.
I suppose the big update is that I only have two more classes left in the alternate route program - internship, and a survey on the "exceptional" child. For the internship this semester, I need to write up my Teacher Work Sample by April. Primarily, it is 25 pages (more pages than I think is necessary) of information about the school, the community, and my unit of teaching. I tried to play it smart and collect all of the data from a unit on triangles that took about 3 - 4 weeks. My problem is that it needs to get typed up and handed in during the middle of the school year. Why not ask for it to be completed during the summer semesters - when I do not have to spend a good majority of my time grading and creating lesson plans? Poo.
I also managed to get the Praxis PLT exam out of the way. Surprisingly enough, I came up with 12 essays in about 2 hours time. Trust me that is difficult seeing as I really could care less about any of the writing assignments I have to do for my classes. It also didn't help that I only spent 1 summer on the topics covered - compared to all the college students in the room who had 4 years of education classes under their belts. Score one for the home team.
I am somewhat sad now - our Christmas guests have left. It was fantastic to have everyone out for the holiday. I only wish that we had asked everyone to stay longer. We now have a quiet empty house and it doesn't really help my being productive for school. I have a couple of presentations to write and I would like to get about a week ahead on my lessons. Lots of fun I am sure.
Anyway - I plan to post my New Year's Resolutions tomorrow. I have a few I hope to keep. But I am going to spend one more day relaxing and then going out for a fancy dinner tonight at Harry's. Probably our last big date night out before the deployment. It should have been New Year's Eve reservations but we were late in calling. But tonight works fantastically.
Color Me Impatient
On Wednesday, I honestly believed that I had very few job opportunities. I had not received any communications from any applied to parties. But Thursday, later in the after I got not one but two job offers. The first was Central Texas College. They are in desperate need of Math faculty - most of their students are taking their math courses online. I am somewhat indifferent to the online course - but that is neither here nor there. The second was Manhattan High School. After speaking with Human Resources at the District, I will now be receiving a letter of intent from the district. I then have to sign and return it to them.
So what is the problem...today is probably the last day to get everything in order for my alternate route program. So I was hustling about to pay tuition for four classes this summer (yes four, I am masochistic, I know this), two of which begin on Monday. Yikes. Forget about textbooks. Lord knows, I probably won't see those show up until after I finish the courses. The good thing is that the courses are online. At least one of them is a math course - the rest are Edu courses. I am sure I will be putting off all of those writing assignments. Not entirely the best thing. Doing this leaves me with only 2 other courses to take in the upcoming year - one more ed class, and History of Math. Yes, History of Math - 1 credit. Hurray for me.
Anyway, I am excited to teach in the fall. It is a seven period day. In at 7:45 am and out at 2:52 pm. I have 1 prep, and 1 professional period. There will be four periods of Algebra 1 - not freshman. These will be sophomores who did not quite get it the first time around. What is nice about these classes is they will have a max of 15 - 20 students. No huge classes. My other period will be Geometry. The school is about 10 minutes from my house = nice commute. Plus it keeps Andrew and I on the same schedule - up early in the morning...I'll be home in the afternoon, and we have the evening to spend together.
Oh - Andy should be home sometime next week from California. Not sure when. I will hopefully find out in the next day or so. More important hope is that I don't go all crazy on him with schoolwork - like I am apt to do.
So what is the problem...today is probably the last day to get everything in order for my alternate route program. So I was hustling about to pay tuition for four classes this summer (yes four, I am masochistic, I know this), two of which begin on Monday. Yikes. Forget about textbooks. Lord knows, I probably won't see those show up until after I finish the courses. The good thing is that the courses are online. At least one of them is a math course - the rest are Edu courses. I am sure I will be putting off all of those writing assignments. Not entirely the best thing. Doing this leaves me with only 2 other courses to take in the upcoming year - one more ed class, and History of Math. Yes, History of Math - 1 credit. Hurray for me.
Anyway, I am excited to teach in the fall. It is a seven period day. In at 7:45 am and out at 2:52 pm. I have 1 prep, and 1 professional period. There will be four periods of Algebra 1 - not freshman. These will be sophomores who did not quite get it the first time around. What is nice about these classes is they will have a max of 15 - 20 students. No huge classes. My other period will be Geometry. The school is about 10 minutes from my house = nice commute. Plus it keeps Andrew and I on the same schedule - up early in the morning...I'll be home in the afternoon, and we have the evening to spend together.
Oh - Andy should be home sometime next week from California. Not sure when. I will hopefully find out in the next day or so. More important hope is that I don't go all crazy on him with schoolwork - like I am apt to do.
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My mom was featured in an article about cancer survivorship.
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I did not receive any communication about the possibility of teaching math in the Manhattan school district. I will spend next day formulating letter to withdraw from alternate route program - if I don't have income from the upcoming job, how can I expect to pay for the program. I guess I will go locate the nearest H & R Block to see if there are any chances available to me there.
Landscapers are coming tomorrow to put in beds and a patio. Keeping fingers crossed that the days remain precipitation-less.
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I did not receive any communication about the possibility of teaching math in the Manhattan school district. I will spend next day formulating letter to withdraw from alternate route program - if I don't have income from the upcoming job, how can I expect to pay for the program. I guess I will go locate the nearest H & R Block to see if there are any chances available to me there.
Landscapers are coming tomorrow to put in beds and a patio. Keeping fingers crossed that the days remain precipitation-less.
6 month boo boo
Oooops. Distracted is probably not the right word for this situation. Distracted implies a short amount of time where one's mind wanders from it's intended task. Forgotten is more appropriate. It would be poor of me to try to run down what happened over the past six months. I wouldn't be able to remember the important things, I am sure of that. But why don't I share the things that I do know:
- It has been quite a year. Yep, one whole year married. We've had lots of fun, and well some not so fun. Most of the not fun has been my doing - seeing as I freak out over the tiniest things - like packing, and travelling, Silvio, and the fact that I have no control over what the Army tells Andrew to do. It has been a slow acclimation. I report that I am still working on it - but I hope that Andy thinks I am doing better than before.
- Silvio is one whole year old as well. He has learned sit and stay (most of the time), and can perform down but only if there is food around. His most favorite activity is chewing the carpet. I have spent so much time ripping my hair out trying to find activities for him other than chewing the carpet. A Petco has just opened up here - so once they have a trainer, I plan on signing Silvio up for the classes.
- Both sets of parents have come to visit us in our new home (which I love by the way). It was fantastic having them down. They have managed to drop off a bunch of things for us. Needless to say I must find some more bookcases and the like.
- I am trying to find a job. I would love to teach. Unfortunately, I don't have that little sheet of paper which says it is okay to do so. You would think that a Master's degree in content area would make any high school happy. Heck even - 5 years of teaching in the highschool/collegiate level. Nope it's that darn piece of paper - thwarts me at every turn. I had an interview on Friday. It went fairly well. I won't know until Wednesday if I finagled myself in the door. If I get a no, I think I might just drop out of alternate route program. It's silly here in Kansas - no certificate, no job - but no job offer, no continuation of program to obtain certificate. My back up is that I could always adjunct teach with Central Texas College on Fort Riley. They don't need that piece of paper. But I am sure I could find other ways to fill my time....
- Andy is away at the National Training Center for another week and a half. While he is away I vowed to get into an exercising regimen. Why you ask - I tried on my bridesmaid dress for Suzer's wedding. It fit with quite a bit of help. I guess all that cooking has gone all to my waist. So after each workout I have been weighing myself to make sure I am making progress. I know this will sound crazy but I have been hovering around 122- 125. That is actually the highest I have ever been. But this morning after a couple of weeks the scale read 118. So I am happy with my progress but have a couple more pounds to shed by the end of next month. It helps that I take Silvio out a couple of times a day for little walks - gets me outside too.
- Not to much else to report from Kansas. It is hot - already made it into the 90s. Can not wait for the lanscapers to put some trees in our yard so we can get some shade. Looking forward to a trip to Disney World - Andy's first trip. It will be nearly 2 years since my last trip. Crazy!!!
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