I wrote you this book...

Overall, this week went well. I had a really frustrating lesson where the kids were out of control and just would not listen... and my cooperating teacher was out of the building for awhile. It was not a fun situation--but good to get that first failure out of the way. My other lessons have been going well.. but it's inevitable that there will be bad days and lessons that you teach and then think "well, that was absolutely pointless". I'm trying to just keep telling myself that it was just one bad lesson and that next time will be better--and it was.

I was observed by my university supervisor on Thursday. She watched me teach my reading lesson on fables. She had nothing but positive feedback-both my supervisor and teacher thought the lesson was great. They made comments about how fast I adjusted and took to the role of a teacher. They usually have to tell students at this point to not be nervous and find their teacher voice. I remember those days when I did my level III field experience... my voice was so shaky because I was so nervous! I didn't experience that at all in this classroom--I was immediately comfortable. I'm not sure why, but that's awesome! I was grateful for the positive comments and evaluation, and am glad that they think I'm doing so well. It will be a few weeks before I am observed again.

I taught math and reading all week, and they went well. I will be taking over social studies next week, though we have agreed to wait until the middle of the week instead of starting on Monday. They are finishing up a unit, and so we are going to wait until they are done with that--then I will start with my unit on maps. My unit (this is what I'm doing my teaching work sample on) will be at least 16 lessons. For the teaching work sample, there must be a pre-assessment and a post-assessment. I gave the students the assessment on Thursday... and only one student passed with a low C. Everyone else failed--the lowest was 17%. That's good news for me--if there had been several kids who got A's or B's, it would be hard to teach this unit. But since they almost all failed, that shows me that they don't know this information yet. (They shouldn't--it hasn't been covered at all). That means I have lots to teach them! :)

This weekend I have a lot of planning to do. I'm where I need to be in math, so I didn't bring home my math to plan. I do need to plan this week's reading lessons. I already know what I plan to teach/do each day, but I need to write it out a bit and organize it. That should take less than an hour.

What is going to take the longest amount of time is starting planning my map unit. When I plan for reading, I can just take a post-it note and write down what I plan to do--I don't have to do a formal lesson plan. I usually end up writing more than I need to, because I want to be prepared and have extra things planned in case we have time left. With the map unit, though, (since it's for my TWS) I have to have a formal lesson plan for each lesson. So that's 16 lessons (at least) with about 5 page lesson plans (on average)--80 pages. I need to have the first three lessons approved before I teach them, so my goal for this weekend is to get three lessons planned. If I don't get them done by Monday, I can get them done by Tuesday. I have a day or two leniency since I am not starting with it on Monday.


Today is a funeral for my cousin. I've been so torn on what to do. It's hard to explain it all because everyone reading this doesn't know my family history. I haven't seen or talked to a large majority of my dad's side of the family since there was a big blow-up when I was about 10. My cousin who passed away (car accident) was 39. That means he was 16 when I was born. I don't remember him or most of his siblings... I remember two of them--the youngest two, that my brother and I played with when we were young.

I don't remember my cousin or, like I said, most of his family. Therefore, it is logical for me to not go to the funeral. Funerals are a time to remember a life and pay respects... and it's a big strange to do that when you don't know or remember the person.

However, family has always been so important to me. It's always felt like I have this hole in my life because I'm disconnected from half of my family. While a funeral isn't really a good time to try to connect with people you haven't seen in 13 years, it may be the only chance I'd have to see these people for many many years. So part of me really feels that I need to go and at least be present and supportive.

I don't know. I've been trying to come up with a solution... to decide what is right. I don't like funerals and certainly wouldn't choose to spend my one free day going to one... if there wasn't this feeling of importance to try to connect.

It starts in a few hours, and I am in a LOT of pain today--so I'm kind of leaning towards not going. I am not sure I can physically handle an hour drive each way and an afternoon of standing up.


Speaking of pain... ugh!!! The pain and aches in my legs have been awful this week. There have been several times while teaching that I have just wanted to burst out into tears because it hurts so bad. And then it just ruins my mood. Yesterday I had a great day (though it was soooo hectic! busy day at school) and got home a few minutes before 5 pm. I was in a great mood. Then, I laid down and the aching pain was like... SCREAMING at me. It's almost like... during the day I have pain, but am too busy to fully notice. When I stop and let my body rest, the pain is just excrutiating. Then I get in a bad mood, and that's not fun at all. I'm still taking the Vitamin D (twice a week), but it hasn't helped at all yet.


I do, as I said, have a lot of planning to get done this weekend, but I'm hoping to find time to read my book. I started reading a Karen Kingsbury book on 2/6. I read one chapter, and haven't picked it up since! I've been way too busy! I just don't have time to read every day, or even every week! I'd like to finish the book this weekend, but that may not happen. I hope to at least read a bit, though.

I don't remember if I wrote about this already, but I got a different phone. I had a Blackberry Storm... I ended up getting rid of it. I had to pay $400 to make the change, because it wasn't time for me to upgrade. I had to pay full price (almost $300) for a phone, and then buy insurance and all that. In the end it will be worth it, because I'm taking $30 off my bill each month since I won't be paying for internet anymore. I think that in the end it will actually save me about $450. So I ended up getting a Samsung Intensity--a red one. (http://www.celularis.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Samsung-Intensity.jpg) I really like it so far! It's weird to go from a touch screen phone back to a regular, plain phone... but it is worth it. It's helping me simplify my life a bit, which helps me feel more in control.


I also chopped my hair! I got 5-6 inches cut off... it's the shortest I've had it since I was really little... it's so strange! I don't think I could put it up even if I tried! It's nice though because I can literally just brush it and go... don't have to blow dry it or put anything in it. The lady who cut it told me all about how I should use mousse and do a little bit of blow drying and all that--but I much prefer it this way. I don't like the feeling of having anything in my hair... and I think it looks just fine when it dries! I've gotten a lot of compliments on it. The librarian, who had only seen me twice before, noticed it right away and said she loved it! :) My class asked me if I was trying to look like my cooperating teacher--haha. She has short hair, but I think it may be even shorter than mine. It's funny--a lot of the teachers do have very short hair. I don't know if that's just how they prefer it or what... but for me, it was definitely a matter of convenience during a hectic time when I don't want to deal with my hair!


Alright, I suppose I should end this book (haha--my entries are always so long. I plan for them to be short and concise and then I ramble on and on). I need to think about eventually having some lunch and then planning for at least a couple hours. I have two Tyler Perry movies that I got last weekend and haven't had time to watch--so I'm hoping to get enough done to watch at least one this weekend! I'm sure I'll be updating soon enough!