Student Teaching!

Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Daily Grind, School
16 Comments

Wow, I apologize for the lack of updates over the past two weeks. I finally managed to go and read all of your fabulous blogs and return some comments. Student teaching has been taking up almost all of my time, and I usually end up falling asleep before 10pm every night since I wake up at 5:30am to get to school on time. Planning lessons, and getting to know all of the students is a lot of fun, but it is challenging too. After all, I’m not their “real” teacher. I’m just here until May 21st learning how to teach.

So far I have taught for one week straight with my period two class. They’re great! I’m taking over my second class this Monday, and I’ll take over the last two in the next few weeks. So, in total I’ll have four classes. Three American Literature classes and one Mystery class. I’m learning how to get the kids calmed down, and I’m trying to work on my classroom management style. I basically just have to learn how to talk louder than them, haha. For the most part they just get very excitable and loud, they aren’t rude. I try to think about what I was like when I was 17-18 years old. I WAS A NUT!

When I came home from my first day as a “teacher” I went up to my room to drop off my copies and bag and saw these:


My Mom and Dad got me balloons! I absolutely love balloons, and it was such a nice surprise after a challenging first day. They’re awesome, huh? I have them in my room still and they make me smile each time I come home.

I also had my first observation on Friday. My professor has to observe me three times, and my first one went very well. I was literally shaking! I did a music lesson with my kids and they were so well behaved (I reminded them a few times who was coming!!) and seemed to enjoy the lesson a lot. I’ll have to do something nice for them at some point. =] My professor said it was a great first observation, and gave me a few tips for the future lessons.

For the weekend I’ll be enjoying the amazing weather (painted my toesies for the occasion!), having a nice dinner with Keith and then spending some time with my Mom tomorrow so I can shop for some birthday gifts. Weekends have taken on a WHOLE new meaning for me!!

End of Semester Meme Fun

Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Daily Grind, School
7 Comments

As of 7:15pm, I am officially done with my Fall 2009 semester. Next semester is Student Teaching and then I’m graduating and shipped off into the big, scary world of “finding a real job.” I wanted to do a college meme, but since I’m not done I found this fun high school meme on a blog and decided to be nostalgic and give you all a glimpse of what I was like in high school. Since I’ll be teaching high school this was especially fun for me. Enjoy!

This is my friend Kelly and I in high school. Please excuse my visor. I got it in SF, wore it throughout my wine country tour, and still have it. I don’t know if Kelly still has her awesome pants, but I sure hope so. Yes, we are still best friends, FYI. I’m aware that I look goofy as hell.

Where did you graduate from and what year?
Hamden High, 2005.

Who was your significant other?
I’m only going to talk about important ones, haha. I guess Stan and his blue hair when I was a freshman/sophomore, and then Keith from then until now. There were some other people in between, but I’m all set with including them. Let’s just say these are the ones I DON’T regret.

Was your Prom a night to remember?
I went to two, Keith’s and mine. Keith’s was cool, but I was sick as hell. Mine was awesome. It involved a sleazy hotel room, dancers, and a graduation party the next morning. My hair was sick.

What was your favorite song you danced to the night of Prom?
I couldn’t tell you what was played. Sinatra was playing during dinner, but we weren’t allowed to dance during dinner.

Do you own all 4 yearbooks?
Yup, I’m spoiled.

What was your favorite movie in high school?
Idle Hands, SLC Punk, Billy Madison…a lot of the same ones I have now, but less zombies.

What radio station did you jam out to in high school?
I didn’t jam…I rocked. RADIO 104. You wouldn’t know how cool 104 really was. I woke up to Dee Snyder’s morning show every day. 420 Brownie, I miss you.

What was your number 1 choice of college in high school?
SCSU, the one I ended up going to. I only applied to one college and hoped for the best. Yay hoping!

Were you involved in any organizations or clubs?
French Club, GSA, and Culinary Arts when I was a senior.

What was your favorite class in high school?
The Restaurant hands down. I loved eating and cooking things. I ate my weight in hash browns, and back then, that was a lot.

Who was your big crush in high school?
I guess who I was dating. OH! And Mr. Sudusky. OMG.

Would you say you’ve changed a lot since highschool?
YES! I’m smarter, skinnier, and stronger. I also use more alliteration.

What do you miss the most about it?
I miss the easiness of it. I always had money back then for the movies.

Your worst memory of HS?
When I got dumped? That was serious business back then. And probably any Math class.

Did you have a car?
My senior year I had a cavalier. But until then Keith drove me to school junior year, and I always made us late. Before that, my Mom would drive me a lot because I never made it to the bus.

What were your school colors?
Green and gold.

Who was your favorite teacher?
Mrs. Frumento. She made me want to become a teacher.

Did you own a cell phone in high school?
Yup, a sick, thick, brick. Complete with blue LCD display.

Did you leave campus for lunch?
We weren’t allowed to, but we did anyway.

If so, where was your favorite place to go eat?
Chili’s…bottomless chips & water all around! And Acrop, which I still eat at quite often.

Were you always late to class?
First period, senior year…more often than not.

Did you ever have to stay for Sat. School?
Nope, I just got suspended. They jumped over Saturday Detention with me.

Did you ever ditch?
Yeah, a lot once I hit senior year. But before that I’d have my Momma call me out. I skipped once to go see “The Passion of Christ.” Good times.

When it comes time for the reunion will you be there?
If I’m not on the West, why not?

How To Write A Paper

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Photos, School
5 Comments

In my past five years at college (yes, Education majors take 5 years to get a Bachelor’s at my school), I’ve learned how to do a lot of things. For example, I’ve learned that as you get older and take freshman classes you automatically have acting up privileges. When I took Music History last semester I was one of the two oldest people in the room with the exception of my amazing professor. If you’re old and taking an intro class for fun, you get the rights to joke around, yell out, and come in late. I’ve learned how to get kicked out of a professor’s office, and I’ve learned that putting Chapstick on a ScanTron sheet DOES NOT get you a perfect score. I thank Keith for trying that out in our Botany class (I’m convinced that class was actually the 5th circle of Hell, but I don’t think I deserve that punishment).

The best thing I’ve learned is setting up a workspace. I’m currently working on my Metacognition project for my Teaching of Writing class. We had to observe an organic object for a week, write about it, and then interpret our thoughts with the use of other “thinkers.” Sounds fun, right? It is! But it’s insanely hard to stay focused sometimes when I’m “thinking about my thinking.” So I set up the perfect workspace.

Behold, the perfect college student workspace. Make sure to lay EVERYTHING out that you’re going to need to write, and throw it all over the place. You don’t want to ACTUALLY be able to access your keyboard. Next, you need food. My choice is usually Goldfish. Delicious, easy to grab, and cute. You’re going to need a drink to wash down that snack, so type a sentence of your paper, go downstairs, and get a Diet Coke. In the kitchen, you’ll realize that you need to smoke a cigarette. No good paper gets completed without mass amounts of Nicotine running through your veins.

When you get back upstairs, you’ll realize that your cat has burrowed herself into your quilt and looks completely adorable. Sit with her and watch re-runs of “Everybody Hates Chris” for an hour or so. Realize that your paper still isn’t done and start typing like a crazy person for the next 45 minutes. Bring it to your workshop and smile, your peer reviewer loved it, and your professor granted everyone an extra week and a second workshop since no one showed up to class. Begin the cycle again in about a week.

This is one of the coolest projects I’ve ever done, though also one of the most challenging. I completed my second draft and am really excited to see how it goes in my workshop tomorrow. For the record, I observed a tiny, baby Maple tree in my backyard. I uploaded the photos of my tree on flickr. Go to the “Things I Like” collection and you can see Day 1, Day 3, and Day 7 of my adorable tree.

A bit of shameless self promotion

Monday, October 12th, 2009
Daily Grind, Keith, School
9 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you might remember back in the dark ages of curls.nu that my boyfriend, Keith and I had a radio show at my school’s station. After some consideration, we decided to bring back the show, but this time we have a niche. So, without further ado I present to you: ZOMBIE HOUR.

Every Friday you guys can listen to Keith and I discuss all things horror, from movies to books. We review two movies each show and we give you tips on how to survive a battle with the undead. As you know, I love horror movies and zombies, so this is great. It’s truly good radio if you ask me. I’m not biased or anything.


That’s us on the air!

We broadcast on the radio itself, but for those of you who aren’t in the area you can listen online, and on the website there is a chatroom so we can talk to you guys. You can call us and everything. We also made a Facebook page “Zombie Hour” so you can become a fan of us too. Facebook seems to be the place to whore yourself out as of late.

So, EVERY FRIDAY from 8pm-9pm Eastern Time, log on to WSIN Radio, and give us a listen. This week we’re doing a Halloween/Friday The 13th face-off. You get good tunes, good movie talk, and most importantly you can hear my sexy voice. Ha!

How I Stay Organized (and how you can too!)

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Daily Grind, School
14 Comments

In my Special Education class we took a quick test to see which side of our brains we use more, in order to see what are the best ways that we learn. We did this so we can administer this test to our future students so we’ll be able to adapt the lesson plans to our students when we have a classroom. Though I’m not sure how valid the test really is since it’s a quick quiz, my results seemed very true. I scored a “2″ which is extremely left brain and my traits were as follows: “Analytical, Logical, Sequential. We appear to be more organized, and like to do things in a specific order. We tend to do well in reading, writing, speech, and math.” While I can’t say I’m good at math at ALL, all of the rest of the traits seemed to ring true. Most of all? ORGANIZATION! I love to be organized, I love making lists (online lists did NOT work for me, but paper? Love it!), I have a sick attachment to my planner, and I have folders for each class…all of them separate, labeled, and a different color. A while back, my friend asked me how I stay so organized. Well aside from freaking out when something is amiss and smoking too many cigarettes when the going gets tough, it’s not too hard once you know what is going to keep YOU organized, and how WELL it’s going to work for you. That being said, here are some ways that I stay organized, and some tips for the struggling right brainer (I kid!), to get your stuff straight.

  • Have a planner! You’re not going to get things done if you don’t know what you have to do. I personally love the yearlong planners so I can flip through and mark due dates and deadlines. I love my Staples brand yearly planner which is priced reasonably, or you can go fancy and go for the Moleskine above. That might be my Christmas present to myself this year.
  • Separate what needs to be separated. By this I mean for school, or even work. If you have nowhere to put your things, you’re going to misplace them. No one likes to find out that they lost their dissertation, or their resume, right? Have folders (color code them if you’d like), or invest in a notebook WITH folders.
  • Make a list! If you have a lot of things to do, make a list. For my degree applications and Student Teaching paper work, I have to hand in many different parts to two different people. It sounded very overwhelming at first, but I made one big list just for that project. For this I love the super sticky post-it notes that are larger. Stick it on your folder (see how everything is fitting together?!), and you’ll have one big list at hand.

    Those are the three main things I like to do, and it truly helps. Call me old fashioned, but there’s nothing better to me then WRITING things down, and getting to cross things off of your planner or list (preferably until it’s no longer visible, haha). But, if you’re more of the technology type, and you know that this works for you, I’ve made a list (see! lists rock!), if some of the more well known programs and websites that can help keep you on target.

  • Listography.com - you can publish your own lists, share them, and favorite other user’s lists. I used this for a while, but have since deleted it. Like I said before the online list is not for me. (But do check out their BOOKS!)
  • Marsadie twittered about a service called Gubb which also publishes lists, and you can access it from your phone and e-mail. Sharing is available, and you’ll always know where your list is.
  • Google…need I say more? With Google Calendars, E-mail, Reminders and Readers do you really need to go anywhere else on the web? Their calendar offers event scheduling and the ability to share with others.
  • Post-it Digital Notes is a product by 3M, the makers of my beloved post-it notes which litter my deskspace, haha. I recently downloaded this program and have been sampling it. It allows you to create digital post it notes on your desktop. You can add photos, date and time, and alarms for those of us who need a LOUD reminder when something needs to get done. So far, I’m loving it. Maybe I’m not old fashioned after all?

    So, go out and get organized! If you already have an organizational strategy share it with me. How do you keep everything organized? How do you manage your projects and work? Maybe you can give me, the queen of anal retentiveness some pointers!

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