Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween


Well it is hard to believe that it is already October 31st. I dont' know where the time has gone... As a child, today is an exciting day because you get to dress up and be whoever you want to be, whether it be a super hero,or a princess, or some sort of animal, and go door to door collecting candy from the neighbors! As we get older it is still fun to dress up. It is the one day for us as adults (or young adults) can be a kid again, and let out their inner childhood. Or in the words of some of my friends, it is the one day of the year when they can get away with dressing slutty and not have anyone comment on it! In previous years I would go to the KRC halloween dance every year.. Dress up and party with the rugby guys. And on the 31st I would be home to help hand out the candy. But during the two years I lived in Prince George I missed on both of these events. The first year we had a halloween party in class where I got to dress up as the characters from Grease.. which was fun.. I am home this year, so I am kind of exicted about handing out the candy and seeing the joy in all the little ones eyes, and see all the adorable costumes. I myself did not and most likely will not dress up this year, but I will enjoy seeing everyone else who is!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

slow week

Well this week, seems to be going by quickly, however the teaching this week is slim to none. I was called Monday morning to teach in a grade 6 class, which was a lot of fun. And that is the only call I have recieved this week.. My only hope is that I get something on Friday! However, I do have my "other" job to fall back on. So I went in early yesterday and I am thinking I might work 8 hours today instead of 4. I figure I have nothing better to do! Living at home is slowly starting to grate on my nerves.. I have been here 3 months I guess, and I am really wishing I had my own place. However, the catch is I get to live here for free which is pretty nice, considering I have student loans etc to pay off.
The weather is begining to become quite cold and gloomy, which sort of fits my mood right about now. I have always had this thing, where I am weary on whether or not I can trust people. I used to be able to trust everyone and anyone. But I was hurt so much in the past that I have put my guard up..And it seems whenever I let that guard down, I get hurt. I met someone, and I don't want to knock it all just yet. But I thought things were going well... and then all of a sudden I began to get the brush off.. I am trying to write it off to stress, and hope he comes around.. If not life will go on.. I was just so excited because I thought for once I had found someone who would treat me well, and not use me like certain people in the past... Oh well I guess only time will tell.....

Monday, October 16, 2006

ADRP paid off?

Well for those of who you were in the education program with me, you will all remember the painful months that we learned ADRP. There was so much to take in, and I know we all complained. Well last week I was called to TOC for two days at the high school, today and tomorrow. So I show up today, to find out that instead of teaching, I was now going to take part in doing student assessment. (for whatever reason the teacher i was going to be working for, chose to back out, so i got to take his place and he taught his classes). Anyway so I got a 10 min crash course on this DART assessment,what was going to take place and what to do. So as the one teacher is showing me how to score the reading, I was like wow... ADRP is flooding back to me. Things like self correction, and omission, sounding out, insertion and all the little codes all came back. So i was like oh ok I am kind of familiar with this system so we should be good to go! So I was paired up with another teacher who has been doing this for a couple of years, and in the second period we had our first group of grade 9's. So I would just go up to them while they working on some comprehension questions and ask them to read me a paragraph, I would make observations, ask them about any reading strategies they may have and move on to the next student. So we did this for two blocks, and then had lunch. Then this afternoon we started to mark. I was kind of worried, but once again things from school came back to me. We were given rubrics, and examples of what a 2, 3, 4, 5 would be etc. So we each would read a paper, give it a score, and then pass it to the next person. We did this with six papers, and found that we were fairly consistant with our marks. So then we got in smaller groups and just started marking these papers.. It was kind of interesting. Tomorrow I am supposed to be going back to continue marking, and we have one more group of students to get through. So it should be fun! But I was told by another teacher this will look great on my resume! All I said was that is good to know! haha... So I guess maybe ADRP wasn't the end of the world after all....

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The Evolution of Dance

So on the radio this morning during the entertainment news segment, they were talking about how this website "you tube" was bought buy google. I was only half paying attention and I didn't really know what they were talking about. Well I didn't work today, so I was able to watch Ellen, and she was also talking about this.. Google bought it for like 1.6 billion dollars or something like that. Anyway this website is a place where can ppl upload their videos for others to watch. So Ellen had a guest on her show today who has a video on this website. It is called the Evolution of Dance. It is a 6 min clip, and he basically goes through the era's of dance. On her show he did the two min version, and I couldn't help but laugh as he did the twist, and then went into something like mc hammer, he had all the moves. So after that I had to check this site out. So I watched his 6 min clip and I reccommend if you have 6 min on your hands to check it out. Just go to to www.youtube.com and search for the evolution of dance...Then you can count and see how many of those dance moves you remember! Make sure you get the clip with the guy in the orange shirt that is 6 min long. The amazing thing is how quickly this obviously took off.. Cuz when I searched it again later to show my sister, I noticed other versions... So I watched a couple, there were a couple of guys who redid it for a talent show, and a group of girls who did it.
As interesting as it is, and like I said you should check it out... I find it highly amusing that people would record themselves for whatever reason and put it on the internet for others to watch. But then again I find it more interesting to think that people have nothing better to do than watch these clips... But I guess I have become one of those people now! haha.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Teacher Appreciation Day...

Well this morning I heard on the radio that today was teacher appreciation day. So they were asking people to phone in about memories of great teachers, or for teachers to phone in and talk about memorable moments. So it got me thinking... It is amazing how the great teachers that have come into your life forever stay with you. I think it is a couple of teachers that I had, that helped to inspire me to be a teacher as well. I just thought I want to be that person that someone can look back at in 30 years from now and say that I made a difference in their lives!
And on that note... to all my fellow teachers I just want to say Happy teacher appreciation day :) You are all amazing, and I know that you will and probably already do touch the heart of many :)