Thursday, August 26, 2010

Sub

They it takes 21 times of doing something for it to become a habit. Well I've made it to 2 in a row lets see if it sticks. Started off the morning with AR testing (which I secretly loathe), D.O.L., and some calander work. I got to lead all three which was nice. The kids were well behaved all morning, even our kids who are usually in trouble for something. It was nice. I made 2 strange (or maybe not so uncommon) observations in my school today. 1. For it being such a small building and school, most teachers go all day without seeing another teacher aside from the other one that shares their grade. This I find odd and I can't think it's too good for staff unity. 2. No one eats in the teachers lounge...actually I'm not sure they eat at all. I eat in there every day per IWU teacher and Aunt advice. Today I ate with one other person an aide named Tammy something. I honestly don't know how the teachers do it by my 11:20 lunch time I am famished, I think I'd pass out by the end of the day if I didn't eat. We had a sub this afternoon which meant I had to hold down the fort. The sub is actually a retired teacher from the district so she knew how things operated. I taught the math lesson today then had our kids do their worksheet, only to find out when they were at PE that I had them do the wrong one. No worries though post PE we got back aboard the Math express and did the right one. All in all I think the day went well, I don't think I did too bad on my own. The evening was spent on homework and then bike riding. I also went to Hopedale to walk with Jodi, Trey, Mom, and Julie around a lakeish thing I never knew existed. But it's getting late and well it's bed time.

Carrie Out

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Students and Fleas

Greetings out there! I have decided to return to the blogosphere after a long graduation and summer hiatus. The more I have thought about it the more journaling my daily experiences as a student teacher seemed like a good idea. It will help me keep a log of what I do every day as well as I am sure offer some laughs if I am ever to look back on it as a much more experienced teacher. The experience so far has been great. I never knew such joy could come out of an exclamation point at the end of a D.O.L. sentance. Or that hitting the Staples "easy button" could make an 8 year old (who would rather dilly dally) race through a math page. Who would have guessed that the simple reward of having a stuffed dog on your desk would inspire pristine behavior...at least in some of the students. I have transformed my life into that of the elderly. I am up early, I eat early, and I am in bed early. Apparently just being on your feet all day can take all your desire for night time craziness right out of your body and make you long for the time where you can simply sit down. It has been a good learning opportunity and I hope to continue to make it one throughout the semester.

In other news I had my first encounter with fleas today. I am convinced my dog has them. She has been itchy for about a month. Bren and I thought it may be dry skin because we were bathing her almost daily due to her desire to roll in gross things and dive in water. As a precaution I bought her a flea collar 3 weeks ago hoping if there were bugs on her they would move along. No such luck. Last night as I was cleaning her ears I spied one. It looked like it was swimming on her ear fur, and, well, it was disgusting. Seriously thinking about it all day gave me the willies. So I decided that right after school we needed to go to the store and get some kind of bug be gone. I bought flea shampoo and flea spray. It was an all night ordeal. I cleaned her pen, sprayed her basket, washed her blankets, and her toys. I washed her, massaged the shampoo as instructed, and let it soak. I rinsed her dried her and waited for her fur to dry. Then I sprayed her, rubbed in the liquid, and again let it soak. This was followed by more drying and a final brush through. Who knew tiny little bugs could be so involved. Anyways here's to hoping it did the trick!

Carrie Out