The littlest things excite me ...

I got ALL the DVDs I requested today! I'm really excited that I'll now have something to show about New Orleans and Versailles.

But, todays was a good day. Long week straight ahead....

Life comes along during the teaching season?!

So my car hates me. It makes funny noises that I can't understand. I have to find the time (and money) to get it fixed ... and perhaps get a rental car. All with a 6:45am to 8pm schedule.

I just got a bill from my consolidated SIUE student loan (I deferred it while I was at NIU), and its due the day BEFORE my first paycheck will be in.

I was having a pretty good day until daily life showed up! :)

I'm hoping my car will make it to work and then to the shop. I can't describe what it sounds like other than it sounds like a whistling donkey. Got that, Tapper Brothers? My dad suggested I call a cab, but I'm thinking that if I need a cabbie to drive me around, thats going to end up being just as expensive as renting a car, plus I would have to rely on the cabbie's timeliness. I don't expect anyone but me to be punctual.

At any rate, teachings still going well. I had a bit of a bad day on Friday, jsut because of one little class. They;re the last class of the day, and it was a Friday. Need I say more? Well, I somehow lost control of the classroom (IMO), and we got nothing accomplished. My mentors great and supportive (remember, this is me ... if one class goes poorly, that's all I can think about!) and gave me some suggestions about last period Fridays. Apparently my predecessor had the same problem. So I'm going to have to lay down the hammer, too. However, if they're not focusing, the first quiz (Wednesday) may do that on its own. We'll just have to see.

The ones have their first quiz tomorrow! I'm so excited!

Oy, what a nerd...

What day is it?

I must repeat myself: I freaking LOVE my job. Maybe its my ego, but I really feel like I can be there for my students. I know what kind of teacher I hope to be and I think that I am already: commited, understanding, but with high expectations. I need a bit more prep as far as going through what I want to make sure the students have a grasp of, but my mentors really helping me with that. I have to adjust my expectations fo my students all the time because they had another teacher for their past experience in French. I don't want to bore my advanced students nor make my students who are a bit behind want to pull out their hair due to frustration.

I have high hopes for my level one students. they're on it, and they GET IT. They have to do the work, but they get credit for every letter. The older students, well, theyre not really all that used to consistent work, I think. I hope the level threes stick with it., though I'm concerned they might not.

Tonight was just about my earliest morning and earliest time home: I woke up at 5am and at school at 7am. and was out of the school at 7:30. I hope that all this work will pay off next year. my goal for next year is to be out the door at 6 every night.

I do have other goals, of course, but they're more far-fetched and for my French 1 students.

First days

Okay, people, let me start off with the positive:

I love my job. It's a hell of a lot of work. I just had a 14 hour day, and I'm still not done. But I'm not pissy. I'm just a little tired.

It's amazing how much planning a school will do for the first day of school, and yet the simplest part of it all -- just telling people where they need to be -- seems to elude the school. Ooops. Hopefully they'll take my suggestion and indicate on the first day's schedule where students are only there a half day, if that. I got my first CPDU that day, though, so thats a plus!

My first day? A student tripped over my laptop cord, and this incident, of course, caused the laptop to fall and be "messed up". Only this could happen to ME on the first day of a job. But the tech guys were super helpful and were able to switch out my hard drive. So its a positive.

The most challenging part of my day? I have 4 classes before my prep. and allllll my different preps are in the morning. This makes for a pretty rushed morning. But then I have 54 minutes of prep and about 30 minutes for lunch. I cant bring myself to eat a real lunch, but I'm bringing some granola bars with me everyday. And lots and lots of water.

So things are mostly good. I know this is my first year, so alll this work is normal. It'll get better next year. I repeat this mantra.

Also, I'm going to be an aunt! Yay for niece to-be Van Leeuwen!

Commence automatic freak out sequence, Teach.

Okay, so I didn't start freaking out about this fall until yesterday, when I realized that I'm going to have my hands full for the next ten months.

I don't have a supply list or letter for parents yet, but I really like what I snagged from Nataliya last year, so I'm going to pull a lot from that. The first day of school is just an extended tour of the building for the students, but wednesday (of next week) is the first full day. I have a student who has gained rank for French 5, and I'm worried she's an exchange student who's better at the language than me. Hopefully I can teach this kid something... Oh, and this genius kid (I'm guessing) is in a class with French 3 and French 4 students. If anyone out there teaches combined classes like this ... please let me know.

Tomorrow I have another day of workshops, and I'm hopiong I feel a little more prepared. If I don't, I'm camping out in my classroom.

I should have bought a Mega Millions ticket

So Friday was a CRAZY amazing day in my book. Right now, Friday's just like any other day because I'm no technically working. I'm working, but I'm not getting paid. Such is the life of a teacher, at least the first year. You know, there's a weird new thing with teacher's pay. Apparently, taxes are done differently now because we're paid 12 months a year but only work 10. But theres almost a whole pay period for Winter Break, and we get paid normally for that... I don't know. I'm not complaining, I'm just curious.

Anyway!

I went to the school to get a heap of work done. My predecessor left me loads of materials, but a lot of it I want to set aside. In the poubelle. There are SO MANY tapes from the day of the language lab as main teacher, and I think I'm going to throw away all those tapes on Monday after Day One of the new teach workshop. But I was concerned because theres this large podium in the front of the classroom, and it was totally blocking where I wanted to put the patio table and chairs (it sounds white trash, but it's a BISTRO SET). I put in a request for the maintenance dudes to unbolt it and maybe move it? I was nervous because I've already asked these guys to remove a large makeshift Eiffel Tower, and I'm betting that thing was a bear to get rid of. But anyway, I put in my request and started moving things around. I decided to just try and move it. AND IT MOVED! I was stoked and practically RAN to the nearest office to ask the secretary to tear up the request. I mean, I was so excited that I could move this podium for it to work for me. So I just angled it a little, and it looks great.

So I got home after about 5 hours of work, and deicded I should check on my laptop. I took it to Best Buy on the 25th, and hadn't heard about it, so I checked online, and after entering all my info, it said they needed approval before repairing it or something. My thoughts? "Great. I have viruses and they're going to charge me $150 to remove them." But I called anyway, and, I GOT A NEW LAPTOP FOR "FREE!" This is thanks to my extended PSP. I think I'm going to get a tablet from work, but that's only for the school year. So, if I can do random things on my work computer (like wireless access), I might loan Heather my NEW laptop for that time period and then steal it back for summer time. I'm still thinking about it.

So those two little things (podium = moveable and the "free" laptop) made me think I was the luckiest person ever.

When was your last lucky day?

Quick weekend

My dad came for a quick visit this weekend. He had planned on coming on Friday, but somebody in his wife's family died, so he wasn't able to come until Saturday. He helped me put together the bistro set for my classroom, installed my new programmable thermostat, and snakes the utility drain in my hallway. The bistro set isn't as sturdy as I had hoped, but I think it'll do for the first year. Besides, I could probably find some sturdier ones next summer. The thermostat eludes me right now. The reason he snaked the drain in the utility closet was because I have had this wet dog smell coming out of it as well as my a/c vents. It seemed to work, but the following day, the smell was back. I've tried to do some research, and some say that there's no proof that air duct cleaning helps anything, and some say that complete system cleaning is necessary. I can't really afford a $500 overhaul, but I can't stand the smell, either.

I signed up at a gym in Bourbonnais and went to equipment training this morning. I really didn't want to get up early, but I signed up for an 8am training, and I have to start kicking myself out of bed early! The first institute day is two weeks from today, and orientation for all of us new teachers is one week from today. So not more sleeping in past 6. Ugh, that sounds awful.

Upgrades!

I'm very, VERY happy to announce that I bought a few snazzy items for my place! I've been using the same bath towels since I moved into the dorms at SIUE (that would be 2001, peeps), and Carson's was having a ridiculous home sale, so I found a few colors that go well with my new shower curtain.
I splurged a bit on the lotion pump (that will be used for soap) and the matching tissue holder (silver; this picture doesn't really show the lotion pump; it's super pretty!).

I practically walked out of the store with a new bathroom, kids. I even got this super chic candle votive and a deep blue candle to go with the blue and purple towels that I bought. I tried to be clever and went to Target afterwards, thinking I could get similar towels for a cheaper price and then return the Carsons towels, but because this home sale was SO crazy, Carson's prices were actually better! Go figure. I'm considering going back Sunday or Monday to get the soap dish that matches the kleenex box and pump because the one I'm holding on to doesn't really match. Please stay tuned for pictures of the actual room itself; I'll probably take them and post them this weekend!

Dad's coming down from B-town to help out with a few things, including getting me some glass for the coffee table and end tables in the living room. I have oodles of postcards that I've held on to, and I think they'll make a great display for under the glass. I have some pictures of Provence (from a calendar, not my 2006 trip) that I might thumb through for the end tables.