Just to give ya a quick fix....

Okay, here you all go. Since everyone is laying on me to post, here's what I posted on one of my message boards. This should keep you going until I can really blog. Note the 8 hrs involved in the below activity...now do you see why I don't have the mental dexterity to come up with something witty like I used to? Don't read too fast. This has to keep you going...

As many of you know, I am childless and studentless this week. School is out for the week (heaven forbid that they should expect students to actually show up for the three days between two three day weekends) so I don't have to go to work this week. The boys' tuition is paid for the month and they love school, so I've decided to keep them in it and get some work done. I've just spent the last 8 hrs in Starbucks and churned out a ridiculous amount of work!!! I've written five short papers today (about 12 or 13 pages worth) while sitting here, that includes all the research I had to do for them. It would have taken me five nights to get that much done working from 8-11. I'd have had to wait until the boys were in bed and I'd be so tired my concentration would have been shot. I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to be this productive. I almost feel like I have the intellectual capability that I did in college (pregnancy and motherhood have done some irreversible damage). My a$$ hurts from sitting here all day but I feel great. Oh and I'm starving b/c I worked through lunch---and breakfast for that matter. The venti Chai Latte went a long way. I can't wait to see how much work I get done tomorrow. At this rate, I might come out to play by Thurs. Okay...I just had to make that declaration! AHHH FREEDOM!!! And mental acuity!

It's 6am, do you know where your kids are?

Yes, I do. They're awake and playing---on a Saturday. When do they start to understand the concept of weekends? And that that means they get to sleep in? Oh and when will they be old enough to leave a little breakfast for them in the fridge to get out on their own and watch Saturday morning cartoons? Please someone let me know! I will mark it in red on the calendar!
Both boys have generally adjusted well to getting up early again (I'd just gotten them to sleep till 7, sometimes even 7:30) but I would really love it if they would just sleep a little later on the weekends. 5:45 just shouldn't be seen on the clock on the weekends! It's not civilized if you're no longer a college student. I even tried putting them to bed a little later last night (that's all relative, later is just their regular pre-my-return-to-work bedtimes) but they still woke up bright and early. They're both way more alert than I am; I'm typing this in a virtual haze and in between yawns. DH has agreed to get up with them tomorrow morning...we'll see if that materializes if they wake up this early again. This morning DH is up and out the door to meet a friend for breakfast. Said friend just retired from the Corps and is driving home in a few hours. I wonder if DH'll be in the mood for another early morning breakfast date tomorrow if the companions require diaper changes.
Okay duty calls. Apparently, the jumperoo is not the preferred form of confinement for the baby this morning. I was hoping that he might want to bounce for a bit so I could doze on the sofa. But I think the baby wants to be loose on the floor which means Mommy has to stay completely awake. At least in the jumperoo, I know he can't get into anything.
Sweet dreams to the rest of you sleeping beauties.

One down, eleven to go

Weeks that is. I survived my first week of student teaching and now have only eleven left to go.

After Monday's rough start, Tuesday I was able to really get going. I did some observing with a little interaction with the students. Besides spending a ridiculous amount of time at the hospital pharmacy after finding out that the baby has a double ear infection, Wednesday went well; I started lecturing. It felt so nice to be back in the swing of things. I really do have some attention seeking issues b/c I really do get a thrill out of being the center of attention and knowing that there is a classroom full of people listening to me! Ah and the anecdotes I can tell. DH once observed that I always had a story about every possible situation. Any time someone commented on something, I had a story to go along with that theme. (I don't think at the time it was a compliment.) What can I say? I've packed a lot into my relatively short life. But just like any good antique, there is value under the surface. This is perfect since I'm teaching history. I have little nuggets and gems to try and keep the students' interest---or at least break up the monotony.

I have two host teachers with two periods of US History and two periods of World History. The school is in a suburban setting but with an extremely urban feel. The minorities are the majority. There are a lot of students who are English Lanuage Deficient meaning that they are barely proficient or less than fluent in English. Most of these students do not have a lot of interest or support from their families. As a result, test results, homework completion, and general motivation is very low. At the same time, there is a high enrollment in the AP histories. This school has an open enrollment policy that allows any student to take the course. However, they must take the exam. Surprisingly, there is a remarkably high pass rate--and not just passing but a lot of 4s and 5s (the highest score is a 5). My US history sections are the students who couldn't handle or didn't want to take AP. Which means some of them are barely conscious. My World History are mostly freshman--that's explanation enough! So you can see there are two extremes at work in this school. If I were offered a job here at the end of my time here, I would probably take it. A jobs a job, it pays the bills. And it's always easier to find another job when you already have one. But I can definitely tell you, I don't want to be here permanently. It would be a great stepping stone to something else because I really want to be somewhere that is far more academically rigorous. As I've already been told several times, if I want that, I need to go to a rich white school. I really couldn't care less what race my students are, I just would like to be somewhere a D- is a 60 not a 35! Yeah, you read that right! That's how this department grades otherwise no one would pass. There are students who don't even get that. There are students who only got a 2 or 3%. No joke, no exageration. They're the ones I mentioned above. I get it if this were AP Physics but no, it's mainstream history. I absolutely would never send my boys to this school.

My US history teacher has been giving me larger and larger sections to lecture on each day but hasn't handed over the entire lecture to me yet. My World History teacher has barely let me lecture yet (mostly just vocab--but I did draft and administer a quiz for him) and I have my first solo lecture on Monday. Go figure on that break down... I'm really excited to have an entire lecture to myself so that I can set my own tone and style rather than just jumping in on someone else's bandwagon. Having subbed for two years, I never had another teacher to follow (except in pre-k or kindergarten classes when I co taught--but that doesn't count) so it'll be nice to do things my way again. I've always liked to do things my way...

I also have my first of six observations by my clinical supervisor (a third party observer) a week from this Monday. I'm going to have him observe two periods--one US and one Wld--kill two birds with one stone. It'll be nice to get a set under my belt so that I know exactly what he is looking for.

And somewhere in all this I still have the course work that I have to do for this part of my Masters and I'd like to start my Research Fundamentals for my capstone (or Master's thesis). So I'm just a little busy. And don't forget that somewhere in there, I have to raise two children and help prepare my family for the transition from military to civilian. Oh and most importantly, I have twenty pounds to lose by the beginning of April so that I can accomplish my goal of being back to my premarital weight by the baby's first birthday. That would be a 100lbs in a year, btw.

This will be my schedule as of next week:
5:00 Wake up
5:15 Out the door on a run
5:45-6:45 Get myself and the boys ready and out the door.
7:00 Drop off the boys and head to work.
7:15-2:45 Teach
3:00 Pick up the boys
3:30-6:00 Play at the kids gym
6:00-8:30 Dinner, playtime, bath, bedtime for the kids
8:30-11:00 Homework
Rinse and repeat!
Let's see how long this lasts! Wish me luck!