Have you missed me?

Alright, I know it's been almost six months since I last blogged! I've been a bit busy!
Here's what's been going on:
I completed my student teaching (Jan 28-May 2). It was a mixed bag of experiences. I'll be back to that in a moment.
I had school work to do on top of the student teaching stuff. I'm one class away from working on my thesis. Once I take two exams, finish this class, do one project, and the thesis I'll have my Masters! That may seem like a lot but I just need to knock it all out. Would you think I was pretentious if my signature on my email said Maria C. Mahaffey, BA, MAT?! I wouldn't really but it would be kinda nice. Especially since I thought for years that it would be Maria C. Mahaffey, Esq as in Esquire as in attorney. I guess I'll just have to hold out for Maria C. Mahaffey, PhD.
The baby is no longer a baby. He had his first birthday at the beginning of April. I am now the mommy of a full fledged toddler (he's finally taking 5-6 steps on his own--till he remembers how much fun falling and flopping around is) and a preschooler! How did we all get so old?
Dear husband starts his terminal leave tomorrow and started his new CIVILIAN job today. OMFG! We will be civilians on July 7! I need to do a major shopping trip to the commissary, for sure. Oh and get every single medical appointment taken care of ASAP! So what do I do when I'm no longer a "spouse" or "dependent"? That's all I've known for the past five years. That's been a defining concept for me since I got married. They've been totally and completely intertwined since well forever. Dear hubby was a Marine when I met him. My "starter"engagement ring is from the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor, my current ring is from the PX at Quantico, DH married in his Blues. A huge part of my self-identity is being a Marine Corps wife. I think I will have a far harder time adjusting to civilian life than DH. DH will have to adjust to the civilian workforce though. I'm anticipating a bumpy ride on that. Fortunately, he's working on base with Marines so the transition should be made easier by that fact.
The preschooler is now a talking (incessantly) preschooler. "Bank you Mommy" "What's that noise Mommy" "My do it Mommy" "Go away Mommy" "Hungry Mommy" "My shows". Funny how his teacher tells me that's he's up to 2 minutes of "making silence" because I'm still working on 20 seconds! Oh and I'm trying to work on the inside voices--ironic since I went to speech as 3 yr old b/c I was always hoarse from not knowing how to use a 12 inch voice! There is still quite a bit of incomprehensible babble but not like 9 months ago. Poor kid is the size of a 4.5 year old though so people have some lofty expectations for him. If only his maturity and speech equalled his physical ability. He's my upcoming Division 1 athlete. He's shooting a full size basketball into a regulation hoop. He's playing with a size 5 soccer ball. And he's figured out forehand and backhand in tennis. I'm still trying to work on the scratch-your-back-touch-your-toes serve. He's getting a youth 23" racket for his birthday, among other things.
I am also trying to find us a house to live in since we have to be off base by July 7. There were two places that we were seriously interested in but they both got swiped up before we could get to them. So disappointing and infuriating. The cost of living here is ridonculous! We don't want to buy out here since the plan is to move back east by the time the preschooler becomes a kindergartner, which is only two short years from now!

Anyway...so back to my student teaching experience. Talk about a bipolar experience--highs and lows. One of my host teachers totally reminded me of Mr Garrison or whichever character it is from South Park who says "mmm kay" all the time. First impressions are not always accurate. This was the host teacher who was slower to turn the class over to me but proved to be the more supportive and helpful. My other host teacher was willing to have me start teaching the third day but his class proved to be far more challenging due to the fact they were freshman and it's a prescribed curriculum/lesson plan. He was not supportive or even pedagogically informative for the most part. It was a "you blundered, I'll point it out, make you feel like crap, but not really give you any constructive support. Have fun!"
My juniors were so much more enjoyable than my freshman even though they were US History (snore!) and the freshman were World History.
I will say that I want absolutely nothing to do with an aligned curriculum and prescribed lesson plan. It is so extraordinarily limiting. There is no time built in for remediation and as a result the students have no time to catch up or be re-taught material if they don't understand it. They just fail. But I did at least get a topic for my thesis out of this! Or at least a proposed topic. The grading system in the Social Studies department supposedly aligns with the National College Board and the Advanced Placement exam system. That's great--too bad most of the students are not in Advanced Placement classes. Oh no--they're practically in remedial classes (given how much hand-holding and spoon feeding that is done) but they still can't pass the exams on a tradition scale. I could go into all the gory details of my opinions on this craziness but I'll save that for anyone who is masochistic enough to want to (or gets bribed into proof) reading my thesis.
On the upside, I have gotten a j-o-b!!! Not entirely in my field though. My second week of student teaching, pink slips went out. There was a proposed $8 million budget cut for all school district in CA. As a result, no public schools were hiring. I looked into Charter Schools in south LA but the process takes so long that we will need to find a new home before I can fully interview so that kind of put the kibosh on that for now. I can't drive from north San Diego to south LA daily. We would have to move half way but there is no point to moving to an even more expensive zip code if I don't have a job in LA. Plus I absolutely love the boys school and don't want to have to find another one. So in the mean time, I interviewed for a tutoring position. While at the interview, I impressed them with my Chinese, my early graduation, my substitute teaching experience and a few other little notches on my belt. I've been hired as the curriculum developer for 3-12 grade Language Arts. Not exactly the subject area that I am most qualified for but thanks to a nearly complete Masters and a memory like an elephant ( I still remember all the major activities from each grade and remember what needs to be accomplished per grade) I am doing well creating the curriculum and lesson plans. The school is a small, private tutoring school opening in La Jolla. It's owned by a Korean couple and the director is also Korean. My math counterpart is a Korean-American. I'm learning Korean! It's been a challenge since the CEO really doesn't speak English (can read and write but not speak) and his wife understands quite a bit but isn't fluent. The director has to do all the translating. It's very trying at times because there is so much work to be done, so little time, and a bit of indecision from the bosses as they're trying to crack open a new market. It's basically an Asian cram school. The students will more than likely be mostly Asian and looking to go from nearly perfect to perfect scores in Math and English. I wanted to go into consulting at some point and I guess I got my chance sooner than I thought. Growing up in a tri-cultural family prepared me well for this foray into International Relations (good thing that's what my BA is in!). I'm just plugging at it daily and still trying to fit in my regular homework and house hunting---oh and housekeeping and childrearing--you know, those secondary tasks.
There you have it! I promise it won't be another 6 months before I post.
I'll be back...