Teaching

It is a little difficult stepping into a classroom being the third teacher to come around, becides a rotating sub that has been in there. I myself am still finding my teaching style. Attempting to find a way around the school board's policy that no homework can be collected for a grade. So now we are having daily quizzes. Which I think that I need to adjust because so many of them were not quite getting the point of the fact that all they have to do is do their homework and I am giving them the points. I am taking questions directly from their homework then having them those five problems, it is open book, open note, even open group. Only they have five minutes to do the problems. So, if they actually did their homework they could just copy the problems and get full credit. I don't know though.

Don't Cha. Yeah Amanda, that one.

Central is telling me that it will be another six weeks or so for them to process my degree. Which means that I will be more than likely ten weeks for me to get an actual teaching certificate. This sort of hinders my plan of getting five thousand in those ten weeks for working. I still am working but I am not sure how happy the district will be if I have to fill out an emergencry teaching certificate form. I don't know. Teaching is fun and all but this is getting to be a hassle.

The marathon was good, interesting feeling. Started out following someone, opun later analysis I realized that they might be going slightly faster than I would like to but it was a good warm up. Kept seeing Pinky throughout the race, until the end. About mile eight I shot ahead until mile twelve. At mile fifteen everything went numb, my legs were tired still but nothing hurt. Which was good. The hill at mile twenty was long, but I ran the whole way. Except when I was getting water. I found out after my first water break that you tend to choke when you attempt to drink water while running. Met some interesting people while I was running but I ended up finishing alone. Aunt Lisa got to watch me finish which was cool.

Helping out with the wrestling team is helping me get back into shape. It is also fun, some of them are interesting to watch. It is kind of amazing to look at the maturity level. I was told that I was never like that when I was that age. Which does give weight to the people that say that I was a little serous in high school. But it does take something away from those that say that I joke around way too much. When I am in that room I get cold again.

Finalizing my goals

Sunday marks the end of my planning. In a way. Because while graduation is still a few days off I do not have to do anything in order to get there. I have already completed that requirement. However The goal that I added a month ago is coming to a close as well. I am running in the Seattle marathon on Sunday. From there I do not have anything planned in my life. Mmmm maybe if I get enough money together spend spring break in a foreign country. But that is still a little while away. Getting a place of my own is another thing that should be on that list. I have got to get my stuff out of Soso's house. Maybe even look for some land that I could buy and then build my dream home. Or at least something that would sell for a fair amount of money to allow me to add to my teaching income. Just things that I need to start thinking about.

Job

Did I just fall bass akwards into a decision. I am not sure, it all happened so fast. I completed student teaching on Thursday, on Friday just lazing about I get a phone call asking me if I want to teach at Bremerton High. Oh and we want you to be there on Monday at six am. This is what they are doing, here you go and good luck.

Do I really want to live in that place? Sure it might be better on the inside but hmmm. Funny how life changes in the blink of an eye.

Hurt

The song was running through my mind on Monday as I started training. I knew that I was hurting myself like I had never done before. I was attempting more than I had ever done even when I was in the best shape of my life. Suprisingly the first nine miles did not hurt so bad. The second six did. And the last two... Well I just will not talk about them. I will let the dot dot dot speak for itself.

Stubborn; I have been called many things in my life, but stubborn is one of the things that all of the women in my life have agreed on. Putting one foot in front of another. Step by painful step.

Strangely I was not thirsty on my run. I was hungary, I had a light lunch that day in prep for my run but after two hours I was getting a little famished. Usually I go by the words, "Eh I could eat." But this time it was "I need food, and a lot of it." Which if you have seen me eat can be scary. After I ate a hearty meal of shepherds pie, and at the late hour of 8:30 pm I decided to call it a night. Slept like the dead until I awoke the next morning realizing that my hip hurt, not really able to find a comfortable position until that is I realized that I was still exhausted; I fell right back to sleep. Getting up that morning was interesting. For the most part every thing that I did was painful. I also could not stand on one leg which provided some difficulty washing my feet in the shower. Going down stairs is one of the most painful things that I have ever experienced. It is truly an interesting thing to feel. I now know about more muscles than I thought that I had, because I hurt in places that I did not think could hurt.

It is kind of funny though. Found the limit for right now.

But that song was really striking home for me that day. "I hurt myself today. Just to see if I could feel."

Yesterday I attempted to take the dogs for a little run to shake loose some of the Lactic acid that had built up in my legs. Unfortunately they had to stop and sniff every few hundred feet which did not allow me to get into a nice rithom. Today I ran for about six miles. I was supposed to run four but I got a little turned around and did not think that I knew where I was. So three quarters of the way into my run I turned around picked up the pace and found my way back to my uncle's house.

And all of this started because of two little words, "Uh, sure." My aunt thought that it would be a good idea for me to run in the Seattle Marathon. We were planning on doing only the half marathon, however she persuaided me that since I would not have to train for the half marathon (since I have not really run in about six months and I just ran that to start) that to do a full marathon would be something to strive for. Something that I would have to actually try to acomplish. So I uttered those two dangerous words. Now in three Saturdays I will be running twenty six point two miles. Hey Debbie you did tell me to make some time for me so that I can exercise. I guess I just take things a little far.

As far as teaching goes. I love it. I really do. I love interacting with the kids, the work is challenging, it really is exilerating. Although I did have to do what I feared I would have to do, I had a student not want to do something that I asked him to do and he was a steady refusal machine. So I had to send him outside, get everyone else working and then he and I went and had a chat. I don't know how I did, it could have been that he was just appeasing me to get back in the room because it was cold outside. But I did what I had to do. Oh and on the day that I dressed up for Halloween my university supervisor showed up. The person that is supposed to be grading me on my professionalism. I saw him and thought GREAT. There goes my chances of becoming a teacher, or graduating, ever. Luckly he had a sense of humor and marked on my evaluation that the costume was approprate and when the time came to work the students got to work so that was good. I am still getting an S instead of a F or an U, which would not be good, both would not be good either but that is not likely to happen. Student teaching is fun and all but it would be nice to be paid to do this.