evidence

Wondering what I've been up to lately?  Well I've essentially been consumed by two rather large projects.  

The first is my job.  Specifically the task of gather large amounts of evidence to look at with Dr. Anne Davies next Friday.  Learning Leaders and Principals have been assigned this task so we can have a discussion of what quality evidence of change would look like.  While this sounds reasonable, my math background is putting me at odds with the majority of evidence that we have access to.  You see, none of it will reflect improvement over time.  It all shows very lovely snapshots of the fabulous things going on at our school (which is quite valuable), but we do need some way of measuring that there are more fabulous things going on at this time next year.  On the other hand, measuring things just for the sake of measuring them doesn't make much more sense.  So yes, this is what I think about almost all the time.  

The second is wedding planning.  I saved it for second because it is much more fun.  The internet is a deadly trap though - there are so many pretty things to look at that it is easy to lose sight of what's really important to us.  My love of all things paper doesn't help.  However, I find having a budget to be the easiest way to come back down to reality as the thought of spending $1000 on invites, flowers or even a dress makes me a little sick.  Not only is it not budget friendly it just seems so wasteful.  So I spend an equal amount of time trying to negotiate how we can have a wedding that reflects who we are as a couple and lets us spend as much time as possible with our friends and family.

We've also been doing some minor home renos (I have another red wall!).  We might even get our new kitchen in before we get married.  No guarantees about that one though.  The fabulous JJ came to visit, and we will have more company this weekend.  Christmas is almost here and I can't wait for everyone to be home so that I can have a new hobby of staying up too late visiting and trying to cram 6 months of hanging out into 2 weeks.

done like dinner and other things that are done

As of 15 minutes ago I am finished my calculus course. Ugh. It's funny how you work so hard for something and then it's just over.

The exam was even more of a monster than I expected, full of tricks and exceptions (and things we weren't supposed to know!). There will be no 100% on this one as in my attempt to finish off everything I didn't understand, I forgot to go back and finish a question I did understand but got stuck with. They sure don't mess around with their time restrictions here at McGill! The dude barked at me to "PUT DOWN YOUR PENCIL!" when I tried to finish a sentence I was writing after time had been called. Yipes.

I do know I got at least 2 questions right as they were for the bits we weren't supposed to know and el proferino told me to leave them as is and they were right up to the point I'd done them to.

Marks will be out on Sunday (claims el prof), til then it's shopping and time for more house guests!

UPDATE: It's Tuesday and there are finally marks on my transcript. An A, followed by a GPA of 4. Boo!! Don't get me wrong, both of those things are good things, things that make me happy, but there is a critical piece of information missing. The number. The difference between an 89% and a 92% is huge in my world and I want to know. I really want to know. I know, I'm a teacher and I tell kids not to worry about "their mark" all the time, I'm supposed to be in it for the learning, but goddammit, I want that final number.

victory!

I made it. Essentially anyway. Finals start today (for me) and even with all the marking it feels like a holiday.

it's almost over

ihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingits
almostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihate
markingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmost
overihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarking
itsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostoverihatemarkingitsalmostover...

my favorite time of year...

Finally some sun! I know I live in a bi-polar weather region, but the sun usually sticks it out with us through the mood swings. It's that time of year at school, and the miserable weather so close on the heels of 30 degree very lovely summer weather was enough to turn my classrooms into packs of whiny, unpleasant adolescents. It's hard being 16! The expectation of showing up with a textbook is just plain not fair! ohmygodpleasehelpmenow.

With only 13 actually physical classes left, and even that is best case scenario since there are assemblies, pep rallies, and fire drills that have all been left to the last minute it is serious crunch time. How can I have a full unit left to do, if not two, in all of my classes? That does not include final review, or any of the "fun" stuff I've been trying to incorporate into the geometry units.

On the plus side, in 13 days I don't need to worry about any of it. But who's counting...

(Attempt #1 at fun failed miserably, and by the end of the class they were essentially begging for notes. So much for experiential learning. Attempt #2 goes today...)

mon ame!

The weather is seriously breaking my soul. This needs to end, preferably before I wind up in a puddle of my own tears in the middle of my living room floor.

february break - the condensed version

So I had an eventful and an uneventful February break all at the same time. In no particular order:

The most time consuming part of my break was spent with Big Red. You see, the Friday prior he got a waaaaay overdue nose job. If you think you may need a deviated septum repaired, may I suggest you do this sooner than later? Since this was something that should most likely have been fixed, oh say, at least 10 years ago, it was a pretty big deal. Not only did they have to straighten his septum, they also needed to relocate cartilage and "shave" off a large amount of bone. Big Red spent most of the break not being able to move and swallowing large amounts of blood and gel foam. On top of the other stuff, they had to move a nerve to properly repair his nose so his mouth and teeth hurt and will continue to hurt for the next 3ish months. Awesome! Now that most of the swelling is gone and his splint is off, I enjoy staring at him. He looks the same, but different. He says I'm the only one who will notice since I spend a considerable amount of time looking at him, but I think it's fairly noticeable and that the gentlemen and ladies alike will notice his spiffy new nose.

Institute and Convention were blah-ish. The only thing I got out of the first day is that there are a lot of unintelligent teachers out there. I'm sure they are good teachers (well most of them) but most of the conversations I overheard people were raving about the keynote. It was a continuation of last years dreary, never ending presentation of brain development and the media. Yet again, there never was a real point made, or any tangible solutions, or well anything of substance. However, it seemed that since she could competently talk about YouTube, blogs and MySpace, everyone loved her. Boo. Not that I'm a genius or anything, but I'm pretty sure I could have given her entire 2 hour talk in no more than 20 minutes. So much filler.

Day 2 was slightly more inspiring. Mostly since I was able to participate in some really good discussion with a small group of teachers in the afternoon. I would call the morning a total waste of my time, only it did give us a catalyst for the lively afternoon discussions. Nothing too world changing came out of these discussions, but it is interesting for me to kind of realise that I am slowly solidifying some strong beliefs, values and opinions about my position as a teacher. It's an interesting evolution to chart if I think back to when I was an intern in 2001. Ya, that's right, 2001. Did I mention they've given me a student teacher for the next 2 weeks? In Core French. Gong show.

I didn't get as much planning as I'd have liked done (do I ever?), but I did put in some quality hours. What I did do was take a mental vacation from the stress Core French is putting on me. I think this is most likely as valuable considering the enormous feeling of hatred that would overcome me just thinking about it before the break has turned back into a feeling of disorientation, but also something that could be fun.

Oh yes, Big Red and I also played a ridiculous amount of Twilight Princess and watched and entire season of Scrubs.

Back to work tomorrow.

so this is what everyone was talking about...

I think I've unfortunately found out what everyone was complaining about back when they were first year teachers. Up until now, I thought the rumours of never going home, of having no resources, very little support and always having something to do were just a wee bit exaggerated by people who for one reason or another, just aren't efficient. This might still be true, but to those of you who were genuinely working your butts off, I'm sorry.

So, on year 4, I have been reduced to that person who has nothing. Today was the first day this week I wasn't at school til way after even the extra curr activities has gone home. Mainly because I had to be at the store, looking after other people's boobs. Also, our school is hosting a big basketball tournament this weekend and I have decided to let all my classes "support" the games as a coping mechanism. Essentially I am buying myself time. 3 blessed days before I need to magically understand how to teach kids French.

My staff has attempted to be helpful, by saying things like "there's some stuff in this book, and this book, and this book over here" and then following it with "but I don't really teach Core French so I'm really not the best person to ask." The girl who is the person to ask, lent me her binder (thanks!). Unfortunately, it is full of grammar worksheets and things that make me hate French. She tells me she had "a lot of fun!" with her class last semester, but I have no idea how if this binder truly represents what went on in her classroom.

To top it all off, I was pretty sure Core French involved putting on skits and eating fun things. I was sorta hoping for cupcakes. My students have asked if we can read a novel. Bless them for wanting to learn, but seriously. You want me to be good at this? It's going to be a long semester.

ears,noses and throats, oh my!

I have been waiting since early October to get in to see an Otolaryngologists. There aren't very many (read, 1) here, so while my symptoms weren't anything serious, I figured if something needed to be done I better get on the waiting list while I could still walk. You see, my sinuses/throat always feels like there is something stuck in it. I am constantly trying to swallow whatever that may be, and honestly, it's pretty gross. And never goes away. Also, not really a huge concern of mine, but hypothetically due to the blocked sinuses, I have started snoring. Super awesome for Big Red.

So finally the big day. Since I'd never been to this particular office, it was decided by someone that was not me, that I needed a complete exam. It must all start with the ears or something, cause that's essentially what the full exam entailed. First, I had to sit down so she could check the pressure in my ears. She assures me this won't hurt. Then she starts reefing my ears into unnatural positions so she can shove a mangy looking piece of plastic in to them (apparently the "nothing bigger then your elbow" rule doesn't apply here and sterilization is optional). Once she seemed happy with my level of discomfort, she began to blow air into my ears. I must have misshapen ears, because more reefing and pulling was necessary to get the plastic bit to seal properly so maximum pressure and discomfort could be attained.

Next, I needed a hearing test. To perform said test, they close you in a room that looks like it was fabricated in Russian during the first World War. Only, instead of feeling safe in my own personal "bomb shelter" I had the feeling that if a bomb were to go off, somehow that room would implode while the rest of the building just shook a little. Anyway, the hearing test is no big deal, but they totally try to trick you. The first beeps come rhythmically, so you feel that you should be hearing the next one. The you worry there is a next one, but you can't hear it. So then you imagine noises and you press the button anyway. What started as a tiny concern about excess snot has now wound up with me getting a hearing aid...

Finally, I'm done with the technicalities and we can focus on why I'm really there. My nez. I explain my problems to the doctor. He looks at my tonsils - they are apparently a normal size. The rest of the exam is going to be much more serious. So serious it necessitates a metal forehead reflector. This makes me happy indeed. The rest does not. After careful placement of forehead reflector, he stuck a mirror waaaaay back in my throat so he could look up my nose. This was kinda like having a throat culture taken, but it took longer, so I was starting to have issues with not gagging. All clear! You would think this would be good. Not so much. Having a clear nasal passage meant he wanted to look down my throat. OMG. So he takes gauze and pulls my tongue out a painful amount. Then he takes a crazy snaky mirror and weaves it under my tongue and down my throat. Then he reminds me to breath because I am freaking out and holding my breath. I'm sure this took all of 45 seconds, but it felt like forever. The verdict? All clear.

What? So he's explaining to me that there is absolutely nothing blocking my throat in either direction. That my tonsils are totally normal and not causing the problem. And I have no adenoids, so that's not it either. I must have had a very confused look on my face. Cause I can feel something, as he's telling me this, in my throat. His assessment? Stress.

Stress? I wasn't aware I was stressed?! Not being aware that I have enough stress to make me think I'm sick makes me more stressed! As one final last shot I ask why I'm snoring. He takes one look at my profile and says "Oh, you have an out chin." Like that explains it all. Reading my mind he continues, "People with out chins tend to swallow their tongues when they sleep." Great...

So all this time I have been (unsuccessfully) trying to swallow my tonsils. But somewhat successfully swallowing my tongue. Awesome?

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas...

I'm sure you've noticed by the lack of posts that it's that time of year again. The time of year where even just thinking about taking time out of my day to post on my blog causes my blood pressure to rise and for a mini stress crisis to start brewing. Oh December. Month of holidays and more work than I normally do in the first 4 months of school combined... Or maybe only slightly more work and way more "social obligations." Please understand that I consider a social obligation anything where people I so much as moderately like and food and/or beverages will be present. It becomes a moral obligation if the food is related to chocolate or cheese.

All this work and eating aside, exciting things have been going on. For example, just the other day I spotted my very first set of truck nuts! I literally clapped with joy in my car. I was really wishing Marlito or Km would have been here to share in the moment, seeing as these were a very subpar set of nuts. They weren't round, but instead flat on one side. They were also a disturbingly accurate fleshy colour, and their one sided flatness made them look rather droopy. I had full intentions to linking to Km's blog, where he discusses these little beauties in more depth, but can't find it. Km's blog has a tendency to break my computer, it's full of that much goodness.

Today, 3 girls performed for me an original Backstreet boys medley. For a project, they rewrote the lyrics (in French!!) to 4 different sections of popular BSB's songs, to teach a "sick classmate" about inverse variation. They even added actions. I'm not sure if you've ever really experienced being a teacher until you have 3 girls, singing in French, to your favorite teenage songs about math. I should have videotaped them (had they given me any kind of notice this piece of wonderfulness was going to brighten my Monday).

Big Red moved at the beginning of the month, to his own place. It's pretty sweet he no longer lives in the middle of some kind of wild zoo.

I've become totally addicted to Zelda's "Minish Cap." This is not good. What is good is that I'm almost done.

I'm also trying really hard to get all my school stuff done before Friday when Rach and Marlito will be home. This is not particularly easy considering I'm reinventing 2 units and only sort of have resources for them. I know I could cheap out and do it the old crappy way, but that's not the way I'm rolling this year.

That being said, this trend of no posting will probably hold steady until the holidays start. Just have some more chocolate and Christmas cheer and you won't even notice I'm gone. Hopefully because I'll be visiting with you shortly!

relief

This weekend was the best weekend since my 26th birthday. You're prolly thinking I did something exciting, adventurous, or fun. Nope. Instead I celebrated getting old and stayed at home all weekend. I cleaned, I did school work and I watched tv. It was freaking awesome.

I have no idea what is wrong with me. I'm not a dirty person, but I certainly am a messy one. As hard as I try to fix this, I just can't do it. I'm one of those 'has to make a big mess before anything can get clean' kind of people. Only it's a little extreme cause it applies to every facet of my life. I don't refile school things when I take them out, I have a big pile of 'things to refile, someday.' I don't put clothes away or wash them until there is a huge pile that has taken over my dresser/floor. Floor for dirty, dresser for clean. Mail stacks for long periods of time until it gets dealt with. At the end of the day I have to clean my classroom and put everything away cause I am capable of messing it up in the 4 hours I teach in here. Gah!

So this weekend, I cleaned my house. All of it. With the exception of the computer room, cause that is where some chaos is allowed to stay. Seeing as I can only clean in bits before I get bored, this took 3 days. But now it's awesome. And I really am going to try to get slightly neater. My closet organiser should help. This year I've already been way better with the bathroom. Next step - keeping things off the kitchen table and hanging up my jacket. Big hopes and dreams for 26!

I also watched a tonne of tv while doing school work. This makes school stuff less annoying. Seeing as I'm making up the answer key (somedays better than others...) I have lots and lots of questions to do, all the time. Tv makes this slightly less painful. Marking is also better while accompanied by Mack and crew. If my current school work load is any indication, I will be caught up on all the CSIs by Christmas... sigh.

Honestly it was good to be a hermit for a few days. Not to mention both my school and home life are in much better shape. Stress minimisation, that's what I accomplished this weekend. I would like to think that someday soon, having a clean house, being caught up on school AND seeing my friends is a possibility. For now, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.