24 hours....

In 24 hours I will be on a plane to come home! WooHOO! Im a little excited. It is a combination of being away for so long and needing a break from the city. I love the city..don't get me wrong, but it will be nice to go up to the cabin and enjoy the clean air and no traffic. I am sad that I have to leave the Suz home for a week by herself, but my manager is going to come check on her each day.

The issue now is... cleaning. I have to clean.. pack... and everything else that comes with leaving for a week. Dishes... clothes... Christmas light (so Suz doesn't eat them!).. all that fun stuffs. Along with being up at 245 tomorrow so I can put my clothes on (if I dont wear them to bed!!) and walk out the door to the train. Then ride the train and the buss the hour and a half to the airport. Find the right terminal and get the heack out of here!

23 hours adn about 20 minutes and counting. All I gotta do is make it through the next 6 hours and Im home free! Wish me luck!

Long time no see

So I know it's been a while.. to those of you who are loyal readers I am sorry. Ok.. I probably dont have any loyal readers but hey. I can hope right?

So ... NYC in a nutshell the last week. COLD! On Thursday we had snow. It didnt melt on Friday or Saturday for that matter. But.. by the end of Saturday at least you could walk on the side walks. WAIT! Another winter blast called a NorEaster hit us on Saturday night. That's right folks. Smacked us upside the head. Ice.. Snow... and lots of it. Now while it wasnt that deep... its still here. Thats right.. Sunday morning to Wednesday morning there is still crud all over the ground. It is still slippery to get to the curb from the street and sidewalks where there are no businesses still have ice on them. That is because the snow/ice had melted.. then froze again. Doesnt all this sound like fun!?! Today we are supposed to get up to the 40's so hopefully the little stuff will finally get off the streets. The big stuff will still be here for a while.

On the Christmas front, I am super excited to come home for a week. It will be so great to see my friends and family. Though it's going to be a busy week..if you want precious Annie time, let me know and we shall see what we can do! My plane leaves here at 7 am on Saturday arriving in Ptown on Sat at like 1pm. I cant wait. Hope to see you all next week!

Well winter is here

That's right folks. Winter is here in the big city. It has been snowing and icing all day. There wass about 2 inches of ice when I came home about a half hour ago. Now.. who knows. Its still going out there. In true Oregon fasion I am going to run inside and hide from the scarry weather.

Frustrating days

So. My question to all the teachers out there. How do you get 25 kindergartners to sit still when you only see them once a week for 45 minutes? Between the kids who are doing cartwheels on the carpet to those who are jumping off tables, it makes me quesiton my idea to move here sometimes. Mainly Wednesdays when I have three kinder classes in a row.

I am trying to assume that they wouldn't be that way if I was their regular teacher and some authority.... I am hoping that if I was a regular teacher. That is part of the reason that I want my own classroom. But at the same time, my job would be amazing if the students respected me. It would be so fun if the students sat down and acutally listened once and a while. We shall see...

if you are going to fight do it right

Well. Two of my girls yesterday definitely decided to make this their motto. The girls got in a fight in my room yesterday. It was a knock down drag out... two hands full of each others hair. It was great. Once they finally got pulled off each other one took off with four other kids to the stairwell and the other one disappeared off the other way down the hall. After calling security, I got back to my class. When the phone rang I assumed it was security.
Nope. It was a teacher up on the fourth floor (one floor up). The girls had continued their fight on the next floor up. One of the girls threw a book at the other one and hit an innocent bystander in the process. Gotta love it.

If you are going to fight... do it right.

Gotta Love New York in all of it's glory

Today I experienced another one of New York City's amazing things. Guy with piss on subway. What the exact sitation was I am not sure. But as the train approached one car was full and the next was empty... always head towards the empty car so I can get a seat. WELL! As you walked onto the car you could smell it. It was horrible. Now sure if it was the guy in the middle of the car (because the only people on the car were at the ends besides this guy) or if it was the liquid on the floor but it was bad. It was so bad that I decided there was no way I was going to make it the four stops to 180th where I could transfer to the 5 train. I had to get out of this car. AT the next stop, the other three guys at my end of the car and I opened the door and went into the otehr car.

Gotta love it. But the rest of the day was spent shopping for Christmas. So far... mom, russell, eric, karen, lili and Jessica are done.

Ah the big city life...

Chasing a rooster around in front of the building before school. That's big city life for you. Wait.. rooster... o right... local killing factory about a block from school. Gotta love big city life.

Always squeeze from the bottom up..

A wise woman once said.. you should always follow the directions on the back of a tube of tooth paste... For best results, squeeze from the bottom up.

This week I was watching Oprah (don't judge) and they were talking about the book "Eat, Pray, Love." One of the underlying themes (Im assuming of the book) is to take life by the horns, which is the same theme as squeezing from the bottom up. It got me thinking...

I really want to travel this summer. I will have just finished my first year as a teacher... should have money from a grant.. and have a passion to travel. I want to combine the treat of surviving my first year in NYC along with the money I am getting and my urge to travel. Looking at prices of traveling to such places at Europe and the Caribbean it seems that you have to be rich to travel... or at least plan more than a year in advance.

But, in thinking about these two concepts together it seems that I need to find a happy medium. To me... one idea jumped out. A while ago I heard of the newest trend in vacations... Volunteer vacations. One of these organizations is i-to-i. They take your money... and help you volunteer half way around the world. I took theirplacement test thingee and it said I should look into going to Kenya to work in a school of course. How cool would that be? Travel to Kenya and spend two weeks teaching English.

Travel to another country and help others. Im ok with that. Look for updates.. who knows. Annie.... July... Kenya?

Cold in the city!

It is freaking cold in the city today. Though snow seems to not be so much fun if it doesnt freak out the kids. It snowed for an hour today and the kids went about their day. Though it was nice to be able to teach...not so fun for snow. O well...

Off to pretend I have stuff to do.

Two different feelings

Today was an interesting day. Good and bad.

Today was the first time I was totally comfortable in a kinder classroom. I go there early, set up the computers and was ready to go when the kids came in. The kids were active but not really fightening. They were sharing and playing the entire time. It was heaven. I didn't think a class could go that good.

Then... I walked into fifth grade. Those kids were insane today. I guess it was not any more than normal but meh. Its furstrating to go from such a good feeling to a headache in a half hour flat~ O well.

I think I am going to let the kids choose their projects for after christmas. Ill let you in on some of my ideas here in the near future but we shall see.

A long weekend

It was a good weekend.

The Ducks lost, but fought a good fight losing in the second overtime. Yes it was the civil war.. no I do not like my ducks to lose at home for the civil war, but they did put up a good fight considering the last two games we have played. Losing most of our starting line up and our start and back up qbs didn't help our fight but the fans back home helped the ducks to not get trampled. So all in all..not horrible.

The first snow of the season. That's right folks. I got my first NYC snow. Ok.. it was all that spectacular.. it was like 3/4 inch but that's better than the stuff that doesn't stick in Oregon. I will post a picture soon, I have to email it from my phone to my email. And because of the snow I decided that shopping when it was like 25 and snowing I got nothing done yesterday. That's right. Nothing. While I really only have two weekends left to shop I decided to stay home. I really need to get on this whole shopping thing!!! I have not gotten a single thing. O well. It happens.

Stay tuned to hear about my shopping adventures in the big city.

waking up in a fog

I have never really understood this saying. How can you wake up in a fog unless there is fog outside your window? Well... I finally made the connection this morning. I feel like crap today. I don't want to be at school and I would much rather be in bed all day and pet my kitty.

Whether this is an effect of five hours out in the cold last nigh to watch the tree lighting in Rockafeller Center or just a build up of the not so good feeling I have had all week. I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. As for the fog... it was in my head. Never had that before but it was. O well. Off to work I go. Gotta love it!

spoiled

My cat is spoiled. Well..ok..its not that bad... really. Just when I went to the store yesterday to update the empty bag of cat food and cat litter...it was EXPENSIVE. Ok.. so I got her some wet food and a brush. But STILL!!! 45 dollars for all that is so expensive. Hopefully this will last me until Christmas break. I know I will have to get more before that.


Spoiled? Very much so...

A great turkey day weekend

It was a great weekend. I have had a number of firsts this weekend.

My first first of the weekend is the adventure of hitting the other two airports in New York City. I was able to fly out of LaGuardia on Thursday and I flew into Newerk this morning. That checks off all three airports in the New York City area.

My next first was Denver. I went to Denver for the holiday weekend. Now some of you are wondernig... WHY DENVER?!? Jessica, my college roommate, lives in Denver and invited me for the weekend. It was great. It was so great to see her and I can check Denver and Colorado off on my list of plaes to go. Denver was AMAZING. I love the snow, I loved the snow and cold sunny weather. It was SO beautiful.

Third on my list of firsts is a Jewish Thanksgiving. Ok... so a Jewish Thanksgiving really isn't all that different. They prayed in Herbrew but that was the only different thing. (besides sitting at a table which none of my family does but that's not really a Jewish thing...)

And while I was having a Jewish Thanksgiving, it was also my first Thankgiving without any of my family around. I did Thanksgiving with Eric's family last year but then we went to my aunts so this is the first without my family.

So that's about it for my lists of firsts.

I do have to say that I had a great weekend. It was so nice to see Jessica and spend time with her. It was also nice to see that people can have money (Jessica's family) and still be amazing people. They were interested in everything I had to say... They were impressed by me living in NYC... They were SO welcoming. It was a great weekend. I am sad that I have to get back to my real life tomorrow, almost doesn't seem real that I am teaching and I will be going back to school as a teacher tomorrow. Life is crazy. I am freaking living in NYC. I am making it on my own in a city where I knew no one. I may not have friends here so far but I can get myself to and from the airport.. I can get around the city... I can make it on my own. That is most important to me at this point.

Go me...

Mondays....

You know it's not gunna be a good day when its a Monday that does not start out good. First... didnt sleep well. Off and on all night. Second.. cold shower. Now in the summer I had shower issues but since the steam has been on it has not been an issue.... nope this morning... ICE COLD! Gotta love it. Then as much as I love the snow that is falling outside the school window right now, when I was excited about the possibility of snow yesterday I forgot the fact that I had to WALK to work in it this morning! Gotta love mondays right!?! Off to more work.

PROACTIVE AND VITACLEAR WARNING!!!

This is a warning to all yall. I recently ordered Proactive online. Well, apparently online you cannot order single orders. You enter a club and they charge your again and again. Also, the 'free' VitaClear vitamins that you get a sample of... that is also a subscription. I really dont like either of these products. First, the idea that I signed up for subscriptions without knowing it buggs me, but the way Proactive has killed my skin makes me mad.

My skin has developed horrible red acne that hurts down to the jaw bones. It was so bad that one of my kids thought I had a rash on my face. Sad Sad times. So I am sending back the vitamins (which I have to PAY for if I want my money back) and getting my money back on the Proactive.

O well. WE shall see if my skin survives.

The interesting keeps coming

Well. I am just hanging on here. Surviving. no.. no.. no... its not that bad I promise. The title of this post is the interesting keeps coming. Why you ask?
As I walked in to work and ran into my favorite custodian. Eddie, is a very nice guy. He is always making fun of me and has become my lunch buddy on my late lunch days. Bantering back and fourth has been fun. I thought nothing of it. Until yesterday. AS i was telling him about my weekend he was telling me about his. He was going to come into work for a couple of hours... basically just so he could see me. He was also talking about how he wanted to ask me to a movie. He wanted to ask me out. He even talked to his sister about it. She asked if I had a boy and Eddie said back in Oregon... she told him to go for it! OMG!!! Its crazy. He asked if I would have actually gone.. I said as a friend. It should be interesting around work.

So it's been interesting... gotta love being a girl!

An exciting turn of events.

Friday night was an interesting and exciting turn of events. Friday night I was talking to my college roommate Jessica about thanksgiving. AS you may suspect I am alone in the city. No family, very few friends. It is also WAY expensive to go home. So... Jessica invited me to Denver for the holiday. After searching and contemplating I bought a ticket to Denver and Jessica bough me one back to NYC. So Ill be headed to Denver in less than two weeks to spend the holiday with Jessica and her family. It will be super fun, a long weekend, but super fun. I have never been to Denver so... we shall see.

Just a shout out to my readers. If you leave a comment PLEASE leave your name so I know who is talking. Thanx a million! Love yall.

A weird day...

Today has been a weird day. First off. I got my NY licence today! I am offically licenced in the state of New York! Happy times.



The other part of the day was dealing with my supervisor. Today was my first offical observation of the year. It was an interesting observation. I was teaching a third grade class. The class started at 1205, but because it usually takes them some time to get back I had him come in at 1215 and he was late. He totally missed the begining of my lesson, which is fine I guess since I forgot to do something he told me to do... aka tell the students the aim of the lesson. Because he was late he needed to watch me in another class... so on the spot he decided he was going to follow me to my next class. Which was SUPER fun. I told him that I was not going into another third grade class, but a fifth grade class. But I changed my plans at the ast minute for him so he could see it again. This time it was about three kids. They were great because they totally wanted to learn about animation. So we shall see how it goes when we have our 'post conference'.

Funny comment for all you Oregonians

As I was walking into work this morning a first grade teacher walked in with me. She stated, "Wow, this must be like summer to you... being from Oregon and all." Ladies and gentleman this morning it is currently 33 degrees in my zipcode. 33 degrees to me IS NOT WARM!!!!! I kid you not. I very nicely said back... UM NO!!! Oregon is much warmer and even if it is colder I get in my car and drive to work.. I get in my car and come home from work. I don't walk ANYWHERE!!! So for those of you in Oregon who may be thinking it's warmer over here than there... UM NO! Im freezing my ass off over here!

HINT! Christmas... scarves... hats... gloves... warm socks...space heater.. all that good stuff

Professional Development

It was a professional development here in the great city of New York. That means that the students got the day off and teachers spent the day in meetings.

Today I was lumped with the k-2 teachers. This is all good, they are a good group of people. But at the same time.. I wonder if there would have been a better more productive place for me. The entire day was centered around data.. how to read and use data from tests to help students. Now see. I have 400+ students, I don't have their test data. I also do not test them. So data you ask.. o right. I have none. So when they were talking about grouping students for reading and reading centers.. I got nothing. Then we moved on to data and math. Again..nothing. Then after lunch is was reading some more.. again NOTHING!!! Basically the entire day I sat listening and doing lesson plans. During the last session the assistant principal started asking me if I wanted to do technology forever. I told her that I would rather integrate technology into my classes but I am happy where I am for now. She also stated that this must be hard for me to do since I do not currently teach reading. I think she was probing. Shes not the first to do it, so it should be interesting.

I do hope to have my own classroom next year. I cant wait to teach my own class. To be able to know my kids as well as these teachers know their kids. I cannot wait. I love my technology job, don't get me wrong, so it will be an interesting year.

Ok... back to the salt mines.. or my computer game. We shall see.

Im in love..

National Galery of Art game called Brushster is amazing. I want to use it with my kids... damn internet. grrrr...

Mondays are a bummer (STATIONS)

Tuesday's only fair. Wednesday's getting better...Thursday's almost there...

Ok. Its only Tuesday but today was WAY better than yesterday. Monday was a BADD day. Between it being Monday, the high stake testing in the morning, and Halloween week, Monday was such a bad day. The kids just would not listen... they were not even reading what I gave them.

This week I started a new leaf with the kids. We are trying stations. There are three or four stations that the kids are working on. I thought it was a GREAT idea. The kids... well. I think it is a change that they are not so willing to go with. A change in routine seems to throw them off totally. Next week is going to be interesting for them.

They are going to start being held accountable for their work. Each class period students are going to get a grade. It might be a check or a minus or a plus but each time they are in my class they will get one. This will help keep them accountable. Some of the kids are going to be confused when they find out they are failing technology.

As for the stations. students will be at one station for two class periods. The stations include:

• story starters. writing their own story starters which will evolve into writing a story with another groups starters
• vocabulary words in inspiration. defining their weekly vocabulary words on the computer making a long list that we can print
• powerpint. students are changing a pre-made slide into a unique slide. showing basic skills in powerpoint.
• typing. Students are using the internet to practice their touch typing skills.

Like I said, I think these are great ways to use the skills that we have aquired so far this year. As they get used to the stations, I can change the activites to reflect new programs. That way the old stations studetns will know what to do and I can teach to a small group. Hopefully this works. I will keep you updated.

As for Tuesday. Tuesday was a good day minus my worst class. What am I supposed to do when students run out of class? There really is nothing I can do but let them go because I have 20 other kids in the room that need to be tended to.

Later yall.

Begging for more picts

Hey yall. So I had a request for more pictures of the apartment. You will have to wait.. I am too lazy to get out the camera and hook it up and all that good stuff. So wait. Its just about clean so when it is perfect I will hook yall up.

As for my weekend. It was a goood weekend.

Saturday was filled with the usual Manhattan adventures. Kira and I headed towards a new theater to see the new movie "Dan In Real Life". It was a GREAT movie. The plot was a little like The Family Stone, but a different prospective and better acting. The characters in this movie fit together so well it was amazing. The theater we went to was SO nice. Because we saw a new movie it was in the HUGE theater. This theater had a mezzanine level where we sat. It was SO awesome.

After the movie I spoiled Kira's shopping plans and invited her to watch the UO Duck game with me at a local bar. It was a lot of fun with the fanatic people that usually are drunk at games being drunk next to me 3,000 miles away from Autzen! After the game we parted and headed home but it was a GREAT day.

My Sunday has actually been a productive day. I was up by like 730 and went for some essential groceries. After that I did laundry. I was done with laundry and home by noon. What to do with the rest of my day? Clean the house! I spent the rest of my day cleaning my house. Between the like 7 small bags of garbage and the massive amount of cat hair from the floor, it was a BIG job that's not all the way over quite yet. I need to do some dishes and sweet the dining room and kitchen.

Time to head off to find some food. Hope you enjoy hearing about my adventures... however lame they might be. Later yall

Freaking out

So. Gotta love the city and their data driven ways.

Everything in this city is all abotu the numbers. This is true for many things. One of these things is the survey that was given last spring. With the dismal number of students, parents and even staff that filled out the actual survey, the results were not good. What they actually were... we are not sure yet but we were given tiny parts of information.

One of these things is that the parents believe that the information about home are not making it to school and being integrated into the students education. AKA If grandma was in the hospital and the students missed a couple of days because there was no one to make sure the student got to school, the teachers were not sensative to the situation.

The other part to this is that parents are not seeing what is happening at school, they only see how their kid is progressing in grades. To circumvent this problem the administration has come to the conclusion that students need to have goals. These goals need to be in every aspect of their education. English/language arts, math, art, drama, TECHNOLOGY. The principal wants to be able to show the parents who is working towards what goals with each student.

That's right. Each and every student that I work with has to have an individual goal to lead their learning. That means I need to make goals with about 400 students. That includes all of my kinder through 5th graders. Every.. single...one. This should be interesting. How am I to do this you ask... any way I want. Absoletly no direction from the higher ups. Fun.

On top of this, my direct supervisor does not actually speak to me. I guess I can't say that. He says HI to me once and a while. I guess I would think that my direct supervisor would want to meet with me, figure out what I am actually doing in the classroom... you would think. I guess I need to step up and talk to him... which of course is kinda scarry. We shall see how it goes. Wish me luck.

I had a nice long weekend... almost

It was a good weekend. I sware. Just not a good start to the week.

Saturday was filled with time in the city. After meeting Kira for a long lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen (damn good by the way) I headed out for an afternoon on the town. AKA... wasting time until the game started. By the game I mean the duck game that didn't start until 730 my time. I spent most of the time listening to my latest book on tape (or iPod as it has to be) called Ain't She Sweet? Good book so far. I ended up about 8 hours into the 10 hour book. It s a good book about a rebellious teenager who, 15 years later, returns home to a small southern town. Its good. I have been getting all my books from Audible.com. Good source, but there are a lot of British books, which I am not all that into as a listen to book. After watching the first half of the game I headed home bc of exhaustion.

After a long Saturday my Sunday was nice and short. I slept and vegged till almost 3. I didnt want to shower because of the lack of shampoo in my bathroom. After some hard willing I finally got dressed and headed towards the drug store. I poked around some and finally bought my shampoo and conditioner. Then I headed to the grocery store and got some essentials. I acutally went home and put things away. AFter finishing some lesson plans I headed to bed. A short but good day.

Ahh.. Monday morning. Gotta love it. As I waited for the water in my shower to get warm I thought about how dirty my hair was without having been washed yesteryday and how good it would feel to wash it. After climbing in the shower I wet my hair and reached down for the shampoo.... shampoo... SHAMPOO... where was the shampoo? O crap. I got two bottles of conditioner... no shampoo. CRAPOLA!!! fine.. another day towards dirty hair. Off to school I went.... o well.

Annie in the city

Life is pretty boring around my house when I have no one around after work. I don't do anything. All this stuff to do and all I want to is go home and sleep. That's how exhausting my job is. But I really need to get up and moving. If I don't get up and get moving soon, this is going to be come habit and that CANT happen. We shall see...

Ah.. its been SO long

I am SO sorry it has been so long to my loyal readers (if there are any). It has been a long couple of weeks. Between school and personal life I have not had time to sit (unless falling alseep watching tv counts)....

School has been busy like always. These kids are crazy. I knew they were going to be a challenge, but I definately have one class that is AMAZING! These kids are insanely amazing. (makes me feel good that it's my mentors class!) Then I have kinder and first, they are crazy but are good. The fourth grade is good overall... Then there is the fifth grade. Besides the angel class discribed above, the fifth grade as a whole is quite interesting. The class I just got done with is CRAZY!!! The last three times I have been in there we have had students walk out and disappear. Today it was because one couldnt ues the computers.. so he walked out and disappeared totally. gone... the teacher tried to find him and finally called security to find him. Its just crazy what can set these kids off.

The personal life stuff. Eric has actually been here for ten days now... well.. he is headed towards the airport as I type. Probably just getting on the subway. I am very sad about this. It has been a great visit. I love having him here. Someone to do stuff with.. someone to come home to. It is great. We did stuff like, the United Nations tour, we did the Staten Island Ferry, Chelsea Piers, The really flat building (cant remember the name right now), Limbardi's Pizza (OMG!!! everyone who comes here HAS GOT TO have pizza there even if I cant spell it right), a good Chinese restruant in China town. We were everywhere, but at the same time I was nice to have someone to cuddle up to when I fell asleep on the couch at 8pm bc it was such a long day.

Will he move? Not sure yet. Still depends on when he gets a job. He had a bunch of informational interviews this week, some good some a waste of time, but it should be good. I cant wait to have him here in the city all the time. If he could move right now he could get the apartment under me and we would be living super close. But with rent being as much as he has total in his savings that wouldnt work out well. O well. We shall see.

My lunch break is just about over so I should scoot towards the resst of my day. At least I have fourth grade the rest of the day. They tend to do good... laters

quick lunch post

Wow.. question. when did side pony tails come back into style? It seems that everyone in NYC wears them and they are SO cool. just asking....

A Day in the City

It was a great day in the city today. The day started off with weird dreams. Everything from a weird dream about a new sport to a high school joke coming true... weird. dont ask...
Next I headed into the city, aka Manhattan, for a movie. My friend and I saw "Good Luck Chuck". The BEST thing ever happened. For the first time ever I got carded for a rated R movie. After buying out tickets we proceded to the ticket taker old man who was hunched over he took them and in his horse voice "can I see ID? Its a rated R movie." So poping out our id's and laughing we proceded into the theater. Only minutes later did a girl and her mom walk in... the girl being no more than like 10 MAYYYBE 11. OMG! Interesting.... not really. If you love raunchy sex montages, REALLY bad acting, and the horrible best friend who cant get enough boobs, you would LOVE this movie. I have no idea who would take their child to this movie, but o well... not mine!
After the movie I headed towards the local home goodie store... The Container Store. The best store ever!!! I got a shelf for the bathroom along with some towel hangers for the bath. Then had to make a stop for cat food and Staples for more cork boards for the bedroom. Of course, living in the city without a car it was FUN to carry this all back on the subway! Good thing the container store wraps everything for carrying.
When I got home I worked and worked and worked on the house so it would look presentable. So because I spent SO much time working today I decided I need to post more pictures.

This is my entertainment center that I put together.. what you think?
The bedroom. Cork boards I just put up today and the air mattress. How bad is it that the crooked cork board is driving me nutz in this picture!?!?!
The bathroom with mynew shelf. Gotta love the duckies.
The kitchen wide angle.
The kitchen counter. Microwave and all. this is ALL the counter space I have.

Another Week

It was a pretty uneventful week. There was one over lying theme though. Save Ms. Erickson's voice. That's right. After yelling at kids for three weeks I basically lost my voice. By Friday my poor voice was giving out. Way too much yelling and talking to kids. It will be much of the same this week.

The one fun event was on Friday in a fourth grade class. As the class ended and we started to get ready to walk to lunch, from the closet came a stong stench. What I can only assume was AXE coming from a student. Which one, not really sure, but they definately sprayed WAY too much in a very small spot. BAD!!!!

O. And Eric will be here next Saturday. I am super excited. He is actually coming on a three day weekend for me. He is coming to make sure he wants to keep looking for job here (aka does ne REALLY want to live and work in the city). And also, hopefully the headhunter he's been talking to will meet with him. I can't wait to see him! Its gunna be a GREAT week. I just gotta get ahead in my school work so that I can spend every moment with him that I can. And Bri will be here in three weeks! So exciting!

laters

A week in review

It was an interesting week.

Monday. Walking into school I wanted to check and see when I had a class again, because they were not on my schedule. In doing this I relaized that the schedule I had did not match the teachers. So... heading down to the schedule goddess, she quickly filled up the holes in my schedule. Filling them with the class I was looking for and a special education class. I had no issues with this, minus the issues of traveling. (Traveling issues: out to the annex. Out to the annex includes going outside, acrossa bout 50 feet of uneven bricks, up the ramp, and through the double doors.) On Wednesday I dont mind this because I head out there and do not come back till the end of theday. On Monday however... they had me going from the annex to the third floor and back out to the annex.. all before lunch. Doesn't that sound like way fun???
Well before we move on to Tuesday... I have to tell you about my Monday class out in the annex. Well. This class is a class of three students who are very low functioning students who are third grade. This is all fine and dandy... until the student turns to me and pukes. Thats right. One student turns to me while we were sitting at the computer and puked on my arm. As I got up and ran away the poor girl kept puking and puking. All over the floor. It was so grose, but at the same time I had to keep focus and make sure the student got into the bathroom and the other two kids stayed out of the puke. It was FUN! All I have to say is that at least she didnt get any on my clothes... just my arm.

Tuesday. Tuesday was ok. It was inspiring to me as the tech teacher. I talked to the person above me when it comes to technology. I asked for flashdrives for all of my computers and she said yes right away. Thats so good. So hopefully I will get them soon so we can start using them as we start to do projects. We shall see how it goes. I also learned that I need to have lesson plans for each lesson that I teach. These lesson plans are not .. this is what I am going to do. These lesson plans are like they make you do in college. The fun exception for me is that I get to do this for each lesson AND make sure it is different for each different assistant principal that I have. Thats right... three different formats. Doesn't that sound like fun!? O yes!

Wednesday... it was not bad at all. It was just a long day. We had a fire drill today. I could not believe how quickly we got all 1,300 kids out of the building. It was quick.. it was easy. Best fire drill I have ever seen. I was very impressed. After the fire drill I went about my day. Good over all. Not much to report besides the fact that it was my Friday. That's right, Thursday and Friday are days off this week because of a Jewish holiday. Score.

So. Thursday I waited around the apartment for my couch to FINALLY show up.. instead they called me at 1 pm and said it wasnt coming because they had a driver call in sick. The guy asked if that was ok.. I went postal on him. What am I supposed to do? Did I really have a choice?!? i guess not. So because my couch was not coming I decided to go get a haircut. I have wanted a haircut since the last time one that I got. So, I figured I would try the SuperCuts down in Manhatten because at least they might now white girl hair. Wrong!!! All I have to say is it is WAY too short. WAy WAY WAY too short. So short and horrible I am not taking any pictures for like a month!

Friday... Friday I finally got my couch and set it up. Its nice but I am still getting used to the stiffness. Then I ventured out to get some shot glasses to finish the 12 in my collection on my wall. Then I headed towards the movie theater. I saw a rather interesting movie about social groups, one in particular in the country outside NYC. The main character uses it as a study of different cultures. Its an interesting movie, but I would not recommend it to anyone.

Saturday.. Today has been a day of rest. I have done nothing of importance. Literally. Besides this blog! Thats it! O well.

Im off to veg and find some dinner. Chat you later

September 11th in New York

Around the city today it has been a day of remberence. This morning my school observed 4 minutes of scilence, like the entire city. One minute for each plane that hit and one minute for each tower that fell. It is hard to believe its been six years since the tragity happened. Days like today make you realize just how much you have done. Sept 11th is one of the life changing days that you will always know and is a bookmark in a life.

For me, I was a senior in high school. I remember they had been hit by the time I got up and by the time I got to school both towers had fell. I remember my high school physics teacher trying to get us to turn off the tv.. to pay attention to class. Needless to say it didnt work. I will forever remember getting to school and going between the band room, chemestry room and the physics room checking on different channels.

But more than the memories I have, I have a bookmark in my life. High school graduation didn't really give the POP that you think it will (I'll dive more into the POP of life later...) but more than anything it was another day. But September 11th made life so different. Each year I think "Wow.. another year..." Like today, six years. Six years since..everything!

Last night of freedom...

Tonight is the last night before I become Ms. Erickson. For the last two years I have been walking into classrooms of other people, helping out and living by their rules. Although I do not have my own classroom, tomorrow I will be a teacher. The students will see me as a teacher, as a staff member.

I am totally freaked out and excited at the same time. I am going back and forth about whether I am sad about not having my own classroom. I am sad... I have been working towards my own clasroom for so long, but I am also excited to do technology. Technology, to me, is very important to round out the whole child and if I can share that with both the students and my fellow staff members I will have done my job. In the future I really want my own classroom, and hopefully those that be know that and will watch my potential carefully.

As for tomorrow. I will update you on how it goes and what I will actually be doing. Wish me luck and watch for updates.

~Ms. Erickson!

Knowing The Self

As we enter college, we think... I know myself. There is nothing that I do not know....
As we leave college, we think... I know myself. There is nothing that I do not know....

Then we step into the real world.

Over the last weeks, you all know, I have been experiencing a paradigm shift. I have stepped away from all that I know, into a new world. A world that is so different... the people around me (being the only white girl on the subway), the idea that all kids can and will learn (much different than what I saw at most Oregon schools), and the lack of friends around to comfort me and spend time with.

Looking at these three shifts, each seems to warrant some writing time.

On the New York City subway you can tell where you are by the people on the train. In the Bronx, the black and Hispanic people that surround you, mostly speak Spanish and always look tired from a long days work. Whether they are coming or going, it is hard to tell but they mostly friendly to the out of place white girl. As you ride south from the Bronx, into the city, the crowd seems to look more cheerful, whiter and seem to all wear suits. After hitting about 72nd street you know (after a while) who is and is not a tourist. After all, the two train goes straight into Times Square.

The message that I keep getting around here, from my principal, the training specialists, and the chancellor is: all children can learn. In Oregon it was all about testing, making sure the teacher does their job and then making sure that the kids are passing their tests. Maybe i was not privy to the opening staff meeting where teachers were given the 'here we go speech' but it seems that , although we need to get our test scores up, it is more about the child learning and making sure the child has learned rather than just passing some tests. The vibe I get over here just seems so different... it happens because everything here is so different.

The lack of friends around here is so different for me. I have known since high school that I am not good at making friends, my freshman year in college I seemed to come out of it realizing that I had no real friends, ones that I would hang onto. This is why I became an RA. Resident Assistant meant live in friends, people who were paid to hang out with me basically. This worked... I have Eric, I have Meghan and Colleen. Good friends that came from a forced situation. Living with Jess made it a good, but I knew that I was not going to hang out with her friends because I was socially awkward. I knew it.. it happens. But here. Here there are no social networks, such as RA live in friends, that I have.

I guess my point through all of this is that: I have no idea who I am. I look at the people on the subway and wish I was them. Better looking legs, better hair, reading a more intellectual book, having friends to hang out with. I wish I was all of them. At 23 I have realized I have no idea who I am. No I am not talking about professionally, as some do, I have no idea who I am personally. I have no idea what I like to do... at least stuff that I can do alone or in groups. One other person I am ok.. but more than that I have so many issues, and alone I am just not sure what to do with myself.

I am trying to make a change. This is my resolution. I want to take art classes... pottery or painting. I want to develop something besides my insecurities. Hey, maybe I will actually make some friends. Also I want to take some Spanish classes, so that I can actually speak to my students and give me a leg up in the teaching game.

Am I the person I want to be? No. Can I work towards being that person? Hopefully. Life is going to change. Starting now. I want to live for today and tomorrow. We shall see. Keep checking back for updates.

Frustration

As I embark on my adventures in New York City, I seem to keep saying... when school starts... when payday comes.... when I make friends... this really worries me. I have been saying when... statements all my life. When high school is over... when I go to college... when I go to NYC...

I seem to keep living in the future. I did this through out college and look where it got me.... not so many friends throughout most of college....... So many questions about how my life would have been different in college if I had actually gone out my freshman year and all the other times that I could have done things different.

The reason I bring this up is because of the new chapter that I am starting in my life. NYC is kinda a big place and I want to make the right impression, but at the same time I am not sure how to go about it. I called the girl I met last week and she hasn't called back.. why... I am not sure. We shall see.. it also seems that all of the 'new' teachers at my school are new to the school and the profession but not really right out of college.. aka not my age. It should be interesting.

In talking to my principal today (well... depends on what you call talking. she was talking to the other person in the room) it seems that I will be more of a technology coach rather that a technology teacher. That excites me. I am so excited to be able to show people technology and how it can enhance their classrooms. Although I would say that I am not jealous of others setting up their classrooms, but we shall see.

Ahhh.. the ramblings of a blogger.. laters y'all

Time to update!

Sorry to all of you out there that are actually reading my blog! I have been a horrible person who has not update in a while. Life in New York is going well. The past three days I have been in city wide orientation with teachers from all over the city of NY. Its definitely an eye opener to walk into a room with 3000 other teachers and realize that we are all new, when districts in Oregon are likely to not even have that many teachers all together. But I guess the biggest fact that they said yesterday is the 1.1 million students that will be in the NYC public schools this year. 1.1 million... holy crap!

As for the apartment, its coming along very slowly. Mom sent some of my boxes from home today, so hopefully I will have some more to decorate with. My apartment is still very empty... my first piece of ordered stuff came today. Ironically it was the bookshelf I ordered on Tuesday, rather than the stuff I ordered over a week ago. I have done NOTHING today because I have been waiting for UPS to show up with my TV and my rug. I will be SO happy to finally get a tv... I have the cable guy scheduled for tomorrow morning so my stuff better come today... with it being 6:50 pm I am getting a littttle worried! We shall see. See... I still have only an air mattress in the apartment so I cannot wait for something else to sit on!

The best thing in the world from home comes tomorrow (besides Eric of course) SUZIE!!! Suzie will be arriving tomorrow morning at 730 am... which means I will be up and out of my apartment by 530... but I am SO happy to finally get her. I miss her so much and am SO excited to get her. I kept trying to tell Eric I would give him the cash if he flew her out, but it didn't fly with his not having a job, without having money, and not having parents that will help him with moving expenses when the time comes. Sad but I shall have to live. I will jsut be excited to have the kitty here with me. Someone to cuddle up with at night, as long as she doesn't pop the air mattress!!!!

That's how life is here. I hope that ya'll are enjoying the end of the summer. Don't forget to email me updates, incase some of you out there (who talked to me before I left) have went and got new jobs and all..... laters

Pictures

Pictures of the Apartment.

In front of the apartment. (eveyone say mcdonalds) Looking out the bedroom.
Looking out of the kitchen towards the eating area/ entry way
bathroom
kitchen

new york new york

I made it! I am in the big apple and not leaving. The last two days have consisted of many hours on the subway from Manhatten up to the Bronx. Three apartments later I put down a deposit on an apartment today.

The first apartment we saw was a studio for 850 a month. It was small but it would have worked for just me. It was plenty close to school but mom and I did not want to take the first place we saw. Which makes total sense. The next place we looked at was a one bedroom apartment for 1100 which is not bad. It is actually a little bigger than my Eugene apartment jsut because of a different layout. After not wanting to take the second one we looked at we headed home (to the hotel). I looked again on craigs list last night, found a few more and called this morning. AFter etting a hold of only one of them we went to find it... still close to school but it was a two bedroom for 1450, which with just me as this point, was too much.

After that I decided, with mom's help, that having a landloard who was less concerned with credit than with a 'quiet' tenet I would take the one bedroom. It is a little farther from school, a quick bus ride every day but it is nice.

So I called the landloard and told him that I would take it. We frantically went to find an atm that would give me enough money then money orders to go with that, then headed back up to sign the papers. Sadly the landlaord did not have the lease papers for me to sign so I didnt do that and mom didnt want me to give him the total first months rent and deposit until I sign the papers. I gave him a 200 dollar deposit instead and we have to go back AGAIN tomorrow.

On a side note, I miss Eugene and Oregon, in general, landloards who do not stick their noses into your business. I was explaining that I probably wouldnt put stuff into the aparment until the end of the weekend because we had the hotel and he went off about how there is no need to stay in the hotel if we have the apartment.... minus the lack of sleeping equiptment in the apartment and the other fact that mom doesnt get a refund from the hotel... O well.

For those of you that are wondering... my new address is....
Annie Erickson
666 Mace Avenue #2R
Bronx, NY 10467-7624

So there it is. I am a New Yorker now. OMG! Look for more updates and I get closer to the school year.

Looking at the name of this blog

I just realized that the name of this blog is kind of outdated now...hmm.. I might have to change the name (not the site address)....

anyway...

Today. Today has been an interesting day. It was a day full of morning academics. Academics = no use for Annie. O well. I sat around most of the morning then we to get Thai food for the senior staff. The Thai food was actually pretty good compaired to last time, though I felt like it almost had no flavor. But it was better than caf (cafiteria) food! Then I took a nap instead of going to actual lunch. That was nice but I think it was too long but I couldnt recover. O well. Then there was the cell phone debockle. The system we have set up for cell phone use is SO stupid. Kids are not allowed to keep their cell phones, so we put them in baggies and put tags in with them. Then for a half hour a day they can use them but they have to return them. If the dont return them... there are no consequences. WE are not even holding them up for dinner anymore. Hwo sad is that? AT least if we hold them up for dinner the teams held them responsible. Not any more...no reason to turn in their cell phones. O well. I cant run the store and do cell phones at the same time... We shall see how it goes.

For all my loyal fans, only 8 days till I head to the city. Look for updates as soon as possible when I get to the city starting Aug 6th!

Surviving

That's aboout all it is right now. I am surviving. Kathie's mom died yesterday, which hit me pretty hard. The issue was more for Kathie and the family rather than Thelma passing, because I know how much they all loved her and grieving my own gradmother some more. Then yesterday I had to move again here at camp, it's really frustrating to have to move every 1- days. I was hoping to have a summer home here but I have given up on that idea. Moving so much makes unpacking hard so I just left it in the suitcases this time. O well.

Just an update from Ithaca. Ill be in NYC in 10 days. I am super looking forward to something different than beautiful Ithaca.


PS. Ithaca reminds me SO much of Oregon, Eugene in particular. The downtown here had hippy shops and smelled like Eugene.... gotta love it.

Poetry Night

Tonight is poetry night at camp. Poetry always makes me feel like writing. Now instead of writing in a journal, which I never felt comfortable, I write on this. At least with a blog I feel like there is some purpose, others readying my inner thoughts.



I love to write anything and everything down. I feel most comfortable when I have an outlet. Whether or not people read this, I really don't care. I only write what I want others to see. Which is totally fine.

As for poetry, I love to write it but I am not a fan of reading it. As with most literature, I always feel clueless. I try to get the concepts that people point out, and I try to read every word, but it seems there is always a distraction or a lack of confidence in myself that leads me to not understand. I have long wondered if I suffer from dislyxia, which my sister has, because I tend to mix up letters and number as well as have issues sounding out and spelling words. It is hard to be a college graduate and not be able to spell like one. I also feel like my writing should be better than it is and that I lack the skill. I am working slowing on my self confidence and camp really helps in that.

I do have to say, on the camp note, looking over my life in the past four years, since I was first introduced to the 8 keys of excellence, I see myself using them more and more. The eight keys are
~integerty
~failure leads to success
~this is it
~speak with good purpose
~commitment
~ownership
~flexability
~balance

These eight keys were researched by SuperCamp's founder and were the most common atributes to successful people. In looking at these keys, and my life as it is now, I believe the most important key for me is the key THIS IS IT. I see myself living by this key as I tyrpe. I am moving to NYC, I am loving the spot that I am in, and I am taking my relationship one day at a time (ERic and I are GREAT FYI).

Random side note, I told a team leader today about Eric and I and how we are not sure if he will be in NYC and she said "I'd tell him if he was serious that he HAD to move to NYC" but she said I was being very mature and it is amazing how I can want him to be happy more than need to be with him. I want him to be happy, I need him to be happy, other wise I cannot see us working out. I cant live with regret and neither can he. I will not move for him, because I need to be me, and so why should I tell him he needs to move for me?! Makes sense. she said. Gotta love being 22 right!?! (the TL is 22). Gotta love life. Time to head up to the dorms to sell more water and food before bed.

Love yall and I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings.


ps. leave some love so I know someone is reading!

Parent Talk

Tonight is the parent talk at camp. The parent talk is designed to help students realize what parents are going through and hopefully mend relationships. It is an intersting talk for kids and staff to go through. I know this was an emotional time for me last time I went through this.
I can see the emotions on some kids faces and it is amazing, how SueprCamp can change lives in ten days.

This piece makes me think about my own parents. I have so many issues with them. Although I lvoe them both, I feel like things could have gone way different in my life. I will not go into details because of time constraints, but times like this I think of the ... interesting times at home, and wonder... what it would have been to have parents who liked each other or at least talked.

I wonder what it would be like to have both parents on time to an event, to have all of my family at one event and not have to run interference. It would have been interesting, but it has shaped me into the person that I am today. For this I dont know if I am greatful or sad. But I have learned many lessons.

It will take me a long time to marry, for I dont want it to be the wrong person. It wil take me a long time to have kids, still worrying whether my partner is the right one and if I am going to mess up my kids. So many questions that I wanted answered when I was little that ring in my head. It should be intersting.

Right now I am focusing on NYC and moving. I still dont have a bus ticket, altough there is a bus that will take me to NYC straight from campus here which is nice.

Time to head back to session. Night yall...

hello from camp

Hey y'all. I hope you are all doing well.

Its day six around here. We are fast approaching the end of camp and we are finally running at full speed. I can finally upload videos, which is part of my job. And the store is running smoothly for the most part.

I am not making as good of friends here as I did with Bri last time I was at camp, but I expected it because of the distance between the staff and myself, seeing how I am the only person on campus with my job.

I am getting excited about moving to the city, although it does not seem real that I will not be returning to Eugene come the end of camp. One other person from here lives in the city, she lives in Brooklyn, so at least I will have a contact in the city. Mom is still looking for a ticket to come out and help me find an apartment which is exciting. I cant believe that I leave for the city in... 17 days. 17 days and counting.

Hope yall are enjoying your summer and don't be afraid to email. erickson.annie@gmail.com

Longer blog

So it has been a long day here at camp. Today we did some more bonding as a staff. Then I got the chance to work on my store. I opened all my boxes, folded and hung up t-shirts, and took inventory. After a long day of work, including more games with the TL's my store is looking good and I am super excited.

This should be an interesting camp. I am super excited about most people here. The other few that I am worried about it is just because they are over the top in what I see as a not so positive way or not all the way into camp. We shall see how it works out. As for home, it seems that Jazz and Suzie are getting along just fine. Not without supervision yet, but doing good.

Here to prove it.

alive

Just wanted to give a quick update.... lights out was one minute ago. Im alive, today was a LONg day of ropes course. i rocked the high beam that was like 50 feet off the ground. i also did the high trust fall, which honestly wasnt as high as last time i did it. i miss everyone back home but im loving my camp peeps.... tiem for sleep. leave a comment so i know who's reading.

long days

It has been a couple of long days. Between the move yesterday and good bye's today its been a long couple of days.



To recap. Yesterday I moved out of my apt in Eugene. Suzie and I were out of the house by 12:15 pm yesterday. Pretty good for a goal of noon. (the only reason we didnt make it was I needed newspaper to put under the bug bombs...) We headed to Eric's house, AKA Suzie's summer home. She will only be there until I can find a place in NYC. After dropping off the Suz, I headed to Sunnyside to drop off my big tv to my little bro's mom (we have different moms). After that I headed to my mom's house on the mountain to do some luggage shuffle. I had some she's taking and she had some I am taking. After talking wtih mom for a while and mkaing sure all the plans for Vegas were in place I was off again. This time down tot he water front in Portland to hang out with David and his parents. What a novel idea, a 23 year old who still likes to hang out wiht his parents. After a wonderful fireworks display (iI forgot how wonderful fireworks are in person) David and I headed to our dear friend Monica's apartment to hang out and crash.

Leaving....

Today I am leaving Eugene. After five years in Eugene, enjoying friends, family and classes I move away. I wanted to take time to say thank you to all of you out there who have made an impact in my life.

Housing has been a HUGE part of my life. From meeting Eric, to being able to go to camp because housing was paid for. The main office, I will never forget! I have loved working in the main office of housing, although sometimes boring, it has paid for lots of things and I dont think I would have made it these last two years without Janice. Janice, thanx again for everything. You have no idea how much you mean to me.

Eugene-ians, education girls. I cant believe it's over. I am so glad that we became friends (and reconnected). You girls are special. I cant wait to swap teaching stories with you guys in the future. Hey, maybe I will move back at some point right!?! We shall see.

To everyone out there reading this, thank you. You know what you mean to me (or at least I hope you do...) Please, keep in touch. I cant wait to see you again.

Another milestone.. they keep coming

This weekend was another milestone. (apparently my fingers think it should be milestone rather than milestone...) I got a tattoo. I am super lazy and without pictures, so you can see the pictures on Eric's blog Unpublished Art. They are GREAT pictures. Including me wincing in pain, yes it HURT!!! And the final product minutes afterward.

Now, I can say I have a tattoo. That means I am ready to move to NYC right!? I'm a real New Yorker now: I have a tattoo and an iPod. NYC here I come.

10 days till Vegas
14 till camp training starts
42 days till I arrive in the city!!

WATCH OUT NYC... HERE I COME!

A JOB!!!

That's right... I got a J O B!! Must mean Im an adult. WRONG.. never. ok seriously. I will be the technology teacher for the 2nd through 4th grade at PS/MS20 in the Bronx. Thats right. Technology. Im going to be the CRAZY teacher that drives her COW around the halls, coming in to teach random lessons here and there. I am so excited. I hope to know each and every child in 2nd through 4th grade. I will not have my own classroom but we shall see how that goes.

Im going back and fourth about it. I am super excited to get to teach technology to both students and other teachers, but at the same time I realized that I will not have my own classroom, which means I have no need for a classroom library right now. I am also going thought the usual issues of, is this right for me. Am I making a huge mistake going into teaching? Should I go into office work and be some one's right hand? It would be easy, I wouldn't have to learn how to spell. Would be WAY easier. I have the experience... who would kill me? EVERYONE! But I could do it.

We shall see. As for now I have accepted the job with PS 20 and we shall see how it goes. Ill learn a lot about computers that's for sure. I hope they have macs, but I don't think so. Creativity time if they do not...


going insane.. someone help....

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Back from NYC and graduated

Ah... how much I love Oregon.. ok .. not really but I am glad to be back and less stressed. Last week was a LONG week traveling and interviewing. Then making sure I was back and ready for graduation on time. Yeah... long week. Further details you ask...ok.

Sunday, I flew to NYC on a red eye flight, only getting at most, four hours of sleep. Then picking up my very heavy luggage I treked into the city. An air train, two subway trains, a wrong platform and a two block walk I was at my hostel. It only took 3 hours. But on this trip I found my first nice New Yorker. After standing and watching about a million wrong trains go by, this very nice old man asked where I was going and pointed me in the right direction. Great.. 2 hours and I already lost. O well. back on track I was. After finding out I couldnt check into my hostel until four (it being 10 am) I locked up my stuff, grabbed only the essentials and headed out for a day in the city. Hitting Central Park first, I couldn't help but feel at home in the trees and kids playing. Reminded me of some of the parks in Oregon, minus the creepy people. Being noon on a Monday the park was full of people running and playing tennis, rather than bums and people asking for money. When playing in the park was done, I found myself a first New York hotdog from a vender. It was ok... too much sourcrout, but still good from a stary-eyed country girl (jk)! The rest of the afternoon I played 'walk til I am tired then hop on the subway and ride for a while.' This game is fun, especally when you are SUPER lost and have no idea where you are minus the subway stop that happens to be on the corner. Just for future reference, an unlimited metro card cannot be used again or 20 minutes after you use it so make sure its the right stop before you enter!

That was all on Monday!!! After sleeping a good 12 hours, I got up and started to get fancy for my trip to the career fair. With the fair being WAY up in the middle of nowhere in the Bronx I wanted to make sure I got there early. And boy did I. I was at the fair at 2pm... it was to start at three... o wait. not till 4. So I was there two hours early..o well. After a short speech of, this is what you should and shouldn't say, off we went. Of course I was sitting on the wrong side and ended up going in last, but I hit the ground running, after ten minutes I was in my first interview. The first interview I had went ok. It was all of ten minutes long (they aparently do things fast there) and I set up a demo lesson in the school. Thursday 9am. Interesting... off and running again. After looking around to see what there was, I saw a table that said TECHNOLOGY. That's the table for me I said. After about 20 minutes in line I was next. I sat down and introduced myself (I forgot that part last time) and bosted my technology experiences and how much I was excited to move to the big city. With my 'unique' experiences in technology the principal asked me back for an interview at the school. 'Which works better, Friday or Monday," she said. Umm...with college graduation looming that Friday I stated that I would not be in town and had another interview on Thursday. So she set me up with her assistant principal for the next day (without the assistant principal knowing). After that I waited another 30 minutes in a line to be cut off with only two people in front of me. Seeing as how this was the first table to leave and it had already been an hour and a half, I decided that was it for the day, I wouldn't be able to fit more in this trip anyway.

So, bright and shiney early Wednesday morning I headed up to have my frist interview. Without being able to actually talk to the assistant principal like I was supposed to I showed up anyway, hoping it has just been a SUPER busy morning and they still wanted to interview me. I got the standard, why NYC questions, along with the 'its going to be hard' speech. All of this I realize, but she wanted for me to have an experience in a NYC classroom before I was locked in forever, at her school or another schoool. I stayed at the site for over two hours. Having a fifth grade teacher show me the ropes, between meeting all the VERY friendly teachers, to students that were eager to find out what I would be teaching. It was AMAZING! These kids were so full of like, so excited. I really like that school and I couldnt ask for much more. The only down fall for this school is the lack of technology but that can be fixed! The rest of the day was spent on more tourist stuffs... Staten Island Ferry, World Trade Center, stuff like that. It was fun but tiring. As I drug myself back to hostel to change, Niki, a german student, came into the hostel room. A Very nice girl she is, she had a ticket to that night's comedy show off broadway. Being the go getter that I am, I said SURE! Only here for one more night might as well enjoy it right!?! Sweet. Off we went to our comedy show and enjoyed it. Although it was NYC I had people with Oregon stories approaching me (wearing my ORegon hoodie and all). It was way fun. Now all I had to get through was my impending demo lesson.

Again up bright and shiney early, I packed up all my stuff, put it into a locker and headed on the subway, sure of where I was going. Well.. of course I was super sure of where I was going. I had looked everything up perfectly. Well, when you look up schedules for NYC busses make sure you know which way to go. After wasting an HOUR I finally realized I went the wrong way on the bus and had ended up totally no where NEAR the school I needed to be at in an hour. Good thing I left early. So, catching the bus back to the subway station, I found the bus going the RIGHT way and walked off the bus with only minutes to spare. Right into the demo lesson I went. Highest fifth grade class, idioms I had chosen. Why? not sure, just wanted to teach something that I could do quickly with no resources. After the lesson, which I felt went ok, I had my interview with the principal, math and literacy coaches and what would be my mentor teacher. Man did I FRY in the interview. They sure did grill me up pretty well. I was done. At least this is what I felt like. I didnt know what 'balenced literacy was' and I didnt connect my idioms to anything. My defence was, with the proper materials and support from collegues that lesson would have gone a lot better, but with the lack of that in NYC I did the best I could. Is my best good enough, we'll see on Friday. After I found my way back to the bus after the interview I decided to check out Times Square and did a little shopping. AFter a long day, that was just starting, I decided to head to the airport even though I was SUPER early. O well right? Time to decompress. I was at the airport by 2, had lunch, and waited for my flight that was an hour late, at 730. Getting home safe I realized I love Oregon, but I am ready to move on.

So, Friday I will know about my demo lesson and I am not sure when I will hear about the other one. WE shall see... back to the drawing board if I do not get them.

ps... oregon educated people are not that bad...

NYC traveler

Hey yall. (if anyone reads this) Im writing from my hostel in nyc. the hostel is nice, ten girls to a very small room but there is plenty of space in my locker for everything. its day two of four and i am super sore from walking EVERYWHERE yesterday. i played walk around until i got tired then hop on the subway to a different part of manhatten.

i am LOVING nyc. it is so refeshing to see diversity. there was more color on the frist subway that i was on yesterday than there is in ujean! jk.. but close. i am quickly becoming adjusted to walking and riding the subway. today i try my hand at the bus for my interview. wish me luck. time to look up info for my interview. ill let you know how it goes.

End of an Era

Tomorrow will be the end of an era. I am finishing my degree tomorrow. Well, finishing the classes for my degree tomorrow. After five years in college I will be done. It is hard to imagine what life will be like without college. What will weekends be without the fear of homework looming over me?

All week I have been stressing about stuff that is happening this week. Frist off, capstone presentations, the presentation of my masters thesis (capstone), were a joke. The professor didn't watch any of them, no other facilty (except one education and our tech teacher) showed up to watch, and people sat down and read their PowerPoint slides to us. This was a big let down to me, but also a big stresser off of me. I have finished one class and am in my one of my last grad classes. Within the next few hours I will be done with classes as a grad student. Craziness

Tomorrow I will be going back to my student teaching class for the lsat time tomorrow. Life is pretty crazy. I am going to miss those kids, I am going to miss my teacher but I am excited that she wants to do pin pals. I really want to do epin pals, aka email pin pals. Google is GREAT for this because of the conversations aspect.

When thinking of my job in housing it has been interesting. I started training my replacement this week. It has been great to see that people in housing keep saying "replace you, i did not think that was possible." means people actually Love me in housing. It means I have done a good job overall in my job. Hopefully that transfers over to the real world and my classroom. I REALLY need to get a letter of rec from my boss.

It has been an interesting and good experience in college. I feel like, instead of gratudaiton, this weekend going to NYC is going to be the ending of college and the starting of my new life. We shall see....

Off to listen in my last class.

Life is a changin.....

O man. Again its been a while. I have been very busy. If you don't remember I am finishing up my degree here at U Oregon. I am less than 4 weeks away from being unofficially done (assuming I pass everything). In 4 weeks and 4 days I will be offically done and walking across a stage that says I am DONE!!!

Today is a mile stone in my education career. I am sitting next to my final capstone paper. For those of you who do not know what a 'capstone' is, it is the final paper at the end of my Master's Degree. The topic of the paper the Digital Divide. I finished the paper today. It's done. It ended up being 18 full pages, 24 with all the extra stuff. I am so excited it's done. Now all I gotta do is do the presentation.

This means it's basically over. College is just about done... I am not sure how I feel about this. In three weeks I will be in NYC interviewing for jobs. I am starting to freak out.. that's all. So freaking close, what if I don't get a job while I am there in June? What happens if I get a really bad apartment? What if I cant pay my bills?

I guess I am one step closer. One step closer to being an adult, one step closer to being done wiht school and one step close to being a REAL teacher.... I am not to sure about this.....

Long time no see...

Its been about a month since my last post, and what a month it has been.

First, I am at the half way point of my last term in graduate school. How crazy is that? As it is, I am having issues writing this because my brain is fried. I am currently doing many projects at the same time while working and trying to have a life.

Many projects. Right now I am trying to survive my many classes, between the class that never actually meets, to the class where I am basically dictating what I want and the professor says how high? My capstone class never meets, and if we do we turn stuff in and leave. This is fine with me because it is all about being there if we need questions, and if we dont have them? Sweet..we leave. In my tech class we have been living in SecondLife which is something that I do not really like. I have a distaste for the program because delving into this is hard because it has no practical applications in my classroom. I want to learn about emerging technology but I also want it to be applicable to my classroom and my future students. I told the professor this and wam! the next class was totally different and we did not even go near SecondLife. I am a happy camper and I am trying to be a nice person who is not critical of the class all the time. Look at me. Go me.

As for work. Work is going well. I love my job. But there are some other things that are coming into play right now. I found out that the 4-6 week lay out for a sub licence in Oregon went down to 4-6 days. I love my job at housing, but I am wondering how much more money I could have made had I gone the sub route. Sarah made 600 this week... I make that in like 5 weeks. Sad times. We shall see. But, I have also not been working on relationships with teachers because I am not sticking around. Which is probably a mistake but o well.

When it comes to having a life it's totally different when I want to have a life. I currently have two: a weekday life and a weekend life. I have my weekday life where I come home, sit on my ass and pretend to do something. On the weekend I am usually seeing Eric. Either here in Eugene or in Portland. It seems that my weekends are limited quickly coming to an end. I have a limit of weekends left which is weird to me.

Although all this stuff is going on I have had some interesting event happen this week. The first of which was my car got stolen Monday morning. That's right, walk out to go to work and its GONE!!! Called the cops, file a report and went to work on the bus. On my way to class just hours later the cops called because they found my car. They very nicely gave me a ride to my car and it was ok... minus the radio and all the contents of the car. The second weird thing was the crazy lady. In walking around campus today, for work, and accidentally ran into a lady when I turned around. I admit we hit pretty hard, it gave me a fat lip. I apparently hit her really hard in her head... it happens we all think right? No... she took it as OMG I am going to die and have a concussion. She insisted on getting my information incase I caused something to her. I told her my name and gave her my cell phone. Then she insisted on calling my cell phone to make sure I gave her the correct information. Of course I did. I am an honest person, but serious? We freaking walked into each other. All I could think of on my way home was that she's gunna call me in six months and tell me I caused 30,000 dollars worth of medical bills (did I fail to mention that she informed me that she was in a car accident last year and knows what a concussion is) and I caused them all and need to pay for them. Needless to say it's been a weird week.

That is all for now I guess minus the NYC update to follow.

* NEW YORK UPDATE
I am headed to NYC on June 10th, landing on the morning of the 11th. This will be a four day trip of Annie in NYC all alone. I will be attending a career fair in the Bronx on June 12th. The extra two days after the career fair are to make sure I can do extra interviews, school visits and demo lessons if needed. There are some different things that I am going to need....

List of what I need
*demo lesson ideas
*at least two interview outfits that can transform into three
*portfolios
*toiletries
*credit card!

If you want to know more about my flight or specific information let me know.
I will keep you up to date.

Yet another term....

Ah, yet another term has started. Again, like many before this, it has already dissapointed me. Professors that are not professors. I guess I should greatful that we are part of a university that brings in teachers that are actually in the classroom to teach us, but come on. I'm a grad student, do I REALLY need to log my hours to show that I have earned my grade? The idea of grading is that you do assignments and you get a grade, not that you have to 'prove' you have earned your grade given the number of hours you spend on a class.

On top of that I have another teacher, who's class I have not even been to yet, that feels that everything should be online and having discussions online and having online communitites is the BEST thing ever. I have already been invited to our 'online community of educators'... I really do not care that much. I want to know technology, and the latest things out there, but our students are more likely to want to know how to use email and specific program rather than spending countless amount of time on a computer having discussions online that we could have in class. I don't know. We shall see I guess.

PS... side note. I am pretty sure I'll be going to nyc during finals week here, so look for updates and nerves!

Back to it!!!

That's right... I'm back. I'm back from spring break, which was awesome, and back to school...well... work and school.

First, spring break was WAY fun. I didn't win any money, well, that I cam home with. But we had lots of fun in Reno just the two of us. Eric was sick the WHOLE trip but it was still fun. The I Dream of Jeanie machine loved me lots and lots. There was more than two times where I sat down and came out doubling or tripling my money, if not more. I'm proud of my self for going the whole week and coming back with 60 bucks left.

Now it's back to being a college student again. Well. Ok, not a real college student. I don't actually have a class until Wednesday night because my Monday and Wednesday afternoon class got canceled for the big teacher job fair in Portland today. Which of course I'm ok with, but I'd rather just get this whole thing started.

I'm back in the main housing office and loving it. It's so nice to be back. I love working here and having people like that I am around. I am working 20 hours a week here so that should be WAY fun.

The last big of BIG news is that I found out when I'm going to a career fair for NYC. The only one that I can go to without screwing up classes or camp is during finals week here. That's right... finals week. So, if I can what I am going to do is fly out of PDX Sunday night, landing in NYC Monday morning. Then I would spend Monday getting to know the city and where I need to be. The career fair is on Tuesday so I would do that. Then do what I need to do on Wednesday and Thursday, flying out Thursday at like 6pm. I'm hoping I'll have a job offer by the time I leave. But not leaving till Thursday night will give me time to visit and see schools, along with do a demo lesson if they need me to. From what it looks like right now, with plane ticket and hostel (staying in a hostel is super cheep) it will cost like 375 or so plus meals and stuffs. so I figure 500 for a trip to NYC for four days isn't horrible. It will all be tax deductible bc it's for a job which I am going to get so that's good. I just have to wait until this weekend to book the trip to make sure I don't have any finals or stuffs like that to compete with the trip. OMG ... I'm going to NYC!!!

College Life

Ahh... done with student teaching and the term. Time to be a college student again. Last night David, the best of best friends that I have, came down and we had some fun watching the Ducks game and making sure that there really wasn't much effort getting rid of a half of a bottle of alcohol. Gotta love rum and coke.

After David left, I went around cleaning the apartment so I can leave for the week. So finally I got around to cooking dinner. I decided that I wanted to marinade the chicken and then cook it in the marinade. WELL... that was a big mistake!!! IT went horrible and needless to say thanks to mom's gift card Im on my way out to get a pizza. The only question left. Cheep or good pizza? 5 dollars or 11? I think the 11 is worth it!

Final Eval

Today was my final evaluation for student teaching. It went well. The lowest score I got out of four was a 3.5 I believe. I need to work on different teaching strategies. This can include role plays, which can help in areas such as English and health. Also I think a lot of this could include a lot of SuperCamp ideas.

I also need to think about the use of time. Planning out chunks of time to make sure all time is being used, or we are getting through the whole lesson in a given amount of time is something I need to work on.

I think those were the major areas in which I need to work on next year. On a personal level I think I need to work on positive vs negative reinforcement when it comes to discipline. I guess I feel like I could have been suported more during the entire process from my teacher. She said today that she may have steped in more than she should which is totally correct and it would have been interesting to have a little more support when it comes to doing it totally on my own.

O well.. two and one half day and its over!!! My kids are starting to be sad that I am leaving which is totally cute!

Student Teaching

Student teaching is coming to a close. How sad right? It is very sad. I am going to miss these kids. I am also feeling like I may have not made the best out of this experience. Don't get me wrong, it has been a GREAT experience and I am going to miss these kids lots and lots. But looking back there are things I need to do next year to make things go smoother. For example
1. I am having issues seeing the growth in students. I realize I can see their grades but the individual growth in kids I just don't see it. I see the growth of one student but that's about it. I've decided that one thing I need to do is keep a running record of all my students. Take one student a day and focus on them. Focus on their behavior, their test grades, their homework grades and everything. Doing this will help me to focus on individuals and how much they grow between focus days. Maybe that will help... something to try.
2. Another thing I can do to enhance the relationships I have with my students is to have lunch in the classroom. I had so much fun with the girls having lunch in here. The boys went a little wild but if they were eating with me it would be different and at the same time I get to see their personalities.
3. The last thing I am thinking right now is that I want to do writing conferences. Writing conferences are important to keep on track where students are in their spelling and writing in general. Also, very few students read their compositions out loud to see if they sound good.

These three things are important to me as a teacher to be able to know my kids inside and out. I hope to focus on these my first year teaching.

Good Days

Today was a GREAT day. I finished my worksample and just got word that its GREAT. I finished my resubmit of an assignment for my class. And on top of that I got to catch up with a great friend.

Today my worksample is offically done. That is such a big relief. I am officially passing my student teaching since that is the only real assignment. Such a relief and a weight off my shoulders.

When it comes to the resubmit. It was because the teacher had rediculus ideas of how the assignment should be, aka one assignment being 45 pages at the very lease. Mine turned out to be 47 pages. I do admit that I tried to do it half assed but the assgiment was totally not worth my time.

As for catching up with a great friend. My boss, the one from the last year and a half, is so fun to talk to. She knows everything there is to know and it is so nice to talk to her. It is also great because she gives me the praise I don't get in other places. She is so glad I am coming back and she really appraciates that I am there. For me, that's rare in every day life. But that's another subject. I am so excited to go back to her and be able to talk to her again. She said something today... you look happy.

To tell you the truth. I am happy. I am happy that I feel ready to teach... Im happy with Eric and the love we have. It was fun to talk about Eric to my boss. I can't wait to see how different he is when he gets back. I do love him.

So Frustrated

This is shit. I am so frustrated right now. I just got my assignment back. We had to review 15 websites on three different topics. That's fifteen pages. Then we had to include the cover sheet for ALL 15 WEBSITES... and make sure to link the information to the class. So basically I failed horribly because I didnt put the cover page on, I had the correct references... I had the informatino about the website. But since I didnt link to class content (she's the prof..shouldnt she know the material that was covered!?!?!) I failed. 30/75. Now I have to redo it this week if I want any chance to pass this waste of time class. Besides the fact that I have already printed 40 pages for this assignment because we also had to print the webpage. Now another 30 pages. fun times!
I hate people who do stupid assignments ontop of wasting paper. Lets see... AT LEAST 45 pages per person in a 60 person class. Lets just cut down a forest and burn it for no reason at all.

I FORGOT!!!

I forgot to inform my readers of my recient purchase! I bought my plane tickets to Vegas for Carrie's wedding and to Ithaca for camp! That makes it official... I'll be in New York state for the summer with a 1 way ticket!!!

An Interesting Twist

This week has had an interesting twist. On Wednesday I had my supervisor watching a lesson, which is a normal thing... not a big deal right? WRONG!!! My supervisory and teacher started talking, apparently I am not living up to my teachers standards when it comes to the kids working independently... or rather not working independently. I'm not cracking the whip as much as she would like me to I guess. So the idea that the two of them came up with was to have me watch and take notes on a lesson that my teacher is going to teach. They originally chose math, but my teacher decided on science.

Apparently my teacher is not good at science. So all morning I have been helping my teacher prep for her lesson. Teaching her the concepts and why everything works the way it does. I am worried that the idea of this lesson will go down the tubes because she has no clue what shes talking about. I really think that the kids are going to have no issues with this lesson and are going to know more than her.

The idea of my not cracking the whip with these kids is totally due to a difference in teaching style. My teacher is all about cracking the whip, making sure they are no task at all times and under her thumb. I am totally not that way. I would rather the kids not talk, but if they are talking it needs to be constructive. The lesson I taught the other day was hectic because we were building compasses and each kid had a different experience and we had to make sure all the kids got it. I realized I need to have some thing for kids to do when they are done, but that's something I am always struggling with. SIDE NOTE (O! Maybe I should do silly stories! Hmm.. I wonder if I can do that this weekend?? We shall see. I need to work on that.. that's such a good idea.) But other than that I think the lesson went well. And I also want kids to experiment with the materials when they are done, most of them are diving into the next lesson without even knowing it!!! Which puts them ahead but sweet...experimenting is fun.

So I guess that side note is my project for this weekend. WOOHO!!!!!