It thought It could, It thought It could

Last semester I was taking a class on teaching science, and one of the assignments for the class was to teach a lesson plan to the class as if they were elementary students. I did mine as a lesson on the basic needs of plants for a kindergarten or first grade class. I decided that one thing I wanted to bring with me for the lesson was a plant, as if it were the class plant that students could observe and take care of and sort of connect it to the lesson. I was in the Lowes in Kenosha a few days before the lesson (I think this was in November) and I saw this little plant on clearance. It was something like $.79 and I figured it would be easy just to pick this up so I wouldn't have to move any of my plants at home.

So this poor little clearance $.79 plant went from Wisconsin back home to Chicago. With me to work, then to school, and then after the lesson back home. I think it lost some leaves as they were snapped off. Its been sitting in our sun bay since then. I've been surprised that through my Dad being so sick through all of December and the months since then that its actually been watered. But what surprised me even more this week is that its actually blooming. Its got these pretty purple flowers blooming. I feel bad that I haven't taken better care of it, you can see its still in the plastic container from Lowes. I should find a pot and replant it, although why mess with success at this point.

I think this plant is like the Little Engine That Could.

I Hate Mondays

I leave for work at school at 7:20am. I work until 12. I come home from about 12:30 - 2:10. Then I leave for second work. I work there until 5. I have to run from there for class back at school at 5:30. I have class until 8:30 and then I can usually get back home just before 9. My friends usually want to hang out after I get out of class but I fall asleep too often so I just go home.

Well time to run.

Religious Art on Campus

It was graduation for my brother and my dad today (they were both getting MBAs). While I was there with the camera though I decided to take pictures of the religious artwork around the school.

These are from the chapel, I haven't really been in there too often. Maybe 3 or 4 times since I started going there in '02. They remodeled it a few years ago and sort of modernized it, which I don't care for, but there is still some pretty things in it.













To get to the chapel you have to go through the old library, this is outside the old library.



Outside at the grotto. I've only walked over there twice, both times in the snow.





In one of the halls

Reading Clinic

Tomorrow I start working at a reading clinic. I have to get 25 hours in to complete the hours I need for the class I took this summer. Should be interesting.

I made this bracelet this weekend, I think I like this even better than drilling the glass because a. I can't break any of them, and b. it keeps the integrity of the pieces themselves.

Somehow I managed to finish my paper (I even read the whole book - which is unusual for me). It was actually pretty good.

Now I'm just trying to study for the test. I'm not especially confident. There is a lot of material to remember and I'm dead tired. I went to sleep after 2, back up at 6:30. I'm used to a lot more sleep than that. Oh well. I guess I really haven't been getting much more sleep than that lately. We leave on our trip tonight so I guess I'll have plenty of time to sleep on our way.

I'm trying to study right now, but amusingly enough I have this song stuck in my head. Darn you JG Wentworth and your catchy commercials.

APA

APA style formatting is the tool of the devil.

Grades Are In

I got my grades in. In my Technology in the Classroom class I got a 97%, in the History and Philosophy of American Education I got a A- (don't know the percentage on that one).

Thats not horrible like I had imagined. I guess I need to pick out a class for the summer now.

Taking a Year Off

When I graduated from High School everyone had this fantasy about taking a year off. Certainly not a new thing. Some of the people I know did take the next year off from school - you know to find a job or travel or do something else before returning to their studies. Most of them never did go back to school. I can see why. I graduated with my BA last January, and started classes again in September, and it's just so hard getting back to the routine of classes.

I registered for two classes yesterday, started the first one this evening. Its on the History and Philosophy of American Education. The other one on Tuesday nights is on Integrating Technology in the Classroom. As I take these classes it makes me realize how much I really want a nice 9 - 5 job. As much as I want that, I have to keep reminding myself that these classes are hopefully a good way to get that (or in the case of teaching something like an 8 - 3 job).

Real Life Things

I promised myself that I would sit down and write about this tonight. One of the reasons (although there are several) that I have been so busy lately is that I have been teaching CCD at church on Sundays since the end of September. At first I wasn't sure I really wanted to write about it online or not, but I decided that I would finally, as I'm starting to settle into the job.

The basics: I've been teaching the kindergarten and first grade class. There is a total of 7 students - 5 regular ones (regular in that they come often LOL). Part of the whole thing has been that there is no set curriculum for me to teach from. I have admittedly been bitter about my CCD education - it was more of the 'rainbows and collage' school of thought rather than content - and so I want to be sure that I teach them something.

I may have written about it before on here, but I'm also in the process of taking classes so I can teach. When I started teaching the CCD I hadn't had any time in the classroom as an observer or aide so I had no idea how to approach these young children (they're 5 & 6!). This past week and a half I have been observing in a 1st Grade in a public school and I realize how I have been trying to teach them beyond their years. But I am learning. I actually had a nice art project this past Sunday, except only 3 of the students were there. I packed supplies into little baggies and I will give the other students them next Sunday.

I actually have a picture of the finished product, but I have it on my computer and not the one I'm on right now. I'll follow this post with the picture later this evening. Its a little 'shrine' that they made. I pre-pasted a picture of Mary and Baby Jesus (Our Lady of Pompeii I believe) and I also attached a copy of the Hail Mary on the back. What they had to do then was decorate it. Since its only an hour class I had to make sure to leave plenty of time for them to drive before mass. I had purchased from Hobby Lobby bags of blue and green glass medallians (I don't know what else to call them, you'll know what I'm talking about when you see them), small sea shells, river rocks, and those little twisty roses. When you see the one I did it looks much worse than the ones the kids did. I sort of haphazardly attached the items, and then decided that I should try doing all the different ones to make sure they'd work. So when you see it, it doesn't look like a 23 year old did it, it looks more like a 3 year old did it.

Any way, with having no set curriculm I spend most of my Saturday preparing for Sunday morning. And with my class, doing observations, and the two part-time jobs I haven't had as much time to devote to my blog - something I want to change. Its not so much that I haven't been online, its just that I've been tired and don't feel like writing anything. You can probably tell that I am tired because this post has ended up jumbly, but at this point I'm just feeling good that I've gotten it written down.

Worried About Class Already

I'm in semi-crisis mode. I registered for class yesterday and they gave me Intro to Teaching. Which I wouldn't have a problem with except you are required to earn 25 "clock hours of classroom experience" to complete the course. I know my job isn't anything to be wowed by. But I do need the job to pay for things, and I happen to work 10 - 2 Monday through Friday. We have very few employees so getting someone who can work that slot that I do is just about impossible at this point. I have no idea how I will be able to get these 25 hours of class time considering my work schedule.

It's Offical

I'm a student again.

Comment From Dad

I was just telling Dad about a paper that I knocked out Monday morning before class which I had gotten a 95% on and I didn't know how. I was explaining that I needed to beef the paper up a bit and since my professor wanted our own personal opinion I went into a rant about how the democrats picked Bob Casey to split the pro-life vote because Pennsylvania is a pro-life state, but Casey wasn't the real pro-life candidate and so on, and he just looked at me and said 'If you ever really concentrated on anything you'd be scary'.

I wonder what he meant by that...