You Know It's Monday When...

...you have to log into your own online class as a student, unable to grant speaking/writing privileges to anyone at all...with the user name "Ms. Gerber Can't Get Online.  No Class. Check Your Email."

Dear Week...

Dear Week,

For future reference, late nights + early morning + meetings + many unrelated but stressful events = nasty. 

Week, you are killing me!

Is it Friday yet?

Sincerely,

Shannon

Seven Things...

As I don't know how to properly insert a link to a set of blogs...I'm just not cool like that...I've just copied and pasted the badge...and am taking Michaele Sommerville's (http://kidney-garden.blogspot.com ) request/meme to heart!  Thanks, Michaele!

Here are seven things you may not know about me.

1.  I read Nora Roberts and JD Robb books voraciously...and have been known to hide them behind a layer of more academic texts on my bookcases when the need arises.

2.  I have become hooked on Pinterest, and could spend hours finding exciting projects for which I am never likely to find the time.

3. I love to quilt, and have at least 4 projects on the go at the moment.

4.  I remember my dreams vividly, most of the time.

5.  I am fascinated by anthropology (especially archaeology), and if I ever get the chance to upgrade my anthropology minor, it will be in that field!

6.  I actually do regret the year that I spent in the mission field.  It was a terrible year.  There were wonderful parts to it, but overall it was not a good experience.  Does that make me a bad person?

7. I spend more time planning on a weekly basis for my approximately three hours of teaching each day than I did all of last year when I was teaching full time and not doing any administrative work.

So now, to those of you reading this blog, it's your turn!

Justin Bieber...Rowan Atkinson...The Nylons...Restful Sleep

Three of these things belong together.
Three of these things are kind of the same.
One of these things just doesn't belong here.
Now it's time to play our game...time to play our game!

What do three of these things have in common?  How are three of these things kind of the same?

I woke up this morning remembering vivid dreams of being at an entire Justin Bieber concernt.  Yes, I remember the entire thing.  Don't remember any songs, just teeny-bopper screaming from the adults in the audience.

The concert was at a church.  Yep.

Rowan Atkinson, as Mr. Bean, was the opening act and intermission entertainment.

Justin Bieber got put in the "time out" chairs for being too rowdy during Mr. Bean's performance. 

Yes, that's right.  Time Out chairs, in a church, at a Justin Bieber concert.

The concert ended with the entire audience (again, mostly adults) spontaneously bursting out into a very excellent rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Nylons.

I also dreamed a long dream involving running away (well, driving away) from people who were out to murder all of the dolls that were in my car.  ??????????

This doesn't bode well for lasting through a long day...at the school from 7:00am-9:00pm...

You can't make this stuff up.

Good Morning, World...

As one of my former students says:  "Good Morning, World, and all of it's inhabitants...I'm ready!"

While I may or may not be "ready", things are going well!  I miss having my own class, but am enjoying teaching a wider variety of things.  Next week marks the beginning of my distance learning classes, which will mean that I am teaching students from Grade One to Grade Six online, over the phone, and in the classroom.  Woohoo!

The First "Real" Day...

Today I got to spend a couple of hours teaching, and now think that I'll survive the year.  These Science, Socials, and Music classes are going to be AWESOME, even if I lose sleep with the prep!  Next week is when the Distance Learning part of my job will kick in, and that will be great, too. More Science and Socials!

Now, I just need to find the right books to read to my fifth and sixth grade Science/Socials class. We're learning in Socials about being good Global Citizens, and what it means to be a "Global Citizen", so I'm thinking books about children living in different parts of the world.  But, not boring books...excellent books, which I will enjoy, too!  For this curriculum the books need to be mostly current, rather than historical.  I sense a trip to Chapters in my future!  Criteria: suitable for 10-12 year olds, acceptable by conservative Christian standards, not used in the Language Arts program, exciting rather than boring...

At a loss...

It's the first day of school! 

I don't have a class of students.  It feels so strange to be listening to the noise of introductions and learning, and to not be directly involved.  It's actually very hard.  I knew that this would be a huge challenge, and I know that I will enjoy the teaching that I will be doing, but not having my own class to introduce to routines, procedures, and the classroom just really stinks.

That was easy!

Last week I read a post on one of the blogs that I follow (http://missbrave.blogspot.com/2011/08/staples-not-in-fact-all-that-easy.html), and was both amused and saddened by the author's experience at Staples.
I love Staples.  It is one of those places that just makes me happy.  However, I have also felt the "shame" of not donating to whatever school supply drive is going on.  99% of the time the "shame" comes despite the fact that I KNOW how much of my own money I spend on things for students!  Then, yesterday, this happened.

I stopped in at my local store so that I could buy all sorts of things (though without a list as comprehensive as when I taught in a PH and had to take supplies for all of my students with me), and was irritated to hear a long spiel being given to every other customer. NOT that I think that the school supplies drive was a bad thing, or that they SHOULDN'T be asking for donations, but because I was dreading being asked.

I got to the register, emptied my cart, and pulled out my teacher identification so that I could get my 15% teacher appreciation discount (Yay for the last discount day!)...and she didn't even ask. No spiel, no guilt, no assumptions. Whether she refrained because she saw what I was buying, because of the identification, or because she was just sick of asking people, it doesn't matter!

Kudos to the cashier at register 1.

If I had a magic wand...

If I had a magic wand, I would...

...clear out all of the junk in my new classroom with a swish-and-flick.
...make people answer phone calls, or, at least, return them!
...finish sorting and unpacking all of the clothes in my apartment.
...make new students appear out of the woodwork.
...create a paperwork system which fills out and files itself.
...add four "sleep hours" to the day.  Not work hours, sleep hours.
...have a self-filling and self-warming coffee cup.

What would you do with your magic wand?