My Man

Since my post about my wedding, a few of you gals have asked me about Gerry. So I thought I'd post some pictures of him. I'll let you know when we set a date! ;)





During his "long hair is cool" phase. I kinda miss it!

Right Now

* Reading ten journal articles about inclusionary education and writting a summary paper for each. 8 down, 2 to go!
*Eating a banana. Trying to be healthy!
*Wondering if I should get up and close the blinds. It's dark outside and people walking by can probably see me in here working away.
*Thinking about Europe!!! (Got accepted into the DoDDs program!!!)
*Worrying about Schmidt. She's making the drive from Vegas alone.
*Trying to think of ways to make some money for Europe trip.
*Getting a sore back from leaning over my keyboard all day.
*Trying to stay focused on all the homework I have to do and not get distracted by other stuff (like this dang blog!)
*Wishing my faucet would stop dripping. Maybe I should look at it as having a fountain/waterfall
*Mentally coordinating outfits for teaching from all the stuff my parents bought me over the weekend.
*Hoping I'm not a wuss for already missing my parents. They just left here this morning. Geez!
*Itching to organize something in my room. Maybe I have OCD.
*Super frustruated every time someone serioulsy suggests that maybe they have OCD. I know all about the thing (it's my job, after all) and I always want to correct people and tell them OCD isn't what they think it is. Read up on it people, you don't seem to get it.
*Wondering when Hensley is going to let me know what her new address is. Seriously Hens, I have something cool to send you and I can't do it until you let me know.
*Thinking about what I am going to give up for Lent- alcohol. Wondering if it will be hard!
*Trying to decide if I should tell the special ed teacher that I work with that I won't be able to come on Ash Wednesday/first day of Lent (March 1). Due to the fact that I may be overindulging in the aforementioned give-up item at Schmidt's Mardi Gras party.
*Done with my banana. Don't like them- the strings of banana flesh weird me out.
*Stressing out over all the stuff I have to do this semester.
*Talking out loud to myself about not stressing, cause it is my last semester, after all.
*Just remembered that I have leftover pizza from Oregano's in my fridge.
*Trying hard to resist the pizza.
*Finished with this rather pointless blog and going back to my homework.

In the Resource Room

I've started working in an intermediate resource room at one of the elementary schools in town. I work with 4th-6th graders who are categorized as having a specific learning disability. The class focuses on math and langauge arts. I've gone in four times now, and I work for 3 1/2 hours at a time. I had predicted myself not liking it, even though I am a special education major, but I really enjoy it. The teacher and the aide that I work with are amazing. They are sweet and helpful and they get me involved with the students as much as possible. The teacher, Mrs. H., even let me read one girl's IEP so that I can become familiar with it. IEPs are super-complicated but necessary by law, so it was great that she is exposing me to them. I've done a lot of work one-on-one or with only a few students in a group. Mainly giving spelling tests, doing Daily Language Review worksheets, working on reading comprehension and similar, and monitoring the class during independent work time.

For the most part, the students have received me well and they are very willing to allow me to work with them. But today I worked with a girl, C, and the experience wasn't so great. I think C has mild mental retardation and not LD, but I'm not sure. I was working with her on langauge arts type stuff. First she read out loud to me from a book that is at the first grade level (she is in 5th) and then I helped her take an AR test on it. Then we worked on a daily review worksheet followed by a packet on nouns and capitalization. I had a really difficult time getting C to attend to the work at hand. I'm not sure if she was ignoring me, taking a long time to think, or if this is just how she operates, but it was frustruating at first. I don't know where she is cognitively, so I wasn't sure how much help I was supposed to give her. I would ask her a question, such as "What do we call the person who delivers the mail?" several times and she would just stare at me and then get out a sheet of paper and start scribbling. Then when I finally got her to say "mailman" it was another 5 minutes before I could get her to write it down on the worksheet. I know she can read, think, write, etc. I've seen her do it. She works well with the other aide, but she was refusing to do it with me. I'm going to talk to Mrs. H. next time I go in and see if she can give me some ideas on how to work with C.

Sometimes I wonder if I am going to be able to teach all day every day. Sometimes I don't even want to go in for the three and a half hours. I think that is just laziness though and it doesn't really have anything to do with how I feel about my job. When I am there, working with the kids, I love it. It's fun and challenging and rewarding. I can't think of anything else that I would, realistically, rather be doing. Sure, it would be fun sailing around the world and diving in the ocean to look at sea-dwelling thingies, but can I realistically do that? No.

I am still waiting for DoDDs. Aaaahhhhh!!! I'm giving my e-mail checker a work out.

Dan asked me to be his date at his uncle's wedding in two weeks. Even though I don't really want to go, I said yes. Dan is a really fun guy to hang out with, so even though I'll feel akward and uncomfortable around people I don't know, I'll have a good time watching him act like a goof-ball. Plus, I couldn't think of an excuse fast enough for why I couldn't go, so I'm stuck.

Aaaahhhhhh!!!!

I am going crazy! I still haven't heard from the DoDDs folks about whether I'm going to Europe or not. First, they were going to be sending e-mails out on Friday. Then definitely on Monday because they already know who is getting accepted. Well, it's Tuesday night and nada. I keep checking my e-mail every 20 minutes. I've become obsessed with it. Every time I type in my password and hit enter, my heart starts to pound a little faster. Then, for a split second, I think "What if I don't get in. What if this e-mail ruins all the dreams and plans I have for my immediate future?" I am terrified. At the risk of having my hopes dashed, I almost prefer this period of ambiguity....No, I don't...It's killing me.

I need to distract myself. So hear is a list of

STUFF I LOVE

*finally remembering to watch Gilmore Girls

*remembering I have a baggie of Wheat Thins in my backpack when my tummy has started rumbling in class

*the NAU movie channels on tv. They have distracted me from many study sessions

*carne asada burritos from Tacos Los Altos

*sinking the 8-ball to win a game of pool

*looking in my fridge and seeing that I still have a peach Silk Alive soy smoothie left

*a late night Pita Pit run with Schmidt

*the V-Day gift I got from mi padres

*my hoop earrings from Cost Plus

*chatting with Aimee and Rachel in class

*making it through EDF 301 without falling asleep

Waiting

It feels like this week will never be over. I swear I've lived through two or three Thursdays already. I've been exhausted the past few days, to the point of almost falling asleep in several of my classes. I stay up way to late doing homework, studying, hanging out with friends. And then I wake up and get to school by eight. I'm averaging around 5 hours of sleep this week. That's probably normal for some people, but I've been spoiled this school year and I am used to 8-9 hours of sleep each night. Mmmm... I love sleep. Naps especially. Being able to lay out on my bed for a quick snooze makes me sooo happy.

Another reason why this week seems endless is because I am looking forward to the weekend. Isn't that the way it always goes?! I get to go home!!! I'm leaving tomorrow as soon as class is over (around 2:00) and I am so excited. I miss mi familia! I chatted with mi madre on the phone yesterday and it sounds like they miss me too. No big plans for while I'm down in the Valley. Probably some shopping, maybe a movie if we get a chance. Mainly just hanging out with my folks.

The last reason why I want Friday/the weekend to get here: DoDDs! I should be getting an e-mail as early as tomorrow or as late as Tuesday saying whether or not I am accepted into the program. The waiting is driving me crazy! I am starting to get nervous for the first time since this whole thing started. There is going to be lots of yelling, crying, and swearing if I don't get in. I have been trying not to think about Europe too much, not get too excited, not start making plans because it will make the disappointment even worse if I find out I'm not going.

I broke down last night and started looking online at pictures of southern Germany, the area I hope to be assigned to. It is so beautiful, and it made me even more excited. Woops! I really want to post some of the gorgeous pictures I found, but I feel like that might jinx me. Don't want that to happen. So say a prayer for me this weekend!

To Do List

• Laundry, again. It is always to crowded in the laundry room for me to do more than one load at a time ($1.75 to wash and dry)
• Clean out my fridge (loads of old stuff in there)
• Clear off all the stuff on the top bunk (an old printer, the quilt I'm working on)
• Sign-up for my teacher certification tests, all 3 of them (gonna cost me $220 total)
• Buy a new black ink cartridge for my printer ($30)
• Clean my room, even thought it's not that messy. Just feel the need!
• Read 10 journal articles about inclusion and do write-ups on them
• Read 3 journal articles for my school and society class
• Read about a gazillion chapters for my Structured English Immersion class, a bit behind in that one
• Figure out what Structured English Immersion even means
• Get my fingerprint clearance for student teaching ($100)
• Buy a filing box for my Special Education Methods class ($10)
• Do the dishes. by hand, ick!
• Figure out the celestial sphere and the constellations for astronomy class
• Finish the roll of film in my camera
• Develop the roll of film in my camera-$8. Being able to look back at precious memories while I'm living in a cardboard box because I spent money on developing pictures instead of school and groceries- priceless.
• Get a job --> so I can pay to go to school--> so I can get a job

Bar Crawling

As yesterday was Saturday, I of course went out to the bars with Schmidt and about 10 other folks. Since Schmidt wasn't allowed to drink yesterday because of a sorority thing, and I was decidedly sober by the time we got to Collins at around 11, we quickly became bored and restless. It was too crowded on the dance floor and the DJ, who is normally fantastic, was playing obscure songs that we didn't feel like groovin to. We decided to leave the rest of our group and going bar crawlin down Leroux St. The main bar strip in downtown Flag. We stopped off at Maloney's first, since I had never been there when it was in full swing. Schmidt had been there lots of times, mainly with her sorority sisters, and she wasn't a big fan. Tim, a friend of Schmidt's was there and we chatted with him for a while. We danced for a song or three and then decided to move two doors down to San Felipe's, with Tim in tow.

In the picture, San Felipes is the yellow and brick building and Maloney's is just out of frame to the left.

San Felipe's was a bit dull, with only creepy guys standing around the perimeter, leering at us. At least having Tim with us kept the creepies from approaching us. I did sample my first Heineken. Gross! It smelled like skunk. Even Tim agreed that it was smelly, so it wasn't just me being weird. It didn't taste exactly like it smelled, but it wasn't far off. I am a big beer fan and I was sad to find a beer that I don't like for the first time. I know a lot of people who drink only Heinys, and now I wonder what's wrong with them. Really, it smells like skunk! After dancing for a few songs, we again moved on.


We decided to go off the strip and walk to the other side of downtown, to Mogollon Brewery. None of us had ever been there before; we still had Tim with us. The moment we stepped through the door, we were attacked by a cloud of B.O. It was so bad, we had to move to the very back of the bar where we could stand by ourselves, away from the smelly people. The crowd was non-college and very Flagstaff. Hippies and mountaineers wearing corduroy and flannel with long, uncombed hair and apparently no deodorant or shower-taking abilities. It's a shame, because the atmosphere was so nice and laid back and the place had a cool decor. But never again will we wander off Leroux. We have learned our lesson.

We headed to Boardwalk to meet up with the rest of our group, but the only one we could find was Myra. We headed back to Myra's car to wait for everyone else and think over our rather unsatisfying night of bar crawling.

DoDDs Interview

A few people now have asked me to post about my DoDDs interview that I had yesterday.

First of all, for anyone that doesn't know, DoDDS is Department of Defense Dependent Schools. Military bases overseas have schools on them that serve the children on the base as well as a few local kids. NAU is one of a few universities that sends student teachers over to the European bases to do their 16 week internship. I've had to go through this big screening and selection process which included a letter written by me stating why I should be considered for the DoDDs program, gathering recommendations from my professors, and an interview with the DoDDs committee.

So my interview was yesterday and it lasted for about half an hour. They started off by taking my picture infront of this giant map that shows where NAU currently has student teachers at. I was lucky enough to only have to interview infront of the two head guys. Normally there are about 5 people in there who make up the interview committee, but none of them were able to make it during my interview time. They asked me four basic interview-type questions.

1. Why do you want to student teach in the DoDDs program?
I said something along the line of how great an experience it would be and how it would really impact my teaching to have global experience. For example, when I'm teaching about Ancient Rome, I will have been to the Coliseum and I will have stories and pictures that will enrich the lesson.

2. What teaching experiences have you had?
Summer youth golf program; summer school with K-3 students doing PE, science, and reading; a semester in a fifth grade class where my teaching was focused on literacy and social studies.

3. What do you see as being your responsibilities if you were student teaching on a base overseas with DoDDs?
I will be a representative of the University and the country. I will also be a source of comfort, support, and stability for my students whose lives will be rather stressful since they will have one or both parents deployed in the Middle East.

4. A long situational-type question involving me going on a train to Amsterdam by myself only to discover when I got there that my passport, IDs, money, etc. had been stolen. What would I do?
First, I would get in contact with my cooperating teacher to let her know about the situation. She may be able to offer me some advice. Then I would go about obtaining a new passport, probably from the American Embassy. I told them that I did not as of yet know how to get a new passport in a foreign country, but if I was to travel abroad I would make sure I was well informed on how to do things like this.

Then we went over the lesson plan I had prepared. I walked them through it; objectives, standards, procedures, assessment, statement of Universal Design. They were impressed with how experiential and hands-on my lesson was. Woohoo! I was able to answer almost all the questions they asked me, and answer them well.

Overall, the interview went well. I showed that I have good communication skills, I can create a thorough and educational lesson plan, I can think calmly under pressure, and I am flexible. All good stuff! If they were deciding solely off the interview, I would be in. But I'm a little worried, not sure why, about the professor recommendations. I have to have a certain number of professors who return the forms saying they recommend me. It's not that I think they will say bad things about me, but I'm worried they may not know me well enough to recommend me.

There is still one more week of interviewing and I'll find out on Friday the 10th if I am selected or not.