The past week has been busy as always. Lots of planning and grading. A few late nights making sure I was ready for the next few days. I was observed by my lead mentor and my instructional coach during the same period on the same day. One left and the other came in a few minutes later. It ended up going pretty well, despite the fact that I was quizzing and had to teach quickly. The comments were good so I felt good about that.
This past weekend I drove to my parents in NJ to surprise my Mom for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. Her birthday is today but my Dad planned a nice dinner with a bunch of their friends for Saturday night. I drove in Friday night and met a couple of their friends at a restaurant and made it there before my parents did. The look on my Mom's face was wonderful! The weekend moved fast. We did a little shopping Saturday afternoon and then had the surprise dinner at night. Sunday morning I left around 11 to try to get out before the weather got too bad.
Hurricane Sandy left us we two days off of school. We got hit with a lot wind and rain but I've still got power and it hasn't been too bad. The time off was nice. I was able to finish grading papers, make bbq sauce and sugar cookies and study for my certification exams a bit. My parents in NJ had more wind and rain than we did here in VA but last time I talked to them they still had power but had a few leaks as well. There is snow falling in West Virginia just a little ways away from here. This is just crazy! Weather changes do make my headaches worse. It's been a rough few days, luckily having some time off has given me a break. It's been nice to not have to work through the pain but it's still never fun to have to have to deal with it.
The rest of this week will be a bunch of quizzing, reviewing, and testing since it is the end of the quarter. It will be interesting for sure! Having a short week will be nice.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Where has all the time gone?!
So much has happened in the past few weeks. Most of it has been really enjoyable, I've learned from a lot of things, and I found that sometimes you just have to stress out for a few minutes and take a deep breath before moving on.
Columbus Day weekend at the beach with my girlfriends was awesome!! We all needed some time away from home and away from school. We drove down Friday night and Saturday we spent relaxing! It was sunny and kind of warm so we walked along the beach and sat outside as much as possible. Sunday was rainy and cold so we were productive and got some grading done before we relaxed in the afternoon and then went out for fun at night! We came home Monday and then I had to get ready for the week ahead. All in all it was an amazing weekend!
The next week went pretty well. It felt long for only being 4 days long but nothing too out of the ordinary happened. I remember the days themselves feeling busy.
That weekend one of my friends from home came to visit me here. It was an interesting weekend since he was on crutches and couldn't walk much so our options were slightly limited but we still found things to do. It was good to see a familiar face. I realized that I don't know the area very well, just the few places that I always go but not much beyond that. It was nice to play host, even if it was an odd weekend.
This week was first time that I truly felt stressed by being in two different schools on different days. It was homecoming week at both schools. We had spirit days to dress up for each day, but they were different for each school, so knowing what to wear each day when I woke up was a challenge on its own. On top of that my planning seemed to be lacking and a tad behind the curve of where I would like it to be. I kept feeling like whenever I made it to the correct school in the morning half the battle had been won, but that I still had no clue if the schedule was different (the PSAT's were also given this week, and we had a pep rally) or if my students would be able to focus on the material past despite everything else going on. I just felt on edge all week with school related activities. We did have one really fun activity... faculty flash mob in the pep rally on Friday!!
Every night I came home and just collapsed. It was nice to relax, although some nights I still had school work. Or I was studying for the certification exam that I have to take in a few weeks. One night I had some fun, which was then crushed by a difficult conversation with another friend. Life really is a balance and you can never expect anything to last. I've been reminded that the simple things really are most important!
Friday night I went to the homecoming football game with a few friends. Luckily the team won so everyone was quite happy. Saturday I went to chaperon the homecoming dance. What an interesting experience! Just taking the tickets in the beginning we got to see quite the array of outfits. My goodness dresses have gotten short and heels have gotten high. And girls do not know how to walk in either part of that combination which made if kind of scary and kind of funny! At one points there was a girl who said her friend got hurt on the dance floor so I had to go into the center of the "clump" of kids with a few other teachers looking for the girl. Let's just say that was terrifying and an experience I'd never like to relive!! It was funny as we were walking through, they realized we were teachers and their hands slowly starting coming into sight and and they just stood still and backed away from us. It was a fun night. Afterwards my friend came back to my place and we relaxed together and just enjoyed the night.
This week will be another busy one. We've got 2 weeks until the end of the quarter which means quizzes and grading and plenty of planning! Plus I will be getting observed at least twice within the next two weeks so it'll be interesting for sure.
Columbus Day weekend at the beach with my girlfriends was awesome!! We all needed some time away from home and away from school. We drove down Friday night and Saturday we spent relaxing! It was sunny and kind of warm so we walked along the beach and sat outside as much as possible. Sunday was rainy and cold so we were productive and got some grading done before we relaxed in the afternoon and then went out for fun at night! We came home Monday and then I had to get ready for the week ahead. All in all it was an amazing weekend!
The next week went pretty well. It felt long for only being 4 days long but nothing too out of the ordinary happened. I remember the days themselves feeling busy.
That weekend one of my friends from home came to visit me here. It was an interesting weekend since he was on crutches and couldn't walk much so our options were slightly limited but we still found things to do. It was good to see a familiar face. I realized that I don't know the area very well, just the few places that I always go but not much beyond that. It was nice to play host, even if it was an odd weekend.
This week was first time that I truly felt stressed by being in two different schools on different days. It was homecoming week at both schools. We had spirit days to dress up for each day, but they were different for each school, so knowing what to wear each day when I woke up was a challenge on its own. On top of that my planning seemed to be lacking and a tad behind the curve of where I would like it to be. I kept feeling like whenever I made it to the correct school in the morning half the battle had been won, but that I still had no clue if the schedule was different (the PSAT's were also given this week, and we had a pep rally) or if my students would be able to focus on the material past despite everything else going on. I just felt on edge all week with school related activities. We did have one really fun activity... faculty flash mob in the pep rally on Friday!!
Every night I came home and just collapsed. It was nice to relax, although some nights I still had school work. Or I was studying for the certification exam that I have to take in a few weeks. One night I had some fun, which was then crushed by a difficult conversation with another friend. Life really is a balance and you can never expect anything to last. I've been reminded that the simple things really are most important!
Friday night I went to the homecoming football game with a few friends. Luckily the team won so everyone was quite happy. Saturday I went to chaperon the homecoming dance. What an interesting experience! Just taking the tickets in the beginning we got to see quite the array of outfits. My goodness dresses have gotten short and heels have gotten high. And girls do not know how to walk in either part of that combination which made if kind of scary and kind of funny! At one points there was a girl who said her friend got hurt on the dance floor so I had to go into the center of the "clump" of kids with a few other teachers looking for the girl. Let's just say that was terrifying and an experience I'd never like to relive!! It was funny as we were walking through, they realized we were teachers and their hands slowly starting coming into sight and and they just stood still and backed away from us. It was a fun night. Afterwards my friend came back to my place and we relaxed together and just enjoyed the night.
This week will be another busy one. We've got 2 weeks until the end of the quarter which means quizzes and grading and plenty of planning! Plus I will be getting observed at least twice within the next two weeks so it'll be interesting for sure.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Manageable Week, Horrible Pain, Long Weekend!
This week felt calmer than last. I have no idea why. Some days I was slightly ahead in planning, others I was just ready as I walked into class. It was a total mixture of things that I just can't explain. For some reason it all seemed to work out well though.
I had my first "lost stuff" scare. I walked into school this morning and had no idea where I left a whole folder worth of graded quizzes and homework. I was almost positive that I hadn't taken it out to work on at the other school, but that is always a possibility, and it wasn't in any of the rooms at that school which meant it had to be at home. It was a terrifying feeling because I couldn't visualize where I had left it. Luckily when I got home this afternoon it was sitting by my desk. I have no idea why it was where it was, but I'm glad I found it all.
The horrible pain came Tuesday. Talk about a weather change! I got home from school on Monday around 5:30 and didn't feel great, just a worse than normal headache, and eating dinner didn't really help, so I crawled into bed at 8 pm. While going to bed extremely early was nice, it was also weird. I guess my body wanted the sleep though. I woke up at 10, rolled over and fell right back to sleep, until I woke up a few minutes after 2 am in the most pain I've been in since the 2 week migraine I had a few months ago. I'm telling you it woke me out of a dead sleep. I went to the bathroom and just turning the light on was enough to make me curl up and feel sick. I immediately took all of my migraine medicines and crawled back into bed. The soft sounds from the air conditioner outside my window sounded like they were blaring, so I put ear plugs in. I haven't been this sensitive to light and sound in years! I mean usually I can function through things, but man am I lucky this happened in the middle of the night! I got a little bit more sleep, just kind of tossed and turned until my alarm went off at 5:30. At that point I wasn't quite as sensitive to light or sound and could function better. I headed into school and somehow made it through the day. I honestly have no idea how I got through the day. I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep. I would say cry but that makes it worse! To make matters worse I wasn't planned for the next day so I needed to stay and grade and work on plans. I got everything done and made it home by 7:30ish. Boy it was a long, hard day. I would never wish that experience on anyone! To anyone with frequent migraines, I really do feel for you. These experiences remind me how lucky I am to have my daily headaches under some sort of control, even if they are still there, at least I can function.
Today was my first taste of "vacation excitement!" I haven't been so excited to go away in a long time! I felt like a small child counting down the seconds until school was over. Don't get me wrong, little trips to see my parents are great, but I'm spending the whole weekend at the beach with some great girls from work! I feel so lucky to have gotten to know them and joined their group. They are a lot of fun, and we are just planning to hang out and enjoy the long weekend.
All in all it has been a busy week, as always, but a decent one. The weekend should be great! Next week will be busy again even though it is only 4 days, but a friend from home is coming to visit so that will make for another exciting weekend to look forward to!
I had my first "lost stuff" scare. I walked into school this morning and had no idea where I left a whole folder worth of graded quizzes and homework. I was almost positive that I hadn't taken it out to work on at the other school, but that is always a possibility, and it wasn't in any of the rooms at that school which meant it had to be at home. It was a terrifying feeling because I couldn't visualize where I had left it. Luckily when I got home this afternoon it was sitting by my desk. I have no idea why it was where it was, but I'm glad I found it all.
The horrible pain came Tuesday. Talk about a weather change! I got home from school on Monday around 5:30 and didn't feel great, just a worse than normal headache, and eating dinner didn't really help, so I crawled into bed at 8 pm. While going to bed extremely early was nice, it was also weird. I guess my body wanted the sleep though. I woke up at 10, rolled over and fell right back to sleep, until I woke up a few minutes after 2 am in the most pain I've been in since the 2 week migraine I had a few months ago. I'm telling you it woke me out of a dead sleep. I went to the bathroom and just turning the light on was enough to make me curl up and feel sick. I immediately took all of my migraine medicines and crawled back into bed. The soft sounds from the air conditioner outside my window sounded like they were blaring, so I put ear plugs in. I haven't been this sensitive to light and sound in years! I mean usually I can function through things, but man am I lucky this happened in the middle of the night! I got a little bit more sleep, just kind of tossed and turned until my alarm went off at 5:30. At that point I wasn't quite as sensitive to light or sound and could function better. I headed into school and somehow made it through the day. I honestly have no idea how I got through the day. I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep. I would say cry but that makes it worse! To make matters worse I wasn't planned for the next day so I needed to stay and grade and work on plans. I got everything done and made it home by 7:30ish. Boy it was a long, hard day. I would never wish that experience on anyone! To anyone with frequent migraines, I really do feel for you. These experiences remind me how lucky I am to have my daily headaches under some sort of control, even if they are still there, at least I can function.
Today was my first taste of "vacation excitement!" I haven't been so excited to go away in a long time! I felt like a small child counting down the seconds until school was over. Don't get me wrong, little trips to see my parents are great, but I'm spending the whole weekend at the beach with some great girls from work! I feel so lucky to have gotten to know them and joined their group. They are a lot of fun, and we are just planning to hang out and enjoy the long weekend.
All in all it has been a busy week, as always, but a decent one. The weekend should be great! Next week will be busy again even though it is only 4 days, but a friend from home is coming to visit so that will make for another exciting weekend to look forward to!
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