Adventures in substituting - Year 1

Once I realized that I would definitely need a job in order to pay for school, I started looking at my options.  I needed something part-time, that wouldn't take me away from my kids at night, and give me the flexibility I needed as I wouldn't know what my schedule would be each semester.  I knew working retail was out....been there, done that!

I happened to be talking to one of my friends who mentioned substituting for the school district.  I found that I could work as much or as little as I wanted and that I could designate days that I would be unavailable for calls.  I also realized that this would allow me to be home when my kids were home, including weekends and holidays.  It would also allow me some classroom experience as I was wanting to be a teacher in the long run.

My very first job was substituting 4th grade half day in the afternoon was less than stellar.  I had a hard time keeping them in line and I had a few children that were blatantly disrespectful.  As I started to write my notes for the teacher at the end of the day, I was happy to read the notes from the morning sub had about the same experience as I did.  When I left that day, I was not so sure that this was going to be for me.  I quickly took another half day job the next day and it went immeasurably better. 

The more I worked the more adjustments I made to the point that I feel like I have a pretty good routine down that most children and ages will respond to.  Here are some of the things I've come up with:

My bag of tricks: I have a string back pack that I keep my stuff in.  I have my stuffed bear, band-aids, new pencils (for kids who claim they don't have one) and dry erase markers (for the classrooms whose markers have seen better days)

K-3rd grade: I introduce my friend (a stuffed bear) that likes to sit with quiet children and throughout the day he will move from quiet child to quiet child.  I also let them know that if my friend decides he wants to play and be disruptive, I will have to take him away.  This has been a really good tool for me and I think it works because I'm not there everyday.  Some fun moments with my bear have been seeing a quiet little girl holding him in her lap while she is working and pausing every so often to whisper in his ear, taking class votes on what his name should be (every class gets to pick a name...and they remember it when I come back another day!), and hearing the children whisper that the "bear substitute is here" and wanting to know if I brought him with me.

4th-6th grade: Riddles and stories.  I always follow the lesson plans as outlined, but if I see a spot where I can sneak in a fun story, I will.  Recently I read the "I am my own grandpa" poem to them, and then we try and make a family tree.  It gives them a quick break.  I came up with the riddles because I happen to be teaching on March 4th and I told the children that whoever answered my riddle would be the first in line at the end of the day.  On that particular day the riddle was "Why is today a day to move forward?"....MARCH Forth! :)  The kids love it so much they wanted me to ask another riddle for 2nd in line and so on.  They also remember that I do this so as I have subbed for a class again, they ask me if I'm going to do the riddles.

With the older ages like junior high and high school, I just try to be myself.  I did have a fun time teaching 2 high school sign languages classes (I know sign language myself).  I got up and told them (in sign language) that it has been quite a while since I learned sign language, but that I do remember the bad words and so they need to be careful as they are signing as I will know what they are saying.  They noticed that I wrote on the board with my left hand and signed with my right and asked me about that.  I told them that it just felt more comfortable with my right, and then a kid in the back asked me which way I bat when I play baseball.  I quickly told him that I could be a switch hitter but it has been a little while since I played the game (indicating my somewhat rotund figure...which made them laugh)

All in all I have had ups and downs (we won't even talk about my trying to teach math!) but I've learned that most kids of all age groups want to be helpful and that a sense of humor can go a long way.

I have really enjoyed this first school year and can't wait for the next one to start.

Long Lost Update!

It has been nearly a year since I registered for school and at least 6 months since I updated my blog!  A lot has happened but I'll start with my class last fall.

In a previous post, I listed all the books/short stories that I had to read for class.  I had to write a 1 page paper every week about one of the stories we had read.  I also had 3 larger papers I had to write, the last one being about 6 pages long and a good portion of my grade.  I was really nervous about writing papers since it had been such a long time, but with the editing help that my husband provided, I managed to get A's on all my papers.

The class was really fun.  The teacher was great, and my classmates were all very fun to be with. 

What did I learn from my experience in the fall?

1. Old habits die hard!   I figured as I was much more mature now and that I understood the value of a dollar, I would be a much better student than when I was at 19.....not so.   I am a poor time manager and still seem to procrastinate homework.  Never in my life had cleaning the house fall at the top of my "to-do" list than this last fall when I had papers to write.  I only took one class (twice a week), I wasn't working, and all my children were in school for 8 hours and yet every Monday I was sweating over the computer trying to eek out a paper.  I will say that I never procrastinated reading! :)

2.  There really isn't a cleaning fairy that lives in my house!  Apparently if I don't clean, things stay dirty.  I got a little overwhelmed with helping the kids with school work and my own school work and reading that much of the house was left to its own devices.  I managed to keep everyone in clean clothes (barely) and we managed to eat off clean dishes (if I actually made dinner) but if we weren't wearing it, eating it, or company wasn't coming over, it didn't get cleaned.

3. School is a lot of money.  My one (3 credit hours) class costs me $1400 dollars--not including the books and I quickly found out that working to pay for school will be the  best option.  I had planned on going to school winter semester but as I didn't have a job lined up yet, I decided to put school on hold until this coming fall so I can get a job and save up some money.

4.  Old habits die hard (part II).  I am a complete bibliophile!!  I love owning books, and I love having a little library of my own.  My husband went with me to get my books from the University bookstore, while I was in line to pay for my literature anthology textbook, and the two novels that were required reading, I turned to my husband and said, "You realize I won't be returning these books, right? They are mine now."  With a roll of his eyes, he nodded his head.  No doubt this was not a surprise to him. (Just ask him about the boxes of books he had to move into our new house!)

Things will be a little different this coming fall as my twins (K&C) will be starting junior high and my youngest (M) will be going back to a year-round school schedule in elementary.  Because of this change, specifically, I'll be taking on-line courses this coming year.  The first one up this fall is "Intro to English Grammar".  I can only imagine how this class alone will change my everyday life! :)

Books! Books! Books!

It has been a while since I've posted a book review.  Now that I am in school, it gets a little more difficult to find the time to update the blog.  Here is an update of the latest books I've read and the short stories that have been assigned for my university class:

Novels


Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson: This little gem I picked as my book club choice for our summer reading as it is nearly 600 pages long.  I will admit I stumbled upon this one because of  Masterpiece Theater (love it!!).  I really enjoyed the series and once I discovered it was based on a novel, I had to read it!  I was surprised how different it was from the series.  This novel is not primarily characters driven and is more of a picture of what life was like living in a hamlet in the English countryside in the 1800's.  I loved it!!  This novel is actually 3 novels in one and each one improves from the last.  I liked her writing style and had no problem putting other things aside to read.  If you love 1800's England in any fashion, I think you would enjoy this.


Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: This is my first Anne Bronte novel.  I have read Emily's "Wuthering Heights" and Charlotte's "Jane Eyre" and "Villette" and was hoping Anne would live up to her sisters...and she did.  I will say that her writing style is different and this particular story is more straight forward than her sister's books but it was enjoyable, sweet and romantic.  I had no problem sticking with the book and read it whenever I could.  I easily got through it, as it isn't too long.  It's a great book and  I plan on reading her other novels. 


Beauty by Robin McKinley: I have been wanting to read this one for a while.  I first discovered it on goodreads.com and saw that it was a retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales and it had a lot of good reviews.  The opportunity presented itself, when the library's mother/daughter book club announced that for the month of September that we would read our favorite fairy tales. As soon as I finished "Agnes Grey" I picked up "Beauty".  It was a quick read (I read it less than a week) and very enjoyable.  This book was copyrighted in 1976, and I know this because it felt like Disney's movie version so I had to look it up.  There are some differences but A LOT of similarities.  I really like McKinley's writing style and have enjoyed her other books.  This is a fun book and would be appropriate for any girl or woman who enjoys fairy tales.


Short Stories for College (I'll save you my reviews and just give you a star rating based on 5 stars)

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner:

How I met my Husband by Alice Munro:

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe:

Everyday Use by Alice Walker:

Cathedral by Raymond Carver:

To Build a Fire by Jack London:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien:

A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway:

The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence:

A Good Man is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor:

Revelation by Flannery O'Connor:

I am currently reading:

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (audiobook)
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (for Mother/Daughter book club in October)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (for monthly book club)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (reading to the kids..but it's been a while)
Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace (haven't actively read this for months..so I don't know if it counts for currently reading anymore.)
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (for sisters book club...um...if it still exists...what happened here sisters?!?)
The Professor's House by Willa Cather (I will be starting this next week for class)

My First Day of School

parked outside a student apartment, right by the train station.

I woke up, took the kids down to my mom's house, and caught the train for my 1 hour ride to the University.  I had a spiral bound notebook, 2 pens, my kindle, and a 32oz bottle of water packed away in my backpack.  I was filled with some anxiety of the unknown and excited to be finally working towards my goal of getting a Bachelor's Degree.

As the train filled with people along the way, I realized that my being 36 years old and going to college wasn't as uncommon as I thought.  As the loaded train pulled to the University stop, I jostled my way off, scanned my student id card, and began my trek up the hillside to my class.

I made it only a little past the station when my calf muscles started wondering what I was up to.  By the time I walked under the roadway and started up the steps, by shins began to revolt.  I eased up on my pace just a bit in hopes that my shin splints would go away. Meanwhile all these agile, young, fit, children were zooming past me as if this hike was nothing but a routine stroll.

By the time I was halfway to my classroom I had to slow to a 90 year old woman's walking pace, but I was hoping I was pulling off the "I'm-sauntering-to-my-next-class-as-I-like-to-stop-and-smell-the-roses-and-enjoy-this-beautiful-campus" look.   Quite honestly I probably had the "what-am-I-doing-I'm-going-to-die" look instead.   As I reached my classroom, I was hot, sweaty and in much need of my bottle of water.  I sat down, and proceeded to gulp all 32 wonderful, blessed ounces.

My professor walked in carrying her Bruce Springsteen bag and bottle of water. I started to question her qualifications immediately.  (I mean, really, Bruce Springsteen?!)

She welcomed all of us to English 2020 - Introduction to Literary Forms.  We each took a turn introducing ourselves and what we were majoring in.  The syllabus was passed out and she outlined what to expect this semester and what is expected of us.

Looking through the schedule I saw that we would be reading quite a few short stories, Willa Cather's book The Professor's House, Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, that we would be reading and then watching the movies "The Fly" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

And then, right there on the last page, "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen.  I can read it, as long as I don't have to listen to it.  (Now, I'm sure there are plenty of you out there that like and probably own all of Springsteen's albums, so I will say that I do have an aversion to him, but it is not hate filled disgust.  I hope that admission will put me back in good standing with you.)

She then explained that not everything will be in the book and that she will post those reading on canvas and if we will look on canvas on occasion there will be other things there as well.  I'm writing this down and thinking "Is she going to tell us where on campus these readings will be?...What time will these readings take place? Will I have to come up here on my off days to hear these readings on campus?"   Once I realized she was saying the word "canvas"...I was no better enlightened.

After class, I heard another student ask her what canvas meant.  I quickly stepped over and she showed us that it is a link from our student page to the class page.  "Ohh!....It's a link!...on the computer!..." I think I now have a slight understanding of what it feels like to be out of sync with the lastest stuff (ha! computer pun! did you see that?!)

I'm excited for this class and what we are going to be reading.  I am, however, anxious about my ability to find the deep, hidden meanings in the stories, and my ability to write a concise, well thought out paper.  Here's hoping my literary muse will show up soon!

My weight loss secrets so far

My first month of  attempted weight loss has come and gone and here are a few secrets I've learned so far:


Secret #1: You can't have cookies for breakfast.  This fact may surprise some of you, but it is true.  We have such lazy summer mornings this year that by the time we get up and going, it's been a lot easier to grab a few cookies (any kind will do) and pop them in my mouth as we head out the door.


Secret #2: Exercise is imperative.  Really. I've been told any movement will do, including getting up to change the channel on the t.v. instead of using the remote (do t.v.'s even have those buttons anymore?!) Walking to the mailbox, riding around the block on your bike, tying your shoes (ok that last one may not count, but as hard as I have to work at it, I count it!)

Secret #3: Drink lots of water.  This is much easier for me in the summer than it is in the winter.  I've never been real great at being completely hydrated and it seems that the only time I actually consume the correct amount of water is when I am hiking.  I believe it is 8 glasses of water a day, but I've been told that the more you weigh, the more water you need (and more stops at the facilities!)


So how did I do this month? Fail.  I managed not to do any of the above weight loss secrets, but I still managed to lose 1 lb.....I'm sure that was a fluke.  

I've decided that I will need to take a line from the movie "What About Bob?" and do this weight loss thing in "baby steps"

This month I am going to commit to doing the following:

Drink 8 glasses of water every day.
Have a breakfast that doesn't resemble a baked good of any kind.
Exercise at least 10 minutes 3 times a week.


Doing it this way should be a little less overwhelming.

Pardon what is going to sound like an excuse, but this thing will be a little easier once the kids are back to school and we have a routine again!

Moments at Church

I go to church regularly, sometime begrudgingly and sometimes eagerly and then there are times that I go to church gratefully.  Today was one of those times. 

It started out as any other meeting, the announcements, the passing of the sacrament, and the talks.  And then there was a musical number. 

It was a father and his little boy.  The little boy climbed up and sat on the piano bench and started playing a very simple melody.  As the boy was playing, his father stepped behind him, reaching his arms around him, and, placing his hands on either side, started playing a slight embellishment.  As the song continued, the embellishments became more elaborate and what started out as a simple melody became a beautiful hymn.

I was immediately struck with the image of this father standing behind his little boy helping him make his simple song more beautiful and thought of how this simple gesture is like our Heavenly Father.

He asks us to follow His commandments, to live the gospel the best that we can.  As we take our faltering steps along the path He has shown, He steps behind and embellishes our simple efforts. It doesn't matter that our ability may only lay in playing a simple tune. With His help, with His arms around us, and His hands placed on either side, we can make simple things into great things.

I am so grateful to this father and son who thought they were simply going to play a musical number in church but ended up sharing a testimony and touching my heart.  

Losing Weight

Isn't everyone you know at some point trying to lose weight?  If you are female, I think it is a fore gone conclusion that at some point in your life you will try to lose weight.  I think it must be in our DNA!

What is the first thing that we ask someone who has lost weight?....."How did you do it?" as if they discovered some magical way that is unknown to the rest of mankind.  The simple response is, "watching what I eat and exercise."

I haven't really struggled with my weight until after having children (My choir dress from my senior year in high school was a size 2 and we had to still take it in a bit!).  Now, mind you, I measure 5' tall with shoes on.  I'm somewhere in the 4 feet 11-some odd inches in bare feet..so size 2 in high school was healthy.

Once I started having kids my battle with weight began.  I have gone up and down, up and down, up and down over the last 11 years.  I am currently on the "up" side of my weight.  I have plenty excuses that maybe you share as well.

"I don't have the time, what with the kids around all the time" ("um..except for summer break they were in school all day and you didn't so a thing!")

"I'm too tired" (stop going to bed at 1:00 in the morning...that might help!)

"I don't want to get up early" (you don't have to, you are home ALL DAY!)

"I don't feel like it" (I can't argue that point!)

"The holidays are coming, why try now when it will be so hard?" (give me a break, you can still have treats, just don't eat the whole plate of cookies by yourself!)

"Dieting can be so overwhelming and frustrating" (this is true, so stop doing it!)

"If I wasn't home all day, it would be so much easier to not eat so much" (maybe, but you are, so set up snacky stuff that isn't going to kill your figure!)

"I'll start next Monday" (what is so magical about Monday?)

So the fact of the matter is, I eat like crap and I would much prefer to curl up with a book than hop on the eliptical machine (which is conviently located downstairs in the family room).

It's time for a change and I'm hoping that sending this out to everyone in the known universe will help me stay committed.  I am a firm believer in simply sticking to smaller serving sizes and adding exercise to your daily routine (firm believer in theory...as I haven't implemented any of this as of yet!)

I have some small goals that I've set for myself to measure my progress:

I want to wear my wedding ring again.
I want to be able to tie my shoes without struggle.
I want to be able to keep up with my family when we go on hikes.
I would like to be into a size 5/6 jeans.
Only weigh myself once a month..remember that weight means nothing, how the clothes fit is the goal!
I want to set a good example for my kids.

That last one is probably the most important one for me.  I want my daughters to have healthy attitudes toward food and exercise.  My husband and I have alway tried to correct any of the children if they say something like "I need to exercise so I can stay skinny." with, "No, you need to exercise to be healthy."

So, here's to my first step in exercise.