Exhausted

I'm so tired. So tired, I feel drunk. I'm ready to see how Monday goes with my first lessons. We have one full week this week and then the following one is Labor Day weekend so no school on Monday the 7th and then the Monday after that is teacher collaboration and there won't be any school for the students. I used to like having these days off but now that I actually have to worry about getting through material, these days off might prove to be a problem, but I'm not going to complain just yet.

The classroom and the happy teacher (after the kids were gone for the day)

*GASP*

I don't have time to breathe. Sorry.








I'll update ya'll this weekend about how the first 2 days of school went and maybe if you're lucky, I'll update again next weekend to let you know how the first full week went too. :)

Interesting...

In Caldwell, we can no longer call what I teach, ESL. Well, teacher to teacher it's okay but when and if a student writes ESL on their paper, it's a gang acronym. It means "East Side Locos". HAHAHA!!! That's so clever of them to make their group that name because they probably thought that by writing "ESL" on their paper, the teachers wouldn't catch on that it was gang-related. Well, now we're on to them. So, the title is now ELL, which I've been saying all along but just so ya'll know. I bet within the next year or so, the title will change because another gang will come up with a name that goes along with that one.

Idaho Fair!

Texas Longhorn

He had an itch so he decided to rub his head against the cage bars. If somebody wasn't watching where they were going, they'd get poked or goosed by his horns!

IT'S A WATUSI!!! These animals are native to Africa. Some tribes in Africa use a mixture of milk and blood from this animal for some of their rituals. I saw this on "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" (on the Travel channel) and Andrew did drink some of this junk--it seriously made me want to throw up.

We went to the Idaho Fair tonight because we wanted an elephant ear. We got one ear and split it because they're too big for one person to eat alone (although, I probably could but know I shouldn't). Then Kyle said he wanted one more junk food, deep fried Fair food item. He got a Pronto Pup corndog and he enjoyed it thoroughly. My next thing was a unique item that probably is only found here in Idaho. I got an ice cream potato! Now, you're probably thinking, "what is an ice cream potato? why would you want to eat ice cream on a potato???" Well, it's not an actual potato. It's ice cream shaped into a potato and it's even colored like one with cinnamon on the outside to give the ice cream the potato skin color and it's sliced in half just like you would do a potato and it's even got a dollop of "sour cream", which is whipped cream. It's awesome but I mean, it's just ice cream and tastes like ice cream so it doesn't taste like a potato. It just looks EXACTLY like one! It plays with your mind, seriously. The next people that come out to visit us here, we'll take you to the West-side Drive-in because they serve those and I think it's a cultural experience! :)

Monday will be a teacher workday for me so Kyle has said that he'll go in with me and help me with my room setup. I've already started some of it but it still needs help. I want to get a welcome rug for the entry way and I want to maybe eventually get some plants (probably fake since I have no windows in my room) to bring in some life to the room. I've got to get my stuff organized too and I have to come up with plans for the first full week or maybe more! I'm SO EXCITED!!! I also want to have a cozy reading corner but in order to have a reading corner, I need more books. I only have about 3 books that I found there at the school. I don't know how I'm gonna do this. Maybe I'll stop by a thrift store and see about cheap books that way I don't spend a fortune on stuff with my own money. Each teacher gets about $300 for their room for the whole year so I need to use that wisely! I already know that I need pencils probably but paper isn't an issue because my dept. head said she had tons of paper. I also need journals for my students but again, those will probably be provided for me. I will take pictures once my room is pretty much done. :)

It's late. Gotta go to bed because I really need to start a regular schedule for myself or else I'm not gonna survive in the early mornings!

CELEBRATIONS!!!!

I got the ELL job at Caldwell High School that I applied to months ago!!!!! I know most of you already know that but I just thought I'd make it "official" by writing it here on the blog. When I got the acceptance phone call, I saw Kyle's eyes well up with tears and when I saw that, it was all I could do to keep myself from bawling on the phone with the principal. After we were finished talking and discussing logistics for tomorrow's first day for new teachers, the principal asked me to take a deep breath and then he asked me if I remember everything he told me. I did remember because I wrote it down just to be sure. The principal also said that he enjoyed our "conversation" very much this morning--he said he didn't think of it as an interview at all. He thought of it as a friendly conversation with interesting discussion points. After I hung up the phone, Kyle and I hugged each other and cried. HAHA!! We were so happy to finally have gotten this job. I had tried so hard at all the other things that paid much lower and/or other jobs that people just didn't seem to appreciate what I had to offer and then turned me down. Well now I can show them that I AM worth something!! *Sigh* Now I'm so tired from all the excitement that it probably won't take much for me to go to sleep tonight especially since I have to get up EARLY tomorrow to start the day with other new teachers. I'm excited! I can't wait! :)

YIPPEEEEEE!!!!

I PASSED THE PRAXIS!!!!!! My score was a 630 and the state of Idaho only needs a 580 so I passed with flying colors! I'm so happy to not have to take the nightmare of a test ever again! I passed it with my own studying and absolutely no help from my master's classes. I believe I did good. :)