sigh

I am so excited that Spring Break starts tomorrow. Things are coming up that will take up my time, but I'm still hoping it will be a relatively relaxing week. I want to work some to make up for the many, many hours I am missing due to interviews and such, so that will be a bit of the week. I also need to go home (again!) for my dad to change my spark plugs and put new brakes on my car. That will be a fun 6 hours in the car...... Oh well, it needs to be done.

School is alright, I'm a little bored. I know that I will get a job in the special ed side of education, but I'm just not sure exactly what I'll be doing, but I know there will be a steep learning curve. I will be very interested to see how the annual case reviews go during April. There is one that I'd really like to go to involving a student from my first grade class, but I'm not sure that I will still be there as it has been moved to sometime in May. I would just liked to have been in a conference on the classroom teacher's side, as well as a student that I know a little bit better, but we'll see what I can do.

I am going to order some tracking sheets for my planner so I can keep a written account of my exercise as well as meal planning pages for the week. I am very excited and motivated to change my life right now. I weigh the most that I have ever weighed and that scares me. I know I need to change a lot of things about how I am living my life, and what better time than now. When school gets out,and I am working more, I am going to join Weight Watchers Online so I will be held accountable in some way. I am a visual person, so seeing something in black and white on a page or screen is what I need. I think I will order the pages in the next 2 weeks or so, when I get paid and figure out what all pages I want as I have a coupon.

Hopefully there will be a happier post in the next few days. I am so excited for noon tomorrow!

Special Ed

It is a different world than regular education. The schedule is rarely consistent, and while there are definitely always things to do, they can't always be done due to where the students are at the time. We may have time to teach them, but they may not be in their classroom or they can't leave it. We work with a wide variety of students, a wide variety of disabilities. From learning disabilities, turret's (sp?), autism, mental retardation, the range is a little amazing. A lot of the work is one-on-one or very small group where you can see the progress and help each student. We do have a couple of reading groups which are a bit larger and always scheduled, but other than that, the week was a little catch as catch can. I'm very excited to take over some of it on Monday. I'm a little concerned about how I am supposed to write lesson plans for a lot of the day. We are in other people's rooms assisting with lessons, not writing them. My supervisor doesn't have any experience with what an inclusion teacher does, so she is expecting me to do complete lesson plans for everything that I do. One of the reading groups is completely scripted and we follow the scrip to the letter, as the program is brand new to the students and is very regimented. These students need structure and repetition to learn their reading skills, and I am not about to type all of the words for each of these lessons when they are printed and read from the book. We'll see what happens.

I've had heartburn for about 2 weeks now. I'm thinking that I should go see a doctor, but I'm not quite sure when that could happen. I could wait for Spring Break and go to the Health Center then, or I could go to Prompt Care sometime this week. I just don't know what is going on, and I know I should go figure it out, but I don't have time.

Mesa

It is a beautiful place down there! The mountains and the weather, just amazing. I couldn't get over how brown everything is, but hey, it's the desert. I think the interviews went well. Now it's just a waiting game and getting everything they want turned in to them. I should hear back in about a month.

Tomorrow is my last day with my first graders. It's kinda wierd. I've been visiting other classrooms and really been out of my own and really let go. It's been really cool to see other rooms and age levels. I am getting really excited about starting my second placement. It will be good to really be in a special ed placement and get something out of it. I'm getting really excited!!!!