Last night was dark and the stars were bright. I felt like I could reach out and grab one or two. That is the major upside to living in the boonies. There is no light pollution and the stargazing opportunities are spectacular.
Housing: well here is the good and the bad news. For now I get to stay where I am and and not move into a dump that the Landlord proclaimed was "CLEAN" I guess clean means spiders, bugs, cobwebs, and who knows what imbedded in the carpet. So as long as my current landlords do not lease the Saloon out to someone I am staying. Hopefully this will carry me through the school year. If I intend to stay next year... well I think I will cross that bridge when I get to it.
I've been working in my room a lot the past few days getting it organized and everything in its place. I am at war with the computers which are phenomenally old and sllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww. They did get a new computer for each of us teachers but.... we have to wait upon the computer dude to make us a priority and set them up. I can't even look at the box. It is torture because I KNOW I CAN set up a computer. Policies and procedures... blah blah blah .... must be followed! Siggh. We often are playing the waiting game hoping that when our maintenance guys, computer dude, come down to see us we get done what we need done. I don't even have a school email and can't login to a computer under my name. So I have to use someone elses login but I can't print under their user name. I also can only login to one computer. That stuff just goes on and on. I am trying to be patient because the Computer dude is new. I think he is playing a lot of catch-up.
Sitting at my computer the other day while waiting for something to load, I looked out the window in front of me. There sat a jack-rabbit not even 3 feet away. That was kind of fun. I'd much rather gaze out upon that view of sagebrush, and jack-rabbits, than parking lots, and cars.
Things get kind of interesting at school, after dark, by yourself. I am not the type to get spooked very easily. (unless you come around a corner when I am not expecting you ha ha). Okay no really, I guess with all the house-sitting I've done and living other places... I just don't get spooked. Buildings make noises at night. So while cutting out a gazillion things to be laminated I decided to watch a "who-done-it" mystery program on my Smart Board. Maybe not the best Idea in a big building by oneself, without Brit or Carmen (the best of dogs those two) to alert me to possible intruders.I hear rattling..pause... more rattling...it goes on and on. I think well possibly it is a pack-rat. I guess not too long ago our secretary had to kill one that had moved into the building. (She is a woman of many talents). I kept hearing the rattling but refused to give into my fears and go check it out. I moved into the hallway then listening to my "who-done-it" more than watching it. I was hanging paper on a bulletin board when the back door handle is jiggled and someone knocks. My head pops up, heart skips a beat, I probably turned a whiter shade of pale, and......... it was one of our local sheriffs checking the building they make sure every door is locked. They do this every night I believe. Anyhow, so I met him and we had a nice chat. I didn't even wet my pants... just had a heart palpitation or five.
My neighbors are saloons. While I live over a saloon it is quiet because it is not in use right now. On each side of me, and across the street are more... saloons. So this can get a bit interesting coming home in the evening. I have very thick walls... so I rarely hear them. However, I do get invited for a drink quite often by interesting characters. Interesting might be too kind of a word. Oh well. When you live over a saloon and next to saloons... you're very glad to have a steep flight of stairs that the sloshed folks couldn't make their way up without personal injury.
Last week I was lucky to go visit a cousin at a Lake a few hours away. It was really nice to get to see her, water, and tall trees. Really a cabin on a lake up in the mountains, I'm not sure it gets better than that. It was the perfect little break before going back to reality. I am very grateful I was invited and had a little time away.
Tomorrow is my last personal "prep" day. Wednesday we start with trainings then drive north Thursday morning for trainings the rest of the week. I am trying to decide if I have enough groceries for the first week of school, or if I need to drive to town this weekend. There was a few things I did not have room for the last trip. Speaking of that. Anyone know of a fantastic, amazing, spectacular, cooler?? I am going to make a serious investment in one. It will make those trips to Costco or the grocery store much more beneficial.
I have been to two of the grocery stores in the town 2 hours away. The selection wasn't fabulous. However, they did have green Kleenex. WHY???? I didn't even know they made colored Kleenex anymore. I didn't even realize that it was colored Kleenex till I brought it home and opened it. Yeah... I am taking that to school. The kids will probably love blowing their boogers into green Kleenex. You didn't want that mental image did you?
Okay well last but not least on the latest and greatest is......
I now have 19 students. YIKES!!! 19!!! This is good for the school... for me it is a bit more stressful. I started with 11 students... so this will be interesting. My co-teacher has 6 but she is going to take my 4th graders for Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies... at least some of the time. We are working that out still. Oh yeah... forgot to tell you. I ran out of student desks. Imagine running out of desks! They are hopefully bringing us some from our district headquarters.
Well, I'd better get off to bed. My Cricut (die-cutting machine) has been getting a work-out. Luckily last trip to WallyWorld they had some cartridges on sale for 20$! Oh one more thing. My co-teacher spent some time with a Teaching Coach from another district. She helped us with pacing.. and many other things. She also gave us a great idea. I have thought of doing this but not quite in this way. So what we are doing is a Focus Wall. On the focus wall, we have Language Arts and Math, the standard we are teaching, and the objective for the lesson. (other subjects will be integrated under those headings). So the students will know... this is what we are learning about to day. A parent, administrator, anyone can walk into the classroom and know what we are working on immediately. It will help me to maintain the objective of what I want the students to be learning as well. I think It is a great idea. After we have it up and running I will try to take a photo... maybe I am the only goof who finds that interesting though :).
I said "last but not least" a couple of paragraphs ago. Hmmmm... I think that means I am rambling... off to sleep.
Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment