Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Update on Teaching
I finally got a hold of the teacher that I will be teaching with. We met in our (weird) classroom on Monday night. The classroom is kind of small but it has a great storage closet that we share with the neighboring teacher so that makes up for it. I think I am going to get a long with Debbie really well, although it was a little awkward since it was the first time we had met and there was SO much to discuss. She has a 2 month old baby boy and will be teaching in the afternoons while I teach in the mornings. Because of the school schedule there wasn't much say in what subjects I am going to teach. Get ready for it... Math, Spelling, and Writing! Quite possibly my three weakest subjects! The good news is she wanted to know if I would teach Art once a week and they have a kiln! I also have to teach a very scripted bullying program. But back to the main subjects. The math program they use is called Invisions and looks horribly confusing. There are a bazillion teaching manuals that are very wordy with few examples. Help! The writing tools they have are not as straight forward and easy to follow as Lucy Calkins was, but they also allow for a little more creativity. All I know is that I am really glad I am only teaching part time so I can have the rest of the day to plan/ prep/ and read all these manuals! Next week on the 24th-27th I start my beginning teacher mentor program and then inservice the following week. School starts on September 8 and I am already nervous! I was hoping to feel more confident and that the classroom was mine too, but right now I feel like a sub and that I am just visiting. The upside, my name is already on the mailbox! My goal for the rest of this week is to read over the material Debbie gave me and do some research so that I can go into this feeling a little more prepared!
One year :)
Sunday we celebrated our first year of marriage and it has been quite a year! Erik and I like making celebrations into weekend long events so we started off on Saturday with an interesting trip to Lincoln City (where Erik proposed to me). It was going to be 98 degrees in the valley and so I figured it was the perfect day to take off to the beach. I checked the weather and Lincoln City was going to be 79 and sunny! So off we went in our t-shirts and shorts to hang out and picnic on the beach...
Apparently everyone in the valley had the same idea and traffic was awful in my little unair-conditioned car. After almost two hours we made it to Lincoln City to find a very heavy layer of fog hanging over the town and ocean, not to mention it was FREEZING! We stopped at a little grocery store to buy some food and get a park pass to go hiking. The cashier told us the trail was closed (and they don't sell the passes there anyway). I had a back up plan and decided we would hike Cascade Head, a 4.5 mile round trip 1,200 ft gain with spectacular views.
We ate our picnic in the parking lot of the trail head and then began a very fun steep hike (with no views). The fog was so thick you couldn't see very far, but it still was beautiful. When we got to the top we were sitting in the sunshine above the fog layer looking out at the ocean but all we could see was a thick blanket of fog. We decided we will have to come back and do the hike on a clear day because the views would have been amazing!
When we got home I made us a delicious fondue dinner and we had our wedding cake for dessert. Not the frozen freezer-burnt year old wedding cake, but a fresher version of it I picked up from the Konditorei.
On Sunday we had waffles with strawberries (I had picked earlier this summer) and whipped cream. Yum Yum! Erik made us reservations at Portland City Grill for dinner so we got dressed up and drove to Portland. They had reserved us a table with a great view of the city, we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams. The table was sprinkled with rose petals and heart glitter, then the waiter brought us delicious champagne. It was definitely a once in a life time celebration!
Apparently everyone in the valley had the same idea and traffic was awful in my little unair-conditioned car. After almost two hours we made it to Lincoln City to find a very heavy layer of fog hanging over the town and ocean, not to mention it was FREEZING! We stopped at a little grocery store to buy some food and get a park pass to go hiking. The cashier told us the trail was closed (and they don't sell the passes there anyway). I had a back up plan and decided we would hike Cascade Head, a 4.5 mile round trip 1,200 ft gain with spectacular views.
We ate our picnic in the parking lot of the trail head and then began a very fun steep hike (with no views). The fog was so thick you couldn't see very far, but it still was beautiful. When we got to the top we were sitting in the sunshine above the fog layer looking out at the ocean but all we could see was a thick blanket of fog. We decided we will have to come back and do the hike on a clear day because the views would have been amazing!
When we got home I made us a delicious fondue dinner and we had our wedding cake for dessert. Not the frozen freezer-burnt year old wedding cake, but a fresher version of it I picked up from the Konditorei.
On Sunday we had waffles with strawberries (I had picked earlier this summer) and whipped cream. Yum Yum! Erik made us reservations at Portland City Grill for dinner so we got dressed up and drove to Portland. They had reserved us a table with a great view of the city, we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams. The table was sprinkled with rose petals and heart glitter, then the waiter brought us delicious champagne. It was definitely a once in a life time celebration!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Erik in Alaska
Erik went on a fishing trip to Alaska with some of his coworkers last week. He had a wonderful time and came home with 100 lbs of fish! He also caught some monsters.
These two pictures are hanging on the lodge wall for the trophy fish. I can't remember what type of salmon the first one is, I think it is a Coho and is 15 lbs. The second one is a King Salmon and it is 25 lbs.
I Got a Job!
Well, I got the 4th grade part-time job I interviewed for! I found out on July 22nd but thought I would wait to write about it till I knew more. It is now August 4th and I know just as much as I did to start with, very little. It is a job share position which means I will be teaching mornings and the other teacher will be teaching afternoons. I still don't know what subjects I will be teaching but I should find out any day now.
I was very excited when I found out. It is really hard to get into Salem-Keizer school district and now I have my foot in the door. Unfortunately, the excitement quickly turned into other emotions when it finally dawned on me that this would mean Erik and I would only see each other on weekends. We are trying to think about all the positives instead of the negatives. For example, we can still see/talk to each other through skype, elementary schools have lots of days off and holidays, we can get all of our work done during the week and have weekends completely free, I can go to the gym at whatever time I want and have tofu for dinner :)
I am trying to go back to being excited but I can't help feeling nervous too. I am so used to first graders and fourth graders seem so much older and I have no experience with them! I am looking forward for in-service so that I can meet the other teachers at the school and see what my room looks like. Luckily, I have subbed at the school so I know a little bit about the layout and where things are. I really wish that I had a full time permanent job, but at the same time this is a good way to ease into teaching and it will provide me with great experience to get a permanent job next year. I will be on contract, have an ID badge and finally feel like a real teacher!
The biggest downside is that my contract only goes until March 9, so if the other teacher wants to teach full time I will not get to finish the year out with my kiddos. I am really hoping she will like me and want me to stay to finish the whole year, if not it will be back to subbing. Only time will tell.
I was very excited when I found out. It is really hard to get into Salem-Keizer school district and now I have my foot in the door. Unfortunately, the excitement quickly turned into other emotions when it finally dawned on me that this would mean Erik and I would only see each other on weekends. We are trying to think about all the positives instead of the negatives. For example, we can still see/talk to each other through skype, elementary schools have lots of days off and holidays, we can get all of our work done during the week and have weekends completely free, I can go to the gym at whatever time I want and have tofu for dinner :)
I am trying to go back to being excited but I can't help feeling nervous too. I am so used to first graders and fourth graders seem so much older and I have no experience with them! I am looking forward for in-service so that I can meet the other teachers at the school and see what my room looks like. Luckily, I have subbed at the school so I know a little bit about the layout and where things are. I really wish that I had a full time permanent job, but at the same time this is a good way to ease into teaching and it will provide me with great experience to get a permanent job next year. I will be on contract, have an ID badge and finally feel like a real teacher!
The biggest downside is that my contract only goes until March 9, so if the other teacher wants to teach full time I will not get to finish the year out with my kiddos. I am really hoping she will like me and want me to stay to finish the whole year, if not it will be back to subbing. Only time will tell.
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