What I Did on My Winter Vacation

Well, let's see - snow, video games, shopping...yeah, that about sums it up :)

So I've posted all the details of the snowy trip to DFW. Well, upon return, I had Christmas with my Dad and Cheryl. Then I got to meet Erin at the Galleria for a shopping spree, courtesy of my $$ and gift cards from Christmas. I was blessed to find LOTS of clothes for work and new makeup (since the Prescriptives makeup line is closing down). And I had sooooooo much fun catching up with Erin.

Then I got to go to lunch and shopping with my sister. I can't remember the last time we did that, and we had a blast!

I've been getting ready for starting work/school on Monday, too. I'm getting so nervous, but a good kind of nervous. It's crazy to think that I can get paid to make a difference in someone's life. I'm so blessed to have been called into this profession. I just hope I can be what the kids need.

The rest of the time was wasted away doing laundry and playing Animal Crossing on the Wii. The GOOD news is I finally caught the elusive scorpion on the game after what felt like hundreds of stings by the darn things. I caught all the fish and the bugs in the game - so I have officially obtained the golden fishing rod and golden net. Quite a feet considering the craziness faced chasing the scorpion.

White Christmas 2009

Who would have ever thought a SE Texas girl would experience a white Christmas without having to leave the state in search of it? And not just an "Oh look, the angels have dandruff" kind of snow, but actual flakes which look like the traditional snowflakes we draw and cut out of paper for crafts - without having to be put under a microscope before they melt! Mansfield (south of DFW) received about 2 inches of snow Christmas Eve, which stayed on the ground through Christmas day and into the following day when we were loading the car to drive home. The roads and driveways became dangerous and icy on Christmas Eve and many churches and other organizations had to cancel late night Christmas Eve festivities to avoid endangering the congregations and staff because the roads did get so dangerous. I couldn't even take the dog out to potty (not that she would potty in the snow - she kept looking for grass) because the driveway and porches were so icy! Talk about an unexpected Christmas adventure slash fiasco! We had a snowball fight, built small snowmen, and reveled in the abnormal Texas weather while drinking hot cider and sitting by the fire. We pondered the thought of sitting in the hot tub while watching it snow, but (it being December and all) none of us thought to pack our swimsuits.

Mom's family all gathered in Mansfield at my aunt and uncle's home, we had a wonderful holiday. This was the first year that we'd drawn names so each person only had to buy one gift (since money is tight for all of us - and all the kids are finally 'grown'). It was a very memorable and enjoyable holiday.

My cousins, Kris and Angella, and I spent Christmas evening playing "Rabbids Go Home" on his Wii - highly recommended game. If you've played any of the Rabbids games, this one will not disappoint. It's as hilarious and annoying as the other two games, and we had a blast!

I Got My Christmas Wish!!

Most of you, by now, have heard that I am officially employed...or will be, come January 4 when I report to my new campus :) I'll be teaching Content Mastery at Dick Dowling Elementary in Port Arthur. I went to the campus today to see if I could get an idea of the school layout, etc. and ended up eating lunch with the staff...they are great! I felt perfectly at home and am really excited about next semester.

I visited Highland today too, where I did my student teaching. One of my angels got me a gorgeous Christmas gift! They were all so excited to see me - if I hadn't practice holding in my emotions over the past year, I would have definitely cried.

Anyway, these past few weeks have been quite exciting for me. I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping and am looking forward to the new year, while enjoying these next two weeks without worrying about a job! What a blessing indeed. God opened so many doors this year; it's unreal! Some of them felt like He'd slammed them in my face, but it was just me trying to go through the wrong ones. I've definitely learned to sit back and keep my eyes open rather than barrelling ahead and making my own decisions. It's really amazing how the path becomes so clear with faith.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!

Miracle on South 6th Street

It's official!! With mixed emotions and snow-expectant, hyped-up students, I ended my student teaching experience and have moved into the realm of highly-qualified, state-approved Texas educators. My generalist certification is still pending because I had to apply for a "Certification by Examination," but that should be available by Monday. However, the Special Education certification is a done deal. I will desperately miss my kiddos, especially my sign language buddy. It feels like the twelve weeks flew by; it's hard to image that most likely the next classroom I enter will be my own. There is one opening in a neighboring district that I will be applying for which is an elementary special education classroom. Wish me luck!

To top off the monumental transitional day for me, I drove home during a light dusting of southeast Texas-type snow flakes...the kind that look like some of heaven's angels have a bad case of dandruff. It did thicken up over the next few hours, but we received nothing compared to what the Houston area received, or remotely like what we received last December 11, but the spectacle was fun, and I was glad the kids did get to see it snow - I just hope they weren't too disappointed since it didn't compare to last years freaky natural occurrence. However, the ground was frosted this morning when I woke up. I drank my coffee while watching the sun slowly melt the frost off the roof and on the ground and watched a few disappointed birds alight on our bird bath, which was a solid frozen bird-sized ice skating rink.

I can also proudly report that I convinced my mother to let me put up a Christmas tree this year. It took most of the day, due to the fact that Mom's artificial tree had quite a few broken lights due to the rough transport back and forth to the storage building over the years. However, I successfully got all but a small section of the pre-lit tree burning brightly; I just turned the few branches that didn't light to the wall so no one would see them. I single handedly decorated the tree, though I believe my mom stayed away, not because she didn't want the tree or was tired - more likely because my anality and meticulous placing of the ornaments makes it hard for me to play nicely when it comes to decorating. Once we get the rest of the holiday decor up, I'll post some pictures of the tree. I sustained only a few minor scratches and scrapes from the branches and broken bulbs during the process. Probably the fewest injuries I've sustained in a holiday decorating endeavor, though the decorating isn't complete yet.

Well, I suppose I should finish my decorating break here and get back to it...ciao!

Happy Halloween!

I carved my first jack-o-lantern this week. I've observed the process numerous time throughout my life, but, until this week, had never personally wielded the knife to maim a gourd. Alas, my innocence ended on Thursday as we had a 'non-party' pumpkin carving lesson, and let the children help scoop the pulp, vote on the expression that our pumpkin should have, and vote on the shapes of the facial orifices. They had a blast! And I did, too - probably the most fun I've had teaching. So many moments become teachable moments; a simple pumpkin carving can be morphed into sequencing, sharing and turn taking, learning new words, making choices - the possibilities are simply endless.

It's hard to imagine I have only a month left in the student teaching process. I will most likely be substitute teaching as it appears there are no reputable districts in the area with openings. It's still a paycheck even if I will still lack the health insurance I miss so much. I've had to start preparing the students for my departure, which has been tough on all of us, but I've insisted that it's very likely that I'll see them again since I'll be substituting in the district.

Anyway, everyone, have a safe and wonderful Halloween! It's a bit embarrassing to admit this is probably my favorite non-Christian holiday. I love the festivities which accompany the "spooky" season. It's too much fun to decorate pumpkins, make spider webs, and tell 'semi-scary' stories with a flashlight and the lights turned off. (And during the pumpkin carving, it was pouring outside.)

Happy Halloween! MWUAHAHAHAHA!

The Elmer's Glue Webs

Here are a few pics of the webs we made in handwriting out of Elmer's glue and wax paper. The kids are sooo proud of them, and I think I've given the instructions and lesson plans out to EVERY teacher on the K/1/2 wing of the school. Of course, our class is right on the end of the wing, so all the kids have to walk by our class to go to music and PE - so we get "oohs" and "aahhs" when they walk by. Unfortunately due to the fact that I was instructing and because of potential liability issues, I don't have any pics of us making them.

Why We Have Zippers and Other Fun Things...

So far all assessments and evaluations have gone fabulous. People around campus keep telling me how much they are going to miss having me around when December creeps upon us, which is definitely a nice feeling.

Today was especially fabulous. I created a lesson plan for cursive handwriting with a focus on the letter 'w'. The 'under curve' seems to be difficult for our children, and since most of our lowercase cursive letters are constructed using the under curve, I decided to work on a letter that has three of them (if you count the optional initial stroke, which isn't taught everywhere).

So today's handwriting lesson was "Wonderfully Wacky Woven Web Wednesday." Some of you probably saw on my facebook status that I was practicing and creating a model this weekend for the children to see as they created their webs. We started with wax paper and Elmer's glue and made cursive lowercase Ws all over the wax paper. Then I asked the students to draw lines to make the Ws connect - straight, curvy, etc. to make the shape of a spider's web. We followed up the web creation with iridescent glitter and then stuck little black cardstock spiders in our webs and put them in the window sill to let them dry. The idea is, once dry, the webs, which dry clear, can be peeled off the wax paper and will have a sparkly almost glow-in-the-dark feel and be a bit rubbery. We'll hang them up for Halloween decor along with the sign the kids made to go with them, written in cursive, which say "Wonderful Wacky Woven Webs". The kids listened well and worked so hard on their webs - and they had a lot of fun. The webs came out really cute, and tomorrow I'm letting them add some eyes or a red hourglass to their spiders in glitter before we hang everything up. I have to toot my own horn a bit and say it was one of my most creatively thought up lessons thus far. I was ecstatic that the kids loved the activity. I'll take some pictures tomorrow once the webs are dry. I can't post the ones with the kids, but I'll get some of just the webs alone. I'm very proud of my munchkins!

I also got to work with our sign language student again today - he is learning so quickly, he'll pass my ASL abilities up in no time. He's doing his spelling words now by sign (seeing the sign, hearing the word, then using fridge magnets to spell the word). We're trying to get him to make the signs himself, but his agility isn't quite there. He's certainly trying though.

This evenings top story; however,is that I have finally learned the purpose of the zipper, as of today. Our speech path intern and I really get along and talk a lot during our lunchtime. He told me this great story he wanted to share. He had a student with three items pictured on cards in front of him, with the objective of the lesson being to identify the commonality among the items pictured. He had a zipper, a button, and a snap on the pictures in front of him - the commonality being 'fasteners on clothing.' The student was mulling it over in his head and was quite puzzled so the SLP asked him to tell out loud what he was thinking in his head so the SLP could help. The student replied, "Well, I know the button is, like, for a button-up shirt. This [snap] thing is on top of jeans. And the zipper is on your pants so you can put 'it' in and pull 'it' out...." I should mention the student has four brothers :) So in case you ever want to know why we have zippers on our clothing....just ask our kids!!!