A New Adventure

Well, I've decided not to continue teaching at TCP for the Spring semester. Yes, I loved my kids. But I realized that I don't really want to be a teacher. Not REALLY.

My dad offered me a full-time position making more than what I made teaching AND the flexibility to do Pre-Paid Legal.

I'm going to miss the kids, but I think this is the best move for me at the moment. My last day will be Thursday. I might consider teaching again sometime, but maybe teaching at the college level. We'll see. For now, the next big adventure.

TAX SEASON!

Spanish Dancing

My Spanish II class studies Spain for their cultural project. I've been needing a break (and so have they!) from bookwork, so I approached Mrs. Q, the dance teacher at TCP to find out if she new flamenco and sevillanas dances. She did (or learned them!) so for the past two weeks, my Spanish II class has been dancing with her dance class!

It's been a lot of fun to do something different; not do book work, and learn something completely new. Even I dance most days.

Here they are dancing in PARTNERS.

Faces have been smudged and blurred to protect the guilty.

Spanish I Worksheets

So, I've decided that my first semester cultural project for Spanish 1 is a bust. Frankly, they don't like it and neither do I. So, I'm cutting it out. TODAY. I was going to let them do their presentations, but I couldn't figure out WHY that was a good idea. I mean, then I have to grade it! I think I'll just cut journals 7, 8, and 9 totally. If they turned 7 and 8 (and 9?) in on time, I'll add 10% to the grades for 4, 5, and 6.

We're starting chapter 3 today. Which includes clothing.

Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to find non-smutty pictures of underwear and panty hose? Geez! I ended up with this photo for panty hose. Which I think look like deflated legs.
And this one for "underwear." Don't even get me STARTED on trying to find ladies' undies!


I hope the worksheet is a success. It SHOULD be, we've done this type of thing before. I'm printing it at MDI and we're not going to double side it so they can cut it apart later for flashcards.

Underworld Myths

We're studying the Underworld in my Latin class. The myth (and they HAD to accept it!) was to write a myth about the Underworld. As part of the assignment, they also had to PRESENT the myth. This is one of my students presenting her myth.


Another shot of the underworld. The girl in the black toga belongs to this myth. The other is helping (she provided the Dinos)

And the REASON the red-head is in a black toga? She was an "actor" in yet another myth and the math teacher stapled the toga onto her and she couldn't get it off!




Why no faces? (I know, it takes a lot away) Because these aren't my kids and I don't want to blast their photos all over the Internet but the MYTH was worth sharing.

In fact, we're thinking of a way that we can collect everyone's myths and publish them into a book at the end of the semester. It would be a full myth cycle of the 17-odd students in my class. If they don't want to be published, I'd let them off the hook, I'm thinking.

Blog Updates

Okay, so I was VERY bad in posting during October. However, being the sneaky person that I am, I'm actually retroactively updating my blog. So, keep an eye on it to see what I was up to in October!

And, yes, I did delete a post from Monday. A student from TCP was killed and I had posted about it. Afterwards, I decided that I didn't really want to post about it. It's sad, it's private, and after getting a very kind comment, I realized that I didn't really think it was appropriate to talk about it.

It's rough, but I'm dealing with it.

Boo Grams

My Foreign Language club has been selling "boo grams" all week. For $1 you sent a paper ghosty (with a message) and a baggie of candy to your friend. We delivered them today in my 3rd hour class (Latin) and we wrote this ditty:

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Chocolate, gum, yummy sweets;
Here is some candy for tricks and treats!

Yeah, I know that part of it is from Shakespeare, but the erst is original. It was a HUGE hit and we made about $90. We're doing really well, I think for a first-year club.

TCP Foreign Language Club

Well, we're working on our first fund raiser for the club. This was at the TCP open house on Tuesday, Sept 23. Yeah, that was my birthday. This is one of the club officers trying to interest another student in a raffle ticket.

I decided against posting this photo where you can see her face. I figure I didn't really ASK if I could post it...

That night, we made $43. I thought that was a-okay considering that we don't have anything "pretty" to raffle.

We've got so far:
7 oil changes
2 gas cards
a pair of binoculars

And, we've got plans to keep adding "stuff" to the raffle. It's our first fund raiser as a club; we're a brand new club! We've got some big goals so it should be really good.

Happy Birthday!

To ME!

It was a great birthday but I'm too tired to talk about it now.

I just got back from the TCP open house and it was a big success. Now, I am running some programming stuff for Jaggy and then going home. I can't wait until this membersite stuff is all cleared up and open!









In other news:

They were supposed to have painted my house today, but I haven't been by to see it.

Vynil

So, we swung by my house today after everything and BEFORE Alvin and I went to the fair. Here's a pile of doors just waiting to be hung.

And, obviously, somebody came by to tell where each type of flooring should go. Yeah, this was written in my guest bathroom: vynil. You can tell that he TRIED several times. Who knew that viny NO vyn- NO that VYNIL could be so hard to spell!

And here's TILE for the entry way. Oh I hope that whoever writes these is not who installs them!

Oh yes, Happy International Talk-Like-A-Pirate day! I had a "pirate lunch" put on by the TCP rowing team. $4 for all you can eat. yum!

Wrote a Latin Exam

Okay, yeah. My Latin correspondence course didn't offer any chapter exams; just a mid-term and final. So, that means I have to write them myself. My students are so lucky!

Actually, I think they're pretty fair and I'm getting better at hitting 100 points. Tomorrow, they take Chapter 2 exam. Wish them luck!

Of course, the kids at TCP are absolutely brilliant. They don't always think so but I see it in them.

First Day of School

Today was my first day of the three-week pre-session at TCP. Oh boy!

The way the pre-session works is that each student takes the same SUBJECT for 5 periods a day for 11 days. At the end, they get 1 semester's credit. The teachers rotate in and out so one person doesn't end up teaching the entire course.

I'm teaching US History for the first two class periods. NOT really my forte. I think it went okay considering they told me I'd have 18 kids and I ended up with 23. Granted, I not only got 23, but I also am getting Ashley to TA my class. THAT was a nice surprise!

Then, for periods 3 & 4 I teach Econ. That's right up my alley with all my practical experience with EatStayPlay.com. Of course, their first two periods are very heavy lecture. Luckily for them, Cody, the regular Econ teacher is passionate about Econ so even trying to cram in 21 chapters shouldn't be too dry.

I'm not sure how it all went, at the end of the day. I was very tired going into teaching today since I'm just not getting enough sleep with everything that I'm trying to get done. I think tomorrow will be a lot better as we're all better prepared and know what to expect.