A good weekend

It was a good weekend. I did nothing really... but it was good.
I got a new couch. For those of you that don't know, I sat on my couch about three weeks ago and broke it. That's right..the couch that is less than six months old broke on me! The framing on the bottom of the couch broke. I called the company... after weeks of trying I finally got a new couch this weekend. AND because there was no saving the other one to resale it, they left the other one. So now I have two couches! It will be great when I have other people in my apt!

The other half of my weekend was productive. I got up on Sunday, went shopping for food, did laundry, tried to bake cookies (they burnt) and then made a very good batch of strognoff (sp?!) It was all in all a good weekend.

Now all I have to do is make it though the week... I have next week off and Karen will be here!!! I am SUPER excited!

Finding a ballance

As I sat with my mentor today, I am thinking ahead towards next year. The kids this year are driving me insane and so we were talkinga bout what to do. I am hoping that next year I can grow and do a better job, as it should be.

Things I am thinking about tend to center around the begining of the year. I need to

• get a grip on rules at the begining of year. rules need to include policies around computers, checking computers at the end of class, raising hands, getting my attention, plugging in computers
• also when it comes to behavior. calling home. i need to start early calling home for good and bad behavior.
• the using of a projector needs to happen early so they can get used to it
• the use of assignment sheets needs to be used early so that they can get the hang of it. start easy. a couple of steps then work up to it.
• go through the stuff i have this year and pull out good and bad stuffs. start with typing, then go with projects.

These are just some of the things that I need to do next year. Keep watch of more things to come.

an exciting project

After my kids finish their current project... newspapers, we are going to embark on movies. The kids are going to have a choice of two different projects. They may either choose to do a movie including pictures from the school (taken my yours truly) or they can use the ducky pictures that I am going to demonstrate with.
This weekend I am going to go on an adventure. As a tourist I have been a lot of places. I remember what it was like to see each for the first time and I want to convey that in video. But I really cannot take pictures of myself by myself in the city, so I have come up with a plan. It is going to be, A Day In The City with Ducky. Ducky will be getting on the subway... heading into town, getting on and off the subway, doing all the stairs and seeing the sites. Ducky is lucky because he will have me to document his journey. Then, after returning home with these documented pictures, I will be putting these pictures into a video. The cool thing that I can do is to narrioate what Ducky is doing then present the video to the kids. I am super excited about this project. It should be way fun. Hopefully I can get a large part of it done on Friday and the rest done on Saturday. Then I can spend the majority of Sunday putting the vidoe together. This is going to be super fun I hope. Ducky will get dirty, like every other NYC tourist, but we are super excited. Leave me a note if you would like to see Ducky's adventures. Maybe I will finally figure out YouTube and post it there and here. We shall see.

a great day

Sundays are usually a day of rest, or at least laundry. But this Sunday was SO awesome. Yesterday it was like 45 in the city and sunny. So, on a wim, I headed into the city. By myself.. that's it... just me. Walking around the city for like three hours.. enjoying the warm air that had just a nip of cold, the people..so many people enjoying the same, walking past fashion week, and getting a great deal on a fabulous new red top. It was a great Sunday. (ps. Go Giants! so sad I can't go to parade tomorrow..stupid people should wait till the weekend so morepeople can go!)

ah good movie

Last night I went to a free movie showing. It was for the new movie Forgetting Sara Marshal. The movie doesnt actually come out for another couple of months so it was a rough cut but the movie was REALLY good. Coming from the director (or producer i dont remember) of Knocked Up and Superbad, it was super funny and entertaining. I really want to go see the final theater cut so I can see what they took out and what they fixed but it was super funny. That's all I can really say bc I am swarn to secrecy..or I signed the weiver..

100th Post with some exciting news

So.. my friend REALLY wanted to get the new Mel Brooks cd of Young Frankinstein and we found out that he was signing them at Barn's and Noble on Tuesday in the city right... WELL!! Let me tell you.

After TWO hours of waiting in line we got down to two people in front of us. TWO!!! And they said he would not be doing any more signing. The people in front of us were very not happy. One was a bonified signature hounder and the other had worked on the opening production in Seattle this spring. Needless to say they were very upset and wanted to stay. So we stayed! After about 20 minutes they said 20 more people! BUT YOU MUST HAVE A CD! Crap. I didn't have a cd... so I let my friend go in to say hi and get a pict with my camera. O well right? Wrong.

The signature hound in front of us talked my friend into walking around the building to find the exit so we could meet him. At the back end of the building was the service entrance. Thats where he was gunna come out. WE knew it. After about another 15 minutes the big garage door opened and out poped MEL BROOKS! He stoped to sign the other guys stuff and then asked if I had anything to sign. I said no, he cracked a joke of can he read my book, shook my hand and he was off. Into his car and gone. Freaking cool! I shook his hand.

This is what NYC is all about!

Dang..gotta see movie

When the movie Spelling Bee came out I thought I would not need to see it. It seemed like a movie that I did not want to see. As it turns out.. I watched some of it with my fourth graders today and I NEED to see the rest of it.

They had watched the begining of it before I showed up and it was not over at the end of the period. I am going nutz to see how it ends!

And now I have some funny fifth graders trying to read my blog! They seem to think that it is funny to read over my shoulder when I am typing, though it seems very distracting!

Been a while

I know it's been a while.. for those loyal readers...I am sorry. Its been busy getting back to school and the swing of things.

School is...fine... kids are nutz and driving (or pushing) me in the same direction. It is state testing time here in the great state of NY so the kids are a little off. When you spend an hour to an hour and a half taking a test in the morning, computer time is not a time you want to sit and be quiet...even for five minutes apparently. I don't remember state tests being this guarded in Oregon last year, especially since they were on computers and we all took them at different times. These tests are almost as guarded as the tests I took on college to become a teacher. Its crazy... gotta love high stakes testing.

As for the home front... Eric got an internship! It is a three month internship in Seattle, WA. The company pushed it from 20 to 40 hours a week so he can actually afford to live in Seattle... if he doesn't find someone to crash with. It is a very exciting time bc this is all he needs to actually propel him into a career in marketing. The company (no idea of the name) is a SMALL company, with about 10 employees and services as a type of consulting firm (I think) and they said any interns that they have not directly hired have gone on to get jobs with their clients. So that's promising. As for actually living in Seattle... we shall see if he likes it.

Nothing else really major happening in the Annie world. I should probably get to work on some stuff for next week. Have a great day.

Ah a new year...

A new started out right... back to work on the second. Wait..that's not right.. damn them people who think we have recovered by day two of the year.

It has been a good year so far. I spent the last nine of '07 standing in Times Square NYC to see the HUGE ball drop its 77 feet to ring in the new year. After watching myself on the jumbo screen a billion times (the camera guy was stationed at our section) and walking about 25 blocks I made it home safely in about 2 hours. Not bad considering what it would have been if I had tried to get into the Times Square subway station. Suprisingly I had a seat by the second stop and slept a little once I was in the Bronx.

After sleeping away most of yesterday, sadly, it is time to return to work and make sure I have stuff for the little ones to do today during class.

24 hours....

In 24 hours I will be on a plane to come home! WooHOO! Im a little excited. It is a combination of being away for so long and needing a break from the city. I love the city..don't get me wrong, but it will be nice to go up to the cabin and enjoy the clean air and no traffic. I am sad that I have to leave the Suz home for a week by herself, but my manager is going to come check on her each day.

The issue now is... cleaning. I have to clean.. pack... and everything else that comes with leaving for a week. Dishes... clothes... Christmas light (so Suz doesn't eat them!).. all that fun stuffs. Along with being up at 245 tomorrow so I can put my clothes on (if I dont wear them to bed!!) and walk out the door to the train. Then ride the train and the buss the hour and a half to the airport. Find the right terminal and get the heack out of here!

23 hours adn about 20 minutes and counting. All I gotta do is make it through the next 6 hours and Im home free! Wish me luck!

Long time no see

So I know it's been a while.. to those of you who are loyal readers I am sorry. Ok.. I probably dont have any loyal readers but hey. I can hope right?

So ... NYC in a nutshell the last week. COLD! On Thursday we had snow. It didnt melt on Friday or Saturday for that matter. But.. by the end of Saturday at least you could walk on the side walks. WAIT! Another winter blast called a NorEaster hit us on Saturday night. That's right folks. Smacked us upside the head. Ice.. Snow... and lots of it. Now while it wasnt that deep... its still here. Thats right.. Sunday morning to Wednesday morning there is still crud all over the ground. It is still slippery to get to the curb from the street and sidewalks where there are no businesses still have ice on them. That is because the snow/ice had melted.. then froze again. Doesnt all this sound like fun!?! Today we are supposed to get up to the 40's so hopefully the little stuff will finally get off the streets. The big stuff will still be here for a while.

On the Christmas front, I am super excited to come home for a week. It will be so great to see my friends and family. Though it's going to be a busy week..if you want precious Annie time, let me know and we shall see what we can do! My plane leaves here at 7 am on Saturday arriving in Ptown on Sat at like 1pm. I cant wait. Hope to see you all next week!

Well winter is here

That's right folks. Winter is here in the big city. It has been snowing and icing all day. There wass about 2 inches of ice when I came home about a half hour ago. Now.. who knows. Its still going out there. In true Oregon fasion I am going to run inside and hide from the scarry weather.

Frustrating days

So. My question to all the teachers out there. How do you get 25 kindergartners to sit still when you only see them once a week for 45 minutes? Between the kids who are doing cartwheels on the carpet to those who are jumping off tables, it makes me quesiton my idea to move here sometimes. Mainly Wednesdays when I have three kinder classes in a row.

I am trying to assume that they wouldn't be that way if I was their regular teacher and some authority.... I am hoping that if I was a regular teacher. That is part of the reason that I want my own classroom. But at the same time, my job would be amazing if the students respected me. It would be so fun if the students sat down and acutally listened once and a while. We shall see...

if you are going to fight do it right

Well. Two of my girls yesterday definitely decided to make this their motto. The girls got in a fight in my room yesterday. It was a knock down drag out... two hands full of each others hair. It was great. Once they finally got pulled off each other one took off with four other kids to the stairwell and the other one disappeared off the other way down the hall. After calling security, I got back to my class. When the phone rang I assumed it was security.
Nope. It was a teacher up on the fourth floor (one floor up). The girls had continued their fight on the next floor up. One of the girls threw a book at the other one and hit an innocent bystander in the process. Gotta love it.

If you are going to fight... do it right.

Gotta Love New York in all of it's glory

Today I experienced another one of New York City's amazing things. Guy with piss on subway. What the exact sitation was I am not sure. But as the train approached one car was full and the next was empty... always head towards the empty car so I can get a seat. WELL! As you walked onto the car you could smell it. It was horrible. Now sure if it was the guy in the middle of the car (because the only people on the car were at the ends besides this guy) or if it was the liquid on the floor but it was bad. It was so bad that I decided there was no way I was going to make it the four stops to 180th where I could transfer to the 5 train. I had to get out of this car. AT the next stop, the other three guys at my end of the car and I opened the door and went into the otehr car.

Gotta love it. But the rest of the day was spent shopping for Christmas. So far... mom, russell, eric, karen, lili and Jessica are done.

Ah the big city life...

Chasing a rooster around in front of the building before school. That's big city life for you. Wait.. rooster... o right... local killing factory about a block from school. Gotta love big city life.

Always squeeze from the bottom up..

A wise woman once said.. you should always follow the directions on the back of a tube of tooth paste... For best results, squeeze from the bottom up.

This week I was watching Oprah (don't judge) and they were talking about the book "Eat, Pray, Love." One of the underlying themes (Im assuming of the book) is to take life by the horns, which is the same theme as squeezing from the bottom up. It got me thinking...

I really want to travel this summer. I will have just finished my first year as a teacher... should have money from a grant.. and have a passion to travel. I want to combine the treat of surviving my first year in NYC along with the money I am getting and my urge to travel. Looking at prices of traveling to such places at Europe and the Caribbean it seems that you have to be rich to travel... or at least plan more than a year in advance.

But, in thinking about these two concepts together it seems that I need to find a happy medium. To me... one idea jumped out. A while ago I heard of the newest trend in vacations... Volunteer vacations. One of these organizations is i-to-i. They take your money... and help you volunteer half way around the world. I took theirplacement test thingee and it said I should look into going to Kenya to work in a school of course. How cool would that be? Travel to Kenya and spend two weeks teaching English.

Travel to another country and help others. Im ok with that. Look for updates.. who knows. Annie.... July... Kenya?

Cold in the city!

It is freaking cold in the city today. Though snow seems to not be so much fun if it doesnt freak out the kids. It snowed for an hour today and the kids went about their day. Though it was nice to be able to teach...not so fun for snow. O well...

Off to pretend I have stuff to do.

Two different feelings

Today was an interesting day. Good and bad.

Today was the first time I was totally comfortable in a kinder classroom. I go there early, set up the computers and was ready to go when the kids came in. The kids were active but not really fightening. They were sharing and playing the entire time. It was heaven. I didn't think a class could go that good.

Then... I walked into fifth grade. Those kids were insane today. I guess it was not any more than normal but meh. Its furstrating to go from such a good feeling to a headache in a half hour flat~ O well.

I think I am going to let the kids choose their projects for after christmas. Ill let you in on some of my ideas here in the near future but we shall see.

A long weekend

It was a good weekend.

The Ducks lost, but fought a good fight losing in the second overtime. Yes it was the civil war.. no I do not like my ducks to lose at home for the civil war, but they did put up a good fight considering the last two games we have played. Losing most of our starting line up and our start and back up qbs didn't help our fight but the fans back home helped the ducks to not get trampled. So all in all..not horrible.

The first snow of the season. That's right folks. I got my first NYC snow. Ok.. it was all that spectacular.. it was like 3/4 inch but that's better than the stuff that doesn't stick in Oregon. I will post a picture soon, I have to email it from my phone to my email. And because of the snow I decided that shopping when it was like 25 and snowing I got nothing done yesterday. That's right. Nothing. While I really only have two weekends left to shop I decided to stay home. I really need to get on this whole shopping thing!!! I have not gotten a single thing. O well. It happens.

Stay tuned to hear about my shopping adventures in the big city.