All Uphill From Here

Just a quick update: My To do List is slowly but surely getting ticked down and I’m almost ready for the first day!! Today was our first of 2 inservice days. I also was able to finish calling one class of parents today and plan to start on class 2 of 4 tomorrow. I hope to have contacted them all by the end of the 2nd week of school. A colleague and I planned the first week today (well the first 2.5 days I guess) and now that we are planning for 50-minute periods instead of 90-minute ones it goes much more quickly! I also made my staples run (on teacher appreciation day…picked up a free flash drive too! Thanks Staples!) and am stocked up on folders, pens, and pencils for another year. Tomorrow is more meetings, and then time to finish setting things up for Wednesday, our first shortened day with Freshmen only. Things will be busy around here so posting may be intermittent as I re-acclimate to the stress of full-time teaching, but, hang in there and I’m sure I’ll be back with amusing stories about school and teaching! Here is my to-do list as of this afternoon:

Welp, I am down to the last days of summer. Also known as the first days of school (in a week anyhow).

My mental state? It varies–moves from totally excited and stoked to anxious and about to throw up–about 20 times per hour! I think this is normal, but I guess I’m not sure since it’s only my second year in the profession.

I thought I would spend some time every day in my classroom from Aug. 1 onward, but, once I went in I realized it was raising my stress level and not actually leading to better preparation for the beginning of the year, so I decided not to do that. Instead I’ve gone in one or two times for a couple of hours each to get my physical layout going, laminate and put up some posters, and begin to re-do my bulletin boards. Today I re-visited my syllabus from last year’s course which I will be teaching again and then used it as a template to help create my new, Novice-level syllabus.

Now I have a week of vacation left and so far I feel pretty good. I think lists are nice, linear ways of listing what needs to get done, so here is my “to-do” list before the start of the year:

• Decorate Bulletin Board
• Go to Staples for some school supplies (which I will purchase with the $50 gift card one of last-year’s parents’ gave me! So generous!)
• Come up with a good ice breaker for the first, freshmen-only, shortened class period (10 min.)
• Make copies of syllabus, rules, and parent letter
• Plan the first week of class
• Start to call and/or e-mail parents (5/day until all have been contacted)

Justin drew my attention to the following Obama-bashing McCain ad today, and I had to share because the faux ad that follows may possibly contain the most eloquent speech ever to issue from Paris Hilton’s mouth.

First, here’s the original ad that McCain’s campaign released.

Point? I was distracted by Paris and Brittney but then again I did see these ads in the reverse order that you’re watching them if you’re reading this post, so that may have something to do with why I am failing to see a coherent message that holds together.

Now, here is Paris’ eloquent response:

Tell me that her words on an energy policy were not great! Hope you got a laugh out of that like I did. My favorite line? “I’m Paris Hilton, and I approve this message because I think it’s totally hot.”

The slideshow above shows some of the pictures taken last week during our time in Houghton and the surrounding area. It was a great time, once we were finally there!! Despite the 15-hour drive up and a similar-length trek back home, I really enjoyed introducing Justin to a lot of old friends. It was also an honor to stand up as a bridesmaid in JoAnna’s wedding, and we also got to spend some great time with my family before my parents head to Denmark this fall!  All in all a great last trip for summer ‘08. Now to turn my attention to school…

So it’s a good thing things are picking up!

I’ve just completed the laziest 3 weeks of summer. It was nice, I won’t lie. Lots of reading, laying around by the pool, and cooking dinner when it struck my fancy.

But, I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the more activity-filled days ahead. Today and tomorrow I’m working on my department’s course of study with several colleagues, as well as cleaning, laundering, and packing to prepare for our upcoming trip to da U.P. on Wednesday.

Come Wed. we will drive to Ann Arbor, crash with Justin’s parents, and then get up at the crack of dawn to drive the 10+ hours to Houghton (almost as far away as you can go while still being in Michigan-thanks UP!), trying our darndest to arrive in time (or earlier) for some plans that night (more details later).

Then, Friday will likely be full of wedding details and friend-visiting, with a rehearsal that evening. The next day, of course, JoAnna will tie the knot and I’ll be very excited to stand up for her and witness her marriage to Matt-a man who, from my limited interaction with, seems to be quality. I am very happy for her!

Sunday, my family and I will have a mini-reunion as my sister, her husband (who is really my brother-hey Drew!), my parents, and Justin and I will get together with some old family friends, the Kuipers on the shores of Lake Superior! That will hopefully be a nice relaxing day and a chance to spend some good family time together before the ‘rents pick up and move to Denmark for the first half of the school year, where Dad will guest-teach for fall semester.

Monday will be the end of our stay in the UP (whirlwind trip, I know!) and we’ll make our way back somehow-via MI or maybe Chicago, not sure yet-and be back home in time for me to start freaking out and planning for school.

Then, of course, you can kiss my “regular” posting goodbye as the stress that I’ve so lacked this summer returns to my life in full-force, threatening to take away all leisure activities with it.

Did that sound grim? I meant it to sound kind of nice! I do find that I like to keep busy-but, I’m also glad in retrospect that I took the summer for myself and didn’t take another part-time job. I can tell I needed the break. Till next time (which hopefully will include pictures of the above adventures!)

Happy 4th of July! 

I hope your holiday was restful and fun and, of course, involved good food (what holiday would be good without good food, after all?)

Justin and I thought about taking a little weekend trip to get away, but, we were both content to stay home, and, as Justin put it, have a “staycation.” It was nice because we devoted the money we might otherwise have spent on gas and a hotel on just doing some fun stuff around Columbus instead.

Here are some shots of our long weekend around home!

Fireworks on TV…we were a bit too lazy to stay around for the live show after the baseball game we attended. At least I got to see a few thanks to live television! Next year, I told Justin, we MUST go to the ACTUAL fireworks. Somehow we always end up getting out of it, but, one of these days…

Justin and I out to a dinner that we actually dressed up for! It was very, very nice to get dressed up and go out together.

I planned the next date! Mini-golf and a trip to the mall with a pitstop at starbucks. Justin figured out a cool setting on our camera that kind of picks up the most dominant color in the photo and grays out everything else. Here are some of the shots we took:

This one picked up Justin’s stubble and my fake tooth. : - (

There that’s better- we BOTH have yellow teeth in this shot!

This weekend, we also rented the movie Cloverfield in HD from apple TV. It was pretty good-kinda scary monster movie similar to I Am Legend but for me, less scary. Had the one-camera thing like Blair Witch Project (from what I hear-I haven’t seen that movie) so at times it made me a little bit motion-sick, but otherwise, good. We also just relaxed, played lots of video games, and read. Hope you had a relaxing break as well!

I’m enjoying summer very much.

How could I not??? This is quite possibly the most convincing part of the career path I’ve chosen. This 2.5-month stint of virtually NO work responsibilities and complete rest. This chance to get enough sleep, to exercise regularly, to travel and see friends and family, to read good books, try out new hobbies (my new ones are ‘gardening’…perhaps better described as keeping the one plant I haven’t killed yet alive and attempting a re-potting project… and keeping up with current events via google reader) and to simply relax.

I love getting enough sleep, having lots of free time, and not thinking about school or students for the first time in several months! But the best part of this summer-time has been that my level of stress has lowered! In summers past, I was almost MORE stressed out than I was during the academic year, due to the pressure to earn enough money to set myself up for another school year’s extraneous expenses and the difficulty of figuring out where to live and how to move two times in such a short period of time.

This summer, I have the security of knowing I have a job. I even still get paid during the summer months, which is great! I could choose to have another entire job during the summer if I so chose, or to work towards another degree, but the best part is that I don’t have to do anything! I feel almost back to my pre-teacher stress level.

Many people have asked me (especially last week during my travels to Michigan) whether I enjoy teaching. I answered each time a genuine “yes” because I really, really do. I love the challenge of the job, my colleagues, the students, my content area, and even all of the little distracting ‘to-do’s’ that each day entails. Of course there are things I don’t love as well (grading, planning, and disciplining ornery kids to name a few) about my job, but, overall, I can tell I went into the right career, at least for now.

How do i know? Because even though I am so content right now to relax and be away from school, there is still a part of me that is sooooo excited to go back. To get my classroom in order and welcome my second year of students to my classes and begin the work of teaching and learning again. There is that part of me that has transitioned from the student who eagerly bought school supplies and spent the week before school meticulously choosing the outfit I would wear that first day to the teacher who continues to eagerly pick out school supplies and even more meticulously pick out that first-day outfit (first impressions are everything! Surprisingly, my students’ view of me is even more important than my friends’ opinions seemed to me in school!)

Somehow this post starting getting very school-ey. I think it needs a little reminder of summertime, so here: enjoy some of my favorite pictures from my recent trip to Michigan to visit college roomies, friends, and my sister!

Here I am with two of my roommates from college, Chara and Bethany

And at my other roomie’s wedding: Congrats, Jenn!

Her wedding was right on Lake Michigan, at sunset.

Bethany and I went out on the town and ate steak and hooked her up with a hot man-friend (who is sadly not pictured)

We also walked about 1/4 of the way around Reeds Lake. Here is a photo of us being all active.

We also went to get ice cream. I had the most delicious chocolate-peanut-butter concoction in existence. Yum.

The next weekend, I finally saw my hubby again, at yet another wedding.

At this wedding, Justin’s mom and I were responsible for the table centerpiece floral arrangements. They turned out pretty good, dontcha think?

The lovely bride, Geneva. LOVED her dress. Looked so fun to wear!

Geneva

We also got to meet Jeff’s great new gal: Courtney! Weddings are significantly more fun with good company at your table.

And I spent lots of great girl time with my big sister! We talked about…everything. It was fabulous!

This is my favorite new sister holdie-outie. Till we meet again in July!

I love this unposed shot of Ember. Lovely.

Ember and her fabulous bag and new highlights.
So, those are some snapshots of my first significant travels of the summer. Later this month Justin and I will make the hella-long drive to Houghton for my high school girlfriend’s wedding, JoAnna. I am looking forward to seeing her and others from that era of my life, including her Cousin Evelia from Mexico (who I met when I travelled to Mexico with JoAnna for their double-Quincieñera) and a German exchange student who lived with her our junior year of high school, Eva. Should be a fun wedding party! (I’m going to stand in her wedding, just as she was my bridesmaid in ours!)

Summer is slipping by quickly but I’m loving every minute.

I’m all packed up. My maps are printed out (just as a backup to the GPS). I have the camera packed and I plan to stop and get starbucks on the way outta town (Justin demanded I do–we’re out of coffee!) Now I just need to go for a jog so I won’t get stir crazy while driving all day and take off!!

I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous because Justin always does all of the driving, but, this will be good for me. A chance to really be independent and self-sufficient! I am really excited to see various people, too. So wish me luck and I’ll update when I can! 

Love,

Becky

So my first week of “freedom” is over and I’m into week 2 of summer. I’m keeping very occupied with tutoring, working on my department’s new course of study, reading (I’ve already finished one novel!), and now professional development on how to incorporate aspects of Web 2.0 into the classroom (including RSS feeds, wikis, and blogs, all of whose big logos are represented above, and, coincidentally, all of which use the color orange-why?).

I’m attending a 3 day summer academy that will provide me with the start of my professional development and also the tools to play around with some things I plan to use with my students and parents next year anyway.

Thursday, I’m driving all alone up to Michigan!! It will be the longest trip I’ve made on my own…ever?I am wishing I was making the trip in the vehicle above, or, really, in any vehicle other than old Corsy Corsica. But Justin reminds me that the more I drive the Corsica the older it becomes and the quicker it will probably die and then I may be on the road to a vehicle like the one below. Don’t get me wrong, I know Corsy is a good car and was free and I have been very blessed to have never had to make a car payment to date (thanks mom! thanks dad!), but, I guess I”ve been bitten by the post-graduate bug: I just want a fancy car that can lock without my key.

Toyota Yaris

$10,000-$14,000; comes in the hatchback model above or a sedan that looks a lot like a honda civic or accord; gets 34 MPG in city; 39 MPG on Highway

Anywho, although it will probably be my longest roadtrip to date (at least the longest one I’ve taken alone), it will be split up and pretty manageable. I’ll spend Thursday morning driving to Ann Arbor, where I”ll have lunch with Justin’s mom. Then, I’ll make a pit stop in Lansing, hopefully, to see my good friend Erica from high school (who I have not seen since our wedding last May).

Finally, I’ll arrive in grand rapids in time for a fun evening with Chara and Bethany, roommates of mine from college, see photos below. (I’m anticipating a LOT of girl talk since we have all been rather starved for it this year! At least I sure have! Looking forward to it ladies!)

Bethany and I in Grand Rapids last  Christmas: Definitely the best part of the trip that eventually became known as the trip from hell.

          This is the fabulous, loyal, and lovely Chara, roomie extraordinaire. This photo is an oldie but a goodie, in my opinion.

Though I anticipate lots of great late night talks with the lovely ladies above, I will really miss this amazing guy on my trip (which will mark the longest we’ve been apart since getting married!)

Justin and I, last Saturday, before we went to get delicious fajtas! Thanks for indulging my ceaseless desire to take pictures, babe!

Jenn (another roomie from college) will tie the knot on Friday evening and we’ll go to wish her well and then hopefully have some more time that weekend to go to the beach and just catch up (that would be catchup time with Chara and Bethany, not Jenn of course). After the weekend with the gals I’ll continue girl time with my big sista!

Congrats and Good Luck Jenn!

Em and I a few years ago, I think in the U.P. (Em: we MUST to take about a thousand holdie outies this summer-this picture is not recent enough for my taste!)                 

I can’t wait to see Ember and talk in person after what seems like forever. A few days will never be enough, but, I will have to head back to Ann Arbor again to catch ANOTHER wedding on the following Friday (the 27th). 

Busy, Busy, Busy!! But all very good stuff! I love how summer is going so far and I hope yours is equally fabulous! Something else I’m really looking forward to in July is JoAnna’ wedding to Matt in the U.P. and a mini-family reunion to follow.

What are you doing with YOUR summer?!?

and I hope many more to go!

Last Friday was my last day with my students! It was bitersweet to some extent, but there was so much to do that it really just FLEW by before I knew it was over. A few of my female students asked to take pictures with me and said they’d e-mail them to me-very sweet girls.

Each of my classes finally had their desperate pleas for a fiesta answered and were permitted to bring in authentic Latin American food to celebrate our last day together. They also were permitted to watch a movie (even in ENGLISH! Gasp! Don’t worry, they were still forced to have Spanish subtitles!) so all in all it was a fun, relaxing final day together. 

The best part of Friday was the fact that the day started out with 5 or 6 not proficient students and ALL. OF. THEM. RECEIVED. CREDIT! I decided to give them second chances by giving an alternate reading assessment to some and reading the listening script to others to give them more time to process the content and it worked! I was so happy, because all of these kids were truly working their butts off to get credit and really earned it! I couldn’t be prouder of them (and happier that they don’t have to go to summer school!)

So what’s ahead for Becky? Good question!

I plan to keep my daily routine very similar with the exception of what goes on between 8 and 5. One goal of mine is to keep my daily rising and sleeping schedule the same throughout the summer because I find that my life is just better when I do that. I also think it will be nice for Justin to have me continue to get up early and got to bed with him (just a hunch! ) I will also be tutoring a couple of kids who were not proficient in skills with other teachers. That will give me something to get up and go do, and will also keep me at least partially school/spanish minded, but not so much that I won’t be able to relax.

I may end up teaching a class of adults some introductory spanish, but those plans are on hold for now, as I haven’t heard back from the guy who initially was interested in setting it up.

The week after next, I’ll be heading to Michigan to visit my college roomies, Chara and Bethany, and to attend my other roomie, Jenn’s, wedding! I will also get to visit my sister while in Michigan and I’m really looking forward to that–it feels like it’s been forever since the two of us were able to just relax and talk together. I guess it has been at least a year!

In July, Justin and I will head up to Houghton for JoAnna and Matt’s wedding. Which reminds me that I better book our hotel room for that trip ASAP. I am a bridesmaid in her wedding and I’m looking forward to reconnecting briefly with  JoAnna, her family, and Eva (our friend from Germany who was an exchange student in HS and is coming back to stand in the wedding as well). After the wedding we will take a few days to hang out with my parents and Em and Drew before heading home. That’s going to be one LONG drive.

So right now the summer is spread before me with possibilities and it feels really nice. But I know that before long I’ll be getting ready for school and stressing out again, so I’m trying to squeeze as much relaxation as possible out of these couple of months before I return to school. What are you up to in the months ahead?