Breathe Deep

It all begins and now the schedules change. We won't have a set schedule for a couple weeks until Don's 12 week classes start. But we will have to get something set up with getting him to work and me getting home early so he can get to school.

Last week was hectic but not unbearable. Training for me was interesting. Lots of things about how the brain remembers and learns. Remember this was very teacherish, brain research talk. We talked about how the brain craves novelty. How the cooperative structures we use are novel, but then there are so many different learning structures that are so common to one another is because it also loves repetition. We also talked about that you can only hold 10 things in your working memory and they need cleared out/moved into other memory to remember them and learn more. We also learned that you remember episodes best and that is your episodic memory. The brain also remembers the first & last things best.

We also used a mnemotic device to remember 10 things our partner told us. It was a visualization thing but we both remembered 10 things each without seeing one another's list.

We learned about the 4 different types of memory too. We also learned 3-4 new structures for use with out students. Also about the aymegdale and how it can cause kids to be anxious and fearful. If it fires then you have a more difficult time remembering and learning things. The goal is to keep kids happy, fearless, and calm so they can learn more. If they are relaxed and not in a state of fear/anxiety they should be able to learn more.

I can see that if I can remember all of this when 25ish new personalities all come into a new environment. Not that the environment is conducive to learning just yet. That was what I worked on Friday, unpacking my class. I rechecked and had 84 boxes. Over 50 of them were larger boxes and were put up on the new counters. They were stacked 4 high and they needed moved. So I moved them all and opened them all and sorted them. They are now on the longer counter, 2 high, and sorted by contents. So when I get to work in my room tomorrow I can keep going. My desk is I'd say 90% complete. I need to work on bulletin boards, covering an old, yucky, green chalkboard, and before I can put away tons in the closet I need to clean out what the retired teacher left. She is a wonderful lady, but yikes she left a lot. I guess after 19 years in 1 school you acquire a lot.

Brief mention about a few other events of last week. We got Doug moved back to school. You could just see that he was back in his element. Everyone say a prayer that he finds a job.

Don worked 3 days last week as a produce guy at one of the local supermarkets. He also started college. He took his first math class. I could tell before we left that he was freaking out. I could tell that everything was good when he got done because he said, "I'm the teacher's pet." He chatted with the instructor for about 15 minutes after class then came by my class. Then on the way home he was talking, talking, talking. Chatty Cathy there, he was non-stop. More than he'd talk about something in a long time. We bought 2 of his books yesterday. Yikes 2 books, one used was almost $200. Books are such a rip-off.

For my class, I can't believe I only have 7 students. That is like an ideal scenario, but for book discussions it doesn't work as well as I'd like. Hey, deal with what we are given and I can help these 7 become better readers.

This next week Brian heads back to school. YIPEE!

I hate this time of year because there are so many expenses. I know asking for money to grow on trees is a bit much, but could my tree in the back just sprout about five 100 bills? Just enough to get Don's car fixed? I know the extra money would just make things a little less stressful around here. I'll keep praying and I know God will take care of us, but just not as quickly as I'd like. I know it's on God's time, not my time.

As things change and start falling into place, I know I just need to remember to stop and breathe. Some deep breaths and remembering to pray will get me through.

To all of you...breathe deep. You'll make it through too.

By this time next week...

all the Henager's will be back in school. That's right I said all! Big D, who is my oldest son, who is a sophomore goes back to NIU (Go Huskies!) on Wednesday after I get home from training. He's paying the extra to go back a day early, and let me tell you, it is soooo much less hectic and well worth the $50 to take him and move him in a day early.

Mr. B, which is Brian starts his junior year of high school next Monday. I registered him today. You wouldn't believe how expensive high school registration is! So much for a free and public education.

Last but not least, Don registered for college today. Luckily things were filling up so fast, and were already full, he got into all the classes we wanted him to be in. Two are 12 week classes which start in about a month, 1 is a class where the classes are done at home, and 2 are on campus in the evenings. He's got about 15 semester hours, so he truly is a full time student.

Then there is me. I have part-time college faculty meetings tomorrow afternoon. On Wednesday & Thursday I have my full-time training. Next Monday and Tuesday are teachers' inservice days at my full-time job, then kids come on Wednesday. The college kids come this Thursday.

So when you see all four of us together and you ask how's school, you may just get a response from all of us.

2nd Place

My oldest son plays on the church softball team. They play in a church league all summer. Well near the end of August is the league tournament which determines the winner of the league. Doug's had a lot of fun and a few injuries playing. I have to admit, it is a much more laid back team and it has been great being able to go and watch. As much as I don't miss the scheduled practices, 3 or more games a week, tournament after tournament, being the taxi mom to the fields, I do miss watching him play.


This is his life. He wants to play and coach sports. He loves it so much that he's determined that being a P.E. teacher is a way to take what he loves and help others find it meaningful too. I give him credit, I think we all need to find what we absolutely love and do it. Whether or not we make it our career, we all need to love something fun. I know I need to follow in his footsteps just a bit.

Well the tournament was yesterday. Don and I didn't get to watch the first game in the morning, although we did get to watch him hit. We had to drop some stuff off at the field before heading out to the college for Don to take some tests.
With 4 or so hours in between their first and second game, we were able to finish testing and get back to watch the final 2 games.

The outcome of the tournament was pretty good. There was 1 or 2 bad calls by the ump against us, which could have meant the game went the other way, but they came in 2nd. Pretty good considering the 1st place team only lost 2 games all year.

Well here's to the 2nd place team. They're all good sports and really nice people, so it's nice to be able to congratulate them here.

All the time in the world

As if! If you read my to-do list, no where do I think it said to finish a scrapbook page. I was going to sit down and to the tentative class assignment list but read a creative team board and remembered I should do a challenge page for the new challenges over at the Chirpi blog. Use the link to check it out, there are some amazing prizes!



Well now I really must go and get work done!

So much to do - so little time

Yikes, summer is flying by. August is flying by is more like it. Oh yikes, it felt like I had so much time off from the time I left for my cruise until school started again. Around mid-July I met with a co-worker to work on a project for school this year. Also in the midst of some stressful situations here at home, I was also thinking it was about time to get back on a schedule and get back to school. Then I applied to teach part-time at the local college along with my 4th grade position and now I've got so much to do and so little time.

I've got to go check out new phones and get a new phone plan. (Tomorrow I think)

I've got to get a tooth pulled a week from next Tuesday.

Help Don get registered for school.

Register Brian for school next Monday.

Take Doug back to school next Wednesday

Tonight is a paid discussion group about snack food. Thankfully it's a paying gig!

Doug has a softball tourney on Saturday.

I have a part-time faculty gathering at the college on Tuesday.

Next Wednesday & Thursday I have 2 days of training at my school.

I start teaching at COD next Thursday.

I have to finish my syllabus and send to the printer at the college. Hopefully by today or tomorrow.

Oh and how can I forget that there is a classroom that needs to have at least 75 boxes unpacked and set up. The office staff just got into the school yesterday and they don't have phones or computers. The principal has no idea how soon they'll be able to let us in the building. I guess I'm expecting that I can maybe get a few boxes unpacked the first couple days when teachers have meetings. Unfortunately that Tuesday before the kids come back on Wednesday I have to have a tooth pulled at 2:00 and then go teach at the college that evening.

Like I said, I've just got way too much to do. I know I have blocks of time where I have nothing planned, like today, until tonight. I think I need to do a bit of laundry, some work for school, and hopefully get a turkey cleaned and prepped because I'm going to be cooking it on the grill. That will free me up for 3 dinners this week and next week with leftovers.

I hope that you are able to sit back and enjoy the last few days of summer. I know many moms are ready for the school bell to ring and the kids aren't. The summer here has been tremendous. The humidity hasn't been unbearable and the temps lately have been in the mid to high 70's. We've had the airconditioning off for at least a week.

Make sure you get out and do something fun this weekend before the summer slips away.
Ciao!

I got the job!

At today's interview, I was offered and accepted a position as a part-time adjunct professor at College of DuPage. I'm still in a bit of shock because it all happened so fast. I've lugged home a bunch of textbooks because I have to pick my textbooks to use for the course. The class starts 2 weeks from tonight! EGADS!


Also for more good news, Don got the part-time position at the grocery store. He'll be working part time and hopefully we'll be able to afford for him to start taking classes too.

I'll leave you with a couple of new scrapbook pages I've recently done.


full credits here




full credits here

Yikes what might I have gotten myself into???

I know things here over the summer have been hectic. I officially have about 20 days left of vacation and in that time I have to get my hair cut, doctor's appointment, get a root canal, register my youngest for high school, take my oldest back to college, and at some point try to see if I'll be able to go unpack my new room at school. The last is very doubtful.

But on top of all of this, I've been looking for ways to subsidize the college tuition payments, especially since Don is still unemployed. Well I've been praying to God daily about the financial situation. I'd come up with a list of things I could do extra at school. Those seemed like good ideas. I've been trying to get Don to find a part-time job to supplement the unemployment. I also considered trying for a liason position for the new reading cohort through the school district. Then one morning I woke up and thought about something my girlfriend and I joke about, teaching at the community college. One of my professors I had during my masters program mentioned it. At the time my friend, Chris and I said yeah, we teach kindergarten and 4th grade, who would want us to teach college kids? It's just been an ongoing joke. That is until last week the idea popped into my head to try to find the professor's email and ask her if she was serious about us teaching at the community college.

She got back to me almost right away, she wasn't joking in the least bit. Well to make a long story short, I sent her my resume, which she forwarded on to the head of the department. They were actually looking for someone to teach a reading class, and that afternoon, while Doug and I were driving back from NIU, the head of the department called me. She said she'd love to talk more to me about the position but couldn't unless I had a job application on file. We detoured to the college and got the application. I was going to fill it out over the weekend but was too busy. I worked on it Tuesday morning and was going to take it back out Tuesday afternoon. In the mean time, I get an email saying they are wanting to set up an interview, could I make it today, meaning Tuesday. I could have easily except I had to bring a copy of my college transcript with my most recent degree. I didn't have one so I made the interview for Thursday and headed into work to get that copy yesterday.

So tomorrow, Thursday, I have an interview with the head of the department at College of DuPage about a part-time adjunct position. I've been thinking to myself, "what ever did I get myself into?" I asked my former professor what she thinks I'll be asked about, she told me some things, thankfully, and I've been rereading a bit of college textbooks. I've got 24 hours to prepare. The silly thing is that I wasn't nervous until I went out for a pedicure today with my friend.

She's under the impression that this job has my name written all over it. I made one email and somehow it snowballed into them calling me, emailing me, and setting up an interview; all without my application being in. This crazy idea popped into my head and the funny thing is...I didn't chicken out on writing the email! It's almost like God has known how many hoops I've been jumping though lately with our financial situation that his one is kind of being just handed to me. It's like he's managing all of this without much of my help. I know that is how he works sometimes, but it just really seems ironic that 3 years ago, I thought of this as just a joke, and it has been a running joke between Chris and I, but now it could become reality. I've never wanted to teach junior high/middle schoolers or high schoolers, but I could soon be the teacher of college students.

If things work out, I won't be leaving my grade school position, but I'll be adding college into my schedule. That last part really sounded funny. I've been going to school 7 out of the past 10 years. Now I could be going to college but not having to study, but prepare the lessons for others to study. Frankly, I could be teaching kids my oldest son's age. I could be teaching people my age, or I could be teaching my husband if he decides that he really wants to go back to college. YIKES, see what I mean...what might I have gotten myself into????