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Summer Jobs and Preparing for fall
I got a summer job today. I interviewed a couple weeks ago at Waldenbooks and was under the impression that I didn't get the job because they knew I would most likely be leaving in the fall. But still, I got a call from the manager today offering me the job. Talk about a dream job for the summer! Working in a bookstore? It doesn't get much better than that, people.

Wednesday is the last of my curriculum meetings at GHS, and we'll be discussing the elective English classes that I'll be teaching in the fall. Once that is done, I can get down to work on planning and getting everything together. I've already started working on the syllabus for the class, with the class rules and daily procedures and all those fun things that go along with planning for a classroom.

I was really excited to see that our Freshman English book has an excerpt from the book Understanding Comics in it. I haven't read it yet, but after watching a podcast on iFanboy.com about the book, I've already decided that I'm going to buy the book tomorrow, use my educator discount at Borders to do so, and find a way to work it into my Freshman English class at some point.

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If you all have a moment, dear flisties, go check out my blog--the one I get paid for. Comments are always welcome, even if you don't fully understand what I'm talking about. I'm currently running down my top 10 list of favorite comic book characters. The address is http://comicgenius.today.com

Thanks all!

gacked from

myrafur

My personality type: the spontaneous idealist. Take the free iPersonic personality test!

I thought this personality test was particularly interesting because I distinctly remember being an introvert the last time I took enough time to sit down and actually do one of these things. And now, I'm an extrovert. Oh, how life changes.

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I've spent the last three days at Galesburg High School in curriculum meetings for the English department. And now that I only have one day left a couple weeks from now, I can honestly say that I feel a little overwhelmed. I wanted to start working on setting up some papers for classes last night, and my dad thought I was crazy. He said that I have all summer to take care of that. I think he's nuts and has no idea how much work it's going to take to get everything organized and ready to go for my first teaching job. I'm scared shitless.

Bittersweet Week
I had thought many times this week about posting something on here, but honestly it was too much of an emotional and crazy week for me.

The worst part came Monday night when K (a co-worker who lives across town) called me at 10 p.m. to tell me that a teenager was hit by a train. Details were sketchy at first, but B called me at almost 11 (when I was in bed and almost asleep) to say that it was J, the student I work with on a 1-on-1 basis at school. Going to sleep was hard that night, and the next morning I was up by 5:30. At that point, it finally started to sink in and my emotions took hold. I called

mycorner and told her, knowing that I should probably let her know ahead of time so that she wouldn't be ambushed when she got to school.

And then B texted me and told me that it wasn't J after all. GAH!!! I was relieved, but still very upset because it was J's cousin, who was living with them at the time. Shawn was 13, and was a student at the middle school. Needless to say, Tuesday at school was very difficult. I don't remember much from that day, mostly because I was tired but also because the whole situation was so surreal.

Life is slowly starting to get back to normal, even in the midst of the school year ending. I went Thursday and signed my contract with Galesburg High School for next year and went hunting for a summer job, which was very beneficial. I scored an interview on Tuesday at Waldenbooks, which would be awesome, especially since they already have an inkling of an idea that it would only be for the summer. I don't necessarily have to say it out loud, which is nice.

I also start my curriculum meetings Tuesday, which I can imagine will be both exciting and stressful in the next couple weeks. Really the only bad thing I see about them starting on Tuesday is that our staff golf outing is on Monday afternoon/evening, which means that I'll have to be good so that I don't have a hangover when I go to my meeting Tuesday morning.

Counting Down the Days
I have about 5 days left at Abingdon, if I don't count the Teacher's Institute Day we have on June 1st. Today was the Seniors' last day, as they'll be graduating Friday night. It was a fun day today, as we had a presentation of the Senior Video and the Film Class movies this morning, then had a cookout lunch, and softball and other lawn games this afternoon.

I loved being outside today. It was just a tad chilly with the breeze, but the sun was still warm. So of course, I have a bit of a sun burn. But hey, it was a lot of fun so I'm not going to complain. I love summer.

It was also yearbook distribution day. Normally not a big deal, but I already have a hard time coming up with something to say in some of these kids' yearbooks. And now I have to factor in the fact that some of them are coming up to me in tears because I'm going to be teaching in Galesburg next year. I think that was when it hit me how much I'm going to miss these kids. I've worked so closely with some of them that I feel like they're my little sisters or something closely related. It was rough today, so I can only imagine what the last day of school is going to be like.

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On the plus side, I got my schedule of what classes I'll be teaching next year. I have a semester each of Sophomore Literature and Sophomore Composition, a section of Freshman English that lasts all year, two sections of Grammar & Composition, a section of Journalism I, two sections of Contemporary Communications, and a section of Work Writing. Overall, I'm very pleased. My understanding is that these are some classes that other teachers didn't really want, but these are the types of classes that I want to be teaching.

New Job Aftermath & a New Blog
I turned in my notice Wednesday to Abingdon. I admit that it was weird for me to write out a resignation letter, but I did it. My principal was very nice. He--along with everyone else--knew that I was looking for an English job. It was short and painless. He shook my hand and told me congratulations.

It turned out that three of us turned in our resignation on the same day, and it probably didn't help that we are all friends. But no, there was no conspiracy, especially since we're all going to be further away from each other now. I know

mycorner and I are already coming up with plans to see each other once next fall rolls around.

The funniest part of the whole situation is hearing some of the rumors the kids come up with when asked about the three of us resigning. The best one is that we all went into the principal's office at the same time to resign. Funny stuff.

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I ran into an English teacher at GHS this afternoon at Wal-Mart, and she was able to give me the heads up as to a couple of classes I'll be teaching. I know that I'll have at least one section of Journalism I and Sophomore Composition, both of which I'm really excited about. I also know that in the spring I'll have at least one section of Grammar & Composition. Put that together with some Freshman English classes and everything sounds pretty rounded so far.

I might also have some curriculum meetings to attend the first part of June, which will be great as far as meeting the rest of the staff (the ones that I don't already know) and getting to know the other new teachers that were hired this year. I've been trying to find a job for the summer, but I'm wondering if my teacher salary starts in July if I can make it work so that I don't have to find a job. I know that once I know for sure what classes I'm going to be teaching next fall, I'm going to have a great deal of work to do so that I'm ready when school starts at the end of August. Not having a job in addition to all that work would be wonderful.

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As a means of getting more writing work, I've started a new blog. It's over at Today.com, and it's a VIP Blog, meaning that I actually get paid for it. Part of my job though, is to network it and get people to visit my blog and possibly comment, so if you have a couple minutes go over to my new comic blog and comment, even if you're not exactly sure what I'm talking about in the posts. Doing so will help me make more money from my blog.

Here's the website:

http://comicgenius.today.com

Dance of Joy!!
As of about 4 p.m. today, I have a full time job teaching English at Galesburg High School next year.

Dance of JOY!!!

Everything came about very suddenly last week, and it was probably a good thing that I only had one day to prepare for the interview, which was last Friday. I had to call in sick to work because I didn't have time to set up a personal day. The interview went really well, and they even told me that they wanted me to leave the interview under the assumption that I was going to be offered the job. They even asked me flat out if I would accept the job if it were offered to me. I, of course, said yes.

So yay, I've got a new job and now I get to write a letter of resignation tonight and prepare for telling my current principal the news tomorrow.

Job Prospects
So I didn't get the job in Canton. The principal called yesterday and left a message on my phone. I was starting to get a feeling that it wasn't going to be good news, but I tried to be optimistic until I got the definite word. But then today, someone from Galesburg called me out of the blue today. Seriously, I sent in my resume way back in October or something like that. They have two English teachers retiring there this year, and one of them is one of the teachers I did my student teaching with a couple years ago. I called after school to set up an interview, but the person I needed to speak to wasn't there so I had to leave a message. At least it looks like I'm going to have another interview soon.

I'm also sending out a resume to Galva, a town about 30 minutes north of here. It's close in size to Abingdon, and I also interviewed for them a couple years ago when I was just graduating from Knox in 2006. Hopefully I'll get another chance to interview.

Really, The Burg (as people tend to call Galesburg from time to time) wouldn't be my first choice of schools. But I would be teaching English, and as much as I've learned the last two years working in Special Education and would like to stay in Abingdon, it's time that I move on to something else. And who knows--maybe I'll be gone for a year or two and then have the chance to teach in Abingdon down the road. I'm not ruling it out.

Where Have I Been?
Two weeks ago today, I started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. As of this morning, I finished the third book in the series, Eclipse. That's over 1500 pages in 2 weeks.

I have five words.

Edward Cullen rocks my world.

Maybe this is just a GIP, I don't know. Because Robert Pattinson, who most of us know as Cedric Diggory from GOF, has been cast as Edward for the Twilight movie. It's due out in December, with the first teaser trailer supposedly showing up in front of the Speed Racer movie in a couple weeks.

It's probably a silly question, but who else has read this series?

Oh, and

mycorner, I'm going to need to geek out with you once you've finished reading Twilight. Consider that fair warning.

Geek-out Moment of the Day
Some of you might have heard me talk at some point about reading the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. I just finished reading the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters, and will start the third one tomorrow, The Titan's Curse.

So let me try to explain my geek-out moment without ruining what is happening in the books, because they really are worth reading. Towards the end, there's a big fight going on in Miami. The centaurs are involved, and they're going crazy with their mad archery skills. Out of nowhere, one of them shoots off a trick arrow--one with a boxing glove on the end of it.

I must have read this about three times this morning before I fully comprehended what I just read. Did I just find an obscure comic book reference in the middle of this book? Yes, I believe I did.

Once upon a time in Green Arrow comics, Oliver Queen used to actually carry around a gimmick arrow with a boxing glove on the end. Apparently, the centaurs are friends with Oliver Queen.

Life Starts to Look Up
My cold is gone. And that's a good thing, because it's starting to get warm here and I would much rather be outside than sitting inside feeling like crap. My parents have both been battling sickness for about a month now, and I see how crazy it's driving them. I left Saturday night and was gone most of Sunday. I had things to do, but I was getting sick of listening to them bicker at each other. I know part of it was that they were sick--they canceled going out with friends Saturday night and Mom didn't go to church on Sunday--but it was beyond annoying.

But life is getting better. I don't feel like I'm running around without a purpose these days. For so many weeks, it seemed like I had 20 million things I was trying to get done and 24 hours in the day didn't seem to be like enough. But now, I'm getting back to the routine.

And I have a job interview next Friday!! It's in Canton for an English teaching position. I went in today and filled out a personal day request. I knew there was a reason I didn't use those personal days.

Spring is Here!!
It was an unbelievably beautiful day here in central Illinois. The weather was in the 60s and I could wander about comfortably in shorts and a t-shirt.

In an effort to get outside and enjoy some of this great weather we've been having, I went over to my aunt and uncle's house for a cookout. My 4-year-old cousin Lily was there, so we went over to the park and let her play on the swings and slides for a while. And then we saw some people flying kites. So I ended up going with (my cousin) Jessie to Dollar General to buy Lily a kite. We went back to their house and took the kites out to the corn field around the corner from their house and flew them for a while. It was actually a perfect day for flying kites. It wasn't incredibly windy, but good enough to get those kites high up in the air. Lily had a ball.

I'm hoping that the weather will be nice enough this Friday. Tyler is on his school's baseball team (he's a pitcher) and they have a game in Galesburg. And unfortunately, it's the only game I have a chance of attending this year.

Life Update
It's been forever since I talked about anything halfway exciting on here. And it's not that my life is boring--there's actually good stuff going on. I've just been super busy is all.

I guess the first thing I should mention is my slight change in job. I'm still at Abingdon doing the aide thing, but now I have one single student that I work with every day. This is the kid I talked about a while back who wrote some threatening notes. They had a meeting about whether or not to let him come back and they decided yes, but with a full-time aide this time. They asked me if I would do it for the remainder of the year, and while I had some reservations, I said yes.

And really, I'm glad that I said yes. His grades are up, and his personality has changed overall. I can see a change in him, and it just makes me all squishy inside to think that I had something to do with it. Of course, the day after he came back he broke his writing hand in a biking accident, so I've been doing all his writing for him. But I make sure that he gives me the answers and doesn't expect me to do all the work.

I took the job with the understanding that I would go back to my regular job at the beginning of next school year. I of course didn't tell the administrator that I'm looking for another teaching job. But, in the event that I'm in the position to stay in Abingdon as an aide, I would seriously consider staying with this kid as a one-on-one, just because this kid needs as much stability in his life as he can get right now.

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The musical ended a couple weeks ago, and life is slowly getting back to normal. I will say that I was a little upset on the last day of the show, and it was totally selfish. The kids went out and bought flowers and thanked all the people who helped with the show--the director, the costume designers, set designers, the whole crew. Except for me, that is. I was an assistant director and didn't get a single mention any of the three nights. I didn't say anything because that's not the kind of person I am. But Missy, the music director, came up and asked if I was upset because they didn't acknowledge me. I told her it hurt a little, but there wasn't much I could do about it now. She then laid into them big time, which of course made the kids feel like shit. And a bunch of them came over and were giving me hugs and apologizing and saying how much they loved me blah blah blah. It was nice, but not completely genuine.

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Of course, I had to get a really bad cold right after the play ended. It was bad, and took me a week to get past the worst part. I'm still coughing a little, but the worst part is gone.

The good part of this whole thing is that spring is finally here. I'm sick of wearing coats and scraping windshields and talking about wind chills and how much snow we're going to get this weekend. I'm ready for baseball (Go Cubbies!!), cook outs, and more baseball.

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Looks like I'm going to be getting a new laptop in the near future as well. This little guy I'm typing on right now still working like a charm, but he just doesn't have the hard-drive space that I need. I'm squeaking by on a 20 GB hard drive (which I guess was good when this thing was new in 2002) and it's starting to bug me that I can't do everything I want to with it. I want to be able to burn copies of my great-grandma's old Super 8 movies that we recently had changed over to DVDs. Oh, and a battery life longer than 30 minutes would be nice, too.

So I'm selling this one back to my sister, which is funny since I bought it from her in the first place. But they're without a computer completely right now, so it works for them. And the money from that will give me a good start on a new laptop.

JOB FOR MY FLIST: I'm not really wanting to go over to Apple with this new laptop. Nothing against them, but I'm just more comfortable with those other guys. So if any of you have laptops other than Apples, can you recommend a particular brand and/or system? I'm probably not wanting to go much over the $800 range, if I can help it.

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There's some fun stuff to talk about in regards to our Fine & Performing Arts club at school, but it will have to wait for another post. It's detailed and maybe a little complicated, and I'm tired of typing right now.

Ugh...
It's the last day of my spring vacation and I'm sick. I've been borderline all weekend, but today it is really sticking it to me. Breathing is a real chore right now. My eyes burn (and from time to time are watering) and I have a huge headache. I was planning on doing my taxes today, but it looks like I'm going to have to opt for the couch, a blanket, and a book.

Six Days Later...
I can see again! My glasses broke last Friday and I haven't been able to see since then. But a pair of my new glasses came in today, and my mom took me up to get them since I was unable to drive out of town.

I actually had to readjust myself when I put them on. The first step I took was a little unsteady after six days of everything being fuzzy that was more than six inches away from me. But yay, because now I can see. And in about another week, I'll even have a spare pair.

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Today was the first day of my spring vacation. I didn't do much, other than going to Galesburg for my glasses. I did manage to take a nap this afternoon and put away my laundry, along with emptying and loading the dishwasher. I'm seriously considering a trip to Peoria tomorrow to check out their comic book shop. I don't like the fact that I have to go to Peoria for the closest shop, but I guess I don't have much of a choice. I have subscriptions for Superman and a new Titans book that starts next month, but I just finished reading the first 5 issues of Green Arrow/Black Canary and I was very impressed with the story--there's just something very intriguing about the opening scene showing the Black Canary crying over the dead body of the man who looks like her husband. It made me want to know how things could possibly get better. So now, I have to go get issue 6. Not to mention, a new arc just started on Wonder Woman. And, it is a big issue because it signifies the end of the status quo as far as the character goes. She's finally going to--wait for it...wait for it...get a boyfriend. And that's a milestone I have to check out, especially since the boyfriend in question is a character I actually like.

wallpaper meme
borrowed from

annearchy

If you are so inclined, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.

1. Go to your desktop and press the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12)

2. Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and doing a Paste (CTRL + V). If you wish, you can "edit" the image before saving it.

3. Post the picture on your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop if you want. You can explain why you prefer such a look or why it is full of icons. Things like that.

4. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a free view of their desktops as well, if you are in the mood.

( my desktop )

I hate making these kinds of posts. This was supposed to be a fun and exciting weekend with the musical this weekend, but it has instead turned into one disaster after another.

First thing, my glasses broke 30 minutes before I was supposed to be at the high school Friday night. And of course, they had to break in the worst possible spot. An emergency trip to the eye doctor didn't even fix anything, because they couldn't tape them either, and they didn't have any frames that fit my lenses. The soonest they can get me in for a new eye appointment is Tuesday (it has been a horribly long time since I had my eyes checked), so even with a rush on new glasses, I'm looking at the end of this week before I can see again. Needless to say, I had to sit with my music about 3 inches in front of me so that I could see it.

But the kids were awesome Friday night. We had a full house and Greased Lightning clearly stole the show.

/happy part of post

Friday night (or early Saturday morning) a friend of our family's was killed in a car accident outside of town. She was 20 years old and a recent graduate of Abingdon and had been involved in the Theater department while in school. Her mom, who is really good friends with my mom, is the bookkeeper at the school's district office and our accompianist for the musical. We considered canceling the show last night, but opted against it because of the amount of people we would have to contact and the fact that we felt Melinda and her family would want us to go on.

Oh but wait! There's more! Someone broke into the high school Friday night. Nothing was damaged, but it appeared that they were going after the money we brought in from the show becaused nothing else was damaged or taken. Luckily, they weren't able to find the money.

I'll be so happy when this weekend is over.

Fun School-type things
School has been interesting this week, especially today. We had an 11:30 out today (the teachers had technology training this afternoon) and it was our first ever S.W.A.P. (Students With Active Parents) day. Basically, the parent/grandparent/guardian was able to come to school in place of their child today and run through their schedule as if they were actually the student. The adult was responsible for everything the student would have been responsible for on a regular day. Overall, I guess we had about 50 parents there, which is good considering that our whole high school only has 250 students and it was the first time we've done something like this. I talked to one parent today who said she has a whole new appreciation for what her son goes through every day. And I guess that's the point, isn't it? I'm actually looking forward to the next time we get to have a S.W.A.P. day.

Technology training today was fun. I learned how to podcast! J (or

mycorner)and I put together a short "commercial" for our next coffeehouse at the end of the month. And since we're going to have Guitar Hero that night, we were able to find the Kansas song, "Carry on My Wayward Son" and put the track behind J's voice. And now we're both addicted to all the possibilities that are available for our students through podcasting. I even came home and downloaded it onto my laptop. The possibilities are endless!

And it's quite possible that the high school staff with have three new family members by the end of the day. Our business teacher, Mrs. S, gave birth to twin boys earlier today. And though I doubt she'll ever read this journal, a big congratulations goes out to her and her husband. She spent almost 4 months in the hospital on bed rest, and it's really a happy day for everyone.

Our principal's wife also went into labor this morning. We already know it's a girl, and she will be their first child.

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My sciatic nerve has been giving me hell since Wednesday. I ended up going home after 2nd period that day, and even ended up sleeping in my dad's chair that night because it was the only place I could get comfortable. I can feel the pain starting to work its way out, but it still hurts, especially if I stand for too long. I was able to sleep in my bed last night, but I was awake every few hours trying to get comfortable. Tomorrow is the start of Tech Week for the musical, so I'm hoping that it goes away soon or standing on stage with my sax for 4 songs during Act Two will be hell.

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And speaking of the musical...it turns out that our wonderfully talented students at the high school are going to have a live video stream on Friday night for our opening at the school web site. The video will also be available for a time afterwards. I'll post about it later this week and give the address should anyone want to check it out.

That means you can see it without leaving your house,

penelope78!

Eventful Day at School
I got to break up a fight today between two students. And when I say fight, I mean fists flying and bodies being thrown around the hall. I had to get in between these two girls who were fighting and send the one girl off to class. The girl who was actually throwing the punches was being restrained (or at least her friend was trying to restrain her) was wrestled to the floor but continued to attempt to pick up the fight with the girl again. I ended up physically taking her to the office for the principal to deal with.

After I was able to catch my breath, I noticed two male teachers standing around watching. It pissed me off, because they didn't do anything to try to stop the fight but instead chose to watch and maybe have a laugh about the whole thing.

And then right after that happened, a student brought their planner up to the teacher to have her sign it for a restroom pass, and the teacher noticed that the student had all kinds of writing on his planner. She looked at what he was writing and found that he had made very obvious threats directed at students and teachers at the school. She took it immediately to the principal, and my understanding is that he could be suspended for up to 10 days as well as having an expulsion hearing.

For once, I was relieved when the school day was over. Those two events happened one right after the other and it took a lot out of me emotionally.

Dancing a Jig of Giddiness
Really, I am. I just read on the Superman Homepage that Allison Mack, who plays Chloe Sullivan on Smallville is going to be at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis this June.

And coincidentally, I had already--before I heard this news--made plans to attend this year and geek out on all things Superman.

I am sooo incredibly stoked right now. As much as I love to look at Tom Welling, Allison Mack is my favorite actor on the show. She's amazing to me, and she's in a unique situation because her character was created for the show and doesn't have any creative restrictions to it. I read her blog on a regular basis, and know that she has many ideas about how to help out fellow artists. She is also constantly coming up with ways to better know her fans, which is includes doing video spots where she answers questions sent in by fans.

*goes back to dancing jig of giddiness*

More Silly Students
Let me set up the scene: It's first hour this morning and we're in Algebra. They had a quiz last week and since they didn't do so well, the teacher was letting them work in groups to make corrections on their quizzes to get some of the points back. So I was walking around and helping students, and at one point this morning I stopped to make a comment to the teacher.

Now, one of the groups that was behind me was doing their fair share of gabbing, but we didn't say much because they were still getting their work done. And then, out of no where and in a voice that broke through all the other noise in the room, I hear the term "fudge packer."

I whipped my head around in a "What?!?" reaction, knowing that if that term was being used that the conversation was most likely not school appropriate. And my reaction caused laughs, because apparently the girl who actually said it was unaware of what it meant, and I was. And then she had the audacity to ask me what it meant. Yeah, not gonna happen. And it's definitely not a term that I should hear repeated.

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I went to see my neurologist today for my six month check-up. I'm still doing well, and coincidentally the nurse informed me that today is one year since my last seizure. Yeah me.