They call me "Miss Jenn"

"They" are the students and today I was the teacher, a substitute teacher, but a teacher nonetheless. I can't even begin to explain the feeling I get when I stand in front of the children and try to teach them. I actually watched little pre-schoolers learn. It's every bit as satisfying as I imagined.

On Thursday afternoon I received confirmation of my Substitute Teacher Certification for the local school county. On Thursday night I received a call from the school I work at to be a sub in a Pre-K classroom for Friday! Not only does this mean I have a great feeling of pressure released from the tightness of my budget lately, but that I can clock 7 more hours of classroom experience THAT I LOVED! I knew a couple of the kids from extended-day already, and the rest I got to know quickly. The classroom feels so natural for me. In a Pre-K classroom there is almost always a teacher and an assistant. The teacher was out for the day in this particular classroom, so the assistant led the class and I assisted her. There wasn't a ton of stuff for me to do, but I was definitely picked up better classroom management skills and had great exposure to a wonderful teacher who really knows how to interact with the children.

We moved from one activity to the next smoothly. The kids really seemed to enjoy me being in their classroom and the teacher even said at the end of the day, "Now, I want you in my classroom all the time!" Knowing how comfortable I felt in the classroom and how much I enjoyed being with the kids makes it all the more satisfying to be working toward my masters in Early Childhood Education.

I am so happy to be able to substitute teach now. I'm anxious to get into different grade levels and experience those classrooms. I'm excited for the extra income. I'm excited to work with the kids and develop my teaching skills. I'm excited that things are falling together, on God's time and not mine, at last. I'm thankful that I am so blessed with support from my friends and family.

Hah!

And this is why I would have sunk like an anchor if I tried to do a post every day for 30 days. I would have dropped out on the 5th day. Pathetic.

I am considering taking 3 classes next semester as opposed to 2. Both of my classes were online this semester which has been both a blessing and a curse. They seem unnaturally easy for Graduate level course because all I have to do is read and post, read and post. But at the same time, there is no interaction with my classmates beyond my (required) b.s. reply to their posted discussions. I am truly enjoying the information, though. Many of my classmates are actual teachers, looking to specialize or just get that boost in salary for having a masters. It seems to me they must have a lot to offer and seeing/interacting with them in a classroom might make some of their teacher-ness rub off on me. Yes, I said teacher-ness and I was an English major, deal with it.

My most recent assignment required an in-depth study of an early childhood program that has proven successful. I chose "Virtual Pre-K". It's a fantastic program designed to foster school, home and community involvement. It suggests at-home and out and about activities that families can do together. It is currently only available in limited areas, but I think the concepts can be taken anywhere. It encourages activities such as taking a child to the laundromat or the docotr's office to display roles and responsibilities at home and in society in action. Anyway, the information felt valuable, so the class must be doing something good - online or not.

As the semester nears its end, my final assignments are scary research papers. Should be my forte, but my procrastination skills just might thwart attempts at a good effort. So why would I be considering 3 classes? Two of them would be honest-to-goodness classes with meeting times and a lecture hall. One is required and the others seem really interesting. "Guiding and Facilitating Social Competency" and "Communicative Arts in Early Childhood Education", sounds riveting. No, really, I'm excited for these classes.

The only problem with 3 classes is that I am unaccustomed to spreading myself so thin. Hopefully by next semester I will be subsititute teaching in addition to working with extended-day. Work + school + boyfriend + life in general, can I do it? Here's hoping. It's been quite awhile since I juggled full-time schooling with the rest of my life.

Pleased and disappointed

Phantom of the Opera - Everything I wished it would be, and so much more!

Electoral Results - Please don't let amendement 2 pass, Florida. Please. We all deserve the right to marry, no matter who it is.

Focus, Focus, Focus

I have a tall order in front of me in terms of what needs to get done, t-o-d-a-y. Here is how that plan flew right out the window...

Item 1: Wake up by 9:30 - Failed miserably and slept in until 11:00am.
Item 2: Workout - did half the elliptical time I usually do, but then did ab/arm work at home to make up for it.
Item 3: Go to work, be patient and helpful - check!
Item 4: Come home from work and get straight to work on assignment that's due by midnight - Epic failure, took a nap after eating a bowl of ice cream.
Item 5: Make dinner, bring it to the theater and have a nice, healthy meal with Ryan - Colossal failure, ate General Tso's chicken and noodles, but only half so as not to consume 1500 calories in one sitting
Item 6: Clean the apartment after dinner to avoid severe embarrassment when guests arrive tomorrow - can't clean until Item 4 is complete
Item 7: Get to be early enough to try again tomorrow - pending Items 4 and 6

Oy.

No bedtime, no alarm clocks

Since we have moved here, I have gotten out of control with my sleep schedule. For a couple of weeks, I had things under control, not going to bed too late and not sleeping in like a lazy kid. Lately though, I go to bed anywhere between 11:00pm and 4:00am. Last night was one of those super late nights which led to sleeping in until noon.

I tried to go to sleep at midnight with big dreams of getting up around 9 and hitting the gym. I was even in bed by 11:30. The problem was that after dinner Ryan and I stopped by Starbucks where I specifically said I wanted a DECAF Pumpkin Spice latte. Around 2:30am when I realized my brain was still not shutting down, I was cursing the barista for screwing it up! I was still wide awake at 3:15 when Ryan came home. He made it less of a predicament by setting up one of our new favorite board games "Ticket to Ride". It is a very simple and quick game, but very entertaining. After kicking his butt twice in a row, we tried the whole "going to sleep" thing again. At. four. thirty. AM. and that's after we turned the clocks for daylight saving time people.

I am surprisingly not tired though and my brain hasn't felt as sluggish as I hurry through the 3 days of "homework is due by midnight"! I just prefer my caffeine in the morning.

In other news, November is NaBloPoMo. I have not chosen to officially participate, but I certainly enjoy the daily posts of those who do! I am not nearly as prolific as many, nor is my life as interesting. Good luck to those crazy bloggers who are going for it though!

Recipe for disaster

The other day, I was looking through the pantry to see what types of stuff we had on hand. For some reason or another we have accumulated a lot of ingredients for a variety of things, not many of which can be combined together for something tasty. What is "cream of tartar"anyway? And how did we end up with 3 things of cinnamon spices or 3 things of lemon pepper? Ryan doesn't even like lemon-flavored foods. What on earth will we do with a pound of corn starch or 48 ounces of canola oil? We even have rice vinegar in case we ever want to make sticky rice for sushi. Yeah. Right. Like that's going to happen anytime soon!

I started reading through the labels, checking for expiration dates and maybe a hint as to what I could do with them. Some of these random ingredients have recipes on the back. Also, somewhere in my reading I learned that corn starch can sometimes be used in place of flour. On the back of the box of the spare vanilla extract (yes, we have 2 little bottles for some unknown reason), there was a recipe for sugar cookies.

As I read the ingredients, I realized we had everything but the butter and baking soda. So, industrious little me went to Publix, acquired the missing ingredients, enlisted Ryan's help and set to baking. We replaced 2 1/3 cups of flour with a little over 1 cup of corn starch, mixed all the other ingredients together as directed, placed the mix into the fridge, waited 2 hours for the dough to firm and then got it ready for the oven. The timer was set for 10 minutes and we waited impatiently, anxiously awaiting our sure-to-be-delicious sugar cookies. What we found when the timer went off and opened the stove was pure disaster:
That looks nothing like delicious, fresh baked sugar cookies! Apparently, I cannot be trusted in the kitchen. Unfortunately for Ryan, I also cannot stay away from baking endeavors.

Needless to say our carmelized sugar and slowly burning batter set off the fire alarm:
Turns out, you can only replace flour with corn starch when you are using it to thicken sauces and gravies. Hence the overflowing sugar gobs and fire alarm. And to make things even more entertaining, I later found a HUGE-MONGOUS box of baking soda.

Silver lining? The stove received a very thorough cleaning. We finished one bottle of vanilla extract and half the container of cream of tartar, though I am still not sure what it does.

We tried again today and the results were decidedly better:

Next week, we're going to try making pecan pie...

Randomness

I have to say it: I love my job. It is challenging every day to keep my patience and maintain some semblance of sanity amidst the sea of 100+ children for 3 hours a day Monday through Friday, but somehow it fits me well. Of course, I am only in my 4th week, so things are still new and different, yet the fact that every day is somewhat different from the day before makes me think that it won't get old super fast.

Unfortunately, the school is undergoing construction, which means there is no playground accessible. This seems tragically unfair because what school day is complete without expending a little bit of energy on the swingset or the monkey bars? Enter the challenging aspect of my job: No outdoor playtime = cabin-fever Pre-k thru 5th graders. Eek! It's also a shame because the weather has taken a turn for the lovely here in Florida these last couple of days. A beautiful cold front has brought bright, sunshiny days, a cool breeze and a cool temperature of 65-70 degress. It would be great to play outside in this weather!

Fall is my favorite season, hands down. Hot chocolate, warm, fuzzy slippers, hoodies - who doesn't look good in one? The always-funny trick of placing icy cold fingers on your beloved's back is also a perk of fall.

And now, here is a bug:

We found this big guy by the mail boxes the other day. Also in the picture is Ryan's lovely hand as a size comparison. If you can, click on the picture and check out the intricate details of the moth's wings. It was really incredible.

Thank you. Goodnight.

Wahooo! I finished my homework and turned in my assignments on time!

In other news, I am utterly exhausted. Last night I was up until the wee hours of the morning, tossing and turning. Mostly, I was just stuck inside my own head, worrying. Apparently for me, the terrorists aren't foreigners threatening the safety of our nation, but locals who seem not to care about people in general. I received an email the other day from UCF - one of those general letters to students about safety. It spoke of an armed robbery that happened last week, not 10 miles away from where I live. 2 men held another man at gun point, forced him to drive to an atm, withdraw money and then drop them off at another point. He only received a sharp blow to the head when the robbers first got to him, but the stress of the situation must have been through the roof! Of course, there will be violence wherever I choose to live, it is inescapable. But sometimes, the fear of that type of situation, especially so close to home (literally), can really shake my world.

Ryan's suggestion is to "just think about something else". Easier said than done my friend, easier said than done. My efforts to think of something else had me watching a show about "Amazing Cakes" at 4am. Clearly, that is not conducive to a good night's sleep.