I have this strange habit of flipping through the channels and getting stuck on the Spanish channels. I can't help it, I just get sucked in! I don't know why but the Spanish news especially seems so much more interesting. I always want to know what is going on!! It takes me a minute or so to realize I'm watching in Spanish, and then I finally move on. Anyone else have this problem?
Oh, and did you know that they have Sesame Street en Espanol too? Yep, it's called Plaza Sesamo and Big Bird is not yellow, he is a festive pink, green, and red. I'm telling you, the Spanish channel is a whole other wonderful world. :)
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Morning commute
The drive to work this morning has some interesting sights...
I pulled up to the stop sign at the end of my street and when I looked to the left I saw a woman riding her bike to work followed closely behind by a man on a GIANT UNICYCLE. It was such a funny sight that I couldn't help but laugh. The best part is the guy has a great handlebar mustache. I love it! Who rides a unicycle to work? Can you imagine this guy pulling up to the bike rack in front of his office building downtown and locking up his unicycle? Do you think he has to take the wheel off and bring it to his cubicle with him like other bikers? :)
The other exceptionally odd thing I saw was down the street from my school. Almost every morning I see a man in his 40's sitting outside in a camp chair with sunglasses, plaid PJ's and a thing of coffee just sitting there staring at the sun. It is so odd...he just sits there and stares! It totally cracks me up. If you are ever in Broomfield early in the morning I suggest taking a slight detour to catch a glimpse of my morning amusement. Careful though...I have a feeling he may bite. :)
I pulled up to the stop sign at the end of my street and when I looked to the left I saw a woman riding her bike to work followed closely behind by a man on a GIANT UNICYCLE. It was such a funny sight that I couldn't help but laugh. The best part is the guy has a great handlebar mustache. I love it! Who rides a unicycle to work? Can you imagine this guy pulling up to the bike rack in front of his office building downtown and locking up his unicycle? Do you think he has to take the wheel off and bring it to his cubicle with him like other bikers? :)
The other exceptionally odd thing I saw was down the street from my school. Almost every morning I see a man in his 40's sitting outside in a camp chair with sunglasses, plaid PJ's and a thing of coffee just sitting there staring at the sun. It is so odd...he just sits there and stares! It totally cracks me up. If you are ever in Broomfield early in the morning I suggest taking a slight detour to catch a glimpse of my morning amusement. Careful though...I have a feeling he may bite. :)
TGIF
This week has been extremely long and tiring. I had parent/teacher conferences Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights from 3:00-8:00 and I also had to get a sub for Tuesday during the day so that I could fit in all of my conferences. Although I mostly enjoyed the 40 conferences I had, they wipe me out! It's hard to be "on" and talking from 7:30AM-8:00PM three days in a row, and still have the energy to teach the next day. Needless to say, I am very glad the week is over and am looking forward to sleeping in a little tomorrow morning.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Back by popular demand.
And by popular demand, I mean Mariko. :) Ok, so I admit it--I kinda forgot about having a blog. I warned you that I may not be very good at this. Let's see...last I left you I was near death in the never-ending cold.
Well, I finally am on the mend from that darn "cold." I started to feel a little better after about a week and a half of being sick and was even able to muster up the energy to go to sushi (which was delicious, by the way) with Kelly and Mike on a Friday night. I thought I would be back to "normal" by Monday, but ended up getting much worse on Saturday and spent the day in bed under a mountain of blankets despite the fact that it was 80 outside. By Sunday I could hardly talk and was absolutely miserable. I stayed home on Monday and went to the Dr. who said it was just a virus that was going around and told me to "drink lots and I hope you feel better." I was completely frustrated because it clearly was not just a virus and many of the other teachers had similar symptoms and they were all prescribed antibiotics and were better in 3 days. I tried calling back that night, but the Dr. refused to do anything that would actually help me. Two days later I still was feeling terrible, but I decided I would attempt to go to school and teach.
By the end of the day my students were saying to each other, "Poor Ms. Murphy, I feel so bad for her." I had no voice and my students were very aware of the fact that my condition was deteriorating despite my failed attempts to mask my misery. It was really sweet though, they kept offering to take care of me. One even told me that I could go to her house and she would "take real good care of me." She said I could lay on the couch and she would bring me "nice cold coffee and make me comfy." It was pretty darn cute and nice to know that they care so much about me. I ended up going to the Dr. again (a different one) that night. Turns out I was right and the other Dr. was wrong. I did not have a virus! The new Dr. (who is now my favorite Dr.) spent over an hour trying to figure out how to help me get better and making sure she covered everything. (The other Dr. spent 5 minutes with me). Since I was have a really hard time breathing I ended up getting a breathing treatment in the office, and then was prescribed a very high dose of antibiotics as well as an inhaler and codeine. It was nice that this Dr. actually took time to talk to me and allowed me to ask her questions and fill her in. As soon as she found out I taught Kindergarten she said, "Wow! Okay, well you practically work in a petri dish, I'm going to double the antibiotics." See! If the other guy would have even taken a moment to ask me about anything he would have probably had a different perspective.
Anyway, to make an already too long story short, I took the med. and slept from 10pm to 1pm and began to feel better shortly after. I am now pretty much back, but I still cough when I talk and start to lose my voice some by the end of the day.
Okay, on to other things...
School has been going really well, but I'm back to another really busy time. I have conferences next week and am already tired just thinking about them. I have to take a sub day to fit all my students in (since I have 2 classes- 45 students) so I will have conferences all day Tuesday and then after school from 3-8 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I pretty much go non-stop all evening with one 20 minute break one night, and a 40 minute break the other 2 nights. I like to get them all over with at once, but it is so hard on you after teaching all day!
Other school-related things:
I am very excited about my new project I am doing called Take My Teacher Home. I applied to be a part of this grant and was one of only 5 teachers in the district selected. Basically what I do is record 30 minutes lessons that include poetry, literature, songs, vocab, and letter/sound recognition activities. I then load the lessons onto iPod Shuffles and send them home in a bag full of supporting materials with my lowest achieving students. It is a fantastic program and I am so excited to be a part of it. Of course, it is a lot of work right now too- I have to create the materials and record the lessons and maintain the bags. Each week I send home new materials and record new lessons. I will be excited to have it all done so I can just use it all again next year. I have so many new ideas to use with it too- it's an amazing intervention and I know my students will show a lot of growth! (Can you tell I am passionate about what I do??) :)
I also had my first evaluation with my new principal. I LOVE her, she is exactly what our school needed and the type of person you want to work for. I have always enjoyed coming to school and teaching, but now you can feel it through the whole building. Everyone is happy and excited about the changes and improvements that are taking place at school. Anyway, Tracy observed a shape lesson I did two Friday's ago. (I know, I know, it sounds simple, but you have no idea how much it takes). I got my feedback and it was nothing but praise. When I met with her for my post eval. she raved about the lesson and how smoothly my class runs. The best compliment was when she asked if I had only taught Kinder. When I said yes, she was like, so this is your 3rd year teaching total? When I said yes again, she said wow, and let me know that it was amazing for only being a third year teacher. :) It's so great to be appreciated and to know that I am doing a good job. As you know, I pour my heart into this job and am constantly trying to improve, so it's a great reassurance to know someone believes in you and that you are doing the right thing.
On to other things...
Kickball came to a close last weekend. Even though we lost, it was a fun Saturday. We ended up staying and watching the other teams and then later that evening we had our party at a local bar. I love my team, and it was fun to see them outside of our blue shirts. I think Saturday night was the first time any of them ever saw me with my hair down. :) I'll miss seeing everyone every week, but I'm sure I will see them at some point during the off-season.
I don't have much planned for this weekend, but it is supposed to be cool, so I am totally planning on getting out my big comforter and sleeping in on Saturday. I have been looking forward to sleeping in all week long!
I just found out that my Uncle Randy is coming out next Thursday-Tuesday and I could not be happier--well, if my whole family was coming I would be happier, but I'll take whatever I can get! I haven't seen him in almost 2 years now! I can't believe it has been that long! I'm very excited to see him!!
Well, now it is late, and this is really long, so I am off to bed. I will update more soon. Hopefully I will have something more exciting going on by then!
Well, I finally am on the mend from that darn "cold." I started to feel a little better after about a week and a half of being sick and was even able to muster up the energy to go to sushi (which was delicious, by the way) with Kelly and Mike on a Friday night. I thought I would be back to "normal" by Monday, but ended up getting much worse on Saturday and spent the day in bed under a mountain of blankets despite the fact that it was 80 outside. By Sunday I could hardly talk and was absolutely miserable. I stayed home on Monday and went to the Dr. who said it was just a virus that was going around and told me to "drink lots and I hope you feel better." I was completely frustrated because it clearly was not just a virus and many of the other teachers had similar symptoms and they were all prescribed antibiotics and were better in 3 days. I tried calling back that night, but the Dr. refused to do anything that would actually help me. Two days later I still was feeling terrible, but I decided I would attempt to go to school and teach.
By the end of the day my students were saying to each other, "Poor Ms. Murphy, I feel so bad for her." I had no voice and my students were very aware of the fact that my condition was deteriorating despite my failed attempts to mask my misery. It was really sweet though, they kept offering to take care of me. One even told me that I could go to her house and she would "take real good care of me." She said I could lay on the couch and she would bring me "nice cold coffee and make me comfy." It was pretty darn cute and nice to know that they care so much about me. I ended up going to the Dr. again (a different one) that night. Turns out I was right and the other Dr. was wrong. I did not have a virus! The new Dr. (who is now my favorite Dr.) spent over an hour trying to figure out how to help me get better and making sure she covered everything. (The other Dr. spent 5 minutes with me). Since I was have a really hard time breathing I ended up getting a breathing treatment in the office, and then was prescribed a very high dose of antibiotics as well as an inhaler and codeine. It was nice that this Dr. actually took time to talk to me and allowed me to ask her questions and fill her in. As soon as she found out I taught Kindergarten she said, "Wow! Okay, well you practically work in a petri dish, I'm going to double the antibiotics." See! If the other guy would have even taken a moment to ask me about anything he would have probably had a different perspective.
Anyway, to make an already too long story short, I took the med. and slept from 10pm to 1pm and began to feel better shortly after. I am now pretty much back, but I still cough when I talk and start to lose my voice some by the end of the day.
Okay, on to other things...
School has been going really well, but I'm back to another really busy time. I have conferences next week and am already tired just thinking about them. I have to take a sub day to fit all my students in (since I have 2 classes- 45 students) so I will have conferences all day Tuesday and then after school from 3-8 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I pretty much go non-stop all evening with one 20 minute break one night, and a 40 minute break the other 2 nights. I like to get them all over with at once, but it is so hard on you after teaching all day!
Other school-related things:
I am very excited about my new project I am doing called Take My Teacher Home. I applied to be a part of this grant and was one of only 5 teachers in the district selected. Basically what I do is record 30 minutes lessons that include poetry, literature, songs, vocab, and letter/sound recognition activities. I then load the lessons onto iPod Shuffles and send them home in a bag full of supporting materials with my lowest achieving students. It is a fantastic program and I am so excited to be a part of it. Of course, it is a lot of work right now too- I have to create the materials and record the lessons and maintain the bags. Each week I send home new materials and record new lessons. I will be excited to have it all done so I can just use it all again next year. I have so many new ideas to use with it too- it's an amazing intervention and I know my students will show a lot of growth! (Can you tell I am passionate about what I do??) :)
I also had my first evaluation with my new principal. I LOVE her, she is exactly what our school needed and the type of person you want to work for. I have always enjoyed coming to school and teaching, but now you can feel it through the whole building. Everyone is happy and excited about the changes and improvements that are taking place at school. Anyway, Tracy observed a shape lesson I did two Friday's ago. (I know, I know, it sounds simple, but you have no idea how much it takes). I got my feedback and it was nothing but praise. When I met with her for my post eval. she raved about the lesson and how smoothly my class runs. The best compliment was when she asked if I had only taught Kinder. When I said yes, she was like, so this is your 3rd year teaching total? When I said yes again, she said wow, and let me know that it was amazing for only being a third year teacher. :) It's so great to be appreciated and to know that I am doing a good job. As you know, I pour my heart into this job and am constantly trying to improve, so it's a great reassurance to know someone believes in you and that you are doing the right thing.
On to other things...
Kickball came to a close last weekend. Even though we lost, it was a fun Saturday. We ended up staying and watching the other teams and then later that evening we had our party at a local bar. I love my team, and it was fun to see them outside of our blue shirts. I think Saturday night was the first time any of them ever saw me with my hair down. :) I'll miss seeing everyone every week, but I'm sure I will see them at some point during the off-season.
I don't have much planned for this weekend, but it is supposed to be cool, so I am totally planning on getting out my big comforter and sleeping in on Saturday. I have been looking forward to sleeping in all week long!
I just found out that my Uncle Randy is coming out next Thursday-Tuesday and I could not be happier--well, if my whole family was coming I would be happier, but I'll take whatever I can get! I haven't seen him in almost 2 years now! I can't believe it has been that long! I'm very excited to see him!!
Well, now it is late, and this is really long, so I am off to bed. I will update more soon. Hopefully I will have something more exciting going on by then!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)