One of the Things I Dread Most...

...is occuring tomorrow. I have my first observation by the principal, and I have NO IDEA WHAT SHE WANTS OR IS LOOKING FOR. And, quite frankly, I don't know if she knows what to look for either. I have 9 autistic kindergarteners who function somewhere around the mental age of 18 months up to 3 years. Does she even know what we do over in the "autistic wing"? I think she TRIES, really honestly TRIES...

...but I'm not convinced she knows the full extent of the disability or the teaching required for the students. So I figure this is either really bad for me or really good for me. If she knows nothing of these kids and expects them to function REALLY WELL during my circletime, I'm going to bomb out on this observation. If she thinks they can't do much of anything, I'm hoping she'll be surprised to find they CAN do stuff and that my delivery is good.

Then again, if she is perhaps knowledgeable enough to be realistic, maybe she'll have osme good tips and suggestions. And THEN maybe she'll think I'm either legitimately a really good teacher (I HOPE) or that I legitimately JUST SUCK (I HOPE NOT).

So keep your prayers going and fingers crossed for me tomorrow. I'll let you know how I think it went.

Typhoid Carrie

If you all take note of Kate's February 19th blog, you'll see that I survived all but Paul in the Oregon Trail game, much to the dismay of the fellow passengers aboard the wagon.

I hear that they were all cheering upon my death. And now I've been dubbed "Typhoid Carrie" and have been offered the domain name.

Nice to have such loving friends. :P

Finally, it Works!

My Meade telescope with the dysfunctional mounting arm that, upon "repair," totally fell apart WORKED for the first time tonight with a totally new mounting arm.

Too bad it was cloudy outside and too bright, so I saw absolutely nothing. I need to live out in the country somewhere; it's so cool having that thing track a star FOR ME. A telescope for idiots, til I start figuring out WHERE the stars are on my own.

And jeez, I can't find north. I mean, I have a vague idea, but I'm not good at it.

But anyway, if anyone out there is reading and cares, it works. Seems I've scared away everyone it's been so long since I've written anything...

For Valentine's Day...

...I celebrated by giving my kids in my class Valentine cards and cookies and giving my mother a night out to a resturaunt of her choice (since Dad is still in New Orleans).

I didn't do anything else for Valentine's. Quite honestly, it is NOT my favorite holiday of the year. That probably sounds terrible, but there are logical reasons.


A. I'm single. My valentines are of the "I care about you nature. (And FYI, I care about you guys that actually take the time to come read here, and I was remiss this year in not letting you know that).

B. Valentine's is highly commercialized to fit those who are "couples" or "in love" or some such scenario. That's not me. Dont' get me wrong, I'd LOVE to be in Love...but I don't see it happening in the near future, if ever at all. I don't necessarily always feel all that loveable.

C. Everyone always wants to know what you are "going to do on Valentine's day". Geez, peoople. I don't do anything on ANY day hardly. I've got no friends here in Florida. So of course I really don't want to talk about what I'm NOT doing on V-day. Because, of course, I'm not doing anything.

D. Valentine's seems to be a way to remind me that, "hey, you'd really LIKE to be doing something or in love, but you aren't.

I try to get past all of this stuff really, and I guess I'm not good at it. I also suppose I'm feeling kinda down because, with work and school I rarely have time for anything else. And, on top of that, I don't always feel that Mom understands that I have to put my school work first at times she thinks I should be putting "housework" or "cleaning" first. I love helping her out, and I really feel that hey, since I'm living here without rent, I should do that. But then there are times that I know I better get done what I have due for the week, or my grades are going down.

::shrugs:: I also miss talking to you guys on line...alot. Which I think I mentioned in the last post, so you'd better believe it. I hope you don't think I'm ignoring you, and man would I like to spend more time chatting. Sometimes it's just easier of you give me a buzz first...

...but then, I know some of you have tried, I've gotten your IMs after you've come and gone from AIM. And thanks for checking in on me, it's the few of you that makes Valentine's day mean anything at all to me (other than my kids in my classroom, of course, who need all the love they can get to face the trials that lay ahead).

So anyway, this is my V-day rant/thoughts. Thanks for tuning in.

If anyone cares to know...

I'm not dead. Just slammed with tons of things to do. Writing lesson plans. Learning to write Individual Education Plans and manuever the program to do so. Tons of school work, some seemingly irrelevant and/or busy work.

No social life. Not that I've had one to begin with, but now there's not even hardly time to talk to anyone online. And when I am around, sometimes no one else is. That's just how it is, I supposed, but it still sucks. And it will keep sucking til May, when I at least get finished with college for a while and get to take a little sanity break even if school isn't out til May 31st.

So in the meantime, just FYI, I haven't fallen from the face of the earth. Not that a large majority of the world wide web cares, but I think some of you do.

Hope everyone else is doing ok???