I'm really good at this updating thing . . . ;o)
So, it's been a while. I'm not too sure I have anything super important to say. I think the main reason that I'm updating is because it gives me something new to do.
I got my first teaching job as a long-term substitute for Selinsgrove and Jackson Penn Elementary Schools. I'll be teaching 1st and 2nd grade music and I am beyond thrilled about it!! The catch, though, is that I have to wait for her to have the baby. She's due Feb. 26th and so she's planning on staying there until Feb. 24th, which means I don't start until Feb. 27th.
In all professional seriousness, she sucks. The kids don't sing and they do work sheets and she spends more time telling them the musical terms for dynamics and how the vibrations in the vocal chords (which in reality are folds, not chords) make sound. They're in first and second grade!! They should be singing and playing instruments and doing dances and learning through discovery and there is absolutely no reason they should be learning difficult terms and the science behind sound. Seriously. Leave already!! Ok, enough of that.
I just so desperately want to get into the classroom and teach again. I had experienced what I am truly passionate about and really good at (said in all appropriate humility) and I miss being away from it. I miss the looks on the faces when the kids get it. I miss the fun of teaching a song with movements and listening to and watching the kids do it. I miss the unexplainable joy of working with a child with disabilities of any and all sorts and that one moment when you finally connect with them. I just want to be teaching again.
I also need to be making money, because the cold, hard truth is that I have rent and many many bills to pay and my Gap salary isn't going to come close to covering the cost of living. And speaking of Gap, they only gave me 8.5 hours this week and I'm kind of pissed off. I know it's because they're cutting back on hours all around because it's an off season right now for retail. None the less, it still sucks.
What is worse though, is sitting at home with nothing to do. I'm not cut out for that kind of living. I have to be busy; all the time. If I have an extra hour in the day, I'm going to fill it with something. I'm always looking for things to do and ways to keep busy and I'm never really satisfied with a day spent sitting around watching tv and not doing anything productive. It's just not in me to be that way. So sitting at home for 2 weeks, and very possibly another 2 weeks, waiting for a call saying she went into labor and I can start teaching is getting to be unbearable.
However, one good thing has come about from all this sitting around. I've started to get into reading. I'm losing myself in the characters of these great books and I'm absolutely loving it. I went out to the mall last night to buy a new book because I had read all the ones I have (or at least the ones I want to read) and I couldn't bear the thought of sitting in the apartment all night without a book to read. So, my literature list as of the last 10 days looks like this:
Ophelia's Fan, Christine Balint
Can You Keep A Secret?, Sophie Kinsella
The Other Boleyn Girl, Phillippa Gregory
The last one I bought last night and am already quite into it. I would recommend any of those. The first and last are historical fiction, which I just adore, and the middle is a witty, modern, romantic comedy by the same author who used me as inspiration for her other books, The Shopaholic Series. Ok, so I know you're skeptical about her using me as inspiration, but you can't prove that she didn't. ;o)
I have 30 minutes to read some more before I get ready and head out to Mass.
Toodles! And who knows, you might be seeing me on here more often . . .
I got my first teaching job as a long-term substitute for Selinsgrove and Jackson Penn Elementary Schools. I'll be teaching 1st and 2nd grade music and I am beyond thrilled about it!! The catch, though, is that I have to wait for her to have the baby. She's due Feb. 26th and so she's planning on staying there until Feb. 24th, which means I don't start until Feb. 27th.
In all professional seriousness, she sucks. The kids don't sing and they do work sheets and she spends more time telling them the musical terms for dynamics and how the vibrations in the vocal chords (which in reality are folds, not chords) make sound. They're in first and second grade!! They should be singing and playing instruments and doing dances and learning through discovery and there is absolutely no reason they should be learning difficult terms and the science behind sound. Seriously. Leave already!! Ok, enough of that.
I just so desperately want to get into the classroom and teach again. I had experienced what I am truly passionate about and really good at (said in all appropriate humility) and I miss being away from it. I miss the looks on the faces when the kids get it. I miss the fun of teaching a song with movements and listening to and watching the kids do it. I miss the unexplainable joy of working with a child with disabilities of any and all sorts and that one moment when you finally connect with them. I just want to be teaching again.
I also need to be making money, because the cold, hard truth is that I have rent and many many bills to pay and my Gap salary isn't going to come close to covering the cost of living. And speaking of Gap, they only gave me 8.5 hours this week and I'm kind of pissed off. I know it's because they're cutting back on hours all around because it's an off season right now for retail. None the less, it still sucks.
What is worse though, is sitting at home with nothing to do. I'm not cut out for that kind of living. I have to be busy; all the time. If I have an extra hour in the day, I'm going to fill it with something. I'm always looking for things to do and ways to keep busy and I'm never really satisfied with a day spent sitting around watching tv and not doing anything productive. It's just not in me to be that way. So sitting at home for 2 weeks, and very possibly another 2 weeks, waiting for a call saying she went into labor and I can start teaching is getting to be unbearable.
However, one good thing has come about from all this sitting around. I've started to get into reading. I'm losing myself in the characters of these great books and I'm absolutely loving it. I went out to the mall last night to buy a new book because I had read all the ones I have (or at least the ones I want to read) and I couldn't bear the thought of sitting in the apartment all night without a book to read. So, my literature list as of the last 10 days looks like this:
Ophelia's Fan, Christine Balint
Can You Keep A Secret?, Sophie Kinsella
The Other Boleyn Girl, Phillippa Gregory
The last one I bought last night and am already quite into it. I would recommend any of those. The first and last are historical fiction, which I just adore, and the middle is a witty, modern, romantic comedy by the same author who used me as inspiration for her other books, The Shopaholic Series. Ok, so I know you're skeptical about her using me as inspiration, but you can't prove that she didn't. ;o)
I have 30 minutes to read some more before I get ready and head out to Mass.
Toodles! And who knows, you might be seeing me on here more often . . .