The last Friday of October is a state holiday, which means that students do not have school. It also apparently means that parents want to go out. I am watching two little boys who have never had a sitter before (they are 4 and 8), along with one of B’s close friends tonight. They’re watching Surf’s Up and eating popcorn while I sit in the kitchen (like five feet away) working on the portfolio that I have to complete before I can student teach.

I have to write a “philosophy of education” that is 3-4 pages long or so. The main problem with that is that if I truly write what I believe, I’ll never be allowed to student teach through the university. I wholeheartedly believe in a child led learning environment. One that is frowned upon by current legislature (thanks a lot NCLB). Meaning that I have to phrase my essay in such a way as I can get away with stating my beliefs without stepping on any toes. Isn’t that what life is all about? Saying what the administration wants you to believe?

I also have to rewrite the domains. Which I’ve now done like three million times. Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to come with a new way to say what you’ve already said 10 or 15 times (seriously, this project is ridiculous, it makes me hyperventilate just looking at it – doesn’t that seem like a good sign for the upcoming semester?). I kind of began to brainstorm a little bit, but it could be A LOT better, if I cared at all.

This project isn’t due until December 7^th, but I’d like to be done within the next couple of weeks if possible (should be, I’m not taking any courses that will change what I need to include). Graduation is December 8^th. If I don’t have to be on campus the day before, that’d be great.

I have the opportunity to hand out John Edwards flyers, stickers and signs tomorrow for the parade in the capital city, but I’d have to be up at like 545 in order to get to the meeting point by 7 and I’m not sure that I want to. I typically avoid this parade like the plague. We’ll see how late I work before I make that decision. I want to get involved and this is probably the best opportunity I’ll have for a while.

Update – worked until like 1130 and coughed until like 1230am at which point I gave up and took Nyquil, therefore, did not get out of bed in the morning. On the bright side, I earned $100 last night – I think I’m going to buy myself a Hanna Andersson skirt that I’ve had my eyes on for a while now.

Sorry about the scarcity of posts lately. Ever since the wireless adaptor died a week or so ago, it takes FOREVER for Blogger to load, and my only option is the dial-up internet that I so despise.

So, what's going on in my life?

Well, I've been working. But I also managed to get an ear infection and/or strep throat last week, so I only worked 2 instead of 4 days. I worked the last two days, but didn't wake up when the phone rang this morning, so I didn't work today. It'll all work out though, I'll probably work tomorrow and then Friday's a holiday which is nice.

I've also been waiting for a paycheck. I get paid on the 31st for the work that I did the 1st through the 12th. I managed to overdraw my bank account on Monday, making it a little more difficult to to make my car payment. But it'll all work out in the long run.

Oh and I've been working on addressing graduation announcements. Let me just say that it's much quicker the second time around. When you do them for high school, it's really time consuming because you have to concentrate on the etiquette. This time? I only needed a quick refresher. I'm about 1/2 way done with the fifty that I'm sending out. Technically it says to send them out 2 weeks before the event, but by then it's Thanksgiving and several of mine have to go to Canada which means that they'll take that much longer. The biggest problem I'm running into is that several family members and close family friends are in the centre of the evacuated area in Southern California - making it difficult to plan to send announcements to them right now. I think I'll hold off on those until things calm down.

Rural Schooling

"Rural America has been ignored for too long. The neglect of South Carolina's rural schools illustrates the tragic consequences of a country that has turned its back on these communities. When I'm elected, that is going to end." - John Edwards

This resonants so much with me. From fourth grade through high school I attended school in a rural county and I experienced first hand the inequalities of education. My school district, while small, was far from the smallest in the state (that's what happens when you live in one of least populated states in the nation, and even when you lose that title all of the population is centred in one area close to five hundred miles away). My graduating high school class at 120 or so, but that covered close to a fifty miles radius where the students were coming from. My best friend? 30 in her class, less than 10 miles away, but in a different county.

Our schools were discounted on so many levels, especially hers. When your teams have to travel at the very least 45 minutes to get to a rival school for any sport (or 2-3 hours for my friend), students are missing a lot of class. But they also are missing a lot of opportunity. If you don't have the resources in your community to provide college prep to your students, then you are bound to have a low college attendance rate (10-15% of the students from my school went on to a four year school, most dropped out within the first two semesters). I am one of few who went to university and graduated in four years. Most take at least five. Why?

Let's talk financially. Yes, scholarships are awarded on need basis often. But, they also look at things such as extracurriculars. It's hard to participate in any kind of extracurricular when 1) the nearest city is 25 miles away and there's no public transportation of any kind and/or 2) your parent(s) work in that city (or the one 50 miles away) and are not too willing to drive you there when they get home after 6pm. This all amounts to students earning fewer scholarships than those in cities with great opportunities.

The disadvantages are clear. Changes need to be made. The country needs to realize that rural students and schools count too.

*Yes I am aware, that some of this is evident in ANY community, but his quote hit me hard. And this post came out one night.
Oh, and no, I do not live in South Carolina. But, that doesn't really matter does it? The point is that rural America is ignored. And we have the opportunity to elect a president who realizes this and CARES enough to do something about it.*

Any ideas what I can do about a wireless adapter that the computer no longer seems to acknowledge?

As of about Tuesday, the wireless driver seems to have disappeared from my computer. I've tried to System Restore, but it's not helping. Should I just suck it up and buy a USB one at Best Buy?

It's an HP Pavilion if that makes any difference?

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been working a lot. I've had seven job positions in the past two weeks, and three more lined up within the next couple weeks.

So far, I like subbing - even if some of the classes have been completely out of control. They're young enough that it's not that difficult to get them to behave. The look on the faces of a class of children when you erase a letter from their "extra recess" award? Well, truly? It's kind of sad. But so effective. For about 15 minutes anyhow, but sometimes that's all it takes.

On Friday, I will sub in B's classroom. I told his mom today, but she's not going to tell him. It'll be interesting because he'll have to call me Miss (my last name), whereas he's probably never even heard my last name. And I won't get to call him any of my pet names for him.

Um, I don't have much else to say. I need some interesting blog topics, but I've been boring lately. There's bound to be some blog fodder at some point in the near future though, right?

Seriously?

I am currently babysitting for my friend and her cousin (whom I guess I could call a friend as well). With their boyfriends. Why? Because apparently they decided to have a girls' night - but to not bother to tell me. Not like I could afford to go out (despite the work, I won't get paid until the 31st, which is technically a State holiday so maybe even November 1st), but I also couldn't really afford the gas to get up here if I didn't need to come.

2 sleeping children, 3 adults. By the time that it became clear this was going to be the situation, it was too late for me to drive home. Argh. It's really frustrating.

Today's first graders (even though I KNOW the lady said 2nd, or even 3rd, over the phone) were wild, rambunctious and completely out of control. I made them sit at their tables (NOT desks, as I was corrected by them) with their heads down before I could move on from one activity to another - it was that bad. And, it didn't show up in the computer system, so I'm not sure how they know that I was there. If it's not there on Monday, I'll email the administrator to check.

I'm tired, but I kind of don't want to go to sleep yet. Maybe I'll find a book to read or something.

Who would have thought?

When I applied to sub, I expected to have a lot of calls from the district that I attended school in (last year they had six available subs between the two schools, now there are three schools, if the numbers didn't go up, then you have to presume that they would be desperate!). However, I didn't expect to work everyday in the other district where I applied. Everyone that I had heard from in the past indicated that they didn't get called very often when they were on the list there.

I applied last Wednesday. My first call came Friday (I couldn't go, I'd agreed to babysit weeks before). My second call? Monday morning at 730am (I got there five minutes after 8, considering it's a twenty to thirty minute drive, that's pretty good). My third call - Tuesday at 945 (right after I'd agreed to pick up K at 1130, so I didn't go). Yesterday was my second job. Today, I had a call at 5am which I denied (I didn't want to accept a half day position if there was a full day one available later and it was kindergarten, I'm not sure that I want to sub in kindergarten ever), followed by one at 9am asking for the afternoon with a second grade class. I accepted. Meaning that six days of availability I could have worked five of them. In the district that people hadn't been getting calls from.

I also have positions lined up for the 11th and 23rd of this month, second and third grade at my favourite school in the district (I say favourite, but maybe I should say the one that I have spent the most time with making me more comfortable there?).

Yay for working!

I'm coming back

I've pretty much settled on coming back over here to blog. I found the other one frustrating, and I've decided that I don't really have any thing to lose. The title's going to have to change though, since I'm not nannying right now or for the foreseeable future. I've substitute taught once and hopefully will have more job offers in the next couple days. On top of the sub positions, I have been doing some babysitting, but not near as much as I did over the last four years. Kids are growing up and I'm not as much in demand.

Expect to see the blog up in full force within the next couple of days (or week at most).