High-Heeled Traitor

I realize that it has been a while since I have posted and I will do my best to give you an update about what has happened recently.

Student teaching has kept me incredibly busy.  I am now officially in charge of the following subjects:

• Handwriting 3 and 4
• Spelling 4
• English 4
• Math 4
• Science 3 and 4
• Reading 3 and 4
• History 3 and 4

For those of you who didn’t count, that is 11 subjects! ¬†Last week SFC had our Stanford Achievement Tests. ¬†I was completely in charge of 3rd grades tests which was kind of fun. ¬†Instead of boring you with ¬†useless info on my life I will tell you a story.

I always, always, always were flats to work. ¬†If you think about it, it makes sense to wear flats because I am constantly walking around the room. ¬†Wearing heels is just impractical. ¬†Well on Tuesday I decided to break with tradition and wear heels. ¬†Oh, and not just any heels! ¬†I wore my brown heels (the nice tall ones). ¬†I really didn’t think any of my students would notice… boy was I wrong!

At 8am I entered the gym to pick up my classes and the girls immediately noticed my change of footwear. ¬†The boys were completely clueless as to what the girls were oo-ing and aw-ing. For the sake of those poor boys I pointed out my shoes… they weren’t too impressed (go figure).

Like I stated before, I was in charge of 3rd grades SATs. ¬†We happened to be taking the tests in separate classroom from 4th grade. ¬†In between two of the tests I took the 3rd grade outside for snack/free-time. ¬†The class was enjoying running around, when one of the 4th graders walked past on his way to the restroom. ¬†Well, apparently he wasn’t too thrilled that 3rd grade got to be outside while he was stuck inside during his free time. ¬†He decided to get his revenge on my by calling me a “high-heeled traitor.” ¬†:)

Student Teaching

This week commenced my student teaching at SFCS.  Currently I am observing the third and fourth grade class which is taught by Mrs. Becky Wilson.

There was no school on Monday because of MLK Jr Day therefore my first day of work was Tuesday. ¬†My first order of business was attending the teacher’s meeting then I had a meeting with Mr. Asire (my boss). ¬†I was then introduced to my class and began observing. ¬†I really didn’t do anything my first day other than sit in the back of the class and watch.

SFCS uses traditional curriculum as opposed to an ACE-style.  The because of the number of students they have combined third and fourth grade.  For half of the day the third grade class is in another room with another teacher, during the other half Mrs. Wilson is having to balance two classes in one room.  As of two weeks the class of 24 was meeting in another smaller room, but after gaining 2 students and a student teacher the administration decided to move the class into another room.

This was the setting that I entered on Tuesday morning. ¬†The classroom still had not been put together, their teacher wasn’t feeling well, not to mention we had stormy weather outside. ¬†All things considered Tuesday was a good day. ¬†Wednesday was very similar. Thursday, today, I have spent most of the day doing odd jobs: decorating the class, copying papers, etc.

Overall, it is nice to be home but I am still adjusting to this new stage in my life.

Piece of Cake

As you may already know, I am on Christmas Break. ¬†My family and I didn’t have much planned for today and so I decided to bake a cake. ¬†It wasn’t just any cake that I planned on making, I was going to make a Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cake. ¬†Some of my readers may be aware that “gluten-free” food often has a unique taste to it. ¬†For some individuals “gluten-free” is synonymous with s gross or “tastes like cardboard.” ¬†I’ll admit that many gluten-free products have an interesting flavor that requires the eater to become accustomed to it. ¬†Despite these factors against my cake I opted to make one anyways.

A couple hours later my cake had cooled and I tried a piece of it before making the frosting. ¬†Well, my GF cake didn’t disappoint… or maybe I should say that it did. ¬†Apparently it is too dry ¬†I’m not really sure what went wrong. ¬†I followed the directions, but maybe that was the problem. ¬†Now I’m stuck with a gluten free red velvet cake that no one will want to eat… except for me.

The moral of the story is this: ¬†I don’t know.

I suppose that the next time I attempt to make a GF red velvet cake I should use a different recipe.

The Modern Girl

The modern girl is your average American girl, who has her Ipod, laptop, blow drier, flat iron, curling iron, cell phone… you get the picture. To put it simply she is “plugged-into society.”¬† To this extent I would consider myself a “modern girl.” Unfortunately technology was not one of my favorite things this week.

On Sunday I was getting ready for church, I had already blowdried my hair and had my flat iron plugged in and warming up.¬† When I began to straighten my hair I realized that my straightener was not hot… it wasn’t even warm. In other words, my straightener had died, deceased, kicked the bucked,¬† was no more, passed on, perished, croaked, bereft of life, bought the farm, departed, expired, gone to meet its maker, lifeless, was pushing up daisies, dead.¬† To my horror I only had 15 more minutes before I had to leave for church. By the grace of God I was able to tame my hair into a manageable style.¬† Later that afternoon I purchased a replacement for my recently departed straightener… may it rest in peace.

On Tuesday I had a chapel presentation due.¬† Seeing that people are visual learners I made a PowerPoint display that coincided with the presentation.¬† I have enough technology savvy to know that I should expect the worst, consequently I provided myself with a large space of time to get my presentation up an running.¬† The projector was setup for me in the chapel and all I needed to do was plug in my computer and “have at it”.¬† So what did I do? I plugged in my computer and attempted to get my presentation to show up on the screen.¬† Long story short… it wasn’t working.¬† I returned to the office to ask if anyone knew how to do it… nope.¬† I texted my brothers… “pressed a bunch of keys until it works” or “i don’t know how to help you”¬† were my responses.¬† So I went and found some high schoolers from ACA, we were diagnosing the problem when my computer decided to freak-out.¬† First the mouse froze, then the screen went black.¬† I turned of my computer and restarted it.¬† The computer decided that it didn’t want to work and wouldn’t even make it to the password screen!¬† By this point I told the guys not to worry about it and I would just make my presentation without the PowerPoint.

Later that day….

I had just entered the dorm when I thought I heard my phone ringing.  When I grabbed my phone I realized that it was not ringing but rather had someone talking to me.  Apparently my phone decided to act of its own accord and call my manager on her cell phone.

Still later that day….

By this time I realized that technology was not on my side and that I should expect the worse when I went to work that evening, and technology did not disappoint me.  Soon after I arrived I was informed that certain individuals had ruined some of the night crews privileges.  During the evening while we are on our breaks we are often in the office on the computer playing spider solitaire.  Occasionally when it is ABSOLUTLY DEAD we will play it while we are on the clock, but this circumstance does not happen frequently.  Apparently an individual who usually works nights decided to play on the computer during lunch time and now all of the night crew gets punished for someones lack of thought.

Today is Thursday and so far I have not had any more technology drama, but you never know.  Stay tuned to find out more.

Christian Romance Novels

I have a love/hate relationship with them.  I am addicted to reading.  It was not always this way, in fact, I used to hate reading.  That all changed when I took an Honors English class my junior year of High School.  During that year, I had to read several classics including Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, The Scarlet Letter, Sense and Sensibility, Oliver Twist, Northanger Abbey, and the Red Badge of Courage. By the end of the year, I had gotten so used to always having a book with me that I went out and got the Count of Monte Christo. From that point on, I was a goner.  I learned early on in my college career that I should not read for pleasure during the school year because it sidetracked me from my schoolwork.  During semester breaks, you can usually find me reading a book.  I love to read classics.  My three favorite authors have to be Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Alexandre Dumas.

As much as I love classics I have found myself reading a lot of Christian romance novels recently, but like I said in my first sentence.  We have a love/hate relationship.  I love that they are easy reads.  You do not have to dissect and figure out analogies or metaphors.  You do not have to get through a chapter like “it was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.”  In addition, never do you find an author like Victor Hugo, who has to give you a history lesson on the geography and layout of Paris before he can continue his story.  Christian romances are simple, which happens to be the thing I hate about them.

It is nice to know that when I settle down with a book that I will finish it in a few days… perhaps even hours.  I do not have to worry about the language or questionable content.  I find it very hard to put down the book.  I have to know how they couple ends up together.  With the exception of maybe two or three books, the following are usually the case: you always know which characters are going to fall in love by the end of the first or second chapter; and the books are predictable, and there is never any great shock over the course of the story.

The books leave me with one of three emotions.  I think they are sweet and worth reading again one day.  Second, I felt the book was merely adequate.  Third, I have no idea who these characters are!  For example, I just read a 300-page book and I still have no real comprehension as to whom the characters are and what makes them tick.  Who cares is the guy and girl fall in love.  I want to know more about them.  Because women write most of the stories, the woman’s character is developed more fully than the man’s.  The man is always some Mr. Dreamboat who the girl thinks is too good for her.  He is almost always tall dark and handsome.  Okay so this does not seem like a huge deal, but the stories do seem a little repetitive after a while.

Another thing I do not like is that God is not a main character.  Oh, the people talk about him… sometimes… but they do not have a full relationship with him.  I can understand that in a 120 pg book you can’t go all out like you might in a 400 pg  book; but if I don’t understand these characters’ walk with God how am I suppose to under their character?

I guess if I were to write a novel I would be very specific about its contents.  God will be the central character in my book.  Furthermore, the plan of salvation will be clearly presented.  Finally, maybe the girl will not even get the guy… now that would be different .  However, until I write this novel I think I will sit on the couch and read another book.