HELLO! Today is Friday, July 29th, 2011. And...time is going WAY to fast. Like holy crap. In the last two months, that I haven't been writing, a whole hell of a lot has happened. Let me see if I can remember everything....
Well, July 16th was the last day of the intensive 5 week institute that was held at Arizona State University and public schools around the area that was aimed at training all of us to become excellent teachers in just that small amount of time. On a normal day, I would wake up around 5:30am, prep some items for the day, be on the bus by 6:40 to go to the job site, be at school until 5pm, and then come back to eat and work on lesson plans for the next day, going to be usually between 10 and 11. And my days were often much shorter than other people. I would like to thank the 3 jobs I juggled during full time school that helped me with my time management so well. But still, a 14 to 16 hour work day isn't too fun.
It was because of these long work days that we spent our Friday evenings out at The Vine, the bar across the road from campus, and Mill Ave, a whole street of bars and clubs. And because of my fondness for a camera, it's also probably why you think all we did was party, since I have a tendency to upload all these pictures haha. Truth of the matter was that it kept our sanity, and kept life interesting.
So during those long 5 weeks, I flew home to Oregon to graduate, and was looking for a place to live. I since then have moved into my own apartment in central phoenix, and am finding the location to be great so far, with the exception of not having our local variety of bars to attend haha.
Two weeks ago I got bronchitis and laryngitis, and it has been a slow recovery. I was completely voiceless for 3 days, and then extremely quieted for nearly 2 weeks after that. I would say I have my voice back finally, but my coughing has yet to cease, and has actually giving me costochondritis, which is a swelling of the cartilage in between the ribs. SO PAINFUL. I just need to sleep a ton and hopefully it will heal itself within the next month...
but no! No time to sleep, because I get kids in 1 week for the first day of school!!! Yes!! I have been into my classroom, and have seen the wrath that I will be facing. I have heard numerous horror stories about these kids, but I have decided that I will wait until I have them for a while before I say it as well...I must enforce the behavior management, and a disciplinary system, before I can say they're bad kids. Now, as long as I don't find any knives or bullets, we'll be ok.
3 weeks ago I was also officially certified to become a licensed teacher in Arizona, and have credentials to teach both Social Studies and English in any 7-12th grade classroom. Although I'm not good at speaking English, so I think it would be a horrible idea to have me teach it haha. My curriculum for 7th grade social studies is based around US history, and I will be teaching 3 regular social studies, a reading edge program, a social studies hybrid class, and an honors class. The tough thing about social studies, it prioritizing the standards they give us. Most subjects, at the 7th grade level, have between 40 and 60 standards to teach throughout the year. Which is reasonable. Social studies however, has over 250...so I am essentially slashing 200 of these standards, or finding an extremely brief way to fit them into my curriculum. Coming up with the lesson plans, and interactive activities, as well as which standards I should prioritize is definitely a concern of mine. As well as getting my kids invested enough to want to learn this.
The moment that made my life in Arizona here official was spending 3 hours at DMV Tuesday. But, at the end of those 3 hours, I walked out with an Arizona drivers license, and Arizona title and registration, and license plates for my car. Driving around, I'm no longer the stupid Oregon driver if I mess up. I'm one of them. Or so they think. I'll also be an Oregon girl at heart. I miss the beauty of the green trees and grass. But that's during the summer. I probably won't feel as bad once it's winter and never stops raining there.
Every day that I'm in Arizona though, I find something beautiful about it. 95% of the time, it is usually the beauty of the nature of landscape. Walking from the downtown ASU campus on Thursday, I realized that most definitely, does Arizona have the most beautiful sunsets. They're also a shade of pink or orange, like the sunsets you see on calendars. The sunrises are orange in color usually, but I can honestly say I've only seen like 2 of those, since I don't like to wake up early.
Lynne and I were walking through this little garden in between a variety of restaurants and shops Thursday as well, and it had a cute lit pathway, and little ponds, and grass, and tons of greenery. It may be difficult to maintain the plush greenness here, but it made me feel much more comfortable seeing it.
You can probably tell by now that I have no direction while writing this, and that I am just rambling about the first thing that comes into my mind. So, I better close out, but with one more thing...
I need visitors. Please come see me. I'm sure you'll love it here. :)
