Just Tuesday

Teaching has not become any less crazy in the past couple of weeks. We jumped right from ISTEP to Acuity (with the third graders taking IRead the few days in between), and everyone is going crazy. Spring break could not come soon enough. As if we're not already in enough torture, a school cancellation back in November is forcing us to go to school on Friday now. We did get lucky enough to have yesterday off at least, but now we'll just have to make it up at the end of the school year most likely, which is probably going to mess up my packing and moving plans which are already pressed in tightly.

Everything else seems a little tight too. I've been fortunate enough this month to save a lot of money by not needing to do much grocery shopping. I guess I went a little overkill in February and the spillover has been such that I've only spent about $20 or so in groceries. I may even be able to put some money in my poor savings account this month! Go March! The only downside to March so far (besides my final loan's status changing to "repayment") has been the continued cold. I'm ready for it to be warm. As of six days ago now, it is officially spring in the world, and I'm ready for the weather to act accordingly. Instead we've dipped down into biting cold again with enough snow for a cancellation. I was going to pay my loans before school yesterday, but that had to be switched to today. I can't print off my payment verification(s) at home.

As usual, I was pretty pumped to press the "Verify and Submit Payment" button after punching in numbers higher than was due. I've worked really hard to be able to do this and I'm happy to do so to show the government they're not going to screw me over thousands of extra dollars. With interest rates so high, I'll skimp on some things for a few years to show them who's really in charge of my future. Me.

I've made it to book five of Kathy Reichs' books. The library has been my best friend in keeping me sane. I have a few books to get through over Spring Break. I'm really enjoying getting back into reading whatever I want instead of textbooks all the time. It makes me that much more excited for summer. I have my reading list at the ready. Fortunately, I'm not having to read at a breakneck pace anymore since ISTEP is over and I actually work to earn my money now.

I've created a pretty awesome mini unit on idioms for my fifth grade success group. We just finished similes and metaphors (although we will continue working on them, especially metaphors). I'm super proud of myself for making my own PowerPoint presentations and cute little idiom dictionaries for students to fill in and follow along as we learn together complete with individual activities. So excited.

I also have a new way to stitch in my continued self-teaching in knitting. I'm determined to figure out this awesome coffee mit or cozy or sweater or what-the-heck-ever. I learned the ribbing stitch, but now I need to learn to "bind off in pattern". It looks somewhat complicated. I'm sure I'll figure it out. After much frustration, someone finally clarified the rib stitch to me online. Oh the power of the internet. You can learn so much.

Unfortunately, to access all the internet has to offer, you have to buy expensive gadgets I just don't have money for. I'm hoping my computer will last a while yet, because I can't afford a new one right now. My dreams of an iPhone or iPad are pretty much dashed because if I can't buy a new computer then I have no business making extra purchases.

And then there's poor Libby. I predict that within the next two to three weeks, she will have covered a whopping 198,000 miles in her short 9 years of life. I need her to last to at solid 250,000. By that time I should have saved up enough money to buy a "new" car. I don't want to mess with the loan payments again if I don't have to. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to be student loan debt free by then. I made a long term goal for myself this morning. I want to have my student loans paid of by May/June of 2016. May preferably, obviously. However, by that point, the balance will be so low the interest will be of very little significance. So another month won't kill me. Maybe I'll throw a party to celebrate. It would be wonderful to have Libby present at the festivities. She's pulled me through so much. We've done a lot together. She's taken on her own personality with me. I talk to her, I cry with her, I feel bad for her when it's cold or when her gas gets low or when she sounds like she's struggling. I hug her and I kiss her steering wheel when she hits a new mileage milestone. We're like, best friends, call me crazy. She's my first car, she'll always hold a very special place in my heart. I'm glad I found an automotive place to help me take good care of her.

All that being said, it's a bright Tuesday and Libby and I are enjoying life together. We're super excited to get to go home to Wooster on Saturday morning! We've basically have our own indentations on the road between our house and Leesburg and then to Ruby's and back home again. She's looking forward to some different roads, even if they've been traveled before. And frankly, so am I.

ISTEP Week and Lazy Lulls

It's ISTEP time in Indiana. We started off with a meeting last Thursday morning about proctoring the assessments. Because I'm a certified teacher in the state of Indiana, I am allowed to administer the test. Few assistants have that ability. I would be in charge of two students's work. One is in fourth grade, and the other is in fifth. I was assigned to a room and I will be held accountable for verifying the validity of the test and the testing environment. I was handed a schedule and my placements and two examiner's manuels (forth grade bright pink and fifth grade bright green, like they'd been attacked with highlighters), as well as a few stapled pages for further instructions. Homework.

The instructions are very specific, and although I know the chance of needing anything more than the bolded words that are the only things I am allowed to speak is very slim, I still wanted to be very aware of what is expected and how I should proceed in the off chance that something goes goofy for one reason or another.

It's been a very slow week. I'm not allowed to say anything about the test, but I will say that it's been torture watching my fourth grader being forced to take the regular ISTEP test when her brain clearly doesn't process that way. She needs guidance and direction. She can do the work with help. But I'm not allowed to give it to her. I can't slow her down or guide her thinking. She's just off in her own little world, not really answering the questions, just pulling stuff out of thin air. It's been a nightmare.

The fifth grader had a death in the family, apparently. Rumor has it someone dies or is going to die soon right around ISTEP time just about every year. Legitimate death, fine, yes, stay home, but "Grandpa's going to die soon so he wants to take us to Disney on ISTEP week" doesn't cut it. So sympathy is hard to give, because we don't know exactly what's happening. He's not getting out of taking all of ISTEP though. We will pull him all day if we have to, within the limits of what is reasonable, of course.

Kal's been in Florida for golf all week, so I've been doing a lot of reading at night since I have no one to watch Bones with or watch build fun and crazy amusement parks on an old computer game.

I got to the point yesterday when I looked at my slip after checking out at the library when I began wondering if getting a Warsaw library card was a bad idea on my part. I now have eight books that are checked out in my name, I've returned one (which would have been nine), and I've finished two others.  This has only been in the span of a couple weeks now. When I get reading, I read and read and read and read and read some more! Apparently I just can't help myself.

I've gotten hooked on reading the books by Kathy Reichs that inspired the Bones series on Fox. I love Bones, like, so much. I just think it's awesome to watch the science come together. Science is cool, and these books are just like Bones, obviously, because it inspired Bones, so naturally I love them too. I'm currently reading my fourth book of hers. I discovered that the first one I read was her tenth book and I was able to read it without going in order, but I hooked back to the first one and am determined to read the rest through in order just because I'm slightly OCD like that and it's fun to watch the character development and make connections, no matter how small since the characters plot line is way overshadowed by the actual science and thriller plot happening in the story. It's still fun. I love reading. I wish I could get kids to love reading like I do.

Sometimes reading through the science is difficult because I'm into the plotline and I don't have a science brain and just want the bottom line, but when I can make myself slow down and reread, it is neat to see how it all works.

I haven't written anything here for a while. My life has been pretty dull. I don't even differenciate between days when I wake up in the morning. Everything just seems off and it's like the movie Groundhog's Day. I need something new in the mornings or something. I need something new and fun to experience and look forward to.

I want a doughnut really bad right now, and part of me wants to go get one during my lunch break. Haha. Maple frosting with nuts. I've been craving sweet. Clearly. I wonder if WalMart will have that around lunch time. I could splurge and get a Subway 6in chicken breast sub while I'm there. They have them for $3 this month or something. YES! I'm doing it. I have a frozen Wheels n Cheese here too. So a sub and Wheels n Cheese and a doughnut. And the small apple I brought. What they hey, why not? I won't get dinner until late since I have a volleyball session after school and then Ruby's right after that. I'm sold.

I totally just went to Subway's website and realized they've just become my new best friend. I mean seriously. For $3 I can get a 16 oz Seattle's Best Coffee and a 6in breakfast sandwich. Why the heck have I not done this sooner??

Well now that that's established....I'll probably be spending my afternoon doing make up testing and flopping around the hallways looking for a classroom that could use an extra hand. As usual. That's just how it's been this week.