The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

I can't take it anymore! This district is driving me crazy! There's no room for creativity. They're so rigid. How can I help these kids when no one wants to try anything new? So I know now that next year, things have to change. Even if they offered me a job here, I won't take it. I sent in my packet for overseas teaching and here are my top choices (not in order): Austria Brazil Cameroon Costa Rica Cyprus Germany Israel Marshall Islands Netherlands Philippines Poland Puerto Rico Spain Right now I REALLY want to go to the Marshall Islands, Cameroon, Puerto Rico, or Cyprus, but that could change. And I might not go anywhere. I signed up for the job fair, but it sounds really competitive. So I'll just pray about it and I know I'll end up where I'm supposed to. But I know for sure that where I am now is not where I'm supposed to be. I'm just going to do what good I can while I'm here. P.S. Funny story from the classroom: The kids were t

Well, I'm not a teacher, but I am an aide, and that's better than nothing. I'm just happy to be back in the classroom. I'm a special ed. aide for 7th graders with learning disabilities. I really like working with these kids, and I'm thinking this is what I need to get my master's in. I also love working with the kids with behavior disorders. We have a few kids who are supposedly BD, but it's nothing extreme with them. Nothing at all like what I dealt with on the west side. I love the people I work with. Yesterday the English teacher pulled me aside and said she wanted to talk to me about the gossip that was going around about me. I was so nervous. What could people be saying about me after a week? But she told me they all love me and think I'm doing well and they're glad to have me there. So that made my week. Also, Ryan was having trouble remembering all the steps of double digit multiplication, so we did the multiplication cha-cha. I wr

It is amazing how much my life managed to change in a week. Last week I was happily living in my fabulous apartment in the city, wondering where I was going to teach. This week, I'm taking classes at Northern, trying to find someone to rent my apartment, and moving back to my parents' house this weekend. I also have an interview at Huntington Learning Center tomorrow. So this is obviously not what I had planned or what I wanted, but I am excited to be going back to school. I only need three classes to get 4 endorsements on my certificate, so that should make it easier to get a teaching job. I am blessed that things are working out so smoothly. It still amazes me how God provides.

Well, things have been really crazy lately, and blogging has not been at the top of my priority list. But right now I really need to be cleaning my apartment, so it seems like the perfect time to blog. Nina invited me to Wisconsin Dells with her parents, and we had more fun than I've had in a long time. Here is a summary of our trip: Monday: We stayed at the Kalahari, so we went to that water park on Monday. This was my first time on water slides. I have never screamed so much. That night, we went to a haunted house. It was very dark, and we couldn't see where we were going. Nina was hyperventilating and clinging to me. We got to one point where we had no idea where to go cuz it seemed like we were completely surrounded by walls. The scary voice kept saying "this way," but I still couldn't tell which way. Nina was still clinging to me and turned us around and insisted that was the way to go. I told her we had just come from there, but she disagreed. We

Today I called in sick to work. Yes, I feel a little guilty, since I'm not actually sick. But I feel that I had good reasons. First of all, I hardly got any sleep last night. I had lots of trouble sleeping, and I ended up getting up around 4 a.m. to play on the internet. I ended up talking to Dave for a while, and got an email from Chuck with the dates he'll be on leave. Well, I was so excited about Chuck that I immediately started looking for tickets to a Cubs game and planning other things we will do together. When I finally tried to go back to bed around 5, I was too excited to sleep. So I only got a few hours of sleep total, and I knew that dealing with my first graders would not be a good idea if I was tired and grumpy. The second reason I felt justified calling in to work is that I really need to work on finding a job for next year. That is my biggest source of anxiety right now, and I need to get it resolved. It's so hard because most of the suburbs are doi

Okay, I admit the only reason I'm doing this is so I can post on my friend Dave's blog . I'm not sure why anyone would really want to know about my life. But I'll try it anyway, cuz maybe it will just be fun. So last night I went to see Moulin Rouge with one of my favorite people, Sarah. We were so excited and thought it'd be hard to get tickets, since it was just a one-time show. But there were only like, 20 people there. The fun thing is that there are people who are trying to make Moulin Rouge like Rocky Horror Picture Show. So we got to sing along, and this girl was trying really hard to get people to act along with the movie too, but most people really weren't interested. It will be playing again at Piper's Alley on June 10, so everyone go and support it! It might be an actual production by then.