FINISHED!!

Today was my last class of my College Career!!!!!!!!!! Since I was happy with my grade in Math Stats, I do not have to take the final next week, so I am done! Finally, after 5 years, I will have a degree next Saturday. I have an interview on Monday, which I have no idea what to expect. I'm pretty confident in it, which I hope will help.

Kacey and I are getting closer to having our own house. We're in the option period on this great little starter home. Check out the visual tour.
http://www.visualtour.com/shownp.asp?T=1485689

We're already getting project ideas which should keep me busy when I'm enjoying my summers off as a teacher! I've bought a book on Outdoor Building projects, and I can invision all sorts of fun. Deck in the backyard, new privacy fence, brickwalkway, cement driveway, new storage shed(may have to just buy this and save a head ache!), other gardening and shrubing.

For now the main items are fridge, washer & dryer, lawn equipment, and of course new TV.
Well, got to go celebrate a bit with some margaritas and mexican food.

Peace

Update, in NUMBERS

5 ... The number of days that my Easter candy lasted.
6 ... The number of classes I now teach everyday until student teaching is over.
14 ... The number of school days until student teaching is over!
14 ... The number of school days until my B-day! (PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
23 ... The age I will be turning.
96 ... The number of miles I rode on Friday of Spring Break.
5.25 ... The number of hours of total ride time it took to ride 96 miles.
6 ... The number of MONTHS it has been since I have ridden more than 3 hours!
2.5 ... The number of hours my longest ride was before last Friday.
40 ... The number of days until I GRADUATE!!!!! (another PARTY!!!!!!!)

With that said, it has been very busy for me lately. Spring break was a tease and I was dreading going back to school on Tuesday. Now I am back in the swing of things and am excited about the next few weeks until I am done. I will then be able to substitute teach at $75-80 a day for the following month and a half, to start saving for future plans. This will also help me network and find a job. Oh yeah, I got a sweet check in the mail a few weeks ago for over $2500 from school. Turns out it was for a grant for having a 3.0gpa and a majoring in Math. See, Math can be cool!!

Kacey and I also have some developments in the works, which should be exciting and nerve racking at the same time. No, it's not a baby!!! Should hopefully know more about this in a week or so.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Enjoy the "Peep" show!

Dude, your getting a Dell.

Finally, now that it's almost the end of February, the BEGIN scholarship technology is arriving. Pretty sure it's going to be a Dell since it's a Texas company and all the schools computers are Dells also. The other choice was an Apple iTouch, but I really needed my on computer. Too bad it's now just coming in on March 3rd, three days after my Teacher Work Sample is due! It's all good, Kacey's laptop has been suiting me just fine. Atleast the $2500 was here in January, since that's all pretty much spent already. Between credit card bills from X-mas, plane tickets, rent, Kacey's tuition, food, and few beers, I'd say it's been money well spent. I'm now half way done with Student Teaching and I'm happy right now with what I'm doing. There's a few days were I dread waking up and going to school, but once I get some coffee in me and I start driving to school, that feeling slowly goes away. I've decided that whenever I have my own classroom, there will be a coffee maker and a mini-fridge, because coffee is an essential for me and the school lunch is dangerous!

My procrastination has gotten the better of me again. The TWS is due Friday and as of the beginning of this weekend, I had a total of 1 objective done of 7, totalling 3 pages. As of now, I have 5 objectives done with 18 pages of solid text. By the end of tonight I should be lacking just one objective and will just need to make some graphs and make copy of some students work to finish up. If I plan it right, I can spend one good night of proof reading and will then just need to submit the beast! Then there will be a small celebration with Shiner Bock!

Looks like I'll be staying the Falls for Spring Break since by then I will be broke as a joke, so I'll have to put some hours in at TCC to try to make rent so the "Sugar Mamma" won't have to front it for me and get on my case.

Back to work!

Monthly Update

A lot has been going on. I've just completed my first month of student teaching. It has definetly been a challenge. A few nights of losing sleep on why many are of the students are not performing well on quizes/tests, what changes can be made, are they really doing their homework or just copying to get a grade. Why do they complain so much? Were things like this when I was in high school? I'm thinking positive though and am already planning how I would like to do things in my classroom in the future to help motivate these students. Others have said it is a lot different once you have your own students, which makes sense, since I've come into the classroom in the middle of the year.
I couldn't have been paired up with a better mentor teacher though. Laid back, very helpful, and an appearance of being blasted from the 70s, right up my alley. Right now I'm teaching all of the Algebra 2 classes and have started my week long teacher work sample. Once that is done, I'll take over the other two AP Geometry classes so my mentor can lay back and relax. I'll be looking forward for Spring break so that I can get some riding in and prepare for searching for a job.
Quick overview of what I've experienced
1. Absenses can really hurt a student, especially multiple absenses.
2. Flu/cold season has struck and played a big part in these absenses.
3. Do not drink from the bubbler. Next day, you will get sick! (kicking myself in the ass!)
4. Students like to pronounce my name as if it were Asian, or make Obi wan Kanobi comments.
5. Kids are addicted to their cell phones. I will snap one day!
6. "When will I ever use this?" has been asked only about once a week.
7. "I use it and I make a pretty good living." Best response by my mentor teacher.
8. Don't be their friend. But I knew this already from being in Ms. Holtz classes.
9. Leave it at school. I probably won't be able to perfect this until after my first year of teaching.
10. Football rules all in Texas. There's a class all year long that the students can take.

That's all for now. Maybe another update in a week. Weekly updates seem do able.
Peace.

What I've Done on my X-Mas Break

So far it has been a very relaxing vacation. After Finals I was in need of some R&R, and a few margaritas! Kacey and I traveled up north to Wisconsin for the Biwan Christmas, where this happened on Saturday.

The answer was YES and Les is going to be oweing me a cake!

It's Decided

I rode today with Kacey and her dad in 42 degree, gloomy weather. It was not very fun. As we left I thought to myself, "I wasn't riding my bike when it was 70 degrees, why the hell am I riding now!?" I then thought back to last February when I was riding in the 20s for a few hours, and that was pretty crappy too. Why should I be doing this crap now? I got it, I won't. Instead, I figured I will start running again. Won't have time to ride my bike 15+ hours a week starting on January 3rd, but I can always run in the morning before school and ride on the weekend, if it's not freezing.

That said, I have no goals for racing next year, riding is just not as much fun as it used to be. I remember going to races, being nervous at the start line, happy to just finish. That feelings gone. Not really sure where it went. Probably sucked away over the last few years of dealing with other people's problems and bitching about things, me not being able to do anything about it, getting obsessed about it and depressed. If I take myself out of these situations, I hope that feeling will come back. I think by not riding and being around these people is starting to help, much less stress this semester than any of the previous ones. Even though this semester has been one of the most demanding.

So I'm just going to do whatever the hell I feel like doing. Ride when I want to, as long/short as I want to. If there's a bike race 4 hours away or a Hash on the same weekend, there's a 90% chance that I will be Hashing! Collegiate race??? Big maybe USCF? For sure not until May. Triathlon/duathlon? For sure. So fare warning, if you try to give me shit for not riding, be prepared for a quick, "BITE ME! I DO WHAT I WANT!!!" hahaha