snow, snow, go away

yesterday was such a nice day! I could have left school at noon but I felt a bit obligated so I stayed until 1:30. (Wed. is always early out at 1...) Then I made a trip to the huge Harold Washington Library again and decided to walk along State St for a bit in the nice weather. I unfortunately didn't feel much like shopping which is the thing to do on that street, but I walked for a few blocks mostly people watching and enjoying the sun and its warmth. Then I went back north to our neighborhood and walked around up here because we haven't really explored it much as it is a lot of residential. I probably should have gone to sit at the lake or somewhere and read outside but instead I came back to the apt and opened the windows. Its funny how literal that is, no screen, no ledge, just open window to the rocks below :) [even as I sit here now, the feather boa we have on a table next to the window is actually blowing in the breeze. the breeze from the 'closed' window mind you. (don't ask why we have a feather boa, I can't answer that...)]

It was a wonderful day. While walking to the park with the 2 and 3 graders, we saw a cardinal and you would not believe how excited they got over that. It did seem out of place; the flaming crimson perched on the vacant branches of a winter-sleeping tree. Signs of spring are everywhere. The bulbs in the public flower beds are poking up their first growth. Birds are singing us awake (whether we like it or not).

Then the day changes and true to Chicago style, so does the weather. I got to walk the half mile from my school to the el station in some awesome sleety snow. I was kind of angry about it because I had just missed the first bus and the second bus drove right by me at the stop. thanks. So it was a definite stay in and watch a movie night. After some Oceans 11 now, I am already ready for bed... lame I know. I need to pick up a hobby eh?!

Today at school we got a few new additions, all involving arachnids. Both grades 1 and 2 are on the Spiders Unit, I have been learning quite a bit. Shortly after lunch a large parcel arrived, this meant the rest of the day was pretty much gone. The kids were way too into the new arrivals. The first grade room I was helping with today received a dozen cellar spiders. It was pretty comical to watch the teacher transferring the spiders from their individual containers to the terrarium, she is not so comfortable with spiders, and the kids were unsure as well. Needless to say, I did most of the relocating while the kids sat around the table squirming with excitement, fear, revulsion; choose your combination. The second grade room received their tarantula as well! The class voted on its name and decided on Gerrad Jr, aka the teachers husbands name, thought that was funny. Then after school I used my web-spinning skills to make the hallway bulletin board. My skills are pretty good I'd say ;)

Gerrad, Jr

Eat your heart out spidey :)

Para Pro

So I'm an excellent teachers aide :) It was a fun day, I almost don't feel like I should be able to get a degree doing this stuff! Today I was in the Celebration Center which is grade 2. [aside: I dont think I ever mentioned the names this school has for every room. Its kind of fun, slightly confusing for others but mostly fun. Exploritorium = K, Imagination Post = 1, CC I mentioned, Discovery Zone = 3-4, Learning Lab = 5-6, Idea Factory = 7-8, and then each room beside has another but thats as far as I will go for now. just a fun little tangent for you] So anyway, I gave some reading assessments and did math fact work and then just odd jobs around the classroom. The teacher in that classroom is quite a bit like me in a lot of ways so it was fun to work like that for a change! Many of the techniques she uses in her classroom I am sure I will utilize someday. For the next two weeks I will be in one of the three lower level classrooms, K, 1, or 2. All of these teachers seem pretty stellar so I am really looking forward to it.

Bside: For any one who watches Friends, and know of the Ugly Naked Guy... we have our own version here. There is a large apt building across the street from us and one apt a few floors up lives Halo Guy, a much more G rated version of the Friends friend but... For the past few weeks I have assumed he was playing Halo or Call of Duty or the like in video game goodness because of the flashes of light that illuminate his walls. Today he must have moved his couch a few inches while cleaning or something because now I can actually see a bit of the tv screen and it is constantly catching my eye, do guns really light up that much when fired? man, that's distracting.
and now you know how I spend my nights?! :)

He is Risen

Happy Easter!

Today we went to an 11 Easter service. On the walk home we stopped by our local grocer, Jewel, for our Easter dinner. We even visited the RedBox, the dollar video rental vending machine for a special movie treat. Ham, cheesy potatoes, and a green salad were followed by the candy, ice cream, and cookie dough we've stocked up :) It felt great to just relax and have a fun stress-free day with the roomies. One of Janice's favorite Easter traditions couldn't be skipped either so we invited Karyn and Sarah over for an egg dying party! It was fun to pretend we were 12... But then we had to go to bed to get ready for work the next day :(

all dressed up (don't mind the messy apt)

this is how we do :)
who needs an oven when you've got three spoons?!

Sarah, Janice, Karyn and I with our pretty eggs!
mine may have taken 20 mins to perfect but it was cool! you try doing stripes :)

under pressure

Since wed/thurs of last week, I have basically been stressed out of my mind. I was as close to being told I wasn't going to get a Pass as I could get. [sidenote: this has nothing to do with my teaching abilities, I would put off as A) personality clashing and B) overwhelming environment. Not having any curriculum to base my lessons off of proved too difficult for me as a newbie. I didn't have a pool to pull from and I wasn't getting much support to help me out. please don't think I am a bad teacher :) ] I decided I couldn't just waste the last 6 weeks away and then not get a pass. This meant making life decisions in a matter of a few days.

After hours of analyzing pros and cons, I decided that my best option was to come home to northwest Iowa and start over with student teaching. There were many issues either way, staying or going but that seemed the best. THEN on Saturday I was given another option, the one that is now in action. Now, I am not here in Chicago student teaching, I am only here to be a paraprofessional. this does get me my education degree which means I can still teach in Mexico thankfully. However, to get my teaching license for a future job in the US, I will have to student teach at a later date. It may actually get me a chance to get my two endorsements though, reading and ESL, so that could be a blessing in disguise. April 4 is V-Day. Then I guess I am in Chicago for a few weeks just chillin! Come visit!

Unconfirmed future plans: get degree finished up -Apr 4
stay in Chitown until May-ish
May-June-ish work at Hills Gardens! woohooo
August move to Mexico until June
then either: apply (and get) job in Spain as a "North American Language and Culture Assistant" or go back to NW that fall to do the student teaching to get my license...
we shall see

oh and ps. . thank you to everyone who's supporting me! it means a lot to have the kind words and feel the love :)

Defying Gravity

Trying very hard to forget my stressful work day (week, month), I, along with most all of the students in Chicago Semester and Chris and Laurie, went to the Oriental Theater downtown to enjoy the "wickedly good" Wicked!

So exciting, I loved it! I tried really hard to read the book before we went but only having the 20 min train ride per day to do so I only got about 10% of that goal (its a big book!) :) Though in just that little bit I still saw some differences between written and acted story and apparently the gap gets bigger later on. Ideally this experience would have included both Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, but life is not always what we want so we got some pretty good replacement actresses. Actually the girl who played Glinda was very reminiscent of Kristin so that made me happy. The stage was very much more involved than RENT, moving parts all over and scene changes often and some pretty wicked special effects :)

Above stage at all times there was a huge dragon, moving head (with glowing red eyes) bigger than a killer whale (Janices description :) ) and a wingspan that reached the length of the stage. Galinda (who later changes her name to Glinda) does come flying in on a bubble. There is also a pretty stellar scene where Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west) flies away and as she rises up from the stage a huge black curtain is billowing behind her like the black sky she is speeding through. Obviously my descriptions are lacking so you just need to see it yourself! I would be glad to accompany you there, just let me know!

A Night of Knights

Yay castles! To Medieval Times we go!

A stellar night of eating half a chicken, a spare rib, some soup, and a dessert pastry all with no silverware, in the dark, while watching knights fight for their honor. As we were going to be late, (we= Laurie, Chris, Janice and I) we up-ed our tickets to Royalty. This meant we got good seats and the awesome crowns and flags to wave for our glorious Red Knight, along with complimentary dvd :)

I have to say that I didn't really pay attention to the King as he told us the tale of ...whatever it was! It wasn't hard to follow who wins and loses though. It was all so real! ;) We got to see the initial 'equestrian skill games,' the jousting, and the sword fighting; real sparks and real splinters flying! It was so randomly funny, they threw carnations to the crowd (Laurie recieved one from our valiant knight) We were so close to the arena that we could actually see the breaks in their lances and the wonderfully acted falls off the horses. I had a lot of fun though. Afterward we got our pictures taken with our knight AND the prince!! (those pics are on Chris' camera.. so I can't prove it) They were both happy to be taking pics with people over 9 yrs old. So besides the slightly expensive cab ride there and back, it was so good! :)

For a good time call: 1-888-WE-JOUST

The valiant Red Knight

action shot! Go Big Red!

This is the footstep of the PRINCE! Just moments after he gave me a high five... did they do that in the Middle Ages?!

Air India

After spending most of my Sunday lesson planning for my week of full time teaching, I decided I deserved a break and went with Janice and her visitors to a restaurant in Little Italy. We were 8, Janice and I, Chris and Laurie, and four friends of Janices from back home. (Somehow the last four mentioned are all crashing on our living room floor, not quite sure how they manage!) The restaurant was pretty good, the pre-meal bread and olive oil was delicious and I had some very large cheese ravioli that was quite tasty as well. Unfortunately I had to end my fun there and refrain from going to the iO theater again for improv because I had a few more things to finish.

It was all for a good cause. I got to school around 7am to set up our classroom and get other things together. I moved the desks around in the shape of a plane! I even gave them boarding passes as they entered the room (THANKS for making those Susan!!) The kids were really excited about it all, it was a pretty good morning! We skipped Math class, because of course, a flight to India takes awhile! In-flight entertainment was a slideshow and reading of a few Indian tales. Complete with peanuts and juice boxes as our airplane food! We learned how to count to ten in Hindi along with some facts from India. The rest of the day was not so exciting, but it was still all me. Working on transitions between subjects and keeping track of time was probably my biggest challenge, along with praying which I forgot to do at both lunch and the end of the day. my bad. Overall, I think it went well and hopefully that continues!

Tomorrow my class gets to build Lego cars with some engineers from the company and race them... darn, no Math tomorrow either! I'm also pretty excited that my good friend Katie Stenseth is going to come visit this weekend! among other exciting things this week... stay tuned to find out :)

Sucat the Leprechaun

Janice's family is here for a bit renting a condo near Navy Pier. It has a great view of that and the lake from the 33rd floor. Susan and I went over there friday night to eat and play cards with her fam along with Laurie and Chris who just flew in for their week stay (a friend and her husband, she graduated from NW). It was a pretty fun night, good food, laughs, and free laundry.

Today was the big day for the Irish. ok. probably more accurately for the tourists. The river was dyed this am. We had really good spots on the stairs down to the river (we did get there over an hour early...) and it was of course awesome. :) It starts out as an orange powder and there is another boat to mix it up and afterwards kayakers aka stirsticks go out too. Its a pretty sweet shade of green though I'm not sure how worth the trouble it was (cold and waiting so long for a five minute process)

left to right: Betsy, Susan, me, Amanda, Karyn, Betsy
This is pre-green river. by the end of the day we (minus the Betsy's who went home after this) were more festive with a ton more beads and nice plastic green hats

The first sweep. Check out all the people. And the orange changing to yellow changing to green. the smaller boat on the left is one of the stir-ers.

We then walked further down Michigan Ave to watch the parade. Quick pitstop for coffee/warmth and we actually made it quite close to the front lines. Our spots kept getting better as time went on also because the people in front of us had kids and it was cold and they have short attention spans :) We got way too much free stuff and saw way too many green things: beads, hats, stickers, buttons, wigs, etc. People go crazy! The bars on our street opened at 7-8am and if they weren't drinking they were excessively covered in shades of green in every place imaginable. I tried to put American consumerism out of my mind in order to just enjoy the onslaught of free goodies.

Susan and I came back to the apartment and watched a movie for a little down time after having been on our feet for 6 hrs. After a short catnap we headed over to the girls' apartments down the road and hung out there for the rest of the night.

We made lots of friends today: First, I made friends with a special ed teacher near us at the river, she encouraged me a lot with how and what I am doing/teaching which was fun. A couple of the other girls, Karyn and Amanda, made friends with one of the younger, better looking cops, of the 50 that were standing around. And we also were gifted $5 from a guy that jokingly told us we looked like we needed it. Amanda really just had her bright green plastic hat held out in homeless-fashion, he said he was just going to support our college fund and dropped a Lincoln. In testing our college smarts he asked how much we would each get being 4 people and $5.. don't worry, I was on the ball and happily shouted $1.25 before he could go further, ergo he named me leader :) There were also a few really funny people near us at the parade, one with a green wig, and the other with a green beard. Green Hair had a brown paper bag can of beer and was quite a happy, festive guy. Made for good laughs.

I will post more pics of these festivities here when I have uploaded them
Oh and ps. Sucat is Saint Patrick's real name, he wasn't however a real leprechaun, unfortunate but true.

birds and bicycles

Chicago's got spring fever... anyone else?! It is 58° right now and I'm loving it. Yesterday I began to notice the increase in the singing of birds and in the number of bicycles. Its wonderful! not so good for the homework load I'm still carrying (which by the way is why its been awhile) but I will try to get as much done tonight as possible and hope it stays this nice for the green river weekend!

Things youve missed:
The roomies and our Dordt friends :) went to Buca di Beppos, a good, family style, Italian restaurant. As six, we ordered 3 different entrees for variety and a large $12 delicious piece of chocolate cake! (I'm going back just for that sometime!)

We've now learned the name of our bouncer friend we see daily. I thought he looked like a Drew so later that night Janice asked him and its Owen, close..

Monday I took the class solid from 830-1230, first time for that long. I think it went well. This week has been a bit stressful, my teacher told me I was disappointing her in some things but from my pov it was all misunderstandings or clash of personality. So thats been unfortunate but these past two days she's been really positive so I think it's improving. Next week I am full time so it better go well! (send me some good luck!)

We also had a little get together for Susan's 22nd, whoo hoo! We ordered Dominos and ate cake :) It was fun if only because it was like we were back home, I mean because we don't normally order pizza here on our budget and such... yeah I guess it was all about the food, always is with me, no?! ;)

Yesterday I went and explored the Harold Washington Library Center. Man, I would love to live close to a library that big! I only made it up to the 7th floor (for Wicked, going to read as much as I can before we see the play, and I figured I've got a good 30 mins a day on the El) and the 2nd floor is Childrens (for books for my India unit, which every time I mention stresses me out a bit) and the 1st floor which seems to have quite a good range of dvds though I didn't get much time to look. Its interesting that in the middle there are escalators and you just have to keep turning the corner and going up, turn the corner go up, turn the corner... It got a little long to go from 2 to 7 with two escalators per floor... But I was loving it nonetheless.

Today I started my whole class book unit on different trade goods. To get them interested in the topic I started off the lesson by asking my teacher if she had something to trade me this box of nerds for.. pre-planned of course but she then said how about these bottlecaps, nope. how about this laffy taffy? so we trade and all the kids are by now wild with excitement. So I asked the class who had something to trade me for this candy? Some ideas were thrown out but when I was offered a million dollar diamond ring, I took it. Its a stellar dollar sign shaped ring with little clear stones, so funny. So in short... I think it went well and I hope that continues

tonight I want to get my unit lesson plans aka 3 weeks of lesson plans done and turned in... sounds impossible yes, but I am hopeful (since it is pretty close to a requirement!) So no spring weather enjoyment for me. I will sit in my sad lonely little apartment pretending to work while staring out the window at the sunlit building across the way...

Red Rising

conferences this week... gotta love em. actually they weren't too terrible but I didn't really have to talk! It just made me stay after school much longer. Its been a stressful week though with a lot more lesson plans to make and some clashes with my teacher. I'm just feeling very unappreciated and like I only get negative feedback so its been hard. This weekend I have to work really hard to try to fix that, I got to cart home two large bags of books and papers and such to work on it. Only one more week of part time, St Patty's marks my first full day with the India unit. scary :)

Tonight I had to have a destress night (before a predicted 'hell weekend' of work). We went to the Blackhawks game against the San Jose Sharks... it was a good time. We got to see 3 broken sticks, 2 great fights (one really stellar: throw down the helmets and gloves, fair fight allowed to continue by refs!), and 1 sweet time-crunch goal being scored with 30 seconds on the clock to tie it up...unfortunately only to be taken away after play review. So we lost but we had a lot of fun. We got there minutes too late for the free hats being given away. There was a pretty long intro for these two past players being honored for their careers and achievements in blackhawk history. they were a pretty big deal, came onto the ice in a corvertible.

Roommate pic at our first NHL game

I am torn with the violence, its fun to watch but... :) Janice tells me its all for show, just love it. It was entertaining, I have to admit. The cheers are definitely louder with every hit!

Oh hockey ..cheerleaders?! J and I are going to get shovels and practice at Millennium Parks rink for our futures in the NHL

Afterwards Janice and I decided to try out the gyro place around the corner, not quite like the ones we got in Athens but good nonetheless. Food and orange pop was accompanied with a movie. We have also started our latest series on DVD, Full House (after The Office and Gilmore Girls have ended for us). wish me luck for the weekend of work! :S

Sue and the Selfish Giant

This week I started more responsibilty at school. I am now teaching Math, Spelling and Bible. I also almost always take care of bathroom breaks (we have a whole routine, all the students line up outside the bathroom with a book and they silent read until its their turn. usually works out pretty well and reduces bathroom permission disruptions in the class). I am still trying really hard to pump out a good unit on India :) Its going slowly I feel but I think it will be really fun! I mean the first day we are all going to 'board' our airplane and FLY to India! with inflight entertainment, doens't get much better than that! I'll give more details once its concrete, hopefully it all works out. Right now I just feel like the homework is piling on and I almost can't get out.

This week is also conferences. I of course will be attending, just today I was told I should also fill out the students strengths and weaknesses form to have at the conference, not very keen on that :) It also means more late nights. Thankfully since Wednesday is a short day, we can start them right away at 1:30 and then only go until 5, but Thurs we have them from 4:30-7. Its just kind of a bummer, better get used to it though huh?! I just don't feel like I have anything to say after just three weeks with them. I have barely taught anything yet and have always struggled a bit with reflections like that anyway. Good practice I suppose. One really positive thing about conferences this week: Parent Supplied Lunches!!! mmmm.... they are soo good! Its like gourmet meals for lunch instead of brown paper bag sandwiches. I'm loving it. And of course the desserts are included as well! Yesterday we had some herb chicken ravioli and cesar salad with caramel fudge brownies, on top of the fact that it was the principals b-day so we also had rootbeer floats and chocolate-covered bananas! And today we had walnut curry chicken croissants and a pasta salad with feta and roasted veggies with the best brownies I've ever had. Be jealous. It was all delicious. [wait, I take that back, we discussed the ten commandments yesterday and I don't want to recommend coveting :)]

This morning I was asked last minute to accompany the Exploritorium (our K classroom) on their Learning Excursion to the Field Museum. As soon as I was done teaching math I was off on this trip I knew nothing about with kids who barely know me. It was a really fun day though. We went to see the puppeteered play The Selfish Giant based on the story by Oscar Wilde. I was not familiar with the story but it was a really good show. It was interesting to see the different ways they used puppets, and they never really tried to hide the puppeteer. it started with the man in a 'giant' costume, then he used props on sticks (like bees, birds etc) and he had marionettes along with larger more ventriliquist doll like puppets. The entire show, he never said a word; the story was told by the lady singing in the corner with the guitar and/or mandolin. I enjoyed myself.
They did apparently skip over the Christian aspect of the story. Tami (the K teacher) told me about it after. The play told about this giant that kicks all the children out of his beautiful garden full of flowers and peaches. Then, winter takes over and spring summer and fall all decide they won't come back. This all makes the giant sad because its so dreary, eventually the winter wears a hole in the wall and the kids come back in, as they play in the garden the plants all begin to blossom again and the giant even helps one boy up to top of a tree, then all is happy :) In Wilde's version, the giant notices in the boys hands and feet are nail holes and the boy says to him, you let me in your garden/paradise now I will show you mine. The production company gave a little nod to this aspect at the end when they put the marionette boy up in the clouds. I thought that was interesting

After the play we had another hour or so to explore the museum. We mainly focused on Sue. Sue is, with over 200 fossilized bones, "the largest, most complete, best preserved T-Rex." The kids of course loved it and we all sat down in a nice little reading circle and read the book The Field Mouse and the Dinosaur Named Sue where a little mouse who lived with the bones in their 'natural habitat' travels with them to Chicago and stays at the museum. It was really fun to be reading and looking at the pictures WHILE we were sitting there! We then did some dinosaur sketches and traveled to the other dinosaur fossil exhibits as well. Fun fact: the skull is one of the only pieces that is not mounted. It is 5' long and too heavy to be supported by the steel they use to hold it together. So it is up in a display case elsewhere while a cast is in place for obvious effect. [wow, these really are LEARNING excursions huh :)]

Tomorrow I have another LE to look forward to. There is a "Blazing Trails" program about women in America who have explored in some way. It is to relate to our Explorers unit. There are three women discussed, one was a slave, one founded GirlScouts, and the other is a mexican american author. It should be a good time, but as Wednesdays are already the short days ending at 1 we don't have much 'school' per se. fine by me though !

Apt 410 - commitment to culture

I was dead tired on Friday. Lack of sleep made school seem very long, and it didn't help that two of the students, who sit at the same table and are both in my reading group, now hate eachother. Great for group work.
During team time (every friday we have this, all the classes get together for a community activity to make our school more like a family than all segregated) we played musical chairs. This was no ordinary musical chairs though, no elimination. With two circles of about 35-40 kids in each, we got down to 12 chairs. Everyone find a lap! It got quite loud and the only reason we didn't continue was because the principal came out and said she had a phone conference in her office...

That night Janice and I walked around downtown for a bit. We originally planned to meet up with a small group of people and go ice skating but that plan was foiled for the second time. Instead we went to 'the Uptown girls' apartment for a surprise birthday party. We discovered that carrying certain things on the train evokes more conversation from strangers, mainly men strangers, asking for dates. We were asked to bring games, one unfortunately titled Dirty Minds. It didn't fit in our purses and we neglected to put it into a plastic bag. note to selves: don't do that again.

Today we ventured north. An hour bus ride up to Devon which is home of a pretty large Indian and Pakistani community. I was doing a bit of research for my unit plan. Its still a bit overwhelming but its fun to know that we can take that day field trip up there to experience it more first hand. Its just an unfortunately long trip, especially from school which is even more south than our apt. Though we will travel straight there not stopping every block to pick up and drop off people. I cannot believe it is already March. Its going by so quickly, and I feel like I haven't done anything yet. We decided on our way home that we should continue this culture outing business every week. We've almost done it each weekend so far, so we plan to try a new cuisine each weekend now, or at least experience a different neighborhood in some way.

Fun vicarious experience I had - Susan and a couple other girls saw Charles Gibson on Friday! He was going into the studio downtown and they walked right by him, they all realized it and turned around and shouted "Hey Charlie Gibson!" and he turned around and waved back! sorry, I love those stories :)

I am unfortunately starting to get sick, just a sore throat mostly, but so much so that it also affected my sleep on Thurs night. last night I got some nighttime sore throat grossness. Tastes awful but I slept well. Hopefully that goes away soon.