Teaching Binder #2

Teaching Binder #2 
Last night I copied the notes out of my credential program notebooks for 45 minutes... until the power went out.  Then I just organized my notes into categories (i.e. Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Discipline, Techniques, etc.).

The idea is to have a comprehensive list of tips that I can look up by subject to plan a classroom someday.  It would be nice to be able to pull all my ideas off the top of my head, but even the best teachers don't do that.  We were told the best way is to "Beg Borrow Steal" ideas.  I will definitely be doing this a lot more when I start subbing again in a few weeks.

Garage Sale
My neighbor said she didn't have as much stuff as she thought, so she probably won't do it with us.  I think I will go ahead and plan it without her, but she said she knows another family that may be interested.

Stick Shift
Going over to my parents' house to get some things for the garage sale (and possibly EBay) and also to take a stick shift lesson with my mom.  I think I drove my husband nuts with my panic and hyperventilation when he tried to teach me... wish me luck!

Teaching Binder

Teaching Binder #1  -
Tonight I read for 30 minutes in "Bridge to Terabithia," which is a great read.

Does walking around in 3-inch heels at the Monster Ball count as exercise?... I didn't think so either.

This is actually me, and for those of you who don't know what the Monster Ball is, it's Lady Gaga's concert.  Heap big fun.

Garage Sale:

I spoke with our neighbor, and while she doesn't have any stuff to sell herself, she knows another family that might have a ton of stuff.  Haven't set a date yet...

Exercise #1 and #2

My niece is in town, and I'm showing her around local colleges, so I combined the two days of walking and am calling that:

Exercise #1
several hours of strolling around college campuses (hey, some of them have hills and/or stairs!)

Exercise #2
My niece and I went to L.A. Fitness last night with a one-day pass I printed online and convinced the desk lady that my niece could exercise with me for one night, even though she wasn't a local resident (and not even in-state, but they didn't have to know that).  We worked out for 45 minutes, and I did my cardio for 17 minutes.  Half of it was on the bike, but my darn knee clicked the whole time, so I switched to the elliptical.

A Brief Update...

Very tired... past 11pm and so drowsy I almost just submitted a cover letter with the wrong school's name on it.  I was saved only by the fact that EdJoin would not let me attach a .doc, so I caught my mistake before resaving it as .pdf, thankfully.  Note to self: make sure fully awake when applying to jobs.

Job Applications
Applied to two jobs - one a Kindergarten French/English Immersion program, the other a 2nd Grade position at a progressive Classical Academy.  Will see how goes...

French Immersion

Private School

Garage Sale
I left a message for our neighbors asking them when they want to do this thing.  Haven't heard back yet.  Too lazy to run down and talk to them when I heard them come home tonight...

Exercise may happen tomorrow, with my niece in tow.  =-)  We walked her around some college campuses today, but it was too leisurely to count as cardio...  My back is much better seeing as I did some focused exercise on the machines last week, doing countless repetitions using my lower back and shoulder blade muscles (personal trainers out there, I'm sure you know what those muscles are called... Google help me out... possibly Teres Major or Trapezius).  Also, converting my bra into criss-cross shape on the back alleviated the pressure on my shoulder blade.  Okay y'all, I'm so tired it's painful!  G'night!

Fried...

A little tired this week... my back has been bothering me so I slept 3 nights this week on the floor.  Also, I have a theory that bras are causing nerve damage on my left shoulder blade.  Possible? (TMI?)

Nevertheless, I've done the following list items so far:

Exercise #1:  Walked at my work breaks, 45 minutes on 3 days, combined.

View of the freeway from the sidewalk by the learning center

Exercise #2:  Got stuck in La Jolla (awful, I know) picking up a mended suit during rush hour, so I said, screw it, and parked by the cove to go for a jog (covering my cardio for the week).  Not a shabby place to go for a jog.  More like idyllic.  Gotta get stuck there more often.

Beginning my jog...

The tide pools

Ah... La Jolla.  Now back to reality.

Job Application: as I said yesterday, I applied to 3 jobs - two in SD, one  in Irvine.  Nothing now to do but wait...

Teaching Binder #1: On Tuesday, I searched for lessons on Teacher Vision, and got distracted by a website showing how to diagram sentences.  (Is it weird that I find that extremely fun?)  Did find a lot of cute worksheets and lesson plans.

Teaching Binder #2: I started reading a book on my teacher to-read list - Bridge to Terabithia.  Somehow, I made it through elementary school without ever having read it.  Very good so far.  Not sad yet, but I'm bracing myself...

Garage Sale and Stick Shift:  I haven't started these two yet... I didn't set a once-a-week requirement, but I hope to not postpone these till the end.  Should I make myself do something each week?  Probably, b/c they both kinda scare me.

Okay y'all, bed time!  As Jason Mraz once said, "Live your life, get your sleep, be a dork."  =-)

Three Applications

Just knocked out 3 job applications.  Woohoo, now the only thing left for this week is to think about the garage sale and how the heck I'm gonna learn stick... it seriously terrifies me.  I nearly killed my hubby's car trying one time, stalling so hard in the middle of the road (with other cars waiting) that the car bounced probably a foot off the ground.  I need, like, a month on a deserted parking lot.

BTW, Kit just contacted me with her list, so I shall post it.  I heard she went to the gym last night. =-) You go, girl!

The Last Week

This last week went by fast, and I was in L.A. for part of it.  Here's what I did to round out the last week of our 2nd month of Five Things:

Garage Sale:  On the garage sale front, I talked to my neighbor about having a multi-family garage sale, and he tentatively agreed.  Next month, we will actually have it.

Health Insurance:  I finally got my agent Jeff on the phone and found out he represents all the local providers, which is great, because he won't sway me towards one or the other.  He gets commission on whatever I choose, and he's free of charge to me.  So he told me more about Anthem and Kaiser, and recommended that we reconvene in November when I'm closer to needing a plan.  Who's knows, maybe I'll have a job with benefits by then...

Teaching Binder:  I researched more lessons, which I need to print, and I ordered a few cheap children's books to use with some of the lessons.

Balcony project: I rolled up the green floor and tied it up using several trash bags.  I took it down to the trash area and swept the balcony one last time.

On Sunday, I went for a walk around my neighborhood for the previous week's Exercise #3 that I missed.  Then I did three more for the week:

Exercise #1 - walked at both of my breaks at work:

Exercise #2 - swam in the pool at L.A. Fitness for 40 minutes.  Hence the wet stringy hair.  I had never ever used the pool at the gym.  After the first 5 minutes of laps, I was pretty tired, so I did water aerobics/ballet, tread water for 5 minutes, and paddled using a floaty thing.  Then I did some more laps to finish up.  Tiring!  That, and my eyes burned all the next day.  Note to self: buy goggles.  Really good workout, though.

Exercise #3 - I walked around downtown L.A. all day!  I downloaded a map of sights to see and was a  tourist all day while my hubby worked.  It was surprisingly fun...

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Our Lady of Angels Cathedral

The Police Department with a reflection of City Hall

I ate in Grand Central Market

The Biltmore Hotel

L.A. Public Library

Angel's Knoll, the hill where they sit on a bench in "500 Days of Summer"