Finally.

    Hey guys, sorry about the impromptu break last week, but I really needed a legitimate break.  I've been really busy lately with finals and moving that I just wanted to sit down for a bit without needing to to anything important.  That being said, exams are over and Thanksgiving break is upon us.  Not to mention we're officially moving on Saturday, so we'll be out of this apartment.  Everything is slowly coming together and I'm FINALLY looking forward to something coming up!
    In school, it's the start of a new trimester, (as I believe I've mentioned before, my high school has trimesters instead of the traditional semesters), which means that most teachers have new students in at least some of their classes.  My full-year freshman course is an exception, but I'm glad I still have them, for now...  They've been tough on me and I haven't exactly been helping myself, but I'm determined to get back in control this trimester.  Operation: Retake 5th Block has begun and I am confident in my abilities to successfully succeed.  So far we've started our poetry unit to introduce them to the Poetry Out Loud project.  Since Thanksgiving break starts a mere three days after today, we decided to give them a break from reading so much and watch a movie.  We will be starting The Dead Poet's Society tomorrow and I can honestly say that I am already way more excited than my kids are about watching it.  There is so much they can gain from this film, so I hope they take away at least something from it.  It will be awesome to get to experience their first exposure to good film.

    My first day back in charge didn't go as well as I had originally thought, but it still went better than I anticipated.  I improved my projection and volume and did a decent job maintaining classroom management before lunch, but after lunch it went to Hell in a hand basket...  I had some technical difficulties, which resulted in a rowdy and distracted group of Freshman and a flustered teacher.  Obviously I have to keep reminding myself that I still have plenty of time to improve my strategies and come up with new ones that work for me, but it's daunting sometimes to think about whether or not I will actually be able to run my own classroom at the end of this.  I don't want to be overconfident, but I want to be sure I'm making the right decision and not wasting my time.  The thing I gained the most out of this experience was actually listening to what my cooperating teacher had to say for feedback without trying to defend my actions.  I need to work on thinking more on my feet and stopping to think when I need a minute to collect my thoughts so that I don't panic.  I also need to work on explaining WHY we do things, introduce the unit and set it up so that the students understand what we'll be doing, how it will impact them and what they can expect to learn.  I'd rather take away some good advice and work on it than waste time defending my horrible ideas.  I also started another co-teaching opportunity this trimester with a different teacher in a World Literature class.  She just came back from maternity leave and needs to leave the classroom every day for the last 15 minutes or so, so I'm running the SSR, (Sustained Silent Reading), and writing program for her.  It will be great to get to see another teacher teach and also get a taste for what it's like to teach juniors.  World Lit. has never been one of my strong points, so I'm hoping to learn more about the genre myself in order to add more books to my repertoire.  I just had a thought: I can spell "repertoire" without a problem, but I still have to check to see if I spelt "possession" or "conceive" correctly...what is wrong with me?

    I had a really great out-of-school observation last week at the school I work at in the afternoons.  It's a combination elementary/middle school, so I went to visit some of the middle school language arts teachers there.  One in particular, an 8th grade language arts teacher, stuck out to me.  She was genuinely kind, upbeat and quirky.  I felt honored to be included in their classroom group and honestly, I had one of the best times in that class.  We sat in a circle and had a truly engaging discussion about the dystopian short stories they had read and journaled about the night before.  I've never been so impressed with a group of 13-year-olds and the way they handled that freedom.  This teacher reminded me of why I love the middle school environment and what kind of teacher I'd like to be able to be eventually.  She was an inspiration and I learned so much in the short time we were together, but that exposure will only further my career in the long run.  I will never forget that class.

    Since we've been so busy working, moving and such, my husband and I have not had a lot of time to devote to TV in the last week or so.  We JUST got caught up on everything we missed from LAST week, (which was almost everything, so it took awhile).  So for now, I'm only going to post on Once Upon a Time, which seems to be the only show at the moment that I can watch on time.  Things have taken a turn for the weird in Storybrooke...  I'm starting to understand all the pieces, but it still doesn't leave me with many answers to the questions I've been asking.  We still have no idea what the hell Rumple is trying to do, but I have a hunch that it has something to do with revenge for the death of Neal, (who I am still not convinced isn't coming back, since Rumple may be trying to resurrect him in his own twisted way).  After this episode, with the potential foreshadowing of Hook's imminent doom, we may want Neal to come back and pick up the pieces of Emma's already complicated heart.  But that's beside the point.  Ingrid already started the black plague of hatred and now we finally know that Anna is frozen with my poor Kristoff back in Arendelle, so at least that's settled.  For me, it seemed a bit anticlimactic to go through all that back story and hunting around just to have her be frozen across the sea for the last few years.  I'm glad Emma has found a friend in Elsa, but I'm a bit disappointed in Snow and Charming for losing a little faith in their daughter.  They've been kind of lack-luster this season, so I'm not really sure what's in store for them.  The one thing I was wondering about is who the sorcerer really is and who wrote the book, now that we know someone has been tampering with the pages.  I have a few different theories, but they could all be horribly wrong for all I know.  My first theory is that the apprentice is actually the sorcerer in disguise, considering the extreme longing way he looked at that box the second Ingrid gave it to him.  That one makes the most sense.  My second theory is that Henry is the sorcerer, but this is where it gets tricky.  Henry could have been the sorcerer back when everyone was still in the Enchanted Forest.  He may or may not have had a "past life," and obviously doesn't have any memory of it at this point, so we'll see if this comes up later.  My last theory is that Henry is the author of the book.  Again, this would play into the alternative life theory as well, but we'll see.  I have no idea either way, but it should be fun to see all these play out together.
    That's all I have for this week.  I'm so excited about watching Dead Poet's Society tomorrow and moving into our new place this weekend!  A lot of good things are happening right now and it's been nice to have things to look forward to besides doctor's appointments and hospital stays.  Hopefully this good vibe sticks around through the holiday season, because that's only making me more giddy:)  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Looking Forward to November

    Hey guys, sorry to post on a Friday, but I was desperately in need of a break this week.  The first three days were awful and long, so it felt nice to just sit and relax for a night without having to do anything.  I've also spent little to no time with my husband since he's been working so much, so it was great to get that alone time with him.  Needless to say I'm beyond ready for a weekend and a chance to sleep in tomorrow!
    Health-wise I've been feeling great.  Still no obvious side effects from the drugs and no pain in my joints or anywhere else.  The only thing I've been noticing lately has been cramping in my hands and feet.  I don't think it's supposed to be as frequent as it has been and that is a bit concerning, seeing as it can get quite painful.  Hopefully it's not a side effect but a lack of water consumption on my part, which I've been trying to improve on.  You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to down about 6-8 bottles of water a day, but it's definitely a struggle for someone like me who's always doing something.

    We are also still in the process of moving.  It's full-force now so we're packing up everything we can as quickly as we can in order to get everything out within the next two weeks.  We have been house-sitting for my parents this week, so neither of us have been at the apartment, but I'm going over there today after school to work on packing up the living room and our bedroom.  My short term goals are to have the living room and bedroom done by next weekend so we can start on packing up the kitchen, which will probably take us the longest time because of all our large and breakable items.  There is also a serious lack of newspaper and other packing supplies, so hopefully we are able to wrap everything properly.  Next week will be a bit crazy, but I feel confident that we can have everything out of our apartment by the 22nd.  We'll see how that goes, but right now we seem to be right on track!  It'll be nice not to have to worry about too much anymore after Thanksgiving break.  Then I can finally start planning to save up for the things I need!  I can't wait!
    As far as teaching goes, I had a meeting yesterday with my cooperating teacher and my professor about starting the transition back into a leadership role in the classroom for the start of Trimester 2, which starts in two weeks.  I believe I'm more ready and confident now than I was at the beginning of the year and that's partially due to the way my health has improved over the last month or so.  I'm feeling better, so I feel more focused on what's going on in my class rather than what's going on outside of school.  I've been giving myself little pep talks and trying to remember everything I've learned and observed so far from my observations, so hopefully that will help me discover what kind of teacher I will become as I try taking control again.  We'll be starting our "Poetry Out Loud" unit after exams, which I will be following with my cooperating teacher.  After that, I will be creating my own lessons and running a unit on my own, so I'll be prepping for that in the coming weeks.  I'm actually excited about planning again because I feel like I have some good ideas and I have easy access to other teacher's ideas as well, so I'm looking forward to teaching my own stuff soon.  I have a colloquium planning day next Thursday, which is a mandatory workshop for interns in the teaching program where you learn more about educational law, practice and your subject area.  I plan on taking full advantage of the day so I can better prepare myself for what's to come.  One of my previous professors is running the English seminar, so I'm excited to see and learn from her again.

    TV was sparse again this week, partially because I have to wait for my husband to watch most of our shows, but also because half of them didn't air this week.  I have Once Upon a Time and Arrow for this week, which were both pretty intense.  We finally find out that Elsa's mother had not one, but TWO sisters, Ingrid and Helga, at least one of which had the same ice powers as Elsa.  We also find out what Ingrid, (the Snow Queen), has been trying to plan this whole time- a chance to have her perfect family.  She wants to use the evil mirror to turn everyone in Storybrooke against each other, except for Elsa and Emma, (whom Ingrid believes would be a perfect replacement for Helga, since she apparently doesn't have the time to try to look for her too).  Those scary movies where the creepy stalker is dead-set on constructing his or her perfect family out of people they pull off the street at random really makes my skin crawl.  Despite the Snow Queen's plot to destroy everyone in Storybrooke being revealed, this episode was mainly focused on Belle and her relationship to Anna, as well as her role in her disappearance.  After Belle's mother is killed in the Ogre Wars and Belle loses her memory of the attack, she goes on a mission to Arendelle to find a way to get her memories back from the Rock Trolls, which Anna helps her do.  Unfortunately, through a series of events, Belle ends up choosing her memories over saving Anna from falling to her doom, causing Anna to be taken by the Snow Queen.  Belle is wracked with guilt over causing her disappearance, so she seeks out the Snow Queen to see if she can redeem herself, with the help of her lying, deceiving husband.  I still think everyone in Storybrooke is lying to each other, which bugs me, but I guess that's the theme in this season, so we'll have to go with it.  We still haven't found Anna, (it might just take the whole season), but at least we might get to meet Helga this Sunday.  We'll see!

    Arrow was pretty interesting this week, focusing on my favorite character, Felicity Smoak and her mysterious past as a "hacktivist" back in college.  Obviously Felicity's special skills were needed to solve this cyber terrorist attack on Starling City, but it wouldn't be that easy.  We got to see Felicity as a Gothic rebel with a fellow hacker boyfriend and awkward roommate.  This set up made me think of the Ted/Marshall/Lily dynamic from How I Met Your Mother.  Anyway, Felicity's sleazy mom stumbles into town unexpectedly, (which is all part of the plan, we later find out), Diggle gives her his baby to watch, (a complete stranger?!), and spends the whole episode basically in the dark while Felicity tries to help both her bosses tackle this cyber bully, who is using her own virus from five years ago to steal money from Starling.  Although this episode was great because we see a different side of Felicity and a reconciling between Ollie and his sister, (who now has a sweet new apartment), the REAL mind-blowing moment of this episode comes at the end, (figures), where we find out WHO killed Sara.  It was ROY!!  In a mirakuru-filled stupor he literally threw arrows into Sara's chest, which is weird because he should have it under control by now.  I don't think he's working with anyone in secret, but I do think he needs help, so who knows when everyone else will find out the awful truth and eventually turn on Roy.  Didn't see that coming!
    That's all for this week!  It's finally November, so that means I've slowly been turning into a holiday-crazed lunatic trying to find any excuse to buy Yankee Candles.  With moving into a more comfortable home, more school vacation days and Thanksgiving so close now, it's hard not to get excited about the holidays coming up.  It puts me in a great mood, so I'm not complaining!  I'm looking forward to everything I have coming up in the weeks to come, so hopefully that propels me forward to achieve everything I want to get done this month.  I'll be moving pretty much all weekend, both for myself and my uncle, who just bought a new house, so I'll be working my upper body strength this weekend.  What are you looking forward to this month, if anything?  Let me know in the comments below!  I also posted a new Book Review in my review tab, so check that out as well!  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.