Are you kidding?

I was able to help carry this into the basement...

I helped carry this into the house...

But I try and lift this into my car...

And I get this!


(And I look like I have mustache because of weird shadows)

Are you kidding me?!?!

Always Cheers Me Up

Nuff said

PASSED!!!

I passed the evil test!!! I could not believe my eyes. When I took the test, they said that it would take 4 to 6 weeks to get your results in the mail, but you could get them online as soon as they became official. By Saturday, I just couldn't take it anymore. The anxiety was going to kill me. And if I didn't passed, I'd have to sign up real soon to take it again.

I think my heart actually stopped for about ten seconds as I was logging on. Then when the score sheet opened, you have to scroll down to see the actual score. My hand wouldn't let me scroll down. I think my thought process was: "If I don't see it, it doesn't exist!" Finally, I got up the courage to look...176 out of 200!!!! Happy dancing and screaming sum up the next ten minutes. :)

The Roots May Be Brown...

...but I have got to be a true blond. I had one of those moments that have to be straight out of a dumb blond joke book. Almost three weeks ago I got all my tax stuff ready and mailed it in. I even put extra postage on the one that I was worried was too thick. I went off on Spring Break feeling great about getting everything done ahead of time. I got back this week and got back to regular life. This morning, I grabbed my check-book to get books from our schools book order. I opened it up to write my check and there was my check for my state taxes!!! Keep in mind today is April 14th.

The words "dumb blond" can't even begin to explain how stupid I felt.

And not to worry; I took the check to the tax office and they said it happens every year.

Evil Test

To become a level two teacher, and basically be a teacher forever, you have to take the Praxis II exam. I prepared, I studied, I even made flashcards. I was so ready. Then I went to take the test. I should have known this was going to be bad. I had to be up on campus by 7:30. I get there and just stand around for a while and then they tell us we can go into the classes to take the test. To get in was like getting into an exclusive club: they checked your ID against a list and if you weren't on their list, they booted you. After waiting in one line, I find out they changed the room number at the last minute. Luckily it was just across the hall, but still...life isn't stressful enough, let's play musical classrooms. And as we're waiting in line, I over hear one girl say that her friend took this test 4 times before she past. (start hyperventilating)

We finally get in the class and into our seats. Now on the ticket/info thing I got, it said that if you arrived a minute after 7:30, you would not be allowed in. Yet, up until 7:45, they were letting people walk in. So then they finally start...with reading a million instructions and yelling at anyone who is chewing gum, myself included. Then they had to pass out test booklets, which was mad extra fun by the fact that they had 9 different tests going on in our room, and each one had different instructions and booklets. We finally started around 8:15.

The Praxis II exam consists of 24 multiple choice question, then reading 4 case studies and answering questions about what teachers did right and wrong, making sure you mention different teaching and learning techniques, which I knew inside and out. When I was studying, I read a bunch of these, so I knew that when writing these, more is better. So on the first three (out of 12), I wrote everything I could think of to go with the topic. I was so creative and wrote fun activities that the teacher could have done instead. Then I looked at the clock...45 MINUTES..for THREE QUESTIONS!!!!! Did I mention you only have 2 hours for the whole test? AHHHHHHH!!!!!

So I started working a little faster. I get about 3/4 of the way done and look up...30 minutes left!!! So I started frantically writing anything I could think of, as fast as I could. I think I'll get the last three marked completely wrong because they're not quite legible. But I FINISHED!!! With 45 seconds to spare. As I left, my hands were literally shaking (I was panicking and holding the pencil real tight at the end), and I couldn't get my heart to slow back down.

When I came home, I couldn't really answer any questions with words, mostly just "hhhhhmmm....mmmm...." Thank goodness of awesome roommates. Abby took me out to Texas Road House, which in my world, is equivalent to heaven. And we even convinced a couple friends to come with us.

I won't find out the results for about 4 weeks but I am not going to stress between now and then. I studied all I could and if I have to take it again, I am finding a new profession. :)

Yes, I am awesome

My boss told me so: I officially rock. This last week at school, I had heard rumors about we were going to have observations in our classrooms. I hadn't heard anything official, so I was going to plead ignorance for not signing up. Big mistake. When you don't sign up, your principal will happily oblige with a "pop-in" observation. And of course it's on the day when you want to kill a student or two. :)

Lucky for me, two miracles happened: a) I had an great lesson planned for that time anyway, and b) second graders still get freaked out if the principal walks in a room and therefor behaved a little bit better. So he watched and took notes while I taught my class about centimeters. I guess I've finally been a teacher long enough that this doesn't phase me. The only time I really remembered he was there was when one of students wanted to measure the principals shoes for our practice with rulers.Then after about thirty minutes he left.

Yesterday, after school, he reminded us that if we had been observed, we had to met with him. You go over your evaluation and talk about good stuff you did and things you need to work on. He got busy after that, so I went back to my room to work on stuff and figured he'd catch me next week. Later, my boss realized I was still there, so he came and went over everything in my class. Turns out, I am an AMAZING teacher, in case you didn't already know. I know it sounds like I'm bragging (which was not my intention), but it's just really nice to hear that you're really good at your job. Especially at then end of a difficult week.

So now I basically have a certificate that says, Yes, you are awesome.