Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Nearly finished week 4

Random Observations Lately:
  • Life is much better when you are not getting sick everyday.
  • Teaching is actually a pretty great job (when #1 is happening).
  • Holy taxes Batman! I got paid today, or should I say, I was damn near raped by the Alberta government.
  • Paying into 2 seperate pension plans, and knowing that you won't see any of that money for like 50 billion years REALLY sucks.
  • Cell phones in Canada suck asssssssss.
  • My car rocks, but is very dirty, and it's pointless to wash it.
  • My next door neighbour happens to work at my school. He told me about the short cut to school. Now I don't have to drive the Deerfoot Death Trail during morning rush hour traffic.
  • My sister is due in a month!!!
  • My roommates have just purchased two Welsh terriers, they are Copper and Duster. I will post a picture soon.
  • I am all caught up on my marking! It only took 3 weeks!
  • I saw the movie "Invincible" on the weekend. I guess it would have been really inspiring if I actually liked football, but Mark Whalberg was nice to look at.
  • Gas is super cheap here, like 82 cents a liter. It was $1.20 in Powell River in Aug.
  • If I hear Fergie's "London" one more time, I swear I'm going to go insane.
  • The woman who teaches next to me was sick yesterday. A substitute teacher could not be found!! There are supposed to be a few hundred subs on the list but there are so many jobs that the Calgary board of ed. can't hire enough subs. It's only Sept. (teachers hardly miss days in Sept.) and already it's a problem.
  • I had a student tell me she is really going to miss me when I leave. I got a little misty eyed.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

I finally left the city!

I got to see nature!! And real animals, that were not in cages at the pet store! An old Danbee friend, Holli, took me to Elbow River falls. It was chilly, but (as everyone keeps telling me) not nearly as cold as it's going to be!




Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Check it out


Help support some friends of mine. Check out CF Sucks. To anyone who has ever planned a wedding: you may enjoy the entry from September 10th.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Join me in welcoming...

...Katy to the blogging world! Check out Kickin' Tofu in Kawamoto.

Update


An analogy:

I've been thrown in the deep end without a lifejacket, and I don't know how to swim.

I used to know how to swim, but have spent the last three years floating in a very plush yacht.

Swimming was not necessary.

So now I'm re-learning how to swim.

The last week and a half have been stressful. It's not even the teaching math and science that's stressing me out. It's all the other things that go along with having your own homeroom, not knowing all the rules and procedures, and being new to the city.

But it's getting better.

A few completely random observations:
  • I hate getting up so dam early, it makes me sick (literally).
  • I hate morning traffic and the daily accidents I see on the highway.
  • My hands are dirty all day, despite washing them several times.
  • My students make me smile, except the ones being little fuckheads.
  • Teachers don't get paid enough.
  • I have no idea how much I'm getting paid, but I know it's not enough.
  • I'm still waiting for my contract to arrive, because of this I most likely won't get paid when everyone else does.
  • Thank god for Tim Horton's.
  • I have the ghetto classroom with the massive hole in the ceiling. It rained today. So we used 3 buckets to collect the leaks.
  • I love my car. Have yet to take a picture of it...too busy.
  • Autumn is here, and it might snow on Friday.
  • Perogies are delicious.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Monday, September 04, 2006

Lost

Help!! School starts tomorrow and I have never felt so unprepared for anything in my life! My first time seeing the classroom was on Friday. The school is going through some major changes at the moment, and the entire admin. is new, not to mention 10 new teachers. I still don't have the basic procedures down. There is no "new teacher info" packet or anything like that. Everyone is crazy busy and has no time to answer my millions of questions. My schedule changed three times on Friday. For a while I was teaching Math, Science, and PE (what I was hired to teach). Then that changed and I was also teaching French. Then it changed again and now I am teaching more Science and no PE or French.

The classroom is a mess. The students don't bring their own supplies to school, we give them everything they need. BUT all the supplies aren't in yet!! I'm hoping to steal some pencils from other teachers for the first day. Some classrooms don't even have enough desks for all the students!

There are 6 periods a day. I teach math in 2 periods and science in 3 periods, with one period to prepare. Then there is also homeroom time in the morning, at nutrition break (recess is a thing of the past), and after lunch. I have 26 students in my homeroom.

I just wish I had one full day to get in the classroom and organize stuff. But it's a long weekend here and the school is locked.

I've worked myself into quite a state. I can't sleep, I'm having nightmares, and my stomach is in knots. I can't even get in there early tomorrow because I don't have a car yet and have to bum a ride from a friend. I did buy a car, but I can't get it until Weds. or Thurs. I'll put up a pic this weekend. I'm not even excited about it. The nervousness about school is overshadowing everything.

I just need to chill out and not take things so seriously. It's only a temporary contract, I'm finished on Nov. 6. I guess I just don't want the kids to know how unprepared I am. I don't want them to think they can walk all over me. I've been told that with these kids I have to be very strict right from day 1.

Maybe I shouldn't have accepted a full time job right away. I should be happy I'm not a TOC (substitute teacher).

Wish me luck for tomorrow!! It's only a half day, can't be too bad...RIGHT?