WEEK 1:
I never thought I'd say it, but I'm ready to start student teaching! Being down here ready to go and then life playing one big psych game with you of when you're actually going to start is not a fun game to be playing.We did get school on Wednesday, but in reality these four snow days are just taking away the four day weekends scheduled for later this semester. To be quite honest I think I'd have enjoyed the four day weekends more... oh well. I'm usually a pretty busy person, so for the most part it's driving me crazy to have so much down time.
Monday - Snow Day #1: Shop till you drop!
I was still at my parents' house. Mom had been in California (the state) for the weekend to my cousin's wedding and had planned to come down to see the apartment and such Monday after I got down with school. So with the snow day we came down earlier in the afternoon. Unpacked my car, which I was glad to have her help making trips with me! :) Then it was off to Wal-Mart to pick out my vacuum, microwave, utility stand and more fun things for the apartment! The apartment had a weird smell to it (think a whiff of an old man smoking place) so fabric Febreeze and air fresheners flew to the top of the list! I'm glad to report that the smell problem has successfully been taking care of! While at Wal-Mart my cooperating teacher, Randy, texted me that school was cancelled for Tuesday! After shopping, we ate dinner, then mom headed home. I ended the evening on successfully putting together my vacuum!
Tuesday - Snow Day #2: Unpacking and Tackling
On Tuesday, I got up and first tackled assembling the utility stand for my microwave. We had a few misunderstandings, but eventually we became friends and all went well! Bonus: The stand was on sale! Just can't beat finding a good deal! Afterwards, I finished lining all cabinets and shelves with contact paper. They were lined with newspaper when we came down on Saturday and as my sister said "Well, this just won't do!" We got majority of them lined on Saturday, my sister is a pro at being able to line up two pieces on a shelf to where you can't tell there's two pieces... I'm not that talented at it, I gave up and just picked the ones that could be covered with a single piece ;) Marsha did do all the publicly seen shelves! Hey now, I picked multi-striped paper - it was difficult! I spent majority of the evening on the phone as I'm not a huge fan of being by myself... and on Tuesday I only had radio. It hit 9:30 and I hadn't received a text so that meant school was on and it was my bedtime!
Wednesday - Miss Ficken's First School Day
Surprisingly I wasn't too nervous. I think nerves will hit the first day I teach an entire lesson! I knew every class was starting to work on end of the year record book summaries, except freshman who would be in the shop. Two subjects that I can handle. I did make a point to stand up the entire day and actively answer questions. I feel like I had several "She knows what she's talking about" moments so that's always a good feeling to have. I knew the kids knew who I was but Randy didn't introduce me again so it was apparent they didn't know my name. They'd be like Thanks, ...thanks. I think they're as nervous to get to know me as I am to get to know them. I'll tell stories in next post! I was home before 5 p.m. and thought to myself "Well, this is the last time this is happening!"
Wednesday Night - Operation Internet
I think it was half way through Tuesday when I started to go insane. I had planned on coming down here setting up Internet and such, but my landlord mentioned that for some reason you had to get a package deal here, with Internet, cable and phone. Well, I didn't need all that so I thought, thought, and thought and then the light bulb came on - Someone in this apartment complex has wireless Internet that I can buy off of them for four months! Operation Internet commenced! I know what you're thinking and yes, yes I did.
Hurdle 1: I know no one who lives in this apartment complex.
Hurdle 2: It's a very creepy thing to do.
Hurdle 3: Courage... my courage failed me on Tuesday and the operation was postponed until Wednesday.
Wednesday came and I had my game plan ready. I put on nice jeans and a nice sweater and touched up my make-up (all part of my thought out 'I am a civilized person' appearance). Okay, in my defense I didn't know anyone but I knew of a couple people so I went for it.
Door #1: The young man that was grilling in the cold when we're moving in on Saturday - a logic choice for me and he didn't give off a serial killer vibe, always good. So I knocked, and to my surprise a girl answered the door... probably the girlfriend, bummer in the plan but I had an operation to carry out. I pitched her the idea, she was open to it but said they'd forgotten what their password was. I believed her because she didn't pause and you just don't have excuses like that stored up in your back pocket... I thanked her and then moved on.
Door #2: My next door neighbor whom I knew was a student at SW Baptist (located across the street) and also knew her name was Rachel. (My landlord felt it necessary to give me background on my two next door neighbors to assure me I had no need to be worried. It came in handy!) I knock on her door and she yells "Coming!" Ok I thought she's nice! She opens the door, sees me, then quickly closes it to about 1/4 the way open and looks at me like I'm going to literally kill her. Awesome... not. Rachel was the last person I knew of-it was going to get really weird after her, so I decided this was it, I had to convince her it was a good idea.
I told her I know this is going to sound weird...student teacher...four months...split your internet with you... do you have wireless internet? She did, but she didn't look interested in letting me have it. I refused to fail! So I did the only thing you all know I'm good at, talking.
I talked about just not wanting to hassle with setting it up and shutting it off for four months, I talked about moving in on Saturday with my nieces, I talked about why I needed internet, reinforced that I understand this is a very awkward request, reassured that I was not a creeper, I just wanted internet, I would split her costs and cut her a check tonight for the entire four month period. Finally she looked at me and said "How much you talking when you say split?" I said "50/50...figured 20-25 bucks a month" she says "Go get your computer" THANK GOODNESS!!!!
Rachel kept mentioning that she's pretty sure she's heard of people doing this before, and I couldn't tell if she was trying to make me or herself feel better. I ended up having a thirty minute conversation with Rachel. She's a senior planning to continue to graduate school to end with a PhD in some kind of economics that I couldn't follow one word of. She's smart, nice, grew up on a farm outside Springfield... just REALLY smart. We decided on a price, she typed in the password and I felt like I just discovered Atlantis! Operation Internet was a success!
Thursday - Snow Day #3: Organization and Domination
Tuesday I got a lot of things unpacked and thrown everywhere. So on Thursday I got everything in it's own place and settled on where I wanted everything hung. Finished that then sat down to finish tackling my inbox and to learn what I missed on my 3 1/2 day vacation from FB! Well I don't know if you've been introduced to the world of Skype but one of my friends got on and then we discovered a hidden treasure of Skype games!!! For real I can sit here and interactively play games against her while she's 3 hrs away! It was crazy! Our favorite was Sea Battle-Mortal Combat which is a 3D version of the classic battleship... needless to say we stopped playing... 5 hrs later! (I'm not proud of that fact...truth hurts sometimees) Too bad for Elizabeth that I beat her a good majority of the time!!!
Friday - Snow Day #4: Sleeping and Typing
Last night I decided that today I was celebrating the snow day and sleeping in! I did very successfully! I have since spent my day catching up with friends on FB and phone and come back and forth to this post which has stayed open and not finished for a couple hours now! But man I love my friends! Seriously if you go to college and don't leave with lifelong friends - you really messed that up! I couldn't imagine getting through college and especially student teaching without having friends there supporting me through thick and thin. If you would keep the nice things coming... I love them!!!! My ending thought for today is that I have to start hitting lesson plans hard this weekend! Joys of teaching...
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