Teaching an AP course you have to submit your syllabus for review. This is something I was NOT aware of until well after school started. I took my syllabus and reworked it so that it reflected all of the resources I planned to use throughout the year. My syllabus was based on the samples provided by AP Central. When I say based, I mean cut/copy/paste the body, rework the dates, and add my stuff to the end.
After almost two months of waiting and 25 days from the deadline I am informed that my syllabus was rejected! CRAP CRAP CRAP. Now I have to go back through and offer justification for all of the AP Central objectives I included. You know what I would really like to do? I would like to teach my class, NOT rework a document that is rather useless in the grand scheme of things!
With a 30% chance of thunderstorms predicted, it is doubtful that the sun will come out tomorrow. Regardless, I will. A day spent at work. No comfy pants…or jammies all day. No sleeping in until 9…10…OK, one day I think it was 10:30 pushing 11 o’clock. Tomorrow is back to it, back to the grind, back to work. I’m not ready to go back, but I’m not totally opposed either. I know that the first week back will pass quickly and many students will be extra studious for a few weeks. There is so much to do between now and May.
Only two weeks until the next three day weekend though.
After much agony clicking and searching I have gotten my blog almost back to normal. Only 938 posts without a category or tag. You do not realize how much your spot on the web means to you until it is needing resuscitation. I’m not sure if I have added all of the links that I had before. I figure I have added my regular reads and will add more as I go. I’ve been thinking of ways to prevent blog destruction in the future and I think my first step will be to create a subdomain and import all of my blog posts to it.
One more day and life will be back to normal as well. School starts Monday. I love New School, but I would love to stay home a little more. January and February are going to be very busy months. Competition prep will consume months 1 and 2, AP prep will consume 3 and 4. Month 5 will be state testing, and then we’re out. Not much time when you look at it like that.
I hope everyone has gotten 2009 started off right. Happy New Year to all and may 2009 bring blessings to your home.
Only my fellow bloggers can understand the heart stopping panic that I felt this past 30 minutes. I broke my blog. White screen. Nothingness. No posts. No comments. Nothing. I was able to import my posts through prayer, ‘net searching, and holding my mouth just right. As you can see my sidebars are not normal. That’s OK. I saved the important parts. Posts and comments have been restored. I’m going to go wipe my tears and have dinner now.
Thank you Blog Angels for watching over me.
More explanation when I am breathing normally again.
Nicole, my comments feed may work now. If it doesn’t, I officially give up.
Two days until school starts back and I am absolutely not ready. I have spent my winter break enjoying rest and play. Very few school related tasks were completed. Jem was kind enough to take the girls out to eat and then to see a movie. I am very thankful for the hours of quiet. It is difficult to motivate myself to do school work, but it is something that must be done. I have two sets of exams to grade and lessons to prepare for. I plan to finish the exams today and prepare lessons tomorrow.
Happy New Year to the blogosphere. Today is a day to reflect on 2008 and look ahead to 2009. Several are not bothering to make resolutions for ‘09. What is a New Year’s Resolution anyway? According to Wikipedia: A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. It’s the word commitment that people struggle with. It’s so depressing when you break a commitment and let’s face it, life gets in the way sometimes. Let’s change it…no resolutions, just goals. I do not have resolutions for ‘09, but I have continuing goals. These are the things I hope to accomplish, but am realistic enough to realize that the road may diverge.
This was my post for January 1, 2008. No need to click there, I will summarize. I reviewed the ups and downs of 2007. The beginnings of a life change, the loss of a close friend, the beach, selling our house, a move, teaching my first college class, the deaths of my dad and stepdad…the year. With good times and bad times, we entered 2008 in a new state, new jobs, and a realization that we were not happy in Alabama. We started chatting about the possibilities of moving on to NC, where we really wanted to be. We weren’t too serious about it in January, but knew it was a goal within the next year or so. I was determined to find a job with a classroom and at a school where fellow teachers would open their clique to newbies. It is what it was, but I keep up with about three people from old school…the three that would talk to me when I was there. Moooooving on… I participated in Blog 365 until March. It was my best effort. By spring break and April I was seriously considering NC and had started the licensure process. Going to a few job fairs before summer, getting a nibble here and there, I was not making as much progress as I had expected to make when the process began. By June I was losing hope and had given up in July. Then I received a call that would put us on the path to the Eastern Time Zone.
Great new school. Great area. We are on the right track, and waiting for the “big” opportunity that I know awaits. I pray 2009 will bring great things for our family.
My goals for ‘09:
More time doing family things.
Explore this great state and experience all it has to offer. The beach, the mountains, and all in between.
Hike more.
Find a hiking buddy so I can hike more.
Geocache, it sounds like so much fun!
Visit family every three months.
Make moves toward being settled here. It is out of my control, but I can pray for it.
Get involved. Make friends. Establish roots.
Happy New Year to you. I pray that it brings something special to your life and you are able to attain your own goals.
Yes, the gadget geek inside me strikes again. Actually, Jem found this and I am having the best time exploring and customizing to my own web desires. What is the new web toy? A new browser. Flock.
Here’s what I know. All of my favorite sites: Facebook, Twitter, GMail, Photobucket, and all my blog buddies are linked in the same place with feeds and even site access for the social networks! If you remember a while back I ranted about the the new iGoogle and how the new iGoogle sucks. Problem solved. News, blogs, and social sites all in one place with Flock!
I have been a Firefox fan for years. Since switching to Firefox I have ventured back to IE when they tried to be like Firefox and failed miserably. I also tried Safari, but liked its smooth look and nothing else. Opera is a browser I have to use for my school grades, but I’m not a fan. Firefox always came out on top…and it still may, but…
Flock is created in the shadow of Firefox and uses the same open source format. It has all the goodness of Firefox, with the added benefit of included social network access within the browser, all your feeds so you can ditch iGoogle, and an attractive look too. You can also blog from within the browser. Yes, many of the same activities can be done through Firefox, but it requires the addition of add-ons. All of my favorite Firefox features are included.
Still exploring so I may have to come back and say no, stop, don’t! Right now, I don’t think so. I’m intrigued by the newness.
OMG, since Flock is powered by Mozilla most of the Firefox add-ons work with Flock! I can keep my Foxytunes! Yes, I’m a geek.
Inspired by Nicole’s Blog Green post I decided to embark on a new adventure. Hold on, I am not a tree hugger nor am I a mental environmentalist. I simply think it is a good thing to do and it is a lesson for the girls. It bothers me when there is trash in my park. I don’t think people mean to leave such a mess. Maybe the wind picks up a napkin, cup or bottle and blows it away from the picnic area. Rather than chase after it they may just let that one go. It’s just one, right? Anyway, it gets me out with the camera and it serves a greater purpose. The girls learn the importance of picking up after yourself and it is something to do together.
For the first adventure I took Lil Bit to our favorite park. Acres of land with tennis courts, putt putt, a lake and paddle boats, soccer fields, picnic pavilions, play areas, and walking trails. Since it was our first outing I grabbed a plastic shopping bag and two pairs of gloves. I wanted to see if Lil Bit would take to the idea so I only planned to do a small loop around one of our favorite areas of the park. Beautiful day to be out but oh SO windy.
Lil Bit was none too excited about this adventure. Going to the park is one thing, but picking up trash? Ew. It wasn’t a tremendous mess, but it also wasn’t hard to find the first photo-ops. A few bottles and napkins later Lil Bit was spotting trash. Gloves on, trash bag in hand, she was all about some trash pick up. It did become an adventure for her. She has an eye for spotting trash too.
We looped around the lake and took time to play on the swings then headed back to our vehicle. We filled our bag, but it wasn’t overflowing. That’s a good thing. The park was rather clean. I have seen much worse. Next time we will each have a bag and dedicate more time to the project. Blog Green outing #1 will be declared a good start.
Sage asked about the suitability of Marley and Me. My oldest is 11 and my youngest is 8 and I wish I hadn’t taken the 8 year old. It was a little too much life drama for her to enjoy. The 11 yo liked it fine, but there were a few parts where she was uncomfortable. She understood the insinuations and there was one scene where Jennifer Anniston strips for skinny dipping. Nothing is shown but it is obvious that she wasn’t wearing anything.
Overall thoughts of the movie…great story line, cute movie, good laughs, but not really a movie for younger kids.
I am usually not a fan of Jennifer Anniston’s movies, but in this one Owen Wilson brings it all together to make her acting so much better. He has a sarcastic wit that I enjoy. If you have ever had a difficult dog you will find comic relief in the antics of Marley. The life situations faced by the family are realistic enough that viewers can relate, laugh at, and sympathize with.
It is almost 12:30 AM, December 29th, and Lil Bit is STILL fighting sleep. She is so excited about a friend spending the night tomorrow that she can’t drift off to dreamland! ARGH! Go. To. Sleep. At least she is quietly pretending to try. Actually, she really is trying but is just too keyed up. I know the feeling.
I took the Big Kid to see Twilight this afternoon. The books are an OK read. I do not think they are as good as the Harry Potter series, but they are a nice read if you are looking for something easy and entertaining in a warm fuzzy kind of way. They will certainly help you reconnect with your inner teen. The movie? Typical book into a movie, but the acting was absolutely terrible! Think emo evil stares and that is the first 3/4s of the movie. The last part was the good part. With more action in the second book, maybe the second movie will be better. My cousin was spot on when she said you have to LOVE Edward in order to LOVE the movie. Don’t get me wrong, I am an Edward fan. However, I also really like Jacob in the second book. By the third he is becoming irritating. I haven’t made it all the way through the third yet so don’t spoil it for me.
My movie rating…it’s just one of those that you should see if you are reading the books. If you aren’t reading the books it will probably be very corny and stupid. However, my 11 year old LOVED it because it is the cool thing to like these days. (She hasn’t read the books yet, but will when her time allows.)
Last week we say Marley & Me. It was so cute. Now, I took the girls to see it and regret that decision. There are several insinuations that I would prefer to not discuss with the kids. However, cute movie with a nice story line and a good bit of humor.
More later…maybe. I’m going to attempt dream sleep for myself now.
