Merry Christmas, one and all

Merry Christmas!!!

Crossing My Fingers....

I've been cooped up in my apartment for the past week, more or less. A couple ventures out, but mostly just laying on the couch being sick. Jason was kind enough to bring me a newspaper on Sunday so I could look at the ads and take a peek at the employment section...

So there it was... the ad I've been waiting for 3 years to see...

TEACHER - seeking applicants for high school English teacher... Current Michigan teaching certificate with English (BA) endorsement required...

Oh my God! English - not Language Arts - but English! That's what I have! That's why I don't get hired by the schools that want a Language Arts teacher. But this school wants an actual English teacher. It's also at a local charter school. Hmmm. I have experience in charter schools. I'm actually qualified for this job! Hooray!

So today I updated my resume, wrote my cover letter, made a copy of my teaching certificate and emailed it all to the school. Now I am crossing my fingers. It would be nice to at least get an interview. Just an interview would make me happy. The job would make me happier, of course, but an interview would be a good start. I'd take an interview...

Biting the heck out of the Chico Stick

Today we all met at Joe's house for my birthday dinner, games, and presents.

We had Chef Boyardee pizza (yummy - Thanks for cooking, Dan).

We learned a new game (thanks, Cara) that would make for a really fun drinking game. ;)

I opened presents (woo hoo - Thanks Joe, Randi, Lindsey, Burke, Cara, Dan, Marissa, and Mom).

We played a new Cranium-like board game. Randi is very talented with her toes, by the way.

And then we had the cake that Cara baked. It was a marble cake with chocolate frosting... Moist Deluxe... With vanilla ice cream.

Thanks, Cara, for making a cake that brought tears to my eyes... from laughing so hard. The look on your face when you took that first bite was absolutely priceless! Next time, remember to put in the eggs... I don't recommend to anyone leaving eggs out of a cake recipe. Of couse, everyone who was there tonight will know why.

The cake will be one I will never forget. :)

What a fun birthday.

Happy Birthday To Me

I decided not to sub today. For my birthday I am home with my pets. :) It's nice and peaceful here.

Jason was going to take me to the 1913 Room tonight for dinner, but we decided to go to the Sierra Room instead. (www.sierraroom.com) The chef from the last restaurant I worked at is the new chef there, so I know the food will be really yummy. And we might even get a free appetizer or drinks or something. Unfortunately, the chef has today off for his kids' Christmas program at school. So we're going to dinner on Thursday for my birthday instead. Which is fine, I will still be the same age.

So tonight for my actual birthday, Jason is coming over and we're going to watch a movie and order pizza or something so I don't have to cook or wash dishes. I already got my birthday/Christmas present from him - my digital camera - so I don't expect to get anything today besides a movie to watch, pizza, and maybe a bottle of wine. Maybe I will get birthday cards in the mail from my grandmas today. That would be something else. :)

Anyway. Happy Birthday to me. Today is my first 29th birthday.

Excitement at the Charter School

Sometimes it's nice to sub in schools like Lowell cuz they are so calm that they're boring. Everyone knows how to behave,and they stay in their seats and they use inside voices. They might take a nap or do other homework or read or write notes instead of the actual assignment, but in general, they stay out of trouble. Yesterday I subbed at LHS and it was such an easy, boring day. It's nice to do that in between subbing at the Charter School in the middle school part.

Here I am again. For the second time this week in the middle school. I know from Monday that these kids don't know how to use an "inside voice" and that they need to be reminded about every five minutes or so that they should be sitting in a chair and not running around. About every 10 minutes they need to be reminded that they should be working on an assignment. It's certainly not boring. I brought lots of Tylenol this time!

Today I got to write my first "incident" statement about something that happened in my classroom. What happened was this: two students, let's call them Amanda and Aaron, apparently really hate each other. Aaron is standing calmly in front of the teacher's desk, talking to me before class starts. Last week Aaron was in the class I subbed 4 days for, so we're chatting. Amanda is stitting in her chair nearby and asks if she can work in another classroom cuz she can't study in here. I nod to her. Aaron says to me "she can't" which based on Amanda's question and his tone of voice I took to mean that it was true, she couldn't study in this particluar classroom. Amanda hears him say something, she starts saying "what did you just say to me?" over and over, getting louder each time with more and more colorful language. Aaron just says to her "I wasn't talking to you" calmly over and over again, never raising his voice. Amanda stands and starts towards Aaron. I stand in the aisle between them. "He's not talking to you, Amanda. It's okay" I tell her. Amanda keeps yelling profanities at Aaron and is held back by a couple of students. Another teacher has heard the commotion and came up behind Amanda, restraining her and dragging her physically out of the classroom with Amanda cursing and yelling the whole time.

Mr. Marshall (remember from the post about the drug search?) came into my class minutes later to take Aaron out as well. He returned about 10 minutes later to ask my version of the story. Which I relayed to him. He asked me if I could write it out for him. So I did.

My first incident report. How exciting.

The spanish teacher asked me to sub for her next week. She said she only has one class of middle school students and it's the 8th graders. :) I said yes, I would love to sub for her.

Monday Morning

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I said I would love to sub on Monday at the charter school for one of the middle school teachers. I don't think there's anything worse than middle school kids at 8am... And I forgot to make coffee this morning, so that's making it worse.

Of course, I am a glutton for punishment, so I said I would sub for the other middle school teacher on Wednesday.

Really, I am just very broke and I need all the money/sub jobs I can get.

Yesterday I started looking in the paper for restaurant jobs again. Even with unemployment compensation I can't afford to live on subbing alone. So, I think I'll just bite the bullet and get another waitressing job for a few nights a week. I'm still waiting for my old restaurant to reopen so I can get that job back, but it's going to be a while and I'm broke now.

Only 4 more hours until I can take a nap....

A sweet offer

One of the boys at the school just asked, "Miss T., where's your rock?"

"I don't have one."

"Why not?"

"I'm not married."

"You ain't got no man?"

"I've got a man."

"So why ain't you married?"

"He hasn't asked me."

"You ask him."

"No, I want the ring."

"I'll buy you a ring, Miss T."

"Thanks, Ken."

How sweet.

Warm fuzzy for this morning

I am subbing at the charter school today. I've been here every day this week. I'll be here again on Monday. I'm not just a sub here, I am THE sub here. I don't think they even call anyone else anymore unless I am already subbing for someone else. They like to book me in advance. It's nice.

But the warm fuzzy part is the conversation I had with Alice, the school's secretary, this morning. She asked if people call me by my full name or something else. I said it depends, some do, some call me Chrys. She said, gosh, you're becoming such a fixture here that we should start to call you by your name instead of just Miss Thaler. Oh, well then, Chrys is good.... Awwwww. Thanks, Alice. Warm fuzzy. :)

I have finally gotten to the point where I am a regular here and I get called by my first name by the staff. The kids are used to me. They know I play games all day. They always say, "Dang, you just everywhere. You was Ms Jackson/Mr Hindman/Mr Thompson/Ms Patton before." "Yes," I tell them, "I've been here a lot."

The kids tell me I should be a teacher here, but I think it's just cuz they don't really do any work when I am here and their real teachers make them do stuff. ;)