March 28th, 2008
Time for an update about me.
I am 15 teaching days from being done. Then a week of professional development seminars and my teacher’s college experience is complete. The last 7 months have flown by. I wish I had more time to visit and hangout with the people I have met here, but we all have placed to go once we are done. Some to Asia, others the Middle East, the rest of us all over Canada.
I will be coming home for a bit, then picking myself up and moving down the road to Cowtown. I am a bit scared for a full time teaching gig, but it will be a good experience. It will also be nice to be near the mountains and to be able to see some areas of Alberta that I haven’t been exposed to. As far as living is concerned I am going to be looking for a large one bedroom or a two bedroom place so that I can keep the teacher aspect of my life in one area. That way I can take the odd night and pretend not to be a teacher without having stacks of papers or books to look at.
As far as when I will be moving its up in the air. Ideally I would move in the start of August so that I am settled by the time I need to start prepping my classroom. However there is the chance I need to do a training course in the spring so I may go down earlier. Either way I plan to be home for a good chunk of the summer.
The summer plans include golf, the jeep, the truck, hiking…and possibly working if need be. I also want to try and do a bunch of photography. I have tried to do some here and will post them to my gallery soon.
As for my website I want to do some major changes to go along with my new career so keep an eye out.
February 29th, 2008
This weeks Friday Five is all about livejournal, therefore not really fitting to my site as it is not a LJ. All of you readers, yes the whole…over 2000+…that can’t be right…lot of you. Man if I am getting even a quarter of that number of visitors then I need to start looking at content. Perhaps even this weekend.
February 4th, 2008
The reason I have not been blogging as of late is that I have two other blogs on the go. One I choose to keep separate from this so it will remain unnamed. The other one is my art portfolio for one of my classes.
Feel free to check it out.
www.jtartattack.wordpress.com
February 4th, 2008
That’s right folks I have big news! But first a quick update.
So my last entry talked about the fact my roomie was dog sitting. Well that turned into having a dog full time. Is this a surprise…no. I knew right off the bat that the way she was talking and acting that this was going to be a permanent thing. It caused some tension for awhile, but as of late things are getting on better. The dog knows what to do and not, still being a dog it makes mistakes that I get to just point out to the roomie so she can clean up. The only thing that is bothering me about the dog is the fact that despite the dog not coming anywhere near my room, everything is still covered in hair. Damn dogs and their shedding.
School has been flying by. I guess that is part of only having class three days a week. It is havey while in it but its over quick. I am now at the half way point of the semester and some of my courses are wrapping up, just in time for others to begin. This has caused there to be an influx of assignments and presentations due, but the light is at the end of the tunnel.
I have received my placement for the second semester already. I am going to be a grade 5/6 teacher. I think this will be a fun chance to test my skills, as those students are finally at the age where they can put some deep thought into the concepts. I just hope the math doesn’t beat me. This however was not my big news.
The big news is that I have been offered a contract to teach in Calgary for 2008-2009. It is a full time position, in which they hope to find me my own classroom. If this is not possible I will work as a supply teacher but still get paid my grid salary. It is also a position as a special needs teacher, as they want to “best utilize my background and area of expertise”. This means that for the next year I will be living in Calgary. Time to start the rental hunt again. Anyone want to join me?
January 9th, 2008
It is always hard to know how to react to something that is dropped in your lap. Whether its school related, money related or related to your living situation. Today seems to have been a day where all three were an impact for me.
First off the positive. I finally got my Bursary money!! If only it had come a couple weeks sooner, then I would have been typing this on a macbook. Oh well.
School despite only being two days in looks like its going to be a killer. There seems to be a focus on readings by the profs this semester with a ton of group work to make up the majority of our marks. In fact in one course alone all of my marks are group related, even the self eval. But with a little focus and some many pots of coffee I should be able to follow up my 2 A+’s, 2 A-’s and one unknown mark without concern.
Lastly my living situation. I came home exhausted, I think jet lag may have set in today, to be met by a house guest moments later. A house guest that will be here for a couple weeks (said the roomie vaguely). A house guest that has four legs. Yes my roomie is dog sitting. Did I mention that she didn’t even have decency to ask if I would be alright with having a dog here. I told her that I was having no part of it and that all the responsibility is on her. My biggest problem is that she didn’t ask and that it is making me feel even less at home here then I already did. I have very limited personal space, and now with a dog roaming around that is cut down even more. Not to mention with our busy schedules, I am expecting there to be many presents left by the dog around the apartment. Heaven help if this dog wakes me up during my four day weekends. I will not be a happy camper.
Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs. I would have even said yes to having a dog here for a short while, but two weeks without advance notice is a bit much. I guess all I can do is wait and see. If it becomes too much I guess I will voice my opinion and hopefully the dog will go home.
So that has been my day thus far. I am going to keep this daily posting going until I get swamped, but hopefully now that I have lappy working on campus I can be blogging during class. Yahoo for wireless…boo for Win2K.
