Kontan’s Place

lazy bum

We love her, but geez-louise could she BE more lazy?

Preparing to decorate

I am putting together my portfolio and need to add room pics to it. Sounds easy enough, and I’m sure it is…if you have a room to photograph. I do not. I wanted to use the math room that I use each day. He didn’t mind but suggested just taking a pic of one of the history rooms. Not to be rude, but these guys are not very creative in their decoration. Although, using the history room sounded like a good idea since I wouldn’t have to take anything down, I could just add to. When I looked at the history room I was pretty impressed. It was creative and cute. Very classic. Not what I would normally do, but it was a clean and calm atmosphere. I decided not to use that room though. I will be modifying my afternoon room. Ease of access was the deciding factor. No keys to borrow and I spend most of my time in there so I can get some decoration done while students are working tomorrow.

As I went through what I will take for display I realized how much I miss having my own teaching spaced. I miss having a space to reflect me, and my teaching style. I miss having my posters, time lines, and pictures to refer to while teaching. I miss my bulletin boards and artifacts from here and there. It is nice not having to maintain a work space, but it is better to have a workspace to call your own. Besides, the coat closet in the living room could be put to better use than as supply storage for my teaching and grad school materials.

Looking forward to having at least one day in a history classroom. *sigh* I will say the science room is the worst. It’s big. It has great lighting, and good desks. But *ew* during dissection time and I really despise teaching with a jar of roundworms on the desk beside me.

Went to the park this past weekend and took a few pics…enjoy

9 words women use

I received this via email. It will either be helpful or amusing.

1. Fine : This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

2. Five Minutes : If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3. Nothing : This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

4. Go Ahead : This is a dare, not permission. Don’t Do It!

5. Loud Sigh : This is actually a word, but is non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)

6. That’s Okay : This is one of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. That’s okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

7. Thanks : A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you’re welcome.

8 . Whatever : Is a woman’s way of saying #*%$ YOU!

9. Don’t worry about it, I got it : Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking ‘What’s wrong?’ For the woman’s response refer to #3.

I am a teacher…I am tired.

So much to do, so little time…

Honestly, if people had ANY idea how much time teachers spend with prep and junk they would have just a LITTLE bit more respect. ‘Tis the life I chose. Finished PowerPoint for tomorrow, added my animations, printed handouts. Over the next eight weeks it is going to be a mad dash to WWII. I would prefer to focus on applications and portfolio essays but my current job is keeping me busy. LOVING teaching World HI again, but I was s-p-o-i-l-e-d teaching the same course for five years. You get to reuse most of your stuff and prep time is considerably less! I shalt not complain…I have a job and am happy to have it. Actually, last week was pretty good and today got the week off to a good start.

Received the following in an email today. Unfortunately we can’t solve all of the problems, but many times we are expected to. Read on…

I Am a Teacher - I Am Tired

Because I am a teacher.

Happy Easter!

I searched you tube for Easter videos and found these instead. Too cute.

and two months later…

LOL, and 4 months down the road. (I love the end!!!)

First post using WP 2.5

Sneak Peak of Wordpress 2.5 so I thought I would give it a try. It isn’t up for official release yet. Not all plugins work. One that I loved with 2.3, Advanced-Admin-Menus, messed up the whole thing. The manage features were gone. Once deactivated everything started looking normal again.

A great comparison of 2.5 and 2.3 can be found here. A few features I find cool:

In the “Write Post” menu you can add media directly from the post page. Pictures, video, music, media.

Uploading from computer still has issues, but the from url feature seems to work fine.

One of the things I dislike about wordpress is keeping up with plugin updates. I sometimes let them slide if it isn’t something essential. With 2.5 you have an auto update feature. You simply click, enter your ftp info, which will be saved for later use, and there ya go. Beats downloading, ftp to the site, and activating.

The look is different, the navigation is different. I think it is going to work out just fine.

I’m also using Firefox 3 Beta 4. None of my add-ons work so I’m not thrilled with it. It will be great when the add-ons catch up.

The worst screw up…EVER

What is the worst thing that you can do on evaluation day? The worst thing that can happen to you or, in my case, you can do to yourself? Think…

Go on, I’ll wait.

Got something?

OK, let me share.
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Relief!

Called NCDE today and am THRILLED to say that all I have to do is send my info. Hopefully all of my info will be sufficient. RECIPROCITY!!!!! Woohoo! This is such a great opportunity for Jem…He’s worked hard and I am so proud of him. The fact that we will no longer be living in a state that seems to be competing for the bottom position on the quality of education ladder makes me very happy.

Enough posting…off to visit the link list.

Serious prayer needed here

If I have to take another PRAXIS test to be licensed in NC I’m going to be violently ill. Please pray for reciprocity. To get a license in NC you have to take Social Studies Content Knowledge and Social Studies Pedagogy. I would do fine on the World and US content knowledge. I would do well on government and pretty good on geography. Economics…oh not so good. The only reason I did OK on it when I took this test was because I had just taught the subject. That was in 1999 and I haven’t touched it since. My economics instruction stops at supply/demand and inflation. In all of my Soc.Sci. education I have had 3 economics courses…two were histories masking as economics. Please, please, please no take again. Why would I need to take if I have already taken it? The pedagogy scoring would be subjective…I think. I do not want to bank on a test with subjective scoring so I would want to boost my content knowledge score. I just reviewed the licensure app and it looks like I just MIGHT not have to take the tests since I am HQ in AL.

And since I’m begging for prayer support…I have my eye on a cool charter school that would be perfect for my girls and it would be totally cool to get to work there. So like could you totally pray for it? LOL, long day and my head is full of allergy issues. Lovely. Pray that goes away too.

God, I really need calm nerves and peace about this transition.

Quotes for thought:

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Epictetus

What worries you, masters you.
John Locke

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever
Mahatma Gandhi

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.
Henry Ward Beecher

Seriously, are you waiting for a different shade of green?

We have random drug testing. I would like to advocate random drivers tests. You have to renew every few years and I think there should be the requirement that drivers should have to submit to periodic drivers tests.

Lets go over a few things…
First and foremost, IT’S THE PEDAL ON THE RIGHT!

2. The stop sign is there for a reason, observe it.

3. I regret to inform you that the stop sign will not be turning green to signal that you can go.

4. A four way stop is not a two for one deal people. Two people from your line do not get to go for every single car in mine. It does not work that way…sorry.

5. Pay attention when it is your turn! Again, the sign will not be turning green.

6. However, the LIGHT will and when it does please do not be picky about the shade. It too will not be changing or blinking at you to signal it is time to go. The light changes from yellow, to red, to green. That’s it.

7. A green light does not mean put on your brakes. Yes, use caution while going through the light but DO NOT SLAM ON YOUR BRAKES!

8. By the way, the stick on the left…yeah that is a turn signal, or as we call it around here- “the blinker.” It indicates that you will be turning either left or right. Try using it.

9. I appreciate that you want to show off the southern hospitality and let that car that has been waiting forever merge into traffic. Yes, it seems like the polite thing to do. However, the twenty people behind you do not agree. The other car made the decision to enter at that intersection, let them wait it out.

10. FURTHERMORE, stopping in the left lane to allow a car from oncoming traffic to turn in front of you AND the advancing right lane is not only stupid it endangers everyone and you can be held accountable for your stupidity. Again, it isn’t polite to the twenty people who had to slam on their brakes behind you or will be involved in the head on collision that has a strong potential of occurring.

11. Left lane fast. Right lane slow.

12. Speed limits. If I’m going it get off my butt.

13. It’s rain people, drive with caution not amazement.

I’m sure there are many more, but this will do for now. Feel free to add your own.

OK fine…not stupid, they simply lack essential knowledge. Doesn’t that sound much nicer?