Oh.my.GAWD!

1. I have just finished the first of three inservice days on the new state standards. WOW. and, when my session first started I had to take a math test. WHAT!? I wasn't ready to think! I guess they wanted to see if math teachers actually know math. (it was done annonymously and we wont know how we did.)

2. I found out today that in order to teach algebra (that I one day hope to do) I will ALSO have to go to a week long training this summer that costs $550. I am hoping that the school will pay all or some of that. (and there goes one moreweek of my summer break...)

3. One of the other teachers that went today said her 13 year old daughter went to the doctor for a checkup and, GET THIS, he told the THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL, who is quite slim and tall, that she was HEAVIER than 75% of the girls her age.W.T.F???

Is he TRYING to push this girl into an eating disoder? I literally want to go punch this doctor in the face. What is he thinking telling a kid that? idiot.

"Stop fixing your body. It was never broken"

I want to see this movie. It is about America's obsession with "beauty". The quote that is my title is from Eve Ensler (love her books!)
Unfortunately, the cinema here won't show it (don't even get me started on that) and somehow I'm betting that our Blockbuster won't carry it, either.

Time to get a Netflix account......

My Brain still hurts

I got the bright idea to register for the Middle School Math Praxis.

Why, you ask?

Because I am a math nerd and, well, I need another thing to add to my nerddom, nerdhood, nerdiness, whatever....

No, really because I *heard* that with passing the math praxis I *might* be able to one day teach algebra. And being the good math nerd that I am I jumped on that.
(Ok, kiddos, don't get too excited. as of right now I am still teaching 7th grade math. There is NO talk of me teaching anything else at the moment)

Anyway, the test was today. Ask mark, kari, or brandy and they can tell you that I was a lil bit nervous this week. I pulled out the algebra I and 8th grade math books to review anything that I might have forgotten. I looked at online practice tests. Most of the stuff I knew. A few things I had to go back and refresh my memory on (factoring quadratic trinomials, anyone?). I felt a little like Hermione. All week I kept pulling out the book or my notes and looking up a formula or working out 'one more problem'. A couple of times I freaked and drew a blank and ended up sending Kari a txt of the problem. (and it was usually a stupid mistake on my part as to why I missed it)

This morning I doubled checked ONE MORE TIME that I had my admittance ticket, my 2 pencils (no mechanical ones dangit), my ink pens for the constructed response questions (for math? WHY do I have to use a pen? yes, there were a few scribbles on my answer sheet), and my calculator. We got to the test place early and there was already quite a few people waiting. I got checked in, sent to the correct room, lined my pencils up ready to go, and mentally went through some of the formulas that I had gone over in the car. *coughHermionecough*

The test was two hours. 40 multiple choice questions and 3 constructed response (CR). CR problems mean they give me a problem and it has 4 or 5 parts to it that I have to not only work out, but explain how and why. (have you seen my handwriting when I am in a hurry?)

I think I got most of the 40 questions right. there were a few that I wasn't sure about and a couple that I had no idea how to do.*educated guess*

I started on the first of the three CR and did ok on the first two parts of it then completely drew a blank. As in - "I'm gonna throw up bc I have no idea" kind of blank. So I skipped it and went on. I had an hour at this point. Feverishly working, I got through the other two CR questions. (with only a little bit of BS-ing on them).
With 15 minutes to spare I came back to the first CR question and it was like a light bulb had gone off. I don't know if what I wrote was all correct, but I finished the last part about 30 seconds before time was up.

WHEW. I am still exhausted.

Now I have to wait four weeks for my results.

Now a little math humor



sigh.......



On another topic-I've decided to re-read all the Harry Potter books in sequence. It's been a while since I've read the first few. It's amazing to see how she tied the last one back to the first.

adolescence

It's funny how things that happen in middle and high school tend to stick with a person for a long time. I still remember being harrassed every day by the kid who sat in front of me in social studies in 7th grade (this was before "sexual harrassment" was a buzz word) and to this day I harbor not-so-pleasant feelings for him. He might have changed his ways since then. But he'll always be that kid who tormented the hell out of me.

And girls. Good lord, girls in middle and high school can be terrible. It's amazing how someone could be your best friend for years then one day turn on you. (and then later on going so far as to cheat with TWO of my boyfriends) Kinda messes relationships up for a while.

All of this comes up because of something my mother said to me. I was complaining that an another teacher was bugging me about an upcoming conference we have to go to and how she cornered me three times one day to talk about it. My mother says, "Sandi, quit complaining and be nice. She just likes you."

hmmm, see that's the problem. Because of the backstabbing and betrayal in middle school and high school I sometimes still have a problem letting people in. The part of me that was the adolescent thinks "But WHY does this person want to be my friend. What if they are just gathering information to use against me?"

I've always been a little, um, quirky. I have more confidence about that quirkiness now that I am older and couldn't really care less if someone likes me or not....but I guess that is from years of throwing up those walls to protect my feelings. However, the adolescent peeks through at times.

So tell me, dear readers (all one or two of you), do you have any stories from middle school or high school that you can't seem to "forgive and forget"?

Share them if you don't mind. Then let's have a big "letting go" celebration of some kind :)

I just found out something cool!

Being part of the National Writing Project, I get the opportunity to go to the national meetings every year (last year was in NY) . These meetings are held at the same time as the National Council of Teacher's of English conference so I usually pay the money to go to the sessions there. It's pretty selfish, the reasons I like to go to these even though I teach math. THE AUTHORS! Last year I got to meet Holly Black (Tithe) and Lauren Myracle (L8R, G8R), among others. A couple of years ago I got to meet Lois Lowry(Giver)
I just found out the OR Melling is going to be at the conference this year! A couple of years ago I picked up an advanced reader copy of her book The Summer King and completely fell in love with the world of faerie.

How exciting! I've never been to Texas before (heck, I've never been west of St. Louis) so this will be a fun trip for many reasons.

disadvantages of living in a small town

After meeting some awesome amigas for lunch today (Prater's Taters-yum!), I decided to run by the county library. The last time I went to the library it was in an older building and they didn't have much in the way of good books. A few years ago the county built a big, nice building and moved the library. I just haven't gotten around to checking it out.

I went mostly looking for audiobooks.
I was disappointed. They had maybe three small shelves of audiobooks on cd. The rest were on cassette. I don't even think I own a working cassette player anymore. Of the cds they had, none were anything I was interested in.
So I decided to check out their selection of young adult novels.
Oh. my. Gosh.
I have a better library in my classroom than they have.

So I left. I didn't bother getting a library card. Such a nice building, such a pitiful library. How sad.

May Book List

Now that summer is here I plan to plow through more of the books on my shelves at school (remember I have over 1100! I've read quite a few of them already) and fair warning, I will probably be reading the Twilight series AGAIN this summer since the 4th book is coming out Aug 2.

May
New Moon~ Stephenie Meyer (I actually read all of it this go round and didnt skip the first, depressing half)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower~Stephen Chbosky (I dont get the hype surrounding this book)
The Host~ Stephenie Meyer (love it love it love it)
Eclipse~ Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Audiobook ~JK Rowling
Nineteen Minutes~Jodi Picoult (I like her books, but this one was quite wordy. and i was confused about something at the end)

April
Perfect~ Natasha Friend
Lush~ Natasha Friend
Bounce~ Natasha Friend
Jeremy Fink & the Meaning of Life~ Wendy Mass
Twilight~ Stephenie Meyer
Twilight audiobook~Stephenie Meyer Listened to when walking

March
The Anaedor Chronicles- Prophecies~ Kristina Schram
Define Normal ~ Julie Anne Peters
Twilight ~ Stephenie Meyer (had to get my fix)
Someone Like You ~ Sarah Dessen
Physik- Septimus Heap book 3 ~ Angie Sage

January & February:
*The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman

*How to Hook a Hottie by Tina Ferraro
*Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen
*Son of the Sword~ River of Doors by Wesley Stein
*Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
*Pendragon Book 7: Quillan Games by DJ MacHale
*Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
*The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe by CS Lewis (read with class)
*Screwtape: A Play Based on the book by C.S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters" byJames Forsyth
*The Shack by William P Young