The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

Impromptu photo session

Wow… it’s incredible that the first month of “Twenty-Ten” or as I say, “Two thousand, ten” is coming to a close. It seems to have flown by but it’s truly because I’ve been so busy that I’ve had one commitment after another and haven’t stopped to pay attention.

The new year brought me two new students, a new schedule and lots of paperwork, reports and lessons to plan and execute at school. I’ve spent quite a bit of time at Jake’s wrestling meets and tournament and there have been a lot of family gatherings as well.

Since I’m still not sleeping well and can hardly get out of bed in the morning, my 5:00 gym dates have come to an end. Unfortunately, I’ve had either meetings or appointments after school four out of five days a week all month, so the afternoon Wii Fit dates have been put on hold too.

Next month’s calendar is filling up quite quickly already but at least there’s a vacation week in there which I so desperately need to catch up on sleep. I’ll also need to do a lot of work for the online class that I’m taking this semester and of course, I’ll be glued to the Winter Olympics which start on February 12th. (I LOVE the OLYMPICS and have since I was a little girl… summer, winter, I don’t care, I love them both!)

I expect that February will fly by as well, then… One Day at a Time…

It’s a windy, sleety day here and I’m beginning my day of working from home with my favorite breakfast: steel cut oats, fruit and nuts and coffee with soy milk.  I’m fueling my body right, will spend some time doing my Wii workouts (Wii Fit and Biggest Loser), get my laundry finished, and jump into the HUGE stack of school work that I brought home. I’m also making my shopping lists, cutting coupons and planning my week as it’s already gearing up to be a busy one. I have a calendar full of appointments during the week and both weekend days are already booked up as well.

Here’s to a productive day to start me off on the right track….

Yes… I’m still here.

No.. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth!

I’m back to school and it’s been one of the most challenging starts I’ve had since my very first year of teaching when I was blindsided and given  all of the kids with Behavior Disorders. That’s not the situation this year, but it’s been difficult to meet a particular student’s needs within the confines of my school.  So, lots of mental energy and time have been spent just keeping above water this first month. Things let up quite a bit this week (don’t know why but I’ll take it!) and it’s actually been bearable. Here’s hoping that it will continue and school life will run more smoothly from here on out.  And….. not a moment too soon since state testing (NECAP) and the dreaded Alternate Assessment window begins on Monday.

This is one of the rare weekends that I don’t have any commitments and I’m thankful.  I’m hoping to do some fall cleanup in the yard, do the usual housework and errands tomorrow and  watch the Patriots game from the couch on Sunday.  I really need this quiet weekend  because work has been stressful and I’ve also had a lot on mind.  The weather has just turned so fall is in the air and nothing will make me happier than a relaxing weekend with a some good books and pots of tea.

Look what happened, overnight!

It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted and it’s because I’ve been very busy with school things and real life. My time online has really been dwindling and I jump on and off to check email, Twitter, and Facebook statuses but I’ve been doing a lot of reading and trying to get outside to take the girls for walks. (I even ran Lincoln Woods last weekend so I’ve been getting back into that as well.)

This is the final week that I can work on the State Alternate Assessment for my kids and I’ve been going full force since April vacation. I’ve literally been going in early every day, staying late, and working through EVERY prep period and planning period for the last month. It’ll be close but I need to have it ready for pickup Wednesday night when I leave school.  This week is going to be hairy as I already know that I’ll be alone tomorrow ( Assistant is sick…) so I’ll have to keep my kids and won’t have a prep to work on it because they can’t go to gym and music alone. I have quite a few medical appointments to attend as well, so there won’t be much after school time available. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to eek it out.

It was a busy weekend with going out to dinner and to  see Foreigner (blast from the past!) last night with friends and spending today at the Special Olympics with my kids. This is the first time I’ve been online for more than 30 seconds today so I dropped this quick post at the last minute. I’m really hoping that with the end of the Assessment comes time to get back to more social media interacting and new media creation.  Until then… see you on Twitter or Facebook and wish me luck!

TEACH

I’m still flying high from yesterday’s historic Inauguration Day and shed more than a few tears as it was very emotional. I had such a sense of pride in our nation and hope for the future. Hope that we’re REALLY going to take to heart that we’re all in it together and that there’s lots of work to do. We need to do it as a nation, with commitment and as a team,  and we ALL need to pull our own weight to make this a better place for all.

I was so happy to be sharing the event with my students. (It was my free period but I kept them with me as we’ve been anticipating it for a very long time and they were super excited.) Luckily, they were able to play it on the TVs throughout the building. I had brought my laptop in, just in case. It wouldn’t have been ideal to all gather around the 15″ MacBook Pro’s screen but it would have been better than missing it!  It was awesome to see them standing to salute the flag and singing the national anthem together. You could hear a pin drop in my room as all eyes were glued to the set.  As it turned out,  because we watched it on TV, I was able to pull up Tweetdeck and was able to tweet along with my friends and read the reactions from around the world.  The excitement continued right up until I fell asleep watching the festivities.

Just as Obama partied for one day then headed to work to deal with business today, the party is over at school as well. Between the snowdays, MLK events and the Inauguration, it’s been pretty hectic but special for the entire month of January. Today was a  “get back on track” day in terms of our routines and schedules and expectations. I’ll be starting some new units and upping the ante from here on out. Second quarter ends Friday and we’re fast approaching the halfway point at school.  There’s lots of learning to be done and time is flying by.

My To Do list is growing and I’ve got to start heading to bed at a decent hour again so that I can squeeze the exercise in. I’ve got lots of paperwork that I’ll be needing to do for work and I’m going to try to stay late a couple of days a week so I don’t have to take it home. (I carry it home and never have time to open the school bag once I’m here because I have a whole list of things to do here.)  I’m hoping to stay one day a week to plan and make copies for the following week and one day a week to work on assessment stuff and IEPs, PLPs, and other Special Ed paperwork.

I’ll also be out at night a bit for Jake’s wrestling meets but most nights I’m home with the girls.   I’m tucked in now and will be rolling over to turn out the light soon. You can be sure that I’ll be drifting off to sleep with a smile on my face and determination in my heart.

Apologies to my fellow Pats fans who look to me for content… I’m just too busy with REAL life right now to spend much time online. Between the holiday prep, my job (with increasing demands and growing class roster), my kids, and my 3 dogs, I’ve been swamped.

I spent much of the weekend shopping because we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family on Sunday. This coming weekend is booked solid and unlike many of the communities around here, I still have school the following week.

I’m behind on:

• Website update
• Steelers tailgate
• Upload holiday pictures
• Podcast

We still haven’t taken our Christmas card photo, and at this point, who knows if it will even get done. Trying to get both kids home at the same time to take it has been a feat in itself. KLC is working a lot and JAC is busy with wrestling practices and meets. Love to keep the tradition alive but life is full of changes…

Phone Update: I decided to keep the Samsung Omnia and once I learned how to use the Optical mouse and set the orientation to the right side, it’s been much easier.

It’s amazing how one little step leads to another… I’ve been struggling because I just haven’t had much time to update my website, produce podcasts nor update the tailgate page. Of course, being sick for two weeks after coming back from San Diego didn’t help but I truly felt like I was facing a mountain that was too high to climb.

Thankfully, I decided to Utter my feelings yesterday morning on the way to work and I got a couple of replies which made me think of things differently. DougH had a good suggestion about sending an Utter after the game which only takes a couple of minutes. I guess I was in the mindset that I wanted to “save what I had to say for the podcast” however, the trouble is, I don’t always have enough time in the week to get one done. I need to drop the “all or nothing” attitude and accept that I can only do what I can do. So, I may be using Utterli to keep up with my Pats updates. You can follow me here: http://www.utterli.com/mrsb

So, sparked by that conversation and remarkably having some time on my hands, I uploaded all of my pictures and posted the past two tailgate reports. Corralling the Ponies on Monday Night, and Rams: October Sunday at 1:00 are up.

I’m also going to start using 12seconds.tv a lot more to put out quick updates. You can subscribe to the feed through an rss reader or even iTunes. http://12seconds.tv/channel/mrsb/feed  I’m thinking about a way to include some video in my Muse With Me feed so I’m going to think about how to do it. I’m not talking about adding anything extensive since I can’t even keep up with what I have but I’d like to incorporate it to streamline what I’m doing.

Look for a daily blog post of some kind as I’m in the NaBloPoMo group and figure that I can spare at least 12seconds, a couple of minutes or maybe a bit more each day and making the commitment will be good for me.

PS… The cute picture has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that it just makes me smile

Still trying to get my bearings since coming back from San Diego. I’m exhausted, fighting a sore throat and swollen glands and I’m totally swamped at work and at home.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that there aren’t any updates from my trip yet but I hope to get them done tomorrow. Unfortunately, we made plans to go out tonight awhile back, not knowing how I would be feeling right now. I’m not even thinking about a night game on Monday yet and what that’s going to do my situation.. sigh…

As for work, I’ve got so much paperwork to do, I feel like I’m in a hole that I can’t get out of. I wish I could just “teach”… unfortunately special education is packed with paperwork. Right now, I’m faced with ILPs (Individual Learning Plans),  PLPs (Personal Literacy Plans), IEPs (Individual Education Plans), NECAP testing and the dreaded Alternate Assessment. Deadlines are looming and I’m overwhelmed.  I feel like  I’m getting to a point where I need a job that I can just “do” everyday, go home, and come in the next day to a new day without stuff carrying over.I love my kids but I’m not loving all that’s involved in teaching any more.

Of course, it’s probably just how I’m feeling right now, and I’ll probably feel better when I’m not sick and when I can actually cross some things off the To Do list.  But right now, I could sure use a hug….