Sunday, January 27, 2008
God Bless Him
Many of my friends have posted a picture already, so I just wanted to say, President Hinckley is/was loved, and will be missed by many
Friday, January 25, 2008
LOST
I, Emilie, do seem to like the tv show, "lost", after all. I had no interest in seeing it when it first came out. Fortunately, we have netflix and are starting with the first season from the very beginning. So far...*jaw drops* we put it in the DVD player and expected to watch maybe one show (i'm exhausted). ....yeah....right....we watched 4 episodes in a row...
It's that good.
It's that good.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
In over my head
So, I definitely think I'm a little in over my head.
Pre-school is great so far. I knew to expect difficulty when it came to keeping their attention for more than 2 seconds, all of 8 of them. However, expecting it and actually experiencing it are apparently two entirely different things. It's not like you can just yell or say their name out loud to get their attention, their eyes actually have to be on you! I knew this, just...yeah, hit me like a brick. Other than that though, it's good. I just need to look at their skill developments and such to be able to plan the appropriate lessons.
School, needless to say, I'm already behind! However, I should be able to catch up tonight, and part of tomorrow before my girl's lunch/dinner out with my two friends. Afterwards, I'll be working on lesson plans. If I can get all my homework and reading done for next week, that'll help with the stress level...A Lot.
Last night, I was driving home from teaching a workshop last night (oh yeah, I do that too...gee...why do I stress again?), it was snowing. They were TINY snowflakes, but frozen well enough that when they landed on the windshield (very light snow shower), you could see each snowflake and the 6 points on each one. I think that's one of the small things in life that can be great...joy is the best word I can think of. It was just nice to be able to see that.
Pre-school is great so far. I knew to expect difficulty when it came to keeping their attention for more than 2 seconds, all of 8 of them. However, expecting it and actually experiencing it are apparently two entirely different things. It's not like you can just yell or say their name out loud to get their attention, their eyes actually have to be on you! I knew this, just...yeah, hit me like a brick. Other than that though, it's good. I just need to look at their skill developments and such to be able to plan the appropriate lessons.
School, needless to say, I'm already behind! However, I should be able to catch up tonight, and part of tomorrow before my girl's lunch/dinner out with my two friends. Afterwards, I'll be working on lesson plans. If I can get all my homework and reading done for next week, that'll help with the stress level...A Lot.
Last night, I was driving home from teaching a workshop last night (oh yeah, I do that too...gee...why do I stress again?), it was snowing. They were TINY snowflakes, but frozen well enough that when they landed on the windshield (very light snow shower), you could see each snowflake and the 6 points on each one. I think that's one of the small things in life that can be great...joy is the best word I can think of. It was just nice to be able to see that.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Big butt long post
After seeing how long this post as, I decided to break it up for your convenience. If you read it all, huzzah to you. :)
So school has started. Last week, as posted before, I got hired onto be a long term sub for a preschool classroom. I was afraid of the pay, because the sub pay is 50 a day...25 for half day (which is what I would be doing). But after seeing my resume, my state teaching license, my degree and my current master's program, the lady said she would work on the pay (I didn't even have to ask). I did ask about benefits though, I knew it was unlikely, but hey, it didn't hurt to ask.
more about work
I got an e-mail back from her. She more than doubled the pay that I'll be getting....and....benefits :) That will be so nice. I'm very excited. I was originally supposed to start Monday (tomorrow), but it seems the HR has yet to receive all the papers they need (my transcripts from both universities, even though I requested they be overnighted). So I have to wait until they get those. I just hope I get it soon, I'm anxious to start teaching. I was a little sad when the principal e-mailed me and said she hated saying it, but I couldn't start Monday. However, I kind of expected it, I know universities can take a while to get transcripts out, and told her it was fine. It's especially fine because I'm still working my data entry job, and they don't care when I come in.
Speaking of which, the day after my interview, my boss for data entry had mentioned in a meeting that they would like me to do a big project with them, and I said "sure, if I'm still here." I said this because I hadn't heard for over a week if they wanted to keep me on or not after my work study grant was up. So we talked after the meeting, and I told her my situation. She was ready to negotiate pay and going from part-time to full time. IT was tempting, but I knew I would regret not teaching. This is an opportunity I need to be happy with my job, and get my foot into the door one toe at a time to achieve my ultimate goal. It feels nice to be able to be qualified enough to immediately work with them though. After talking it out, she said I'll stay on the job working Thursday evenings/Friday afternoons, unless things get too far behind. Then they'll put out an advertisement for my job and keep me on until I can train the new person. I'm super blessed, and very excited this will all work out. This also means I get to keep my grant to pay for tuition, and get the 50% waiver since I have a big credit load for my graduate semester.
This next part isn't a paid gig, it's a favor to a family with two deaf daughters. They invited the ward to learn to cue, and set it up with the bishop. My mother and I are voluntarily teaching the classes. So I'll be teaching that ON thursday nights every other week, except for this week and next week, mom has parent teacher conferences coming up at her school, and has a lot to do, especially since she's the special ed teacher there. I'm excited, and love the people in the class, I'm just going to be tired already from school :) (Friday is my day off from school).
About school
That being said, I'm taking 16 credits this semester. That's a pretty big load considering 9 credits is full time for graduate students. I'm taking Foundations in Special Ed Law, Linguistics Intro to the Study of Language (this is my for fun class :) ), Principles of Literacy (we have to do 20 hours of tutoring on our own time during regular elementary school hours....hmm, I'll work it out somehow), Instructional and Behavioral Support for Special Ed (basically a behavior management class), Medical and Health needs of young children (this is a term class that doesn't start until March 1st, and it's 4 hours every Saturday morning then). Also a faculty consultation class to make up the last credit I need to get the tuition waiver. Basically, I just write a research paper for my advisor. All in all, I only have 2 research papers to write, and 1 presentation to give that separates the grad students from the undergrad students. My literacy professor has never had grad students before, so the two of us in there got lucky. No extra work, just do the 20 hours of tutoring with everyone else. My linguistic class, I'm taking it at the beginning level, 1200, (my classes are 5000 or 6000 at the moment for my grad level classes). I'm REALLY excited, and can see that I badly need a refresher on language, especially with lexical categories....I never was good at that.
My weekend
This weekend we decided to go out. OUr books have been taking awhile to show up, so we haven't be able to get much homework done. Well....I only have one book left to show, bryan has only had 1 book out of, I don't know, 6 or 7 that has shown up. So it's more his frustration than mine, especially since my professor posted the 1st assigned readings for us online because of a huge mix up with text books. We decided to go out Friday night. We went out to dinner at...Chili's, which was nummy, then we went and saw I Am Legend. Holy creepy scary!!!! I LOVED it, so did Bryan. But man...did it scare us. We had to watch a tv show when we got home for me to at least not be so freaked out to go to sleep. Saturday we went to the mall to pick up a few items, we stopped at bed bath and beyond....perfect time to stop by. I got a few lotions, Sensual Amber, Moonlit Path and Warm Vanilla Sugar. I'm excited. WE also got my watch fixed, which I will really need once I start teaching again (I miss my second graders). Then we went to the store, and out to Olive Garden and came home and crashed pretty much. Or at least I did. Also this past week, I've been able to finish the first book for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I enjoyed it, coincidentally, the movie was on last week. I watched it after I read the book (tivo!). I was sorely disappointed in the movie. Oh well. I also finished New Moon today. I'm looking forward to Eclipse, and the 2nd, 3d, 4th and 5th book of the Pants series.
Nightmares
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it before, but I take ambien to sleep. A few years ago, I was having nightmares every night, thus never getting restful sleep time in. This caused me to fall asleep while driving, and led to an accident (fortunately a VERY minor one, only one scratch on my car, and nothing else). I was also falling asleep in several classes. At this time, I was borderline hypothyroid as well, so that was a reason for my sleepiness. However, they didn't put me on meds for the thyroid, which I now wish they had. But they did give me sleeping pills, tryl...soemthing. IT helped me to have dreamless sleeps, and once I got through one batch of it...not even a full batch of it...things were better (I was also on prozac...yeah for a couple of months). I didn't have problems again until last year when I was having major weight issues (was gaining even though I was watching what I ate and exercised everyday, the doctor was confused as well!). These nightmares were different, but I was still having them. Doctor said lack of sleep probably contributed to my weight problems. Put me on thyroid meds (which helped TONS!!!!!), and ambien (well generic). Since then, I sleep like a baby all the time and no longer require naps during the day. I've tried to go a few times without ambien, but I didn't sleep well those nights. THe past few nights, I've just been tired from an overwhelming week so I've crashed before taking meds. I had a dream that my co worker (who doesn't wear make up), was screaming at me because I didn't wear much make up to work one day. Said I looked too old, unprofessional, lazy and many other insulting things when I didn't wear make up. It really upset me, so I woke up. Last night I had a dream that my grandmother and grandfather died. First it was my grandmother though, which was a huge surprise (grandpa has parkinson's). Things were just unbearable, and I woke up miserable (I grew up spending most summers in their home). Today I took a nap, and had yet, another disturbing nightmare, not sure what it was though. Just remember waking up wanting to cry again. I hate nightmares, but I have to wonder that perhaps my brain is just hooked on ambien now? hmm, will ask my doctor when I get insurance again.
I told you this was long :)
So school has started. Last week, as posted before, I got hired onto be a long term sub for a preschool classroom. I was afraid of the pay, because the sub pay is 50 a day...25 for half day (which is what I would be doing). But after seeing my resume, my state teaching license, my degree and my current master's program, the lady said she would work on the pay (I didn't even have to ask). I did ask about benefits though, I knew it was unlikely, but hey, it didn't hurt to ask.
more about work
I got an e-mail back from her. She more than doubled the pay that I'll be getting....and....benefits :) That will be so nice. I'm very excited. I was originally supposed to start Monday (tomorrow), but it seems the HR has yet to receive all the papers they need (my transcripts from both universities, even though I requested they be overnighted). So I have to wait until they get those. I just hope I get it soon, I'm anxious to start teaching. I was a little sad when the principal e-mailed me and said she hated saying it, but I couldn't start Monday. However, I kind of expected it, I know universities can take a while to get transcripts out, and told her it was fine. It's especially fine because I'm still working my data entry job, and they don't care when I come in.
Speaking of which, the day after my interview, my boss for data entry had mentioned in a meeting that they would like me to do a big project with them, and I said "sure, if I'm still here." I said this because I hadn't heard for over a week if they wanted to keep me on or not after my work study grant was up. So we talked after the meeting, and I told her my situation. She was ready to negotiate pay and going from part-time to full time. IT was tempting, but I knew I would regret not teaching. This is an opportunity I need to be happy with my job, and get my foot into the door one toe at a time to achieve my ultimate goal. It feels nice to be able to be qualified enough to immediately work with them though. After talking it out, she said I'll stay on the job working Thursday evenings/Friday afternoons, unless things get too far behind. Then they'll put out an advertisement for my job and keep me on until I can train the new person. I'm super blessed, and very excited this will all work out. This also means I get to keep my grant to pay for tuition, and get the 50% waiver since I have a big credit load for my graduate semester.
This next part isn't a paid gig, it's a favor to a family with two deaf daughters. They invited the ward to learn to cue, and set it up with the bishop. My mother and I are voluntarily teaching the classes. So I'll be teaching that ON thursday nights every other week, except for this week and next week, mom has parent teacher conferences coming up at her school, and has a lot to do, especially since she's the special ed teacher there. I'm excited, and love the people in the class, I'm just going to be tired already from school :) (Friday is my day off from school).
About school
That being said, I'm taking 16 credits this semester. That's a pretty big load considering 9 credits is full time for graduate students. I'm taking Foundations in Special Ed Law, Linguistics Intro to the Study of Language (this is my for fun class :) ), Principles of Literacy (we have to do 20 hours of tutoring on our own time during regular elementary school hours....hmm, I'll work it out somehow), Instructional and Behavioral Support for Special Ed (basically a behavior management class), Medical and Health needs of young children (this is a term class that doesn't start until March 1st, and it's 4 hours every Saturday morning then). Also a faculty consultation class to make up the last credit I need to get the tuition waiver. Basically, I just write a research paper for my advisor. All in all, I only have 2 research papers to write, and 1 presentation to give that separates the grad students from the undergrad students. My literacy professor has never had grad students before, so the two of us in there got lucky. No extra work, just do the 20 hours of tutoring with everyone else. My linguistic class, I'm taking it at the beginning level, 1200, (my classes are 5000 or 6000 at the moment for my grad level classes). I'm REALLY excited, and can see that I badly need a refresher on language, especially with lexical categories....I never was good at that.
My weekend
This weekend we decided to go out. OUr books have been taking awhile to show up, so we haven't be able to get much homework done. Well....I only have one book left to show, bryan has only had 1 book out of, I don't know, 6 or 7 that has shown up. So it's more his frustration than mine, especially since my professor posted the 1st assigned readings for us online because of a huge mix up with text books. We decided to go out Friday night. We went out to dinner at...Chili's, which was nummy, then we went and saw I Am Legend. Holy creepy scary!!!! I LOVED it, so did Bryan. But man...did it scare us. We had to watch a tv show when we got home for me to at least not be so freaked out to go to sleep. Saturday we went to the mall to pick up a few items, we stopped at bed bath and beyond....perfect time to stop by. I got a few lotions, Sensual Amber, Moonlit Path and Warm Vanilla Sugar. I'm excited. WE also got my watch fixed, which I will really need once I start teaching again (I miss my second graders). Then we went to the store, and out to Olive Garden and came home and crashed pretty much. Or at least I did. Also this past week, I've been able to finish the first book for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I enjoyed it, coincidentally, the movie was on last week. I watched it after I read the book (tivo!). I was sorely disappointed in the movie. Oh well. I also finished New Moon today. I'm looking forward to Eclipse, and the 2nd, 3d, 4th and 5th book of the Pants series.
Nightmares
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it before, but I take ambien to sleep. A few years ago, I was having nightmares every night, thus never getting restful sleep time in. This caused me to fall asleep while driving, and led to an accident (fortunately a VERY minor one, only one scratch on my car, and nothing else). I was also falling asleep in several classes. At this time, I was borderline hypothyroid as well, so that was a reason for my sleepiness. However, they didn't put me on meds for the thyroid, which I now wish they had. But they did give me sleeping pills, tryl...soemthing. IT helped me to have dreamless sleeps, and once I got through one batch of it...not even a full batch of it...things were better (I was also on prozac...yeah for a couple of months). I didn't have problems again until last year when I was having major weight issues (was gaining even though I was watching what I ate and exercised everyday, the doctor was confused as well!). These nightmares were different, but I was still having them. Doctor said lack of sleep probably contributed to my weight problems. Put me on thyroid meds (which helped TONS!!!!!), and ambien (well generic). Since then, I sleep like a baby all the time and no longer require naps during the day. I've tried to go a few times without ambien, but I didn't sleep well those nights. THe past few nights, I've just been tired from an overwhelming week so I've crashed before taking meds. I had a dream that my co worker (who doesn't wear make up), was screaming at me because I didn't wear much make up to work one day. Said I looked too old, unprofessional, lazy and many other insulting things when I didn't wear make up. It really upset me, so I woke up. Last night I had a dream that my grandmother and grandfather died. First it was my grandmother though, which was a huge surprise (grandpa has parkinson's). Things were just unbearable, and I woke up miserable (I grew up spending most summers in their home). Today I took a nap, and had yet, another disturbing nightmare, not sure what it was though. Just remember waking up wanting to cry again. I hate nightmares, but I have to wonder that perhaps my brain is just hooked on ambien now? hmm, will ask my doctor when I get insurance again.
I told you this was long :)
Monday, January 7, 2008
Job interview, deaf pre-school
I got hired on the spot :) YAY!
They want me to start Monday, I have check with my current job to make sure I can do that tomorrow.
8 kids, 7 deaf, 1 hearing.
7 4 year olds and 1 5 year old.
Voice off ASL school (it'll be nice to get my ASL skills up to par again :) ).
8-12 M-Th and Meetings Friday. Perfect fit for my schedule with school at night :)
Man...woot!
They want me to start Monday, I have check with my current job to make sure I can do that tomorrow.
8 kids, 7 deaf, 1 hearing.
7 4 year olds and 1 5 year old.
Voice off ASL school (it'll be nice to get my ASL skills up to par again :) ).
8-12 M-Th and Meetings Friday. Perfect fit for my schedule with school at night :)
Man...woot!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Panic mode
Wow.
So, background information first.
When I got accepted for grad school and started looking for a part time job, I wanted something easy. I was able to get a work study grant where the U of U itself pays for my work hours, much like a scholarship, instead of the department itself. This means that I can only make X amount of money for one year. I started in July, and I'm closing in already on the max amount I can make through the grant. It'll be up by the first week or two of February.
Now, this job has been great for learning what I can or can't do during grad school, but man, I hate computer desk jobs with passion now. All I was doing was data entry. Don't get me wrong, I did learn quite a bit about Autism since what I'm entering are tests results, data, history and medical information for families who have Autism running in the family. I just can't do a desk job anymore. Though I did ask what the department would like to do just in case they wanted to keep me on, I haven't heard back from them yet, and won't be surprised if they can't keep me on due to lack of funds since this is a research project department.
That being said, I've started looking for other jobs.
I only started today actually. I've seen some that are related to my field (I have a bachelor's in early childhood education, an early childhood education state of Utah license, and am currently in an early childhood special education master's program with an emphasis in hearing impairment. The emphasis will give me my hearing impairment license [NOTE, it is called and recognized as hearing impairment by the state of Utah, NOT MY choice of words]).
So, I e-mailed my advisor yesterday if she knew of any positions I could look into related to my field, especially with deaf children. She gave me an e-mail address. I e-mailed that person today, an hour later, she e-mailed me back asking for more information. We have been e-mailing back and forth since then, and I have an interview on Monday. She likes three things: 1 - My bachelor's and my teaching license 2 - My master's program and 3 - I'm deaf. She wants me to be a long-term sub for a deaf preschool classroom! I would *LOVE* this job, however, if I want to do it, I'm going to have to drop my morning class. Which I'm willing to do if I can find out some more details about being hired on for a different position, pay, benefits, etc.
My morning class is NOT a requirement by any means, this is simply a class I'm taking on my own to help me with my professional skills as a teacher who has a passion for language, especially teaching it to deaf children. It's a linguistic class that will help me understand what I'm teaching a lot more than I do now. It's the only class that is in the way of doing that.
Now to add to the dilemma. I have a grant to pay for my tuition, which actually cover the linguistic class as well. I found that if I had enough credits this semester, I could get a waiver on my tuition, a 50% waiver. That's a lot of money. So I've been trying hard to fit things in here and there, and been bugging my advisor and the grant lady like crazy and got it all worked out. If I drop the class, I will no longer have waiver, but I will still get the grant. I also hate canceling classes in the beginning of the semester as that messes up the schedules of the transliterators that have been set up for me (I know that I am their income!), nonetheless...life happens right?
So I'm going to go to the interview on Monday (if it still happens, she hasn't told me if she can do it in between my class times yet), and then we'll see how things work out then and see if we can find a better match for me and let me still keep this class. And she's doing all this without seeing an application or resume (granted I did give her my skills and background in an e-mail).
What's even better about this if I can get it? I work 8:15 AM to Noon Monday-Thursday, with meetings on Friday. My class schedule without the morning class would be M-W 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. and Saturday from 8AM to noon. That means Bryan would be able to have the car for pharmacy school after his university classes (we only have one car).
Just how awesome would this be? Still don't know if it's the right thing though... we shall see.
****EDIT!****
My wonderful, good friend and fellow teacher Jenny asked some questions, and I was able to work my schedule out. She asked me if there was another class time I could take my morning class, for some stupid reason I didn't think of this. And there is! So, the class is no longer an issue!!! YAY!
So, background information first.
When I got accepted for grad school and started looking for a part time job, I wanted something easy. I was able to get a work study grant where the U of U itself pays for my work hours, much like a scholarship, instead of the department itself. This means that I can only make X amount of money for one year. I started in July, and I'm closing in already on the max amount I can make through the grant. It'll be up by the first week or two of February.
Now, this job has been great for learning what I can or can't do during grad school, but man, I hate computer desk jobs with passion now. All I was doing was data entry. Don't get me wrong, I did learn quite a bit about Autism since what I'm entering are tests results, data, history and medical information for families who have Autism running in the family. I just can't do a desk job anymore. Though I did ask what the department would like to do just in case they wanted to keep me on, I haven't heard back from them yet, and won't be surprised if they can't keep me on due to lack of funds since this is a research project department.
That being said, I've started looking for other jobs.
I only started today actually. I've seen some that are related to my field (I have a bachelor's in early childhood education, an early childhood education state of Utah license, and am currently in an early childhood special education master's program with an emphasis in hearing impairment. The emphasis will give me my hearing impairment license [NOTE, it is called and recognized as hearing impairment by the state of Utah, NOT MY choice of words]).
So, I e-mailed my advisor yesterday if she knew of any positions I could look into related to my field, especially with deaf children. She gave me an e-mail address. I e-mailed that person today, an hour later, she e-mailed me back asking for more information. We have been e-mailing back and forth since then, and I have an interview on Monday. She likes three things: 1 - My bachelor's and my teaching license 2 - My master's program and 3 - I'm deaf. She wants me to be a long-term sub for a deaf preschool classroom! I would *LOVE* this job, however, if I want to do it, I'm going to have to drop my morning class. Which I'm willing to do if I can find out some more details about being hired on for a different position, pay, benefits, etc.
My morning class is NOT a requirement by any means, this is simply a class I'm taking on my own to help me with my professional skills as a teacher who has a passion for language, especially teaching it to deaf children. It's a linguistic class that will help me understand what I'm teaching a lot more than I do now. It's the only class that is in the way of doing that.
Now to add to the dilemma. I have a grant to pay for my tuition, which actually cover the linguistic class as well. I found that if I had enough credits this semester, I could get a waiver on my tuition, a 50% waiver. That's a lot of money. So I've been trying hard to fit things in here and there, and been bugging my advisor and the grant lady like crazy and got it all worked out. If I drop the class, I will no longer have waiver, but I will still get the grant. I also hate canceling classes in the beginning of the semester as that messes up the schedules of the transliterators that have been set up for me (I know that I am their income!), nonetheless...life happens right?
So I'm going to go to the interview on Monday (if it still happens, she hasn't told me if she can do it in between my class times yet), and then we'll see how things work out then and see if we can find a better match for me and let me still keep this class. And she's doing all this without seeing an application or resume (granted I did give her my skills and background in an e-mail).
What's even better about this if I can get it? I work 8:15 AM to Noon Monday-Thursday, with meetings on Friday. My class schedule without the morning class would be M-W 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. and Saturday from 8AM to noon. That means Bryan would be able to have the car for pharmacy school after his university classes (we only have one car).
Just how awesome would this be? Still don't know if it's the right thing though... we shall see.
****EDIT!****
My wonderful, good friend and fellow teacher Jenny asked some questions, and I was able to work my schedule out. She asked me if there was another class time I could take my morning class, for some stupid reason I didn't think of this. And there is! So, the class is no longer an issue!!! YAY!
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