Book Addict's Blog

Tomorrow is my second first day of school as a teacher. At the beginning of summer, I dreaded this day, as last year was hard.  But after an amazingly relaxing summer (I'll have to put up pictures of my China trip eventually!), I'm much more ready to take on this new year.


I was reading last year's post from right before the first day of school, and it's odd how a lot of it could have been written this year.  I'm still probably going to be up late tonight, getting last minute preparations ready.  And once again, I'm both excited and nervous for the upcoming year. And yet, in many ways, this year will be quite a bit different this year.  We'll be in a new building (which has caused a ton of hassle and work, but also means I get a much bigger classroom, which will be nice.)  And almost half the staff is new, including my fellow fifth grade teacher.  This is actually a good thing, because while I'll really miss some of the teachers who are gone, I can already tell that this will be a fresh start in a good way.  Also, I'll be departmentalized (teaching language arts and social studies instead of everything), and will have class sizes about twice as large as the ones I had last year.  I still feel like I have no clue what I'm doing, in both classroom management and language arts and social studies (I feel like math was the only subject I started to get a grasp on last year), but at least I have a better idea of what I'm getting into, which helps a lot. 



And I could go on, but I doubt anyone cares about the details of this year, and I probably should go back to planning instead of writing on LJ.  So I'll leave it there for now, and hopefully I'll be posting more than once every couple of months this year!

Well, I'm all registered for next semester's classes now!  Things can still change, but for now, I'm pretty content with what I've got. I'm taking the following 7 classes*:

• Computers in Society
• Introduction to Computer Systems
• BIC Capstone: The Once and Future King: David, Jesus, and King Arthur
• World Cultures V: Islamic Culture in the Middle East**
• The Early Republic, 1789-1860 (American History)**
• Introduction to Language and Linguistics
• Ballet I

The BIC*** capstone classes are usually only offered in the spring, but for some reason, they're offering one section of it in the fall. As the topic is the one I've been wanting to take, I went ahead and signed up for it. However, with that out of the way, I only needed one hour of computer science and I'd be done with all my major and minor requirements after next semester.  And then I got to thinking, Why don't I study abroad in the spring?  Originally, I'd been opposed to studying abroad my final semester, but the idea suddenly started to get attractive.  My mom was very supportive of the idea, and so I started to look at the various programs that my school approves.

( Read more... )

Well, it’s been almost two months since my last real update. But then, I’ve never claimed to be good at updating on a regular basis. Busyness combined with laziness just get in the way. So, here’s the first part of a rather condensed version of what I’ve been doing lately. I actually typed it up before I went to Rome this past weekend (which was amazing!), but I didn’t have a chance to put it up. Hopefully, the next couple of parts of the update will go up within the next week or so!


( Cut for length and pictures... )

On Shakespeare's birthday, sartorias posted a list of links of various projects that aren't easily defined or aren't boosted by the "big guns" in publishing.

One of the links she posted was to a book you can read online entitled Darkside.  Anyway, since she recommended it, and described it as "smart" and "funny", I gave it a try, though I don't usually read urban fantasy.  It was a lot of fun!  I read it all the way through, and didn't get much studying done that night...

Speaking of studying, next week is the last full week of classes. I have a test to take and two papers to write that week.  One of the papers is giving SO much trouble (the other isn't easy, but at least it's fairly short).  The test is not going to be hard as well. And then when that week is over, finals start the next Thursday.  My finals this semester are all packed together, which is going to kill me!   I'm still not looking forward to summer itself that much, since for most of the summer I won't be doing anything all that fun, but I REALLY can't wait to be done with my classes!

So yeah, it's not going to be a fun weekend, for the most part. At least I had a TON of fun last night, with Chicago and with celebrating a friend's birthday. Oh, and Sunday we're going to be celebrating my roommate Elise's birthday. We were supposed to celebrate it last Sunday, but we had to cancel it at the last minute. It was going to be a surprise, and since Elise didn't know about it, she ended up missing it as she was working out at the gym with her phone in a locker.  She knows about it this time (though she doesn't know all of what we have planned), so hopefully it'll work out!

Went to Hillary Clinton's early vote rally today (well, yesterday technically). It was at a bigger place, and so even though I got there a little after 2pm (when it was supposed to start), there was still tons of room. I think there were about 1000 people there, but I'm horrible at estimation, so take that as you will. Anyway, she was half an hour late, but I did get to see her. She spoke for about an hour, emphasizing the war, security, and benefits/services for veterans, soldiers, and families of soldiers, since she was with veterans and flag officers. I admit my mind wandered a couple of times during the hour, as the subject matter is not one of the ones that interest me most. I didn't agree with everything she said (and I admit I do have some distrust of politicians), but it was very interesting to be there to see and listen to her and just to experience a political rally first hand. She stayed awhile afterwards, and I got her autograph, so that was neat, and definitely made up for the day before.

McCain comes to town for a town hall meeting on Monday evening. I'd like to attend, but next week is going to be insane. So we'll see...

( Unsuccess (cut so you don't have to read my whining unless you want to) )

Well, I finally changed majors.  I was an Applied Math major.  I actually applied to my school as an Engineering major, but changed it to Applied Mathematics before I registered for my first semester's classes.  However, I wasn't ever too confident about my major. I chose math because I'm good at math, and the applied part was because I'd want to put my math knowledge to practical use.  But I didn't know what I would do with that major, and wasn't even sure I'd like it.  People would ask me my major, and I'd always tell them the answer, and then tell them I was thinking of changing it.

Last semester, I added History and Computer Science minors.  History has been something I've really enjoyed for awhile, and I discovered I liked Computer Science my first semester when taking an intro course required for my math minor.  So those were possible majors, especially the history. Computer Science, not so much, because it just takes so many units and I want to be able to take random electives. The problem with switching to a history major is that my practical side had too many reservations about the idea (what would I do with such a major?).  And of course, I'm just generally indecisive and like to keep my options over.  I have few career plans in mind at the moment (though as of now, being a librarian or a teacher sounds appealing), so I didn't have those to go off of.

So earlier this week I finally made a decision. I switched degrees (I was going for a Bachelor of Science, now I'm going for a Bachelor of Arts), and changed my major from Applied Mathematics to a double major in History and Computer Science.  I'm keeping math as a minor, as I only need one more class. Plus, the type of Computer Science major I have requires a minor, since you have to take "only" 36 hours of Comp Sci. classes.  Anyway, this is a compromise between my practical side and the side of me that just wants to do what I like.  I really like both Computer Science and History, and while I like History better, Comp. Sci. gives me more options career-wise if I don't decide to be a librarian or a teacher. 

Things still aren't completely certain. I have to meet with my advisers to make sure I've planned everything correctly. I also need to petition a couple of my classes so they count towards my new requirements with my new degree program.  And finally, this new plan puts me on a pretty tight schedule. I won't be able to take a whole lot of extra electives.  So I may end up dropping Computer Science back down to a minor. But I figure it's easier to start with it as a major and demote it rather than deciding later I want it as a major and having to graduate late because I didn't get all my requirements done on time.

One of the main reasons my class schedule will be tight is that I want to study abroad in Madrid, Spain next semester. I've been talking about it for a bit now, and last week I finally turned in my application. I still have some other paperwork to fill out for my own school, but that's not due for awhile.  At any rate, unless something major comes up, it looks like I'll be studying in Europe this fall!