Wedding things...

So this blog is supposed to also be about wedding planning as well as first year teaching....considering first year teaching consumes much more of my time than wedding planning I have not written much about the wedding plans. Well...here is an update on the progress being made!

We have finalized bridesmaid dresses and are ordering them this month! They will be baltic blue to match the blue of Greg's dress uniform. I love the color and can't wait to see it all together. I have yet to find a baker??? Anyone in the area have any thoughts? Ana and I stopped by Party City this weekend to check out invitations/beverage napkins and I found the perfect invitations. Greg even approved them :)

Now, on to the the VERY exciting parts! Greg completely surprised me by cancelling our honeymoon to Hawaii and booking a getaway at the Jamaica Sandals Resort! If you know me at all, you know I have been dying to go to an all inclusive resort. We will have an oceanview villa with private pool and a butler! Holy cow!!!! With that being said, we might not get to go. With Greg's schedule so up in the air with flight school we are not positive he will have the time off. Even if we don't get to go right away, we will make it there eventually and I absolutely cannot wait :)

Also, I am thrilled about the plans being made for the final fling with my ladies!!! The ladies and I will be spending a weekend at a GORGEOUS oceanfront home in Sandbridge, VA (see pictures below). I am very lucky to have worked for Siebert Realty the past two summers and the ladies there are wonderful! They were a tremendous help in getting things together...shameless plug...I know...but check them out at www.siebert-realty.com I promise they are great :)

Also, I want to give a shout out to two of my coworkers who were recently engaged! Congratulations Bethany and Lee!!!!!!!!

Enjoy the pictures of the gorgeous home. I must get to work desanitizing my room as today was the much anticipated H1N1 vaccination...eeeeeek!

xoxox
Casey


The outdoor pool


The indoor pool


The library


The kitchen


The movie theatre


The living area


"Four Seasons"

Why I chose teaching Elementary students....

So my story for the day is not actually something that has happened to me, it is currently happening to my sister. My sister teaches high school (10th and 11th grade English). Students are nearing college so the pressure from parents is quite high...even though the kids do not care at all.

Anyways, my sister has a student who is ADHD (along with 80% of the population). She had this student last year and has him again this year. We will call him John. Two weeks ago my sister assigned a paper to the students. All they had to do was take a paper they had previously written and edit/revise and turn it back in. Easy enough, right? It does not require any thought really....just revise and rewrite.

John decided he did not like this assignment I guess. Instead he wrote a research paper about ADHD. A research paper as in a lengthy typed paper with citations, quotes, research, etc. Jill decided to be nice and accept the paper (even though this was NOT the assignment given). Well in high school when a research paper is completed what does any good teacher do? Google the paper to see if it is found online anywhere. Well guess what? Little Johny copied an ENTIRE paragraph, word for word, sentence for sentence, from a paper online. My sister gave him a 0 and wrote up the form for plagiarism (simply following school protocol). In doing so, John's class average significantly decrease and he is unable to be a member of National Honor Society (which wasn't going to happen anyway).

Well, John's mother is livid. How dare my sister hold her son back from being successful?! The mother wrote my sister an email attacking my sister as a horrible person who knows nothing about teaching and how to help children with ADHD. In fact, that is why John wrote the paper in the first place, in hopes of educating my sister on ADHD. The mother continues on to say that she knows for a fact that her son did not cheat while writing his paper because SHE HELPED HIM WRITE IT!

Ok, so let's wrap our heads around this. She is attacking my sister for accusing her son of cheating when she is openly admitting to cheating in her email. Helping your son complete an assignment is cheating lady! Also, how do you help your son write a paper...did you copy and paste from the online source for him?

Needless to say my sister is laughing at this point...but it gets better. My sister is being sued by this mother for "defaming her son's character."

Oh the joys of teaching...

So

I thought I would share my little laugh of the day with you all. My students think I have eyes in the back of my head...for real.

Today, while teaching math I was standing in the front of the room with my back to the front window. Out of the corner of my eye I could see outside the back window. I noticed something moving and realized there was a truck driving outside the window. The A/C people were at our school today trying to fix my stupid thing that has been leaking and therefore broken for 2 months now (thank god it is finally cooler outside). Anyways...I see the truck outside the back window. Well the students all have their backs to the back window so they do not see the truck.

As I am teaching about decimals and their relationship to fractions I notice everyone look past me to the front window that I have my back to. Without skipping a beat (or turning my head at all) I ask the class if they would like to go catch a ride in the back of the truck or would they like to continue to learn about fractions?

A gasp spread across the room with a chorus of whispers asking how did I do that? I let the students know that this was yet again proof that I have eyes in the back of my head. Luckily, the reading specialist happen to visit my room that day as well and she explained to the class that having eyes in the back of your head is a gift given to all parents. While I am not a parent, she did explain that all teachers are given a trial membership until they are parents.

My students bought it and now believe I have eyes in the back of my head. That's right...I am ALWAYS watching.

hahaha

i love my job

Long time no write....

Hello again!

I cannot believe I am so horrible at updating this regulary. It is my new vow to write atleast 3 new blog posts each week. It might do me some good to take a little down time after school and relax before my afternoon to-do list begins.

I do not even know where to begin, since it has been so long since my last post. Let's see...teaching is everything I thought it would be and more. Since we last spoke I have lost 3 students (2 moved to another school and 1 moved to another classroom within the same school) and I have gained 2 new students. That brings my total class size to 21...it annoys me that it is an odd number but I deal with it (weird I know).

We are moving right along with the school year...it is report card time! Ahh! That means that all this week I am holding parent/teacher conferences and grading in preparation. This has been one of my biggest fears about teaching. Let's talk about how excited parents in their late 30s/early 40s are going to be to hear about how their child's 20 something year old teacher is failing their child. So sad for them...maybe if they didn't send in notes that said "Sorry Johnny didn't do his homework last night, his sister was cheering all night" their child might not be failing. Seriously...I got that note.

Tomorrow is my very first teacher work day AND my very first election day (where I can vote in person instead of absentee ballot). How exciting! Better get lots of rest :)

xoxox
Casey