I am SO tired. I’ve gotten to school every day this week by 7:30 and haven’t left before 6pm yet. However, I’ve been getting a lot done, and I’ve finished a big organization project that I started over last weekend.
Oh, and I’ve been teaching a little, too. *snort*
Teaching this week has been really fun, actually. I’ve gotten to introduce the kids to square roots, to why squaring a number is called “squaring a number” (and cubing numbers, too!), to translating from English to “Mathanese,” and to basic one-step algebra problems. I love algebra (never thought I’d hear myself say that!) and had a really good teacher for it in college, and I find myself using her way of putting things to teach my kids the same concepts. They’re getting it so far. And, my most difficult class to control has been mostly on-task this week with few discipline problems. Have they been perfect? Oh, no. But I’ve gotten SO much work done with them that for the first time since the beginning of the year, they’re not behind my other two classes. I’m getting kids to come in before school for tutoring, and they’re starting to take their own education seriously. I love the improvements I’m seeing!
As I was driving home last night, I made a decision that I would stop procrastinating with the ACP stuff, and get my butt in gear to finish. I said, self, you’re going to go on-line and FINISH that PPR review so that Texas Teachers will approve you for the PPR exam. And then you’re going to plan and prepare to register for the PPR exam by the 15th, when I get paid again, so that maybe I’ll have it taken before the end of December. And I did it! I finally finished the on-line review and passed it. I didn’t use any of their study materials; I just logged into the review and started taking it. I was able to save my place when I got interrupted, which was often, until last night when I decided that I was going to finish regardless of what happened. I got a 253 out of 300, and I needed a 240 for a passing “score”. It’s really not a score that I give a damn about because it’s just the review. It’s the actual exam score that I’m concerning myself over now. The review…I could have bombed it and just gone back in to retake it with the correct answers in my hand the second time. But I didn’t want to have to take the time. This is just a stepping stone to the next part and I wanted it over with. Anyway, I got an email saying that I’ve been approved to take the EC-12 PPR exam, and there are several places in the Houston area that are offering it many times before the end of December. The only problem I’m seeing is that most of them are being offered during the day, during the week. And I don’t know if the school district or my administrators would frown on my taking a day to take care of it. I would like to find somewhere that’s offering it on a Saturday, but taking the time to find a place is more time than I have tonight.
So, I’m off to bed. I have a short planning segment in the morning because I’m on duty for another teacher. In the cafeteria. I can’t wait.
Remind me that I need to buy stamps for the huge stack of birthday cards sitting on my desk.
Good night!
