Spring Cleaning

Spring! What a wonderful season. A time of rebirth and cleaning and retraining. (At least...I think it's spring. All the shops are having sales and there are pictures of people laying out in the sun. It's still occasionally snowing up here - but I'll take everyone's words for it. )

Can you believe it? 1/4 of the way complete with 2015. It's these times that honestly, I find stressful. As much fun as it might be to scroll back through your Facebook feed or reminiscence using Timehop, there's also that moment where you see things that you were not so successful at. You are reminded of those days that it was good just to get through.

These aren't bad things - they are just a reminder (at least to me) that I can always do better. I believe that I have an addiction to excuses. An addiction that needs to be quickly flushed down the toilet. So, basically, I am reviewing my resolutions and my schoolwork to see how I can a) make my life a bit less stressful and b) do everything to my best ability; not just get by.

Now, I'm not going to go through each of them with you, because there's three or four that I'm actually knocking out slowly. However, my first instinct is to blame all of the unfortunate things that are lagging behind on the weather. It would be a perfect excuse if other people didn't succeed in completing it.

Take exercise for example. I am a runner. Now, with my knee, I can't run outside in the cold. It could result in me either injuring myself again or hurting my good knee. So I told myself I would swim instead. Let's just leave it at that hasn't happened as often as it should.

But, once more, spring is a time of rebirth - which is exactly what I am planning on doing with my resolutions. I hate not finishing things.

A few fun facts about other things happening in my life:

1) I have joined the Fitbit cult. I am not ashamed - more quite curious why it's so popular. Unfortunately, I looked in the mail room after my run this morning to find it - but nevertheless I have it on. If you happen to also be a member, shoot me a message so that we can compete! (Fun story - no where near 10,000 steps today. It's called homework.)

2) I have recently learned that there is a chance that I will be able to get a couple classes waved in grad school. This would be wonderful because I won't have to be bombarded with the same information again AND that's quite a bit of money saved. However, it requires me to find my old syllabuses from a couple years ago. When I wasn't thinking about graduate school. And threw out everything at the end of the semesters.

So prayers of reconnecting with teachers and finding these would be greatly appreciated. There's a lot of benefits to this plan and I really need it to work out.

Happy Palm Sunday!

Until next time,

Kaity Sheppard

(Photos taken on the same run 3/29/15 with iPhone 6. Do you see what I mean by it's not really spring??)

Curve Balls and Sleepless Nights

     There comes a point every semester as a college/graduate student that you realize that there is a high chance you will not be getting enough sleep for the next few days. It's really no one's fault - you've always been on top of you work, but a curve ball just changed your entire game plan.

     Now that curve ball could be anything from a teacher sending you a massive rewrite to the project you've been working on three days before it's due to having a crazy amount of hours at work to just plain forgetting something that is due this week. Or it could be all three.

     Basically, this is what I am facing at the beginning of the week. Sometimes, the fight isn't so much staying ahead as it is just getting through the next day. As an adult, there is a lot of things that have to be balanced and given attention to - it's just part of growing up. Sometimes it sucks. I just have to keep telling myself that these sleepless nights will all pay off in the end. 

    Also - happy spring to all! I don't know if y'all have watched the weather for up north or not, but our first and second day were filled with snow. You read that right, folks. Boston brought in spring with more snow. Truth be told, the weather is fighting to be warmer. Every so often we have been able to get a nice sunny day; it would be nice if there wasn't a bitter wind attached to it. 

     I would like to be able to have a countdown to when my next break is, but I don't have one. I will be going from Spring to a full summer schedule right back into fall. So when I'm back home come Christmas, I will probably be in a hibernation mode to gear up for that final semester. Because, let's be honest, teachers don't do much sleeping, either. :P

     I can't believe that I'm almost half way done with my Master's. Good, bad, and ugly, it is quite amazing how time flies by! There is a tiny pinpoint of light at the end of this tunnel. I just need to pace myself so that I make it there in one piece. I can do this!

     Until next time,

Kaity 

P.S. Samantha and Zach - your letters will be sent this week. I promise!!

Superbowl 2015

It's that time again!

The time of the year that all actual education is basically thrown aside so that students can learn the necessary skills of decoding the required state exams that show nothing of the students' (or teachers') actual capabilities.

That's right - it's the Superbowl of the education world. State testing!

Now, I have had great fun during my PrePracticum, as I feel as I have been able to see actual lessons because the test seemed to be so far off. But for some schools, it's next week. Others, in a month or so. But it is interesting how things in the classroom shift from making sure the child understands the concept of a subject to being able to read English, decode it, and then figuring out which concept actually applies to the strangely written paragraph.

What I am basically saying to you is that our education system isn't in the best shape at the moment. We aren't doing the best that we can to prove how each of our students is light years ahead of where the tests claim they are. We aren't teaching real world skills; we are teaching English test taking skills. It's frustrating to see and experience, and yet not be able to do much to help.

So, if you have kids, if you are a teacher, if you know of a teacher in the public school realm, pray for them and their students during the next month or so. Pray for patience and understanding (for students, teachers, and parents), for success, for the right words, for patience, for peace during the test, for perseverance, for guidance, and for patience.

Good luck, teams! Know that we are rooting for you against that massive test. Sleep well, eat a healthy breakfast, and use all the knowledge stored up in those big brains. You can do it!

Until next time,

Kaity

P.S. Sadly, no real adventures to be written about. Work did, in fact, take up a wide majority of my break. But that paycheck, y'all, will be niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Taking a Break

Spring Break is here!

I won't be doing much with my week - catching up on school, working a fair amount at the store, and spending time with my wonderful boyfriend. I'm also hoping on finally taking time to explore that magic city that is Boston.

Since arriving here in September, I have not explored...at all. I would like to be able to come up with a decent excuse, but I have none. I am just one of those people who tend to find peace with relaxing at home than outside with other humans. Also, it's been cold. And we all know that I don't do the cold.

But this is a time to have fun. We are even supposed to get up to the 40s and 50s this week! (Woohoo! Light jacket weather!) Unfortunately, this does mean that the multiple feet tall piles of snow will start melting and Boston isn't exactly made for rain, if you get my drift. Hopefully - it'll be just slow enough we don't flood out every street at once.

Thank all y'all for your prayers and good wishes about last Wednesday. I can say that I successfully taught three students how to convert mixed numbers into improper fractions. AND they were able to remember it the next day. (You have absolutely no idea how excited I was. They sometimes have amnesia of the things taught the period before. Well, it is middle school...)

But I am feeling a bit better about my teaching skills. I wish I had a little more time to practice before jumping into student teaching next spring, but I know everything will work out. I will win some and lose some and learn how to think on my feet. (I can actually thank my job for that last skill, too.)

I am hoping for some sort of adventure this week - something unexpected. In this city, I feel like it just might happen.

Until next time,

Kaity

Baby Steps Part II

I made it.

I made it through the first of three fairly crazy weeks and have started on a dead sprint for the second one.

Honestly, it's been a struggle. I'm still recovering from sinus junk, I have had very little sleep - but I took everything one step at a time. And I feel like now I'm being rewarded for that. Two teachers are out for the week, so that means classes cancelled and extra time. Next week is spring break where I can refocus my efforts on projects - although I work almost every day. (Show me the money!!)

My biggest project (or what feels like my biggest project) is happening tomorrow. I will be conducting my first ever lesson. And I'm thoroughly terrified. People telling me that I'm going to do fine only makes it worse because I feel like I'll disappoint them if it is a complete disaster. (Just let me sweat about it, please. I'll feel better about it after it's over.)

I cannot tell you how many of our teachers actually told us to be prepared for disaster. Never have it as a goal, but don't expect for it to work out. They are rooting for us, but they also want us to remember that we are learning. This is probably another thing that isn't helping my perfection Aledo-esque mindset.

Nevertheless, whatever happens happens. That's the long and short of it. Everything is a learning experience that forces me to prepare for the future. It doesn't matter if it's at work, school, or home, I am always learning - always being forced to grow, even if I don't enjoy it.

As for life right now - I'm disappointed in myself. It's March and I have been slacking on the resolutions. School started back up (after the crazy amount of snow days) and I just haven't had the opportunity to work toward the success of completing them like I want to. Good thing I have nine more months!

Anywho - that's my life up to this point. Crazy and wonderful and terrifying and cold. Always cold. I don't believe summer is a real season anymore.

Until next time,

Kaity