yarnaholic
June 06, 2006

last days

Today was our last day with our Tuesday/Thursday preschool group. Tomorrow is our last day with our Monday/Wednesday group. I'm going to miss my little guys and girls. I have such a great group of kids. I'll need to go back to the school in the Fall to visit and make sure all the kids are transitioning to their new classrooms okay. It's so hard to see these kids every couple of days for a year and then never see them again - one of the sad parts of being a teacher, especially one who won't be back at the school next year. Luckily there are so many more benefits, like seeing how much progress the kids have made this year. They've grown up so much.

Posted by alison at 02:28 PM — Comments (0)
December 16, 2005

warm fuzzies

Today was parent conference day at the preschool - my first time ever doing parent conferences. I have such a great group of kids. I loved telling the parents how much I am enjoying their kids and what things their children love to do at school. It's so great to see their smiles and to hear them talk about their kids at home. It was also so nice (and somewhat unexpected, I'm not sure why) to hear them say how much their children love me and the school. They say the kids talk about "Teacher Alison" all the time at home. It really makes me feel good to know that I am making a difference in these kids' lives and that the parents think I am doing a great job. There are some moments from today that I am sure I will remember for a very long time. This is what makes me glad to have finally found a field I enjoy and am good at.

And now I am on to my more than 2 weeks of holiday vacation. Another perk of being a teacher.

Posted by alison at 03:55 PM — Comments (1)
August 25, 2005

I am such a bad blogger

I never update. I think about doing it a lot, but I never feel like doing it. "Maybe tomorrow, after I get a chance to take some pictures," I say. I never take pictures though. I am just lazy, I suppose. Plus, I think my life is too boring to read about most of the time. :)

But I will catch you up on a few things happening right now.

First, I have a new job. The one that I started in June just did not work out, for various reasons that I will not go into here. It was just not a good fit and I did not want to be miserable. So I started looking again, and had an even better sense of what I wanted and what to look for. I found something that I think will be perfect. It's a lot closer, it is a better program for the kids, and it fits more with my ideals and teaching philosophies. I've started planning curriculum, but I don't start teaching until the second week of September.

Tim and I are also going to take a little vacation soon. We'll be going to visit some of my family in Phoenix, and we thought we would make it a longer road trip since Tim has never been to the Grand Canyon. I have been many times, when I was younger, but it has been quite awhile. I must remember to take lots of pictures.

We're still working on the house. We bought new living room furniture so that we could move our sofabed to a bedroom. Having a guest room will be nice, instead of making company have to sleep in the living room. So before moving the couch, we finally got around to painting that room too. It's looking pretty nice in there! Now we just need to buy some bookshelves so that we can unpack all our books.

The kitchen is coming along nicely too but has stalled a bit. We're having a hard time finding a place to buy a butcher block countertop that will fit our island. We're also having a hard time with the place we bought our cabinets; they keep sending us doors that are banged up, scratched, or warped! I think they need a bit better quality control for the price we paid. Other than those things, the kitchen is pretty much done. We will just have a couple little things after that, like installing the toe kicks and the trim around the sliding door. The before and after pictures should be coming soon (we hope)!

There's a neighborhood kitty who likes to come visit our backyard. She is very cute and vocal. I like when she visits, except when it is 2am and she is in heat.

There's not much else that is new. Tim has been working a lot because there is a big deadline in a couple weeks. I've been doing lots of knitting when he's gone, but I will post about that in another entry.

Posted by alison at 03:00 PM — Comments (0)
June 17, 2005

Exciting news!

I got a job offer yesterday.
I accepted it today. :)

I took the teacher position where I will have my own classroom. Everyone was super nice there. I went back and looked at the room and I think it is doable. (Two tables do fit in the room so I can have an activity at each, plus the kids can play on the carpet area with other things at the same time). And I just really think it is exciting to be able to run the classroom how I want to.

I start on the 27th. There are three more days of the school year after I start, then an "in-service day" when I can organize my classroom, then a four-day weekend, and then I start for reals on the 5th. Right now the class is called the Dragonflies, but they said I could change it if I want. I think I might, but I'm not sure to what.

I really think I'm going to like it there.

Oh, and my parents have been asking what I wanted for a graduation present, but I had no idea. A few days ago I added a lot of books to my wishlist about preschool activities and classroom management. I sent them an email and expected that they would get me a few. They bought me all 10! I think I'm set now!

Posted by alison at 06:58 PM — Comments (7)
June 14, 2005

countertops, interviews

Just a quick post because we have some countertop pictures up. We've actually done more kitchen stuff since (the sink works, etc.). Pretty countertops.

Also, the director at the school I interviewed at yesterday morning called me to ask if I could come back tomorrow to observe the classroom and children and get a better feel for the school. Things seem really optimistic with this one! I need to buy some of these activity books if I'm going to have my own classroom! :D

Update: Oops! The activity books don't show up in my wishlist anymore because my dad bought me ALL of them! My goodness.

Posted by alison at 07:52 PM — Comments (1)
June 13, 2005

interviews

I had two interviews today and I have one tomorrow.

One of the ones today I definitely did not like. I expect to get an offer (because she Really seemed to like me), but I will most likely turn it down (I wasn't too thrilled with her). Just not my style of preschool. A little too structured in some ways, a little too unorganized in others. Plus she said a couple of things that made my jaw want to drop because I just could not believe she was saying them. It's too bad really; I had high hopes for this one from our phone conversation.

The other one from today I have mixed feelings about. I would have my own classroom. I would not be a "head teacher" because there is only one teacher per room. Though the thought of having my own classroom makes me somewhat nervous, it is also pretty exciting. I could do things the way I want to instead of how those who have been there longer think it should be. I would get to plan everything myself (and boy do I like to plan and organize). AND if when I screw up once in awhile (as I know I will having never run my own classroom before) there will be noone there to see it but the kids, and they don't care. ;) Being the only teacher in the room would allow me to wing it better. And the part about doing circle time that always makes me anxious is the other adults watching me - the kids don't make me nervous - so this would be perfect.

Drawbacks are that it is in San Mateo (a half hour drive) and that it is a really tiny classroom. There's not much room for having more than one activity available to the kids at once, for large motor activities during circle time, or even for keeping lots of different supplies. I'm not sure yet what my response would be if they offer it to me.

My interview tomorrow is with an organization that provides substitute teachers to preschools in my area. If no other opportunities seem great to me, I can always do this for awhile while I look around more. Flexible workdays, lots of variety, possibly find out about other permanent openings while also bringing home some money too. Excellent.

I really need to do a knitting post. I'm working on a few different projects. Orangina (a lacy tank top), Bad Penny (a short-sleeved shirt), and I joined a secret pal sock-along for my first try at socks. Links for all three can be found in my right sidebar. I will post pictures soon (ya, I said that last week about kitchen updates and still haven't done it, but I really do plan to!).

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I could really use some air conditioning. My slurpee will do for now.

Posted by alison at 03:47 PM — Comments (4)
May 02, 2005

kitchen work & job prospect

So we have walls! And paint! Well, mostly paint. We found out the hard way that high gloss paint does not work well on ceilings. So we have to go buy some satin paint and redo it. But the walls are yellow! I'm sorry, they are pale daffodil. Most of the walls. Everywhere that isn't behind where a cabinet will be. Yes, we're lazy. Leave me alone.

I also decided that since graduation is fast approaching (and because I am procrastinating writing my paper that is due Wednesday) that I would look on craigslist for jobs. I found one that sounds PERFECT in writing, so I decided to send in my resume. Good pay, fairly closeby, smallish ratio, based on the approach that I agree with (Reggio Emilia), and it's for a co-head teacher position. Wish me luck!

That's about it for today. I'm tired from painting and scraping up old floor all weekend, so we're taking the night off. I haven't had much cuddling time with my hubby in far too long because we've both been so busy. Time to rectify that.

Posted by alison at 07:39 PM — Comments (1)
March 04, 2005

baby book and pg&e

First of all, I would like to recommend a book to everyone who has children under 5 or who wants to have children in the future. We're reading it for one of my classes and it is just fabulous. Anyway, you should check it out: Being the Parent You Want To Be: A Sourcebook of Strategies for the First Five Years by Laura Davis and Janis Keyser.

Second, I would like to express how much I hate PG&E right now. For our kitchen remodel, we need more electricity coming into our house. We submitted an application for this work (pulling wires 20 feet to our box) at the beginning of February. Oh, did I say yet that they required a $2500 deposit just to submit an application? Ya. They also said that it could take up to FIVE MONTHS before they got to the work. They said someone would contact us soon to set up an appointment for someone to come to our house and check out what needs to be done. After not hearing from anyone and not being clear on this whole process, Tim started the challenge of talking to the representative for our area. This guy is always on his cell phone whenever we hear from him. I say "hear from him" because until today, we were just exchanging phone messages. Phone messages that we could not understand a word of because he is always on his cell phone.

Tim called a week or so ago asking specific questions and asking the guy to call back. He called back last week but, of course, didn't have our file in front of him so he couldn't answer the questions we had. Why call back if you can't even answer the questions? So Tim called and left another message. Finally I was home today when the guy called again, so I gave him Tim's mobile number.

Tim said he got to talk to him for awhile. Of course the guy didn't have the file in front of him again because he was once again on his cell phone. He started asking about gas lines, which we aren't doing at all. When he realized that we had submitted our application at the beginning of February, he said we were "jumping the gun" even though we haven't heard from anyone about someone coming out to check out the work. He also started giving ballpark estimates of $3000 to do the work! THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS to pull a wire 20 feet. Of course, this won't happen for five more months though. Our electrical lines are underground. Keep in mind that if the lines are above ground, they do this for FREE.

Oh, and the guy never left his direct number so whenever Tim would call, he would always get the person at the front desk. She just tells him that this guy knows what he's talking about and seems upset that we've called so many times. Tim says, "The thing that kills me is that there's a pamphlet that i got that shows the steps, and makes it look easy and simple. But we haven't even gotten to step one yet! and nobody can even tell me what to expect."

I hate PG&E.

Posted by alison at 03:35 PM — Comments (5)
October 20, 2004

adorable

One of the four-year-olds in my preschool classroom has a crush on me. He keeps following me around wherever I go and today he said, "Alison, Alison, Alison! You're cute!"

heee

Posted by alison at 06:37 PM — Comments (0)
October 15, 2004

i love this time of year

Genevieve listed out how busy this time of year is for her, which made me think about my own schedule. I'm barely going to have time to breathe.

  • Oct 31 - Halloween
  • Oct 22-Nov 10 - Packing, setting up new utilities, change of address stuff
  • Nov 11 - Move, plus a week or so of unpacking/painting/etc.
  • Nov 16 - 1st Wedding Anniversary and my brother's bday
  • Nov 27 - Thanksgiving
  • Dec 13 - Dad's bday
  • Dec 21 - Mom's bday
  • Dec 25 - Xmas (which includes going to both maryland and dallas this year)
  • Plus tons of research papers and exams spread throughout the next 2 months

Oh, plus I was going to do handmade xmas cards this year, which I need to figure out with Tim so I can order supplies. I really need to start thinking about what to get people for all these gifts. Especially wedding anniversary, which is coming up really quick. Paper. Hrm.

I love this time of year though, especially when daylight saving's time ends. I love coming home at 5:30pm and having it already be dark outside. I love the cool, crisp air. I love getting home and lighting a fire in the fireplace. Plus we will have a nice high ceiling in our living room so that we can get a really tall tree to decorate. And we're having Thanksgiving at our house this year - the two of us, plus probably our friends Ryan & Rachel, and Ryan's parents.

Just thinking about this time of year makes me smile.

Other than that, things have been busy, of course. Lots of school papers and exams, plus my internship. I am loving working with my preschool class. They are all just wonderful children. We seriously have very little conflict in the classroom. It's going to be a rude awakening when I get a new preschool class who isn't quite so well behaved and accepting. ;) Today we are taking the class to the pumpkin patch in Halfmoon Bay. Besides having lots of pumpkins, it also has pony rides and other family activities. Should be a fun time.

So last night we went to an audience pre-screening of a movie that is still in production called The Big White. It stars Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Giovanni Ribissi, Alison Lohman, and Woody Harrelson. Since it is still in the works, not all the special effects have been added yet, but they just wanted an audience opinion on how it flowed, the ending, etc. Man, that was a funny movie. There were a few things that could use some work, but you should definitely keep your eye out for it's release. Hooray for free movies!

Hm. I can't think of anything else to say right now. :)

Posted by alison at 10:11 AM — Comments (2)
September 22, 2004

brain crash

i am so frickin worn out.

and working at a preschool has one drawback:
getting dumb songs stuck in my head

"It doesn't matter where you sit.
please do not have a fit."

ugh

Posted by alison at 08:00 PM — Comments (6)