i love national parks

so on pbs tonight there was a ken burns documentary on the national parks. and it was fabulous. it is a six part series on pbs and as i've seen it referred to online - nature porn. and it was. the shots and scenery were to die for! and you know i love history and national parks. so it was fab! can't wait for the rest of them!

so here are some of my favorite shots from the summer of 2007 and my national parks adventures!

at the north rim of the grand canyon

sunset from the south rim of the grand canyon

bryce canyon nation park

it was pretty awesome

at the entrance to zion

my FAVORITE of the national parks

the smokys!

view from gregory bald, where i took high schoolers hiking

today was my alumni meeting for my sorority and it was fun. i met more people and it was nice to see everyone. we also did a cute little craft for a local children's hospital and talked about all the events for october. which is our crazy month with it being the national breast cancer awareness month, so i'm excited for everything. and i've been elected for co- young alumni chair. so that is exciting to help plan for some of the younger events!

and it is sunday night again! and the jets won again! they are 3-0. soooo exciting! and luckily it should be a good week at school. my us 1 kids are doing a project all week and it is something i love! we are doing a class congress, so each group is creating a bill and trying to get it passes through the class. so i'm excited to see what they can do! and my us 2 kids are doing the new deal. and i'm getting my first observation this week. and it is back to school night on wednesday. which means i can't watch glee on wednesday night. booo.

so it is past my bedtime.

so did anyone do anything fun?

what is your favorite national park?

more computer problems

so this week has flown by! seriously where is time going?

maybe leaving for work at 6.20 and not getting home until 6pm and then being in bed at 10 has something to do with that?

but it seems like each week has just been flying by. which is a good thing i guess? that i'm at school and all of a sudden it is 2.30 and the day is over, and then it is 5 and i've been working hard getting work done. but i'm really happy right now. i'm loving teaching and my classes. my coworkers in the department are absolutely amazing. they have made me feel right at home, especially the women in my office. and i'm having fun. i'm starting to get to know my students and we are able to joke around now and i'm getting more comfortable each day in the classroom. i have my first observation this week, and both my mentor and new teacher coordinator have just popped in to see me teach, and both enjoyed it and gave some good advice too!

so the other fun this week was my computer dying again! tuesday night it restarted on its own and wouldn't start windows. grrrrrrrrrr. so i attempted to reinstall windows, but it blue screened and when i tried to run diagnostics it said hard drive failure. SERIOUSLY!

so last night i went to best buy again, and they said it probably was a bad hard drive. so they switched it for a new one. but i also looked at new computers too. so i'm serious about the 13" macbook pro. hopefully my laptop will last slightly longer, but the next one i get will be the mac. yay! i just want my computer problems to be over.

and it is totally feeling like autumn today. it was pretty and then sunset was gorgeous this morning, as they have been this week. that is the only good thing about leaving at 6.20. the sunsets and singing along to t.swift as i drive. i've seen a few tractors all full of pumpkins and the fields by my house are all orange! i'm sad summer is ending, but i am excited for a gorgeous fall. i've really missed the colors the last two years and everything!

and glee on wednesday was absolutely amazing. i love this show.

the single ladies and the football team had me laughing so hard.

and grey's last night. i was bad and stayed up late to watch it. but i was happy with it.

i can't wait until private practice next week.

and i'm catching up on gossip girl and one tree hill.

dinner wednesday night with the other new teachers was amazing.

it was fun to talk about the kids, our experiences and just to have fun.

we will be doing it at least monthly, which i am really excited for :)

the only thing i'm sad about is friday happy hour.

i miss with student teaching all of us going to the bird on friday evenings and laughing and having fun.

but overall i am so happy with everything and life :)

hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

worky and sleepy

so first, my computer is back!

last week was not fun without it.

especially with all the work i needed to do last week.

but she is back and luckily i had almost everything backed up on my external.

i lost a few pictures from this summer. but any of the good ones i have on a facebook album.

i hate computer problems, it is so sad how addicted we've become to the technology.

so school is going super well :)

my students are still good, three weeks in. so i'm keeping my fingers crossed they stay this way. they have their first tests this week. which should be interesting. which means that i'll have a busy few days grading 100 tests and essays wednesday and thursday. but despite the crazy hours i'm spending at school and crazy teenagers i'm happy. wednesday night i'm meeting with the other new teachers for dinner, and i'm excited to see them and share stories. yay teaching :)

so yea, i don't have much of a life outside school right now. i get home from work, eat dinner, maybe do some work and crash.

but over the weekend, i worked at camp. it was weird. i haven't been there in a few years, and it made me miss being 17. but a few of the girls i worked with were campers of mine back when i worked at camp, and now they are seniors in high school. and i was one of their first counselors.

and now i'm not grading, but i'm catching up on last weeks gossip girl and greek. btw, last week's greek, omg hilarious! the nerf gun wars and beaver! absolutely love this show! and this week's greek is pretty good too. them being high in the shower, and all the kappas being smart at the science party. and glee on wednesday! see what my life has become now. i'm no longer jet-setting around europe and hiking on the weekends, but teaching and talking about how excited i am about tv shows.

happy monday!

seriously!?!

ahhhhhhhhhhh, so when i need it like crazy my laptop decides to DIE.
last night at 9.30 i was working hard, editing a powerpoint on the ratification of the constitution, rocking out to t.swift on pandora and creating a quiz and my computer made some great grrrrring noises, then froze and blue screen of deathed. i was like greaaaaaat, just what i need. so i restarted her and nothing.

NOTHING

but some of the grrrrrrrring, and the black HP screen.

damn hard drive.
luckily i have about 90% of my computer backed up, pretty much everything but some pictures from the summer... so i finished up what was necessary for today at work on the dinosaur that is my parents computer. seriously this thing should be in a museum. (and what i'm on now)
and today i went to best buy, and talked... i was right about my hard drive, and so i bought a new one, but my sister has the set of recovery disks for our computers, so i need to wait for her to mail them to me, so i can reinstall everything. and fingers crossed the problem is gone. so until then i'm computerless.

but teaching is going well :)
i'm trying to think of a way to make notes better, slightly more interesting. but i'm at a loss. i try to ask them questions, but i only have the same 4 kids who answer... and i'm working at making myself clearer with my B kids, and more handouts and graphic organizers, instead of regular notes. so hopefully this works. i have my first observation in two weeks, but so far i'm happy, my lessons are going well and i haven't wanted to cry or quit yet. i'm teaching the depression this week and also the constitution. which is funny because it was a year ago today that everything happened to kick off the recession, so it was easy to talk about current events. and we all know my love for the constitution. the only part of the day i hate is cafeteria duty. those 44 minutes seriously seem to take about 3 hours. and my 7/8/9 class goes by in like 20. so that is good right? at cafeteria duty i just walk around and make sure they aren't misbehaving. ahhhh. booring!

and last thursday i went to my sorority alumni event :) and it was FABULOUS.
i am so excited to do more. dinner was great and i am looking forward to our next events, especially handing out - think pink! ribbons at the giants game on the 11th of october and a few other things. i am also talking to people about being an advisor for a college chapter! so yay for something fun and social as an outlet.

and the weekend. i went to philly on saturday to see the boy and summer roomie. it was amazing to see mj and just sing in the car driving in and talk about everything. things with the boy were slightly awk, but we never were alone, so we didn't get to talk. and honestly i didn't know how to act around him. but i'm ok with the decision to break up, it is for the best. and it was something i knew was coming, but wasn't expecting last monday. so hopefully we can stay friends. but saturday was fun because our summer boss lives in the area so we all went out and had a great time catching up and just laughing. so that was nice. and while i love what i am doing, part of my wishes i was headed down to dc today to start the fall sessions...

and yesterday i ran a 5k. it was just a small local one, and well i haven't been good about running. at all. so my time was horrible for me, but i am SOOOO out of shape. like seriously. but i did ok. i ran a 31.42. my first mile was a 9.15, 2nd was 19.52... so i went out too strong. but oh well. i need to get back into running, because i need something physical after school, but there just isn't enough time in the day!

so off to put together a powerpoint on how the depression effected society in the 1930s.

and i'll kinda me mia from the blogland this week, even more than usual right now :(

first week

so far the first week of teaching is going well!

last week was 3 days and it was all intro stuff, and just random history. i did a US map check and most of my students would have failed if it was a real grade, just a classwork, not a me being a dork and i'm curious activity (and i think maps are important!) and then jeopardy on friday. and i had fun and i'm getting to know my students and their class personalities. today was my first real day of class and all of my lessons went well, i am teaching the articles of confederation/constitution in US1 and the 1920s in US2 this week. and i'm giving a quiz tomorrow, haha. but it really means i have more work for myself, so boo to that. as i have enough work right now. but i am loving teaching and having my own classes, i just wish now that i kinda know my kids and my curriculm i could have just a few days to get ahead, like more than a day ahead of my students right now.

the weekend was good :) i went down to my favorite state of maryland to see some college favorites. it was our little crew reunion weekend! though 2 girls were missing, it was fabulous to see the 3 other girls who were there and to talk about life, love, work and college. it is amazing to see where the 6 of us are 2 years after graduation. so that was a much needed break, though the timing of the first weekend of the school year wasn't the best. but there is nothing like 10 hours in a car with your best friend who you haven't seen in 6 months. we were pretty chill, hanging out both fri/sat night drinking wine and talking. saturday we went to the maryland state fair and enjoyed walking around and talking. and sunday headed back north, so it went by way too fast.

so last night was rough, i knew it was going to be a late night finishing up work. stupid notes on the 1920s and i was gchatting with the boy. now things the last few weeks have been ok. but i think the whole i have a job and he doesn't has been putting a strain on our relationship, especially the last 2 weeks. and he found out 2 weeks ago he was heading back to dc for the fall. we talked a few weeks ago about seeing where this went while we were apart and just doing the best we could communication wise... until last night. it was already like 10.30 and we had been talking about this weekend. my summer roomie is in philly this weekend as she is also working in dc this summer and our plans for saturday.... and he brought up we still needed to talk but we'll do it later. well i'm like let's just get it over with, because i'm already distracted from work and not having the talk now will make it worse for me. so we pretty much decided to break up. he doesn't want to do the distance. i wasn't (and still am not) that ok with that decision, but as he said, he'd rather do this than have a huge fight and no longer be able to talk. so i don't have much of a choice. but i'm seeing him this saturday and also my summer roomie, who i've really missed. so who knows what will come of that?

so life is crazy at the moment, but what else is new?

10 years

ten years ago i was a nervous cute little freshman all ready for my first day of high school and here i am now as a teacher on my first day of teaching high school!

thanks for all of your happy thoughts :) as my first day went really. my classes seem good for the most part, some little things i noticed after the first day but seats will be assigned tomorrow! most of my classes are small 14,17,20,17,28. so i'm enjoying that. and overall i'm super excited.

and extremely tired.

extremely. and it is only day 2.

hopefully my body will adjust to the getting up a 5, at school at 7, staying until 4.30-5 and bed by 10.

i'm almost planned for next week. i need to do the lesson plan write up, but i have the days figured out, which is the hard part. and i have everything else ready for tomorrow and friday.

my goal in the next few weeks is to go through all the files of my coworkers and start long range mapping out, so when it comes to lesson planning it won't be as hard.

my todo list at work is incredible. i love my school and department though and i'm so excited for the year :)

in other non-school news.

this weekend is my crewie reunion! yay! i'm headed to baltimore to see some of my favorite people in the world. 5 of the 6 of us who graduated together are meeting up for friday to sunday and i can't wait to catch up and just be goofy with these girls. if only we had a shell and could go out. haha, that would be hilarious.

sunday i went to philly to see the boy :) who is sadly going to be in dc for the fall, but he is working where we worked over the summer so that is exciting! just sad i won't get to see him for 8 weeks. buuut he surprised me sunday night with taking me to a bbq at another summer friend's house. so that was fun and we had a good time.

annd i reallly want to see little house on the prairie the musical. yes, seriously it exists. it is on in the papermill playhouse in nj. and melissa gilbert is playing ma. how awesome?

i absolutely LOVE laura ingalls wilder. i was her for my 5th grade hero day project. and i've read the books countless times (my copies are all destroyed from love!) and my goal is to one day go to both missouri and south dakota to see the places.

so totally past my bedtime now.