Can we add one more day?

So, as predicted, my "time off" went way too fast... I'd love to have one more day of leisure before the crazy pace starts up again... but oh well. I still enjoyed my weekend.

Friday evening Sherlock and I were able to see both the firework display at the Broadmoore and the one from Memorial Park from our hill, and it was nice to just walk out to the park and sit and watch them and then go home to bed.

Saturday morning I got to stay in bed which was very comfy :) Then I made some progress cleaning up my house and went to meet my Daddeee for lunch! He treated me to a very yummy bagel sandwich and then he had to catch a plane, so I went vacuum shopping. Not very exciting, although I ended up with a purple one, which I was tickled with. So I came home and cleaned some more. So my house is 89% clean, which is a lot of progress from what it was and I feel very productive! I spent the rest of the afternoon reading The Tale of Desperaux which was a gift from Dedra. Its a delightful fairy tale and I enjoyed it!! I look forward to reading it to my class(es). Sherlock enjoyed me reading in the park since he got to play :)

Sunday I got up and caught up on some laundry, went grocery shopping, helped a neighbor (Sherlock's best dog-friend Andrew the corgi's Dad) move in a new TV, and then the pooperdog and I headed for the hills. We spent a couple of hours at the reservoir until it started raining... it was actually lovely and cool in the rain, so we stayed and got a little wet (well, Sherlock was already wet from swimming) and then jumped in the car. It wasn't raining once we got back to the Springs, so we stopped off at the dog park and Sherlock played with some Aussie-cousins and his frisbee. He is an officially pooped pup tonight! I took advantage of that to brush him (he wasn't thrilled with that) and now he is very fluffy :)

Tomorrow we meet on campus @ 7:45 and then are all heading up to a cabin that CC owns somewhere up near Woodland Park. We spend the whole day up there which sounds fun to me, so... even though I'd rather have another day to sleep in, I'm looking forward to it!

To Nap or Not to Nap? It was not even a question :)

MMMMMMmmmmmmm sleep!! :) Napping is soooo nice when you are very sleepy! Especially when you have a lovely big fat grey kitty who likes to curl up next to you and purr. Now I feel a little more human, and thought I would catch you up on life.

So that (title) will be the last Shakespeare reference for a while as the show is over! The kids were absolutely fantastic today. They were great yesterday too, but as it was their first time on the stage and doing the play all the way through without stopping, there were a few flubs, and overall I would still call it the dress rehearsal. The kids in the other classes that came and watched them yesterday were very impressed, and the parents today were delightful. Everyone said they couldn't believe we had accomplished so much in only three weeks!

The cute tech guy lost some points as the lighting program didn't work yesterday (made for an interesting scene with me laying on the floor and flipping through touch-screen menus to see if I could fix it!) But it turned out so-so yesterday with my fiddling, and this morning cute tech guy came and re-programed them (earning extra points!) so it was perfect!

The kids came early both yesterday and today to get makeup (hilarious with some of the boys "ick!" reactions) and hair done, and they looked amazing! They even brought Dedra and I flowers, treats, and thank-you cards. I got so many great hugs today -- I couldn't have asked for more!! :)

We walked over to the theatre and got some great smiles from people on campus, and they really were just wonderful today. A few of them hammed it up, and pretty much everyone did the best they had ever done, which was great! After the show we got everyone out of costume and gave them some icecream, and then cleaned up the classroom we had used all week. Finally we all (teachers and MAT students) had a nice lunch together and then it was naptime :)

Tonight there are supposedly fireworks around town that I will be able to see from my house, so no big plans for this evening. This weekend is the first time in the last month that I have nothing to do (other than work on my masters paper... which I may or may not do) so I am definitely looking forward to a little free time. I am sure it will go WAY too fast... and Monday starts our science class (yay! science!) so I am going to enjoy my weekend off.

Fingers & Toes Crossed!

Thanks to those of you who sent me smiles after my crappy start to the week :) It has still been a very long and exhausting couple of days, but definitely still better... so thanks for the good thoughts! Tomorrow is our first Shakespeare performance, so we are keeping every finger and toe crossed. Today was the first day we let them practice in costume, and I took a picture to put on the program, so you all get the preview:

They certainly are a bunch of characters :)

TGMO (Thank God Monday's Over)

Sorry for the lack of blogging this weekend... it was relatively crappy on a weekend scale. Saturday I woke up too early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I tried to get some productive things done around the house, which pretty much just led to getting overwhelmed with the disaster area that is my apartment at the moment. So then I took my pupperdog for a walk, which was nice, although I felt bad because it was too short for either of us, but as I had to get to the library to do some research I figured a little was better than none at all. So I was at the library for a couple hours before meeting my group to do finish up our Unit Plan. That went relatively well, and we went straight from there to Marci's house for a dinner-thing. The dinner thing was really nice, good food, good conversation, and a 16 month old to entertain us all. That was probably the best part of my weekend, although it sucked to be thinking about all the other things I could have been using that time for to get things done. But I still enjoyed it. Then I came home, finished my part of the Unit stuff, and organized my notes for my individual lesson that I had to teach.

Sunday morning I got up, put some ribs and bbq sauce in the crockpot, and spent pretty much the entire day working on my lesson/school stuff with the exception of some errands in the morning (posterboard, markers, and dog food) and a nap in the afternoon. I took a break at dinner time for some tasty ribs, and watched some video of my two nephews, and then it was back to work. At about 9:00 I very suddenly got both a splitting headache and very very nauseous, followed shortly thereafter by a second showing of my dinner. Not fun. So then I got a Sprite and some tylenol and went back to work again, hitting the pillow around midnight.

Needless to say that I didn't get much sleep and was feeling crappy this morning, on top of which it was just a Monday in every way, shape, and form. Specifically the kids were just off the walls today which did NOT make for a great practice session. Luckily I was just "the audience" which involved sitting in the top row of the practice theatre and shouting at them when I couldn't hear them. Not so much fun for the headache, but it could have been worse. Unfortunately the kids were not that great today during rehearsal, so there was quite a bit of negative feedback, which of course frustrated them, etc. etc. We tried to end the day on a high note with a compliment session, but it was pretty half-hearted on all sides.

All of this, as you might be able to imagine at this point, leads to not the best mood to be in to teach my lesson. However lunch seemed to sit ok in the tummy, I bummed some Ibuprofen off Jess, and I made it through. I actually think it went pretty well (it being the condensed-3rd-grade-version of the geographical history of the Pikes Peak Region) and I am very glad that we are done and have nothing else super big to worry about this week.

After I got home I spent an hour out in the park with Sherlock (I sat on the bench while we played, but we were both ok with that). Tonight I still have to work on the program for the play, get in touch with the theatre tech guy (who is cute, so that isn't really on the list of complaints, I just need to remember to do it), read the five million chapters that I neglected reading over the past several days, and the other four things that I have forgotten at this point.

So in conclusion, that is why I am glad Monday is over. Although I have to say, that this link (sent to me by my Mommy) was the best part of my day :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

If I Ran the Circus...

I would make it full of kids! :) Yesterday I taught my jester lesson. Bet you didn't know...

~there is actually record of a dwarf who entertained a pharaoh in Ancient Egypt

~the word for "actor" and "jester/clown" is the same word in Latin and Chinese

~what we think of as renaissance jesters came from the Roman empire. Occasionally the emperors of Rome banished actors from the cities, so they traveled around the occupied regions, including Britain.

~in the middle ages and renaissance, jester was the only profession that could ascend the social ladder. Jesters could be anyone: peasants, apprentices, disrobed monks, petty thieves, etc. If you were entertaining enough you could be "discovered" by a rich lord or even royalty and be promoted to a high social standing.

~the court jester represented freedom of speech for a society that had none... he could say (almost) anything to the lord/king as it was always taken as foolery. He/she (yes there were famous women jesters too!) allowed the king to laugh at himself which made him much more lovable to his subjects.

~royal physicians of the middle ages prescribed laughter to balance the four humors that governed the mind and body. So even then they knew that laughter was the best medicine! :)

Ok so there is much more... but if you want to know I'll let you go to the library! After the lesson I taught them how to make jester hats. I found the pattern online and they were a hit! Today they finished the hats and a friend of Dedra's came and taught them how to juggle (kind of). They had a blast anyway... and here are some pictures of both the hats and the juggling.

So it was a great way to end the week! Unfortunately this weekend is going to be too short since we are doing a group unit plan (meeting tomorrow afternoon) and we also have to each do an individual lesson plan to teach Monday from the unit. So.... lots of homework! But for now, I am treating myself to pizza and an evening of doing nothing :)

Professions of the Elizabethan Era

Its Friday tomorrow right? This week already feels incredibly long and its only Tuesday :( Although I have to say that the best part of my day yesterday was my Mommy. She came to the Springs for a Dr. Appt but brought me lunch and Mommy-food. For those of you who remember the care packages... its that but better because she brings just-cooked stuff too!! MMMMmmmmmm :)

So today I had my first official "lesson" to teach in Shakespeare. I think my fellow MATs are getting a bit of a different experience because, while Dedra is delighted to have me there, we have a focus (getting the play done by next week!) and we don't have time for much else. I keep hearing about these hour-long activities and lesson plans and such that other people are doing, but I was told to keep it very short.... So it was short and sweet but it went well! I started by dressing up (borrowing a hat from Dedra's costume box) as a Cheese Monger - someone who sells cheese. I was pretending to write a letter (with quill/scroll) as the kids came in this morning and asked them to gather-round and help me. I read them my letter (to my Mom who lived in Canterbury) about my life as a Master Cheese Monger in Elizabethan London... telling them about my day, my brother the baker, his new apprentice, going to see a play at the Globe theatre, etc. etc. Then I asked for their help in what else I could write about... they gave some fun ideas -- talk about the rats and the plague, the lords and ladies who come to my shop, etc. Then I had them draw a paper out of a bag -- half of them got a modern-day job (pharmacist, dentist, banker, etc) and half of them got a Elizabethan job (apothecary, cordwainer, haberdasher, etc.) I had picked some hard ones, so they had a fun time trying to figure them out... a few had to read the description on the inside of their paper before they found their match. The best part was that for a project to work on (when they weren't painting the set or rehearsing) was to pick a profession and write a letter to their family pretending to be an apprentice and telling about their life just like I had read to them. They came up with INCREDIBLE stories! They were so great -- being an apothecary and not being able to help people with the plague, being a blacksmith and almost cutting off their thumb, being a cook in the royal kitchen. I was just tickled :) They got up to share at the end of the class today and it was so fun to hear them read.

In afternoon-class we have moved from Language Arts in the classroom to Social Studies. Its not as much fun because I really don't like Social Studies at all, but I suppose that means I should pay that much more attention so I can make it fun to teach and therefore fun to learn :) That sounds good in theory, and I have some good ideas.... so, we'll see. Part of this portion of the class is doing a group lesson -- so my group is developing a lesson on the early history of the Colorado Springs/Pike's Peak area. Should be interesting as I know nothing about it!! Tonight I have to read a education magazine/journal and summarize some "idea"of how to teach something to the class tomorrow. Mine is geography, so hopefully it has something fun I can pull out. Also its very rumbly and thundery outside so I should get off the computer :)

7 Bridges Trail

So after spending a good chunk of the day Saturday working on the first chapter of the MR (Master's Research) Paper which is due Monday, the finish line was in sight, so I figured I would take the pooperdog for a hike today. We went up to the same area as St. Mary's Falls and found the 7 Bridges Trail... which as you may have guessed.... has 7 bridges :) Its a nice trail that climbs up a creek/valley and crisscrosses along. Here's the pooper on one of the bridges:

Sherlock actually isn't a big fan of crossing bridges if he doesn't have to, so while he very nicely let me take his picture (above) he much preferred going through the creek while I crossed the bridge (below)

We saw some absolutely beautiful wildflowers along the way.... my favorites were the columbines:

We saw lots of other doggies on the trail, and Sherlock enjoyed saying hi to everyone. He had very good doggy-trail-etiquette today! At one point I had to hold up a rock for Sherlock to go under:

I took that picture with the timer on my camera... pretty good eh? :) So we found all the bridges and the trail kept going, so we meandered on for a while. But then the clouds got dark and rumbley, so we headed back to the car. It was a fun hike.

So now I need to go finish writing my chapter and maybe enjoy some lazy-time before bed. Hope you had a nice weekend!! :)