T-Minus three hours!

**Just wanted to drop another little note and say thanks to everyone who is stopping by! :)

We are taking Guillermo over to Noah’s Ark Veterinary Clinic in just a few hours, so keep sending him (and us!) good thoughts… We all know that Nick and I are the one’s who need all the comforting anyways. ;) 

Tuesday!

I wish my classroom looked like this. :)

Today was a bit like pulling teeth with my students. After a long, three day weekend, they were still hibernating and not so ready to do the Daily Oral Language Lesson that I had so thoughtfully planned for them at the end of last week. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better because I am assigning their term research paper – the advanced kids get to write about a coming-of-age tradition or ritual of their choice (from a list that I have provided, naturally) and the other kids get to choose the career that they are most interested in and research it. These should make for some very interesting reads in a few weeks!!

I also finalized the literary analysis assignment that all of the kids will be getting at the end of September, and I am really excited to read what they have to say, even though I am sure that they won’t be as excited to write it. ;)

Tonight, my little Guillermo has to be taken to the vet to get neutered. Nick and I are really nervous, even though we know that many, many dogs have this operation every day, and that he will be just fine. We are mostly sad that he is going to be so scared in a cage overnight without his mommy and daddy. Since dogs, like most humans, cannot eat for a certain amount of time before surgery, he has to be taken in tonight instead for his surgery in the morning. I understand the reasoning behind this, but still am really nervous to leave him there! At least, we know we are lucky that this surgery is less invasive for a boy, and that makes us both feel so much better. Hopefully, having his baby blanket that he’s had since the very day we brought him home will make HIM feel better!!

I think we are both just so worried because he is our first baby (Chihuahua). ;) Send him good thoughts and prayers!! That being said, before we drop him off at the vet tonight, we are taking him to PetSmart to get a little treat. He is definitely spoiled! Needless to say, I might be more than a little distracted at work tonight!

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Oh, to be in high school, again...

This quarter in school, I am doing a unit with my AA (these are the advanced kids) 11^th grade English class on JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. I have read this book upwards of five or six times since high school, and it has always been one of my favorite books.

It is so interesting to compare how I thought of it in high school, and how I interpret it teaching high school. I had always thought that Holden Caulfield was just a bratty teenager who was hilarious in his speaking habits and whose wit and voice made me giggle at each turn of the page. After teaching this to my students, they have begun to ask me questions that I have never even though about. Why is Holden so depressed? Why does he curse so much? Etc. It really made me think about the title of the book, and it also made me pick up on details of the novel that I have never noticed in my naïve reading of it. When I gave the lecture about themes, motifs, and the connection to JD Salinger’s lifetime, the parallels were not lost on the kids, and it made me feel great to teach something they had never heard before, but also that they were interested in, and made them feel as though they were looking in on someone’s eerie, private life. As we delve further and further into the book, the kids are more and more excited to read. A few of them are even ahead of schedule, which makes me feel great as a teacher. I am so happy they are enjoying a book that I was so fond of while growing up, and it’s an excellent way to teach students how to cope with their own coming-of-age experiences in a positive way.

A friend of mine posted this interpretation of Holden Caulfield on Facebook a few months ago, and it really hit home and pulled some of the stray threads of the novel together for me. I am really excited to show this piece of artwork with kids and see what they think about it.

Also, Nick and I started to watch the first season of Nip/Tuck last night, and we got through two and a half episodes.

The show is pretty good, but after having a nightmare that I got a boob job, I don’t think I’ll be watching anymore. It’s a really interesting show, but just not as captivating as I hoped it would be. If anyone has any suggestions about what we should try out instead, let me know!

It's so nice to look at my blog stats and see that I have been getting lots more page views and readers over the last few days! Thank you to all of you who take the time to read :) I hope that everyone who is interested in what I have to talk about in my little corner of the world will take the time to follow me by clicking the button at the top left of this column!! Thanks, everyone!!

I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day! xoxo

A few of my favorite things...

Since I haven’t posted a music entry yet, and it’s such an important part of my life, I thought I would introduce a few of my favorite bands right now!

The first one I want to feature is of Montreal. They are fantastic, an indie pop band that is full of wacky lyrics and fun euphemisms. I am actually seeing them on September 21 with Nick and a couple of our friends, plus his sister, Lynzie. I have seen these guys once, last year at Bonnaroo 2009, but at the time I was fighting a serious case of vertigo, and didn't really enjoy the show. In fact, they kind of irritated me. But, since then, Nick has gotten me hooked on them and I can't get enough.

Next is She & Him. First of all, I have a giant girl crush on Zooey Deschanel, and I love almost anything she does. Her partnership with M. Ward in this American folk-y duet is no different! She is also fantastic in 500 Days of Summer, which I recently rented and then purchased, she was so great in it! (Plus, it’s just a really fantastic movie all around). I have seen these two twice this summer, and I was only introduced to them back in January of this year. I saw them once at Bonnaroo 2010, and they had a huge, huge crowd. I saw them again at Forecastle, a music festival in Louisville, KY, that Nick surprised me with tickets for our anniversary. They had a small crowd the second time around, and it seemed like only a handful of people were familiar with them. It was a fantastic show.

Also, if you're interested in seeing her in one of my favoritest movies, click here for a peek at the trailer ;)

Next up, The Decemberists. One of my all time, favorite indie rock bands. They have lots of upbeat songs, and also tons of slow ballads that use accordions, organs, and an upright bass. Very fun. I have only seen these guys once, during the same trip to Bonnaroo 2009 and on the same day that I had the aforementioned vertigo, but I really enjoyed them. They didn't play anything that I was familiar with at that show, even though I have been a fan for a few years. They played most of their newest album, Hazards of Love, which is FANTASTIC, and in my opinion, should be listened to from beginning to end with no interruptions. It's like an epic, terribly sad and beautiful novel that you can't tear yourself away from.

Anyway, there you have a few of my favorite tunes. Lastly, I thought I would leave you with a picture of my pretty little puppy being cute, per usual.

Oh, hello, weekend!!

It’s so hard to believe that the last time I wrote was a whole week before the school year started, but it’s not surprise that I haven’t had the time. Student teaching is EXHAUSTING. But, seeing that I have gained another follower inspired me to create another update.

On the same note, it’s been a rough few weeks. The school and my fellow teachers are fantastic, and they even came to me with a need for a professional tutor for the after school OGT (Ohio Graduation Test) preparation program. This is exciting because not only will I get to help tons of kids who need to pass the OGT to graduate, but I am being paid what they would pay a teacher for this type of duty – almost $30 and hour. AND it’s just one more thing that I can put on my resume for when the time comes to woo a school with an open position for the next school year.

Needless to say, I have been exhausted and am SO ready for this long weekend break!

This is what the end to my first day at the school looked like:

Also, I have been rereading the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella in order to review for the latest book coming out in just a week or two, Mini Shopaholic. I am currently on the third book in the series, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.

I would recommend this series for anyone who likes chick lit, especially of the British variety, and for those who love to read but don’t have much time to enjoy the more serious and lengthy literature.

I would love to make this post longer, but the boyfriend/husband just returned from work. There’s sure to be more updates over the long weekend!