Psst...I have a secret.

I'm finished classes!

Ok, so maybe that's not a secret! lol And I'm not totally finished classes, I have one semester left, but I am finished classes until January, which at this point, is just as exciting! *does happy dance again*

I have been doing school work since 2:30pm. It's now 12:11am. You do the math.

I have completed 2 assignments, and am almost done my third. I just need to cut out and glue clue cards together.

My brain? It's fried.

*collapses in a giant heap*

I should be actually working on them.

Probably.

However, that would require effort and concentration, and since I have spent the last couple of hours working on said assignments, I need a break! So what better break than listing the pure craziness these next few weeks will entail for me. Don't worry (aka worry!), though, I have already made a schedule of when I will be working on each assignment. I am sure you are all shocked. *g*

Due this week
Tuesday:
-Nesbit Journal Reflection
-Nesbit lesson plans
Wednesday:
-Critical Commentary for my Language and Literacy Class
Thursday:
-Nesbit Journal Reflection
-Social Studies Learning Center
Friday:
-Math Lesson Plan
-Math Personal Reflection Journal (this I am about half way finished)
-Language and Literacy Letter Formation (done and handed in! YAY!)
-Children's Literature Bibliography (I've started this. I spent the entire afternoon on Friday in the library, finding books)
-Adapted Teaching Strategy on Autism

Due next week
Tuesday:
-Special Education 10 page paper on Autism
-Art assignment worh 100%
-Social Studies Unit plan

Oh, did I mention, that I have to plan two units for my practicum as well? I think I am going to completely lose my mind!

On Friday, my cohort at school is having a pot luck and I said I would bring some baking. I've decided that I want to make cookies, but the thing is, I'm kind of bored with all my usual cookie recipes. The only one I feel like is peanut butter, but a girl in my cohort is allergic to peanuts, so I can't bring those. So dear flist, I ask for your assistance. Does anyone have any yummy cookie recipes they would like to share?

Last night I had hubby set the alarm for 6:20am. This morning I woke up at what I thought was 6:20am and proceeded to have a shower. When I went into the kitchen after my shower to turn the coffee on, I wondered why I needed to turn a light on just to flick the switch. Then I glanced at the clock on the stove, 5:38am. Crap! I looked at the clock above the back stairway door, 5:40am. Crap! Apparently, hubby had somehow put the clock ahead an hour when he set the alarm. Instead of waking up at 6:20am, I woke up at 5:20am.

I quickly took the towel off my head, combed my hair, and threw it back into a braid. I then reset the alarm for 6:30am and climbed back into bed. I figured I could get up a bit later since I had already had a shower, but wanted to leave some time in case my hair had dried too much and I wouldn't be able to blow dry it properly. So after tossing and turning for about 50 minutes, the alarm goes off. I decided that my hair was still wet enough, so I asked hubby to press snooze (the alarm is on his side of the bed). So, he turns it off! I had to get back out of bed, walk around to his side, turn on the light, and reset the clock. Why I didn't just stay up for those 9 minutes, I don't know, but I was not happy! *grumbles*

Hopefully today will get better. I'm doing my first school visit to do some initial assessment with the kids for my Literacy Links job today, then this evening I am going to a wine tasting festival. If my day isn't better by then, I'm sure that will make it that way! *g* I'm also hoping that I can watch PB when I get home tonight, so that I can do the rewatch tomorrow before getting ready for work. We'll have to see how much wine I've had though. lol

It's almost midnight, and I may have taken a large break to go to a birthday dinner, but I am basically finished my homework book for my Art and Drama Curriculum course! All I have to do is type up my explanations that I have already written and put them in my juice box!

I want to thank georgiaclaire for her idea of how to use my orange juice carton. Without her suggestion, I would probably still have no idea of what to do. I have decided to go with a metaphor for my creative presentation. Just as vitamin C is an essential part of good health, art and creativity is an essential part of learning.

Now all I have to do is write my Philosophy on Teaching (I have my ideas I just need to expand them), write a short paper on learning and intellectual disabilities, and make my concept poster for my math presentation on Thursday (which I have sketched out, I just need poster paper). I have all day tomorrow, Monday afternoon after I get home from volunteering, and Tuesday afternoon after class to finish. I am feeling confident that I will do fine.

If you had a Fruitopia carton and an orange juice carton (same size), what sort of ideas could you come up with to make these into some sort of presentation for a art homework book?

Ok, let me explain further. In my Art and Drama curriculum course, we have this assigned homework book. What it is, is we basically reflect or answer questions each class then have a creative assignment that went with that week's class. We are supposed to put this "book" into some sort of creative presentation. Examples I have seen are cereal boxes used for books on a book shelf (I'm going to assume the papers were inside), and a box of crayons where the assignments were on different colored paper and rolled up as crayons. I want to use my two cartons, mainly because that is what I have available at the moment. The problem is I am not coming up with any ideas.

I'm open to any and all suggestions. *g*

When Sunday night arrived, I was incredibly happy that I had somehow made it through my practicum block without getting sick. That was Sunday. Today is Friday and I feel awful! My throat hurts, my head is filled with some sort of heavy cotton, and I cannot breathe. In other words, I am sick.

This started on Tuesday, so this week has been a long one. It does not help that Christmas is now less than two weeks away, so the kids were absolutely bonkers. I mean this in the most loving way however. lol Really I do. Today was my last day and as we sat at our compliment meeting, and they had all written them for me, I kept chanting to myself, do not cry, do not cry, do not cry. I didn't cry, but I did get to keep all of their pages and I got so many hugs. I love hugs! They may be a handful, but I am going to miss my kiddies! That said, I am definitely happy that I will not have to pull off 60 hour weeks anymore. Working the equivalent of a job and a half sucks!

Working those many hours also means that I am incredibly behind with my Christmas planning this year. I am not even finished shopping, never mind uploading pictures onto digital frames (I have 2 to do this for), or wrapping. I have a few of my Christmas cards ready to go and that is about it. At least we decorated really early this year, otherwise I have no idea when I would do it. I also volunteered myself to make green bean casserole and cheesecake for Christmas dinner. Apparently I felt that I would have way too much free time on my hands, or rather that I do not need to sleep. My cotton filled head might disagree with this however. *g*

Oh...I would like to conduct an unofficial poll. If you had to suggest a present idea to someone and you had to choose between a season of Six Feet Under or a season of The Wire, which would you choose?

EDA: I completely forgot to mention why this post is titled as such.  There is that cotton for you! lol  Last night I made rice crispie squares for my kiddies and I did not cover them for some reason.  This morning I went to cut them and they were not exactly soft. *g*

Yup, it's snowing. In the 45 minutes it took me to get home from school today, it went from pouring rain (which I had to walk 10 minutes in and it was cold and windy too *grumbles*), to sleet, to snow. Hubby just got home and he said the roads were pure ice. Lovely, tomorrow morning will be lots of fun. I miss fall.

Sorry if I'm coming off a little cranky, but that pretty much describes me this week. Cranky. This is my last week of classes before I begin my praticum, so as you might imagine I have assignments coming out of my ears and a couple of exams and presentations just to add to the fun. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though. I finished my big paper this morning. I printed it and handed it in. And out of my five assignments due tomorrow, I am completely finished four of them. That means that tonight I only have that one to work on(that's worth 50% of my mark, eep!) and a test in teaching reading to study for. As you can see, I'm hard at work. *g* My saving grace this week has been that at this time next week I'll be in my class, working with the kids.

Anyway, I mainly just wanted to whine about snow and stress, so thank you for hearing me out. Now, I am actually going to get to work. Really. *g*