The 2005 – 2006 school year was quite possibly the worst of my lifetime. It was my first year teaching, and I was miserable. To make an extremely long story short: my teammates were awful, the principal was awful, and my internship mentors were awful. In conclusion, the whole year was just plain terrible for me. So much in fact that I ended up on depression medication.

Sometime during the year I had my first fainting spell. It happened when I woke up to get ready to go to work. I was in the bathroom ready to begin my morning routine and I felt sort of dizzy, hot, and nauseous. I went to the bedroom to lie down on the bed for a minute. The next thing I know, my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) was pretty much smacking me on the face saying, “Look at me, Look at me!” On the way to the bed, I had passed out, fell against the dresser and landed on the floor. I kept telling him I was so tired and for him to just let me go back to sleep. I had no energy. Needless to say, I didn’t go into work that day. I hadn’t been sleeping well and was very stressed out, so I assumed the passing out was due to those two factors. I did see a doctor and was given a sleep aid and an anti-depressant. I didn’t pass out any more during that school year, so I thought it really had been stress related.

Ever since that school year I have been passing out at least twice a year. I once told a doctor about this and they had told me that it was probably just due to some sort of “level” being low in the morning. The doctor made me feel like it wasn’t that big of a deal so I wasn’t too concerned about it. I had told my teammates at work about this and one of them had a similar passing out issue when they were around my age and eventually it just stopped. Some of my passing out episodes have been pretty dangerous. Once, I passed out in the shower. I knew it was going to happen so I sat down in the shower but I made the mistake of facing toward the water. I came to choking on water. Another time I felt like I needed to use the bathroom so I sat on the toilet and actually passed off and fell off the toilet. My husband heard a loud thud and found me on the floor. When I got up to get ready to go to work after Labor Day this school year I passed out. My mom and husband both basically convinced me I should ask a doctor about this. I went to see my regular doctor and she said she’d like me to have some tests done and that’s where it all started.

I had a CT scan. I had an MRI. I had blood work done. All of these things came back normal so my doctor referred me to a neurologist. When I met the neurologist for the first time, he asked me all of these questions (who is the president, what’s the date, etc.). He asked me to start with 100 and subtract 7 until he told me to stop. I so failed at that. I was nervous, and I am not good at mental math anyway! I probably looked like a fool since I am a teacher and should probably know how to do mental math better than I did. I told him everything I knew about my passing out episodes:

• It always happens in the morning shortly after waking up
• I can tell when it’s going to happen
• I get dizzy, feel hot ,and get nauseous
• I feel like I’m going to have diarrhea
• Sometimes it starts when I am in the shower already
• It happens often when I have to return to work after a long break (like a holiday or vacation)

The doctor ordered some tests: a tilt table test and an EEG. I had the EEG done first. I had this done at the hospital. Basically, they put me in a dark room and hooked me up to some wires and monitored my heart and brain. They were trying to test and see if I was having any seizure like symptoms. The results came back normal. I had the tilt table test done next. Basically they strap you to a table and then incline the table so you’re almost in a standing position. This is supposed to see if you have issues with blood pressure dropping when you go from a sitting position to a standing position. To do the test, they have to put in an IV. The lady who was trying to put my IV in didn’t really know what she was doing and she tried to get the thing in my arm for about 15 minutes. My arm got so sore just holding it out for her that I got hot, dizzy and almost passed out. They had to call in someone else and she got the IV in right away. Once the actual test began I was fine. It was boring. The test came back normal, I didn’t actually pass out or have any dramatic changes in blood pressure during the test. I went back to the neurologist and he went over all of the test results. He said that basically I’m healthy and fine but I pass out sometimes. (Duh!) He even told me that maybe I was just born this way. I asked him about POTS (another condition that I read about online and have many symptoms of). He said the tilt table test would have shown that it could be POTS if I had passed out, but I didn’t. I asked him about my circulation. I had once been told I had poor circulation in my hands. (My hands get absolutely freezing sometimes.) He told me that I could spend thousands of dollars on tests but the bottom line is that my hands would still be cold and that he was trying to save me money and again he said that I might just be born this way. Now, I’m sure his statements come across as sort of quack-ish or rude or ignorant maybe. He’s a foreigner and a really nice man. He’s pretty funny actually. He told me I probably have some sort of syncope but he decided to send me to a cardiologist to have my heart checked out.

When I went to see the cardiologist he started off by telling me I was a healthy young woman and should not be having heart problems. I had to explain what has been going on for the millionth time. He started smiling as I was describing my passing out episiodes and said, “I know what you have.” I asked him what it was and he told me to keep talking and he’d tell me in a minute. Basically, he agreed with the neurologist and told me I have Neurocardiogenic Syncope – a really fancy way of saying I pass out sometimes. I have a sudden drop in arterial blood pressure. I guess there are medications you can take for this, but the doctor said it’s not necessary to be on medication unless it got really severe. When I feel an episode coming on he told me I can cross my legs, make a fist and push against the palm of the other hand, or just lay down. He said if I lay down and then stand back up, the symptoms will go away and I will not pass out. He also told me to drink 6-8 bottles of water a day religiously. Doing exercises to strengthen my leg muscles will also help with blood flow and pressure. He told me that he wanted me to have a heart ultrasound done since I hadn’t had one yet but he expected everything to come back looking beautiful.

I left the doctor feeling pretty satisfied. I actually had a diagnosis. It was nice to put a name with what has been doing on for so long. I went back the next week to have my heart ultrasound done. The woman who did the ultrasound said the doctor would call me with the results. She said she got some “beautiful pictures.” That sounded good to me.

The next week I was in the gym for my afternoon bus duty. I had my cell phone with me because I was going to have the “late” bus which doesn’t get to school until 3:30 so I knew I’d need something to do while the kids were on the computers in the lab. My cell phone rang. Now normally, I don’t answer my cell phone at work but I recognized the number as the number for the doctor’s office. I stepped out in the hallway and answered the phone. The nurse told me that my blood flow looked good but that I had a deformity in my aorta. Something about my aortic valve only having two cusps instead of three. She asked if I was having any chest pain and I told her no. She said that since I wasn’t having any serious symptoms that I wouldn’t need to come back in until my appointment in June. I got off the phone feeling a little…weird? I had just been told my heart had a deformity of some sort. That’s not something you hear every day.

During bus duty I spent that time looking into this deformity I have. It’s called Bicuspid Aortic Valve (BAV). BAV is the most common congenital heart condition. (So… looks like the neurologist was right – I really WAS just born this way!) 1-2% of the population has it, but it is more common in males than females. It’s hereditary. Basically, your aortic valve should have three little leaflets on it to regulate blood flow from the heart to the aorta. Mine has two instead of three, so it was to work harder to pump the blood. SO… my heart has to work harder to regulate blood pressure which contributes to my passing out issue. This also causes me to tire more easily than someone without it. I guess people with BAV start to experience issues in their 40’s. I may have to have a valve replacement surgery sometime in my life or not. Some people have BAV and never even know they have it. Life expectancy of someone with BAV is comparable to someone without it.

I didn’t write this post to get sympathy or hear people say, “Oh, Ashley. I’m so sorry” or anything like that. I wrote it because there might be someone out there having the same issues I have/had and maybe they might run across this post and find some answers. I spent hours looking up my symptoms and never found anything about BAV. I had never even heard of it before. Have you heard of BAV?

If you’ve made it this far and actually read all of this, I appreciate it very much. (*makes a note to update her blockquote*)

The Delta rep at the Nashville Airport lied to us and said our bag would be delivered to us at 9:26 a.m. the following morning. Did it arrive? Nope. I had been checking the status of our bag on Delta’s website, but it just kept saying that they didn’t know where our bag was. (Which worried me more!) Finally, I called Delta’s baggage number and was on hold for 35-40 minutes before I got to talk to someone (at around 12:20 p.m.). The lady I spoke to told me my luggage was still in Minneapolis and would be in Nashville around 1:20 p.m. It still worried me that my bag would go to baggage claim where someone would have just taken my bag if they had wanted to. She told me that once it was in Nashville and was not claimed, a Delta representative would scan it in and prepare it for delivery which could take about an hour.

It was a big waiting game. At 10:00 that night, I finally got a call from a delivery service saying that they had just gotten my bag at the Nashville Airport. (Took more than an hour obviously…:P) I could either chose to wait up for my bag or leave a note saying the delivery guy could leave it by my door. I finally went to bed at like 12:00 a.m. Still no luggage. At 2:06 a.m. the doorbell rang and I was reunited with my bag (which contained most of the stuff I had bought while in Canada!).

So now that the luggage drama is over, I am happy to be home. School starts back in about twenty days. The first week of August I have meetings and things before school actually starts on the 11th. I’ve got a million things to do to get ready! I’m still uploading pictures from my trip, and once I have those all sorted out, I will post them on Flickr and maybe a couple on here as well.

Have any of you ever had your luggage lost or delayed while travelling? It is such a pain. I’m lucky that it wasn’t my suitcase with my clothes and medication. Still, it was an annoying situation I was not expecting to have to deal with once arriving in Nashville.

I got a new car! And by new, I mean brand new! When Colin and I got our big income tax check with the new homeowners $8,000 credit, we knew we wanted to get a new(er) vehicle so he could have my white blazer and we could get rid of his. His is older and rides like a beastie. We kept putting off looking at cars. Well we finally got to it a couple of weeks ago. For three days we drove all over looking at SUV-type things. I’ve only ever drove a blazer and didn’t think I would like driving a car that would be so much lower to the ground. I also wanted an SUV because it would most likely bounce deer off of it. I am very picky about color and I didn’t want something black, white, red, or silver. That narrows things down a lot! To make this story that’s starting to get long shorter, I found a celestial blue Mazda 3 and that’s what we ended up going with. Yay!

Last weekend my mom and I had a yard sale. For the two days we had it we ended up making over $500 all together. We wanted to get rid of things badly so prices were cheap! What we had left (and there was a ton left!) we gave to the mother of one of my students I had this past year. She’s started a place where people in need can shop for free!

Tomorrow, Colin and I are leaving for Canada. We are flying out of Nashville so we have to get up early. :p Later tonight we are taking Annabelle to my parents’ house. They are going to cat-sit her. I have a ton to do, but don’t really know where to start! The hardest thing to pack is clothing. I guess I will pack a little of everything since there will probably be cold and warm days.

With all of that said, I will hopefully find some time to write whilst in Canada. I’m sad I can’t just use my iPhone freely while there. Hopefully I will find lots of wi-fi spots so I can send messages from Twitter.

This time tomorrow I will be on an airplane!!

I have no excuse other than school started back thus I have been obsessing over lesson plans and such. School is better this year now that I don’t have to do my internship. I have a great group of kids this year (overall). I also have a smaller class – 18 this year – which is totally awesome. I sometimes miss all the time I used to spend on Twitter, my website, and the internet in general but I really do enjoy teaching and spend a lot of time planning lessons and such.

Right now we’re in the middle of the Gingerbread Girl craze. She ran away on Friday. The kids were even more excited about it this year than last year’s group was. It’s really fun. We’ll be making gingerbread ornaments, and cookies, and cakes this week. Fun times! My mom made another gingerbread house around my classroom door and it is even cuter than the one last year! Way more color this time around. I’ll have to take a picture of it this week.

Christmas is right around the corner. I have a lot of shopping left to do. I also have many crafty things I am working on. I am working on adding items to my Etsy shop which has been ignored for a couple of years now. I am going to be adding some major cuteness to it, and I can’t wait!

For now I leave you with this yummy treat I baked up at Thanksgiving. More on my Flickr.

And the layout… it was coming along well, but then I got busy. And now I think I may have a new idea.

My last day with the students was on Friday. Since we missed so much school due to the ice storm, the teachers have to work until June 9th. We have three days of district curriculum mapping to get through and hopefully the rest of the time I can spend organizing my room and making preparations for next year. I am already excited about next year. I will be at a disadvantage next year in one way. This year I pretty much know most of the kids in my class from having them in computer lab. Next year I will know a couple of students by name, but I don’t really know what to expect from them. The kindergartners were a rough group this year. A LARGE group too. So large in fact that a second grade teacher is moving down to first so we’ll have four and a half first grade classes.

Since my summer is pretty close to actually beginning, I am hoping to have more time to work on my websites and to blog more often. I had to attend a school webmaster training the other day and they gave us a new digital camera and flip video recorder that I am dying to put to use.

Oh, in other news, Colin and I have found a house! Now, nothing is totally official yet (we’re still waiting on the final news from the bank and for the loan to go through), but if all goes as planned we could move into our house on July 19th! I really hope everything goes okay with the loan. I guess it’s freaked the bank lady out that she found out Colin is Canadian. Whatever.

Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on the blogs I like to visit and get back in the swing of internet things. It’s going to be a busy summer!

So my husband finally has a Twitter account. He’s also been reading a lot of library blogs and he says he’s gonna start a LiveJournal where he anonymously will write about his job without using real names or places. I would love to have a completly anonymous blog where I tell what really goes on in my classroom on a day-to-day basis. Future teachers should know what to look forward to! College classes and practicum experiences do not prepare you for teaching.

Anyway, now that I’ve mentioned it, it’s not completely anonymous. Because now you know that I want to do it. And if I did, then you’d know about it. Hmm. Maybe I won’t tell any of you if I do it or not. Then no one will know. And I’ll just be talking to myself. Sort of like I am doing now…

My ear hurts.

*huge sigh of relief* :content:

March 10th is my final meeting and then my internship is over! Whoooo! I can’t believe it! This will be a huge load off of me.

Next week is a lot of other big things too: parent teacher conferences and a major meeting about one of my students being placed in an emotional behavioral disorder unit. This school year is flying by!

Also next week my grandmother is having surgery to remove one of her breasts due to breast cancer.

It is going to be a busy week next week and some major things will be happening. Hopefully when things calm down (who knows when) I can work on this blog!

The first week back I had an observation. Lesson went great. Then, on Sunday night, I started feeling icky. I went to work Monday with the hopes of only staying half a day. Well, I messed up and got the substitute for the next afternoon instead of Monday afternoon. I had to cancel the Tuesday afternoon sub because I had to go to school Tuesday since I was being observed that afternoon. I decided that I would definitely take Wednesday off though. Not only did I miss Wednesday, but I missed yesterday and today as well. My nose is like swollen so it’s hard to breathe. I’ve been breaking out in hives (not due to any medicine because I haven’t taken anything new or exotic). My ears have been sore. The doctor gave me an antibiotic and some nose spray. Since there is no school Monday due to it being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I am lucky enough to have an extra day to get myself together. I enjoy time off from school but not when I am blowing my nose for most of it.

I’ve been out for three days, and my kids have had a different sub every day. From the reports I’ve been given though, they’ve been pretty good considering which I am happy to hear. One of them got carried out by two adults kicking and screaming, but that’s nothing really surprising. *sigh*

I hope I’m feeling better soon so maybe I can have at least one “fun” day before going back to work on Tuesday.

I have a few things I’d like to accomplish this year. They are (in no particular order):

1. Pass my teaching internship.
2. Exercise more often.
3. Drink more diet drinks.
4. Save more money.
5. Buy a house!!!
6. Come home from work earlier.
7. Do my lesson plans during my weekly planning at school so I don’t have to do them all on the weekends.
8. Clean and cook more.
9. Possibly get a new(er) car.
10. Make time to do all of the fun things I used to enjoy doing (working on my website, doodling, crafts, etc.)
11. Blog more often!

I could probably list more things, but the more things you list, the more likely it will be that you won’t accomplish them all? I kept it pretty realistic too. I mean, I’d like to go to the moon, but that won’t be happening. What is your main goal for the new year? And, are you excited for the new year, or will you miss last year?

One more week to go until Fall Break. Thanks God. I need a break. I haven’t really had one. My Friday evenings include me and Colin working in my classroom until 7:00 at night and my weekends are spent working at home on lesson plans and whatnot. Oh course, I will be doing some work on my break, but it won’t be as stressful I don’t think.

Going back to my previous post and some of the comments made, I can’t really switch my schedule around too much. Our literacy block has to be 90 minutes, uninterrupted. I can’t fit reading and math in the morning. However, I may try to fit writing in the morning and do calendar time in the morning so that will leave me to do 60 minutes of math in the afternoon instead of 90. Then, hopefully I’ll have some time for Social Studies and Science in the afternoon as well.

As far as my internship goes, I have had one observation that went quite well. My second one is tomorrow. The principal is coming to observe a math lesson. I’m not too worried about it. Whatever happens just will. I’ll be fine whatever the outcome.

Things have been going okay overall. My class is still so needy and talkative, and I really don’t think those things are going to improve very much over the year. I’ve gotten three new students since school started (can’t remember if I mentioned any of these). One is a student who was supposed to be in my room originally but was told he couldn’t come to our school since he was out of our district and is a behavior problem. Well, he’s back in our district, so he’s mine again. One of my boys has been suspended like 5 times since school started. Another one “speaks bird.” One cries just about every day multiple times. Fun times. Never a dull moment.

The long term sub that has been at school since day 1 will be leaving next Friday. It’ll be her last day and then the real teacher will come back. She’s been out on maternity leave. I will really miss the sub. She’s taught for 35+ years, and she and I have been good buddies this whole time. I get along really well with the other teachers I work with too. It’s really good.

I’m always busy or have something to do. This is because I have to do a internship portfolio and since I never taught first grade before, I’m having to learn as I go. Next year should be a lot smoother. On fall break, I plan to get together with one of the first grade teachers so she can show me how she teaches with themes instead of following the textbooks so closely. I am excited.

I straightened my hair yesterday. I borrowed my mom’s flat iron. It took me like two hours. I like it though. I haven’t brushed my hair since 9th grade probably. I have to pick it out or comb it since it’s curly from perms. However, I think I may try the straight hair thing now. I bought myself lots of brushes today and my own flat iron. I’m excited to see what the teachers and kids say about my hair tomorrow.

Hope everyone out there is doing just fine and enjoying your weekend. I can’t believe it’s October. It’ll be Christmas soon!!

I’ve just been super busy getting things ready for open house tomorrow night and then school starting on Wednesday. Things have been a little crazy! I’ve met all of the teachers new to my school except one. The one next door to me is really nice, which is great.

I’ve also been assigned my intern resource teacher. I got a good teacher! She’s really excited to be working with me, and I’m excited too.

I got my hair done on Thursday, and I actually made a video afterward or me talking about my hair and stuff. I tried uploading it, and it kept timing out. I’ll try again once I get some time. :star: I got a lot of my hair cut off and got a curly perm.

My flash drive should be here tomorrow. I am a little disappointed with Mimoco right now. It took them SIX days after I made my order to get my package to UPS. SIX DAYS! I didn’t pay $10.00 for shipping just for my package to sit around for six days. It bugs me too, because on their site, it said my order was complete. Well… it wasn’t complete if it sat there for SIX DAYS!

Colin and I saw Stepbrothers last night. Funny movie.

At the beginning of the summer, I honestly had plans to work a lot more on Rainbow Stuff. I was working on a new layout and came up with a cool logo. I had planned to catch up on some of my favorite blogs that I have fallen behind in reading. I was also going to try to blog more often. What happened? Well, life happened I guess. When it became official that I would be teaching first grade this upcoming school year, I spent like two straight weeks at the school every day, all day working on my classroom. When not at school, I’m usually shopping for things for my classroom or working on stuff for school. If I’m not doing anything school related, I’m either playing Wii (especially Mario Kart. I so need to unlock Dry Browser!), doing Quilting Bee things, or… just doing nothing and trying to chill! School starts in a little over two weeks, and I feel like I haven’t even had a break. People who think teachers have it easy by having the summers off are sadly mistaken.

I do want to include a little eye candy for everyone out there who is kind enough to stumble upon my website and read this commemorative 200th blog post. The below picture is the picture of the calendar image I created for our school calendar page in the district calendar. It’s pretty much the same idea as the one I did last year. Instead of a corkboard feel I went with a chalkboard feel. It’s pretty good I think. (Apparently I don’t have a copy of the final calendar image on my computer at home. I’ll have to get it from school on Monday.)

The second first picture is of my classroom door at school without the fabulous curtains I made with my mom’s help. I did post some pictures on Flickr of my classroom. A LOT has been done in my classroom since I took those pictures, so on Monday I plan to take some new ones. And the third second picture is of Pouncy just because. She had her 18th birthday at the beginning of July (the 5th).

So, as I have mentioned twice now, I will be going to the school on Monday. Why? I have an interview at 10:30 on Monday. Not an interview for me though. I will actually get to be on the other side of the interviewing table for a change. Our first grade special education teacher got a job closer to where she lives (gas prices are a killer), so we need a new special ed. teacher. Since I am going to be working with this person, I was invited to come and take part in the interview. I think only one person is being interviewed, so it must be someone good or someone that someone else knows or something. I’m not sure. Anyway, I’m sort of excited that I get to take part in interviewing someone else for a change.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Well, tonight my dad is racing. It’ll be his second time racing this season and my first time getting to see him this season. Hopefully I can get those pictures I mentioned on Monday and post again then. I’m not making any promises, but I will certainly try. I hope everyone has a great rest of their weekend!

I finally did some investigating last night. I found my tracking number on QVC.com and found out my package has been sitting at the UPS facility here in my town since June 11th. It said that “the customer called and said they would pick it up at their local UPS facility. UPS will hold this item for 5 days.” What??? I was surprised by that. I have called UPS and went to pick things up before if I missed a delivery. They always leave a slip on your door that says they tried to deliver your package and they will try again tomorrow or you can call and pick it up yourself. I never received a slip this time though, and I most certainly did not call them.

Last night all I could get was automated service, so I had to wait until this morning to call and speak to a human. I told them the situation and the guy said my package was there. I went to pick it up, and the lady was a little confused by the situation (after I explained) and said she didn’t know what had happened but that someone must have took my slip and called for me. I’ve lived in my apartment for over two years and I’ve never had anything stolen or any problems with mail or anything. You have to have an ID to pick up packages, so luckily no one actually came and got my package.

Anyway, I now have my makeup and I am happy. <3

I also got my 40 tubes of Winsor and Newton watercolor paint I won from Ebay. <3

And… it’s my anniversary. <3 Colin and I are heading down to the lake area shortly. We’re going to spend the night there, have a romantic dinner, etc.

P.S. I had my “official” interview yesterday. It went super well. I got the thumbs up. They aren’t interviewing anyone else for first grade, so I pretty much have the job. I should get the “official” answer by Friday though.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

* School ended May 30th (summer vacation, yay!)
* I unofficially have a job teaching first grade for the upcoming school year (!!)
* I attended a 2 day training about open response questions
* I spent a day “planning” with the other first grade teachers
* I’ve been shopping a few times
* I’ve been playing with paint
* Watched a few movies
* Colin and I have been playing a lot of Wii (Mario Kart, Wario Ware, and Mario Galaxy)
* Spent Father’s Day with my family playing games and swimming in the pool

Here’s what’s coming up:

* Mine and Colin’s anniversary is this Wednesday, May(I was thinking about Colin’s birthday when I wrote the ‘May’ part previously, thanks Jessica!) June 18th
* Colin’s on vacation this whole week!
* Trip to Nashville
* Trip to Paducah for anniversary
* Mini-golfing, shopping, eating out
* I have to clean the fish tank desperately
* More Nintendo fun (and Nintendo with Katee!)
* Gynecologist appointment July 3rd

I have lots going on, and I’ll have lots more going on once I “officially” have this job. I pretty much have it, but I haven’t signed a contract or anything yet. I’m excited though! I’ll be more excited when it’s more official. I’ll be working with two really great first grade teachers (and a special education teacher too). I’ve already seen my class list, and I think it will be a pretty good class. I will have an autistic kid and a mentally handicapped kid in my class, but those two students will have an aid and then I will be working with the special ed. teacher as well. I just wish it was totally “official” so I could start working on my classroom and everything.

Other things I need to do:

* Finish adding tea cup trades to my Quilting Bee Quilt.
* Maybe work on a new layout for my quilt
* Upload the school calendar page I made so you can see it
* Upload a ton of pictures to Flickr
* Paint more! (I’ve been playing with paint a lot)
* Work on the dollhouse I’m building (well, Colin and I are building)
* Keep exercising!
* Enjoy my summer vacation!

Hopefully it won’t be forever before I blog again. I have lots of things I could blog about, but I just haven’t been blogging lately. It’s kind of been nice to have a little break from the internet to be honest. I’m still on here every day, but I am not stressing about my website or blog or anything like that. I have some changes I’d like to make to the site, and I’ll get around to that when I can. I also need to work on the school website and, I’d like to start working on my classroom website once I have a few more things figured out.

Hope everyone out there is having a great summer so far!

A lot of talk has been going around about possible teaching positions for next year. I’ve heard a kindergarten job might open, a K/1 job might open, a first grade job might open, etc. So far, the principal hasn’t said anything to me about any of these jobs. I suspect it’s because she doesn’t know people are retiring or trying to transfer as is the case with some of the supposed jobs. I love my job in the computer lab, as many of you know, but I am not paid as a certified teacher. Having a two year break from a regular classroom has been wonderful, but I think I am ready to have my own class again. (The pay increase would also be nice.) I’m just waiting to see what will happen. I guess if it’s meant for me to have my own classroom again, something will open up at my school. Time will tell.

Speaking of school, I finally got a chance to try out podcasting with some third graders! It was kind of a rushed thing. It was my first time trying podcasting, so I had to make a few mistakes in order to learn! The podcast has some flaws (which of course is going to happen when working with kids!) but for a first time, I think it turned out pretty well! It’s cute too. You can download the podcast here to listen to it if you’d like.

Last but not least, Sarah (of Cherry-Pip.net) has created a fanlisting for me! Can you believe it?! I know, I was surprised myself! It was a pleasant surprise though. Go visit the fanlisting and check out the colorful layout and rainbowy buttons. And, if you are a fan of me, join the fanlisting! Everyone who joins gets free rainbows! Thanks again to Sarah for being so awesome enough to create a fanlisting for little ol’ me. Maybe this will motivate me to blog more often.