EDU weekly

Florida Weekly: because clearly I suck at blogging.

-Car: My muffler sounds awful! I was driving down the road the other day and this kid must have thought I made it sound that loud on purpose. He pulled up on one side, at the light he fell behind, so he pulled on the other side. He WAVED at me. THEN when he pulled 2 lanes over into the right turn only, he STOPPED in the lane and lifted his phone, rolled down his window, and pointed me-then his phone. DEAR LORD! This ugly ghetto kid with a "drag race car". I know I need to make friends, but I did not make my car sound that loud on purpose.
-Job Hunt: AWFUL! I have applied to probably over 300 jobs in Southern Florida and NOTHING. I have the WORST luck. I found and interviewed for my ideal job, but still have yet to hear from them, although they basically promised me the history teaching position. I have gone to so many interviews and no hope...
-Babysitting/ nannying: I would like to know who thinks that people can survive off of $75-100/ week. I have gotten calls about babysitting and they only are willing to offer an avg of $80/ week with traveling involved. I want to ask "CAN YOU LIVE OFF OF THAT?!?!". That is just not practical!!
-Phone: I have been using my phone as a wireless modem, which was AMAZING until my phone was being lame and not working. So, I called U.S.Cellular and asked what the issue was. I have an "Unlimited data package" and the guy at the store said that the wireless modem should affect anything. B.S.!!!! I guess that the unlimited isn't really 'unlimited'. You get 5GB for your phone and while using that my phone went over. It's $0.44/ MB you go over, I now have $200 worth of charges. Seriously, can my luck get any worse...? Now we have NO internet, I had to call back later and CRY so that they would turn back on my data so that I could get my e-mails and use my GPS to find the interviews I have or anything around here.

fund me

http://www.gofundme.com/6jszk

give me some money to help me out

Awkward moment #1 in Florida

I love my roommate to death. Although sometimes she may get on my nerves and I think her guy logic is the same as the size of a pea in an Elephants head, but you know... anyways. She has this guy that she's "kind of seeing". He's 28 or so years old and he still runs around the beaches of Florida in a Superman Speedo because he thinks it's funny. Although he does make a large sum of money at his job, is a "good old Christian boy," and is smart.... he's a TOOL! He comes into my room where, since we still have no beds or furniture, I am sitting on the floor watching a TV show on Callie's computer because my charger died yesterday right before my test (extremely amazing luck I have). I am sitting knees up, bottom on the floor, upright, and with my arms wrapped around my legs. He proceeds to come in and wrap his legs & arms around me and snuggle his head in. All of the sudden he begins to BLOW on my ear! WTF! I figure, oh well maybe if I give him the satisfaction of a laugh maybe he'll go away, bc my awkwardness is not helping, only feeding it at this point. NOTHING. The laugh did NOTHING to help my case. What would you do in this situation. Then she comes in, chucckles, and goes "AWWW" ... then WALKS AWAY. Dear Lord! If my boyfriend (hypothetical, clearly) did this, I would be like "uhhh, you're weird and we're done... creep."

What would you do?!

Standardized testing for teachers...

Standardized testing for teachers is the most hypocritical thing ever invented. All of our courses, as teachers, tell us to check for understanding in multiple ways, that most students do not test well the "standard" way. So, while they preach to the education world about this terrific idea, they then turn around and test us. Clearly this is set up by legislators that need to hold a standard against teacher, but aren't sure how, so they create these test that are full of questions that you would never as a student at your grade level. It's just like No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which is made by legislators for an education system. No teacher gets into this profession because it's easy and you make a TON of money. You make lousy pay and it's a lot of work, but the best part is the light bulb effect. The light bulb effect doesn't occur in the testing room for me though. I stare and stare. I am diagnosed as ADD & LD and needed services in school, but I have worked really hard to overcome this as much as I can. I know my strengths and weaknesses pretty well. I feel that it has made me a better teacher since I don't learn the same way each time I have many different teaching and learning strategies up my sleeve. Creativity is KEY in a classroom. Standardized testing is my BIG weakness.

I know a great man that was simular to me when it came to testing. He was brilliant. He had the heart of a great teacher. He was extremely smart and desired to teach High School History, like me. He took Praxis II Social Studies Content Knowledge 8 times before he passed it on the 8th time. He was named Most Valuable Teacher/ Teacher of the Year for his first two years out in the field. Showing this test proved nothing.

I have taken Praxis II: Social Studies Content Knowledge 4 times now and have yet to pass. This time I went into the test with no fears. I needed to pass and welllllll.... I DID IT! I went into an interview the other day, like I told you and they informed me that I needed to pass this test to be able to qualify for this job. I was so excited when the guy told me that I had passed, I jumped up and down and asked to give him a hug. He replied with, "Well, I am due for a back surgery, so lightly." And so I did, I gave him a light hug of the greatest enjoyment in the world. ONE STEP CLOSER to becoming a teacher and having students to see the light bulb go off!

Interviews...

Day One: On day one I had 3 interviews scheduled. Home Schooling, ESE (Special Ed), and a nannying.
-The bad luck continues and the Home Schooling one canceled. She became sick and wont be going back to work.
-My ESE one turned into a ESE and a Social Studies!!! The principal had to go into a meeting and he had me meet with the ESE head. They were taking a long time in the meeting so we looked over my portfolio and she showed me around. When we got back from seeing the school the meeting was out and the principal was with another man. The man introduced himself and said, "So I hear you are interested in a Social Studies position. I almost peed myself, literally bc I had to pee SO bad at this point. He sat down in the conference room along with the Principal and the ESE lady. I began to SWEAT! I feel like a did a great job. They explained that have another SS position opening on Monday along with an ESE. They want me, but due to being a title one school, they can't take me under a temporary certification so they need me to pass this test. It's a $200 test and I need to pass it by the end of the week. It's basically Praxis II Social Studies, but a little easier. I panic in my head. At the end of the meeting my panic shows, I have a cute silk-ish dress on. I have seat at the empire waist, a dot outlining my belly-button, and my airpits are drenched. GO DAY ONE IN FLORIDA! ARGH! I was in there from 2:00 to 4:45.
So, I go home to sign up for the test the next day, not only do I discover it's $200, but I also discover that Fridays test is full! SO the only option is Thursday. It is Wednesday at this point. I have one day, so currently I am eating cereal, studying and having my "morning coffee" with you before I go try out the people I went for a nannying interview with. They are STRANGE! When I walked in the door they were arguing about some case he's working on and they kept me there for almost 2 hours for a nannying interview and kept asking me indepth questions about myself. I need this teaching job! I need to pass this test! Please can my luck turn around. PLEASE!

The Move!

I waited until last minute to pack and do everything I needed, and normally this works out fine for me. This time, NO WAY! My awful luck showed up again.
Moving truck: Contracted to show up between 4 and 5pm Saturday at both Callie, my new roommate who had already left for Florida, and I's places. They said that they would go to Callie's first. So I am going over and hanging out with her roommate, Derek, waiting. As 5pm rolls closer I call, "Hey, just checking to see when you guys are getting here, I still need to pack my car and I am leaving around midnight..." Guy: "we're two men short so we are running a little behind. They should be here in 15-20 to drop something off then on their way. You are up next!" Mind you, they are in SoPo on Main St. so, I wait. 45 mins goes bye "Oh hey.. where are you guys at... I need to pack and sleep soon?" We're running really behind, I'm sorry give us 30 more mins." No show, call again after 30 mins... same thing... go home get some stuff done... he says 15-20 this time, so head back to Callies. It gets to be 9:20 I call, "this is not cool, where are you" "my guys bailed on me, I am trying to find a truck to drive myself." Me= crying. wait.. wait... he's not answering the office phone, my mom comes and waits at callies so I can go find his cell number at the house... I find it... "Still trying to find a truck" me= BALLING!!!! Drive back to Callies to meet my Ma. After explaining to her the situation, she calls, he HUNG-UP on her!!! SO we go back, finish packing. NO Sleep. It is now 10:45 pm. She showers, I get a Red Bull and the drive begins.
Call the guy the next day in the car: "Hi, you need to give me a set time for me to have people there and you NEED to show up. I am making the time and you WILL be there." Guy: "Okay" Me: "and I am not paying full price, you broke our contract." Guy: "I can't do that, at most I can take of $50." Me: "you said you were already going down to florida a few towns away after you stop in ATL. You broke our contract and there is NO way after what you pulled last night that I am paying full price." Mom takes phone bc the guy flips out: "Hi, this is Kaisha's mother, and I am a litigation paralegal. You broke her contract. You need to pick up her stuff today and there should be no problem with reducing her price. You messed up." Guy: "Paralegal, wooooo! I don't care lady... *hung UP!*."
-As most of you know, I can't be mean. I am petrified of spiders and can't even kill them myself. I can't stand up for myself and every boyfriend that has broken up with me has told me that I am "too nice". So this next part is a little vulgar and SHOCKING!-
I call back, get his voicemail: " Fuck you for hanging up on me and fuck you for breaking our contract. Not only did you bail on me yesterday, you just hung up on me. I am taking you to court and you WILL be paying for our stuff to get down here. Fuck you!" *This may be a little off, I have never really gotten this mad, so I was shaking this ENTIRE TIME and then continued shaking for the next hour in the car. :/
A guy calls the next day and trys to fix it. He offers $800 (original = $1,000), and seems nice. At first I take it, but then I realize that I packed most of my kitchen stuff in my car in panic and all thats left is two beds, books, and a few other things. I didnt really trust them at this point and I wouldn't be able to sleep until the 10th, so I canceled them.
Although it sucked that all of this happened and I m currently sleeping o the floor and have none of my books... I am alive and well and I made it here. Things can be replaced or shipped through UPS.