NaNoWriMo

Nov. 14th, 2012 09:51 pm
valiant_queene: (NaNoWriMo)
TODAY'S WORD COUNT: 0
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 10030

Today was Literacy Night at the school I work at so there was much, much stuff to be done. I had to help set up over 450 trays of sandwiches, cookies, chips, mayo packets, and mustard packets, when the people in charge had only ordered 300 sandwiches (we ended up cutting a lot of the sandwiches in half). As I was making the plates I ran out of plates, plates again, chips, packets of mayo, cookies, plates again, chips again, and then plates again.

Not my favorite day at work. I'm a little bit pissed with whoever was in charge of getting food for this thing.

It ended on a high note, though. Five minutes before the end of Literacy Night, my supervisor lets me out of the cafeteria where I had been cleaning up after the meals I had set up (450 people are freaking messy as hell!). Since it was almost over, and I had finished cleaning up, I went along.

There was a table labeled BOOK SWAP which caught my attention right away. The ladies in charge of that table were trying to get rid of their last books so yelled "Grab as many as you want!" 

Eh heh heh, I am now thirteen books richer. Oops? XD

Anime Club

Oct. 22nd, 2012 07:24 pm
valiant_queene: (Default)
So, part of my responsibilities include walking some of the kids two blocks down to the local library so they can have fun with the Anime Club that meets up every other Monday. Today was their Halloween party, and it was actually more fun than I thought it would be.

First, the kids had a pumpkin decorating contest. The finished pumpkins were named Taco, Sally, and Eduardo. (Eduardo won).

Then, they all had a mummy wrapping competition where each team wrapped up one of their members in rolls and rolls of toilet paper. Two of the mummies were kinda straggly looking, but the last was, by far, the neatest and tidiest little mummy I've ever seen. XD

After that, was the costume contest. The winner was the person who made the rest of the kids scream the loudest. Not fantastic news for my headache. But the finalists were Batman, Rose Tyler (complete with an itty bitty sonic screwdriver XD), and Susan Death from Discworld. I had a really, really, REALLY difficult time deciding which costume to vote for. (Rose Tyler won).

Last, the kids watched an episode of something called "Soul Eater". Don't ask me. I have no idea.

And then I spent twenty minutes teaching all the kids different card games. All in all, fun times were had.
valiant_queene: (Default)
So, this entry needs a little backstory.

Sometimes, when working at these schools,  we have big empty classrooms to work in, which is nice. At other times, however, we are forced to work in tiny teacher prep areas which are rooms about five feet by ten feet. It's a little frustrating.

However, there are good parts to working in the small areas. Less chance of having other students distracting the student I'm trying to test, and the prep areas sometimes have inspirational messages for teachers taped to the walls. I mention this because there was one that I saw this week that really struck a chord with me and I wanted to share.

It's a quote from a book called Teacher and Child by an Israeli teacher named Haim Ginott:

"I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized."

Updates

Mar. 2nd, 2012 08:19 pm
valiant_queene: (Default)
It has been a while since my last post, so I thought that now would be a good time to post a few updates about what's going on in my life now. Also, this is going to be kind of an exercise in identifying some positive things that are happening to me.

I started my new part time job in the middle of February. I am an assistant tester, administering a test to see how well school children (kindergarteners through seniors in high school) who have a different language spoken in their homes to see how well they are learning English as a second (or third) language. It's been fascinating and also a little boring. For one thing, it's giving the same test over and over (and over and over and over) again. On the other hand, to see all these different students who speak so many different languages (Arabic, Bosnian, Vietnamese, Samoan, Spanish, Portuguese) and to see that sometimes they speak something that you don't expect. Like the adorable blonde haired blue eyed boy in third grade who speaks Chinese.

I also have an on again off again part time job assisting a local artist who speaks English as a second language. She's Iranian American and I help her with her correspondence and grant writing and other things where her unfamiliarity with the English language is a hindrance.

I've made some headway on my NaNoWriMo novel with editing it and writing more. It's probably never going to see the light of day, but it's invigorating to know that I really can accomplish something of this magnitude. I'm also planning on finally sending some poetry out for publication in the next few weeks so we'll see how that goes.

So, anyway. That's where I'm at. And now, I feel much better about my life so my bad mood can go screw itself.

Employment

Dec. 20th, 2011 05:11 pm
valiant_queene: (Default)
I have a job! True it is only part time, and it doesn't start until the middle of January, but still! Employment! YAY! *happy dance*

And it's related to my English degree! I'm going to be working with the local school district to assist in administering a test to kindergartners through seniors in high school who are learning English as a second language to gauge their progress.

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