Bleh.

No post yesterday, sorry, I got distracted playing around with Meez in Photobucket. I made this one, inspired by (but bearing no actual resemblance to) my sister.

Today, I feel bone-weary in my bones. I should be preparing for next week's teaching (3 half, 2 full days) but can only lie in bed, feeling not great.

Will go ride an excercise bike for Jesus this evening.

Moon Corner

So this is what I've been doing all week.

http://www.stardustmovie.com/

I did teaching in front of the vice-principal today, and I did it well. So that's good. Makes everyone happy. She even changed the time and came an hour and a half earlier, and I still did it well.
I am at my wits' end as to how to keep a cardboard spaceship in one piece - have gone out this afternoon and bought a twelve-dollar roll of gaffa tape, and if that doesn't do the trick I shall be vexed. (I spelt gaffa like that because that's what it says on the packet. Otherwise I'd have spelt it gaffer. Odd.)
The new Stardust Movie site is up, with enough shiny new things to make waiting for September really hard. It looks to me like Inspector Lynley is going to be Dunstan Thorne, but it could just be an uncanny resemblance in my head.

please not trepidation

Getting ready to face up to prac tomorrow. Am looking forward to most of it, just not the bits that involve people judging me. Or me talking about the problems I'm having.
Quite a large part of me wants to make it the teacher's fault. Which is definitely not the case. So I just have to remember to say how I feel and not blame her because she's not to blame. It's all yukky.
Am trying to have impeccable preparation and lesson planning, so at least they can't fault me for that. And we'll see how I go.
Had a great Sunday School lesson today, and Heather F rang this afternoon and we chatted, which was good. I needed a teacher's view.
People keep telling me they're praying.
Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight.

God can do this.

Keeping on Going

Have spent the day re-thinking lesson plans and amassing resources and generally trying to lift my game. Can think about the whole thing without crying now, which is at least partly to do with the precious comments left for me after my last post - thanks again. I'll slam-dunk my Sunday School lesson tomorrow, which should help. And I'm praying and praying. Can you all please continue doing the same? :)

Alleliua is a crappy teacher

No blog post yesterday or the day before, Blogger wasn't cooperating on Wednesday and I was too busy on Thursday.
I've been classified as 'at risk' on my practicum interim report. Which is bad. And it feels stupid, because I've been nervous and unsettled and not doing things I know to do. So am spending weekend working my butt off trying to do all the things my prac teacher says I need to do. And when I do them she'll point out a bunch of other things I haven't done. She doesn't seem to like telling me about what I should be doing until I haven't done it. Oh well. I'm just sad because I thought I could do this. I thought I was good at it. But I'm trying and trying and she's still worried, and I just can't seem to get things right.
Plus I have a cold. I'm going to bed.

the mother of all parties...

Today at prac we had a Mothers' Day party in the evening, which we were preparing for all day. Psycho mess, I swear. My head hurts and my feet ache, but the mums all loved it and a good time was had by all, which is the Main Thing.

My phone is not currently recieving text messages, which would not normally be a problem, but of course whenever my phone is out of commission everyone wants to talk to me. I should get to be nearly popular in the month it will take me to save for a new phone.

Tomorrow my prac supervisor from uni comes out for a meet-and-greet, which I'm a little apprehensive about, considering I've been doing too much actual work to get a lot of the rubbishy paperwork done. Oh well. I'll see how I go.

This week in the evenings after dinner and before 8:30 or so, I've read the first and last volumes of Dave Sim's Cerebus. The first was considerably more fun than the last. Gigantically more fun, really. I'm not even sure why I read the last one, actually.

just me wittering on again

I feel like a zombie. And as far as I can tell, that's not going to improve anytime soon. The weekend will not provide a reprieve, I've stuff on. Oh well.

I got stickers at the cheapo shop today, hippo ones that say 'Hip Hip Hooray' and dinosaur ones that say 'Dino-mite.' They are for Sunday School - the children's church type thingy at the beginning, not in my class. My Sunday School class this week is the story of Naaman, as told with red sticky dots and a spray bottle of water.

Prac was good. I know nearly everyone's name in my class, and all the troublemakers from the other Prep as well, which comes in handy. Generally they are the names you need to call out in a stern voice.

Also, yesterday I bought glitter hairspray.

PRAC

My four weeks block prac began today. It was a reasonable beginning. I don't know how I'm going to survive the whole thing; by lunch-time today I was ready to fall on the floor in a heap.
Spider-mania reigns in the prep classroom at the moment. Four-year-old children are telling me about Norman Osborne's brutal demise. None of them have even seen the third movie, but the first two have been on telly over the last couple of weekends, and they've all seen the movie promos around the place. They run around and one of them is black Spiderman and one of them is red Spiderman and one of them is Hobgoblin and, generally, one of them is a tiger.

Inconceivable

So. Firstly, prac was excellent today. Much, much better than last week. Partly because I'm not suffering PMT and partial catatonia, and partly because last week my prac teacher bailed me up and told me what I was doing wrong, so I could make an effort to right it today. I have a good prac teacher.

Secondly, after prac I had to run up to uni to hand in a hard copy, in hopes of rectifying the Stupid Assignment Mistake. Which is done. And I'm just glad it's done. And I'm hoping I don't fail. Because that would suck.

Lastly, Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.

I'm reading The Princess Bride.

Gnurrh...

So on Tuesday I may have been mostly dead, but today I am genuinely corpsified. Prac today was exhausting. Plus I didn't sleep because I was stressing over arguing with my sister because I was stressed. Plus I've sort of been leaking tears since seven this morning, mainly feeling unloved and sorry for myself, after trying to argue with my sister again but not succeding because she was too sensible to let me. Sometimes I'm a wet hen. It's not fun.
At the moment I'm reading, after reasonable amounts of assignment work (the definition of 'reasonable' varying depending on whether I'm at a good bit or not):
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist, which I picked up at the library for the title. Searching for a link online, I came across this, which Is Very Cool, because Dave McKean is amazing and shows that however I think I'm flying off on tangents my brain tends to end up in the same place. The book itself is less amazing - it's very meandering and dense. The first pages of the book were hard to get through because of his writing style (he's definitely not writing for ease of reading) but now I find myself wondering of subsequent chapters are more clearly written, of if I'm adjusting. But the three main proponents are, so far, wonderful.
Blindsight by Peter Watts, because it's for free of the internet and I don't read much sci-fi, so it's a nice change.

Prac, TV, etc.

So. Preps are EXHAUSTING. Don't they ever stop? They yell and run and run and yell... They're adorable, every one, but lots of work. And I'm only doing obs these Thursdays. No teaching yet.
There's a bunch of cute little year-behind-me uni students there as well, doing the same prac I did last year. Nostalgia trip.

My sister can't wait for Rove. I'm a little bit sad, because where I live, Sunday night belongs to Miss Marple and her compatriots at the ABC. I really miss there being ANY decent TV on Tuesday nights, too. Oh well. I get a double episode of Bones tonight, because Lost is taking a break over Easter. I like Lost, but I like Bones too. So shininess.

Before I Breathe

So today is the day spent waiting before prac. My folders are organised, my clothes are clean, my call to the school is made. And I'm just... waiting.



Yesterday I handed in the assignment I was working on over the weekend, the environmental art one. I had a shadowy memory of a related Calvin and Hobbes in the back of my head, so I went to the searchable database and found it.

Also, here's a legible version.

Bits and Pieces

So. Today.
Hooray! My room is clean! It was getting gross, and not the kind of picturesque gross you can photograph and blog about. Grandma needs to have guests more often so I have to clean it. (I know, Ms. Responsible aren't I.) Am gradually becoming reconciled to prep - at least it's a really good school. And I'm looking forward to learning what to do with a teacher-aide. At the moment I'm not really sure... all the prep classes in QLD have to have part-time teacher aides.
This morning my cousin gave me a chocolate frog. His Sunday School teacher belongs to the 'bribery and corruption' school of behaviour management, so he makes out like a bandit. My Sunday School students aren't that lucky... I wouldn't even let them have a sticker today. I keep saying, if you're good, you get a sticker. They weren't good, and they knew it, but they still expected their sticker. I'm so nasty, I know.

Hats On

This is my new hat for doing playground duty at prac. It's not really a 'playground duty' hat, but I figure if I have to wear a hat it might as well have a little more style than some floppy canvas thing with a sunflower on it. And besides, I've wanted a trilby for ages. Spent ages looking in all the shops at girls' hats, which are all expensive and badly made, except the really expensive ones that are decent quality, and all too small for my head. I have a big head apparently. So I had a look in the men's department at David Jones, and found this, which is nice quality, fits me, and best of all, cost twenty dollars. So I was happy - all the womens' trilbies in DJs were at least triple that.
Called the prac office this morning and found out where I'm going. I have a prep class. Prep this year in the good old QL of D is a bit of a proposition, being the very beginning year and all. So it should be interesting, even if it is full of impossibly tiny little kiddies who will all need shoes tied and noses wiped. Huh. I wanted year sevens. But I'll live.
Last Extras ever last night. Sadness.

AAARGH I hate Uni

Prac placements are up but for some reason I'm not on the list. So I get to make a polite call to the prac office in the morning and hope they just didn't put me in the spreadsheet, and have actually placed me in a school. Yuk.

I like this verse from my devo today:

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour,
who daily bears our burdens."
Psalm 68:19 TNIV

The Ladies have arrived

Hooray! My book has come from America (via home.) It's lovely, and I've read most of it. I especially love the story about Mr. Simonelli, and Charles Vess' beautiful illustrations. Big hooray.
Am still waiting for prac placements. This is not fun. On the other hand, am not waiting for Science assignment results - got them this afternoon. 13/15, which is not bad.

nother day

Well. I didn't make it to the early lecture this morning. Didn't set my alarm, like an idiot. But the lecture I did get to was good, because it was about prac, and I heart prac. Best thing about uni ever. Placements aren't out yet, so I'm on tenterhooks - I want a year six or seven, but there's no way of knowing where I'll end up.
Other than that, boringness day. Walked 10km.