That's an Expensive Piece of Paper!

Look at what I did this week! 

That’s right, I have officially graduated with my Bachelor of Education, and can now become an Ontario Certified Teacher. 

Adjusting, Jogging, and Crafts to Come

So I know that my last post and this one are more journal-like than blog-like, but now that school is over and I’ve moved to my new home, I’m feeling a lull in my life and I have a lot of thoughts going on in my head. I wake up in the morning and I don’t have a clue what day of the week it is because I have no set schedule with which to anchor my sense of time. I don't like it at all.

It might be a good thing. 

I am a rampant workaholic, and am notoriously on edge when I don’t have a solid plan/schedule/calendar to make and follow. Every controlling bone in my body is sitting in wait for the next unsuspecting thing to come along and be dominated. 

It’s a problem. Down time is probably a good thing for me right now. 

But with any hope, work will pick up soon. I’ve successfully secured a spot on the supply list for three daycares, and I have a very-part-time position at a pharmacy in the area. 

And with all this free time on my hands, I have had good opportunities to catch up with the friends I hadn’t been able to see while I was away at school. 

I’ve also decided to take up jogging again. It’s been years since I last went jogging, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve gone out once so far, and I was pretty successful. The cows grazing in one of the fields I jogged past looked at me like I was some sort of alien, and then decided to jog along with me as far as the field’s fence permitted. I thought that was pretty fun. 

Since it has been so long since I last went jogging, I am quite rusty. Entirely too out of shape. I knew endurance was going to be a big issue, so I decided the best route to becoming a jogger again was to use intervals. 

I started out today with walking for two minutes, then jogging for one minute. It was manageable but still challenging. I went 3 kilometers, and cycled through 6 intervals. Basic math tells me that I jogged for one kilometer. Not too bad for the first day out. 

Now to keep at it, and very slowly increase the jogging time and decrease the walking time. And eventually add some distance. 

Anyways, I have been working a lot at unpacking my new apartment. While I was in The City, I downsized to a one bedroom and put half of my belongings in storage. Now that I have a spacious two bedroom once again, I am having a lot of fun going through all the items I haven’t seen in 8 months. 

And, of course, I have been working away at decorating the walls of this new apartment. You will see my newest projects soon, I promise. I am very, very, VERY pleased with my new picture frame collage wall. And I’m working on making a mirror (like, taking regular old glass and making it reflective). Oh, and I have plans for a fancy serving tray made out of an extra frame that didn’t make it onto my collage wall. And I finally learned how to successfully cut vinyl with my Cricut (finicky medium vinyl is), so I have a new wall decal in my bedroom. 

I can’t wait to share with you! 

Stay tuned.

The end of an era

Well, it's done. My program has finished, I qualify for graduation, and once my application with the Ontario College of Teachers goes through, I will be a certified teacher. I've left The City and settled in to my new apartment in Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario. I've gained part-time employment at one daycare and one pharmacy, and I have a few more job prospects on the horizon. I'm cautiously optimistic about how things are panning out.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you easily form emotional attachments with inanimate objects, like shoes. Maybe these shoes:

I’ve walked many a mile in these shoes. I bought these shoes in 2006, my first pair of name-brand Converse shoes. I had knock-offs from discount shoe stores before, but they never preformed like these guys. These Chucks have served their time faithfully, and it is time to retire these beauties. 

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

Hey all! 

I sure have been a busy bee this week! 

I successfully finished my last practicum, which makes me a Bachelor of Education Graduand (someone who is about to graduate but has not yet). 

I also finished up my last shift at work, and successfully trained my replacement before my departure. Oh, wait, no… I’ve been suckered into one last shift this week because I am a workaholic. 

And I have been frantically running around my apartment packing for my impending move to Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario. Today I removed all of my artwork from the walls, which makes my home a sad, dreary place indeed. 

But I have been enjoying eating all of my frozen foods so that I have less perishables to transport. One such food is this: 

My chicken parmesan meatloaf. 

You may recall last week me sharing my Sweet BBQ Meatloaf recipe with you (found here). I must admit, beef meatloaf is good, but chicken parmesan meatloaf is where it’s at. 

Giving new life to the classics

Hey all! 

What a frenzied week off assignments. This week is my last week of coursework (thank goodness!), so it’s crunch time. I have a total of seven assignments due and two exams to write in these next four days. I think I’m in good shape so far… I think. 

Anyways, what better way to avoid schoolwork than to go shopping! Last week I visited a vintage clothing store at which I could have easily spent my entire pittance. But I didn’t. I spent more than I intended, but that’s kind of to be expected. Look at the beautiful pieces I found: 

My favourite are those pearly flowery ones at that bottom. They tug at my vintage heart. And the polka-dot ones, because let’s face it, there’s nothing finer than a well placed polka-dot. 

Of course the problem with vintage earrings is this:

 

the dreaded clip-on

Wind Powered Cars

Happy St. Patrick’s Day my lovely readers! 

I took a small blogging hiatus while I was finishing up my most recent practicum. Then last week was March Break. I took a trip back home to Small Town Ontario to find a new apartment for May, when my program is finished here in The City. I was successful! I found an apartment in Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario which is not too far from the original Small Town Ontario. 

Anyways, while on practicum with my adorable grade 1’s, I had the opportunity to teach the measurement unit in math and the energy unit in science. It was particularly awesome because I adore math and science, and this was my first chance getting to teach either of them. 

As a culminating activity, I decided to join the best of both worlds, and infuse a little craftiness, to make these bad boys with the kids: 

Wind powered cards! 

Little Ceramic Chalkboard

Hello all! 

Happy Family Day for all my Ontario readers. This week I’m going to show you a quick little craft I cooked up one day, inspired by a thrift store find. Meet my newest little chalkboard: 

But first, an update about school! 

This week I start my third practicum for teaching! I would have started today, but Family Day is a holiday for Ontario schools, so I start tomorrow. For the next three weeks I’m going to be a grade 1 teacher!! I’m really excited about it. Grade 5 and 6 were great, and I had a lot of fun, but I love the younger kids and I’ve been waiting for a primary placement. Oh, and the teacher that I’ve been placed with is a fellow ECE! She too was a daycare teacher before becoming an elementary school teacher. I talked to her on the phone last week, and she sounds amazing. 

Pizza Cupcakes

Did somebody say pizza cupcakes?? 

Yea I did! 

I’m into my third and final week of this practicum. My placement was actually switched during the first week, so I ended up being in a grade 5 class instead of a grade 2 class. Everything is lovely, and I am truly enjoying this placement! 

While on practicum, I don’t have a lot of time for… umm… anything. So I spent a few days prior to the start of this practicum filling my freezer with pre-made meals that I just need to pop in the toaster oven. I can handle that much meal prep… most days. 

These pizza cupcakes were one of the meals I made during that cooking marathon. I like them for lunches while I’m at the school. This recipe was modified from the recipe I found here. 

First Practicum Review

Welcome back! 

(I’m talking to myself here) 

Ok, so I took a bit of a blog hiatus while I was on my first practicum. There are three major reasons for this: 

1) Practicum was intense guys. I worked my tush off for the past 3 weeks and was exhausted all the time. 

2) Contrary to the implication made by this post’s time stamp, I like to blog in the morning. I’m far more productive in pretty much every aspect of life in the morning. During practicum I arrived at my school at 8:30 each morning, so there was no blogging to be done in the AM. 

3) My number one blog supporter (my brother) was without internet until last week, so I felt that my awesome posts could wait until my promoter was back behind his desk. 

Hi Mat

Mat, say hello to everyone. 

I was assigned my first practicum this week. I got a grade 6 class in a small suburban town about 10km outside of The City. Very upper-middle class, very Anglo. I think it’s going to be a nice place to learn the basics of how to teach, before being introduced to all the different aspects of super diverse classrooms (I’m sure that will come with my future practicums. At least I hope so; I do want to experience teaching in a culturally and socioeconomically diverse classroom.). 

My associate teacher seems like a very nice woman, though very precise with high expectations, which is perfect. Though my practicum doesn’t start until Monday, I went in for a half-day today to check out the classroom and meet the kids and teacher. The kids were pretty underwhelmed about my presence, but they’re in grade 6, how excited are they going to get. 

I don’t know how I’m going to like grade 6. It definitely is not my first choice of grades; those kids are way too old for my liking. But when I was doing my placements for ECE I said the same thing going in to my school-age placement (I thought for sure I was meant to be a toddler teacher), and I ended up loving school-age. We’ll see. 

Anyways, about my mat. Mat, where are you? 

There he is. 

Student Life: Time Management

Over the past week I have truly begun to embrace the idiom “there are not enough hours in the day”.

Getting a Bachelor of Education is hard work guys! No… that’s not right… it’s time consuming. The work itself is not all that hard, but there’s just so much of it! Rather than the conventional course load of 5 full-time classes, I have 12 full-time classes, and 4 3-week practicums, all squished tightly into an 8 month period. It’s madness. The workload was not nearly this overwhelming during my undergrad or my college diploma program. 

That being said, I know that the key to success is organization. And I’m pretty stellar at that. I went out and bought myself a shiny new agenda, and that made me feel better. It’s (pleather) bound, and has refillable pages for upcoming years, and a little pen loop. It looks very spiffy and professional.