Back on the list

It's official... today I got the letter.  I'm officially on the pool hiring list, for the next 2 years!  Now just to find a job before it expires this time!

Know what's a good song?  Anyting by Colin Hay... really, it's like I'm addicted.

 

-ry

Bach-ing it

So... after our little trip to the Twin Cities, we get back and Mandy's off to visit her sister in Toronto.  Which is ok, she doesn't get to see her that often, so it's nice.  It also means that I get to be a 'bachelor' for a few days.  When my parents would go out of town for a few days my mom would totally just leave nothing but pizza pops and various microwaveable foods.  So I thought when Mandy would leave, seeing as she knows me a little better, having seen me cook and whatnot during our marriage she would be exempt.

Not so... she's left me food.  At least it's food.  But on each of the bags of marinated chicken or pork are the written instructions on how to cook and prepare them.  I guess being a guy means that the women in your life will look after you no matter where you are.

 

Thanks hon, and thanks mom for all those pizza pops.

-ry

The double date trip...

So, did the double date thingie... yes, I hate double dates.  I'm not big on doing duo things.  But it was March Break... and both Rory and I had the week off... Mandy wanted to visit her Grammy and see the car show... and Rain, well she just asked for the time off.  It was great really.

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We left Friday around 6ish after a bit of a curfuffle [yes, i made up the word spelling] about who was driving what vehicle.  We made it to Duluth and went looking for the hotel.  We had never stayed there before so we weren't sure where it was.  After driving through some 'scuzzy' areas we were glad to see it was in a good area and it was a great hotel.  Dinner was at Grandma's.. mmm

Saturday started out with some of my allergies starting to get more severe and Rory not getting any waffles.  Either he assumed too much or too little, but what we do know is what happens when you assume - Rory gets no waffles.  We drove to Minneapolis and took our time so that we could check in at the proper time.  This meant going to Ikea.  Which was long and excruciating if your kleenex supply is running low and you have a raw nose.  But we found a few things.  Our "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL" poster now has a frame.  We ended up at the hotel and take a break from our shopping.  Mandy and I borrowed the car and visited her Grammy.  Mandy blames her map being old, but the gas attendant didn't.  We just turned a right when we shoulda turned a left.  After we could have gone out with Rory and Rain with Mark, but in the end my allergies and Mandy's dislike of Mark we decided to stay in.  Wen went for a late dinner at Denny's [where Mandy got some extra mashed potatoes].

Sunday we started out with some more wonderful hotel food [i like hardboiled eggs] and lunch with Mandy's Grammy.  It [lunch] ended with me winning at Yahtzee by 1 point, tho' I must admit we only played a half game.  After that we met up with mark for a car show experience.   Pretty cool... but we missed the whole point of these shows - the concept cars.  OH, well, I got to see the Land Rover tent and sit in an Outback, but not in a Shelby .  We did  get to Sawatdee and have some nice food.  Mmm... gotta remember to get those pork rolls again - and it coulda been a little spicier.  That night ended up with beer, beer and more beer, a bong [thank you Walmart automotive dept], a bottle of wine, some puckers and mini burgers and dessert at Denny's.  Way to go girls - almost there! 

Monday we awoke [slowly mind you] to a storm that was closing schools and causing buses to get stuck.  We waited a while hoping visibility might increase.  Eventually we decide to strike out... after undigging the car, we load up and head out.  Kudos to Rory for lasting the 4 gruelling hours, but we made it to Duluth.  Mandy was smart - she called ahead and had some rooms booked for us at Duluth in case we might need it.  Thinking it over in Hacienda del Sol Rain decided she could call work for another day off due to the storm.  See what good Mexican food can do for ya?  When we got to the hotel, Rory checked in with home to let them know we're safe and got the good news of James.  Congrats Jen!  We went to the mall and tried to go to an Antique shop [after it was closed the other day].  Target was neat as well, found another candy dish - now the count is at 4.  We get back to the hotel to enjoy the hot tub that we missed enjoying on Friday night - volleyball was fun in the pool.  No net, no points [no way the ball can touch the ground].

Tuesday woke us with Rory figuring out the waffle machine and some more hard boiled eggs.  After a quick trip to the Chocolate Factory [dad might not be getting that almond bark]  and the Antique store, [which was done in that order because of our timing] we headed on back home.  A few close run-ins with some deer we finally made it home.  Nice!

 

-ry

A bunch of parts later... withdrawals are gone

Yay!

My computer last week really started to act up.  Turning off... normally a reboot is not such a dire thing... hell it's windows, we're sorta used to them by now.  Especially with the downlading I'm doing, a few crashes here and there is nothing to be too concerned about.  The weird thing was that in order to turn it back on you had to unplug the computer ... wait a few minutes ... then plug it back in before it could be turned back on.  That was odd.  Definitely not normal.

 

After it happened about a dozen times in a row I had had enough.  So I asked Mandy to send it to John.  Turns out it there was a problem with the motherboard, and since it's not one of his own, it has to be ordered specially.  It was a week before it came in.  A week is a LONG time for me to go without a computer... but I lasted [thank goodness for my wifi card on my palm].

 

By the time it was ready, John found out that the powersupply was running too high, so it needed to be replaced as well.  In order for it to be 'worth my while' [yes my logic is sometimes flawed] I asked him to throw in there a dual layer burner and another harddrive.

 

So now I'm expecting the worst for costs.  This is gonna be pricey.  Turns out, John likes us for some reason and decides to catch us a break.  He gives me the parts at cost and for the labour he only asks that Mandy 'works off that debt.'  When I went to pick it the costs were awesome, definitely a great deal [thanks John], and that he also gets "10 Hours of Mandy Time" 

 

But my baby works... I'm doing some homework and some webpage work and plain ol' gaming.

 

Yay... i love computers.

-ry

So, I guess I should explain

Explanation time.. no, I'm ok people.  Don't worry, just a little batch of bad news that day.  Besides, Canada lost the hockey game and was out of medal standings.  It was a bad day all around.

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Okay, so here's the skinny on what happened.  If you haven't heard already.  PACI as of next year will only be a 10-12 students with only the students who are already there.  No new influx.  What with the rejection of the re-zoning alot of students are already jumping ship over to Hammerskjold.  It's funny, they say that enrollment is declining at those schools, and I wonder why, they keep saying it's closing so of course, nobody's gonna wann go there.

The reality is that the # of students will be the same overall... so the jobs should be safe.  Just people will have to move around.  My problem with that is the fact that I usually benefited from the more schools.  They'd have more classes.  With less schools there's less chancesof having smaller classes. Like instead of 2 classes with 15 a piece, they'd have 1 of 30 ...

So, that's why I felt a little down over it, I realized that I'd be getting a short end here.  And seeing as I'm not even ON a seniority list... I'm on the lowest rung.  That and I'm waiting for results from my interview.  I'm not too pleased ... I don't think I did well.  Time will tell.

 

PACI - r.i.p.

too bad!

 

Crushed

I've been sitting here ever since the staff meeting this afternoon.  Trying to think of what to write... Obviously I have a lot to write... but what.  The trickiest part was how I felt.  I'm kind of numb about it, but that's not exactly true.  How does it effect me?  The correct adjective was hard to find.  I think finishing reading Canticle for Leibowitz has sort of helped me find that proper word.  In the end of thebook Abbot Zerchi tries running out of of the church when an explosion occurs and he gets crushed by all the rubble.  That's sort of how I feel right now.  Crushed.  Some huge terrible thing has happened and it is beyond my powers to be able to do anything.  Beyond anybody's powers to do anything.  What this means for me is hard to say.  The trickiest part I'm having here is what to do.  Because I don't know what it means for me, I'm usnure of what to do.  Now am I really unsure of what to do, or just because I'm afraid to do something.  My whole life I've been too afraid to shit or get off the pot kinda thing.  I hesitate and because I do i miss out.  I really am clueless right now.. and crushed.

 

I ramble on too much - Sometimes it's not good for an interview

Today, I had an interview...

Not an issue, normally... I've had lots of interviews lately.  Weirdly enough, the LAST interview I had was with the same people.  Today it was for the pool hiring list, and to ensure tha tI keep my spot on there.  Apparently it 'runs out' after 2 years, so you have to renew it.  So, at 2pm today I went down to the board office to try to do that.

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Written Part - 25 minutes

You are to write about your best lesson / unit to date.  It was funny, because I guess being a new teacher you always think your best to date is your most recent.  So I wrote about that 10 Applied unit I redesigned and stuff.  Then part way through they were conducting the oral interviews in the next room and you could hear the questions through the walls, so they had to move me and this girl to another room to write.  When I get to the room there's no more desks available so she then takes me to the 3rd floor to write in there.  So technically all the moving I had less than the allotted time, but... I'm not going to complain.  I had a great idea and it didn't take me long to write it.

 

Oral Part

This was neat as it was the people who last gave me an interview... I didn't get that position... so maybe it wasn't neat.  But Neil is a good guy, so it was nice seeing a friendly face there.

1. Why you?


2. How have you designed a curriculum to incorporate students of different learning levels.


3. Situation:  you meet a student in the hall who has missed a few days of your class lately and when you ask them why they say "somebody's been taunting me" and when you ask them if they are coming today they say "no, i don't think so" and walk away


4. How have you incorporated Literacy in the classroom?


5. Explanation of your Written Portion

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Always disliked question #1, I'm not good at bragging about myself.  But I did get a chance to tell them about the website I've designed http://members.shaw.ca/mrmoore which I think is a good thing.  They were all pretty much standard fare questions, but... still... I ramble on alot, I'm not so good at explaining myself on the spot.  Give me some time to really develop a response and I'm ok... maybe I shouldn't try to be a lawyer... who knows.  I wish me luck.

-ry