Are you ready for some Footbaaaaaaaaaaaall?

I'm not. I've got more important things to do then watch the Superbowl, I've got a bunch of book reports to pre-grade so Mrs. Veglahn can gauge how my grading abilities are coming, I've got books to finish, and I need to of course get some sleep so I can wake up in the morning. I should have done it earlier, the grading that is,  but I was out skiing with my dad for the last time in a long time.

You see the big boss of my dad's company went and demoted my dad's boss into my dad's position and my dad back into his old position. As a result my dad will be moving back to Austin full time and I probably won't get to go skiing much anymore, or see him much anymore. So that sucks, but I suppose that's how life goes right? Terrible unfortunate things happen and you just have to carry on, at least we gave him a proper send off. Both yesterday and today my dad, a work friend of his, and I went skiing. To commemorate the occasion I skied my first doubleblack diamond yesterday, and then continued to ski them today... doubleblack diamonds by the way are basically the hardest thing you can ski besides a cliff face. It was a great weekend, I fell more times than I could count. One time yesterday I even fell face first into a mogul and lost both my skis... all and all an awesome couple of trips. So I won't get to ski much anymore but at least my parents will be living in the same place again and I suppose it means I can go blow all that money I was saving for a snowboard on other things. I do love me some things.

As for school though, despite the constant snow (which is weird), and cold weather (which is unpleasant) Forest Ridge hasn't closed at all unlike other schools in the area. The closest we've gotten is a late day on Thursday where I got to sleep for two extra hours and then show up twenty minutes late due to unfamiliar bus schedules. I think the some of the parents have gotten tired of driving through the traffic and snow when other schools are shut down though because about a third of the class was missing on Friday. This is totally fine by me though, less reports to read :D. 

To be honest I didn't really want to be there Friday either, I spent most of the day peering out the window to the trees behind the school thinking about the woods behind my house when I was a little kid. If it wasn't so cold outside and I didn't have to get all dressed up for work I'd totally go exploring back there like old times. Been a long time since I explored a forest, there's nothing in the world like walking out from the woods all cut up from briers and thorns, scratching at a new case of poison ivy and picking those little spiky balls off your shoelaces. It's just a very satisfying misfortune... kinda like taking a nasty spill while skiing, it's worth the pain. Besides, I've never wandered a Colorado forest before, I wonder what sort of surprises I'd find among all those pines?

Anywho, back to grading
~Kal

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Baby It's cold outside.

Oooooh boy is it cold. 3° on Monday, -6° yesterday, and 1° today. That is frikkin cold let me tell you, -6° is goddamn motherfucking cold. Need I repeat that I get to walk in that for half of my hour and half journey to work every morning? Not fun. Work is going fine btw, I've gone and got myself a handle on all the kids names save like 3, which is really impressive given my lack of affinity for names, I've started actually teaching a few lessons on top of my duties as a lunch monitor/recess watcher/glorified gofer. Yesterday I got to do a demonstration of potential and kinetic energy which was pretty cool. Oh, and I get to grade book reports this weekend. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. 

 Oh also, I finally got a chance to go skiing with my dad this weekend, luckily before it got really really really freaking cold, in fact it was pretty warm, we spent the day skiing blacks and a couple blues, I finally got a handle on moguls (even if they do destroy my legs), and then I went home and made chili. All and all it was an excellent day. 

 ~Kal

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Student Teaching

Alright, well I'm sure you're all wondering about my first week as a teacher... what? You aren't? You come here for Henry's short stories and poetry? Ehh, screw you, I'm typing it up anyhow.

Good God do I not like waking up at 6AM, it's just a generally unpleasant thing to do. I certainly did pick a strange occupation for myself with that in mind. Anyway, while I know I've stated this a half billion times now, I have to wake up at 6AM tomorrow and every day even though the school doesn't open until 9. I have to do this because I do not have a car, instead I get to hike and ride some 50 miles from home to get to the school house. It takes me about 40 minutes to dress and shower and gather up all my crap, then I trudge off into the snow towards Forest Ridge Elementary School, well I did Tuesday anyhow. We haven't been getting all that much snow around here surprisingly. It is cold though, and that sucks; cold weather means a couple things for me. It means that A) I cannot wear my favorite coat and have to settle instead for my less attractive but warmer one. And B) that the portions of my journey between bus stops are agonizing 20 minute stretches of cold and I end up nose dripping when I make it to the school, which really is a pretty unprofessional way to arrive. All in all though it's a pretty enjoyable journey, I get to spend about an hour and 45 minutes every morning listening to The Sisters of Mercy, London After Midnight, E.S. Posthumus, Christian Death and various other musicians on the way to work. (I call it work because I'm a far better employee than student and I don't want to screw this up, hopefully adopting that mindset will keep me on task.)

As for my actual day at the school, well for now I spend most of it at a desk at the back of Mrs. Veglahn's 3rd grade class nursing my mango energy drink to keep awake and observing the way she teaches the class and handles the problems that her students occasionally stir up. When the kids go off to gym class, the library, lunch, or any of their other midday activities Terra (that's Mrs. Veglahn) runs me through writing up and carrying out lesson plans which is apparently a rather large part of course. Later on I'll be writing up and carrying out my own lesson plans with these 30 or so kids as guinea pigs, but that's still about a month or so off.

At recess I'm sent outside to watch over the kids... I suspect because it's cold outside and being student teacher means that on top of learning the trade I also get to perform grunt work. I don't really mind though, besides the nipping wind the worst I've had to deal with so far was a kid from another class trying to climb the little chain fence that marks the end of the blacktop to retrieve a stray kickball. Past the fence is a paved road leading back to the staff parking lot, and then thick woods with a small ditch in front of it, for obvious reasons the kids have to stay within the fenced area.

After Recess I go back in and sit in the back of the classroom again, have a chat with Mrs. Veglahn about the day, ride the bus home, and then promptly pass the hell out. Speaking of passing out... I've got work tomorrow, I should really be getting to sleep. Work in the morning.

Constantly awoken by a cascading alarms

~Kal

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