Hello, hello? Is this thing on...

Wow. It has been almost two years since I've posted here. I'm alive (though barely). "Why are you back now?" you ask. Or I ask, in an attempt to fool myself into thinking I am actually talking to someone, that all of my readers haven't cleared out their subscription list. Well, in true Picklebottom form, I am procrastinating and it's the other person's move in all my "Words With Friends" games. "What are you procrastinating?" you wonder. Well, I have spent the last year trying to get to the point that I have almost gotten to, so now that there are two weeks left, it is time to start putting things off until the last minute. "Hmmm. What have you been up to over the last year?" you ask. All the questions! Aren't you nosy? Well, since you're obviously not going to drop it, I'll tell you.

Mr. Picklebottom lost his job almost two years ago. He still has not found anything, which SUCKS, but that is just a tangent to my story, though it was the stimulus. A few months after he lost his job, I began working as a special ed aide sub at an elementary school which then led to a full-time special ed aide job. I loved it and wish I could still be doing it. Sadly, the job did not come with benefits, so I had to keep looking. Everything I found that would make use of my master's degree in math also wanted the candidate to be a teacher. The fact that I had taught on the college level did not count; they wanted certification. So I called a local college and discovered that I would only need to take four courses and then student teach for a semester to get my certification for 7th-12th grade. So I signed up. I finished out the school year as a special ed aide and went to school at night. Just as my student teaching stint was to begin this fall, I was contacted by the local community college to teach a course or two. Because we needed the money, I took a course, though the advisor for student teaching practically flogged me for it, saying trying to have a job while student teaching was a HUGE mistake. My stress level over the last few months has proven him right, but don't tell HIM that, because it appears that I MAY actually finish this whole thing successfully.

So now I'm down to my last two weeks of student teaching. I have two unit plans to put together, but that's not a big deal since it pretty much just involves printing all the lesson plans, activity descriptions, worksheets, tests, quizzes, and project descriptions out, taking a picture of bulletin boards that I (still need to) put together, and then organizing them chronologically. Then I just have to make sure all my lesson plans, reflections, and whatnot are organized as well. Doesn't sound too bad, but I have some catch-up to play, and I need to be ready for all my crap to be looked at by my supervisor on Tuesday.

It will happen, and then if I'm lucky, all the hair that fell out from the stress will grow back and the weight I lost will stay gone. Since I'm rarely lucky, though, I'm guessing the hair will remain thinner than ever and the weight will come back within a week... in fact, I think this weekend I recovered some of the weight that had been lost.

So I'm almost done. Then maybe I'll be able to check in here on a more regular basis. Maybe I'll even be able to get back to my Buncha Books review posts... they were the only way I was able to keep track of what I read, and the piles of books around here from lack of time to read are getting ridiculous. Possibly even dangerous, as whenever one of my children isn't accounted for, I have to consider whether a pile of books toppled over and buried her.

I'm not going to make any promises, but I will make an effort. To give me a little push, I will say that my intention will be a Buncha Books post within a few days of my completion of student teaching. Until then, if your holiday decorating involves the use of a ladder, don't fall off.