NoJoMo 29

Oh wow…Month is almost over…Only a few more days…Then I don’t have to have that thought of…"I need to update tonight, I need to update tonight." 

95% of this week has been stressful…
5% of it has given me hope that not everything is doom & gloom.

Let’s see…Actually got to do a guided reading session today…Which is good, as I’m saying I did like 3 more than I’ve actually done in regards to my tutoring (since it’s suppose to be English related, but honestly, the kids need the math help badly). I turned in my last 3 observations today…We were suppose to have our tutoring to hand in today too…But apparently no one has got that all in…& only two had all their observations turned in before today. I have 13 tutoring hours in, by the end of tomorrow I should have all 15 of my hours in…Just the righting up ahead of me.

Got to the college early, as I needed to print some things off (as I am out of ink at home).
I tried & tried to sign into my account…Nope, nothing doing. Thankfully Linnea came to my rescue and let me get on the computer she was signed into so I could print stuff off.
Thing is, most of what I printed off I didn’t even get to use (yet)…Which I’m actually quite grateful for, as I was not feeling ready. We were doing our learning strategies today, and after the read alouds and book talks, we ran out of time! WooHoo! Of course, that means I have to do mine next week, but I’m hoping to feel more prepared by then. 

Set up an appointment with my adviser…While getting it set up, the girl that was setting it up told me that she thought I did a really good job on my Storytelling presentation (which feels like forever ago now!), apparently she is friends with one of the girls that was in class, and she had come to watch her perform. That was a nice (& needed) boost.

My book talk ran a little short, but I still got 24 out of 25 points…So I’m happy. Plus, it was a really short book…So yeah, it’s hard to get a whole 2 minutes.

Doing some of the learning strategies was actually fun. & I didn’t even feel too self-conscious when I had to read parts in the plays we did.
Linnea did a choral reading, and gave us each parts to play. I got to be the burro…I was a burro named Burrito. [It was a Mexican Christmas story.] I had four times I ‘spoke’…The last bunch of lines were sung! O.o WTF! I was not expecting that…But I managed to pull it off, and didn’t feel too freaked out over it.
Elizabeth did a condensed version of A Christmas Carol for a reader’s theatre. I was the ghost of Christmas Present. I had a lot of lines that time.
Zack did something called ‘Me in a box’. The basic idea is to bring in a box filled with things that are important to you, and it’s a way to introduce yourself to the class (good for teachers on the first day & student’s throughout the year). The book says to talk about the items, and then have the students write about them. Zack decided to do it backwards, having us look at the items he brought, but not giving us an explanation, and having us do a writing exercise, where we come up with our own ideas about them, or even write something creative. After class I shared what I wrote with him, as we couldn’t go through everyone’s writing during his presentation. He told me I should write children’s stories.
This is what I had written:

Zack was a park ranger and while he was on duty he use to sneak off to go fishing. He would also chase birds down while in the woods and take their feathers so he could make more fishing lures. That was until the higher up rangers found out and made him start wearing a bright yellow vest so they could keep an eye on him. Then the birds and fish were happy because they could see him coming, and he couldn’t get them anymore.

It was fun.
&, right after I put food in the oven and got changed into my sleepy clothes my phone went off. & while I hated the name displayed, it was good news for us…The Idiot had gotten called into work, and I got to go and rescue the Critters.

Then, I got around to checking my mail…I had a big envelope from The National Wildlife Federation. Opening it up I found 2 of their National Wildlife magazine. Which I was slightly confused by, until I read the included letter.
A couple summers ago I entered a photo contest, but didn’t win. They keep all the pictures…They sent me the 2 magazines as a thank you for the use of one of my photos! 
On page 18 of the Dec/Jan issue of National Wildlife magazine, there is a photo I took! It’s of the blackberry brambles, with some blossoms on it, leaning on my make-shift pallet fence. It’s just a tiny thing, but still, it feels so awesome to see a photo I took in a magazine that goes all over the country!

It’s nice to have something happy to write about after the last couple entries where I really just wanted to fall apart.

On a separate note…Have any of you seen those little scented wax cubes into Walmart? 
I think they are designed to be heated up and the scent be released. They smell pretty strong even just in their solid cube state.
I was wondering if the scent might make it through felt, and how long the scent would actually last.
My cousin in Georgia is allergic to pine trees (to the point she avoids going in stores that even have wreaths or any evergreen greens by their doors this time of year), but she enjoys the scent. I was wondering if I made a felt tree, and shoved some of the scented wax in with the stuffing if the scent would make it through the felt, and if it would last for very long.

So…Yeah…2 more classes till the semester ends. It will be nice to get a bit of a break…Which I really need to see when winter semester starts…Registration for classes runs till Jan. 11th, I think…So classes probably start that next week. That would be like a month off…I could so use a couple…But I will take what I can get.
Mum & I are going to go downstate…Crap, just remembered, bookstore isn’t open on Saturdays…Might have to revise that. Plan was to go down the week-end after classes, pick up my new books via FA, and turn in my old books for some Yule shopping cash…But I don’t think she can take a day off…I’m not sure she’d be up for letting me go on my own…Knowing the weather has reached that crack addict stage. Guess I’ll have to regroup with her tomorrow or something this weekend, and get it sorted out.

Well…I am of the tiredness…Need to check a few things, and then head off to sleep.