Looooooooooong entry…Have fun.

This week…It is trying to get me I think. Although, if given the moment to step back and look how it’s unfolded…It hasn’t been that bad.

Monday…Was 10 minutes from home, on the way to math (with a test looming in the distance) when my phone rang. It was Sonja. She had left her laptop at home, and at that point was under the impression she needed it because her presentation stuff was on it. Soooo…I hurried back to the house, grabbed the laptop, rushed to the school, handed it over to Sonja, then headed back to the looming math test.
Got to campus with 15 minutes till class. Got into the classroom and realized…I’d forgotten the stupid shape we were suppose to build for the portfolio! [This after having to rebuild it the night before, as the cats destroyed the first one I built.] Luckily, poor Will asked me how my day was going, and I spit out the aforementioned stuff. This is when he says he’s got spare pipe cleaners on him…& Amanda the next row up who has overheard all of it says she has spare straws/coffee stirrers. WooHoo! So, scrambling before class starts, I build a third one of these irregular polyhedron things.
Took my test…Got out of class half an hour early. [Got a 70% on my test. I can live with that…Considering my last test was only 60%. O.o Blah.]

Went to English…Got some half-thoughts of what my final paper can be about…Still need to get it sorted out completely, as the proposal paper is due in 2 weeks. Also…Instead of being a minimum of 4 pages, he declared he didn’t know what he had been thinking, and said the whole proposal paper only had to be ‘a couple pages’. So yay for that!

Tuesday…My appointment with my advisor at Grand Valley.
Or…This is what my next 2 ½ years will look like.
The summer I thought I had off…*shakes head*…Nope. They are rearranging their classes, as enrollment for them has gone down. They are changing the system a bit. Those coming in will be having the same classes, with the same people, for the entirely of their program. They have to get those of us going out on the old program finished up and out with all our needs met.

Summer 2012: 3 classes. Two English, one Education.
Fall 2012: 2 classes, both English.  She also suggested, since I’ll only have two classes that this would be a good time to start volunteering in the classroom, and getting a feel for the whole thing.
Winter 2013: 3 classes. One Education, one Science, and one Social Studies.
Summer 2013: 2(3) classes. Another Science and the other 1 or 2, depending on how you look at it (as it’s technically listed as two classes, but it’s taught together at once) is a Physical Education class.
Fall 2013: 2 classes: Another English (in which I know there is a massive paper assignment, as it’s with the same professor I have now), and Movement/Art/Theatre (I think that’s what it is). & she said this would be a good time to start substitute teaching. [She said I could after I get 90 credits…Which actually I think I already have that many…But volunteering first would be good to get comfortable in the classroom.]
Winter 2014: Teaching Assistant.
Summer 2014: One class…An Education one.
Fall 2014: Student Teaching
So…I should be ringing in 2015 as ready to be hired teacher.

World Lit was World Lit…Nothing major.

Wednesday: Math…It was Math. Blah.
Then….Storytelling. O.o My second presentation.
We started class with at book forum…6 of the classmates discussed the books they read. We all had to read books relating to storytelling in one form or another.
Then I was the first up out of the 3 to present stories. And would you believe, I actually CHOSE to go first! [Marty, the advisor from Tuesday, and I got to talking about it, and she actually suggested, especially with me saying I was worried about how well the other two who were going would do, that if I went first, then I wouldn’t be trying to compare what I was going to be doing with what I seen before me.]
I drank a whole thermos full of Kava tea…I don’t know if it was really a helping factor, but I thought it might be helpful, so I tried. I was nervous…But not as in a state of agitation as last time. I managed to slow my pace down…(now I need to slow it down just one more notch & all will be wonderful in the world. *laughs*)…Again, my props were made of awesome. I AM the Queen of Props! *laughs*
I panicked a bit at the end…But I didn’t let it show. It was a little short, which I think when I realized that it kicked in the bit of panic…Or it might have been seeing the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ of almost being done.

My story: “Cruel Sister”
I took it from the song by Pantangle (sp)…Which was actually based on a folktale…& did a bit of adapting between the two to get what I presented.
My props: I wore one of the dresses I made for Raven…So it was silver & green. It was a medieval style gown & I had a black wig.  I walked along the ‘pier’ made out of 3 chairs. I had the princess that had drowned, which was poor Geoffrey in a dress & wig. Hehehe. & the harp that was made of the princess’s breastbone & hair…Well, I had my actual harp (& do so wish I could actually play it…Now THAT would have been quite impressive). So yeah…Props. *grins* *laughs*

I wasn’t as confident in the knowledge of this story as I was my last…But I did it…& without showing obvious fear in the face of my classmates. So yeah…I’m feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I got a B- on my last story…So this one should be worth at least a B.

I wish I could remember what all he said during our conference in the hall…I was so nervous during it too, that I know I didn’t retain what I wanted to. He gave me an awesome complement…& I for the life of me now, can’t remember in what part it was in regards to. I know it was aside from the props (which yeah…Like I said…I’m Queen)…But it was something that I was above 3/4th of the class, if not the best. You would think I would bloody well remember what it was in regards to…But no…My brain is mush. *headdesk* *laughs*

Anyway…Next story…Flutterby…Which I don’t even have to present until April 18th! So I’ve got almost 2 months to get it down. *does happy dance* I want to make a costume for it, as I can’t just pull a dress out of my closet for that one…So hopefully I manage that one.

My ‘Forced’ Reading List…[If nothing else, I shall read this semester.]

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass- Lewis Carroll
The Happy Prince- Oscar Wilde
The Nightingale and the Rose- Oscar Wilde
Swann’s Way. Overture-

Marcel Proust
The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka [I wrote my first World Lit. paper on this. Got a 90]
Flutterby- Stephen Cosgrove
Creative Storytelling: Choosing, Inventing, and Sharing Tales for Children- Jack Maguire [This was the outside book for Storytelling that I have to talk about.]
Death in Venice- Thomas Mann
Dracula- Bram Stoker
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- Robert Louis Stevenson [Which may, or may not be, my outside reading for World Lit.  But it was only 75 pages, and I had it on hand…So I read it…In what would almost be spare time, if I actually had spare time.]