Yay for finishing grad school apps!

Monday morning got off to a bit of a scary start, as the student in my first class who is sort of my "stalker" student got really angry with me about his final presentation score. I had explained to him on Friday that his total score for the class was still really good even though his presentation score was a little low. He seemed fine with it on Friday, but then started yelling at me and saying he was "crazy and angry" and he ripped up his paper and threw it on the ground!! I was pretty scared as teachers had told me he was unstable. After class he came up to talk to me again and was a little more level-headed. I explained that he lost 5 points because he didn't have a visual aid, and he lost 3 points because he was reading. I guess this helped calm him down. He came back to me several times throughout the day saying that he was sorry and asking me not to give him more minus points for how he reacted in the morning. Oh my.

I had another student do a bit of rapping for me and an amazing beat box for one of the presentations! It was cool, but unfortunately he didn't do any English speaking besides his 20 second rap which I couldn't understand! :-)

After school on Monday I went to the grocery store and found rice krispies and cinnamin! So now I have everything I need to make rice krispie treats and apple crisp! Yummy! Then I dashed off to the pool and luckily made it in and out before the peak time of swim lessons. (I thought they started at 5pm, but there were some lessons already going on when I got there at 4:15)

All evening I worked on my grad school applications and finished them up!! Now all I have left is making sure my transcripts arrive (they should have already, but they haven't!) and that my reference letter writers get the letters done on time. YAY! So relieved! I celebrated by eating a snickers and watching a movie. I decided to watch "Freedom Writers", which I have been meaning to watch for awhile. I also want to read the book. Pretty much, any new teacher should watch this movie (or old teacher for that matter). It was very inspiring and a great story overall!! I'm glad Steph let me borrow her copy of the movie. I highly recommend it to everyone, teachers and non-teachers alike. I also broke out my never-ending cross-stitch project I've been working on on-and-off for about 2 years. It was nice to do something creative like that. I can't wait to get the yarn from my parents and start knitting! I guess winter weather puts me in a crafty mood.

Tuesday was more speaking tests. I just barely finished all the students in my 2nd class, which made me nervous. I'm worried that the 2nd graders will not finish, because last week so many of them went over 2 minutes so we didn't get through half the students. It's great that they can speak for longer than 2 minutes, but there isn't time for it. So I'm going to have to cut students off at 2 minutes this week.

After school I again sprinted to the swimming pool and avoided the swim practice rush. After wards I was busy with travel plans ALL night. This might sound fun, but it's actually quite nerve-wracking and tiring. I was working on part of mom & dad's trip that I have left to figure out as well as my trip to SE Asia with a couple other teachers on my program. Ay yi yi. Tomorrow I'll have to work on China.

Now some time for free reading-- going to finish up my book. Have a good week everyone! I'm definitely counting the days until my parents are here. :-)

PS-- My friend Karin flew to China on Nov 29 for a couple-week program through Knox for teaching ESL. Keep her in your thoughts! I hope she has a great time!! :-)