Reflection on Teaching: Round 2

As many of you know, I was pumped to start teaching. After my first term, I was even more excited to attempt a second time around and make some changes to my approach. Well, like most teachers, I fell into the trap of not enough time, the prep work was done, so I taught the same stuff again. I am really bummed out and I blame it on three things.

1) Bad class this round
2) Super busy with regular work
3) Being exhausted due to LBF brewing

I know none of these are valid excuses and in reality, they should have encouraged me to work harder on changing things up. I did make some small improvements but none of the grand ones I had hoped to make. I think I did a decent job considering how few students participated. Those that did participate loved me and gave me rave reviews. I feel like I didn't reach my own standards and that bugs me.

Oh well...hopefully round three will be better. Now I just have to decide when I want to take on round 3. Either before baby, after baby, or after I return to work...hmmm...

Day after Thanksgiving

Jess and Shannon posted the recap of Thanksgiving at our house. Thanks for the play by play with pictures. It was a nice holiday even with "operation sink" in the middle of the day.

Today we avoided the mall like the plague. Went out for lunch, say Beowulf in 3D (eh...interesting but nothing to rush out and see), and then went to a kick butt Panthers game. The Panthers won in a shoot out. That was the first time I have ever seen that. The first two periods were weak but the 3rd and overtime were pretty good. 'Bout time I went to a sporting event that wasn't only action packed but the home team won.

Oh and I beat the boys at bowling (Wii) today. That's always a fun thing to do.

Rock Band Rocks the House!

Ok, I had my doubts that this game would be fun but if fucking rocks! Sorry for the language but man, it doesn't even begin to explain it.

First, Jess better practice cause the drums are HARD!
Second, I am not a guitar fan so I leave that up to Ryan.
Third, vocals...I may not sing very well but I rocked the house! It helps when you know the words but even for the songs I didn't, I was able to pass them. My mom should have encouraged my singing rather than buying me a microphone and locking me in my bedroom to sing to my hearts content to Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Now the true challenge is that you all can get wasted, play, and not care. I on the other hand, do not have the courage to sing in the car in front of Ryan much less you guys. Without liquid courage, I might just have to learn to like the guitar or practice the drums when Jess gets tired.

Baby-you are going to be a rockstar after all this practice! No violin or clarinet for you-straight to the real instruments!

"working from home"

Yesterday and today I spent the first couple hours of my day in Boca recording audio at a studio for a project. It was a good change of pace. The best part is we finished way earlier than anticipated so I came home to work. Yesterday, I was busy and worked straight up until after 5 and then was off and on before class started. Today, not much for me to work on so I am thinking about doing a few things around the house. Ideally I wish I could leave the house to run a few errands. On the way home, I picked up part of my Dad's Christmas present. I would have loved to stay out of the house and completing Christmas shopping but alas, I came home to get some work done.

Tomorrow I have to go back to the office. I have an afternoon filled with meetings that are easier to run from the office than home. I have two items I wanted to do today but part of the information is at work. Rather than risk going in the office to retrieve it and getting stuck there, I decided it can wait one more day.

Turkey Day Countdown

The countdown is on; not so much for cooking but cleaning up the house before everyone arrives. The bummer is you can't really "pre-clean" much around here because a certain set of pets make a mess in less than 2 minutes after it is finished.

Major to do's:
Floors (vacuum, sweep, mop)
Counters
Dust
Clean bathroom (including a little Draino action)

Smaller to do's:
Plant the plant sitting on my porch table
Clean out porch/wipe down
Wash Windows (shhh...I can hear Jess asking why in the world I would clean my windows for them to come over-it needs to be done. Plain and simple)

There is much more but you will all just call me crazy. The good news is, I think we have all the food stuff and extra items minus ice.

Saturday Chores-Sunday Rest

Yesterday I was quite productive. I trimmed the plants/bushes out front, weeded the back ones, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned out a cupboard, put all the remaining boxes away in the guestroom, picked up my rug in Boca, bought a few Christmas presents, went to Home Depot and bought a new plant (have to transfer it today), and made a trip to Target. Needless to say, I was exhausted last night.

This morning I have been rather lazy. There are a few things I want to do today but since Ryan has the truck, they can wait. My one and only goal for today is grade papers. After that, I may try to get a little shopping in or I might just be a bum. I know I need to do some laundry but as long as I have clean socks and underwear for tomorrow, I should be ok. :)

I have checked out everyone's blogs so it's time to start grading papers. I do have email to check...procrastination is the name of the game when it comes to grading. I think this week is an easy assignment though. I love when we have templated assigments-this week was a finance problem. Either their numbers are right or wrong.

Warning: Work Day Schedule

After reading Jess and Shannon's blog about their work days, I figured I should post a little outline of how my day goes. This might help Ryan understand why I am exhausted most days and work more hours than a lot of people.

Arrive at work between 8 and 8:20 (LBF has changed my morning routine, takes me a little longer to feel confident I can leave the house without hurling all over myself in the car).

Ideally, I would love to check blogs, read email, and a little MSN for entertainment news but normally I come into 10-15 emails I received after I went to bed the night before. So, I instantly start checking my work email. This usually reveals a "problem" to investigate or starts a thread of work for the day.

By 9 or 9:30, I usually have a meeting scheduled. So from about that time until 5 or 6, I am booked with meetings. On lighter days, I have an hour or two to get some work done but most of the time I am multi-tasking between conference calls and answering emails or instant messages. The hours I have blocked off for work time are usually interrupted by a new priority, a co-worker who has a question, or another spur of the moment meeting.

The part I like about my job gets lost in the daily shuffle and I find myself rushing home to log back in to actually get some real work done. Luckily, I have a few people I have started delegating more work too but most of the time, it's all on my shoulders. Having my priorities shift minute by minute is quite stressful not to mention taxing when I have to make sure I gave the information to the people I am asking to do the work since I am stuck in yet another meeting.

Many of you may be wondering when I eat lunch. What lunch is my response to that question. Before LBF, I was a food lover that got up in the morning excited to think about what I was going to eat for lunch. Never getting a lunch break was getting really old but if I could work through that hour...that's one less hour I have to stay after 5 or 6pm. Now that I have LBF brewing, I need to eat every couple hours to keep the sickness at bay but I still just chow down on the phone, in a meeting, or while working on something at my desk. I have one drawer dedicated to 100 calorie snack packs and crystal light. Friday's I try to take a lunch hour and it definitely proves that that one hour I am normally productive in because I don't remember the last Friday I left before 6pm. I could easily stay until 7 or 8 to get things wrapped up.

Oh and don't forget I teach a class on top of this job. So, if I do have a spare minute, I log into my classroom to make sure I am up to date on my student's postings.

I would love to have structure like Jess or Shannon but then I probably would get bored. I think the grass is always greener on the other side but when I think about quitting work, I know I would be sad and longing to be back in the crazy office world.

So the question is, does anyone want to trade jobs with me? That's what I thought.

Hurry, Wait, Hurry, Wait

If I ever run a practice where a waiting room is involved and booking appointments, I swear on my life I would never keep people waiting for 1.5 hours to spend 10 seconds talking to them and then wishing them well. Ok, it was more like 10 minutes but still.

Ryan met me for my 10 week appointment today and I figured it would be non-monumental but I wanted him there. I hated to make him wait with me but considering I feel like crap, he could suffer a little too. I hauled butt from work and we waited, and waited, and waited, and finally the doctor came in. She asked me a couple questions, I had to ask her some so I felt like it was worth my 1.5 hour wait to talk to her, and then she slapped a little goo on the belly to take a look at LBF. All is well, big head, little body, heart beat. Thank you very much, clean up and get out.

The only saving grace is the office is next to Chipotle and although most foods make me gag after 2 bites, there is something magical about Chipotle. I ate most of my burrito bowl which was probably more calories than my last two days combined. The doctor gave me the all clear to forget about a balanced diet and eat what I could keep down. Hmm...burrito...

Oh and my official weigh in was the same as my first visit. No weight gain although things are moving and shifting.

Wants versus Needs

There are a few things I want in life that I don't need. With all the Christmas talk, the one thing I want is a new Christmas tree with prelit lights. I don't need it but man, removing the hour+ process of checking lights, untangling them, putting them on the tree, adjusting them, etc. sure is enticing. On the way to work this morning, I figured I would wait until after Christmas this year and purchase a new tree once they are on sale. I figure that's a fair trade off.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

My father was never into watching football. I grew up with a neighbor who was the quarterback for our high school team. I would go to the games to socialize, not watch the game no matter how much he tried to teach me about the game. In college, I think I went to 2 games which involved drinking shots of rootbeer flavored liquor to pass the agony of the cold and boring game. Oh wait, I went to one game with the hubby as one of our first dates-again, interested in him, not the game. So that leads me to watching football in Southern Florida.

The Vikings suck. They always have and always will but for some reason, these MN boys like to get together every Sunday to watch them get slaughtered. I have learned the basic rules but honestly, I like NASCAR and hockey much better. Football rates just slightly above watching golf or tennis on tv. The only reason I used to tag along was again the social aspect which included talk, munchies, and drinks. Now that I can't stand most food and can't drink, even the social aspect barely will lure me in. Today I put on a happy face and thought I would try to watch a game again (I have avoided the season so far). I showed up at the end of the 3rd quarter beginning of the 4th and quickly lost interest. We were losing 20 something to zero. Yeah, it's hard to get excited over a team like that.

There were two profound moments today that I have to share. One, I asked a question that I thought would get me chastized for not knowing the answer but guess what, the guys weren't sure either (I asked who Terry Bradshaw used to play for). The second interesting tidbit was that I knew about a play last week where some fat lineman ran 40+ yards for a touch down and basically stiff armed some guy from the other team. I don't watch sports highlights very often but that one I was aware of. My hubby thought the pregnancy had turned me on to Sports Center. LOL!

So, Sunday is not a fantastic day for sports unless figure skating is on. Which, I haven't seen in a while. I graded papers, did some chores and am about to tackle my yearly appraisal. That's all for now.

Some Motivation

I got up this morning and after about an hour or so of feeling like death, I started on some chores. I got some laundry done, the kitchen cupboards and stove cleaned, the bathroom cleaned and a few loads of laundry done. Then I headed off to get my haircut.

I took off quite a few inches and it's back to chin length. I have to admit, I hate using the blowdryer but I like my hair shorter. I should have cut it a while ago but I had worked so hard to grow it out. Hopefully the haircut will draw the attention away from expanding waste line. Right now I just feel "fat and bloated" and my clothes don't fit right.

I didn't get any grading done today or any yard work done. Maybe tomorrow I will tackle that. At least the grading I will...not so sure about yard work.

TGIFingF

Yeah, that pretty much sums up my week!

Plans for the weekend pending baby Froyd doesn't keep me sick is to get my grades done, get a haircut, do some laundry, start helping Ryan clean out the 2 closets, and write my self appraisal for work that was due today. I need to buy a pair of pants or two that are a little more comfortable and a couple new tops but that might just have to wait.

If I didn't have a huge project depending on the next hour appointment at work, I would be in the car on my way home for a nap. Baby brewing is tough work and I can't believe a single news story that says "baby delivered in bathroom at high school prom-mother didn't know she was pregnant." Those girls must be in severe denial and disassociated with reality.

...and he still beats me to it!

For those of you that are avid readers of the hubby's blog, you already know. Heck, pretty much all of you know. Maybe out in blogland there is one person who doesn't know and to this person here's my surprise: The Froyd Family is expecting a Little Baby Froyd! LBF is not as cool as saying LBK; so we will need to come up with a new abbreviation for the little munchkin.

In traditional Froyd blogging style-that's all for now. More to come later this week.

Could it be...

After "Tropical Storm Noel" we were promised some cool weather. I don't know if it will last but it is gorgeous outside. This is why I live in Florida! The sun is shining, there is a non-humid breeze blowing. We have the windows open and the air off. It almost smells like fall.

Ryan is chomping at the bit to post some exciting news in the Froyd household but since he made me wait weeks to tell people, I think I am going to make him last a little longer before I let him post. I have 2 people left to formally talk to and it is killing him. Serves him right for putting such restrictions on me.

Most of you know what I am talking about but this is like a game...I know he will win but I have to put in a good effort.

Time to get some grading done so the Scooter dog and Annie dog can get some prime time in at the dog park before the weather changes its mind.