CC's Stuff and Things

This, my last semester before student teaching, has been an experience.  I'm only taking three classes, which is all I need to finish up before student teaching, so I thought it would be a cake walk, particularly considering that I took five classes both semesters last fall and four classes during the summer.  Keep in mind, I work full time and I still manage to maintain a 3.7 GPA (bragging). Despite the fact that my butt only has to be in a classroom four days a week for about an hour and a half apiece, I still have to complete 20 service hours each at two different locations as well as tutoring an elementary student in reading on Saturday mornings for my literacy class. So yeah, I'm busy.  And the literacy tutoring is the thing that's keeping me awake at night and my brain spinning most days at work.  I've been assigned a second year old urban student who I affectionately refer to as the Big E when I'm thinking about him outside of our tutoring sessions. Whe

As the school year starts up, I have seen a lot of posting on Facebook about how Common Core Math is the worst thing in the entire world for kids.  Three months ago, I might have agreed with you, but here's the thing, I am a student in the College of Education working towards a degree that will allow me to work with students who have learning disabilities.  And as such, I had to take a class called "Math Methods" which taught us how to use different techniques to work with those types of students. I should stop and explain (in case you didn't know) more schools are adopting a multi-tiered form of special education services.  This means that as much as possible, schools are including students who have mild to moderate disabilities in the general education classrooms rather than secluding them in a room all unto themselves.  That being said, this emphasizes the fact that there are students with a wide variety of learning styles.  Additionally, (as most everyone knows)

A habit which is annoying, but a habit nonetheless.  I love having fake fingernails put on.  I can't seem to grow my nails past a certain point before I notice one is not quite straight and I begin nibbling at it.  It used to be that I'd go to a nail salon and have some put on, sometimes acrylic, sometimes acrylic with gel on top, sometimes the solar nails (what are those anyway?).  But it did not matter what kind I put on, I invariably ended up picking them off, working at their weak spots one by one until they were all pulled off, particularly if I noticed that one of them wasn't put on quite straight. Gross, I know, but it's the truth.  I'd use my other fingernails or my teeth, slowly moving pockets of air into the nail until it would pop off, sometimes whole (so satisfying) and sometimes in pieces.  Since getting nails put on is quite obviously a waste of money, I have recently begun to try press on nails, which I have much more luck with keeping on (probably