I've got about ten minutes before I'm due at work to start prep for my first class. Prep would be a whole lot easier if I had seperate areas for things like storage, and for offices. As it is, there is one large walk-in storage room that we use for storage, prep, and where I store my office. (All neatly stacked in a small rollable file cabinet. I've christened it "Jamie's Portable Office". It even has it's own sign, that says "Jamie's Portable Office", of course. I'm way to easily amused. It's sad and I apologize.) We even use this room as a coatroom, and hang our stuff on tacks because I can't find the hooks that reside in the little baby food jar. Half the time my tack falls down, of course, I'm sure that dosen't justify turning one of the fire extinguishers that's located in the corner into my personal coatrack.
I'm sitting here making Jump Flash Cards with letters and colors. I tried it out yesterday during Math, and the kids absolutely loved it. You take blank flash cards (or 3x5 cards) and write whatever it is you want on them (Letters, numbers, words, colors, shapes, whatever floats that cute little lesson plan boat of yours.) and then you draw some stick figures 'jumping'. (Jumping is not to be confused with stick figures in unnatural, painful looking leg bent positions and wonton poses. Remeber : even stick figures have modesty.) Have the little smelly munchkins sit on the floor in a circle, and have them identify each thing as you hold it up, and when you get to the Jumping Man (as he was named yesterday) the kids can get up and jump up and down.
Whee! Unnecessary pounding, stomping, screaming noises!
Until our building is finished, we're in our own part of the Center on the second floor. On the first floor below us, among other things, is one of the staff offices. I swear my plotting this game had nothing to do with the fact that at the same time lurking in the room below was Jay pounding on his computer cringing at the faint thumps and shrieks. Really.
It was mearly a happy coincidence. ;)
1.30.2003
1.24.2003
1.22.2003
To Rebecca, who was wondering how the first class went...
It went alright, thanks for asking. The first couple weeks are just going to be run throughs so I can get the schedual and the curriculum tweaked to the way it needs to be. We mostly got the kids oriented with the rules, where cubbies were, what this and that were for, stuff like that. Our theme for the week is 'All About Me' so we made ourselves as paper people and then I did a board display with it, because I was that bored. I had to do some shuffling because I thought we'd have too many activites (I crammed the day completely full) and it turned out we didn't have enough, so I have to do some changing so that there are more activities. Once we get into the swing of things, it'll go really smoothly. I'm taking more pictures today, so I'll post some this evening for those of you who want to see.
Oddly enough, we haven't added any new students in the last week, but we're still getting resumes. Maybe I'll hire them all and they can be my Personal slaves. What do you think? I think slaves sound fun.
It went alright, thanks for asking. The first couple weeks are just going to be run throughs so I can get the schedual and the curriculum tweaked to the way it needs to be. We mostly got the kids oriented with the rules, where cubbies were, what this and that were for, stuff like that. Our theme for the week is 'All About Me' so we made ourselves as paper people and then I did a board display with it, because I was that bored. I had to do some shuffling because I thought we'd have too many activites (I crammed the day completely full) and it turned out we didn't have enough, so I have to do some changing so that there are more activities. Once we get into the swing of things, it'll go really smoothly. I'm taking more pictures today, so I'll post some this evening for those of you who want to see.
Oddly enough, we haven't added any new students in the last week, but we're still getting resumes. Maybe I'll hire them all and they can be my Personal slaves. What do you think? I think slaves sound fun.
I'm taking a rare few minutes for myself and working on (yet another) layout idea for IBOM. (Incase you're wondering, all the layouts I don't use will be hosted on my design site so maybe someone can put them to good use. I feel so wasteful) As I was tinkering with this current layout (I've finally succumbed to doing most of my layouts in CSS. I can't promise it'll last long. I'm such an HTML slut at heart.) thats for Valentines day and when I went to copy some links over I realized I've misplaced the code for the old layout which means I've lost all the information (such as said links) that I had on it.
Oops.
So, I'm asking if you read me, and I had you linked before (or if you want me to link you) leave me a comment with your blog address in it. Most peoples I remember, but we all know I was a blond in a past life, and I want to make sure I don't forget anyone.
Please?
Oops.
So, I'm asking if you read me, and I had you linked before (or if you want me to link you) leave me a comment with your blog address in it. Most peoples I remember, but we all know I was a blond in a past life, and I want to make sure I don't forget anyone.
Please?
1.11.2003
LKP opened it's doors offically on this last Wednesday, but dosen' t hold it's first class until Monday. Which is great because it gives me a few extra hours to cram more fun and messy activities into the curriculum while zooming around town giving employees of carpet showrooms puppy eyes so they'll spill all their protective carpet coverings secrets. Teaching short cheese smelling munchins is a fine art of promoting projectile ridden projects while single handedly protecting the Stain Master. Don't believe them, it's not as stain proof as they claim.
Although I really should use this time to design a easy on/off lockable mini velcro suits and line the walls with a giant bulls eye so I can improve my aim, but the rational side of me knows I won't be able to actually make use of it till the pickup sized sling shot I ordered comes in from Singapore, so why rush things?
LKP is the only private preschool that does not offer Childcare or Extended Care that I can find in the state of Oregon (that I can find, there might be one, but I can't find them. If you can't be found, how can someone use you?), in fact, we're one of the few private preschools in the country that dosen't do anything becides actually teach a class. As exciting and undone as this is, we haven't quite hit the kid market, so our spots are filling up slowly. I'm optamistic about this, I'm sure as soon as people realize (I've been asked 600 times in the past three years if (while I was in childcare) I would 'just do preschool' so I know the kids are out there) what we do offer, we'll be full. What I find insanely amusing, is while we don't have our classes full, someone clued the job market in on us.
We've gotten four resumes and inquires about jobs in the last week. It's really kewl in a 'gee I wish we were full and could hire you' sort of way. It just absolutely proves my point that our program, and ones like it, are going to be completely accepted and wanted once we catch on. It's needed so badly, which in turn is going to make us need staff in the future. Plus, more staff = more time for me to figure out how to hide that stain in the corner and fingerpaint.
And how could I not like that?
Although I really should use this time to design a easy on/off lockable mini velcro suits and line the walls with a giant bulls eye so I can improve my aim, but the rational side of me knows I won't be able to actually make use of it till the pickup sized sling shot I ordered comes in from Singapore, so why rush things?
LKP is the only private preschool that does not offer Childcare or Extended Care that I can find in the state of Oregon (that I can find, there might be one, but I can't find them. If you can't be found, how can someone use you?), in fact, we're one of the few private preschools in the country that dosen't do anything becides actually teach a class. As exciting and undone as this is, we haven't quite hit the kid market, so our spots are filling up slowly. I'm optamistic about this, I'm sure as soon as people realize (I've been asked 600 times in the past three years if (while I was in childcare) I would 'just do preschool' so I know the kids are out there) what we do offer, we'll be full. What I find insanely amusing, is while we don't have our classes full, someone clued the job market in on us.
We've gotten four resumes and inquires about jobs in the last week. It's really kewl in a 'gee I wish we were full and could hire you' sort of way. It just absolutely proves my point that our program, and ones like it, are going to be completely accepted and wanted once we catch on. It's needed so badly, which in turn is going to make us need staff in the future. Plus, more staff = more time for me to figure out how to hide that stain in the corner and fingerpaint.
And how could I not like that?
1.06.2003
I'm heading out in a bit to do something I've been waiting to do for a very long time. I'm going downtown to drop off menus and a termination letter to the USDA Food Program canceling their services to our company. It's pretty sad that someone would be so excited over telling that organization to get lost, but I am, and it's a good thing.
Yay.
After years of dealing with them, I disentangle myself from their nonsense with the same solid beliefs that I had when we started; that they are tredding the water between buoys named worthless and bothersome. The program itself could have wonderful benifits for all the parties involved, but with like everything else in the wide world of Childcare, it does nothing but suck rancid, lumpy gravy.
After I'm done with that little personal milestone, I'm heading off to Portland (in the wee hours of the A.M. no less) to pick up Shauna, Fred's dog, from the airport. Shauna is being flown all the way from Orlando to move in with me, (No poor doggy jokes) because circumstances aren't allowing her to live with Fred, or anyone else nearby. So I offered to take er so that she didn't end up at the Humane Society or worse. Her flight left a few hours ago, and poor Fred is missing her something awful. (So go over and leave him a nice comment, you hear?)
I'm not sure if I'll have her for one month or sixty, it all depends on how things turn out. But for now, she's staying with me, and so I'm Miss Shauna's personal long-term/short-term Doggysitter.
Yep...Doggysitter. Check it out, I'm movin' up in the sitting world.
Sidenote: New layout coming soon. Guess it's time to take my Christmas decorations down. It's the 6th, after all.
Yay.
After years of dealing with them, I disentangle myself from their nonsense with the same solid beliefs that I had when we started; that they are tredding the water between buoys named worthless and bothersome. The program itself could have wonderful benifits for all the parties involved, but with like everything else in the wide world of Childcare, it does nothing but suck rancid, lumpy gravy.
After I'm done with that little personal milestone, I'm heading off to Portland (in the wee hours of the A.M. no less) to pick up Shauna, Fred's dog, from the airport. Shauna is being flown all the way from Orlando to move in with me, (No poor doggy jokes) because circumstances aren't allowing her to live with Fred, or anyone else nearby. So I offered to take er so that she didn't end up at the Humane Society or worse. Her flight left a few hours ago, and poor Fred is missing her something awful. (So go over and leave him a nice comment, you hear?)
I'm not sure if I'll have her for one month or sixty, it all depends on how things turn out. But for now, she's staying with me, and so I'm Miss Shauna's personal long-term/short-term Doggysitter.
Yep...Doggysitter. Check it out, I'm movin' up in the sitting world.
Sidenote: New layout coming soon. Guess it's time to take my Christmas decorations down. It's the 6th, after all.
1.03.2003
I've noticed alot of talk shows are bringing up the old topic of Ritlan again and again. They cover topics everyones heard of, should they take it, what are the risks, too much pressure from schools and teachers and therapists to take it, medicating kids is bad, ect. One topic they haven't really touched on, that I find to be one that perhaps medical professionals and people should pay attention to, is adults abusing their childs prescriptions.
I've heard more and more in the last year grapevine stories of parents O.Ding after taking their childs medications. (An example being one of my Mom's ex's friend who was taking his daughters prescription and died from it. Her ex then proceeded to round-about accuse her of taking my brothers prescription. I have to say, Mom wasn't too thrilled with that one.) A few times I have heard this mentioned on talk shows as 'one reason not to medicate your child, they might die', but never telling people it was because of illegal abuse of substances.
This drug, like every other drug, has adverse affects on users who shouldn't be using it or don't need it. Most doctors (if they know what their doing) when, after prescribing the drug, make the person who needs it come back once a week for anywhere up to six months to moniter that it dosen't build in their system. This is also why the drug starts off gradually before building up to the dosage the person needs. (Some types may work differently, but this is what I've had experiance with. And no, I don't take it.) If you aren't supposed to be taking it, like all drugs, you shouldn't take it (you scum). And if you're taking it illegally, you most likely will get very sick because I'm willing to bet you're taking the max dosage every chance you get, which is one huge reason why people die from this stuff.
Incase you're wondering my views on medicating, I think every case is different and things should be viewed on a case to case basis. I think that there is far too much pressure and threats from schools, doctors and state agencies (witnessing a slue of it myself) and too much crap from other people who's negitive opinions aren't needed. I think that they all need to back off and leave it between the parent, child, and the childs doctor. I think that it should be used as a tool to help people get back to where they need to be, not as a fix. I think it's greatly abused by the medical community, and in most cases isn't whats needed for the child. But it does work, when it's needed.
I've heard more and more in the last year grapevine stories of parents O.Ding after taking their childs medications. (An example being one of my Mom's ex's friend who was taking his daughters prescription and died from it. Her ex then proceeded to round-about accuse her of taking my brothers prescription. I have to say, Mom wasn't too thrilled with that one.) A few times I have heard this mentioned on talk shows as 'one reason not to medicate your child, they might die', but never telling people it was because of illegal abuse of substances.
This drug, like every other drug, has adverse affects on users who shouldn't be using it or don't need it. Most doctors (if they know what their doing) when, after prescribing the drug, make the person who needs it come back once a week for anywhere up to six months to moniter that it dosen't build in their system. This is also why the drug starts off gradually before building up to the dosage the person needs. (Some types may work differently, but this is what I've had experiance with. And no, I don't take it.) If you aren't supposed to be taking it, like all drugs, you shouldn't take it (you scum). And if you're taking it illegally, you most likely will get very sick because I'm willing to bet you're taking the max dosage every chance you get, which is one huge reason why people die from this stuff.
Incase you're wondering my views on medicating, I think every case is different and things should be viewed on a case to case basis. I think that there is far too much pressure and threats from schools, doctors and state agencies (witnessing a slue of it myself) and too much crap from other people who's negitive opinions aren't needed. I think that they all need to back off and leave it between the parent, child, and the childs doctor. I think that it should be used as a tool to help people get back to where they need to be, not as a fix. I think it's greatly abused by the medical community, and in most cases isn't whats needed for the child. But it does work, when it's needed.