school's out!

This semester I've been taking a graduate class in Educational Psychology, which sounds like it should be interesting, but in fact mostly made me miserable. Since it was an online class, I had to post bi-weekly (or is it semi-weekly?) blog entries about my classroom, which made me extremely fed up with blogging. Hopefully now that that's over, I might get this going regularly again (...not that I was ever up-to-date on this in the first place, but that's beside the point).

Quick recap: 

April 17th I took the APT (assessment of professional teaching) and a psychology certification exam. They were two of the easiest tests I have ever taken in my life. Here are two actual sample questions from the APT:

1. Which of the following is not considered proper etiquette in an instant message conversation?

    a) calling someone by a nickname

    b) using "emoticons"

    d) writing in all capital letters

2. Which of the following should you do first if your computer is not working?

    a) make sure that it is plugged in and turned on

    b) call IT

    c) throw it at a wall

Yes, these are real questions. Yes, these are real answer choices. And yes, this is what the state of Illinois thinks it vital for me to know to be a certified teacher. Sigh.

After the APT I went out to a free open bar and then off to a surprisingly fun karaoke night. Nothing too crazy, but probably one of my best nights in Chicago so far. 

About two weeks after, I went to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. It was an all-around awesome time. Great seeing Jason & John, great wearing summer dresses and ridiculous hats and sipping mint juleps. And definitely a much-needed vacation.

Unfortunately, I came back to school to find that in my absence, no one had noticed I was gone (typical), my students were left without a sub, and someone had pulled the emergency shower and left it on until water leaked through the ceiling of the room below mine. Somewhere around then I became really disillusioned with my job, my school, and especially my students. The next month and half was a constant battle to drag myself out of bed in the morning and keep up the energy to get through my days without punching anyone. Needless to say, I was very very glad when the year began to wrap up.

Then, June 6th, myself and about 8 other teachers got called down to the principal's office so she could inform us that our positions will not exist next year. I am glad that they let us know earlier rather than later, and they tried to be nice about it and assure me that I'd be rehired if they found the money, but still, not exactly an uplifting moment.