My mom sent the following to me today. I have seen it before (I don't know if I knew it came from Jeff Foxworthy), but it never ceases to make me chuckle! I thought I would share the fun - oh, and I am sorry - of COURSE this does not describe the children of my friends! (at least it better not...) LOL!
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Jeff Foxworthy on School Employees

YOU might be a school employee if:

YOU believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who says, 'Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off.

YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high blood pressure as it is uttered.

YOU might be a school employee if you can tell it's a full moon or if it going to rain, snow, hail....anything!!! Without ever looking outside.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe, 'shallow gene pool' should have its own box on a report card.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, 'Boy, the kids sure are mellow today.'

YOU might be a school employee if when out in public, you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.

YOU might be a school employee if you have no social life between August and June.

YOU might be a school employee if you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the 'lounge.'

YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the U-HAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district.

YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

YOU might be a school employee if you can't imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public.

YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child's parent instantly answers this question, 'Why is this kid like this?'

YOU might be a school employee if you would choose a mammogram over a parent conference.

YOU might be a school employee if you think someone should invent antibacterial pencils and crayons...and desks and chairs for that matter!

YOU might be a school employee if the words 'I have college debt for this?' has ever come out of your mouth.

YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year!
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I'm off to bed to try to recuperate from yet another sore throat...kiddos and their germs!!!!!!!!! (but, I do NOT have sinus pressure!!) Oh, and my paper arrived in VA on Sat. and now I just have my presentation in 2 weeks...getting close to the end!!

Until next time...

I told you it would be awhile!

Did you miss me?

After some quite tenseful moments/days, I completed the first (and most difficult) part of my final project for my MSEd.

I have to create a research proposal - we don't actually have to do the research, seeing as there would be no way to create, implement, and analyze the research in 1 semester - but we have to do everything BUT the actual research. This includes the literature review which is used to form the first few pages of any research study (well, at least the research studies in the educational field). This is my proposed question (which I would like to actually do someday):

In a small group of kindergarten ESL students with L1 Spanish, will teaching them how to segment words into their phonemes - in Spanish - allow for the transfer of this skill into English, as measured by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) test?

I admit, I have discovered that I like reading research studies. Okay, so I skip over the part where they discuss all of the different analyses like MANOVA and Cronbach alpha and all of that - I have NO IDEA what they mean, much less how to use them! (I did buy a research and stats book for a previous class before the professor changed the syllabus on me...maybe I will read it someday...) I do like reading the rest, especially since it has helped me learn the "whys" behind the things I am required to do in my job (no, college did not teach me that. seriously. I graduated 4 months after NCLB was signed into law - MU did not prepare me for all of those ramifications! It has been learn as you go!)

Anyway, it was due on Wed. which I take as it is due before 12 midnight (it is submitted on-line). It never ceases to amaze me how long it can take to write up the reference page! (Brittany, I will gladly pass on my Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed. !) I submitted my 25-page work at 10:59pm on Wed. after typing for about 2 days (I took personal days).

So, because I have shared with many of you my anxiety over this part of the project, I share with you all the feedback I just read from my professor:

Karla, Overall, an excellent job here: Model organization! And, a list of excellent, relevant and current articles in your list of references. Your intro is strong. It carefully situates your study. Good. Also, your excellent effort to support claims with literature shines through! Hooray! One quick thing: terms - make sure to list those in your final proposal paper. You use a lot of technical language and abbreviations that need to be fully and carefully spelled out in your final paper! Onward! Thanks! Liz

WOO-HOO!!!!! I have to laugh at her comment about my use of technical language and abbreviations - you mean not everyone knows what NRP, DIBELS, PSF, CLT, and PA means? (hint: PA does not mean the state). I DID write those abbreviations out at least 2 times and if I had written out National Reading Panel, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Cross-Language Transfer, and Phonemic Awareness every time I used them, my paper would've been 5 pages longer! :)

Now, I need to write up the actual proposal which needs to be mailed (read: hard copy in a 3-ring binder) to VA by March 30. Then I have my oral presentation of the proposal in VA on April 13 and any final revisions are due April 17. At this point, I am planning on going to graduation in VA on May 10 (I figure the kindergarteners will have fun dressing up in the gown and hood!).

I don't know if I will be posting between now and 4/13, but I will definitely post any graduation pictures! :)

Oh, one final thing COMPLETELY off-topic: I just watched the 2006 Toronto Film Festival People's Choice winner "Bella." Watch it. With a box of tissues nearby. $1 at Redbox at Giant.

I guess I will go to bed now...(Mike is in Florida this week helping his grandparents with their condo. I have trouble falling asleep when he is away).

Until next time...