one thing i hadn’t anticipated when i put out feelers all over, would be that everyone would want me!  well NOLA, if i work there for the spring at least, until something better that i want comes along, will pay for santa cruz and the certification program, and then some.  art supplies.  it’s all good.

wow!

NOLA cafe just called.  they want me starting tomorrow.  at 10am.  :)

“rainy monday and i have to think of something to do again…oh, i hope the schools meeting doesn’t discourage me.  i’m so easily discouraged.”

no, really running away with myself here, slow down, put your head under the covers, whoa!

breathe. okay. all i have to do today is fill out the forms, i can do that, and take them to jackie and meet the team at 11:30, i can do that.  whew.  then i can read in the afternoon?  or something?...

yesterday i had about a million ideas, woolfcamp, knitting projects, teaching, and wanted to act on them all and by the time i got home i’d run through them and activiated some and i sit here panting.

1.  went to the school district meeting, which turned out to be an info session on an outside program the district is adopting to fast track people like me into teaching certification.  suddenly it was a quick way to get certified as a teacher of english in florida, from which i will be able to add on art, for which i’m eligible for hiring with my degree, all before next fall’s start date and for only $400, instead of all the money it would otherwise cost, and i registered for it last night online and i’m all set to start the program.

2.  then finally made contact with Charles Washington, who assured me that this program was indeed the way to go and in the meantime he’s making some calls to connect me with somebody and maybe get me into a classroom in a couple of months, and I could teach until early afternoon and then do the parks department in late afternoon and evening…meanwhile doing the certification program to be ready for fall….

3.  meanwhile, earlier in the afternoon i’d realized that the perfect thing to fill up the other half of my work week at present would be to work at NOLA cafe, so i stopped by and talked to the guy, who sounded like he was interested, so at that point i was envisioning working 19 hours teaching art and 20 hours or so at NOLA and painting.  now there’s all this else, including rigorous self-study, and whoa!  what am I doing?

what do I want to do?  I would like to teach art at the parks department for 19 hours and paint and do the certification thing for awhile.  that’s about it, i think, although i could do some nola, too, if that comes up.  but at this point, I don’t want to overwhelm myself with extra teaching before the fact, i’m already overwhelmed.  of course, that would, if it came, give me security and a foot in the door and insurance and etc, i think.  and it would be off for summer, when i’m on fulltime with the art teaching for the parks department, by which time i hope to have the certification thing done…

yelp! oh, i don’t know, i’ll just hafta see what happens, won’t i?  i certainly am getting good response for all this.  and I had to convince myself to go to this meeting last night, whooooop!  but today, today, i take the forms to jackie and meet the rest of the crew.  then I’m gonna rest (at last!) in the afternoon.

i never wanted to teach english.  i realize the wisdom of getting certified in it and i can do that pretty easily in just a few months, but i want to teach art!  focus!  these are options, options are good.  i’m just not used to them, being younger when i used to have to scare up stuff and sell and sell and sell myself.  and it was always successful in its fashion, but at this point apparently i’ve oversold.  yikes!

anybody have any comments, please, make them!

VOCABULARY
Skilled English Language Arts teachers for grades 6-12 understand how the English language has evolved and been influenced by other languages. This includes being able to explain foreign language phrases commonly used in English, knowing the etymology of words, and understanding how the meanings of words change over time. They are familiar with Greek and Roman mythology, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and other works often alluded to in British and American literature so that they have vast vocabularies, know the meaning of many idioms and adages, and are able to explain the difference between the literal and figurative meanings of words. Furthermore, they identify the difference in the denotative and connotative meaning of words, and understand shades of meanings for closely related words. They know how to use general and specialized dictionaries, thesauri, and glossaries to find pronunciations, derivations, spellings, and contextually appropriate meanings of unfamiliar words, synonyms, and replacement words. They know the specific (and many) uses of the Oxford English Dictionary. They use common antonyms, synonyms, and homographs precisely. Additionally, they apply the tools of word study (Greek, Latin, and Anglo Saxon derived roots and affixes) and identify instructional techniques for increasing students’ vocabulary.

INTERPRETATION OF EXPOSITORY TEXT
Skilled English Language Arts teachers have a sure facility with expository text, including familiarity with different modes and methods of expository writing such as cause and effect, problem and solution, and comparison and contrast. They are able to read challenging passages and respond to clarifying questions concerning essential textual elements. They are able to describe how one part of a passage functions in relation to a whole passage and how paragraphs contribute to the development of an essay. They are familiar with the rhetorical features and historical significance of celebrated speeches, essays, and political documents in American history.

They know how to objectively summarize events and ideas of text. They know how to interpret the central ideas and details of text; interpret and use graphic sources of information from diagrams, charts, tables, and graphs; draw inferences, conclusions or generalizations about text; and synthesize content and ideas from several sources. These teachers not only know how to comprehend exposition, they also recognize key strategies for improving students’ reading comprehension, including identifying the essential background knowledge that students must have in order to understand a text. They are able to describe how an author’s point of view or assumptions about a subject affect the text. They are able to compare and contrast readings on the same topic and explain how authors reach the same or different conclusions based on differences in argument, style or evidence. They are able to identify elements of persuasion and logical reasoning, including the facility to distinguish between facts and opinions and between supported and unsupported opinions. In addition, they are able to assess the merits of arguments, evaluate the accuracy and adequacy of an author’s evidence to support claims and assertions, and identify logical fallacies in text. Additionally, they can identify ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, paradoxes, ironies, incongruities, and overstatements and understatements present in text.

INTERPRETATION OF LITERARY TEXTS
Skilled English Language Arts teachers have a working knowledge of literature in all its forms and know how to bring text to life so students are engaged and develop good independent reading habits. This includes understanding the historical development of major literary genres and subgenres and the ability to identify characteristics of modes of writing, including satire, parody, allegory, pastoral, narrative, comedy, tragedy, farce, novel, and various poetic forms. They have a working familiarity with the major literary schools, movements, periods, and figures in the history of English and American literature, with emphases on high quality and demanding literature for middle and high school students. They understand the historical and philosophical contexts that shaped that literature, and have a basic awareness of major critical approaches to literature. They interpret literary elements of great literary texts, including the ability to determine the underlying themes in literary works—and compare themes across texts—by examining the motivations and reactions of characters. They have a working familiarity with universal mythic themes. They are able to analyze an author’s development of time and sequence and explain how the narrator’s stance impacts elements of the plot. They are able to define how mood or meaning is conveyed in prose and poetry. Specifically, they have knowledge of the poetic conventions of verse (sound, prosody, form, graphic elements), and are able to explain the function of dramatic conventions such as chorus, asides, dramatis personae, and character foils. They are able to paraphrase difficult passages of great works of poetry as well as recite (from memory) dramatic soliloquies with fluency, rhythm, appropriate intonation, and vocal patterns. They write essays about elements in a selection of literature that reflect all this knowledge and expertise.

SPEECH
Skilled English Language Arts teachers know how to identify a speaker’s point of view and summarize major ideas and supporting evidence presented in spoken messages.They are able to evaluate the credibility of the speaker; assess how word choice and delivery affect the message; and analyze oral arguments, identifying possible sources of logical fallacies present in oral addresses. They are able to formulate sound, rational arguments and deliver focused oral presentations that follow the rules of the English language. They know how to paraphrase information shared orally by others in classroom discussions, translating vague or incoherent statements from students into clearer, more coherent ones, and distinguishing relevant comments from digressions. They also know how to give precise directions and instructions to students and educate students in the traditional rules and formats of debate.

WRITING STRATEGIES & APPLICATIONS
In their own writing, skilled English Language Arts teachers use basic conventions of Standard English, including identifying parts of speech and their functions. They also know common grammar and usage errors that English language learners may make. They are able to avoid common problems such as run on sentences, sentence fragments, and comma splices, and they use appropriate punctuation (e.g., correct ending and internal punctuation, apostrophes, punctuation with quotations) and spell correctly. They have knowledge of the principles of composition, such as paragraphing, variety in sentence structure, effective coordination and subordination of ideas, smooth transitions, precise word choice, and effective use of rhetorical techniques when completing expressive, persuasive, or narrative writing and speech assignments. They understand the acquisition and development of writing skills, including the stages of the writing process—pre-writing through revision and editing—and its recursive nature. They know how to structure and delimit writing assignments to provide appropriate challenges for students and to construct sequences of assignments to provide different degrees of rhetorical or logical difficulty. They know how to evaluate student writing in a manner that explains clearly to the student the errors and shortcomings of the writing, and suggest improvements in ideas and content, organization, transitions, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, eloquence, and style.

RESEARCH STRATEGIES
Skilled English Language Arts teachers understand successful research strategies, including narrowing the focus of a research question, knowing the function of and appropriately using research sources, skimming materials to develop a general overview, summarizing and organizing information from multiple sources, and citing research sources using accepted conventions. They can conduct searches and use databases on the Internet, evaluating whether or not an Internet source was reliable.

and i have to think of something to do again. tonight is the county schools meeting, to find our how to transcend into teacherhood.  i’m half tempted not to go, although i registered, since they didn’t have art on their list of subjects and i don’t want to get discouraged.  but i will go, that’s today’s thing.  and it’s rainy, and i need to get out, so I will do that.  I still have to complete more county forms, that will be tonight after i get home, i’ve decided. i really put those things off, i don’t know why, reluctance to accept myself, i guess.  I’m to take them to jackie when i meet the rest of the crew tomorrow at 11:30.

oh, i hope the schools meeting doesn’t discourage me.  i’m so easily discouraged…

today.  possibly because i have only been able to do my own work in my “time off” for so very long, now whenever i spend a day working on my art, or working up a knitting project, i feel guilty, like I’m goofing off instead of working.  I haven’t gotten it through my head yet that this is what i’m supposed to be doing!  i have set it up so that I can spend this year seeing what i can accomplish and the part time rec job will feed into that, and I must work on art now, it’s what the plan was.  I must stop feeling guilty doing it, it’s what i’m supposed to be doing.  instead i waste brain cells worrying that i’m not bringing in money, i’m not making enough to live on yet.  I’m supposed to be making things, not money!  Not just now, anyway. how can i convince myself of this?

R. came to the knitting group today and i was able to tell her about my new job.  of course, my mind says, r. is wealthy, she doesn’t know otherwise, but is that the case, that she doesn’t know?  does that make what she tells me incorrect?  they’re all wealthy.  does that make any difference?  that pedestrian view of money again.

i’ve been off surfing into the past, old ballet days, having found this image on somebody’s blog while studying archives for woolf camp (mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys, no matter how evident the talent is, as here in this perfect four year old—just look at those hands!)  gelsey is alive and in australia, married to somebody new. johnna is nowhere to be found.  johnny is touring a ballet of casablanca in beijing?  wha?  sigh.  (how odd that gelsey made it while jack didn’t, but then those girls were tough as nails—i mean survivors—and jack wasn’t, does that count?)

anyway, i continue to awaken at 4:30 isn’t that great?  of course i go back to sleep in an hour or so, but it’s a start anyway. now it’s nearly noon and today is gasparilla, so i have to remember not to go south.

gasparilla is tampa’s version of mardi gras with none of its positive overtones.  ersatz and stupid.  and racist. nobody in their right mind would go near it, except people who move to south tampa with far too much money for the area and try to create some sort of life. sigh.  so i’m not going to the shop today, perhaps i’ll go north and drop off those socks at susan’s, hmmm.  anyway, my computer morning is over now and it’s time to get on with saturday…

the spell checker on this thing seems not to recognize the word saturday.  odd.

and then some work on art.  i now have five paintings lined up that i need to get into the studio.  i need first to get the studio to resemble something one might actually go into.  before that, i need to get the study, my other half, torn apart in order to find the documents proving citizenship.  but today, as i mentioned, i need to get the forms filled out and the license and stub to jackie.  for that, i need brunch at a coffee shop.

work it backwards.  but work it!

the to do list, edited, says all i have to do today is fill out those application forms and take them, with my drivers’ license and stub, to jackie after lunch. everything else can come in time. i should be able to get that done. focus.  breathe.  think.  read.  plan food.  calm. calm.

it was really so much easier when I just had to go to work every day, although so much deader.  how did i get things done then, they didn’t bloom out of control then.  they didn’t bloom then, i didn’t do them then.  i didn’t bloom then.