ASU, here I come

My last day of work at Sandia National Labs was Thursday the 13th, leaving me with one full day to wash clothes, pack up my belonging, clean the room, and prepare to depart the next morning. Ashlee's arrival at 1am (Saturday) was exactly what I had planned for, and we went straight to bed after her long day.

We considered riding the Sandia Peak Tramway before we left Albuquerque, but two $17.50 round trip tickets were a bit more expensive than we were willing to spend. Instead we enjoyed the a scenic route back to Arizona along U.S. Highway 60. We got to see the Very Large Array and passed through a couple national forests. Had we gone straight to Pat and Wanda's place, it would have be about 90 miles less driving then the interstate route, but once we went to downtown Phoenix to drop off Titus, it was about the same total distance.

I don't start classes at ASU until next week, but I have some orientation events this week, not to mention all the paperwork that comes with starting work/education at a new place. Citizenship verification, ID photo shoot, tax forms, etc have been taking up my time.

I'm sure many of you are curious about what exactly I'll be doing at ASU, so I'll lay out some of the details here. I'm starting as a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering. I'm in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, specifically the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering, or MACME. Notice that including an 's' (for school) in the acronym allows it to be pronounced "smack me." This is one of several units in the engineering college, and the full list is here.

Returning to what I'll be doing, that's still a bit up in the air. Hopefully I'll have a better idea tomorrow after I've met with Mark van Schilfgaarde, who will be my advisor. PhD projects are driven by the proposals that get funded. Last spring Dr. van Schilfgaarde knew he would have enough funding to support another PhD student, but was hoping to get more funding relating to the stimulus money. He wants to start some energy-related projects, which I might end up working on. In any case, his (and my, eventually) specialty is simulation and modelling of electronic structures of materials. The location and behavior of electrons in materials is really what gives rise to many of the properties of materials, meaning that the more understanding we can gain of the electronic structure of a material, the more we can understand the material in general.

Because I already have my materials MS from CMU, I'm able to apply 30 credits toward the coursework requirement for my PhD. That, combined with the way the requirements work, means that I only have to take five lecture classes at ASU. Four are cores which everyone has to take, and one is an elective, meaning any grad-level materials course. I'll be done with all my classes in one year, which is good because it means that I'll be able to devote all my time to research sooner.

One final note: I can hardly believe it, but we are closing on the house a week from tomorrow!

Weekend Catch-Up

Well, we've once again been swept up in a whirl of busy-ness. This weekend was the weekend that Todd returned to Phoenix.

I left Phoenix after work on Friday and drove to Albuquerque. It was a long drive and I was pretty tired by the time I arrived (around midnight). The next morning we got up, packed up Todd's stuff, put gas in the car and ice in the cooler, and left for Phoenix again.

Titus came with us this time and I have to admit, it was great to see my kitten again. Once we got to Phoenix, we dropped Titus off at the apartment of a fellow Teach For America member. We can't keep him here in the park with us because there are no pets allowed in this section of the park. I'm sure he'll be fine for the next two weeks.

This week Todd is kind of hanging out. He has a day or two of orientation and I'm going to take him to the school with me. Having him there to help me clean out some storage rooms will be nice, plus it counts for volunteer hours!

Anyway, I'm getting a little ill, already. My throat is extremely sore in the mornings. I've been told that I'm going to be constantly ill for this first year until my immune system builds up a little bit. I just hope it builds up quickly!

Now it's time to head to work! More updates to come in a bit. I just wanted to catch everyone up on our weekend.

Signing off,
Ashlee

Happy Anniversary, Home, and Off to Work

So, there were some issues with the house. First of all, it didn't appraise for what we offered. Those of you familiar with the process of buying a home know that the loan agent won't give you more than the home appraises for.

So we had to change our offer to $10,000 less than what we originally offered. And we've been worried since then that the seller wasn't going to accept it. It's been a pretty large concern of ours and we've been anxious about hearing back from the seller.

After a lot of back and forth (and even seeing our house go back on the market, which made our hearts drop), we heard back definitively from the seller.

HE SIGNED THE ADDENDUM. WE'RE BUYING THE HOUSE FOR 10K LESS THAN WHAT WE OFFERED!

I was so ecstatic last night that I had to run over and tell Uncle Pat and Aunt Wanda. It's a good deal for the house and a huge relief to Todd and I.

We're considering it an anniversary gift from the seller to us. =)

And now, I'm off to work! The 20 kids don't scare me now. I HAVE A HOUSE!

Transition Days...And Tomorrow

Monday and Tuesday have passed and I have survived. And I don't even have to add a "barely," to the end of that sentence. These past couple of days have actually been pretty good. Ten kids in the classroom with 2 teachers and a parent or two makes it pretty nice. The days were relatively calm, though we did have some crying kids. It's to be expected that some kids would cry, especially since a lot of the kids haven't been away from mom and dad before.

On Monday, we had two kids who cried. One little boy's mom slipped out of the door while he was busy playing with dinosaurs. As soon as he realized that mom was gone he threw himself at the door - luckily I was there to catch him before he could bash his head through the door. I picked him up (getting tears, snot, and slobber on me in the process), and took him to the quiet area for a while. We just sat there while he cried. And about 15 minutes later, he was just fine.

And then there was the screamer. A little girl who screamed the most blood-curdling, movie-worthy scream that I have ever heard when her dad slipped out of the classroom. As luck would have it, she had just started screaming when another family was coming into the classroom. They stopped in the doorway and their eyes got a little wide. I'm sure that they were wondering what kind of torture we were inflicting on the kids.

But all things considered, the day went fine. Until we left a little boy in the classroom...On accident...

This little boy was eating really slowly at the lunch table. I was on the carpet with the rest of the class doing activities, singing songs, and going through our routine. And then we lined up to go outside. We walked outside and through the gate to the playground...

"Where's [Little boy's name]?" asked Fari.

"..."

"Oh shoot!"

By that time, Celeste (the AM teacher) was walking the little boy to the playground. So he was never really alone in the classroom.

Needless to say, we're implementing a counting routine before we leave the classroom and after we're done at the playground.

And we didn't forget anyone in the classroom on today!

Overall, I think it went well. It's certainly going to be a challenge, but I'm not freaking out about it. I think that any time you're in charge of a classroom of 20 four-year olds, you're going to have a bit of a challenge ahead of you.

Tomorrow is the first day where all 20 students will be in the class. It's going to be interesting, for sure. I sense that it's going to be pretty chaotic.

I'll let you all know how it goes!

Classroom and School Tomorrow

The day has arrived. My first day in the classroom.

Or at least that is what tomorrow will be for me. I'm pretty nervous tonight and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get to sleep early. It might be hard because of the jitters I have. Tomorrow I will have half the class (10 kids) and then I'll have the other half on Tuesday. Wednesday is my first day with all of the kids. It will be me, Fari (my assistant), and...20 four-year olds.

Should be interesting.

I thought that I would show you some pictures of my classroom. As some of you might know, pre-school classrooms are usually divided into 'centers.' My classroom has about 9 different centers, sometimes more, depending on the day. The kids can go to the different centers depending on what they feel like doing during the day. It's all up to the kids and the choices they make. Kids at this age learn best through play, so we try to make the day fun and interesting. We also have to do certain things during the day, since we're a federally funded program. Here's my schedule!

12:30-1:00 Arrival/Wash Hands/Lunch
1:00-1:10 Wash Hands/Brush Teeth
1:10-1:20 Large Group
1:20-1:50 Outside Time
1:50-3:50 Come Inside/Wash Hands/Free Choice/ Small Group
3:50-4:20 Wash Hands/Snack/Wash Hands
4:20-4:30 Goodbye Circle

As you can see, we do a lot of hand-washing. I'll likely explain more about the curriculum we follow and the themes in the classroom as time goes by. This will just be a little introduction to my life as a Head Start teacher.

But first, a little tour of the classroom...

This is what the classroom looks like as you walk in the front door. Everything printed in the classroom needs to be in both English and Spanish, so you can see 'Welcome' and 'Bienvenido' up on the wall. I made those! I must say that I was kind of excited that they turned out. My mom will be the first to tell you that I've never been very good at cutting things out with scissors.

This is a little glimpse at our 'Welcome Area.' It's a space in the classroom where parents can sit with their children if their kids are having a hard time separating from them. So we put a lot of pictures of the families and try to make it look welcoming.

This is a close-up of our Large Group circle area. The rug has the alphabet on it. One of the blue canvas things on the wall has the calendar and the other one has our daily schedule on it. The little school house will have velcro on it where the names of the children will go if they're in school today.

This shows our block area. The construction paper on the wall is the space for each child in the classroom to display their art. My class is black and red and the morning class is the black and purple. Each display has the child's name and their picture.

This shows the science area and the computer area. It also shows our quiet area (on the right). The quiet area is supposed to be really soft - like the physical manifestation of a hug. It's where the children can go if they're upset or having a difficult time.

And this is the teacher workspace. The AM, PM, and all-day classrooms share this.

So, that's just an introduction.

And now...I'm going to try to relax and get to bed. I'm still really nervous about class tomorrow. But it will be alright. It will just take time.

Oh! And Aunt Wanda made me a little hip apron to wear. It's going to be super helpful to carry all things around.

Maybe I'll get a picture of the apron sometime.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...

!!!!

July 4th Mt. Adams trip, addendum

Slide show with selected pictures from the trip.

http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=ddffnn&SID=256004&Show=Y&p=&shareShow=N

A Skunky Story

Well, it's been a while since I've written a blog post. And that's not due to the lack of stories. Rather, it's due to the busy days that I've had. But there is a story that I've wanted to share for a bit now.

And I had best do so before the week starts again.

After my first week of work, my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Pat took me out to dinner. We went to a nice little restaurant in the marina by a lake. A balcony overlooked the lake and docks lined the shore. It was a beautiful sight and the food was good.

After dinner, Uncle Pat and I stood against the railing on the balcony, enjoying the view of the dark lake. As we stood there, I heard a rustle in the bushes near the edge of the balcony. I paid the sound no mind, thinking that it was only the wind. But the rustle came again and I looked down, terrified that I would see a snake slithering through the bushes.

Thankfully no snake was in sight. Instead I saw a bundle of black fur with a white stripe going down the middle...

"Uncle Pat! It's a skunk!" I said, stepping back quickly and pointing over the ledge.

I had never seen a skunk before (at least not a living one) and I stood there and watched it as it waddled along the edge of the balcony and out of sight.

The next evening, as I opened my front door to head over to my Uncle Pat and Aunt Wanda's home for dinner...I found another one.

The biggest skunk ever. Under my car.

Here, take a look at this thing.



I stood there a moment, my hand over my heart and my eyes wide. And then...I remembered where I was...and who my uncle was...And I took a closer look.



...A stuffed animal. Laughing to myself I walked over to their house. As I walked through the front door, I could hear both Aunt Wanda and Uncle Pat laughing.

Aunt Wanda said that Uncle Pat even referred to me as "Skunk Girl," and that he had been waiting all day for me to walk out my front door.

I love them both, dearly... Although I bet none of my neighbors at my new house will leave me little gifts underneath my car.

At least I hope not.