Papa D's and Karaoke

Another fun-filled wednesday came and went. Yep.

Wednesdays are our night out. Us RT's that is. I don't know how it came about to be Wednesday nights....probably becuase most don't have class 'til 1 and many people leave for the weekend on thursday nights.

Anywhoo..

We hit up a local....very small...bar...at 830. We'll just call it Papa D's.

So, one might ask why we went there?!?!

Well, if you've been....you'd know.

Not the greatest crowd hangs out there.. .. . but boy, do they give you your moneys worth. Wow! They burn those drinks like it is going out of style.

We had a couple drinks there. ... . . then we hit up a different bar....

.. . . one that is so packed during the school year, but only has part of it open during the summer... . . . and it was Karaoke time!

Oh, it was so much fun. I didn't sing. nope. Not this girl. I can't sing.. . . but, it was sure fun seeing some of those RT's get up there and sing. Some of them could really belt it out!

From there, it was home just in time to get 7 hours of sleep before getting up for work. Fun times!

Today, I get to meet up with some co-workers from this past school year for lunch. Mmm.. I am so excited!

Only one more day and I get to go home! Yippee!!!

Happy runnings, y'all!

Run Girl, Run

Yesterday I swam 15 laps with my sis. So much fun. We tried out our swim caps and goggles that we purchased. Very amusing. We couldn't take each other serious...for how rediculous we looked in those goggles!

Today was just a 3 mile run... but it felt like 6. I don't know what my deal was. I thought I had a good attitude when I got up. Anyway, I completed it, and I don't plan on running again until my long run on saturday morning.... My knees are a little sore/tender...so runners, I am icing! Yep. ICING. BRRR..

I plan to get on my bike tomorrow morning before work! And I will be taking Friday OFF....since I will be driving home for a nice long weekend with the family!

Happy runnings, y'all!

It's Monday...already

Went for a 3.5 mile run this morning. Wasn't the greatest. It wasn't hot, but the 67 degree weather was dead and somewhat humid. No breeze what-so-ever.

My knees were somewhat bothering me and I am assuming this is from my long run on saturday. So, I should probably ice them today.

Well, here goes another busy week before a nice long weekend with the family! I can't wait! I won't have school until next wednesday. Can't beat a 5 day weekend!

Happy Runnings, y'all!

Training: WEEK 8

I am taking today off. Yes. OFF. After my "long" run yesterday, and working all day, I could barely accomplish anything last night, and was not reading to do anything today. Nothing. I am not sore. I can tell my legs, from hip to feet, are a little tight, but other than that I feel great. My lungs/chest though. You know that feeling you get in your lungs when you are getting sick? You know when you wake up and your chest is tight and when you breath heavy it "tickles"? That is the way I felt this morning. I still kind of feel that way. So, I am taking the day off. Doing nothing but homework and maybe going to good ole starbucks with the Sis.

Happy runnings y'all!

WEEK 8 IN REVIEW:
Monday: 6.2 mile bike
Tuesday: 2.14 mile run, 10 laps swim ( 1/4 mile+)
Wednesday: 3.6 mile run
Thursday: OFF
Friday: 15 laps swim (.42 mile)
Saturday: 5.87 mile run
Sunday: OFF

WEEK 8 TOTALS:

• __11.61_ miles (run)
• __6.2_ miles (bike)
• _25__laps swim
  

Saturday Morning Run

Went for a run this morning.

Nothing better than getting up at 6am to run on a SATURDAY morning, just to come home...shower...and head to work for a 5 hour shift on my feet!

Not so smart.

But, it has been a couple days since I ran and I didn't want to do an intense workout tomorrow.

So, I ran 5.87 miles today. Was shooting for 6 miles, but didn't want to run around the block just to make that 6 mile marker. My stomach was starting to do a pyro-technic show at about 4.5 miles, so I just didn't want to push it! .... .. .. I think I ate too much banana before the run...

Tomorrow, I will hopefully take a break from studying to do a nice bike ride. Happy running y'all!

Swim little fishy

Sis and I went to the pool again today for a swim! Had to go a little later due to a power outage in the building (due to the building of a new parking ramp on campus). So, we just had enough time to do 15 laps. Yep! 15 laps! By the time we got out of there, I was ready to kick some of those adolescent boys that were there for open swim. They didn't understand the concept of staying out of the lanes while playing their little boy games. Boys. I think we could have done a couple more laps before the pool closed, but my patience had been tested! It felt great though! Now I am pooped. Good thing I have nothing planned but homework for the night! Go me!

I need HELP!!

Okay. Starting to get worried a little bit. I have only 11 more weeks until HM time and I feel like I am never going to be ready. I know. 11 weeks is quite a bit of time still, but I am like that.

My long run this weekend consists of 7 miles. 7 MILES. That is crazy. I don't know how I will get through it! I can't imagine doing 8 or 9 or 10 right now. I struggle with 6.

Grr.

Am I running enough during the week?

I thought that if I was running a couple times during the week and then cross-training the rest that I would be safe and keep myself from getting injured. Now I am starting to think that I should be running 4 times a week, that including my long run.

Is it better to run further when I run a few times a week, or is it better to run more often at decent distance (3-4 miles)? I ran yesterday 3.6 miles and wasn't planning to run now until my long run saturday. Plus, my legs were a little achy last, night . .. especially when I was on my feet for quite a few hours last night. Maybe I should run another 3 miles tomorrow and then do my long run sunday... . . . hmm...

Calling all runners, I need some good ideas.. . .. ...let me know what you think!! HELP!!!

Game 6: And the HEAT is DEFINITELY on!

Oohh.... watch the hands ... . . Good Lord.. . . What were you thinking . . . oh yeah, that was a nice shot. . . what, Miami is ahead at half time? . . . . oh yeah, they're still ahead. .. . oh, 6 point lead. . . yep.

We're good. We're doin' just fine.

Dangit.... 1 pt game. .. . mark cuban is going down. . . oh missed a three-pointer.. . .got the rebound. . . yes. three point lead. 1:05 to go.. . Time out. . . 54.6 seconds remaining.

Time out.

We do not want an overtime here. I gotta get up and do a nice run in the morning and then do some more homework . . . all before NOON!

26.2 seconds left and Dwyane Wade at the free throw line... got the pair! 3 pt. lead.

PLEASE no overtime.

Foul Wade ... again. That was definitely a fair call. Oooh baby! Good vibes...good vides (Cdoc, I am sending my good vibes!).

Yes! Two more points from Wade! 5 point lead! 17.7 seconds left! Terry misses his three point... ahhh. He makes a free throw. .. . . and another one.

3 point lead. We're still good.

Dwyane Wade ... 16 for 19... yep. at the line, AGAIN! 10.3 seconds left. DANGIT. Misses the first. SH*T...misses the second. What the heck!

Terry puts it up for three . .. and... and.. MISSES!!!! WAHOOO!! 95-92: MIAMI!

MIAMI takes their 1st Championship in FRANCHISE HISTORY.... did I hear that right?!?! Correct me if I am wrong! Of all places . . ... . On the Mav's court!

Sorry Dad.... you were wrong! I will forgive you!

I could definitely be a basketball announcer.

Definitely.

Don't laugh! My potty mouth might come out. yep. A teacher with a MILD potty mouth. It's just my competitive side coming out!

I am surprised no neighbors came to complain about any random shouts (not swearing) just shouts of excitement. . . or frustration.

Ahhh.... I can breath. And now I can sleep! Hopefully! I'm tooooo exciiiited to sleeeep!!!

Way to go Coach Riley... for having faith in this team!

Why are they boo-ing the NBA Commissioner? Did I miss something?

And the MVP is: (Drumroll please)
Dwyane Wade (36 points).
Could have called that one!

Just Beautiful!

Ahh... . . no more basketball for a while! (sniff, sniff) We got the NBA Draft starting next week though!

Goodnight ... and Congratulations Miami!

Swimming Fun

Swam 10 laps this afternoon. If I am informed correctly, that is a tish more than a quarter of a mile! Wahoo. Go me. Go sis! What a workout. Especially if you are not used to it!

Plus, towards the end we had to dodge some little kiddies that were swimming on the pool, outside the lanes... somehow a couple would tend to end up in the lanes.

Definitely going to have to add this to my regular workout routine. Felt so good!

Cloudy and Cool

Last night I actually got to bed at a decent time. I wanted to be able to get up at early to go for a couple mile jog/Fartlek and then work on some class assignments the rest of the day.

Well, I got a good nights sleep and was up at 6:45 to stretch and have a piece of toast. I was out the door by 7:15 and off I went! What a gloomy day. It is so cloudy and I was dreading the idea of rain pouring down on me while I was out there.... .. but it didn't. So I just pranced around the neighborhood...doing a little walking, some sprinting, and a lot of running! Fun fun! I didn't want to do too much, since I plan on swimming this afternoon with my sister and I have a longer run tomorrow!

Yes. .. . I did mention going swimming today. I don't know how much I will be able to do; it has been quite a while . . .... LONG while since I have done laps. We'll see though.

I do need to do a little venting though. This city I live in. It is not suit for athletes. Not runners. Not bikers. Not swimmers. It is pathetic. I have wanted to swim all summer long since I am now able to use the campus pool, but the pool hours are pathetic, and trying to plan around classes is even worse. Then, we have the Y, which basically only has 3 laps, and their hours are pathetic as well and you have to share the laps with old women who seem to be .... . just .. ... ..floating. Give me a break. What is a swimmer to do? Don't even get me started on the prices of gym memberships around here either... . . not that there is much to choose from. I can't wait to get out of this city. The rest of the state isn't this way. I could definitely handle moving back to my hometown. Atleast they have trails made of asphalt that run ALL over the city, and there is a great size pool at the Y. Grr.

Well, that's enough from me. I will post later on my laps! Happy Tuesday!

Gotta love the HEAT!!

Wow! Can you believe it!?!?! The Miami HEAT won in overtime last night (101-100). We all have Dwyane Wade to thank for that! A man that can score 43 points in one game is sure at the top of my favorites list! Heck, he has had 3 consecutive games of scoring 35+ points! And wouldn't you know, Shaq has done the same twice before! Shaq! Wow!

Anyway, last nights game was pretty HOT...get it...hot...miami heat. Hehehe. Well it was also a long game, which means I was up past midnight. Sis and I were to go to the gym this morning for spin class at 6:30am. That didn't happen. Oops. I was too tired, and it seemed that she didn't mind either. By 9am this morning I was starting to feel like I needed to get out and do something.. .. .. .. especially since I was going to be in class from 1-9 today. So, I got up and took my bike for a spin. What a beautiful morning! 60 degrees and a little breeze. Nice. Felt real good. Real good. 6.2 miles I logged! Wonderful!

Well... ... happy runnings everyone! Game 6 ... tuesday night .... . . Be there or be square!!

Training: WEEK 7

Here it is ... . ... .. my week in review. It is pretty pathetic....better than nothing though. Today was going to be another day off, but decided to go for a nice little jaunt with my sis! It was a little cool to start, but then the clouds decided to part and the sun was pretty warm. But, there were some lovely wind gust that kept us cool, I guess.

Monday: OFF
Tuesday: 2 mile
Wednesday: 8 mile bike
Thursday: OFF
Friday: OFF
Saturday: 4.92 miles
Sunday: 2.25 mile run

WEEK 7 TOTALS:

• _9.17__ miles (run)
• __8_ miles(bike)

Now all I have to look forward to tonight is Game 5 of the Miami/Dallas playoffs! YEAH!!! I am so excited! Go MIAMI! But, I must do some homework before game time....wish me luck!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!! I hope you had a nice relaxing day!

Goodmorning Everyone!

Goodmorning everyone! Happy Saturday!

So today I was up at the crack of dawn to do a run outdoors before work! Wahoo! I had a positive mind set when I left my apartment at 7am. My first 2 miles were fine. Then there were a couple little inclines. Yuck. All in all, I completed 4.92 miles. Outdoors. I haven't done much running outside, and have done quite a bit on the "thrillmill". What would you all prefer? Why is it harder for me to run outdoors than on the treadmill? Huh? I don't get it. From now on, I am running outdoors as much as possible, or I will NEVER be ready for my race. Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated! Off to work I go!

Where did the week go?

So, it is already friday. I have only ran once this week, a very unsuccesful run might I add. And I only did one day of biking. What on earth is going on?!?!

Well, I can say, that I did go out of my norm and ended up going out...on wednesday night. Wednesday night! That is so not like me. But, a couple people from class decided that all of us RT's were going to go out after class on wednesday, since most of us didn't have class until 1 or 5 on thursday. Okay. sounds good. So we met up at a local restaraunt and sat out on the patio to enjoy a wonderful evening. Then we walked to one of the bars. From there it was all a blur. Just kidding. But, I was up until the wee hours....but had fun hanging out with a bunch of people I have classes with. I enjoyed the time getting to know them better!

So, needless to say, I didn't complete my run on thursday morning....too tired. Darnit. Same for this morning! What is going on? I was wiped. All I did yesterday was go to class in the evening and then we had volleyball at 9:30....which didn't start until 10... so I was not inclined to get up and run before getting to work at 11 this morning. I will admit it. I was lazy. But, I decided to change my long run from sunday to saturday now. And, if I have enough energy on sunday I will do a short run or a long bike! There! There it is!

Hopefully I will be ready for my long run tomorrow...it feels like it has been too long!

Happy Running, people!

News: Whaling

I am trying to help my friend in getting petitions signed to keep whaling from becoming legal. It is not right. Here is her post from today. You can click on it and she has three different petitions you can fill out. Every little bit counts, especially when we can't do much from behind our computers half a world away... Thanks.. Much appreciated...

Deep Thoughts

So, I had class today from 1-9:00. Yuck. Our evening class is scheduled until 8:30, but she decided that due to the fact that we will not be having class on the 3rd of July, she is going to have to extend a few of our classes until 9:00. What a bunch of bologna! Okay. I will deal with it. Plus, that allows me to spend an extra day with my family at home. Gotta look at the positives.

So, in my Special Ed. Law class tonight we did a lot of discussing. A lot. I mean a lot. Almost too much. One of the things that brought on a lot of dicussion was the Brown v. Board of Education case, which if some of you are unaware of, reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson case that stated "separate but equal". The results of Brown v. Board of Education came to the conclusion that blacks attending separate schools from whites was not separate but equal, but it in some places made black feel inferior and had a psychological affect on these children. In regards to education, the purpose of our education system in this wonderful country is to give all the best education possible, and not base it on race. This case played a HUGE role in the education of students with disabilities. A huge role. Parents started fighting for the rights of their children, with disabilities, to be given a free and appropriate education. It only made sense. Right? Children with disabilities should not be shunned from an education due to their disabilities... just like black should not have been shunned from a great education due to their color of skin. IT ONLY MAKES SENSE.

The problem is people still have a problem with it. Not a lot. But it still happens. We have teachers complaining, we have administrators complaining. Teachers saying: I don't have the time, it's going to slow down my teaching to meet the needs of slower students, I don't have the resources. Then we have administrators and Superintendents saying: Where are we going to get the funding, we don't have qualified teachers/paraeducators to work with these students, we don't have the facilities to work with these students, etc... Blah blah blah..

Another problem we discussed tonight was the barrier between Regular Education Teachers and Special Education Teachers. And don't get me wrong, in a lot of situations there isn't that barrier; but in some situations, there is. And it is hard to teach the child in the best way possible when some teachers think that special education teachers will do their thing, and they will do their thing. All teachers need to remember that they are working as a TEAM to meet the best interests of the student. We are a TEAM people. I am not trying to be hard on the regular education teachers, becuase I have that background, and have played on that side of the fence. But, there are some teachers that think special education students are the special education teachers responsibilities and not theirs. I think also that this barrier is created by special education teachers and regular teacher equally. We need to remind ourselves that there is equal responsibility when it comes to accomodating and modifying for these students.

Anyway... Enough about that. Just a little ranting...

So, I get out of class at nine. Great. So much for doing anything fun. I am completely exhausted from sitting in uncomfortable chairs for 7+ hours and I am mentally drained. I was also hoping to go out for a little while for a friends birthday. But, they already did the dinner thing, and I didn't know if I was up to going to the bars with a bunch of guys, including the infamous ex. Not so much. This is another problem. ... The ugly ex (kinda like the ugly duckling) and I have some mutual friends.... kind of makes things a little difficult... Don't get me wrong, I am an adult when in the presence of him, but don't really feel like going out and doing the bar scene with him... of all people... This is kind of killing my social life...kinda. Mind, you there isn't much to do in this particular neck of the woods...

On the lighter note...I took a REST day! yep. I pulled the REST CARD and used it today. I can give myself one of those once a week, right? or twice...at the most!

On a NBA note.... quite disappointed with the HEAT last night. Quite disappointed. If they could come back as far as they did, they better not lose the next game. Not if they can come from that far of a deficit! I still have faith in them! Come on boys! You can do it!

Well, I hope to either do an easy 3 miles tomorrow, or a 2 mile fartlek...or something in between. We'll see what I feel like in the AM, and what the weather is, becuase I am RUNNING OUTSIDE tomorrow! Yep... I am giving the thrillmill (yeah, you heard it) a break tomorrow..

So.. . . .... this was Deep Thoughts coming from Teacherwoman... ... .. saying goodnight and happy runnings folks!

Training: WEEK 6

I almost forgot to post my Week 6 of my training! OOPS! Here it is!

Monday: OFF, had a long run sunday!
Tuesday: 2 mile Easy
Wednesday: XT - Bike 40 minutes, in the darn wind
Thursday: 5 mile run
Friday: OFF
Saturday: XT - EFX 25 minutes
Sunday: 6.2 mile run


WEEK 6 TOTALS:

• __13.2_ miles (run)
• ____ miles (walk)
• _40__ minutes (bike)
• ____ laps (swim)
• ____ min. (spin)
• __25__ min. (eliptical)
• ____ min. (rollerblade)

Weekend in Review...

The weekend is closing in and I kinda feel as if I got quite a bit accomplished. Looking at my To Do list:

• complete CI final exam (from last weeks class) - CHECK
  
• read Ch. 1-6 in SPED Law - CHECK
  
• complete review paper on Brown vs. Board of Ed. (yeah...oh wait, not so much) - CHECK
  
• Complete Ch. 1&2 chapter study guides for Methods class - CHECK
  
• Read Ch. 3&4 for Behav. Mgt. class and complete assignment - CHECK
  
• Start working on Methods cards - CHECK
  
• Run 6 GREAT miles! - CHECK

I completed everything! And, it is only 7:55 on Sunday. Wahoo! Go me! I finished my CI final exam just in time to .... watch... NBA playoffs... by myself. Oh. Oh well. Don't pitty me! I will probably doing some work on my methods cards while watching the game. I am a big girl! I can handle it!

On top of all that wonderful homework, I was able to get out and about a little this weekend. No, I didn't do any sort of partying, but I did get out saturday afternoon. My sister and I went to the Art Fest that was taking place in town. There was quite the crowd despite the weather. It was kind of warm, but there was a chilly breeze that made dressing appropriate almost impossible.

After walking through all the booths and not spending any money we went home to have lunch. We decided to pass on the Indian Tacos although they sounded sooooo good...but tooooo expensive.

After doing some more homework.... we decided to hit up a movie. Sis had two free movie passes so we took advantage of them. We went to The Breakup! I was kind of weary of going when it first came out, do to my recent breakup in april. And I will admit, there were some sappy parts that hit home, but made me realize that I am not the only person who has gone through a break up like this... a break up that happens after 4+ years of dating.... (sorry for any family that was unaware of this and reads my blog....) But, it was a wonderful movie and I love Jenifer Aniston and Vince Vauhn. I highly recommend it!

On a running note...yes I completed my scheduled 6 miles today! ... . .. and then some! I went an extra 0.2 of a mile to see how long it would take me to complete a 10K. I have never run 10K before. EVER! so, I ran it today... in 1:11:27! Yippee! I was so excited when I was done! And boy, was I ready to be done when I hit 6.2 miles. My left lower calf was bothering me again, but I stuck in there and completed it!

Oooh.... gotta jet! Game is about to start! GO MIAMI!!!!!! Ooooh... Elliot Yamin is singing the National Anthem... See ya!

Procrastination...I don't like it

So yesterday I did my 5 miles that were required by my new schedule. Fine. I did it. Not too much difficulty.

Then I came home and spent some time reading a couple chapters for my behavior management class last night. Too much reading. I couldn't tell if my sleepiness was due to my 5 miles at 8am or the reading....or both. I blamed it on the miles. Since I do remember feeling tired before I even sat down to do homework.

Why was I so tired? I was so afraid I was going to be sleepy that I bought a soda to drink during class. Yuck. I didn't even want it that bad, but knew that I might have needed the caffiene. I just felt icky from the soda afterwards that I regretted it. Big time.

Anyway. to get to the point of this blog. .. . ... was there one? I am procrastinating. I had to work today from 10-4:30 and during that time all I could think about was how much homework I need to do this weekend including how much I don't care for my job anymore. I am definitely going to have to quit by July. Definitely. I won't have time after that.

So, I have all this homework to do... .. . ... and I am blogging. Interesting. I have never been that much of a procrastinator. .... ever. But I am. Today. I had all these plans of doing a bunch of homework this afternoon when I was supposed to get off work at 1. That didn't happen. Now I am frustrated. Maybe just a little lazy!

Speaking of lazy, I didn't do anything cardio today. Nope. took the day off. And I don't feel a bit guilty. Maybe a little bit. But sis and I might go golfing tomorrow .. .. . .. weather permitting. That will involve a little walking . ... I don't think I could handle more than 9 holes. But, I do have a 6 mile run scheduled for sunday so I am going to take it easy! Maybe I will go for a walk tomorrow if it is raining.

To Do List for the weekend:

• complete CI final exam (from last weeks class)
• read Ch. 1-6 in SPED Law
• complete review paper on Brown vs. Board of Ed. (yeah...oh wait, not so much)
• Complete Ch. 1&2 chapter study guides for Methods class
• Read Ch. 3&4 for Behav. Mgt. class and complete assignment
• Start working on Methods cards
• Run 6 GREAT miles!

Maybe someone will feel sorry for me. Just kiddin'. Just giving you all an idea as to what I am NOT doing right now that I SHOULD be doing. Oddly enough, I look forward to running the 6 miles over the homework! What is happening to me??!?!?!

Training...change in schedule

Well, I switched to a different running schedule. My parents found a running coach on runnersworld.com. So, I checked it out.

I was impressed. With that schedule, I was able to keep up the miles, but not have to run as often during the week. This will allow me to do some good cross-training and hopefully keep myself from getting injured.

So, with this change in schedule, I was scheduled to run 5 miles today. Again. I just did that sunday! So I wasn't too excited about it. Bad attitude I guess.

But, I got up this morning. Stretched, really good. Watched a little of the Today show. Then finally picked myself up off the floor and headed for the gym.

It was nice. The gym was almost empty and it was actually cool in there and you could breath! Usually it is so warm and humid that it is miserable to workout in there.

Anyway, I hopped on the treadmill and took off. I did some walking again. I just wanted to complete the mileage. And I did. In the same amout of time as sunday. Wonderful! Not that time matters too much to me right now, but it gives me something to compare to.

Now, after a good 1/4 mile cool down, I stretched. Oh boy. sore already. Is that good or bad? My left calf, the lower portion, is a little sore. So, when I am done writing this I am going to ice it. Hopefully that will help.

Well, now I must spend the rest of this beautiful day studying. I am not used to all this reading and studying and assignments! But it is making me smarter! Doesn't that count for something?!

Ya-ouch!

Okay. So I took yesterday off. It really bothered me that I didn't do much yesterday morning but watch tv. I spent the rest of the day..until 7pm in class, and then the rest of the evening studying. Fun, fun.

I figured it was okay, and probably a good idea, to take yesterday off due to my 5-miler on sunday. So, today, I was scheduled to do an easy 2 miler. No problem, right? Well, I struggled.

I am going to blame this one on not enough stretching after sunday. Becuase I didn't. Live and learn. So, with that in mind, my legs were a little stiff, and my right shin started to bother me. So I had to walk some of it. No fun.

But, I did do a 20 minute AB workout today. I am going to be sore. I think I am going to do a long bike tomorrow morning, while it is still somewhat cool.

Word From the Not-so-wise

Long run at noon + little snack + Grande Mocha Frapaccino (Not Decaf) = Not falling asleep until after 1am

I was fine. We had a great run. Did some grocery shopping and had a snack. I am never really hungry right after running.

Then we went to Starbucks, grabbed a cool drink since it was so hot and planted ourselves outside to get some nice sun while we were studying.

Came home, made a nice Pad Tai dinner with sauteed veggies and did some homework in the evening. By 10pm I was drained. My eyes were tired. So I headed to bed.

Nope. Not going to fall asleep.

I heard my sister get up to go to the bathroom at 11ish.

Then I heard her turn on her light. She wasn't falling asleep either.

I then turned on my tv but could barely keep my eyes open to watch. It was more annoying than anything.

Finally, I think the last time I looked at my clock was 1:11am. Yuck.

Next time I will get it decaffinated. For sure.

Training: WEEK 5

I did it! I did 5 miles today! Wahoo!

It was an eventful run though. I think everything was against me. First of all, I did it on a treadmill. I forgot to grap a towel right away. NEEDED that. I struggled with the little thing that you plug your head set into so you can hear the tv. Then I just took it out. From there, I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of my run. Then I decided to use my nano. Pulled the headset from that twice! Then my towel fell from the treadmill for the 2nd time. Goodness gracious! But, I finished. With some good running, sprinting, and a little walking! 58 minutes and I was done! It felt great!

I plan to spend the rest of the day with a good frapaccino and some books! I have got homework to finish people! Maybe get a little sun inbetween!

Have a great week y'all!


WEEK 5 IN REVIEW:
Monday: run 4 miles/volleyball
Tuesday: Biking - 40 minutes
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: 2 miles Fast/volleyball
Friday: rollerblade 30min.
Saturday: biking 30 minutes
Sunday: run 5 miles


WEEK 5 TOTALS:

• __11_ miles (run)
• __0__ miles (walk)
• __70_ minutes (bike)
• __0__ laps (swim)
• __0__ min. (spin)
• __0__ min. (eliptical)
• __30__ min. (rollerblade)

Special Education + Pressure Switches

Today was thankfully the last of class, for this week. Actually, the classes I was taking this week are done. I start three new classes next week!

I completed my morning class with a test that we could work on with a partner. Not too bad I thought. Although we had to reading through many case students choose 2, one from a younger age group and one from an older age group. Then we had to basically pull it apart and discuss appropriate assistive technology for each student. Not too bad.

The afternoon class we did some more learning. Imagine that. Role playing. Can't get away from that in the education field. Then we learned some fun self-defense and "holds" for behavior children. That was fun. Especially when we got to pretend to pull each other's hair, choke each other, and try to kick each other! Then we did some role-playing as part of our final! I still have my take home test to do that is due in three weeks. More case studies! How crazy is that?

So I told you all about this class I was taking in which we made pressure switches Wednesday. I guess I left out what it is that pressure switches have to do with special education. Hmm. Sorry about that.

Special Education covers a wide variety of learners. You have your learning disabled, LD ( difficulties with math, reading, spelling and writing, along with some comprehension difficulties). Then there are your behavior children, ED/EBD. We work with these students on behavior, social skills, coping skills, power struggles, violent behavior towards themselves and others, etc. Then we have our developmentally cognitively delayed, DCD, students ( some people refer to these children as mentally retarted, MR). We don't use that term at school. Then you have to include hearing impairment, visual impairment, ADHD, ADD, ODD, OCD....we call it alphabet soup.

What I am trying to say is that there are a wide variety of learners. In order to help these students become learners, we need to be able to give them the assistance they need to learn. Some students need glasses, some need hearing aids, for the more severe or lower functioning students they need more.

To get to the point of this post, the reason why we created the switches is because our instructor felt that it was something that we should learn how to do. Switches for the classroom can cost from $75 - $200 probably. These switched we made probably cost $3. What can they be used for??? These are used a lot for lower functioning students. Students with cerebral palsy, multiple sclorosis, severely mentally handicap students, etc. These switches can be used to turn on lights, play a tape player, turn the blender on, turn the tv on, be used with computer programs/games, etc. For students who can't do much, this is something they can do.

Anyway, that is probably more than anyone wanted to know or read. But I thought I would explain that more. If there are other special ed teachers out there that would have more information, feel free to make a comment. I didn't want to ramble as much as I did. Oops.

No running today. Tried to do a little rollerblading, but had the wrong kind of socks on and they rubbed my ankles. Had to call it quits early. Tomorrow I plan on doing a longer run. Hopefully. Depending on my legs. I will let them make the decision.

Is it Friday yet?

I hate to look forward to the weekend, but I am. I am SO ready for this week of classes to be over! 4 hours of sitting through one class and then the next is almost TOO much!

But, yesterday, I was able to do some sautering. Yahoo! Not my first time, but my first time sautering something that actually made something else work! We were making pressure switches! Not the same as on/off switches. Just pressure switches. Ya know, the one's where you have to hold them down for something to work!?!? Yah those.

And then, we had to insert them into cheep toys that we picked up on our own. Here are mine! Aren't they kind of cute? We had to use two different kinds of pressure switches, that is why one of them has a red button in the front!

Yeah, it was fun! As far as running goes?!?! I did do some running today. I decided to pick up the pace and do a fast run today, with a little walking obviously! But, it was a nice workout! Now, I am off for volleyball. Hopefully we will win tonight!