stream of consciousness pt. V

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i’ve been up and down and all around this past week emotionally. i hate riding the rollercoaster.
lise and i have finished the applications for escambia county, florida, school system and the florida teacher certification – now we’re waiting for recommendation letters, college transcripts and other necessary stuff to go through and give us the green light.
there are currently about 25 special ed positions open internally at escambia – these positions will be made public around june.
working with emotionally disturbedÂ kids has sucked me dry this past year. too much psychology and not enough academics. i’m screwed up enough on my own and deal with enough of my own demons than to try and remain calm and objective with these kids. even if we don’t end up in pensacola this summer, this HAS to be my last school year in an ED / SBH setting. at least for a little while.
Xavier is going well but killing me at the same time. it’s too much stuff in the face of all these other things going on. i’m not sleeping well, i’m not eating well, i’m not getting enough time with my mom, my dad, my wife, i’m overwhelmed with paperwork for the move, with getting the house ready, with worrying about what decisions we’re going to have to make if we can’t get this house listed and sold in enough time before the school year starts in florida (august 9), the grass isn’t getting cut, and the dog is depressed. i’m worn out and having a problem giving a damn about grad school. keeping the important things at the top has been a losing battle.
the basement is starting to look a bit better. i’ve been having fun with hydraulic cement, dryloc paint and a 5 gallon bucket of drywall. once i got one wall done and painted, i was floored. i’m only sorry that i waited so long to do it. we weren’t really paying attention to it since we moved in – we just love our house.
dad came over and wallpapered the hallway this past week and holy crap – it looks really good!! when i came home and saw the finished job i was thinking, “daanng! maybe we need to wallpaper the whole damn house!” dad, however, vetoed that idea.
we took a number of movies (about an hour’s worth) of the beach and the waves down in pensacola so we could play them whenever we needed to be transported back – it’s been fun watching and dreaming about it.
the iPod has 8182 songs loaded. top songs? eva cassidy’s cover of “Field of Dreams” – the grateful dead’s “Brokedown Palace” and dido’s “Here With Me” – honorable mentions include norah jones, kt tunstall, jonny lang, natalie merchant, dave matthews and bruce springsteen (his “Nebraska” album is stunning in comparison with some of his sillier “Born In The USA”-era stuff).
we recently rented “Stranger Than Fiction” and it was quite captivating. the concept and the idea behind the movie as well as the different perspectives of the characters (“life happens then you die – get used to it” – “yeah, but it’s MY LIFE!!”) and the hilarious narration of the main character’s life (and his response to hearing the narration) – well, only a few movies have caught me like this: Being John Malkovich; Fight Club; Eyes Wide Shut; A.I.; Vanilla Sky; The Fisher King; 12 Monkeys – these are just a few examples. highly recommended movie. if i have the mental wherewithall, i’ll post a bit more about it later. we bought the movie. i had to have it.
i’ve gotten several hits over the last month from people searching for information on the FTCE – the Florida Teacher Certification Exam – most of the search strings include something along the lines of “is it easy” – my answer (because i don’t really give it in my earlier post about it) is: it depends.

i’m a very good test taker and the test is multiple choice – elimination of two obvious non-answers was easy for me – i took both the K-6 and the ESE exams and passed both.
however, i’ve also been in education in one form or another for the last 16 years – there was much in the test that wasn’t real difficult if you’ve been around good teachers and good practices – i’ve been very fortunate to have been taught by the best
ALSO, i’ve got an undergrad degree in youth ministry (read: teaching) and 18 grad credits at xavier university in special education.
BE WARNED: if you don’t have a background in phonics and foundations of literacy, you’re going to be hurting. both the FTCE K-6 and the FTCE ESE (education of students with exceptionalities) were LOADED with questions regarding literacy, reading and writing processes and phonics education – good books to catch up with in this area include Phonics They Use and Writer’s Workshop – both of these books address most of the literacy questions you’ll encounter.
i did not study for the exam – i took a practice test on both of them and decided to go into it blind – i don’t study well for wide-ranging tests like this. i DID, however, buy a study guide (but didn’t use it) and can recommend one in particular: FTCE (REA) by anne price davis. the other helps i saw out there pale in comparison. it’s also better than the $5 test booklet you can get from the state. in fact, i’d say the state test prep book is a waste – it tells you the principles you need to know but doesn’t teach them to you – this book does.
feel free to contact me at youthdude at gmail.com and ask me specific questions.