Today was the day that I made that ever so important decision to put my words from my last entry into action... 

I started bright and early.  Mr. Santoro's 8:15 class was canceled this morning and while everyone else was enjoying their free class period sleeping in I was on campus already.  I decided that if I set my alarm for 5:30 and got up and stayed home that it would be no time before I was sound asleep again and I didn't want that to happen.  I had things that needed to get done and I wasn't about to let that time that I was already used to being up for anyway just slip by.  So I got up at 5:30 and was out the door but 6:00 with a packed lunch and a full cup of coffee.

When I got to campus I was one of a handful of students just arriving and I got a really good parking spot (always a plus on a long day!).  I found the empty classroom where I would normally be sitting with my peers learning about the world of exceptionalities that will greet our every waking moment as teachers in the career field.  I picked a spot by the window where the cool morning breeze would keep my mind awake and my senses alert and I pulled out my worn copy of Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform by Diane Ravitch and began to carefully read and analyze the 12-page section that Dr. Green had assigned to us for the quiz we would be having in class.  It was nothing overly interesting, mostly just how radical progressive educators had gotten after the Great Depression and how many extremeist ideas there were out there about the role schools should play in society... it's worth a look if you like that kind of stuff.  I went through it once, nit picking and highlighting/underlining every important detail and then I went back and read straight through it one more time for fluidity and comprehension.  

At that point I was really getting sleepy.  I have been very sick since Monday afternoon when I came home from work with a temperature of 103 (not fun).  Anyway, I decided I needed to move, so I made my way to the lobby where I watched my fellow students all around me.  Some I knew, some I didn't; some conversations I recognized (senior thesis projects, a shake up in CAB and the very quiz I had just prepared for were among them) and some just failed to catch my attention.  I sat there for probably 10-15minutes thinking over what I had just read to myself so I could keep it fresh in my mind.  Then it was time for class so I made my way up to the 2nd floor of the classroom building and sat down in the front row of the stifling atmosphere of CL 206 and waited for the customary rhetoric of Dr. Green to announce his arrival.

"I think I may have actually gotten a 10 out of 10 on that one," I said to Chris as we headed down to the Excel department. "And you know what? I think I actually understood what he was talking about today, it didn't seem like a bunch of mumbo jumbo jibberish..." my voice trailed off as I saw the look on Chris's face (which meant that he did not feel the same way), so I decided to drop the subject for the more favorable one of what was on special at the food court today (it was buffalo chicken wraps).  After I dropped my notes off at Excel I stopped by to see Betheny and missed her, and then we headed down to the food court.  While I ate I tied up some loose ends with emails that I had out to some professors and some applications and the sort that I had unfinished floating around my desktop.  After that I put pen to paper and made out a to-do list for the rest of the semester, and let me tell YOU it's a DOOZY!  It hurts me to look at it, but at the same time it feels good to know exactly what has to be done.

Art class went smoothly, my group was understanding of my absences and Mrs. Dick cut me some slack on her grading policy, she thinks if I can continue my 'A' line of work from the beginning of the semester (before all hell broke loose) though to the end of the semester and do really well on my final that I can pull through with a 'B', but no higher than that... ugh, I wish there was something I could do about the classes I had to miss... anyway... her final will require a lot of time and effort, but to be completely honest I think I will have fun with it.  Before I left campus for work I added her final and my responsibilities for our group project to my list of things to do.... looks like thing will be getting hairy this weekend. 

Work went nicely, I hadn't seen the kids in awhile because I've been sick and Ariyanna was glad to have her Mancala partner back.  Alexus is on crutches and Aaron lost a tooth... they are so great, I love it when I go to the after school program after being on campus so long on Thursdays because they're so lively and refreshing... they just make my day!  The Howards were picked up right at 5:00 leaving Issa as the only one left.  His mother showed up at 5:15 and Ms. Dorris and I were free to go.  I-471 was shut down so I had to come home Columbia Parkway which was backed up all the way back to the city and it took me the better part of and hour to get home instead of the usual half hour.  I ate dinner and then my medicine knocked me out so I slept until 9:30 and now here we are.

Why is any of this important enough to me to be in my blog at all?  Well because just yesterday I didn't want to do anything, everyday "staples" were a big feat for me and everything I did, no matter how simple, required a great deal of effort.  But I reached that breaking point and I decided to keep pushing through no matter how hard things got.  So today "carpe diem" was my motto... and I think I did a good job of seizing the day!

Let's hope I can continue. 

P.S. I have been thinking about my first year here and all the fun I had.  This picture symbolizes a time when things were better and I was in a better place with my mind... this is what I'm striving to reach again... 

Today was the day that I made that ever so important decision to put my words from my last entry into action... 

I started bright and early.  Mr. Santoro's 8:15 class was canceled this morning and while everyone else was enjoying their free class period sleeping in I was on campus already.  I decided that if I set my alarm for 5:30 and got up and stayed home that it would be no time before I was sound asleep again and I didn't want that to happen.  I had things that needed to get done and I wasn't about to let that time that I was already used to being up for anyway just slip by.  So I got up at 5:30 and was out the door but 6:00 with a packed lunch and a full cup of coffee.

When I got to campus I was one of a handful of students just arriving and I got a really good parking spot (always a plus on a long day!).  I found the empty classroom where I would normally be sitting with my peers learning about the world of exceptionalities that will greet our every waking moment as teachers in the career field.  I picked a spot by the window where the cool morning breeze would keep my mind awake and my senses alert and I pulled out my worn copy of Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform by Diane Ravitch and began to carefully read and analyze the 12-page section that Dr. Green had assigned to us for the quiz we would be having in class.  It was nothing overly interesting, mostly just how radical progressive educators had gotten after the Great Depression and how many extremeist ideas there were out there about the role schools should play in society... it's worth a look if you like that kind of stuff.  I went through it once, nit picking and highlighting/underlining every important detail and then I went back and read straight through it one more time for fluidity and comprehension.  

At that point I was really getting sleepy.  I have been very sick since Monday afternoon when I came home from work with a temperature of 103 (not fun).  Anyway, I decided I needed to move, so I made my way to the lobby where I watched my fellow students all around me.  Some I knew, some I didn't; some conversations I recognized (senior thesis projects, a shake up in CAB and the very quiz I had just prepared for were among them) and some just failed to catch my attention.  I sat there for probably 10-15minutes thinking over what I had just read to myself so I could keep it fresh in my mind.  Then it was time for class so I made my way up to the 2nd floor of the classroom building and sat down in the front row of the stifling atmosphere of CL 206 and waited for the customary rhetoric of Dr. Green to announce his arrival.

"I think I may have actually gotten a 10 out of 10 on that one," I said to Chris as we headed down to the Excel department. "And you know what? I think I actually understood what he was talking about today, it didn't seem like a bunch of mumbo jumbo jibberish..." my voice trailed off as I saw the look on Chris's face (which meant that he did not feel the same way), so I decided to drop the subject for the more favorable one of what was on special at the food court today (it was buffalo chicken wraps).  After I dropped my notes off at Excel I stopped by to see Betheny and missed her, and then we headed down to the food court.  While I ate I tied up some loose ends with emails that I had out to some professors and some applications and the sort that I had unfinished floating around my desktop.  After that I put pen to paper and made out a to-do list for the rest of the semester, and let me tell YOU it's a DOOZY!  It hurts me to look at it, but at the same time it feels good to know exactly what has to be done.

Art class went smoothly, my group was understanding of my absences and Mrs. Dick cut me some slack on her grading policy, she thinks if I can continue my 'A' line of work from the beginning of the semester (before all hell broke loose) though to the end of the semester and do really well on my final that I can pull through with a 'B', but no higher than that... ugh, I wish there was something I could do about the classes I had to miss... anyway... her final will require a lot of time and effort, but to be completely honest I think I will have fun with it.  Before I left campus for work I added her final and my responsibilities for our group project to my list of things to do.... looks like thing will be getting hairy this weekend. 

Work went nicely, I hadn't seen the kids in awhile because I've been sick and Ariyanna was glad to have her Mancala partner back.  Alexus is on crutches and Aaron lost a tooth... they are so great, I love it when I go to the after school program after being on campus so long on Thursdays because they're so lively and refreshing... they just make my day!  The Howards were picked up right at 5:00 leaving Issa as the only one left.  His mother showed up at 5:15 and Ms. Dorris and I were free to go.  I-471 was shut down so I had to come home Columbia Parkway which was backed up all the way back to the city and it took me the better part of and hour to get home instead of the usual half hour.  I ate dinner and then my medicine knocked me out so I slept until 9:30 and now here we are.

Why is any of this important enough to me to be in my blog at all?  Well because just yesterday I didn't want to do anything, everyday "staples" were a big feat for me and everything I did, no matter how simple, required a great deal of effort.  But I reached that breaking point and I decided to keep pushing through no matter how hard things got.  So today "carpe diem" was my motto... and I think I did a good job of seizing the day!

Let's hope I can continue. 

P.S. I have been thinking about my first year here and all the fun I had.  This picture symbolizes a time when things were better and I was in a better place with my mind... this is what I'm striving to reach again... 

So this week has been quite an eventful one the country hasn't it? I heard on the news that 49 out of the 50 United States received some amount of snow in one way or another this week. Hawaii was the only one who didn't. I read somewhere that DC had, what, 39 inches of snow? My uncle who lives in the middle of Penn. said they got 27 inches on one day! And one cousin who goes to school in Maryland near DC said they ended up getting a snow week instead of a snow day! They had Friday the 5th off for the first wave and then just proceeded to get one day after another the next week until his school just shut down for the rest of the week! A pre-spring break break. Geez.... :)

Let's see, we had school last Friday but classes on Saturday were cancelled which, unfortunately, didn't benefit me at all but it was nice for those students who do dread Saturday classes. Then Monday we all crossed our fingers for snow and get a snow day and fortunately enough we did! Then Wednesday we weren't sure what would happen but we did get a delay until Noon so I got to miss four classes over that period and one practicum opportunity. Once we did get out onto the roads, they really weren't that bad and I was happy that we got a small break nonetheless.

Of course that meant bright and early on Thursday morning I had to get back into the swing of things and actually make an effort to try to get back to normal. Hard to do when you sat around doing nothing for almost 48 hours straight. I can only imagine how my cousin feels on his snow week. I also heard that we are supposed to get another 2-4 inches on Sunday night into Monday morning so maybe another snow day...? :) Wouldn't that just screw everything up. Most places are closed on Monday already for Presidents' Day but the Mount will be open for classes and whatnot so if we do get a snow day that'll benefit us but no one else really. lol :)

I started my practicum last Monday, before all the snow, and I had a great first experience there but then they had no school on Wednesday and they have no school for the holiday on Monday so I'm missing another two opportunities to go so I'm not sure at this rate if I'll get in my 50 hours or not. I'm sure I can find other times and dates to go but Mondays and Wednesdays just work best. But we'll see... It's just hard to have a routine down, get something introduced, then have weather interrupt everything everywhere, and then trying to get back into it. I really don't like. If the federal government can get a snow day, shouldn't the whole country get off as well? Thank you Ellen for that comment. :) Love that show! lol

But we have our Mid Semester break on this coming Friday and that'll be nice to have a scheduled break, not that we really need it considering the break we just had in the middle of the week. We'll see how it goes though. :) I really want to go visit a friend at UD either that weekend or the next when she has her mid break but I'm not sure when it'll work out, if it does at all. But I hope so. :)

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, or as Sam calls it "Singles Awareness Day." lol That's just when we need to put all the singles together and then they won't be single anymore! lol The guy I've been seeing has something planned that day for us but he won't tell me what it is so I'm in for a surprise. I'm not really into surprises so I'm not sure how I'll react. lol But to you all, Happy Valentine's Day in advance. :) Hope its a fun pink and white day! <3

Last night was one of those nights... you know, the ones where nothing ever goes right and you flip out and say, hmmm I dunno, you completely tear apart your room, rearrange it, drop a futon on your toe, get mad and go to bed.  Well notice there was NO hmework anywhere in that sentence, none at all.  Know what that means?  That means that it had to be done this morning.

I was up at 4:00 this morning, I wrote a two page response on instructional and institutional responsibilities to students with exceptionalities, I completed twelve math problems that were review for my math test tonight, I read the 10 page selection that we have a quiz on for Dr. Green's class today, I got dressd, ate breakfast and packed a lunch.  I joined the throngs of other morning commuters fighting for spots on the high way and pulled into the parking lot here at the Mount at promptly 7:45 (somehow, exactly when I planned on being here).  I will be here until 8:30 tonight which makes for a VERY long day, but you know what??  I'm happy...

It's light outside, the sky looks slightly like cotton candy, warmer weather is on its way and the birds are singing their good morning songa again.  I have an incredibly busy day today but I'm not dreading it because Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days that I learn the most from my classes here at MSJ.  Tues/Thurs are full days, but they are satisfying and beneficial... they do their job by giving me the fundations on which t build a successful career as an educator in the real world. 

Mr. Santoro's class is about to start, so I'll have to post my art project later today.

Until next time...

I think it's safe to say that you have too many books in your bookbag (which generally means too much HOMEWORK) when you're driving down the road and your car starts beeping at you... You look down at the dash and see the passenger seat belt light flashing on and off.  My book bag was sitting in my car this morning and my car did its job and told me that the "person" in the passenger seat wasn't strapped in... it wanted me to put a seat belt on them.  The seat is weight sensitive so that when anyone sits in it without a seat belt the car will beep until the seat belt is engaged and the "person" in the seat was actualyy my poor, unfortunate, overstuffed bookbag.

Now you may not think that there's anything particularly fascinating about this incident, but I found it immensely amusing at 7:00 this morning when I left my house to go to class.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why my classload feels so heavy this semester... I'm not taking as many credits as I did last semester and I'm more on top of things this semester too... No explanation for it I guess.

Talking to my friends I've come to realize that I'm not the only one that feels this way.  Is it because we're all taking a double service learning credits or because we have Mr. Santoro and Dr. Green back to back in the same semester... or is it something entirely different?

 I don't know, but I do know that this semester will be an INTERESTING one to say the least...

...in my next post I hope to share with you all a project from my Art Education class.

Starting this Wednesday is College Week Live. It is a virtual college fair set up online. There will a ton of schools, organizations, companies, and anything else associated with going to college. You can talk to reps from schools, current students, financial aid advisors, banks, scholarship organizations, and other personnel about anything you may need or want to know about a college or school or program.

The College of Mount St. Joseph will be hosting a booth at this fair and will be manned by yours truly along with a couple of other bloggers and students along with some faculty and staff of the Mount. Come and ask us questions, peruse the information of our college, check out the pictures and grounds of the buildings, and other things.

This whole experience is meant to put you at ease about college and helping you choose the right school for you. You get the opportunity to "visit" schools that you may not otherwise be able to visit, such as those across the country that would not be worth the cost to check out for one day in person. At least you can visit that school online in this virtual college fair and be able to find out almost anything that you would want to know.

It starts on Wednesday, November 4th and ends Saturday, November 7th. This is the web address for the college fair: http://www.collegeweeklive.com/. It is highly recommended that you check us out on the web and ask us questions using the Click Here: Live Chat button on our booth (College of Mount St. Joseph). The Mount offers "Get Acquainted Days" every few Saturdays or so and that can be helpful to be able to visit the campus itself but if none of those dates work into your schedule, at least this week gives you a chance to know us a bit better when you have a bit of free time. Here's the link on the main site of the Mount for ways to visit us: http://www.msj.edu/view/visit.aspx.

I hope we see you- or talk to you actually- at the College Week Live event this Wednesday through Saturday. It should be a fun time to learn more about the Mount and our community. Enjoy!! :)

Hey guys….

Guess what? I’m snowed in….AGAIN! This past week has been crazy with our good ol’ Cincinnati weather. Last Monday we got his with our first big snow storm of the year. And it was a big one. It started with rain, which froze and then got covered with about 6 inches of snow. Then the next day it sleeted, which also froze, followed by another few inches of snow. It was crazy! I was shovelin my driveway and it was wild to see the layers of ice and snow piled up. On the down side, the ice made the snow a bear to shovel, it was heavy and just not fun to throw off to the side.

The snow came at a great time, because Tuesdays are my rough days. I start out with morning practice at 7 a.m. followed by four classes of an hour and fifteen minutes each at 8:30, 10:00, 12:45, and 2:15. Then I have afternoon practice from 3:30 to 5:30, then a three hour night class at 6:30. And last week in particular, I had a Friday weigh-in for a tournament so I had to get a third work out in after my night class to get my weight down. As you could imagine, I was not lookin forward to last Tuesday.  Thanks to the snow, the college was closed and all classes were cancelled, meaning I didn’t have to deal with it! And as an added bonus, Wednesday classes were called off as well as classes before 10 on Thursday.

The only bad thing about all this was the fact that my private drive I live on doesn’t get plowed or salted, so I was stuck at my house for the entire ordeal. And not getting out of my house means not getting on the mats to practice and I had a big tournament a few days away.  I was pretty stressed about that. And even though I was able to workout on my treadmill and stationary bike a few times a day, it’s just not the same as getting on the mats and drilling.

But all turned out okay. I was able to get down to weight, weigh in and wrestle, and I’m happy with my performance. We took 12th place as a team out of 30 something teams with half of our line up benched due to injuries, sickness, and discipline issues.

After all that chaos, things finally got back to normal. The roads have finally gotten cleaned up and my car lost the last bit of snow that was piled on it on Sunday. Then, today around 1:30 in the afternoon, the snow started fallin AGAIN and the college closed at 5:00 p.m. The good side to this is I’m trapped at school, not a half hour away at my house so I won’t miss any workouts. And I can get my blog done for all you to enjoy! Ha.

If any of you have been affected by this snow, which I think most of the country has, I hope you are stayin warm and safe and are able to make a snowman or two.

See ya!

>Eric M.

  The view off my back deck. All the trees were covered in ice!

I got the most random, or at least I thought it was random, text from my mother on Tuesday morning at 5:15 AM. It said: "School's out for summer! (I mean snow) School's out forever! (I mean today)" And I had no idea what was going on until I got a call at 5:20 AM saying that school was cancelled for the day for a snow day! That's when I rolled over and looked at the quad- it was beautifully covered in white snow! lol It was awesome! No school!

And Wednesday was originally set to be delayed until classes that start at 6 PM but then the college decided at about 12 PM on Wednesday to cancel school all day so that meant two snow days!

Then of course, Thursday meant that most of the snow was cleared off and we had a two hour delay and classes started at 10 AM. It was still awesome to get such an unexpected break!

My mom's and brother's breaks were much better, they both had a 2 hour delay on Monday and then had the following 4 days off! They got a whole week of rest! Of course, though, Alex wouldn't say that since he had to shovel snow for 4 days instead lol but that's what you get for living at home lol. :)

But now it's Monday and we've gotten back to school and it's all piling up now that we've missed those two and a half days. Projects, papers, playing catch up, and general school activities are just attacking me and trying to get my butt moving but it's not working very well... I'm still just being generally lazy.... lol :) Like writing this blog instead of reading the 50 pages for my Wednesday morning class but I guess I should work on it instead of lolly-gagging... so off to hit the books! Enjoy the snow and be careful driving around! :)