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This and That - Catchup

March 14th, 2012 at 12:55 am

Today when I got home I checked ING just in case.... and found that my state tax refund had come in finally!! Yay!

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Today at school I was talking with one of the Navajo teacher assistants and she told me that the 8th grade teacher had a Roset@t@a St@ne program that teaches the Navajo language!! I had no idea that such a thing was available. I Googled it, and after much searching around I finally found it.

There are two options - Online subscription for $75/yr with no included headphones/microphone; or a one-time purchase of the software w/included headphones/microphone for $200 +$45 shipping.

I am very interested in this. If I really do end up staying here for a good number of years, I think it would be very good for me to know the language very well. This way I can learn it on my own, and then see if I can find people to practice it with in person. I'm kind of leaning towards the online subscription, because I think I could find a good pair of headphones/microphone for $50 or less. So I could subscribe online for 3 years and still come out ahead of buying the package deal.

I'm going to think about this some more, and perhaps talk to the 8th grade teacher and see if she's found it to truly be valuable or not.

Any suggestions as to a good pair of headphones/microphone for a computer? Really, I think I would only need the microphone aspect since I don't have to worry about anyone else being disturbed by it. I could use the cheap microphones I got from Walmart a few months back, but their quality isn't that great (hence the $8 price.)

What do ya'll think?

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I submitted the yearbook Monday night at 6:41 PM!! Yahoo! I'm glad I decided to go over it ONE more time before submitting, because I realized that one of the staff members had been left off the staff page!! I had his picture, but had just forgotten to check the box saying "use this picture." Oy vey!!

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All the materials for the book fair came this morning - thankfully about ten minutes before my first class came in. 7 carts full, plus boxes on top. Wow. We aren't setting up until Friday afternoon.

I really hope that we don't get snow Monday night (4" are predicted!!!) Our first sale day is Tuesday - it also is parent/teacher conferences.

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Today I wore my hair in a side braid. I like to braid my hair sometimes, but had not done it here so far (at least not where I wore it to work.) I had SO many adults and kids compliment me. I even had one of my 6th graders tell me that it made me look younger (not that that is exactly something I care to hear ... but I thought that was funny.)

I might just do a braid more often. Smile

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I've been showing my classes the Book Fair video this week for class. Most of them seem to have been pretty interested in it. Some have had more reactions than others. Both my 7th and 8th grade classes got free time on the computers after checking out books - something neither grade had gotten at all this year. I hadn't realized that til yesterday - so I figured it wouldn't hurt. Smile

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My Spring Break seems to be filling up little by little. At first I'd been planning on it being rather low-key and home bound. But now I have a two day road trip with a co-worker, and then I have agreed to go with our students who qualified for State (Science) the second weekend of break. It'll probably just be that Friday night to make sure that any papers that need to be signed are, but it'll still make for a late night.

I normally wouldn't agree to do something like this on the Sabbath, but there are several reasons I decided to: 1. It's the first time our school has had students qualify for State, and they need someone from our school there supporting them; 2. The mid-school science teacher, not knowing that kids would qualify for State nor when it would be, had already made plans with friends in Phoenix for that weekend - two of whom are flying in *just* to see her -- so co-worker was majorly stressed about choosing to not go to the planned for weekend (6 months in the works) or not going to be there for the kids, and 3. I'm pretty much the only teacher who'll be around that weekend.

I'm hoping that most of it can be taken care of before sunset (especially now that the sun sets after 7 p.m.) but if not, I'm not going to stress about it. I feel like I'll be doing a good deed.

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I ordered the Hawaiian leis for the book fair today. I'll be giving one to each person that buys something on Tuesday. I tried calling our local party store this morning to find out if they had any or not, but I never could get an answer. I'd been planning on ordering from Oriental, but the cost of the leis ($16.99) + the cost of 3-5 day shipping ($15) was more than I could get them for on Amazon. So, I ordered them from Amazon for $24, with guaranteed delivery by this Thursday. I also ordered the book "Bad News for Outlaws" which a student has been asking me about over and over ... Smile

My giftcard balance was down to $13.xx, but then I had my AGC come in from irazoo and from Swag, so I am back up to $23. Big Grin

I also got my payment from Beezag a few days ago - so I have $8 in Paypal that I need to transfer over to put in my EF.
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We have a bit of a scary situation here. Last night some gunmen shot and killed a number of people. It's not on the news - but people say they (the gunmen) started near our town, then went up to G, and are now out and about on the reservation. There's a rumor that they might do more shootings tonight. Schools in G had a two-hour delay and then were on lock down all day. We had quite a few students absent - quite possibly due to the shootings. Hopefully these people will be caught soon so everyone can breathe a bit easier.

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I never did get a call in to a dentist - but my tooth/teeth are feeling better. Who knows what is going on - just glad it's gone for now.

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I've been watching season one of Crossing Jordan on Netflix the past few days. Jill Hennesey is so awesome. Smile I didn't remember Woody being so ... different when he was first introduced.

4 Responses to “This and That - Catchup”

  1. Looking Forward Says:
    1331691951

    If you bought the software could your resell it later? Along those lines: could you find a used copy?

  2. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1331693308

    From all I've seen in researching that idea, I would say the answer is no. The Navajo language course only came into being in 2010, so it is fairly new. Also, the number of people interested in it would be fairly limited. Above that though, I've read in quite a few places that the activation codes that come with the product are only good for two installations - so if I bought a used copy from someone, I'd have to trust that they had only installed it one time. -- I'd rather not take that chance.

  3. Swimgirl Says:
    1331704630

    Can the school pay for the language program? I think they should!

    The shooting sounds scary! Stay safe!

  4. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1331768628

    I think it's highly unlikely that the school would pay for it. We are pretty tight financially.

    Yes, it was a scary situation. However, today I read some local newspaper articles which talked about how local peoples FB posts tended to overexcite people and overstate the situation. In one article I read it talked about numerous off-duty cops in the G area coming in to patrol the streets and reassure people. In the end, it looks like the 4 deaths and 3 injuries were the result of 3 different incidents, one being an apparent suicide of a wife beater on the run from cops. What got the hysteria going was that the 3 incidents happened within a few hours of each other.

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