Downhill skiers

I've been so wrapped up in the whole job search this week, that everything else has been put on the back burner.

But, I felt I should publish these pictures from Easter vacation. On Saturday we went to the little ski hill 5 minutes from our cabin. They were having a race which anyone could take part in. Espen was a bit too cool, but Anders and Johan were into it. I forgot my camera at home, so these pictures are taken with the camera on my phone. Better than nothing, though. The weather was absolutely gorgeous that day, and we had a really good time!

I have a job!

I finally made a decision - I called the principal at Ekeberg school today and accepted his offer of a job there! They were the first school to offer me a job (and my first interview). In the meantime, I've been to interviews at 4 other schools and gotten one other official offer (and would most likely have gotten offers from the other schools as well). The school that offered me a job yesterday was a junior high. They wanted me to teach English and Norwegian. I had to really decide if I wanted to be at junior high or elementary school. And the fact that there is less grading at the elementary level (they don't get grades until 8th grade in Norway) was a big factor. What finally made me decide that this was the right place, however, was the fact that whenever I mentioned Ekeberg school, people were just going on and on about what a great school it was and how the teachers were all so nice. I decided that that is what matters more than anything else.

Ekeberg is an elementary school. At this point, they're not sure which grade(s) I will be teaching, but the principal said that they will have decided within the next month. I am so excited! I feel really good about having accepted this job. I know people who have worked as substitutes at the school and who have done their student teaching there and everyone really seems to like it.

And it is so nice not to have to think about it anymore!!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day - and we had green cupcakes!

This week is Easter vacation in Norway - no school for anyone. Gaute is working this week, but Thursday through Monday are national holidays here - all stores are closed and no one works. So, we're off Wednesday evening to our cabin. Lots of snow up there so we're going to get in some last skiing for the season.

Here in Oslo, it's not very wintry, though. Although it is pretty chilly (below freezing at night), we have no snow, and we took out the trampoline over the weekend. Which is always the best sign of spring around here!

Second-graders

Johan has had a loose front tooth for a while. After a lot of wiggling and pulling, it finally came out Friday night.

On Saturday, his best friend Alexander came over - and he was missing the same front tooth as Johan. The two of them looked so cute together!

More about jobs

Today I had another great job interview. I was very happy with this school, too. They were very interested in having me work there, although they couldn't officially offer me the job yet. Although they did let me know that if I got offered a job somewhere else, I should let them know, and they could probably arrange something...

And, what do you know, this afternoon I got a call from the principal at the first school where I had an interview on Tuesday, and they offered me a job! I was more surprised than anything else. I thought the interview went pretty well, but they didn't seem that enthusiastic. Plus, they had gotten 65 applications...But, now I have an official offer from that school. I'm pretty sure that I'd rather work at one of the schools I interviewed with yesterday and today, though. And next week is Easter vacation here. So, tomorrow I think I need to decide which of those schools I liked best and then call them and tell them the situation. If I'm not going to take the job, then I'd like to let the school know as soon as possible so that they can offer it to someone else. It's really exciting, but it's making it hard for me to concentrate on anything else!

And I have a paper due tomorrow that I haven't even started on. So, now it's time to get going on that...could be a long night!

Litt av hvert

Just a few things -

Korsvoll school had a dodgeball tournament for the oldest kids, and Anders' class made it to the final round yesterday - the first time a 4th grade class has ever made it to the final! They lost the game to the 7th graders they were playing against (not Espen's class), but it was extremely close. The 7th graders all came up to them afterwards and congratulated them and said they had played really well. And the 4th graders walked around with huge grins on their faces for the rest of the day!

On Tuesday, Lynus Club had a big kick-off since the Norwegian football season starts at the end of the month. The kids got pizza and they got to meet all of the players in this season's lineup. Big excitement! They made a video and put it up on their website. If you look carefully you can see Anders, Johan and me. Espen was their, too, but he was a bit too cool to be walking around with us.

I took Espen to the orthodontist today. Last time he was at the dentist, she recommended that we make an appointment for him with an orthodontist since his bite was a bit off on one side in the back. The orthodontist said that the problem was minimal, and that he might not need braces at all, but if he does it will only be on a few back teeth. Espen was very happy - I guess he thought that he was going to walk out of their today with a full set of braces on his teeth.

I had a great interview yesterday. I really liked the school a lot, and it seems like they really liked me. They said that they'll let me know either way on the 28th of March. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But- I have another interview in a few minutes with another school which also seems really good, so we'll see what happens....

One interview down

I had my first job interview today. I think it was my first job interview ever, actually. All of the jobs I've had before have been jobs that I've gotten through other people.

I think it went pretty well. The interviewers were friendly and nice, and I got a good impression of the school through them. I wish I could have seen a bit of the school, though. They had allotted a half hour for the interview, and there was someone waiting to come in after me, so there was no chance to get shown a little bit around the school. They said they're going to make their decision in a couple of weeks, so we'll see what happens.

Yesterday I got two more phone calls from schools that want me to come in for interviews. One tomorrow, one on Thursday and then one the week after Easter. They all seem like good schools, so I'm pretty excited. After going to this interview today, I can't wait to go to more interviews.

Mini-cello concert

The Norwegian government has been sponsoring various cultural events for the schools the past few years - sending kids to concerts and theaters, as well as sending instructors to the schools. This winter, they've had music instructors for the first graders. They're learning how to play "mini-instruments" and then having concerts where they show off what they've learned. They only have two practices before the concert, and I think they did a great job. The kids think it is so much fun to play a real instrument, and they think it's extra cool that their parents come to the concert.

I took some videos, but it seems that Blogger is having some problems uploading them right now. I'll try to post them later.

Another interview...

I got up this morning and checked my e-mail, and there was a message from the principal of another school who wanted me to call him today and arrange a time for an interview. Yippee!

Football game

Here are some cool pictures from Espen's football game yesterday. His coach made him captain of the team!! And they won - 14-1...

Interview :-)

I just got a call from the principal at one of the schools I applied at - and he wants me to come in for an interview on Tuesday. He said they had gotten between 60-70 applications, but that they thought it was interesting that I had gone back to school as an "adult". With the first couple of jobs I applied for, I sent a cover letter which was less than impressive, but I got my act together and sent some great cover letters with the later applications. This school was one of the ones which had a good letter.

I'm so excited - and this gives me a lot of hope that I will be getting more phone calls soon...Most of the schools I've applied for don't have deadlines until the end of the month.

Now I need to read up on this school so I can say something smart at the interview!

Springish

It's 8:30 in the morning, and it's pretty cold right now (23 degrees F), but it's light out and the snow is pretty much all gone. Anders went to school with tennis shoes for the first time since November (although I don't think he realized how cold it was...), and Espen rode his bike to school for the first time since last fall.

It's not true spring yet - too cold for that - but it's so nice to wake up at 6:30 and have the sun shining!!

Searching for a job

I've started sending out some job applications now. I've applied to five schools here in Oslo that sound interesting, and then today I also sent a letter and my resume to a school nearby where I did my student teaching a few years ago. They haven't announced that they're looking for teachers, but I thought that it doesn't hurt to let them know I'm interested. I'll probably do the same thing for other schools that I'm particularly interested in.

A friend of mine who lives about an hour outside of Oslo applied for 9 schools in her school district. The application deadline was on Friday the 22nd, and today she got calls from 3 different schools who are interested in having her come in for an interview. Hopefully something similar will happen to me!!

I'm pretty much obsessed with this job thing, and I know I won't relax until I have a job!

Winter break

This week is a school vacation. Gaute had to work yesterday and today, but this evening we're heading up to the cabin. I only have classes every other day. I went to school yesterday, but I'm skipping Wednesday and Friday. I think I'll manage to pass my classes still ;-)

As I'm writing this, it's about 40 degrees here in Oslo and lightly raining. It sounds so nice to get up to real winter in the mountains!

Name Day

Today is my name day! In Norway, each day of the year is associated with a name, or a group of similar names. And today is the name day for Jill! In the newspaper here, they always have a little blurb about which name day it is, and interview someone with that name. That's about the extent of the excitement. From what I've heard, name days are actually celebrated in Sweden, but according to Wikipedia (my favorite website, by the way), a calendar company randomly assigned the most common Norwegian names to the different days of the year in 1988. So it's not exactly a tradition around here.

But, the interesting thing is that while I was searching around on the web now, I found a site that the Social Security administration has where you can check the popularity of various names, both now and in the past. I've know for a long time about a similar site in Norway, but I didn't realize that there was an American equivalent. I think names and statistics about names are fascinating for some reason, so I was pretty happy to find it. And, I checked the statistics for my name for the last 100 years and was quite surprised. Jill was relatively popular in the 20's but was used less and less often until it reached a low point right around, well, 1969. But, the interesting part is that the name has been gaining a lot of popularity lately and is now up to the same level it was in the 1920's. I actually know someone who named her baby Jill, but I kind of thought that was a fluke. Interesting to think that there are so many little baby Jills around. I've always really liked my name, and I hope they do, too!

Life and stuff

Student teaching is over...forever. Student teaching this year was definitely challenging, but now that I'm done, my overall impression is positive. For many different reasons, the school was difficult, but on the other hand, there were some fantastic students there who I will really miss. I made chocolate chip cookies which I took for them the last day, and they were going crazy - they'd never tasted anything so good. I had to promise to send them the recipe - which I did.

But now that student teaching is over (as well as the fun stomach flu that I had on Tuesday), it's time for me to start thinking seriously about applying for jobs. I've been dreading the process for a long while now, but once I got my act together, I'm realizing that it's not the most difficult process in the world. I've contacted two people who I can use as references and I've written my resume, so now I just need to figure out where I want to work.

At my college on Tuesday, representatives for various school districts on the outskirts of Oslo came and tried to recruit students to come and teach at their schools. It was kind of fun going around talking to them, because when I told them that I wanted to work at a middle school and what my background was, they were practically offering me a job on the spot. Some of the schools aren't far out of Oslo, and it really wouldn't take me more than 20 minutes to drive to them, but I think I'd rather be a bit closer to home (distances are small around here compared to say, California). We'll see, though. The schools in Oslo haven't actually posted any jobs yet. They wait a bit longer than the other school districts, probably because they can afford to. I talked to a friend of mine who is a teacher, though, and she said that practically every school will have at least one opening and that I should be able to pick and choose, so I think I'm going to play it cool for a while longer.

Yes, I still want to be a teacher

Today was much better than yesterday. It was actually a pretty good day - except for the last few hours, when things went downhill pretty quickly. I was actually done with my teaching for the day, but ended up going in and talking to them and trying to set things straight. Most of the kids are great, but the few who aren't are pretty bad and really ruin it. But, on the whole, a good day.

Do I really want to be a teacher?

I'm in the middle of student teaching right now, and it's crazy. The school is totally run down (scheduled to be torn down in a couple of years), and the kids are obviously not used to any form of discipline. I spent all weekend planning my teaching, and it didn't go very well yesterday. Actually, the actual teaching went pretty well, but it's just out of control during recess and between classes. I was so worn out when I got home last night!! I can't imagine this being my life every day. I'm really going to have to do some research before I apply to any schools and make sure that I find a place where I want to work.

And, now, it's off to school...

Taking over the school

This week I started student teaching again. We've had 6 weeks of student teaching every year, at different schools each year. For our final year, we are only going to have two weeks of student teaching, however. I have kind of mixed feelings about it - on the one hand, student teaching is a lot more "work" than being a student. Just the fact that we have to be at the school every day at 8 in the morning. On the other hand, I really enjoy student teaching and feel like it's where I've learned the most during the last 4 years I've been a college student.

What we're doing this year (we actually did it for 2 weeks last year, too) is having what they call a "school takeover". This week us college students are at the school, meeting the kids, getting to know the school and planning lessons. Then next week, all of the teachers as well as the principal and vice-principal are headed to a course in London, while we take over the school. For that week, we are responsible for everything that happens at the school, and we even have a specially appointed group to take over for the administration. It's actually a pretty cool form of student teaching.

But, it's tiring...

Crystal Anniversary

Gaute and I will be married 15 years on July 31st. FIFTEEN YEARS! Not bad, huh?