Summer!

Yes, I realize it is January, but I'm already getting excited for this coming summer. As of right now, it looks like we may be going to Las Vegas for my best friend's bachelorette party since there is absolutely nothing to do in Wichita - we know, we looked over break. If we can get everything worked out with the condo, and find some cheap flights out there, we're heading West before she ties the knot!!! I'm excited. I think it will be fun, and give us some good old girl bonding time... I just hope everything works out.

I also just found out that one of my friends from Drake may be working in Wichita this summer, which would be awesome! I will most likely be staying there this summer and probably working at the snowcone stand intermittently again since my friend's wedding isn't until June 23, my job won't start 'till August, and I need to be able to make some sort of money to help pay for all those bills I'll have to start paying that I don't have to right now. I'm not ready to be an adult. Anyways, if Jackie's there, then I'll have one more person to hang out with since Adria's getting married, Sarah will be in Texas, and everyone else will be becoming adults as well. :/ Scary thought.

I've been job searching already. There are some jobs open that I would be interested in, but I'm still holding out for the one I really want. I just hope that holding out for that one doesn't mean that I miss my opportunity to work somewhere else that would be just as great. I guess we'll see. It's only January.

I was evaluated today for student teaching. It went really well, and the students were very well behaved. I think I might actually miss them when I have to leave in March. Thursday is their first quiz, as well as the day that everything is due, so we'll see how it all works out.

It was really really cold today, and it looks like it's going to be that way for awhile. I think I need to rearrange my room so my bed is not against the NE wall... probably makes it a little colder than it should be :/ I'm ready for summer and warm weather. Alas, about 3 or 4 months to go.

Breakthrough

Yesterday, despite the fact that it was Friday and the students were kind of driving me nuts, I really felt like I had a breakthrough with them. Thursday I had them act out Scene 1, the fight scene, of Romeo and Juliet, and many of them came in yesterday asking if we were going to do that again because "it was fun." Yay!!!! Then, we're still reading the Elizabethian version aloud, not the modern version, and most of them still seem to be comprehending it! This is what makes it worth it - having them understand. At least I think they understand. We'll find out this Thursday when they have to turn everything in and they have a quiz...

What Teachers Make

I love my students. I think they are so fun, especially when they are willing to talk in class and participate. Granted, tomorrow we have to go over the Prologue for Romeo and Juliet again because, after grading their assignment today, I discovered many of them think the feud between the Montagues and Capulets started because of Romeo and Juliet. Such is the life of a teacher I guess – re-teaching until we’re sure our students actually understand. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they do get it, because when I ask if anybody has any other questions, they just kind of sit there and stare at me. Every once in awhile I get a nod of “yes,” but other than that I just have to take silence as confirmation that they do understand it. It’s been fun so far though. My feet are slowly getting used to standing for 4 hours straight, and it’s nice when I feel myself become more confident with my lesson as the day goes on (I teach the same thing four classes in a row, I feel kind of sorry for second period). I’m beginning to look forward to these next six weeks, I think they’ll be fun.

My dad sent this to me. I love it.

What Teachers Make...

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?" He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Linda. Be honest. What do you make?"

Linda, who has a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, then began...)
"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental...

"You want to know what I make?" She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table....
Ø I make kids wonder.
Ø I make them question.
Ø I make them criticize.
Ø I make them apologize and mean it.
Ø I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
Ø I teach them to write and then I make them write.
Ø I make them read, read, read.
Ø I make them show all their work in math related consumer science.
Ø I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
Ø I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
Ø I make my students stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, because we live in the United States of America.
Ø Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.

(Linda paused one last time, then continued.)
"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, I can hold my head up high.You want to know what I make? "I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make?"

Being a Teacher

I think these pretty much sum it up:

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job."
~Donald D. Quinn~

"Teaching is not something just anybody can do; it requires a certain drive and ambition that lies within only the select few. To be a good teacher, you must love what you're doing. You must love your work and your students the same and know where to draw the line between friendship and professionalism with them. Teaching is a privilege and should not be viewed any other way" (T. McNamara, 2005)

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have."
~ Lee Iacocc

"To be called 'Teacher' might indeed be one of the greatest compliments one could ever receive" ~ Kylene Beers

"To choose a profession so that you may be wealthy is selfish. To choose a profession so that others may benefit from that wealth is truly selfless."

Rules of Laundry

For those of you who are prospective college students reading this, or anyone else for that matter – especially those who live in apartments and have a community washroom and have to pay for washing as well, here are some things about laundry that I feel you should be aware of.

1) Do your laundry. No one wants to be around someone who is wearing dirty clothes.
2) Have plenty of quarters on hand. Quarters are like gold to college students. Laundry at college is not cheap, and you may have to do less loads than you’re used to (I usually wash a light colored load and a dark colored load). Don’t make not having quarters an excuse to not do your laundry. You have been warned.
3) Time your laundry. Washing usually takes 35 minutes and drying takes 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how many quarters you put in and how well the dryers dry.
4) Be on time to get your laundry out of the washers and dryers (you have about a 15 minute leeway, especially if it’s a Saturday when everyone is doing laundry)
5) Laundry that is left for over an hour and half (really, 30 minutes) is fair game.
6) If someone moves your laundry to do their own because you forgot yours, deal with it. Do not be stupid/mean and move theirs out before it’s finished just to get back at them. It’s your fault that your laundry has been sitting there.
7) If you feel like it, leave a note explaining why you moved the laundry – it might make people less hostile.
8) Again, be on time to get your laundry and then you won’t have to worry about your clothes getting moved so you feel like you have to rewash them and waste your precious quarters.

I went to do laundry this morning at 11:30 and someone’s clothes were in the one and only washer my apartment complex has. I left to go to Wal-Mart and go shopping. I got back around 1:00 and proceeded to go do my laundry, assuming the other person had been down to take care of theirs. The same clothes were still in the washer. I moved them into the plastic tub that was sitting there with laundry detergent, since I assumed they belonged there. The clothes had that yucky wet smell to them, as if they’d been there awhile (since they had been there for at least an hour and a half!). I was up cleaning my apartment when I hear a door bounce and “Someone moved my clothes!” “Really, did they leave a note?” Duh someone moved your clothes, you obviously forgot you had laundry. So, I go down after 35 minutes, I time my laundry, and my clothes are now on the counter and hers are back in the washer being rewashed. I’m thinking this is pretty rude. I had given her an hour and a half to take care of hers, and I’m pretty sure mine weren’t done washing when she took them out. But whatever. I put mine in the dryer, and my laundry got done. People really need to grow up sometimes. Seriously, if your laundry is there for over an hour and a half, someone is going to move it, especially on a Saturday.

I think we’re going to a party at my friend’s house tonight. It should be entertaining at the least. Today’s been pretty uneventful, minus the laundry. I cleaned our apartment, it’s always nice to feel like things look like they are where they belong. It’s kind of strange to me to not have any homework to be doing on the weekends, but that’s ok. I’m glad to not have it. I need to be working on my portfolio, but that’s for another day.

First Days

Ok, so it's only my second day of student teaching and I'm already
exhausted, and I can't even really say that I've done anything! I
guess 6 AM is just a little early for my body that's used to getting
up later. I went to bed at 10 last night and slept pretty much the
whole night through - very unusual for me, and still jumped when the
alarm went off this morning? Hopefully my body gets used to it sooner
than later, because I definitely don?t like being tired at 5:30 in the
evening.

I think I killed about 6 trees today. I had to make 125 copies of all
my handouts and whatnot for next week. The one good thing is that
there are no codes for the copy machines, so a) I don't have to
remember it, and b) I'm not wracking up the pages my teacher has used!
I am amazed at how fast the copy machines can spit out 125 pages. I
thought the copier at the Ed. Building was fast; I was wrong.

I almost got in a wreck today. I was pulling out of QuickTrip and some
lady comes flying out of nowhere. I had the right of way because I was
going straight and she had to turn to get to the main road, but I
fortunately saw her before she t-boned me. I slammed on my brakes and
she didn't even slow down. I looked at her and she wasn't even looking
at me - as if she didn't want me to realize she knew I was there, saw
me, and still didn't care that she was about to smash into my car.
Maybe I should have let her hit me - then I would've had an excuse to
get a new car, but that would've been bad for the present because then
I wouldn't have a car. Oh well. We didn't hit and everyone is fine.

One good thing: Today I worked with a student for about an hour on her
vocabulary assignment. She came to me first, not my mentor teacher. It
made me feel good, and at least like I was doing something other than
sitting in my corner of the room observing and doing nothing useful. I
hope there are many more moments like that one.

Why Don't They Have Barns?

So, the other night my friends and I were all just sitting around talking, watching the snow fall outside and definitely enjoying the fact that we weren’t in it… I said something about how the farmers in Western Kansas/Eastern Colorado had lost about 400 head of cattle or more (that’s over 400 cows) due to the large ice/snow storm we had in December. I was saying it for sympathy, for the plight of those poor farmers, but apparently everyone else found it funny… funny because we “don’t have barns” for our cows. No, we don’t have barns because our cows are range (read, beef) cows, not dairy cows. They don’t need barns, they do just fine in the pastures. The reason the last storm was so devastating was because we had inches of ice and then three feet of snow in a few hours and the farmers couldn’t get to the cows to feed or water them due to the conditions of the road. For those of you who don’t know, Kansas does not get that much snow during the year, much less from one storm, so it was really unexpected. Generally, cows can handle cold weather, ice, and snow, but not that much of it that quickly. Anyways, I don’t know why it bothered me so much, it just did. I was concerned for the farmers and the economy because it’s very hard to come back from a loss that big, but all they could think about was the fact that we didn’t have barns for our cows. I guess it depends on how close to home things hit as to whether or not you find them serious and something to think about, or funny…as my friends apparently did.

I went to inservice yesterday for student teaching. It was really fun trying to get there in 4 inches of snow! We just got the class lists and the seating charts set up. We had a faculty meeting and I met a ton of people I’m not going to remember…. I officially start tomorrow, and I start teaching Romeo and Juliet on Monday. I’m kind of excited because I think my lessons are really fun and interesting, but kind of worried because I’m not sure how the students are going to react. My teacher sometimes makes it sound like they’re all just stupid and that I’m going to have to go slow or “dumb down” my lessons… Sometimes it gets to me how negative teachers are about their students. I feel like we should always be looking for the positive and trying to help them succeed however we can, not focus on what they CAN’T do. Maybe that’s just me talking through my naivety, but I still think there has to be some positive to outweigh all the negative that I hear.

Today is an “off” day, though I do have to go tutor and get some more R&J handouts and planning done. Should be fun, I guess we’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Hmmm

I don't want to go to bed. I didn't fall asleep last night until probably 3 in the morning, and that was kind of annoying. My downstairs neighbors are being a little quieter now than they were about an hour ago, but that doesn't mean anything. I'm not looking forward to student teaching and having to hear the parties every Wednesday and Thursday night...


I miss having people here. School doesn't start until Tuesday, so most people aren't coming back till Sunday or Monday. I have a student teaching orientation thing on Sunday though, so I had to be back. Plus, the weather is getting really bad at home, so I had to come back early. Maybe I already said that, I don't know.


Here are some pictures from Christmas...

These are my two best friends before a "night on the town." We were trying to find bars to go to to celebrate Adria's (the one on the left) bachlorette party in July. We discovered Wichita is dead. Hopefully we find something, because otherwise we're going to have to travel...









This is a picture of all the grandkids and great-grandkids that were at Christmas for my dad's side of the family. My grandma is in the middle. There are some missing, but this is the majority of them. I love having a big family... there's always something exciting going on.






My little (ok, not so little) sister, my cousin, and I handing out presents at Christmas on my mom's side.

My godbaby opening his presents.

I went to dance today. It was nice to finally dance again, though tomorrow I will probably be sore. Oh well.



Looking forward to this weekend and next week. I'm a little nervous, but excited all the same.

Freedom Writers

Last night I went to see Freedom Writers. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie, though slow at times. To me, it is almost the epitome of why I want to be a teacher. I want to make a difference in the lives of the students in my classroom, I want to be able to reach them and get them interested in learning. Erin Gurwell did what I want to do despite the odds stacked against her and lack of support from the other teachers in her department. Half the time I was appalled at what the other teachers were telling her, because they did not believe her students could succeed in high school because they came in with poor reading scores. Unfortunately, some teachers today still think that way and expect those students to fail, instead of believing that they can succeed. I hope I never turn into that type of teacher. I believe everyone can succeed if given the chance and the support they need.

The movie was inspiring, in that I begin student teaching on Monday. I have Romeo and Juliet pretty much planned, I just have to finish creating hand-outs, quizzes, assignment sheets, etc. As much as I wasn't looking forward to teaching Shakespeare, I actually think this unit may be kind of fun. At least I hope so. If not, I'm only going to be there for half the semester.

It finally feels like winter in Des Moines. I drove back in the gross rain today, but at least I missed the ice and snow. I guess I'll be spending the next few days getting things ready, and then onto the last step before graduation and job hunting!

Step 1 - Done

I finally got Romeo and Juliet planned this week. Now I just have to write the quizzes, tests, study guides, assignment sheets, and whatever else that is needed to make those six weeks successful and the students won't be entirely bored with Shakespeare. At first I was a little apprehensive about teaching Shakespeare, mostly because I wasn't the biggest fan of my college Shakespeare course, but the more I plan this unit, the more excited about it I am becoming. I think it will be fun, as long as I can get the students interested in it. I'm focusing a lot on the language, so we'll see how that goes. We may have to switch halfway through...

I'm really ready to go back. Not so much for school to start, but just to be back with my friends. Most of mine here are leaving today or have already left, and the ones that are here are busy with work and school of their own. It's nice to come home every once in awhile, but also nice to go back to friends and something to do!

Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone. This year looks to be a bit more exciting than last year - student teaching, job searching, graduating, watching my friends get married this summer, starting my FIRST teaching job... going where God and life take me. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm scared out of my mind. I don't really feel like I'm ready to be an adult, esp. since many of my friends get to stay semi-adults for the next year or two. C'est la vie. It just feels like it's all suddenly moving so fast.

I spent New Year's Eve with my two best friends and their boyfriends (mine was in Milwaukee). It was pretty fun. We ate a lot of food, drank, played games, went outside and shot off the popper fireworks (the ones where you pull the string) with one of my friend's little brothers, and had a champagne toast at midnight. All in all, a successful party.

Here's to an awesome 2007 and a restful two weeks before I have to go back to school.