Food

Okay, so even though half of my family are foodies, I forgot to mention the food at the Spa today.  A.Mazing.  Well, pretty darn good.  Filet minon medallions, cheese and fruit trays, hummus and flat bread trays...  For the first time, today I tried some green apple slices, with various types of cheese, and honey drizzled on top.  I would never have thought to combine cheese and honey. But it was delightful.  It was probably the hunny...

SPA DAY!

After my toughest week of student teaching, I had the delightful opportunity to go get PAMPERED!  My sisters and cousin and I went to the Camelback Inn and Spa and were treated like royalty for a day.  I didn't mind it at all.  My first massage (with hot stones, absolutely delightful), my first yoga class (um, slightly less delightful than the other "first" of the day, but I felt good after =)  I even got to start reading a book! A real honest to goodness book!  It was the Scarlet Pimpernel.  And although it took me about 3 hours to remember how to read a book, and get past the first page, after that, I was really excited about it.  Too bad it'll have to go on the shelf until Summer Break... :-/
Okay, so Spa experience; positive.  Definitely excited for next year's trip :)

Week Ten

This was one of the longest weeks of my life.  I believe over the course of the week I got somewhere around 20 hours of sleep. I require around 40 hours a week.  For you math majors out there, that means I got 1/2 of my allotted sleep time.  That = no good.

My family had to be called in to save me on multiple occasions.  I don't deserve them.  I clocked over 60 hours this week.  I get paid double for overtime, which would be nice if 2 x 0 did not = 0.  Bummer.

Glad Week 10 is almost over.  Dreading Week 11 a little bit, I'm not going to lie.  But I'm sincerely hoping that it's a little less.... well, just less.

The time of decision is at hand...

I'm not sure why, but I wrote this like a million years ago and never posted it.....

After almost 2 years, the day of decision is upon me.  I have looked forward to it and dreaded it simultaneously.  I received my letter of acceptance to a graduate program at BYU.  After a year I would have a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and would be qualified to begin the MA program of the same name, which would take a subsequent two years to complete.  This comes at a time when my brother and his wife are moving to Colorado and my sister and her husband are moving to Boston.  If I move forward, my family will be strewn across 4 states.  Four kids, four different states.

That was unexpected.

Well, the decision has not been firmly made, there are a few more discussions to be had with my Father, but we will see.  I still secretly long to work for and Italian airline, but I have to master Italian first...  A part of me longs to follow McKade or Lynzie to Colorado or Massachusetts respectively, while the majority of me would still like to follow Becca and Joanna out to California.  However, it's lookin' like my chapters in Arizona are coming to an end, or at least receiving an intermission.  I am excited about the prospect of applying at the MTC.  We'll see what happens!

AmeriCORPS

I heard back from AmeriCORPS, a program called UCAN Serve that allows you to volunteer for 600 hours and get a $2k education voucher from the government.  My student teaching will count perfectly!  Yay for a bit of money to help with grad school tuition!!!

Official Week 1 and Week 2

Well, in week one, I started taking over bits and pieces of the routine-- mostly I was in charge of the daily warm-ups, the small group phonics lessons, and walking the kids around campus for specials and such.

Week two started the control of more serious lessons.  I have officially taken over the Science curriculum.  My wonderful mentor teacher Mrs. V. will not have to teach another Science lesson for the rest of the year.  Or at least until May... MPS has these great Science kits that they send us, so they technically have "lesson plans" created, and they send us all the materials.  For my kids, however, why would anything be easy???  I take everything from the box and recreate the lessons in Spanish using the parts I like and that will best help my kids to not only learn the Science, but also the Spanish.  After my first Science lesson I thought I was going to throw up. It went very poorly because of, well, me.  The second time around (i get to teach every lesson twice, which I LOVE) it went MUCH better and I don't feel quite as sick... :)  That was the first day I felt like a real-life teacher.  I ended up staying at the school working on my planning and prep for a few extra hours while the whole 2nd grade team went out to have drinks.  They're good to invite me, and also very good to let me decline :)

I'm also taking over the Spanish grammar lessons, and starting next week, the Social Studies curriculum.  So I'm looking for some fun ideas to present my Early US History Unit starting next week, and going until Spring Break! :)

Pre-Student Teaching

So I have had two weeks of pre-student teaching.  I've LOVED it.  I'm having so much fun observing and wandering around giving input to the various students. I absolutely LOVED parent teacher conferences.  It reminded me that I really do want to work in adult education and family literacy programs.  YAY!  I'm loving it.

Flashing Lights

So Becca says it's time to write in my blog again.

I think I should probably tell you about my Thursday morning this week.  I leave for school at 6:45 every morning; and it's still dark.... It's pretty rough :)  So I was driving to school, and I was running a tiny bit late (as usual).  I eat a yogurt for breakfast every morning, and it usually happens on my way to school.  So I'm zipping through Gilbert trying to cut my drive a little shorter, and suddenly there're very bright flashing lights behind me in the darkness.  I pull over and the police officer asks me if I know why. Thinking of my usual driving habits I say, "um, maybe I was speeding?"  He says, "Well 55 in a 45 isn't really a big deal, it's more because you turned too wide and into my lane. I was turning left and had the right of way."  "Oh. Sorry."  So he kindly gave me a verbal warning, told me that the driver's license I've had since I was 16 was too old and I should go get it updated....

Turning too wide?? I think he pulled me over cuz he saw me eating yogurt while I was turning...

Student Teaching

Well, I have a placement. I'll be student teaching at Helen Keller Elementary in Mesa Public Schools.  I'm in a 2nd grade Spanish component of a dual language classroom.  So, I teach two different sets of 22 kids, half in the morning, half in the afternoon.  When they're with me, they'll be learning Writing, Social Studies, and Science-- all in the Spanish language.  When they're not with me, they'll get Reading and Math in English.  All already speak fluent English, and some have a history of Spanish in their family or with friends, but many are learning Spanish for the first time.  This'll be an adventure!

Houseware Hysteria

It was only recently that I discovered what flatware is. I thought it was like plates and such. Only a few short days after I was educated on the proper use of the term, I walked into a store and promptly fell in love with their flatware.

It is, of course, incredibly outside my current flatware budget (considering the fact that I do not budget for housewares while living with my parents...). However, I have gotten the bug, and now feel it is quite urgent to purchase not only the flatware, but also the china I have been mulling over for the last 5 years; which is, of course, the most expensive in the store...

This sudden impulse, I'm sure, stems from the fact that I am
currently unemployed with no option to become so in the
near future. Why is it that I only ever want to spend money
when I'm not making any?

I have all but resigned myself to skipping out on the china forever, and buying a few sets of dishes that I can eclectically intermingle with the stoneware I already have, but I am still very seriously contemplating the splurge on the utensils. A girl's gotta eat, right?