Well this last week a lot happened! Tuesday was St. Patrick's day ...which doesn't really keep us busy but I made sure to wear green when teaching elementary school kids. My 6th graders showed up with green spray-painted hair and head-to-toe green clothing. That's a great perk of teaching, the kids LOVE every holiday!
Wednesday was a half-day of teaching for me then I went up to BYU for the Teacher Fair. That was interesting, I stopped by several district booths and handed off my resume/letters of recommend to them. Though some of the districts were helpful, most of them only said to go online and fill out an application. Of course districts are posting openings at the beginning of April and I won't know where we will be until the end of May so who knows if there will be any positions left at that point. Oh well, I will find work one way or another! But anyway, I ran into two freshman friends on campus that I pretty much haven't seen since freshman year. It was great talking to them and catching up. I liked being on campus again :-) Next time that happens will be graduation! Anyway, Heather and Matt came down that afternoon and helped me put together Justin's birthday cake. It was fun visiting and decorating a cake together, it is one of our favorite things to do.
Then Thursday was the big day! Justin turned 28! He's getting old ;-) He opened his presents before I left for school at 7 am. His spoils from me were a new watchband, 3 blu-rays, and a white dress shirt. That evening we went out to Chili's with Justin's friends then back to our apartment for cake and ice cream. It was a full day and very fun. I think he enjoyed his day. But we kept the party going till today!
Yesterday we went to Brandon and Amanda's for Justin's family birthday party. Amanda cooked a great meal and we really enjoyed our time visiting with our family. AND on a GREAT sidenote...I found out yesterday that I PASSED my teacher work sample! This was a HUGE assignment (25 pages long) and had I failed I wouldn't be graduating so it was a big relief to know I passed. We went out to Tucano's for lunch today to use Justin's free birthday meal and that pretty much wraps up the end of his birthday celebration. Hope we can always be able to celebrate our birthdays for so long!
AND more exciting news came our way this week. Justin officially received his first acceptance letter for the MBA program he applied to in Illinois (North Central in Naperville) and he found out that he will be able to stay with his company all through the summer (originally he was probably only going to have a job through May 1st). Lastly, what I think might be the best news, my sis and bro-in-law are going on a work trip to Orlando May 3-10 and had a 2nd bedroom in their condo and invited Justin and I to come along! I really wanted a vacation as my graduation present but with grad school around the corner and so many uncertainties it didn't look like it was going to get to happen. We just book our tickets yesterday! Heather and I are going to head up to N.C. May 10th and stay there till the 15th so I will get a whole 2 weeks vacation! Hopefully I will be able to find some kinda job before I leave for the vaca so I can start it when I get back. Or not...maybe not working for a while wouldn't be such a bad gig ;-)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Warning: I'm not in a very cheerful mood...
I'll try to be upbeat but we'll see how it goes.
Good news: last Wednesday I turned in my teacher work sample (capstone project of my major) and it is such a relief to have that off my shoulders!
Bad news: Last Wednesday I started my 2nd block of student teaching in a 6th grade class. I was very excited for the new environment since I didn't feel like I had a superb mentor teacher 1st block. Well so far this new mentor teacher and situation has me really missing my old mentor teacher. So far I'm not a fan of year-round schools and especially how this 6th grade team breaks up each subject by teacher (so the students are rotating for each subject to a new teacher). I've always thought I am pretty flexible when it comes to teaching but I really am not a fan of how flexible these teachers are with their schedules. I function well when there are procedures and set schedules to follow, this 6th grade team has no set schedules but rather very loose guidelines they try to follow. I am really just dying to graduate and get a job. With the way this experience is going so far I'm not even sure if I want to teach when I graduate. It is overwhelmingly depressing me.
Good news: I have only 34 days left of this semester and student teaching before I graduate though!
I think it is so important to keep hope in your life, especially when everything seems to not be going your way. We are unsure about where Justin will be going to grad school, if he'll be able to find a job while he's in grad school with the way the economy is, if I'll even be able to find a job once I graduate. There are so many uncertainties in our life at this point that I feel all we can do is hold our breath, pray and have hope in that things will turn out for our good. I know that when I am surrounded by negative & hopeless people that my paradigm shifts to also constantly dwelling on the negative. But each day brings with it challenges but moments of sweetness as well. When those sweet moments occur it is so important to focus on them and be consumed by them instead of the more obvious challenges. It isn't always easy to do but it makes all the difference. This is what I need to focus on doing during this student teaching experience. Any words of advice?
Good news: last Wednesday I turned in my teacher work sample (capstone project of my major) and it is such a relief to have that off my shoulders!
Bad news: Last Wednesday I started my 2nd block of student teaching in a 6th grade class. I was very excited for the new environment since I didn't feel like I had a superb mentor teacher 1st block. Well so far this new mentor teacher and situation has me really missing my old mentor teacher. So far I'm not a fan of year-round schools and especially how this 6th grade team breaks up each subject by teacher (so the students are rotating for each subject to a new teacher). I've always thought I am pretty flexible when it comes to teaching but I really am not a fan of how flexible these teachers are with their schedules. I function well when there are procedures and set schedules to follow, this 6th grade team has no set schedules but rather very loose guidelines they try to follow. I am really just dying to graduate and get a job. With the way this experience is going so far I'm not even sure if I want to teach when I graduate. It is overwhelmingly depressing me.
Good news: I have only 34 days left of this semester and student teaching before I graduate though!
I think it is so important to keep hope in your life, especially when everything seems to not be going your way. We are unsure about where Justin will be going to grad school, if he'll be able to find a job while he's in grad school with the way the economy is, if I'll even be able to find a job once I graduate. There are so many uncertainties in our life at this point that I feel all we can do is hold our breath, pray and have hope in that things will turn out for our good. I know that when I am surrounded by negative & hopeless people that my paradigm shifts to also constantly dwelling on the negative. But each day brings with it challenges but moments of sweetness as well. When those sweet moments occur it is so important to focus on them and be consumed by them instead of the more obvious challenges. It isn't always easy to do but it makes all the difference. This is what I need to focus on doing during this student teaching experience. Any words of advice?
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