I’ve survived the first half of student teaching, and I have had a GREAT mid-term evaluation from my cooperating teachers, as well as my university supervisor.  I have a feeling that everything from here on out in the classroom is going to go much more smoothly, and I cannot wait for graduation.

Last weekend in Boone was a ton of fun, but now…I’m paying for it.  I should have slept in all day on saturday, instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off, since I’m sick yet AGAIN…but oh well…hindsight is 20/20.

In other parts of my life…Mykke and I are getting ready to celebrate the big one year mark…which I am very excited about. I have also applied for my first “big girl” job at Appalachian, which I am eagerly awaiting news about.  This job is in financial aid, and I think it would be a great fit for me.  I’m also applying for jobs in and around the mountains, since that is where all of my friends are.

I’m really wishing that I had a concrete answer for what is going on in the next 6 months, becasue everything being up in the air is making me an emotional disaster.

Mom and Dad Squared…I’m so sorry that I didn’t get to meet up with ya’ll for very long, but I needed to just crash out.

The past week has been a very slow paced one so far, since Monday was a holiday, Tuesday was a teacher workday and yesterday was a 2 hour delay.  This speed is getting ready for an abrupt change, since tomorrow marks the beginning of a new semester.  I have done nothing except for try to figure out what I want to do in my classes and begin to make lesson plans for the past week and I’m very happy about the progress that I have made, since I have 2 planning periods and we have been giving exams.  The quiet atmosphere has proven to be a good thing for me so that I can get a lot of work done during the day.  I’m somewhat afraid about what I am wanting to do within the classroom to present the material, so I’m trying several different things with each group in the first 2 weeks that I’m getting to work with them, in order to gauge what exactly works best for each group of students.

I have completed my lesson plans for next week in Sociology, which include a day of lecture, a pop quiz, a mini-project, the presentation of the mini-project and the introduction to culture, which is my first unit that I’m teaching in this class.  I have looked through several of the text books that Mount Tabor has and I’m not very impressed with any of them.  Due to this, as well as the fact that Sociology in the high school classroom is a very lenient subject, I’m taking the material from the book, presenting it in my own way, allowing students to give their imput to me and then trying to find ways to incorporate real world events, which will be my second unit later on this semester.  Mrs. Sciandra has been incredibly supportive of me and has embraced the idea of teaching this class from a new perspective.  She told me on my first day of meeting with her that she tried to make this a fun class and that she tried to limit the amount of note/lecture presentation of material.  I’m very excited about this, however, the real test of whether or not this is a good idea will come with the first set of assessments that I give the students next week.

My civics and economics teacher has told me that he’s going to lay the foundations down and then starting the following monday, I have a 2 day activity planned for the students in those classes dealing with factors of production, entrepreneurship  and fixed/variable costs.  I found it off of Google and then I took the information and somewhat modified it to fit the goals and objectives of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in Civics and Economics.  I’m really excited about it, since I’m going to be able to teach the material and then have actual activities to demonstrate how the material applies to life in the real world.  Since the classroom that I teach Civics and Economics in has computers located in the classroom, I’m going to try to incorporate group work in the way of webquests and other online teaching tools, to break up some of the monotony of the school day.

However I’m even more excited about this weekend.

Mykke and I are headed to the beach with his parents for the weekend, where I plan on doing absolutely nothing.

Well, today is the first full day of midterm exams, since 7th period exams were held yesterday afternoon.  It’s interesting to see how different the high school mindset of midterms is held in retrospect to how frazzled I’m used to being during midterms in college. 

This week, I have successfully been placed on the substitute teacher list for WS/FCS and been placed into a part-time job.  I have planned my first set of sociology lessons to use next week, but I’m not really sure about what I’m going to be able to do successfully until I get in there and crash and burn a few times.

Alright, today is my first day as a teacher and here is what I have already learned:

EAT BREAKFAST or your pills will make you sick.  I thought I learned that lesson this weekend, but evidently not.  Oh, and a Special K bar is NOT the same as having a REAL breakfast.

Smile.  Everyone here has had the biggest smile on their face, which has made today much less scary for me and has allowed me to maintain my sanity even though I’m exhausted. 

Go to bed earlier.  Trying to replace sleep with stronger coffee is not a good idea.  I think that might be part of the reason that I got sick.

I have some really bright kids, which is really exciting,  They all seem to be very eager to learn while they are here, which is making this transition easy for me.

I miss Boone.  I miss you all, but I’ll be posting more later.

Mom and Dad Squared:  I’ll email you the pics of me and Mom from this weekend tomorrow.  Thanks for everything.  You have no idea how much you mean to me.

it’s almost time for me to enter the classroom, which has several up and down sides to it.

downs

1. everyone my age that is here in winston, and that i will actually associate with because they are not trash, is either engaged, married or seeing someone who lives here.  i love mykke, but i don’t want to sign on to be the 3rd wheel.
2. UNEMPLOYMENT.  it’s a bitch.  almost as much as not having any money
3. living at home with my parents.  dad was playing guitar at 7:30 this morning.  so much for sleeping in
4. being even FURTHER away from mykke

ups

1. free food

yeah, that’s the only up.

With one final exam (statistics) and two presentations to go, I’m done with my official time here at ASU.  Looking back on the past 4 years, there have been so many changes, which I can safely say, have all been for the better.

I applied as a Music Education major, actually came in as a Criminal Justice major, which changed into a Social Work major within one semester, which then changed into a Social Sciences Education/Sociology major in the same semester, that I am almost done with.

I’ve been gainfully employed for the past year, at a job that I actually enjoy and that I will miss, but that is mostly because of the amazing people that I have met through working here, and the fact that I’ve increased my real world knowledge of computers has made it that much better for me.

I can honestly say that coming to ASU, and staying through the hard times when I wanted to go home and wait to try something else, was the best thing I could have ever done.  Having my best friend here has made all the difference in the world, and knowing that she’s only a phone call away has saved my sanity who knows how many times.

Spending the majority of 4 semesters in a relationship with someone made me realize that I have so much I want to do before I actually settle down for good.  While I know that everything happens for a reason, something inside of me wishes that I could have put off growing up so fast.  Right now, I can say that I’m really happy where I am and who I’m with because, while I know that my main goals are in the distant future, the fact that we have discussed the future and aren’t rushing to make anything concrete is a really good thing for me right now.

and don’t even start singing the song by staind.

 okay, since that is now out of my system, down to buisness.  it’s been a rediculously busy month/summer/however long it’s been since the last time I posted anything on my blog, but that’s just how life is.  currently, we are getting ready for PHC Recruitment to begin tonight at 6pm…as of last count, we had 275 girls registered, which makes quota (the number of bids we can give out on bid day) around 40…AND THEY’RE STILL NOT DONE REGISTERING!!!!!  So, hello nationals…Lambda Beta is going to double…again.:-)

I have just started my internship here at Watauga High School with a standard US History class and today (in like 20 minutes) I’m going to be teaching my first lesson on the Seneca Falls Convention.  I’m really excited about this and everyone(mom, the sisters, the BFF, the boss, the boy) has been like “you’re way too excited about this” but i absolutely love it.  for crying out loud…I left the bar last night at 12:30 so I could be well rested for this and I hope that it’ll be a huge success for me, as well as for the students.

Personal life…there’s just drama, as usual.  (I know…save the drama for yo’ llama, but i just can’t do that to a llama)I’ll comment more on that when I finally figure out what is going on in my personal life.

 On a different note…please anyone who reads this, check out http://www.jena6.org and wear black tomorrow to show your support for the Jena 6 and their case.  After spending 2 weeks in the deep south this summer, I have realized that we, as a nation, have not come as far as we should when it comes to tolerance and acceptance.  If we, the young people, as well as the movers and shakers of our government and generation, do not stand up to make a difference, then who will?

Currently, I am in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi for a class on Social Stratification of the Deep South through Wake Forest University. For those of you who do not know, I BLEED black and gold and I have since I was a little girl(Go Deacs!)

This trip is reminding me why I chose to attend Appalachian State University instead.

We have been working with many groups that promote civil rights, work against hate groups and are recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, even though it has been almost two years since it happened.
Bay Saint Louis, in my eyes, has had a serious problem with looking at what is really important to their community. They have re-established their public library system…good job. This is a very important thing for the community and has allowed for the citizens of this community to regain some sense of normalcy in their community. However, they are concerned with re-establishing patronage of the local artists and commercialization, as well as the business from the Hollywood Casino while they still do not have a grocery store within a thirty minute drive, they have spent a $25,000 grant to restore six bronze sculptures in the public library and their children are still attending school in mobile class rooms while many of the citizens in this area are still living in FEMA trailers, which are just campers that you would be stretching to spend more than about a week in while on vacation, much less 22 months living in full time. These FEMA trailers also have a limited amount of plumbing which is mostly pieced together with PVC pipe.

My question is this: WHERE THE HELL ARE THE PRIORITIES?!? When we addressed the people in the library, who were mostly administrative staff(and white, privileged people…the pictures of their homes prior to Katrina and testimonies about their Katrina experiences expressed this) blew off our questions about the diversity of the community as well as the state of the people in their community of lower socio-economic statuses. Honestly, why didn’t they take five minutes out of their frivolous grant writing to call the headquarters of Winn-Dixie, which was located in Bay Saint Louis prior to Hurricane Katrina, and tell them that they were in desperate need of a grocery store in their community? Oh, that’s right…they were able to secure transportation to their trailers that were given to them by FEMA or through the insurance that they received from their boats(yes, that’s right, their BOATS) so that they could travel an hour away to get groceries to take to their trailers while there are still people here living in tents…yes, TENTS.  While my heart pours out in grief and sympathy to the numerous people who have lost everything that they have ever held dear to themselves, I cannot see why the need for stuff, like art restoration, has been placed above the needs of the people who have returned to this area to attempt to rebuild themselves.
Please let me know if you think that there is something wrong with this

i want to thank everyone, most importantly, whit, for making my 21st birthday extravaganza absolutely AMAZING!!!!

you all are wonderful and i love you more than you could possibly know…

any mykke, thanks for one of the best birthday presents ever…i don’t think you could ever know how much it meant to me

this is our new puppy…she is a beautiful white lab and i love her.

and i know that you are jealous