Well, life has been a little crazy for us around here! Where do I even start! After Christmas in beautiful California, we took a road trip to freezing Rexburg to drop of Kalie at BYU-I! I think I was more nervous than she was! She didn't know any of her roomates and really only knew a few people there on campus. We drove to Idaho Falls and stayed the night in a hotel then early the next morning we went to find her apartment. It is a cute little red house with 5 other girls. There wasn't anybody else there yet, another reason for me to panic! We dropped of her stuff and went to Walmart with everybody else in the town, I swear! We got her a ton of groceries and she had even planned on what she wanted to make for dinner for the week so we were able to buy her all of the ingredients for those meals, which was good! Then we went over to campus, which Aaron and I had never seen and we really liked it. We had lunch there and walked around the bookstore. Then we took her back to her apartment and said goodbye. I didn't cry then but as we were driving away, I did cry a little!! I was just worried about her but I knew that she would do fine. Kalie is very mature and is very conscious of everything around her and I knew she would be just fine!!
A few weeks later I started school, ugh!!! I have four semesters left!!! I just applied for the Elementary Education program and I hope that I will get in. Some bad news though, I had to take a math and writing praxis test that every future teacher needs to take and I failed the math by 1 stinkin point!!! So, I had to write an appeal letter with my application pretty much begging to get in! Aaron helped me write that one! He is so good at writing those kind of letters!!! If I don't get in I have to wait until fall semester, which I will ball my eyes out if that happens but maybe I will take a semester off or take some extra literacy endorsment classes that could not only help my GPA but help with getting in the program and eventually getting a job as a teacher!
This semester is going really well, I really do love all of my classes. First I have math 257 which is a geometry class. Obviously math is not my strong suit but I have to deal with that and realize that it takes me about double the time to learn a concept than most, but who cares!! Next I have Teaching and learning in the Elementary school. Best class so far!! It is anything and everything you would want to know about being a teacher. I am learning great ways to arrange my classroom, dealing with students that are being difficult and all about creating lesson plans. In addition to attending this class I have a field experince with this one. I have to spend 33 hours this semester in the classroom. I go for 3 hours every Tuesday morning to an Elementary School in Caldwell. I am in with a 4th and 5th grade classroom, which at first scared me TO DEATH! I want to teach lower grades only!! So, when I was told I was going to be in with older kids my stomach hurt! However, I have actually been enjoying it. Not enough to want to teach 4th or 5th grades!! But it hasn't been to bad. I think I was just nervous they were all going to be really mean and don't get me wrong there are a few snooty girls that I always walk past to see if they are doing what the teacher has asked!! I really like my mentor teachers as well. They amazingly treat me like I am already a teacher, which can be scary, because I have no confidence yet in that department! I lead groups of 8-10 students in a lesson, or I will do a spelling test for a group of kids. My favorite thing to do is just walk around and visit with the students or help them if they need it. I feel like I really get a sense of what it would be like to be a teacher!
My next two classes are cultural diversity in the classroom, which is alright. We just read a ton and do group discussions on what it will be like to have a culturally diverse class. Then I have Literacy 440. I really like this class. We learn different stratagies to teach literacy in math, science and history. The things I learn in that class are things I have never thought of before. Which is obviously why I should be in there! So, all in all a pretty good semester. Aaron has of course been amazing! Since I have 2 night classes he picks Dylan up from my Mom's and helps him with his homework and does a lot of house work. Love him!
Dylan is doing really well in school. He is reading a ton and actually really enjoys it! He has over 300 books!! My reasoning for that is that my literacy teacher told us that a new teacher has to have a library of at least 400 books because there is never money for books, so teachers have to use their own!! Aaron doesn't get too mad, because Dylan really does love reading. I would say half of them I got for $2 or less. Garage sales, used stores or the public library sale where you can stuff a bag of books for like $5!
We are looking forward for Spring break next month because we are going to Oregon for the weekend to see my sister and my brother Jeff and his wife Kristi from Hawaii! I haven't seen them in years and they are making a trip out there! I will post some pics for sure!
