Tomorrow I will celebrate my 24th birthday. It will be full of laughter and merriment... although I will be woeful about my increasing age.
But tomorrow I will also celebrate something else... that is even more glorious and wonderful and supremely delicious. And do you know what that is? The one year anniversary of my last day of student teaching. I can commemorate the end of all sadness and stress in my life. The past year has been blissful, comparatively. I have a great job outside of the teaching profession. I have great friends. And great possibilities for my future. And I never have to set my eyes on that school again. I still have nightmares about it, honestly. It tortures me. But at least in real life, I don't have to go there. ever. And that is simply the best thought I could have, on my birthday, every year for the rest of my life.
ALSO. Tomorrow pre-sale begins for the epic US concert tour of the one and only One Direction. July 25, 2013, I will be there. And I will buy my tickets tomorrow.
And a random thought:
So I love it when people allow the post on facebook that says they got a new high score on angry birds. I'm like, "CONGRATULATIONS! What a load of time you are wasting on facebook....and angry birds! Your life must be so cool!" and then I remember that I was probably on facebook for the same amount of time... I was just looking at other people's pictures... and then I realize that trying to beat a high score on a dumb game is probably higher than photo stalking on the productive scale. But only just barely.
Showing posts with label student teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student teaching. Show all posts
Friday, April 13, 2012
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Abandoned
I have abandoned this blog lately. So this post is just to announce that yes, I am still alive. Stressed-out? Exhausted? Over-worked? Homesick? Stronger than before? More dedicated? A better person? All yes. the answer is yes.
Student teaching is hard. I can't say that enough. And for most of this time I've been a student teacher I thought it was too hard. There was definitely an extended period of time that I didn't think I could do it-- and honestly, I think that's the first time in my life that I have thought that. I've always thought that I could do anything- in fact, I've been known to say, "they say you can't do it all. But I can." The trial of student teaching made me doubt the foundations of who I am. I wanted to go home multiple times. So bad. Heck, I still want to go home. I've never been more excited about anything in my entire life- including when Harry Potter 7 came out. I can't explain, and don't want to explain what is so hard about it. But I promise that's it just hard across the board. It's kind of a best-kept secret in the education world. Talk to anyone. Very rarely will you find someone that actually enjoyed their student teaching experience.
The good thing is that I've reached the summit, so to speak. Miley Cyrus's "The Climb," comes to mind. I don't love it. There are moments when I like it. And it's become one of those things that you just have to make the most of and get through. Throughout this semester I've gone from a very negative attitude to a hopeful one. I swear, there has been a serious transformation-- an emergence from a very dark tunnel to a significantly brighter afternoon.
So most of the time I'm just too tired to really think about anything, and then I have to plan another lesson or grade another research paper. It's all-consuming. Student teaching becomes life. Which is fine, except I feel guilty all the time, because I'm in this place that I love, but I don't have the time or energy to enjoy it. And I'm counting down the days until I leave it. I hate that. I love this place. It has brought me so much happiness in the past. But now I associate it with the stress of student teaching and I get a bad taste in my mouth. Is that not awful? Last Friday, though, I went to Georgetown for shopping and dinner with my roommate Julie. And it was a warm, sunny day (just about the first one this year). I was so happy. I remembered why I love this place, and I wanted to stay. So conclusion: I still love the city. I still love being here. I just want to finish student teaching and never think about it again. Ever.
So that's the status of my feelings right now. As of tomorrow after school, I will have exactly 3 weeks until I'm done with this. And two days after that I will fly home to St. George, into the loving arms of my mommy and daddy. And my mom has already promised to make me cinnamon rolls when I get home.
And then I'll be in Northern Utah on April 19th. My lovely lovely cousin Nicole is getting married on April 20. And then I graduate. The next day. Wow. Graduation. And then I think I'm going to live in Provo. For the summer at least.
And then that's where the story ends. That's when the plan is over. I don't know what's going to come next. But you know what? That's okay. At this point I can deal with a couple weeks of chill. A couple weeks of no plans and no pressure. I'll get bored pretty fast, I'm sure. But for right now, I can't imagine anything more awesome.
Student teaching is hard. I can't say that enough. And for most of this time I've been a student teacher I thought it was too hard. There was definitely an extended period of time that I didn't think I could do it-- and honestly, I think that's the first time in my life that I have thought that. I've always thought that I could do anything- in fact, I've been known to say, "they say you can't do it all. But I can." The trial of student teaching made me doubt the foundations of who I am. I wanted to go home multiple times. So bad. Heck, I still want to go home. I've never been more excited about anything in my entire life- including when Harry Potter 7 came out. I can't explain, and don't want to explain what is so hard about it. But I promise that's it just hard across the board. It's kind of a best-kept secret in the education world. Talk to anyone. Very rarely will you find someone that actually enjoyed their student teaching experience.
The good thing is that I've reached the summit, so to speak. Miley Cyrus's "The Climb," comes to mind. I don't love it. There are moments when I like it. And it's become one of those things that you just have to make the most of and get through. Throughout this semester I've gone from a very negative attitude to a hopeful one. I swear, there has been a serious transformation-- an emergence from a very dark tunnel to a significantly brighter afternoon.
So most of the time I'm just too tired to really think about anything, and then I have to plan another lesson or grade another research paper. It's all-consuming. Student teaching becomes life. Which is fine, except I feel guilty all the time, because I'm in this place that I love, but I don't have the time or energy to enjoy it. And I'm counting down the days until I leave it. I hate that. I love this place. It has brought me so much happiness in the past. But now I associate it with the stress of student teaching and I get a bad taste in my mouth. Is that not awful? Last Friday, though, I went to Georgetown for shopping and dinner with my roommate Julie. And it was a warm, sunny day (just about the first one this year). I was so happy. I remembered why I love this place, and I wanted to stay. So conclusion: I still love the city. I still love being here. I just want to finish student teaching and never think about it again. Ever.
So that's the status of my feelings right now. As of tomorrow after school, I will have exactly 3 weeks until I'm done with this. And two days after that I will fly home to St. George, into the loving arms of my mommy and daddy. And my mom has already promised to make me cinnamon rolls when I get home.
And then I'll be in Northern Utah on April 19th. My lovely lovely cousin Nicole is getting married on April 20. And then I graduate. The next day. Wow. Graduation. And then I think I'm going to live in Provo. For the summer at least.
And then that's where the story ends. That's when the plan is over. I don't know what's going to come next. But you know what? That's okay. At this point I can deal with a couple weeks of chill. A couple weeks of no plans and no pressure. I'll get bored pretty fast, I'm sure. But for right now, I can't imagine anything more awesome.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Constitution say WHAT?!
We did a Constitutional Convention in my government class last week. I played George Washington and led the convention. It was nothing short of an adventure.
Each student was given a specific role- a real person who had been at the convention. They were required to adopt that person's perspective and make arguments for certain things.
We used proper parliamentary procedure, the debates were fair, and the voting only happened after everyone had agreed that it was time to vote. There were equal delegates from each perspective, so the point was for each group to come to a compromise, and then the class-made Constitution would turn out similar to the REAL U.S. Constitution.
But this is what happened:
Not only will our country allow slavery for eternity, but we will elect a president who will remain in office HIS ENTIRE LIFE.
So, let's enslave human beings and elect a dictator. Nice. Did anyone say Nazi Germany?
This is what happens when the most talented and forward debaters of the class are assigned similar perspectives. oops. They overpower the weaker, more reasonable delegates.
But seriously, is this how bad government happens? Is this what comes of dominant personalities who all share the same idea? They can easily overpower those who are not willing to speak up. The weak are crushed. Inequality reigns. Imagine if this had been the case at the REAL Constitutional Convention. What would we have ended up with? What if there hadn't been compromise? This is why the Constitution and the organization of our unique federal government is such a miracle-- and further evidence of providential inspiration in its framing.
But isn't the ease of corruption a scary thought? It is just that easy to get off track.
Anyway.
Other randoms about student teaching and Washington DC in general:
1. The wind is so cold that it eats your face. Well, chews it up and then leaves the exposed flesh as it moves by.
2. When I woke up at 6:15 on Monday morning this week, one word went through my mind repeatedly: WHY?
3. My students think they are liberal because they live in DC and their parents are liberal. However, they are actually quite conservative. This lends credibility to my theory that the human being is conservative in its natural state.
4. We watched "Pleasantville" in one of the other government classes. Two things about that: 1) this movie would never be shown in Utah schools without a permission slip. I felt awkward. 2) The movie-- and the cooperating teacher for that class-- paint conservatism like it is INSANE and inhibits freedom and individual liberties. It made conservative values seem backward and old fashioned. It made me sick a little bit. At least that's the way the discussion went.
5. Quoted by a student in the AP US class that I observed today: "Yeah, flappers were definitely the first hipsters." Said boy is accused of being a hipster at least once a day.
6. I went to the DC temple last night. It's my second time going since I've been here. The ward schedules temple nights, but they are only endowment sessions. But I went with the ward anyway. I needed the feeling of it. The peace and security. So while everyone was in a session, I went down to the baptistry and asked if I could walk in. They let me, and I joined a youth group. It was such a blessing, I can't even say. I finished in about an hour, and had lots of time to kill before the session would be over. So I went to the visitor's center. I think the DC visitor's center might be my favorite of all time. I just sat in front of the Christus and gathered strength. Teaching is hard. Being at that school is hard and stressful, and I needed to just sit there and soak in the Spirit. Unfortunately, by the time I sat down the visitor's center was closing. They let me stay while they cleaned, though. I felt like the whole evening was a series of tender mercies- people at the temple making things work even though I was kind of an inconvenience to everyone. It was such a blessing. I feel so much better about life in general.
7. My US history students are awesome. I really like them. They are funny-- and so polite. They do their homework, and I need to stop being surprised about it. We talked about WW2 propaganda and the Zoot Suit Riots this week. Next week I'm covering the War in the Pacific and the end to the war-- the United Nations and the Atomic Bomb. But I have a really hard time planning for these kids. They are smart and I feel like just telling them what happened in a fun way won't challenge them and then I will be a failure. It's harder than I ever imagined to find ways to bring in higher order thinking and get a good discussion while delivering information at the same time. There is just so much to think about all the time, and it can be very discouraging.
I think that's all I have to say.
I'm really looking forward to the 3 day weekend.
Yep. And after tomorrow I will only have 7 weeks left. And 3 of those weeks are only 4-day weeks. And one of the other ones has an assembly. And another one has an early dismissal. So really only TWO of them are full with no interruptions. Man I'm excited to be done. Monday was the 2-months-left mark. Hip hip hooray!
Each student was given a specific role- a real person who had been at the convention. They were required to adopt that person's perspective and make arguments for certain things.
We used proper parliamentary procedure, the debates were fair, and the voting only happened after everyone had agreed that it was time to vote. There were equal delegates from each perspective, so the point was for each group to come to a compromise, and then the class-made Constitution would turn out similar to the REAL U.S. Constitution.
But this is what happened:
Not only will our country allow slavery for eternity, but we will elect a president who will remain in office HIS ENTIRE LIFE.
So, let's enslave human beings and elect a dictator. Nice. Did anyone say Nazi Germany?
This is what happens when the most talented and forward debaters of the class are assigned similar perspectives. oops. They overpower the weaker, more reasonable delegates.
But seriously, is this how bad government happens? Is this what comes of dominant personalities who all share the same idea? They can easily overpower those who are not willing to speak up. The weak are crushed. Inequality reigns. Imagine if this had been the case at the REAL Constitutional Convention. What would we have ended up with? What if there hadn't been compromise? This is why the Constitution and the organization of our unique federal government is such a miracle-- and further evidence of providential inspiration in its framing.
But isn't the ease of corruption a scary thought? It is just that easy to get off track.
Anyway.
Other randoms about student teaching and Washington DC in general:
1. The wind is so cold that it eats your face. Well, chews it up and then leaves the exposed flesh as it moves by.
2. When I woke up at 6:15 on Monday morning this week, one word went through my mind repeatedly: WHY?
3. My students think they are liberal because they live in DC and their parents are liberal. However, they are actually quite conservative. This lends credibility to my theory that the human being is conservative in its natural state.
4. We watched "Pleasantville" in one of the other government classes. Two things about that: 1) this movie would never be shown in Utah schools without a permission slip. I felt awkward. 2) The movie-- and the cooperating teacher for that class-- paint conservatism like it is INSANE and inhibits freedom and individual liberties. It made conservative values seem backward and old fashioned. It made me sick a little bit. At least that's the way the discussion went.
5. Quoted by a student in the AP US class that I observed today: "Yeah, flappers were definitely the first hipsters." Said boy is accused of being a hipster at least once a day.
6. I went to the DC temple last night. It's my second time going since I've been here. The ward schedules temple nights, but they are only endowment sessions. But I went with the ward anyway. I needed the feeling of it. The peace and security. So while everyone was in a session, I went down to the baptistry and asked if I could walk in. They let me, and I joined a youth group. It was such a blessing, I can't even say. I finished in about an hour, and had lots of time to kill before the session would be over. So I went to the visitor's center. I think the DC visitor's center might be my favorite of all time. I just sat in front of the Christus and gathered strength. Teaching is hard. Being at that school is hard and stressful, and I needed to just sit there and soak in the Spirit. Unfortunately, by the time I sat down the visitor's center was closing. They let me stay while they cleaned, though. I felt like the whole evening was a series of tender mercies- people at the temple making things work even though I was kind of an inconvenience to everyone. It was such a blessing. I feel so much better about life in general.
7. My US history students are awesome. I really like them. They are funny-- and so polite. They do their homework, and I need to stop being surprised about it. We talked about WW2 propaganda and the Zoot Suit Riots this week. Next week I'm covering the War in the Pacific and the end to the war-- the United Nations and the Atomic Bomb. But I have a really hard time planning for these kids. They are smart and I feel like just telling them what happened in a fun way won't challenge them and then I will be a failure. It's harder than I ever imagined to find ways to bring in higher order thinking and get a good discussion while delivering information at the same time. There is just so much to think about all the time, and it can be very discouraging.
I think that's all I have to say.
I'm really looking forward to the 3 day weekend.
Yep. And after tomorrow I will only have 7 weeks left. And 3 of those weeks are only 4-day weeks. And one of the other ones has an assembly. And another one has an early dismissal. So really only TWO of them are full with no interruptions. Man I'm excited to be done. Monday was the 2-months-left mark. Hip hip hooray!
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