Teaching: I'm a big kid now!

Wow, I can not believe that I am actually student teaching! It is almost like a surreal experience because it just doesn't seem like I am old enough to be a teacher. Sometimes I find myself joking around with my students and then remembering that I am the teacher, the authority figure, and I need to act that way... ha ha, I still just feel like a big kid.

The students overall are pretty awesome. I am amazed with the things that these students have to go through. The last couple weeks my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Black, has told me the different stories these students have and I am amazed at what they deal with in everyday life. It has made me so grateful for my upbringing and it makes me want to help these kids as much as I can. I've been able to try to form some sort of relationships with some of them and I think I am doing OK so far but I need to do better.

I was surprised at the amount of gang activity that is in my school. I teach at Benion Junior High which is actually a nicer school than the ones my roommates are teaching at. On Wednesday there was a shooting at Kearns High School just a couple miles down the road. It was gang related and the student that got shot died. You would think being in Utah this wouldn't be a prevalent but it is and it is an eye opener for me. A lot of my students are in gangs and don't care much about school, I'm gonna try as hard as I can to get through to them.

I've also noticed how important it is to use the spirit as I deal with these students. It's not like I tell them about it but the spirit really does help in knowing what a student needs. It's just more motivation to be close to the spirit in everything I do.

I start officially taking over the class next week and can't wait. I'll be starting the Latin America unit! 9th graders sure are interesting!

Friends

I love my friends. Because of these people my last semester at BYU-Idaho was amazing. I spent almost every day with them this fall. It is hard for me to think about what it will be like to not walk across the street to Alpine (the boys apt) and just hang out or have Alaina and Nadya hanging out in my room till I finally kicked them out. In college it's hard to make good friends and stick with them throughout the years because everyone moves around so much. I've been lucky, I've been able to keep some of my friends for a long time. It makes it hard for me to say goodbye. I even cried when I had to say goodbye to them. I know I'll see them again but nothing will really ever be like it was before. I'll never forget the amazing times we've all had together. This new step in life is going to be hard for me: reason #1- I won't be around these people anymore. They made me better.

Disney Love!

So, my amazing roommates took me to disneyland for thanksgiving break! It was one of the best vacations I've been on. I had so much fun! We drove what felt like a million hours but we played hard and went on every ride a whole bunch of times. I forgot the joy that disneyland brings, it made me feel like I was a little kid again! It was amazing. We took a total of 275 pictures and there are so many I want to put on here but I'll just put my favorites. I changed my music playlist to my favorite music/rides in disneyland!

We also went to the Newport Beach Temple and to the actual beach. Our roommate Ashley had never seen the ocean so it was so fun to be there with her!

Mary Poppins is my favorite Disney Movie and I just love Bert. I was very excited that I got to see them!

Tower of Terror is one of my new favorite rides! It was awesome!

Brady, Steve and Mike: Finally a Real Dance Crew

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Mom and Dad: High School Sweethearts

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

All Hallows Eve

Well, another fun Halloween for me. My roommates and I decided to be a famous dance crew called the "Jabbawockeez". They are amazing at dancing and let me tell ya, those masks made us look like we were amazing at dancing too. We ended up going to a couple dance parties that turned all nasty so we just chilled with each other afterwards. Our costumes were a hit and everyone wanted them!

These guys to the left are the original jabbawockeez. We didn't do too bad did we?

Me with Tanner and Taylor. Tanner was the guy from Dashboard Confessionals and Taylor was the guy from Secondhand Serenade. Both of these singers have major tattoos up their arms so of course the twins had to add that in too.

Kelsi and Whitney went has hard core basketball wanna-be's. They were pretty awesome!

The crew again....

Most of us ready to go out and play. The new people in this picture is David as ghost and Brady as Harry Potter

A Night of Spontaneity

Friday night, such a fantastic night. Sometimes, we get so stressed out with all the stuff we have to do. Papers, tests, quizzes, homework, blah, blah, blah. Then, everyone gets excited for Friday night. We get so excited to do something fun that we actually can't think of anything. We end up sitting around for an hour trying to come up with ideas but no one committing to any of them. Finally, we walk to the coco bean. Well, some of us walked while others drove. As we finish our hot chocolate we are then faced again with the same question, what are we going to do now? Many decide that they want to drive back, the rest of us, Me, Nadya, Taylor and Tanner continue to walk home. We then figure, why not just do some random stuff instead of sitting around the apartment trying to figure out what to do. We ended up "walking" home for about an hour and a half just being random: getting ice cream, playing in the park, taking LOTS of pictures. Sometimes it's just fun to be crazy. It was a night of just what the doctor ordered.