I finished my penultimate semester at BYU-Idaho, and it was pretty busy. I've been working this past year as a teacher's assistant for one of my professors who teaches a Freshman Humanities class.This semester, she started working on getting her doctorate, and was going to be away from her class for three weeks while she took her big exam. She let me teach her class while she was gone. It was such a great opportunity and learning experience for me. Her students were some of the best I've ever taught. I loved hearing their ideas and opinions about the things we read.
So my semester was quite busy with teaching on top of my regular classes. I'm looking forward to my last semester in September because I only have to take 12 credits. Woot! And only 9 credits will be stressful, and the other 3 will be something fun and easy. I'm thinking about taking a dance class and then an Organ class.
Anyway, I moved back down to Utah again to live with Sheena and Mike (thanks you two!). I'm back in my wacky singles ward. I'm back at DownEast Basics in the Southtowne Mall working with some great people.
A couple of plans for the summer:
1. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled the first week of June. Yikes! I'm super nervous about this, mostly because I've never been put under for anything before and I'm not sure how I'll react. Mike wants to record it, so maybe I'll have to post it on here. I don't know, I might not want that on here for the whole world to see, but maybe I'll become as famous as that David After Dentist kid.
2. Taking my Praxis exam in July. I've registered for the test. I've bought my study manuals. I have made about 200 flashcards (with more to come). For those of you who don't know, the Praxis is the big test that teachers have to take before they can become certified to teach. Think of it as the medical boards for a doctor, the bar exam for a lawyer, etc. Luckily, I only have to take the Content Knowledge test (as of right now), but if I don't pass it, I won't be able to student teach. Which is why I'm taking it so far in advance in case I fail and have to take it again.
3. Reading Lots and Writing Tons. I love my summer break because this is when I get to do some of my favorite things: read and write. Yes, being an English major I do a lot of this during the school year, but it's never just for fun. I've already finished a couple of books (some of them were re-reads) and I've submitted some freelance articles to a couple of places. I'm going to try and blog more on my other site Chaotic Curls but I also want to write some creative stuff.
Those are my major summer plans, but I'm sure I'll have fun doing other things as well.
To finish out, I just want to write a little bit about an experience I had today. I got to go visit South Jordan Middle School, which is where I will be student teaching at come January. I've been a little apprehensive about being placed in a middle school, just because the years between 12-15 are some of the worst and most awkward years of anyone's life. However, after visiting at SoJo today and listening to the principal talk about what the school is trying to do, I think that teaching at this level might be a great fit for me. He said that he looks for teachers who not only know their content material and pedagogy, but who want to build relationships with their students and who want to help those students build self-esteem and maneuver through the awkward stages of life. This is exactly why I wanted to become a teacher and I'm glad that I'll be at a school where this is a priority.
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| My cute lil' snow leopard that Mr. McLeod gave to all of us. |
Well, this catches up my blog for now. Who knows, maybe I'll try to update this summer! :)
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