Now what?

My summer internship is officially over!! Yesterday was my last day. The students took a test. All in all it was a boring day, but that's just how testing days are sometimes I suppose! I didn't have to go in today for the teacher workday, because there really wasn't anything for me to do! Lucky me! I got to sleep in and spend the day with my momma! :)

The internship was such a fantastic experience. I know I've said that a lot, but its just completely true! I learned so much and met some absolutely amazing people!!

For those of you wondering what's next...

Well this weekend we're going to the lake and Eric comes TOMORROW!!! It should be a lot of fun! I can't wait to see all the out of town family! :)

I will also be going to Eric's family reunion a few days after I get back from the lake! Should be a lot of fun!

Then, the trip to end all trips...our family cruise!! AH!! Can't wait! We leave from Barcelona and go to Italy, places off the coast of France, Greece, and other fun places!! :)

You guys can look forward to blogs about all of the upcoming trips!!

In the far off future, I do plan on applying for this summer internship next year. I've heard that you can do it as many years in a row and you can. I had such a great time and would be so pumped to do it again next summer!!

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!!! Be safe and stay tuned for more blogging!

The Book Whisperer

Oh My Gosh what a wonderful weekend/beginning of the week I've had!

Sunday, I met 7 of super innovative educators for dinner with Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer. Dinner was incredible. I've never had an experience like that. I sat there pinching myself listening to this group of highly innovative and inventive teachers talking about their classes and teaching styles. They all completely blew me away!! I felt like I should've been taking notes throughout dinner so I remembered every little thing they all said! (Don't worry, I resisted the urge, though.That may have been a bit weird! hehe) Everyone was so great about making me feel welcome and giving me all kinds of interesting and helpful advice. I was beyond excited when one of the teachers that is teaching summer school with me announced that now I was "part of their group" and that any of them would do anything to help me with my future lessons. As silly as it sounds, I was thinking "Eeeek! I get to be in their club! I get to be one of them!!". Sunday night's dinner really reminded me what type of teacher I want to be. What an amazing opportunity and experience it was!

I woke up Monday morning thrilled to be getting to go to Donalyn's workshop. Let me tell you, I knew it was going to be a cool experience, but it was so much more than I even expected it to be! She is such a wonderful speaker and SO knowledgeable about what she is speaking on. Donalyn's whole concept or theory is that we need to do more than teach reading, we need to create readers. She suggests that the only true way to do this is by getting students to ENJOY reading (a foreign concept to most jr. high/high school kids). Donalyn teaches freedom of choice in reading. Basically, she tells the students they will be expected to read 40 books total over the course of the year. She gives them guidelines for how many books should be read from each genre. (For example: 5 fantasy, 12 realistic fiction, 3 poetry, etc.) This concept moves responsibility from the teachers to choose books to the students. Not only do they pick their own books, they must also pace themselves in order to finish all the books by the end of the year. Donalyn has been doing this particular method for numerous years and says its results are positive every year. Kids that read 0 books the year before end up reading 20 the year they have her. (No, they don't fail if they don't read 40 books, so not all kids read 40) The idea is to get students engaged in reading. She does this by having them choose their own books, alotting reading time in class, and having them keep their own reader's notebook (this is where the majority of the grades for her class come from). I could go on and on about her theories and strategies, but that might get boring! haha If you're interested in finding out more about Donalyn and her freedom of choice reading check out her book, The Book Whisperer! I promise, you won't regret it! :)

Sunday and Monday were just phenomenal days for me as a future educator! I learned so much!! In addition, talking to these awesome teachers got me so excited to have my own classroom one day! I'm going to email a few of my Baylor professors sometime this week and discuss how I can incorporate the strategies I've learned in my TA and Intern years. I can't wait to become one of these inspirational and inventive teachers I've learned so much from in the past few days!!

As my summer internship comes to an end I'm swept up in a flood of gratitude for the experiences I've been able to have and the people I've been able to meet. This job has turned out to be more than I could have ever hoped for! I am so blessed to have been able to work with these great teachers and crazy kiddos! Though its been a rocky road somedays, I've learned a lot and grown a lot as a "preservice teacher". This experience has really reiterated that this is what I'm supposed to do. I'm more confident than ever after all my experiences this summer that I was meant to do this and I am completely capable of doing this. Who knows, maybe I'll be the next Donalyn Miller....I wish!! haha!

Don't get all sad thinking this is my last blog about my internship, guys! I'll do one later this week (hopefully tomorrow) giving a debriefing of my last 2 days of summer school with the kiddos. Tomorrow is their last day and Thursday is my last day! 2 days until Eric visits! Wahoo!!

Reigniting the Flame

This blogpost is WAY over due, sorry for keepin you guys hangin! Wednesday and Thursday were SUCH better days!!

Wednesday I met with the tech guy and learned lots of new, fun ways to use technology in the classroom. He gave me 2 books to look at on innovative ways to teach English or reading. (More to come on those soon!) I had a lot of fun talking to him and am so appreciative for the part he played in pulling me out of my "I'm failing funk". Wednesday's lesson was one of my very own creation...and I'm very proud of it, because it went over SUPER well with the kiddos! The short story we had been reading was "A Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. (He's super creepy and the kids eat it up...weirdos! hehe) Anyways, I suggested to my mentor teacher that we have the kids write an alternate ending to the short story. Did the old man get killed? Did he live? Did the narrator die? It was up to them! Boy did they come up with some goofball and gruesome endings! They were asked to write ONE PAGE, that's all. Now, keep in mind getting these guys to write HALF A PAGE is like pulling teeth. Surprisingly, within 20 minutes kids were flipping their notebook paper over because they were running out of room! Some wrote 2 full pages, by choice! I was completely thrilled! I walked around and asked a few students if I could read a bit of their work and they obliged. After commenting that they were "crazy" "gross" and "totally gonna give me nightmares", other kids started raising their hands so I could be grossed out by their stories. They were totally eating it up! Next, the kids illustrated their endings. WOW did these get nasty, blood and guts like crazy. (oops, is that against school rules?!) The final step was to have the kids present their endings and drawings. In summary, this lesson was a complete and total hit! The kids totally lived up to and exceeded all of my expectations!! :] YAY!! WINNING! hehe

Thursday was really cool, because I got to observe other teachers in their classrooms. The principal suggested that I get with the technology guy to work out a schedule for observing other teachers so I can get exposed to several different teaching styles. The tech guy arranged for me to spend the afternoon (2nd period) walking around with him checking out the "master teacher's" and "guru's" classrooms. On our way to the first class, we started talking about one of the books he gave me to read, "The Book Whisperer". I told him I completely fell in love with the way the teacher in the book (Donalyn Miller) teaches. He agreed and told me she's coming on Monday for an inservice/workshop for teachers in the district. We talked some more about it and he offered to ask our prinicpal if I could attend the inservice Monday. The principal thought it was a valid suggestion and allowed me to attend on Monday!! In the next classroom, he told the teacher that I was attending the inservice. She is getting a sub so she can attend, and told me to sit with her! (YAY! Made a friend!) She also invited me to eat dinner with her, the tech guy, other teachers, and the author/speaker, Donalyn Miller, Sunday (tomorrow)!! I was completely shocked that these amazing teachers were "letting me in their group". I am SO looking forward to dinner with them tomorrow! What a neat experience it should be!! I observed 4 teachers and let me tell you, they were all remarkable! I was so impressed with their theories on learning, discipline methods, and overall teaching styles! They reminded me of why I want to do this and what kind of teacher I want to be!

Amazing what a difference a day or two can make, isn't it!? Everyone was so nice to me and so willing to give me any tips/advice they had! Overall, great great GREAT rest of the week!!

I look forward to telling ya'll all about the inservice and my FINAL WEEK in my internship! It went by SO fast, but it has been an amazing experience and I'm going to be very sad to see it end.

Countdowns for ya'll:
4 Days left of internship
5 days until Eric gets here

Turbulent Tuesdays

I'm not gonna lie, today was rough. Everything was going fine, then it got bumpy and I got completely stressed. The stressful day really made me question if this (teaching in secondary schools) is what I'm really meant to do. During lunch, I texted back and forth with Eric. I vented out all my problems and fears to him. I freaked out and told him I was thinking of changing my major, because I felt like I was failing, but he reassured me SO much. I'm so grateful for him. He helped me put things in perspective a great deal. I know he was hard at work at his own job, but he took time out of his day to help me snap out of my funk. He's great! :) Enough about my fab boyfriend, let me explain what exactly made my day rocky!

Today, my mentor teacher really didn't have a full day of activities planned. I agreed to find an article for the students to read and write a page summary over. Beyond that she wasn't sure what we would do. While she was at her morning duty, I google searched activities on Edgar Allan Poe. I found a whole lesson plan with 3 activities. One of the activities wasn't right, but the other 2 (an online scavenger hunt and a crossword puzzle) were great. I shared my findings with my mentor teacher and she agreed that we should do those. I was feeling really great about things and very on top of things. Unfortunately, my happy little teaching world came crumbling down around me when I got to the computer lab with the students and realized that 1 of the websites on the scavenger hunt was blocked and another section was WAY over the kiddos' heads (even though it shouldn't have been). Of course, seeing that there was a mistake with the assigned activity the students ran their mouths and sassed about me making a mistake. The room became chaos for 5 minutes while I tried to think of a way to fix the dilemma. Oh, let me mention that my mentor teacher was up in the classroom doing grades or something, so I was completely alone and completely freaking out in my head. I was thinking, "Oh my gosh! Where is she?! How do I fix this?!". I took a deep breath and got to work making a new plan. Finally, I figured out a solution, I altered the directions on the 2 messed up/too difficult parts. Then, I laid down the law and made it known that there would be #1 no talking, #2 no listening to music/playing games (until they finished), and #3 no moving from their seats. Amazingly, the kids got to work with hardly any arguments. Still, I was completely bummed that I floundered so much and seemed unsure and unprepared.

The second period went better, as usual. I'm not sure if this is because of the students or because I've had a chance to work out all of the kinks in my lesson with the first group. Regardless, I'm glad that the lesson went over better in the 2nd class. The day ended with my mentor teacher giving me more praise/criticism. Here's a summary of what she said...

Good Things:
-She said I carry out my lessons well and always give thorough instructions (I'm proud of this one, because basically she said I'm good at teaching haha)
-She said she's been really impressed with my how I can get stern with the kids, but still manage to keep a light, fun demeanor the rest of the time. She remarked that she was worried I would struggle with disciplining the kids. (I'm also very proud of this one, because I'm gonna be honest, I was worried about how well I could keep these knuckleheads under control)

Not So Good Things:
-She advised me to look more excited about the assignments I'm introducing. She feels that sometimes my tone and demeanor say that I'm sorta frustrated or not into what I'm assigning. This one upset me, because if you know me, you know how passionate and excited I am about teaching, so it really upsets me that I'm not portraying that.
-She also advised me to be more "culturally aware". She asked that I take into consideration what race and culture my students come from before chastising them, because apparently some cultures find certain methods "disrespectful". I'm not completely sold on this bit of advice. I do not believe standing by a child's desk and correcting them in a firm tone is "disrespectful". However, I do acknowledge that she has more experience than I do, so I will take this into consideration when working with my students in the future.

Obviously, the criticisms really bummed me out. I like to immediately be good at everything, because I'm a total perfectionist. I know that I cannot be good at everything and I know that struggling at first with anything new is totally normal. Regardless, it all really bugs me. Tomorrow is a new day, though, and I can't fix the past, but I can change the future and that's exactly what I'll do. So watch out kiddos, tomorrow Miss Patterson is coming in happier and more excited than the pep squad! BOOM!

Tomorrow I'm meeting with one of the technology coordinators to learn some new, fun technology tricks to make lessons more interactive and fun for the students. I'm SUPER excited! Sure, I have to get up 15ish minutes earlier, but I think it'll be worth it. I'll be able to use these tips for summer school AND back at Baylor during my TA and Intern year. Get ready profs, because I'm gonna knock ya'lls socks off! :)

Today was rough, but there's always a silver lining...ya just gotta find it!

Monday Funday

Happy Monday everybody!! Today was a very good day in 8th grade summer school land! We started the day off by learning this week's new vocab words. Next, we watched a video on Edgar Allan Poe. After the kiddos learned a little bit about the famous author, we read one of his famous short stories, "A Tell-Tale Heart". The kids really responded to this story. (Probably because its so gruesome! Weirdos!) To finish off the day's activities, the students had a quiz over the reading. In addition, they were asked to write a half a page on this topic: "Have you ever been suspicious of someone? Who? When? And why were you suspicious?". The answers we got to that question were shocking...you'll hear more on that later! ;)

I didn't actually teach in first period today, but I taught almost everything for the second period class. In first period, I did work with the students on completing various assignments, though, and it went really well. I say this, because if you spoke to me over the weekend, you know that the first period kiddos had me super stressed out and worried. I feel like they're the kids that I have the hardest time getting through to and that's really frustrating. However, today I felt less intimidated by them. (Maybe this means I'm gettin the hang out this whole teaching thing! hehe) My second period kiddies were good, but hyper, as usual. Overall, it was a great day! I got in a workout at Lifetime on my way home from school, so I'm feelin good! :) Let's hope the rest of the week goes as smoothly!

Of course, no blog is complete without some daily funnies from the crazyyy kiddos....

-The first period class had some extra time, so they started presenting their research projects. One group researched the Illuminati. I was very excited to hear what the kids had to say about this topic, because its very intriguing to me. However, I didn't exactly get the presentation I was expecting from this group. Instead of giving me the names of the families that are a part of this secret group, the students proceeded to tell me that the rappers that are part of the Illuminati are either a. aliens or b. in close contact with aliens. Yes, aliens. Like ET aliens. We then had to have a discussion about Wikipedia and the fact that ANYONE can post ANYTHING on the site. The fact that these 2 8th (almost 9th) graders got up in front of the class and both my mentor teacher and myself and told us this "interesting and truthful facts" was shocking. You'd think they'd know better or at least cross check what they've found... Good grief!

-In a discussion over Edgar Allan Poe marrying his cousin, one student exclaimed, "Wait! Its illegal to marry your cousin!?! Like even if they're your second cousin?!". We told him that it was, indeed, illegal. Not sure what's goin on in that kid's life...he seemed a little TOO upset about that law if ya ask me...

-While walking the students back from their break, I happened to overhear a conversation between 3 of my boys from my second period class. Its important to note that 2 of these boys had already previously failed and had been in junior high for 4 years (instead of 3). One of the older, flunky boys shared his plan for the future. He said that he would probably be stuck in 8th grade again next year (for the 3rd time...). He told the other boys that he would stay in school till he could date a younger teacher that would give him the answers and free 100's. That, he said, was his plan for passing and graduating high school. Again, GOOD GRIEF!

-Now back to those "suspicion papers". Remember, the topic was to write about a time when you were suspicious. Here are a few of the more interesting responses we got:

1. One simply started off discussing living with his grandma in a nice neighborhood. He said the only downside to the neighborhood was that he was suspicious that the guy that lived next door was "a gay". I found the working hilarious. Normally, you'd just say "gay", not "a gay". Oh, and he ended the paper by saying "It sucked". Yes, this paper was for a grade. No, that is not appropriate language for the classroom OR for a PAPER!

2. My "teen mom" wrote about a time she was suspicious of her boyfriend. The story ended with her saying that he was cheating on her. TMI. WAYYY TMI, girlfriend!

3. Another boy told me the story of him finding his brother smoking pot in his room. I'm not exactly sure why the kids felt the need to share THAT much with us, but all I can say is I'd rather NOT know every detail of their crazy little lives! Lordy Lord!

6 Days of Summer School left and 10 days till Eric visits! :) Let the countdown begin!
3.

Wednesday and Thursday

This post is a 2 for 1 deal. I'm giving ya'll the low-down on the past two days in one blog. Excited? ...Ya you are! Let's do this!

Wednesday....so close yet so far from the weekend....
Wednesday was SO great! My mentor teacher put me in charge of the first AND the second class. We started class with a writing piece. The students were asked to read an article (over the millionaire that left her maltese 12M dollars...crazy!) and then give us a page long summary of it. Let me tell you, asking them to do this was like pulling teeth. It took FOREVER!! However, with a little persistence (one of our vocab words :) ) I got everyone to turn in their papers. Next, we had the students produce a illustrated interpretation of "Pandora's Box". This activity went over great with the first class. It was my favorite part of the morning. I really enjoyed walking around the room and seeing the kiddos' drawings. We had a few that were really into art and it was fun to see them so in their element. The second class, on the other hand, struggled with this activity. If I had a dime for every time I heard "But Miss I'm not a good artist!" yesterday I wouldn't need a job, because I'd be filthy rich! To finish up the day, the students had a few vocab activities to complete. Yesterday was an awesome day!! I felt really in control and I think I really started to establish some good rapport with the kids. My mentor teacher said she could tell I was "in my element" today. She said she could tell I wasn't nervous anymore and I was looked very natural in front of the class. (YAYY!)

Thursday...the new Friday
Today was a roller coaster ride. It started out good, then got rocky, then ended well. We started the day researching in the computer lab. We let the students brainstorm people/places to research then put all the ideas in a cup and let each pair choose their topic. Let me tell you I've never felt so old or out of touch as I did when the first class was brainstorming rappers to research. (Yes, they were ALL rappers) Ever heard of "A Tribe Called Quest" or "Wiz Kaliafika (sp?)"?!? Well, me either! I was like "WHAT THE HECK!?!?!" Anyways, the first period class really did well with this. They all worked really hard to find out fun facts about their person. The second class did this after their jeopardy game and tests, but they definitely struggled with it. First of all, they picked topics they knew no one would be interested in, just to be stupid. Here are some of the topics they came up with: Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber (sorry Blaire), Charlie Sheen (I totes would've been into researching him, though), Brazil (reminded me of Bernie), and Nicaragua. It was a longg 1 1/2 in the computer lab with 2nd period, to say the least. After researching, the students were asked to submit a page long paper on their topic. Today we also played a Jeopardy as a review for the tests and took the vocab and "Pandora's Box" test. Jeopardy was just dreadful with the morning group. They were being sassy/defiant and just plain rude. This was really discouraging and put me in a pretty crumby mood. Therefore, I was ready to make appropriate changes to make sure the afternoon class went better. I started out by explaining we'd had problems with the last class and the game. I let them know that if I had even one problem I'd shut down the game, hand out the tests, and we'd sit in silence until it was time to go to the computer lab. I was worried this wouldn't work, but guess what....IT DID!! The game went SO smoothly! The kids were into the game and everyone was on task. The cherry on the top of it all was that the principal came in to observe while we were playing. She couldn't have come at a better time! (YAY!) I was in such a good mood after that, I let the kids talk/listen to music in the comp lab. VERY good end of the day!

Something I'm learning is that some things work well with some classes but not with others. Also, you have to change and modify your lessons throughout the day. If something doesn't work in the morning, I've gotten rectify it by the time my afternoon kiddos get in the door. I'm also learning that spending ALL day teaching is absolutely exhausting! To anyone who reads this and has to deal with/talk to me on a day to day basis I am SO sorry. When I get home I'm a total zombie. Yesterday, I took an hour nap after work. I'm hoping I'll get used to the long days and early morning soon!

Now for some wackadoodle moments from the kiddos:

-Gotta love it when boys that tower over me come asking which bus they need to get on. You are clearly old enough to remember a bus number, if you're still having issues on day 3, I cannot help you baby.

-Students found out I'm an intern today and went bazirk. SO many questions ranging from what school I go to to what I want to teach to if I'm old enough to drink. I was sorta excited when they all told me I should get a job at their high schools so I could teach them. Who knows, maybe they think I'm a push over, but I'd like to think they think I'm fun.

-One of my boys asked if he could use the restroom. My mentor's rule is that they cannot leave to use the bathroom. They are allowed to go during breaks or lunch. I HATE when they ask me, because I feel so bad saying no, because I TOTALLY get that when ya gotta go ya gotta go. I had to tell this boy that he'd have to wait 15 min when we would leave for our afternoon break. LIke I said, I was in a good mood, so instead of just saying that I decided to spice it up. I said look, "When we walk to the cafeteria for break and we pass the boys restroom I'll say 'Peace out' to you and you can go take care of your business". If you know me, you know I say stuff like "peace out", so this didn't seem weird to me. The student thought it was hysterical. He kept saying "Peace out, Miss Patterson?" and I'd say "Not yet, dude". Finally, when we passed the boy's room he said "Peace out NOW, Miss Patterson!". Crazy boy!

I've made it through week one!! YAYYYY!! 2 more to go! Stay tuned!

Gooood Morning 8th Graders!

Because of some technological difficulties I was unable to post yesterday's blog, so I'm gonna post yesterday's first and then post another for today!

Tuesday, June 14th
Today was a whirlwind day to say the very least! It was chaotic, crazy, and just plain ridiculous at times, but I loved every minute of it. I enjoyed meeting all of my students and look forward to the next 9 days with them.

Like I told you guys yesterday, I taught today's afternoon class on my own (with only a little help from my sweet mentor!). I think my lessons went well today. We had the kids take a personality test, which we introduced as a "test to see where they are". They all assumed it was going to be a reading test so their groans and moans were heard throughout the school. They were all pretty amused when they found out it was a Pig Personality Test. Basically, the test theorizes that you can tell what kind of student one is by where they draw their pig on the page and what details you give your pig. Of course, this is not very accurate. We just wanted to use this as an icebreaker to get to know our students a little better. After our "test", we had a vocab. lesson. We also read "Pandora's Box" and worked on activities that went with it. Overall, I'd say that today was a really good day. I was excited to get to take most of the control with the second period class, and I feel like I did a decent job (considering it was my VERY first time to teach a class of kids). At the end of the day, my mentor teacher offered me some constructive criticism/praise she'd jotted down while observing me teaching. Here's what she said:

Need to work on:
-Being LOUD. I was nervous and tended to use a quieter tone.
-Varying my tone. Again, because I got nervous I lacked a variety in the tone of my voice. She advised me to work on using different tones in order to hold the students' attention.

Praise:
-She liked the way I taught the vocab. lesson. She said I did a very good job of getting the kids involved.
-She was SUPER impressed (and completely shocked) when I got on to the class for not listening to directions as I was giving them out. I raised my voice and informed them that if they weren't willing to listen to the directions when I gave them then I wasn't going to be willing to answer their questions later. (Ha! Take that 8th graders! hehe)

If I've learned one thing today, it is that there is NEVER a dull moment with jr high students. Here are some of the off the wall things students said/did today:

-Little Precious came in with her momma and was very upset to find that tote bags/backpacks of any kind were not allowed. I informed her that she either needed to leave the bag with me to put in the AP's office or give it to her mom to take home. This was not what Little Precious wanted to hear and she began to tear up. Yes, she got tears in her eyes...over a bag. Now, I love my bags, but this was just foolish. She eventually decided to leave her precious VS PINK bag with her mother to take home....after a 10 minute conversation/crying episode...over a bag.

-We asked the class what the word "optimistic" means and a student eagerly raised his hand to give us the answer. Pleased to have such excitement about answering the question, we prompted him to give us the definition. He proceeded to tell us that it meant "special, like mentally retarded". Confused we asked him to clarify. Once again, he told us it meant "retarded". We realized he'd gotten "optimistic" confused with "autistic".

-During bus duty, I ran into another Little Precious, though she was NOT a bus rider. Instead, she was to walk home. Little Precious needed clarification on which way to walk. Now, I'm no genius, but I'd say walk TOWARDS YOUR HOUSE!

Keep reading for more wackadoodle kiddo stories and the low-down on my journey as a summer intern :)

Teacher Workday

Before I get into the exciting deets of today's Teacher Workday, I'd like to share a piece of the devotional I read today in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.
"I am creating something new in you; a bubbling spring of Joy that spills over into others' lives. Do not mistake this Joy for your own or try to take credit for it in any way. Instead, watch in delight as My spirit flows through you to bless others."
For those of you unfamiliar with Jesus Calling, it is a book of daily devotionals written "from God to you". I thought today's devotional was tailored to where I am in my life today. In general, but even more so after today's workday, I am so filled with a joy and excitement about working with students. I know without a doubt that teaching is what I'm meant to do. As corny as it sounds, I do believe I've found my "calling".

I've been really blessed with an awesome mentor for my time as a summer school intern. I was so pleasantly surprised to find out that she wanted to hear my ideas and listened to any input I gave. I was even more surprised when she told me that I would pretty much be doing the majority of the actual teaching. In fact, I teach my first classroom lesson (ever!) tomorrow afternoon. My mentor will model the day's lesson with the morning group and then she's going to turn the reins over to me with the afternoon group! I have to admit that I'm a little nervous, but at the same time I am SO excited. This is such an amazing opportunity for me as an education major. I can tell already I'm going to get great experience and learn a lot from my wonderful mentor.

Today, my mentor asked me to write tomorrow's objectives on the dry erase board, so we could check that off the list. This is such a simple, "teachery" task that I didn't think anything of it and obediently went over and began to do as she'd asked. After writing the first two objectives on the board it hit me, this is for real. I'm not just playing "teacher" in my mommy's classroom at Travis or Frost Elementary. I'm actually going to be these kiddos' teacher (or intern). Suddenly, the silly, simple task of writing on the dry erase board became much more important and symbolic to me. I'm making my dreams become a reality. I'm growing up. This is for real! Eeek! :)

I can't wait to meet my 23 students tomorrow! I look forward to this journey we'll take together over the next 12 days. With any luck, we will all learn something and look back on it as a good, positive experience!

Like I've already said, I'm keeping this blog for an number of reasons:

#1 I want to share my exciting experiences with everyone and this is a fun way to do that!
#2 These posts serve as a fun and different type of journal that I can look back on (and remind myself why I got myself into this! hehe)
#3 I loved blogging last summer about my semester in Paris and I have to admit I'm having withdrawls...I miss it! (I'm sure ya'll do too....right?!) :)

You may be weary about reading this, because its not about a fabulous month in Paris, France. However, let me just say that if you know anything about 8th graders/almost Freshmen you know I'm going to have A LOT of interesting stories :]