End of the semester

So, it’s been a little crazy lately. What with the end of the semester being next week and all. I am more than ready for summer! This semester seems to have gone fast, but for the first time I’m OK with that. I can’t wait for three months of no homework! I also applied for a summer job the other day because I’m living here over the summer this year. Surprisingly, the rest of this week and finals week will not be near as stressful as the last couple weeks have been. What I think I’m looking forward to the most about the end of the semester is thoroughly cleaning my room!

 

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Spring Visit Day

Last Saturday was Spring Visit Day here on campus.  I was in charge of the School of Professional Studies group. Since I wasn’t supposed to give tours,  I got to choose the color of balloons we had to carry around all day. I, of course, chose the pink balloons, and I was really excited until I had to carry them around all day on Saturday. I love giving tours there, especially since it was for students who were interesting in becoming education majors.

They also had presentations by each department in the different schools. I went to the education presentations with the students who were interested. It was a lot of fun to see. After that, I gave a tour. I was a little nervous because I usually don’t give tours to such large groups. But my favorite part of the whole day was the cartoon drawing I got ( a caricature artist was there).

The Real Spring Break

Not the REAL Spring Break

Movies and TV paint this wonderful picture of the typical college spring break. Crazy trips to somewhere warm and with parties and the beach. Everyone dreams of the picture spring break location and spending the whole week thinking about anything but school or work.

However, the reality for most of us poor college students is nothing more exciting than catching up on some homework or putting in a few extra hours at work. For the luckier, they sit at home and just hang out not doing much of anything. And for the extremely lucky, they get the cliche spring break.

I was one of the more unfortunate ones. I stayed at my apartment all week and worked some extra hours. I did get to catch up on some homework. I also completed some teaching hours. My big excitement was my one day trip to Indy. I went to the Circle Center Mall for the first time and got to experience a little bit of Indy.  Woo, spring break!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was on Friday and I had a great time. The entire night was a surprise until we started. I didn’t know any of the places we were going until we got there.  It was kind of cool not knowing. I’ve never had a surprise party, so it was exciting! We started at Red Robin because it’s one of my favorite restaurants. Next, we went back to my friend, Ashley’s, apartment and had some cake. Then we went out to the Neon, Pierre’s, and finally O’s. I had some much fun and I think it’s always more fun when it’s your birthday because you get extra attention!

Excitement in Education

I am in a kindergarten class for my READ 302 class. And I may be a little biased but they are the cutest kindgergarteners I have ever seen. I am really enjoying spending time in the classroom. The teacher is really great, too.  I am going to continue going after I have my hours completed.

But a part of my assignment while I am there is to teach four lessons. One of these lessons has to be formally observed by my professor, which is always a little nerve-wrecking. I had my formal observation last Friday on my second lesson. I was pretty comfortable teaching the students but I was nervous about being observed by my professor. I arrived early and got things set up and discussed things with my teacher. We went down and got the students and then we started class.

My professor came in around 1:15 and I started teaching my lesson. It was going pretty well and the longer I was up there the more my nerves lessened. We were getting towards the end of the lesson when all the sudden I hear this horrible blaring noise. Of course, the fire alarm had started going off!

I stopped what I was doing and the teacher quickly sprung to action telling the students to line up single file and be very quiet. We hurried out the doors and the halls were filled with hushed excitement. All the students were talking, wondering if it was a drill or if this was the real thing. Once we reached the sidewalk the students lined up single file and stood quietly. Well, quietly for kindergarteners. The teacher and I walked behind them and reminded them to stand quietly. One of the little girls looked at me and told me that she was going to get sick.  So I squatted down beside her and had her take deep breaths with me. That seemed to helped. I felt really bad because they hadn’t been allowed to get the coats, obviously, and they were freezing.

When we were finally allowed back inside I had to hurry through the end of my lesson because we still had our Valentine’s party and then the students had library. The lesson went a little hectic after the alarm. I had expected the students to be more distracted once we got back inside but they actually worked really well. The Valentine’s party was lots of fun, too. All-in-all, it was a very exciting day of teaching!

Too Much Information

They say you learn something new everday. Today I learned about Twitter.  Twitter is basically like status updates on Facebook.  That is all that it is, little blurbs about what you are doing at any given moment. You can sign up to follow other people so you can see what they are doing constantly. You can even get these updates sent to your phone.  Now, I have my cell phone and have my profile on Facebook and use instant messaging, I’m a part of that generation that has a constant need to be in contact with everyone else. Even still I think this new Twitter is a bit too much. People already spend too much time “Facebook stalking”, as my friends and I call it, but this is taking it to a whole other level. Updating your status on Facebook is good enough for me. I do not need a website dedicated solely to what someone is doing from moment to moment. I feel like next we’re going to start wearing cameras and having a constant video feed to a website where anyone can watch. There is a certain point where my life is my life. If you need to know or want to know, someone can always call or text. I for one hope this new phase dies quickly.

Winter Wonderland

This is the first week of break and I always think the first week is the hardest. I keep thinking that I should be doing homework or at least something school-related. Not that I mind at all not having homework, it just seems like I should still. Christmas break is my favorite because not only do we get almost a month off, but I also don’t have any homework to do. Thanksgiving break is always such a tease because even though we get a longer break there is so much homework to get done because it’s almost time for finals. Christmas break is all about having time off from school! I’m also super pumped because I got my grades back from this past semester and I finally got all A’s. That has been one of my goals since junior high and I always get so close but I have never actually done it. So now my goal is to do the same for the next three semesters!

 

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Santa’s Little Village

Tomorrow is Santa’s Little Village, which is put on by the education department here at USF. We invited several elementary school’s kindergarten, first, and second grade. There are supposed to be around 80 children attending tomorrow. This is my third year helping out with the event and every year it’s more fun than the last. This year I am helping with Pin-the-Nose-on-Rudolph. The students really seem to have fun and it’s a fun way to start the Christmas season!

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Special Thanksgiving Edition

    Today marks the the beginning of Thanksgiving break. Officially starting for me when I leave work! I am very excited! Thanksgiving in one of my most favorite holidays. The good food, the family time, not to mention the break from classes. The only thing that would make Thanksgiving break better is if it did not include any homework. As it is though, I have already compiled my list of assignments that I will be completing over break. I can deal with that though because it means there are only two weeks until this semster is officially over. As far as semesters go, this one has been great. It has also been the hardest one so far but I am loving every minute of it. Well, maybe not *every* minute.

   My plans for break do not include much, expect the previously mentioned list of assignments, and baby-sitting. I am very excited to be baby-sitting. My cousin has triplet boys who just turned three in October and a little girl who will be two in March. They are the most adorable kids I have ever seen. I have not seen them much lately because school has really picked up, but I baby-sat for them at least once a week over the summer. They always do the cutest things while I’m there. They also just moved into their new house by my aunt & uncle pond (which is HUGE! The pond, that is). I’m excited to see it for the first time because it looks awesome from the pictures I’ve seen.

  Other than that I may take my little sister(/s) to see Twilight. Which I have already seen three times, but I just can’t help it. I *love* that movie. It may be cheesy but it’s addicting. Over Christmas I hope to finish the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, which I’ve had since the night it came out but I just haven’t been able to get into it. Plus, there’s the whole factor of not really having the time to just read for fun anymore. Each time I saw the movie they showed the Harry Potter trailer which looks awesome! I am a big Harry Potter fan too. I just reread those books over break too.

Well, that’s it for my Special Thanksgiving Edition Blog! =]

The first snow of the season

I was pretty excited about it snowing last night! The first snow of the season is always so exciting. Don’t worry by a few weeks into winter, and all the snow, I’m just as sick of it as the next person but there is something so exciting about the first snow. I just can’t help it but get excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is one of my most favorite times of the year, second to fall. Not only do we get Thanksgiving break from school, but the semester is almost over and we get almost a month off! I am more than ready for the semester to be over. I really enjoy my classes this semester but I am so excited for that month break away from classes.  =]