I know, I know...

I will be the first to day that I don't know everything there is to know about teaching. BUT... I do know a lot! Here is what I know:

-I know all of my students names. (SCORE!)
-I know which students pretend to be deathly sick when they are required to think.
-I know which student spends an incredible amount of time in the bathroom to get out of doing work.
-I know which student is most likely to blurt out anything at anytime.
-I know that the student in the back of the class is most likely making Transformer gear out of paper scraps instead of doing assignments.
-I know 2nd grade is freaking awesome and I love my 21 new friends.

AND...
-I know it is not the girls in my class spreading poop all over the toilet during bathroom break.

Week Dos

I made it past week one... sort of. The kids are awesome. I almost know all of their names. My birthday was Tuesday so I received a bazillion (yes, a bazillion) bithday cards made out of notebook paper. But now my official end date is May 4th. Thank you kindergartener that blew in my face.

Tuesday- I had a terrible headache. Shrug it off. I'm a trooper, I can do this! Wednesday- I had to observe a kindergarten classroom and a child blew in my face. That evening at a textbook meeting thingy I started feeling sick and not because it was snowing. I thought it was probably because I was just hungry so I went to work for about an hour and crunched on mints. After feeling worse, I went home and waited on Mr. D to bring dinner. 8:00pm- I was tired of waiting so I went to bed. At 9:30, dinner arrives and I try to eat a french fry from Cotton Patch. I LOVE THEM. I couldn't do it. I tried. Nope. I was freezing and shaking and sickly. Poor me. Mr. D (who I'm sure thought I was being dramatic) put me to bed and tried to get me warm. Overly long story short- I was sick. I couldn't keep anything down and missed two days of school AND a Saturday.

Friday night Oliver ran out the door chasing my parent's cat. We looked for him for 3 hours until it got dark. We had to give up. I cried. A LOT. I thought he was a goner. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to look for him again. My dad found him at the Humane Society. Someone called in at midnight thinking he had been ran over or hurt. He was laying on the side of the street around the corner and a block down from my house. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU to my local Humane Society for taking care of him. And many thanks to the person who cared enough to call them. Many people might have simply driven by and not thought much about it. You are my hero! My biggest fear was that he was hurt or someone had him and was planning on keeping him. Oliver is home safe now. End of story.

Tomorrow is only a day away...

I start student teaching tomorrow.

I'm pretty nervous. Butterflies by the millions! There is so much going through my mind right now... The first few weeks won't be bad... but when I actually take over the class? Holy cow!

My birthday is Tuesday. I get to go to class for my birthday! Yay. I have a night class. Last year I had a night class on my birthday too. How fun.

Evan didn't end up going to law school in Virginia last year (Thank goodness!!!). He got accepted to Oklahoma City University. He is happy because that is what he wanted. So I suppose I will be moving to Oklahoma this summer. I've never lived outside of Texas. Heck, I've never been to Oklahoma... I can't wait to visit!

I'm off to get ready for tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Cooperate

My life in the past week:

-I finally met my cooperating teacher. She is really nice. I'm excited and scared. 1 more week until my life is completely turned upside down. Yay?

-I passed my practice PPR the first time! WOOO HOOO!

-I found out I have to go to PTA meetings. Seriously? I didn't know people actually went to those...

-I've been crazy tired and sleep anytime and as much as I can.

-I miss Mr. D. a LOT! He has been working so much... I see him once a week. Sad. I'm not used to that... and I think waaaay too much. I come up with all these horrible situations (that aren't true) that might be preventing him from seeing me... Then I see him and I feel better. I realize I make myself an emotional train wreck.

-I started wearing contacts and the verdict is still out on them... I like them 60% of the time.

That's about it. Nothing too interesting. Although I'm scared to student teach, at leaast my posts might be more interesting!

Winter Wonderland

I live in Texas where is a like a desert, we ride horses, and wear boots. Kinda. I live in the panhandle so we do have a lot of people that wear boots... and people do ride horses (in parades).

Moving on... we usually get snow maybe once a year. It never fails that we get it during spring break in March. HOWEVER 2009 is knocking us for a loop down here. Today it is SNOWING! This is the second time in a week! This year we had our first white Christmas since 2002. I love snow... epecially since I get to be at home today.

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year! Happy 2010!

Fears

As student teaching is fast approaching, I have been thinking a LOT. When I am in the classroom for short periods of time, I think, "I can do this!" I feel pumped about it for a few days and then I worry.

What am I doing? Am I going to fail? How many kids lives will I ruin? Am I patient enough? Those are the questions I ask myself daily.

I want to teach because I want to inspire. Kids are our future and I'm sorry... I don't want a crappy future. I want to motivate children to push themselves to do their best, to want to learn, and to enjoy learning. I'm worried I won't be able to do that.

I won't want to be a deer in the head lights when I start my career. I know my stuff... I've made A's in all my classes... passed one of my certification tests (the second comes in May)... but am I ready? I mean, anyone can study and pass a test... am I really ready for the classroom?

Redo

I have trouble posting... mainly because nothing interesting happpens.

Well... someone recently told me I should start blogging because my life was about to change. How? I start student teaching next semester... on my birthday. So I am starting over.

As I start a new chapter in my education, I will blog about it.

Wish me luck!