please reinstall the filter

I ran into funniest roommate ever Jessica today on the RB stairs. She said, "I enjoy your monthly blog posts." I immediately went into denial. "I know, I'm just so busy, blah blah blah, at least I post more than Marie, blah blah blah."

And yet here I am with the monthly report.

Student teaching is a thumbs up experience thus far. My work load is decent but not overbearing. We just finished the most boring unit, Healthy Self (mental health). I guess I shouldn't say its boring, it includes topics like suicide, personality, grief, defense mechanisms etc. However, sometimes the lessons are kind of downers. It is difficult to get the kids excited about discussing emotions. But I guess that is what a good teacher does. They take unappealing topics and make them interesting.

The next unit is Nutrition/Fitness and I'm totally pumped to teach it! There are so many neat learning activities to use with this content.

Classroom management has been better than expected. There are always a few kids in each class that seriously struggle with listening, focusing and executing. I find myself occasionally doing the stand and wait thing. I'm also trying to figure out how to handle the completely inappropriate comments from the peanut gallery. I have one specifically challenging student who claims to be homosexual. His comments are rather colorful. I'm not blaming his interrupting behavior on his sexual orientation, I'm blaming it on his inability to filter his comments. In fact, I'm pretty sure he has completely removed the filter.

Wes continues on with work and school. Today he received his first real credit card which we are quite excited about. Time to start establishing credit, we better get swiping that AmEx huh Wes?

a night at the DI and a night with Rachel

We spent Friday night feeling guilty about not having a fun/exotic date planned. Even though we're married we still feel pressure to go out and do something awesome on Friday. I used to give Wes a hard time about not planning anything, so I told him I would do the planning this weekend. Friday night rolled around and I only had a few lame-o dud ideas. We ended up perusing the DI about an hour before they closed. Wes found Pictionary! He spent the rest of the evening wiping down and gluing the board and box together. It is as good as new. Now all we need, as Wes said this morning, is "someone to cream at Pictionary."

I found some (what I think are) CUTE teacups. They are totally vintage and perfect for juice in the morning. I've had medium feedback thus far. Rachel wasn't sure why I wanted teacups and I think Wes thought they were an odd purchase as well. But Wes is so great, he just plays along and helped me look for matching saucers. We used them last night when Rachel came over for computer help, which turned into movie night. We watched Iron Man 2. See Rachel's blog before continuing with this post.

http://rachelrweiler.blogspot.com/

We laughed SO hard this morning when we saw Rachel's post. Wes immediately starting drawing up a picture of Rachel. You'll also need a basic understanding of Iron Man 2 to appreciate his work.

Behold. Rachel... the Russian.

On a completley different note, things are going quite well with student teaching. I have two mentor teachers (one better than the other) and also work with a co-teacher. We team teach the first period and then each teach alternating periods the rest of the day. I'm starting with the Healthy Self unit, then will teach Nutrition/Exercise and end with Sexuality and Reproduction. We're pretty limited with what we can teach in this last unit. Utah is the most conservative state when it comes to SexEd and Nebo School District is the most conservative school district in the state of Utah. Wonder how I'll answer all their questions...

The students are hilarious. I find myself chuckling at least once every class period. Management hasn't been a huge issue yet. Did I just jinx myself? For the most part they contribute and are engaged. The random comments are awesome and I had forgotten about the high school drama. I have one student who is a "Cornerstone" student with means that he lives in a Juvenile Detention Center and is permitted to come to one high school class every other day. That's my health class. When he proves that he is safe to himself and others, they let him start coming to more and more classes. I don't know how to treat him differently, so I don't. I treat and teach him the same as the rest of my students.

I've also learned that even though I have invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in learning how to teach, sometimes the people with the jobs are less than qualified. I wish those who were burnt out would retire and let us "green" teachers have a chance for a few years. (I'm trying to subconsciously talk one of my mentor teachers into retiring...)

I think this will be the quickest semester of college ever.

Christmas was fun. Provo is the same.

I can't believe the break is already over. I also can't believe that today is the first day of a new semester and I did not buy any books, am no longer working at Teacher Ed and did not have to print out a schedule and wander the halls locating classrooms.

But before I start highlighting the present, I'll briefly recap the past 2 weeks.

Wes and I had our first Christmas morning here in Provo. I had no idea how excited I would be about it all, but I woke up at 6:00am and convinced Wes it was a reasonable time to start opening presents. (I actually tried to get him to open presents on Christmas Eve. He said no.)

I found a little sparkly surprise in my stocking, some diamond earrings! I also received lots of cute clothes for student teaching. Wes is great at picking up my hints...

We headed to SLC for the Christmas Day Visiting Family Marathon. We may have to rethink this for next year. But maybe Wes will surprise me by singing Mele Kalikimaka and we'll spend Christmas in Hawaii. Maybe, at some point in the future, right Wes? We visited several homes and our family spoiled us left and right.

Some notable moments:

Kirk received sky-diving gift certificate from fam. We're tying to help him get that bucket list whittled down. He's also working on the will, so if he dies during sky-diving, at least everything is divided. We get Caroline!

Uncle Scott plays "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" on trumpet (an unexpected addition to the program, way to spice things up!)

Wes skis for the first time! We went to Alta for the Ski Free After 3 deal, but we also didn't know it was the Ski Free and Freeze Something Off deal. Caroline and Rachel accompanied us, but none of us lasted very long. I think we were all crying in pain as our toes and fingers thawed in the car. Wes got jipped, which means we will be taking another skiing trip soon. He did great by the way! Only fell one time and it was because Rachel led him into the pit of doom and powder, which he was not prepared for.

Rebecca and Janeel beat Clayton and Wes at pictionary. Monumental.

Caroline gets her wisdom teeth out. Oh goodness. The stories are just too funny.

Tomorrow is my first official day in Spanish Fork High School. I've already scoped the paraphernalia and know which sweatshirt I'm going to be purchasing. I know, I've got all the critical bases covered.

The public schools are still finishing up last semester, so I'll observe and help this week and part of next. When their new semester starts, I'll be in charge. Can't wait for the stories that come from teaching a high school health class.

he's sick

My husband has been out sick with some flu bug thing. While I have stayed busy prepping for Christmas, and of course nursing him back to health, I realized what a good companion he is. All day he apologized for being lame, and I assured him I was not bored. I can assure YOU that I was indeed bored. There are only so many gifts you can wrap, dishes to wash, clothes to organize before you just want to have some human interaction!

So I dragged Wes to the library thinking it would be good to get him some books/DVDs to keep him occupied in bed. Turns out, I'm using them while he sleeps on. I'm also brainstorming a list of things to do tomorrow in case he is still in sick mode. I shouldn't be making this about me... it just comes so naturally.

Get better Wes! For your sake and for mine.

across the finish line

I got myself to the Testing Center (TC) pretty early this morning. I hate taking tests on the last day of finals. I don't know why. I just like the idea of having them all done early. I always worry that I'm going to show up the last day of finals and find out the TC is closed. I know, unnecessary worry. Can't help it.

I was about half way through my 100 multiple choices when a girl on the opposite end of the TC (for those who don't know, the TC is a HUGE room just filled to the brim with desks, we're talking like hundreds of people all sweating, coughing and taking tests at the same time) climbs up on her chair and starts waving her test papers in the air, throws her pencil and pretzel bag and shouts,

"I'm finished.... FOOOOREVER!"

She looked ridiculous. The entire room responded with some chuckles and then starting clapping, which turned into cheering. What a brave girl.

I felt the same way. Today I took my last final ever at BYU. The work is far from being over. Student teaching and my internship will be a lot of time and paperwork. But today I did breath a sigh of relief when I handed over my bubble sheet.

I too have finished forever. And kept my dignity at the same time.

better than previous post

Best news ever. I have finally been placed for student teaching. I'll be spending the next semester in a sophomore health class at...... drumroll......

I'm pretty stoked about this placement. It is only 20 minutes from our apartment and I can get back in time for my internship at Provo High School in the evenings.

The Spanish Fork Dons. What is a Don?

1. Don also (dn) Abbr. D. Used as a courtesy title before the name of a man in a Spanish-speaking area.

2. Chiefly British

a. A head, tutor, or fellow at a college of Oxford or Cambridge.

b. A college or university professor.

3. The leader of an organized-crime family.

4. Archaic An important personage.

Ok. The mascot is lame. But I'm choosing to overlook that right now. It will be awesome.

More good news. We got our first Christmas tree up this week. We had such a fun time picking out the perfect tree at Lowe's. Wes did a great just lashing it to the top of the Versa. Just like my dad.

We decorated with some cheap ribbon and simple ball ornaments we also picked up from Lowe's. But those were mainly just to accent the cute snowmen ornaments I received from my mom. She has been giving us a new glass snowman ornament every year for as long as I can remember. I probably have 10 or 12 ornaments from this tradition and I love them!

(Found this little gift hidden on the back of the tree! Good things come in small packages!)

Gifts starting to appear underneath the tree!

Oh, and angry professor man came up to me and apologized before my gym class today. I told him no worries and I'd send him a bill for new shoes. Just kidding.

broken toe and i sat on a pencil

Rough day today. Sometimes you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know? I hate when this happens, because I usually try very hard to be in the RIGHT place at the RIGHT time (i.e. class, work, church, FHE).

The fates were against me today.

I had changed for gym and was on my way to basketball class. The women's locker room is all the way on the far north side of the RB. I enter on the far south end. So I walk all the way down, change in 1 minute and walk all the way back to our class. Its annoying. I'm just about to open the door to the gym and flying out comes a 60 year old professor, sweaty and mad. All the courts are open from 12-1 for faculty playing, and they use EVERY SINGLE COURT. Also annoying.

The man came out with such a force that the door slammed into my foot, ripped through my shoe, continued on to hit my head and then the wall behind it. I fell over from the impact and by the time I was up, the man had fled. Hit and run complete.

Everyone is so nice at BYU. I mean that sincerely. Immediately there were 3 or 4 people around me asking if I was alright and picking up my stuff. Some of the faculty from inside the gym also came out to see what the loud noise (door hitting me, me squealing, me falling).

I was shocked. My eyes starting watering for a number of reasons 1) My toe hurt 2) I was totally embarrassed 3) People were being nice to me 4) I'm tired 5) Birth control. Are those lame enough excuses? Then I noticed my foot hurt and looked down to see the ripped shoe. These are the wedding shoes mind you. Expensive and special. You may argue I shouldn't be wearing them, but if I am going to pay THAT much for a pair of shoes, you better darn well believe they will be warn and warn out!

I walked over to the bench and took a seat. I sat down directly onto a sharp no. 2 pencil that must have been sharpened only seconds earlier. It was sticking out of one of my classmate's backpack (Who uses No. 2 pencils any more? Get a mechanical one! Also, who stores a pencil right there?) That puncture hurt, but I realized I am somewhat materialistic because I was immediately afraid I had ripped through my favorite gym shorts. I'm ok with ripping through skin, but not my BYU UnderArmor shorts. No rip, at least on the outer layer. I ripped a hole right through my underwear.

So the toe nail is filled with blood, there's kink in my toe and its kind of purple. I've heard both sides, its definitely broken vs. its not broken because you can walk on it.

Final statement: My feelings are broken!

smorgasbord

I'd have to say things are good here in P-Rovo.


Every day I try not to quit my job (psss, by the way, only 24 more days)! Good thing Rachel is here to carry on the legacy.



Wes is busy as ever with school (I'm still not exactly sure what he does in his major. Something to do with PHP, queries and these things <>).

We went to Spoon Me Frozen Yogurt last week (holla coupon). Sometimes I can't believe how completely different Wes and I are. I ordered chocolate yogurt with raspberries, chocolate chips and cheesecake. Wes got natural yogurt with 3 scoops of gummy bears.


Relief Society is going well. We had a massive service project last week that involved 419 pounds of hygiene items for Provo Food and Care Coalition.

Every day I am tempted to chop my hair. Maybe right before student teaching, to give me that extra professional edge. I know I'm a pony tail girl, but every day?! I'm loving this A-line. Without bangs.


Trying to decide...

Oh, and we're looking forward to our first gluten free Thanksgiving.