This Last Week...

Let's see...what happened in the last week?

* My students are busy going over the data from the shoe survey...thank you very much for helping out with that! We'll let you know how it all ends up, I know they're all very excited and surprised by what kinds of numbers we came up with.

* I got my second out of seven ESL classes done. I'm really enjoying this class a lot more than the others I have had to do. We're learning about parent and family involvement which is exactly what I like to talk about. In just over a month, I will be endorsed to teach ESL students! If only that meant I would get paid more, but no (it does get me closer to the next pay lane though, just not all of the way).

* I still haven't heard back from or about PAEMST yet, but I've had people starting to ask me about it again. Trust me, I will let you know when I know. They said they would let us all know this spring, but like I've said before, I'm thinking it won't be until June. Thanks for all your support though, if it was up to popularity I think I would definitely be winning :)

* Went on a date on Friday...second weekend in a row (but not with the same guy), let's see if we can keep this up! The dates were good. I had fun. Last week we dropped eggs off of the parking garage and then had ice cream. This week, we glazed bisque.

* My students already have a significant amount of missing assignments and we've only been in the new term a week. I'm definitely counting down to Spring Break now. I think I'll go to California.

* My Sunday School lesson was awesome! We talked about the story of the loaves and fishes so I made rolls to hand out along with some Swedish fish. I had the class focus on the small lad that had actually brought the bread and fish, it was an interesting perspective that no one ever really thinks about. We also talked about Christ being the bread of life and how we can partake of this bread and never hunger. I really liked the quote by Howard W. Hunter: "We must know Christ better than we know him; we must remember him more often than we remember him; we must serve him more valiantly than we serve him. Then we will drink water springing up unto eternal life and will eat the bread of life."

Math Class

My students are working on a special project dealing with surveys and graphs. They need to survey a large amount of people in a short amount of time, so, if you haven't already responded to the survey on my facebook, please take a minute to do it now. We especially need more boys to respond. It would be great if you entered the info for all of your family (one person at a time) and maybe even ask your friends to as well :) We would greatly appreciate it and I'll share the results when we are all done as well.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dENlZGMtbFU0Vi05OUttV2x1d0lHSUE6MQ

You may want to go count how many pairs of shoes you own before you start :)

Thanks!

Spelling Test

I gave my class their spelling pretest for this next week's spelling list. I had to laugh a little to myself as I heard my class's response to the sentences I used to help determine the proper word for a few on the list. I could tell that I most definitely teach in Utah when I read off the word "profit" as they were all very excited and knew how to spell it, but they were a little disappointed when I told them that this profit was not referring to Thomas S. Monson. The second bout of laughter came from "presence" as they were excited about that one as well until I mentioned that it had nothing to do with the packages under the Christmas tree.

Lessons on Patience

I have been trying to increase my patience over the last school year. I have to say that I am quite patient for the most part, but at the same time I can get frustrated easily as well and lately, I have been letting the frustration take over. Let's just say that my lessons in patience have come in ways I was not expecting. I was expecting my patience to be developed at school with my students, I was not expecting my patience to be challenged by adults.

I have been teaching one of my ward's Sunday School classes for the last eight months or so. I have really enjoyed it, but there are definitely some weeks where I feel like I'm doing everything wrong because no one is participating or they keep chatting with friends during the lesson, etc....you know, all of the things I've been trained to not have happen in my regular classroom, but what do you do with adults when they misbehave?

The second instance/example is this last Friday. I was part of a group in my school district asked to train all of the 6th grade teachers in our district about our new math core. I knew everyone was feeling a bit uneasy with the word "new" and the fact that all these rumors were circulating about the thing and how it's so much more difficult. We felt like we were thrown to the wolves as this group of 81 teachers attacked the messengers. The things we were saying and trying to tell them were to ease their minds and release their fears as the only thing new about this core was that a lot of things were taken out and only a few small concepts that would be easy to teach based on current things already being taught were added.The thing is that no one would listen. They came to freak out and ask their accusing questions and then not wait for any answers. I think they finally came to their sense a little bit, but no one was listening and they kept asking the same questions over and over again. I am very grateful to the teachers that came up to us in the end and thanked us for everything and let us know that we were right and everyone else was freaking out for no good reason.

I did not teach the Sunday School lesson today which was probably good as I was able to listen and really apply what was being taught. We talked about Matthew 13 and why Christ used parables to teach. One parable that we spent the most time on was that of the sower and the different types of ground--wayside, stony, thorny, and good. One thing that was mentioned was that we focussed on the ground, not the sower. It was not that the sower spread the wrong or different seeds, but it all depended on how the seed was taken by the ground. If you do nothing with the seed that is given to you, it like throwing it by the wayside and nothing grows. If the seed is thrown among stony places, it is not taken in and then burned by the sun. If the seed is trying to grow among thorns or bad thoughts already planted there, the good will be choked out and not given a chance to grow to what is desired. But, if the seed is planted in good ground, ground that has been prepared and then taken care of, then the seed will grow. As the sower, I still need to spread the seed in a good way, but the type of ground is what determines if it will grow or not.

Rules are Rules

Dear Mr. Acura Man,

I'm sorry that I had you towed tonight, but you should have followed the rules. It is clearly posted by both entrances to my complex that, as a guest, you should park in spots labeled for guests. By taking another spot, you are forcing the owner to then park in a guest spot which will then get them towed as they are breaking the rules. I would have understood if you just needed to run in to get something or to pick someone up especially if there were no guests spots available, but there were several guests spots available and I waited more than ten minutes before even thinking about having you towed, more than an ample amount of time for you to return to your car. I'm sorry that I did not go door to door to the other 142 apartments to hunt you down and warn you that your car would be towed if not moved. I had several people tell me that I shouldn't tow you because it's so expensive and is just not fun at all, to which I say to you, Mr. Acura Man, shame on you for making me have to choose between towing or being towed myself. Since I own the spot and I did not break the rules, the choice was clear.

Social Butterfly

I have been digging the social scene this week! I'm finally getting to know some people in my ward or should I say, they've been getting to know me. Monday started it off with FHE which led to visiting a friend on Tuesday with some friends, it was very friendly. Wednesday was mostly all work so not very social. Thursday was rollerskating. I don't even remember Friday. Saturday I went out on a date. Tonight I had a bunch of people over and we played games, lots of games. I don't know if I've ever had that many people over at my house at one time that wasn't for some family event. I'm sure the fact that I made some very delicious cookies helped convince the boys they should come over, but that's ok.

My friend, Sara, is amazing. We decided to start up a no homework club since neither of us has homework and we're always looking for things to do. After everyone else left tonight, we started making a list of things that we want to do. A lot of them are good over-the-summer type activities and some could very easily be turned into dates and they could be a real blast as long as we had cool people to play along with us. This should be a good summer. I'm glad I have found someone who also will be staying up late into the night during the summer as it never fails with me...for some reason, 3am is a much more enjoyable time of the day to play.

Final Result

This is what I ended up doing. I like it. I still need to paint the brown frames black and fill eight frames with something other than what came with them when they were purchased...so, if you'd like to be on my wall, you should send me a picture :)

Rollerskating and Awesome Dictionaries!

I went rollerskating with some friends tonight. It had been a number of years (don't remember how many) since I had last been rollerskating so I was excited to go especially with the friends I went with (we're starting a No Homework Club, would you like to join us?). I am happy to say that I did not fall on my own, all of my falls were from being slammed into. Both of my knees are developing bruises and the inside of my thumb knuckle is also bruised, but I had so much fun! Oh yeah, don't forget the blister on the ball of my foot :)

So, after an amazing night of rollerskating, I wanted to say something on facebook, but it kind of bugs me when people use "yeah" in the wrong way. Before using the wrong "yeah" I decided I should double-check because I was starting to doubt myself in using the correct term, "yay." Lo and behold, not only am I correct, but the little dictionary in my computer widget dashboard thingy had the following sentence as an example..."Yay! Great, Julie!" No joke, I did not make that up...it's just pure awesomeness.

Thoughts and Opinions, Please?

I mentioned a week or two ago that I wanted to rearrange the photos above my couch. This is the new plan I have come up with, but I would like some feedback before I start punching holes in my wall. Would you change anything? The two brown frames will be painted black before going up on the wall :)