Adventures of a Shockingly Average 30-Something

My first placement of student teaching starts tomorrow, and to say I'm a little bit nervous is more than a little bit of an understatement. I'm basically trying not to think about the fact that 14 hours from now, I'll be in the classroom.  I think I'm only nervous because I haven't been with this grade, this age, before.  I don't know what second graders are like.  This first week, I'm mostly just doing observation and seeing how my mentor teacher teaches, and then next week, I'll start taking over some of the teaching responsibility. I don't know what to wear!  Do I wear a dress and leggings?  A long sweater and jeggings?  Dress pants and a sweater?  And which pair of shoes should I wear? Why am I so nervous?  This is ridiculous!  It's not like I've never been in the classroom before.  I have experience with kindergarten, first grade, and fourth grade.  I've taught lessons (in first and fourth grades).  I've had solo day...

Today I met my sponsor teacher for my first placement of student teaching.  I was nervous, but it turns out I had NOTHING to be nervous about.  She is just the nicest person, and I am truly going to enjoy working in her classroom.  I've only met the teacher so far, not the students - I meet them on Tuesday, a week from today, when placement starts - and I already know I am going to have a wonderful time during this placement. I also cannot WAIT until March, when I return back to my fourth graders.  I emailed my sponsor teacher for placement 2 this morning to say how glad I am to be returning to his classroom, and he emailed me back not long after, saying that the kids can't wait until I'm back with them again.  Do you even know how good that made me feel? Tomorrow begins three days of seminar, starting at 8:30 in the morning.  I'm actually excited about it, but mostly just because it's another day closer to me being back in the classroom again.

I'm heading back to Potsdam tomorrow.  I'm taking a Trailways bus, so what is normally a four and a half hour drive is going to be around eight hours.  Please just kill me now.  I'm making sure my kindle, Nintendo 3DS, and iPod all have full charges.  Hopefully that will keep my mind occupied on the ride up there. January 13th - Back to Potsdam. January 14th - meeting my sponsor teacher for student teaching for the first time. January 15th, 16th, and 17th - Student teaching seminar January 21st - My first day as a student teacher! I start student teaching in JUST over a week.  That's CRAZY.  How is this possible?  Didn't I just graduate high school, like, a month ago?  (Or, you know, almost five years ago...) I'm a bit nervous about student teaching, but I know it will go well.  I'm always nervous beforehand, but once I'm there, it's fine.  I'm sure that meeting my sponsor teacher will make me less nervous.  I hope meeti...

Back in October, when I was in Alabama for my dad's funeral, I met my godfather for (basically) the first time.  Before October, the last time I had seen him was when I was still a toddler, so I really don't remember having known him before.  He was one of my dad's best friends and I'm so glad that I met him (although I wish the circumstance had been different).  I wish he had been in my life while I was growing up, but he still lives out in California and I haven't lived there since I was only a few months old.  Even though I've only met him once (not counting when I was a baby/toddler), and only spent a couple of hours with him, I know that I can text, email, or call him if I need anything.  As I told my mom several times down in Alabama, my parents did a good job picking him as my godfather. Since October, I've had good days, but I've also had bad days.  And really bad days.  I don't know what it is exactly that makes one day easier or harder th...

If you know me, you know the title of this post is a reference to more than just a color.  It's a reference to a Taylor Swift album.  More than just that, it's a reference to a whole spectrum of emotion.  Red is anger and passion.  Red is the hate you feel towards someone, a hate so strong you know it could only come as a result of having loved that person, so by association, red is love.  Red is the color of your cheeks after you've kissed for the first time and the color of the nail polish you wear when you want to stand out.  Red is fast and red is furious.  Red is intense and in your face.  It's not soft and it's not backing down.  Red is confidence, so much more so than black. The album Red is, overall, about a "crash-and-burn heartbreak," according to Taylor.  I find myself able to relate, very much at the moment, to this.  My heartbreak didn't come from the ending of a relationship, but rather a close friendship.  I of...

As I sit here mentally preparing myself for the teaching certification exam I'm taking tomorrow morning, I find myself wondering if I have made a difference in any of my students' lives.  It might not be easy to see how I managed to make that connection; sometimes I make sort of weird connections that I have to explain to other people for it to make sense to them. Do you see this, this stone? It's a healing stone.  I've written about it once before on here .  Last semester when I was with my fourth graders, we made healing stones to relate back to the book the kids were reading.  The main character in the book was being bullied, so the activity that the kids did was to pretend that they were Danny (the main character) and make a healing stone with the word that he would write on it.  They had to think about Danny and what he was like, and what they thought he would need.  I got answers like "brave," "fearless," "strong," and other ...

Two weeks from today, I will be back in second grade for the first time since 1998.  Well, 1999 technically.  Because if I started second grade in September of 1998, I would have finished it in June of 1999.  The last time I was in second grade, I looked like this: I wish I had a photo of my first day of second grade so I could do a side-by-side comparison picture on the 21st.  First day of second grade as a student and first day of second grade as a student teacher. I'm really excited to be student teaching in a second grade classroom.  According to my sponsor teacher's page on the school's website, there are 19 students in the class.  More than the 11 fourth graders I was with for Block II, but less than the 22 first graders I was with for my Block I experience.  I've emailed back and forth a couple times with my sponsor teacher; she seems nice from the emails.  I'm meeting her in person on the 14th - I'm looking forward to that. ...

Well, there's only half an hour until the start of 2014 (it's already 2014 back home in New York, but I'm in Alabama and we're an hour behind...). 2013 was a long year.  There were ups and downs, as always in this crazy roller coaster of life. In 2013, I spent four weeks in a first grade classroom .  This experience was great, and I LOVED it.  I learned a lot about myself and about teaching.  I feel like I grew so much as a pre-student teacher, and I'm so glad I got to have this experience.  My mentor teacher was fantastic, and I just learned so much from her. In 2013, my grandma made me a dress like Rapunzel's (from the movie Tangled ).  I don't think it's really cosplay, but a friend of mine said it is.  Each year, Potsdam's LGBTAA has a gay prom, and this past year, it was Disney themed.  Steven and I went as Flynn Rider and Rapunzel ; we won for cutest couple.  The dance was SO fun. In 2013, I participated in Relay for Life for...