I've been meeting with my intern coach and my fifth grade team quite often lately and am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. It's not because I have a lot to do or because I don't know what to do, it's because I don't know what I don't know. Does that make sense? I guess I just mean that I'm not sure of everything that I'm supposed to be preparing for this upcoming school year. Today we went over a curriculum map of what we'll be teaching in the 2011-12 school year and it helped tremendously! Thank you Tiffany...she's one of the teachers on my team. She's awesome. She had the literacy and math curriculum map printed out for the ENTIRE year. It is going to be so helpful. But there's so much more to teaching than just having the curriculum figured out. Now I have to decide how to decorate my room, which bulletin boards I want to use, what to put up on the walls, learn how to use my Smart Board (which I'm SO excited about), etc. I've never realized how much time goes into being a teacher. Previous interns have said they stay after school until sometimes 9 at night. There's absolutely no way I'm doing that. I think Tyler would miss me too much at night if that happened. I look back at my elementary teachers and I think to myself, how did they do such an amazing job everyday? I loved every single one of my teachers, am I'm not joking, and they seemed to just have the whole teaching thing down so well. At this point, I'm so jealous.
Something else that I've really noticed since meeting with my intern coach/5th grade team is that school in Utah is much different than it is in CA. I grew up with all outdoor schools, meaning you could access every room from outside (and usually only outside) and there were no "hallways." We also had recess at least 3 times a week, which was absolutely my favorite time of the day (isn't it every kid's favorite time of day?). And, we had recess OUTSIDE. Here, recess is once a week (with a PE teacher) for 30 minutes. Are you kidding me? That's so sad to me, but as a teacher I am allowed to take them out on my own time and do PE so I'll try and fit it in somewhere :) There are also so many specialty teachers here...somebody for art, PE, computers, music, etc. I don't remember having that many growing up but maybe I've just forgotten over time. I'm excited to teach, and to be honest, I want this summer to go really fast (I've never requested this before) so I can be in the classroom doing what I want to be doing. I just need to do a few things (ok, maybe 100 things) before that day arrives (August 22nd to be exact).
Why do people like her? These aren't even her creepiest/weirdest pictures... I heard recently that since Oprah retired, Lady Gaga is now the most influential woman. Honestly?? I can't imagine if I had a child and they looked up to her! When I ask people why they like her, they say it's because she's different...like, freakishly different! I think it's sad that our world is coming to looking up to people like her...
Sunday night at Laguna Beach
Lunch after the blessings. Grandma & Grandpa Sheppard, Robyn, and Paige came over. Robyn made Monte Cristos....if you've never had one, go to Disneyland's "Blue Bayou," and try one...they are delicious!
The babies LOVED this, especially Lillee
Pretty, pretty Lillee
Adoption Court date. The babies were officially made Neilsons
Day at the Beach with all the little ones-it was absolutely beautiful!
