student teaching

I am now entering my 6th week of special education student teaching and it has been a great experience thus far. I learning so much for one this experience has showed me that I am picking the right choice by heading into the special education field. I feel like I have so much to offer the field and can relate extremely well to the students in special education. I know what its like to struggle, and dislike school. I also know what its like to feel bored, or completely lost in school as well.

I like to look at student teaching as this consonant experiment. When conducting an experiment often times we as the scientist, try and then perhaps observe or reflect later all the thing within the experiment that went wrong and all of the things within the experiment that went right. Sometimes there might only be one or the other. I have learned thought with every bad experiment, comes at least one good to follow! It's been such a great opportunity to try all these different lessons and ideas out on. I have really begun to see kids transform and make big improvements, and then I have seen kids really make no progress at all. Having the opportunity to see kids improve greatly and meet his/her IEP goals is the reason that I want to go into special education. I want to have the opportunity to see first hand the growth that at least one child can make when put in an environment the child can really take off in. Sometimes all it takes is having that one-on-one setting for a child to reach his or her potential.

Student teaching has taught me so much more than how to be a successful teacher. I knew that this experience would provide me with the tools and training to become a successful teacher, yet I never imagined it would have such an impact on my overall life. Through observations of my mentor and a few other teachers, I have begun to learn how to separate having a school and a home life. Often times we are so submerged in our careers that we forget to relax, revive and remove ourselves from the work day when we are at home. We need time to relax and revive our minds, our bodies and our spirits from whatever profession we are involved with. I have begun to learn how to keep work "at work" and then have time for other things when at home.  I think this has been one of the best things that I can learn thus far. Life is short and we need to enjoy it when we can! I also have learned ways to be more organized, communicate a little bit better and even be successful with an established routine. One of the greatest things that I have learned from my first 5 weeks of student teaching, is how much I love working with kids everyday!


Cheers to all those good teachers out there, continue to work hard empower young minds and encourage positivity throughout the school year. It has been so great to see good teachers continue to spread the love and importance of education in our society.

my 9/11 thoughts...

Today I saw sign that said "stop and reflect" and it really encouraged me to reflect. I think 9/11 is a perfect day to take time to think and reflect about our lives, our nation, ourselves, our relationships and our futures. It really made me take a little hike into nature to stop and reflect.

I am so happy to have a family that loves me, supports me and encourages me to be better everyday! 

I am so grateful to live in a country that still believes in free speech, free and fair education, and the right towards life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

I am so happy and thankful for all my wonderful relationships with my good friends and great boyfriend. 

I am so lucky to be entering a profession that I am truly passionate about and feel like its my calling in life.
I feel so privileged that I have been able to travel to some beautiful, exotic, fun, diverse and totally life-changing places in the world.
I feel so lucky to live a beautiful place of the U.S. where a ski adventure is only 20 minutes away, or a mountain climb is only a 15 minute drive. Utah is truly a magical and beautiful place with tons of places to explore and see. 

I am so grateful and lucky that I was wearing a bike helmet on the morning of my accident, for it really did save my life. 

But mostly...I am glad that we as a nation took the time today to remember and honor all of those that had fallen for our country. They died so I could continue on my life journey and educate future generations about all the great things that we get to experience as Americans and humans on this Earth. 

To end tonight's post I leave you all with a comment said by Anderson Cooper.... "WE ARE ALL ONE!" Let's not forget this, and let's start to unite together vs. continue to have this political divide within our nation. 

What a crazy August

I never thought that I would be relieved to see a month come to an end, but I am relieved to see August    2011 in it's last week. I am not here to say that August has been a terrible month, but it definitely has been a  very emotional and draining month on me both physically and mentally.

I did learn some wonderful things this month for instance, I really learned how to study for a standardize, multiple choice test. Not only did I learn how to study, I learned most of the material that I needed to know for the Praxis test within a week and a couple of days! While I always wear a bike helmet, I learned just how valuable they really are towards protecting our priceless and ever important heads. I also learned how much I hate health insurance, but how valuable it is to have it when needed. I also learned that I can do math despite 20 plus years of thinking that I would never be able to do basic math like balance a check book, or figure out the tip on my own....well I can both things and more! I have learned to have a bit of confidence in my ability to still learn (especially something like math) regardless of how long I have struggled with learning things.

After all that I have learned, why am I glad to see August get taken out to sea and not come back till next year? Well this month has just been a crazy roller coaster ride for me. I was in the ICU of a hospital with with this horrible tube shoved down my throat. I was x-rayed for broken knees, and wrists because they were the size of balloons as well as multi head scans due to a bit of bleeding in my brain... all from riding my bike home from yoga. This accident caused me to reschedule my first two weeks of student teaching, which looking back was probably a blessing because it forced me to just recover, study, and study and study some more for my Praxis test, which I passed by ONE POINT! It also helped me to see that I was living a life that was way too crazy for me to handle and be successful in. So while this month has been crazy, it's also been extremely humbling...but thank goodness it is almost over.

Here's to September, may it be a lot less dramatic and crazy!

TWITTER AND THE CLASSROOM!!

I love Twitter, I really do! It's pretty amazing how much one person can say in 120 characters. While not all of what is said on Twitter is stimulating, interesting or worth reading it has totally revolutionized social media. For all of you that read this blog enough, you know that I am looking to be a teacher once I am finished with my masters this December and I am always thinking about teaching and new ways to motivate, excite and interconnect things that kids use and like into the classroom. I have been wondering about how could I include social media into the equation? So why not bring Twitter into the classroom? When I asked about this and looked into it, all I received was negative responses and ideas...until now! Finally I have found an article and video from CNN and on another blog post about how a middle school history teacher from East LA has used Twitter to help engage shy students in learning history. Watching this video, has inspired me and has shown that Twitter and social media in general can really enhance a learning environment within a classroom or within different curriculum areas. I think adding Twitter to curriculum areas could get students motivated and excited about the curriculum, and it could be a way for students to express themselves and participate. I also think Twitter could be used to help ESL students have a voice and practice reading/writing English. I love seeing teachers like Enrique be inventive (by using students interests like social media) in the classroom to help further engage the students and enhance learning.

Let's look at how current or future teachers can use social media to help students vs. looking at it as a negative thing. 

http://www.good.is/post/twitter-in-the-classroom-watch-this-teacher-engage-shy-students-in-learning-history/

WEEKEND WARRIOR FUN!

Just to inform everyone, this weekend has been stellar! After a week of feeling stressed, and a bit lonely I am having a fun weekend. Why may you ask? 

1.) I was finally able to get outside in LCC (Little Cottonwood Canyon) and do some rock climbing with my friend Chris. I did not lead any routes today however, I worked and improved my anchoring abilities. I cannot lead any routes until I successfully am able to anchor myself at the top of a route. I am getting better with setting anchors, now I just need to practice a bit more and get a bit faster setting them. 

2.) Not only am I getting used to being a head swim coach, but I am also starting to have the club run my way and with my ideas! 

3.) I was able to meet up with two girlfriends whom I had been disconnected with for a long time... and I went out to breakfast with my good girlfriend Shauna. The french toast was absolutely delicious. 

4.) I GOT some rollerblades, which I have been wanting for a while now thanks to my friend Tonya! I love to rollerblade :) 

5. I also am showing my love for the LGBT community of Utah and Salt Lake City by attending Salt Lake City's Gay Pride Parade tomorrow with two friends. 

Oh I love fun weekends, especially fun weekends in the summer. I feel blessed this weekend!