SNOW DAY!!!!

I LOVE snow days!!!! Yes, that's correct, I do not have school today because of the snow!!!! I think that my attitude towards snow might be changing....maybe. I don't know what to do with all of my new found free time. Maybe I'll be a nerd and work ahead on some of my lessons....

Update

It has been a while since I last posted, and I thought that I better give you an update. Student teaching is going really well. I am loving teaching AP European History, however, I wish that my students were a little more talkative. My lesson this morning kinda bombed on me...I finished way earlier than I wanted to. Thankfully I had a plan B in mind and ended up using it. Hopefully tomorrow goes a lot better. Tomorrow I also start to take ove Western Civ. I'm in charge for the second half of the class period. We are going to the computuer lab to play an online trebuchet game and then work on their unit project. Next week I start teaching the Senior Christian Life class, and I am a little nervous about it. I do not feel qualified at all to teach this class, but I guess that I am going to have to.

This past weekend the student teachers and our RD went to the Grand Canyon, Painted Dessert and the Petrified Forest. It was really amazing to see these places and marvel at the wonder of God's creation. At the Grand Canyon we hiked about a 1,000 feet down on the Angel Bright Trail. It was incredable to see how fast the canyon changed and how much warmer it became the farther we went down. We didn't have a lot of time, so we didn't hike all the way to the edge of the Angel Bright Platue (sp?). The Painted Dessert wasn't very painted, I guess that I will just have to come back after the monsoon season in August to see it in full bloom.

I started looking at some schools that have history/social studies/government/civics openings for this fall. So far I have found five schools that sound really amazing and that I will be putting in an application. I have already started to work on one application, and hopefully I will keep my act together and see how far my professors are coming on my letters of recomindation. The job hunting process is a fun, and a little scary at the same time. It also doesn't seem real to me that I am graduating in a few months and will be out in the real world. Man, how time flies!

I survived...my first lesson

I thought that I would let you know how my first "official" lesson went today. I think that it went okay...my cooperatiing teacher wasn't in the classroom, which I think helped me out a lot by not being very nervous. My cooperating teacher heard from the students that they didn't think that I was too bad of a teacher, so I'll take that as a compliment for now! :)
My students kind of frustrated me a little. I had handed out a couple of articles that I wanted them to have read by today yesterday, except that no one read them, so I had to give up class time so that they could read it...grr. The class that I taught was AP European History, and the student didn't know how to take notes without me writing every single word down on the board. I think what I'm going to do is write down a skeleton outline on the board before class that way they kind of know where I'm going with the lecture. I'll try it out on Friday when we met again as a class. Hopefully it will go a lot better. My teacher said that I was doing the right thing by not writing everything down, and that he had been doing them a disfavor by writing so much on the board for so long. Hopefully Friday will go a lot better and the students will be a little more comfortable with how I teach.

Snow delay

We had a two hour delay this morning, and it was absolutly wonderful! :) It was great to be able to sleep in this morning! All of our periods were shortened to about a half hour. There was talk about having another snow storm tonight, but I don't think that it is going to snow anymore because the sky is perfectly clear. I wouldn't mind if it snowed again tonight, because then we would have another two hour delay. The nice thing about having a two hour delay, is that we get to count it as a full day! :)

Prayer Request

My college supervisor (Cella Bosma) was diagnosed with breast cancer early last week, and is going in for a masectomy on Monday. Will you please keep Cella and the rest of the Bosma family in your prayers and that there will be a swift recovery? Thank you!


Student teaching is still going very well. I start taking over AP European History on Wednesday. I am a little nervous, and excited at the same time. It will be nice for a change to have the lessons that I plan to be used for actual students and that I will be able to see the results and most importantly whether or not they were effective.

Rehoboth was "hit" with a snowstorm this weekend. There is approximately 5-6 inches of snow on the ground. Everyone (including the teachers) are keeping their fingers crossed that there is atleast a two hour delay tomorrow morning, or better yet a snow day. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

Well, I need to go and finish some lesson plans before taking a nap. Have a wonderful and restful Sunday afternoon!

Pictures

The six of us on our way back down from Bandera Volcano.
L-R: Denise, Becca, Erice, Sara, Amanda, and Jena.










In Junction Cave. We have all of our flashlights off, believe it or not! :)

Spelunking

I went spelunking this weekend, and it was a lot of fun! :) The six of us went up to Grants, NM where we hiked up to the rim of Bandera Volcano which is absolutly amazing. We also were able to "hike" into an ice cave...very cold but an awesome site to see. We really went spelunking an old lava tube at El Malpais. Since we didn't have the correct gear, we were highly encouraged to only do Junction Cave, which we did, however, we decided to turn left instead of right and to spend some more time exploring the old lava tubes. I'm glad that we were able to explore the tubes without having to have a lot of gear...more fun this way. Thankfully no one was injured. I did manage to fall, but don't worry, its only a couple of small spots on my finger and elbow where I am missing some skin. Other than that, I'm just really really sore.

Today, we all went on a 2 1/2 hour hike up by Fort Wingate at Milkranch Canyon. The views, even with 4 inches of snow is incredable...I'm glad that I took my camera along. I'll post some pictures as soon as I run to Walgreens, which will hopefully be tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow there is no school for the students at Rehoboth. However, there is a staff in-service day that I'm going to. I think that it will be very interesting to hear what the speaker has to share and to brush up on my first aid skills. As a teacher, I think that it would be a good thing to brush up on.

Okay, here are some pictures that I found on-line of Bandera Volcano and the Ice Cave.

First Day

I survived my first day of student teaching! :) My schedule is pretty easy, which is very nice. I have four classes that I am going to be teaching. I am really excited about my sophomore Western Civilization class...we're in the Middle Ages and looking at their life and warefare weaponry. Sweet eh? Today and tomorrow's classes are really long (1 1/2 hrs) and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be able to fill up the entire class time. meh. Well, thats all of the news from Rehoboth. Over and out.

Classes

I offically met my cooperating teacher today. He seems really nice, and I don't think that I will have any problems. I am only going to be teaching three real classes (AP European History, Western Civilization and Christian Apologetics) and a study hall. I am done by lunch every day. Not bad eh? :) I have the opportunity to head down to the Middle School for 6th and 7th period to do some counciling observations. Should be interesting. I am looking forward to observing this week and hopefully taking a more active role in the classroom next week. As of right now student teaching doesn't seem very intimidating, but I have a strong feeling that it will change once I start to take a more active role and start teaching a few lessons.

In a little bit, my principle is taking the six of us out on a tour of Gallup. Gallup is a stone's throw from Rehoboth. I can actually see it out the window right now...no joke. So far in Gallup I've been able to find the grocery stores and Wal-Mart, I think that I'll be able to survive here! :)

An now, I leave you with a beautiful picture of Rehoboth. In the picture you can see one of the school's observatory and some of the trails that lead up to the Hog Back Mountains...very beautiful.

I'm Here!

I made it to Rehoboth safe and sound last night. I spent almost all day Friday touring Old Town Alburqueque. It was a lot of fun...I even visited the Atomic Museum and I learned a lot! :) I walked around Rehoboth this morning....believe me, it didn't take that long. It is incredably beautiful here! I can't wait until my tennis shoes get here so I can go on some hikes...should be fun! :) As soon as I get the film in my camera developed, I'll post some of my pictures. Well, I should go and eat some lunch and think about taking a nap.