Sunday, November 15, 2009
So I haven't updated this in quite some time...
I have been so busy these past few months that I have not made this blog a high enough priority and for that I apologize, I also apologize for how long this post is might end up... or for how much I skim over because I don't have forever to sit here and dump every detail from the last 5 months...
So after Rome we went to Venice and Florence, which I'll give a more in depth update about later, when I have access to the notes I took each day. From there we went to Interlaken where it all fell apart...
Interlaken is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen as far as natural landscape goes. Annie and I had the best time riding rented bikes around the city and through the meadows near by. The rest of the group went off on an intense hike that I was not up for by that point in EuroTrip. The next day we got up early to go white water rafting, in FREEZING cold water, we couldn't feel our hands by the time we got back and it took forever to warm back up again. However, that would not stop be from going again if I were offered the chance, it was so much fun, such a rush. After we all dried up and re energized we all split up again for more hikes while Annie and I did a ropes course for a couple of hours before regrouping and cleaning up to go to an extreme sport video contest. There we met some really famous skiers, snow boarders and sky divers. The next day we all went canyoning... which consists of repelling down, sliding down, and jumping off of natural waterfalls in water that was even colder than the white water rafting water... sounds like you'd have to be crazy to sign up for that right? Well call the 9 of us crazy cause we did it... well we tried... only 8 of us made it to the end. On the 1st big jump, which was about 30 feet high, Annie jumped off perfectly, landed in the right position, and didn't hit a rock or the bottom or anything but managed to fracture her spine in two places. This led the two of us to spend a few hours at the Interlaken hospital, stay and extra night in Interlaken, get her a customized back brace, skip our final two cities (Leon, France and Madrid, Spain) and come straight home. Since we missed those two cities we say it is our excuse to go back! Annie had to be in her back brace for most of the rest of the summer but now she is out of it and almost has full range of motion and is taking all the necessary precautions to not hurt herself again.
The rest of the summer I spent a lot of time at the Judevine Center for Autism, that is now called Touch Point. I worked in a summer school classroom with 6 middle school boys with different degrees of autism. I learned so much from the kids and the facility, I just hope that I helped make a difference, that I was able to help the kids.
Okay so now we are at the end of August... school started! I am taking 18 credit hours... Health for Education Majors, Methods of Advanced Reading, Principles of Economics, Methods of Teaching Science, Creative Arts & Movement, Curriculum & Instruction, Methods of Teaching Social Studies and Basics of Sign Language.
Health for Education Majors - This class is such a joke, the text book is informational so we have the opportunity to learn from it, and I do enjoy reading it, however the teacher is not the brightest crayon in the box. She says things like medicine can help cure MR and that if a kids tooth falls out you should put it back in and call the dentist. Our midterm was open note, open book, fill in the blank and if you couldn't find the answer in the book she'd write it on the board. She should be paid in bubble gum balls cause that's all she's worth.
Methods of Advanced Reading - this is my most challenging education class, we spend many hours of side of class creating full lesson plans, 2 hours a week teaching 3rd graders how to read, and 1 hour a week in class on SLU campus talking about how to teach reading. With these 3rd graders we are currently preparing them for a Science Fair project that is taking place this Wednesday, we are very excited. I really am going to miss the kids when the semester is over.
Principles of Economics - This is my most difficult class over all, I spend more time working and studying for this class than any three others combined. I take this class with Amit which is nice, I enjoy having someone there to motivate me and to study with. The first test I did really well for myself, my biggest mess ups were that I was really nervous and kept thinking about how important the test is and how much time I did NOT have left to complete it. So this second test that I took on Tuesday I made sure that I had a better state of mind during it and did not freak out. I walked out feeling extremely confident and cannot wait to get it back on this Tuesday... wish me luck!!! I also really enjoy this class, I love that public service majors are required to take it, it is so interesting.
Methods of Teaching Science - this is my least favorite class because the teacher is really mean. He was a middle school science teacher and does NOT understand that how you teach a 13 year old science is NOT how you teach a 6 year old science. I think he may have been a great middle school teacher but does not know how to teach college students or elementary students. We did spend some time teaching at the same elementary school as the reading class, and that went alright... I really cannot wait for teacher evaluations at the end of the semester, this teacher yells at us, and told one of the girls in my class that she should teach 2nd graders because she is really good at acting like one. I'd rather take another class with my drawing teacher from Spain than go to one more class with this teacher.
Creative Arts & Movement - This is an interesting class because it is a 3 parter... the first 1/3 was drawing, second 1/3 music and final 1/3 is PE. We have not learned much in this class but it has been enjoyable nonetheless.
Curriculum & Instruction - I had this teacher my freshman year for my Foundations of Elementary Education course and he is amazing. We learn a lot and he really pushes us to be the best teacher we can possibly be. We hosted a field trip for the elementary school at SLU for a group of 5th and 6th graders on Friday and it went really well, the kids learned a lot and are now more motivated to get to college!
Methods of Teaching Social Studies - The teacher for this class really believes in spending as much time in the classroom with the kids as possible. At this point we have learned as much as we can for now about how to teach, now is the time to put it to practice, we won't become great teachers unless we practice. And the more we practice now the more impressive we will be when we have our first classroom all to ourselves. We also hosted a field trip in this class on Thursday for a class of 2nd graders that we have been teaching this semester and we had so much fun, but sadly that was the culmination of our time with that class, I already miss those students!
Basics of Sign Language - I love this class, it is just 1 credit and Mary (my roommate from Spain) talked me into taking this class with her for fun and boy is it ever. I look forward to this class and enjoy studying. In fact, I have had a crazy busy week (with the field trips and various performances that I will address in a minute) so I have lost my voice entirely which has presented me with the opportunity to only use Sign Language today. Who knew losing my voice could be so much fun?
Extracurricular.... my favorite part! So there is this dance team on campus called Xquizit (pronounced 'exquisite' ) it is a hip hop group and I was friends with the lead and I knew a few of the other members from Amit's floor at his dorm last year. When I tried and failed at making it into Astha, the Indian fusion A Capella group that Amit is the president of, I decided to try out of this dance team (which makes much more sense for me to dance than to sing). After the audition I went home and got a call that I had gotten in just a couple of hours later, honestly, I have never been more excited or proud of myself in my entire life. I cannot express in words how much it meant to me, being accepted, being good enough, having people want me to be apart of their group. Now we are performing all the time, getting really close as a team, and having so much fun. I performed for the first time a week ago last Wednesday, then we had a HUGE performance on this past Wednesday where we opened for Kaba Modern (http://kabamodern.com) This was possibly one of the top 15 highlights of my life so far, amazing time, we ended up hanging out with them afterwards til they had to leave for the airport, so much fun. Then we performed on Thursday for a campus talent show, to a very small audience; then we performed last night for SUFA (Student's United For Africa) and that was a blast, not all of us could be there so it was a smaller group and we looked really good, I did the best I have done yet, I was really proud. Also last night before Xquizit performed I got roped into learing the dance to Single Ladies by Beyonce to teach and perform it last night... it went all right, the audience loved it, and now because of that performance we have booked a couple more gigs with it. It is a lot of fun, totally not my style, but I enjoy broadening my horizons. Below is a link to one of the Xquizit performances and later I'll post one from the Single Ladies performance but I can't now because the room last night was REALLY dark so you can't see anything on the recording.
Anyways, I must get going to finish homework (I have about 5 reflections to write).
Love you all!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)