First Day Back...

...and it started off kind of rocky.

I over slept and woke up at 7:58, two minutes before my first class started. I jumped out of bed, took a quick shower (kicking myself for not washing my hair after swimming last night), skipped breakfast, forgot my pre-packed lunch, sprinted across campus and to the third floor of Peterson, where I landed in my seat at 8:12 - 14 minutes after I woke up. Aye. Thankfully, I am a very low-maintenance person and am not ashamed to wear the same outfit three days in a row. Yes, I said three. My two-day-old-smells-like-chlorine-from-the-pool-last-night-Michigan t-shirt was on top of the pile in my drawer this morning, so it's what I happened to grab in my early morning frenzy to get dressed. Don't worry, it's going in the wash pile tonight!

Class turned out to be okay, since a bunch of my friends were also late because they thought the class started at 8:30. And my friend Jen also over slept, except that she slept through the entire class, so I don't feel as incredibly terrible now. All of my classes seem really good. This quarter I'm taking Classroom Management, Math Methods I, Soc/Science Methods, and Reading/Language Arts Methods II, along with some dumb writing class I need to finish my major. After this quarter, I will have completed my Language Arts major - yippee!! Oh, and I also have a field placement all day Thursdays, which I'll find out about next week.

I also happened to score a free TV today, which has made my day. One of my profs, Dr. McKinney, needs to get rid of it, so I said I'd take it. I'm turning out to be quite good at inheriting stuff - a new vacuum, a really nice desk chair, a few rugs, a microwave, and now a TV! And I got my super-awesome comfy couch for only 40 bucks last year. Now all I need is some bedroom furniture for next year, and I'd be pretty much set.

Home Again

It's so very good to be back in Seattle! Roomie and I just spent the past two weeks in SW Michigan, visiting family and friends. It was a packed trip! We had tons of fun, though, and never once got sick of one another! Here are a few highlights of our adventures together:

*Spending some good time with my best friend Kim (we both cried when we greeted one another)!
*Kim and I showing Sara Mackinac Island
*Teaching Sara how to feed a herd of 65 horses
*Horseback riding
*The Dulmes and Gritter kids, as well as their moms :)
*Lunches and coffee dates with dear friends
*Meeting Sara's sister and brother-in-law
*Taking Sara to the Gathering at Hope
*Curling up with my Julie and soaking up her wisdom
*Sara's first trip to Chicago!
*Day trip to Shipshewana with Sara and Mom
*Seeing my wonderful cousins, Loren and Lindsey
*Spending some good time in the country, away from the bustling city

I've been doing nothing but unpacking and organizing since we got back last night. I have my own room this year, and so does Roomie, which is strange already. Nice, but strange. My room is really small, but it actually seems pretty spacious with the way I've set it up. We have a mandatory all-apartment meeting tonight at 9:45, which seems super late to me, since I am still on Michigan time...

Classes begin tomorrow, and I don't have a single one! I ended up dropping the disciplship class that I was going to take. I found out that it's not quite what I was looking for in that sort of class, so I am now class-free M,W,TH,and F! That's right, I only have class on Tuesday! Of course, it's from 8am-9pm with a one hour-break in the middle, but it's still only one day of class! Thursdays are going to be full of my elementary field experience, once I find out where I will be doing that. I am nannying the other three days, though, for three different families. All of the kids are either 2 or 4, which is going to be incredibly fun, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I am currently reading Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach, and it's amazing. I'm only a few chapters into it, but am loving it already. And as it turns out, I am going to have to read it next quarter in my capstone!

Back to more unpacking...

First Day of School

I don't remember the first day of second grade being so tiring when I was seven! The day flew by, and by 3:30, I was ready for bed. Aye. It was a very good day, though, and I've learned a lot already. I've also wowed many little girls with my jump roping skills :)My friend Amy is also interning at Coe Elementary so she I talked during afternoon recess. Both of us are learning so much, which is fantastic. Mr. Murray and I have 26 kids, which is six more than last year, apparently. The room is a bit cozy, and our line in the hallway is quite long, but it's not too bad. We have lots of interesting students with some interesting names. For instance, we have a Stella, an Ellery, Dorothy, Tillman, Kanai, Rycher, Najma, Vlasta, and Jakob (pronounced Yachum). So interesting! There's not a single Sarah, Jennifer, Brittany, Eric, John, or Sam. The kids are very fun and interesting, too. For instance, Bella has made up her own code language, which she sometimes switches to without warning. Elizabeth cannot sit still for more than one second to save her life. Rycher showed me his self portrait and made sure to point out that he included all of his cavities, not to mention all the plaque on his teeth, as well. My response was, "What a good drawing, Rycher! Perhaps you need to work on your teeth brushing a little..." Jake is seven and is currently 5'0", so we're raising his desk tomorrow morning. And if you think the kids are interesting, let me mention the parents. We have your usual parents who don't label backpacks and lunchboxes (a HUGE pet peeve of mine), and then there's the parents who label EVERY SINGLE one of their son's or daughter's pencils and markers. There are also the parents who have separation anxiety and eat with their kids at lunch, which is not smiled upon or encouraged. And the new trend these days - or at least at Coe - is to rather than hand your teacher an apple or a box of Kleenex as you walk through the door, you toss a ream of paper at them! So far we have tens reams of paper, and some kids forgot theirs this morning, so more is on the way.

All of the staff and teachers have been incredible so far, as well as the PTA (lots of free food!). Teachers are constantly coming up to me and offering me loads of advice. My favorite piece of advice came from Christie, a young kindegarten teacher:
"Go home today at 4pm, put on your pajamas, and soak your feet in the tub. Then, put in a movie and go to bed at 9. And wear extra comfy shoes tomorrow." :)