Guess what was in the mail today...

The advertisement from the University to buy my graduation announcements.  I am filling out the personalized graduation announcement and here it is!!!

The Board of Trustees,

the President, and the Faculty

of the

University of Utah

are pleased to announce that

Rachel Eileen Shurdha

is a candidate for the degree of

Bachelor of Science

in

Earth Science Composite Teaching

at the College Convocation Ceremony

Friday, May seventh, Two thousand ten

Eleven-thirty in the morning

Film and Media Arts Auditorium

Salt Lake City, Utah

So, wow. I am so close to being done with my first degree.  So, May 7 and 11:30 I will be walking.  I am beyond excited.

Science Fair

The Northwest Middle School Science Fair is this Friday.  Endrit and I get to be judges for it.  I am excited that I get to do this.  It is interesting how much I am being integrated into the school.  People come to me with questions.  I have talked to the administration a lot.  They all know me by name; and that is a good thing.  I feel like I should be getting paid.  I have to get Endrit prepped to be a judge. I was one that explained some of things that the judges are going to be looking for with the students so I am ready.

Fun times coming up this Friday.

Yoga

I decided that I needed to have one thing for me.  I went to yoga a couple of weeks ago at the ward and I love it.  I got a yoga mat and I am trying to do some of the yoga poses for at least 20 minutes every day and an hour 2 days a week with the instructor.

Endrit tried to do some yoga with me today and he quit after 5 minutes.  I thought that was funny because he always thought that yoga was easy.  Now he knows better.

So, that is the thing that I have for me.  I guess that Endrit and I are getting on our health kick right now.  Hopefully it will be a lifestyle change.

Haircut!!!

Phillip's fiance, Nicole, came over and gave me the first real haircut I have had in a long time.  I really, REALLY like it.  I like the bangs too.  I just wanted to share.  Thank you Nicole!

Voice Lessons

I have turned into a quiet person to talk to.  With no one to talk over, I haven't needed to project my voice.  Well, now I have to project being a teacher so I decided to pick up voice lessons again.  It really is amazing to me how out of shape my voice really is.  I know that it will get better as I practice my vocal exercises every day. I learned that I don't resonate enough.  I am now aware of it so I know how to position my mouth and tongue better to resonate.

I am taking the lessons from a nice lady in the ward.   She has a degree in music so she really knows what she is doing.  It is nice to be able to sing again.  My voice is SO out of shape.  That is why I have gotten teacher voice.  But what I wanted to say was that she has 2 kids.  I know that the older one thinks I am okay.  He is a great kid.  They also have a little girl.  She is a little over a year old.  She is adorable.  Today she decided that I am friends with her.  She looked at my ID for school and pointed to the picture on it and said "that's you!"  It was adorable!  When I was texting Endrit, she said "text". At the end of the lesson I was sitting down and she gave me all of the toys that she had and insisted on sitting on my lap.  The greatest thing about it is that little Kate doesn't do that to anyone.  I am the first stranger that she has gone to ever.  I feel privileged to be the one that she likes.  I have a new little friend.

Great Day at Church

We are starting a new manual in Relief Society and Priesthood.  It is the Gospel Principles. We learned about God the Father today and it was amazing.  It is always nice to have a specific reminder of the principles of the Gospel.  If you were unable to go to church, or if you don't know about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, here is the LINK to today's lesson.  I will be posting the lesson each week that we learn about.

We also learned about the book of Abraham and the predestination possibilities of the noble and great ones in Sunday School.  I loved learning all of these things.  Today was a great day at church.

Spoiled

Endrit does a good job of spoiling me.  It isn't a bad thing.  I don't get everything that I want, but if it is in our budget, I can usually get it.  Today Endrit was nice enough to get me all of the things that I needed and wanted.  I am starting to get a little bit more girlie.  I like earrings.  I like dangle earrings.  I saw a pair that I really like and Endrit got them for me.

I think that they are absolutely beautiful.  Nice orange and purple.

I also was able to get a little woman's wallet, an umbrella, and a yoga mat; all in lime green.  I have the best husband.

Coolest Website!!!

I know that I say that I have found the coolest website and I post about it, but I think that I have found the official coolest website ever.  It has something for everyone!!  I am in love with this website.  It is wolframalpha.com/examples. Endrit found out about this site through someone from work.  It just has to be explored.  You can make barcodes.  It literally has something for everyone.  It has stuff that I can schedule a day in the computer lab for my students and have an online lab.  Please go and check it out.  It is worth the time.  Put in your birth date and birth city and you can find out the weather on the day that you are born.  It is awesome!

New Year 2010

I have hope that 2010 will be a good year.  I will be getting my bachelors degree in May.  I am beyond excited for that.  I will know if I will be in graduate school for the next 2 years hopefully next month.  I am 99.9% sure that I will be in the program.  I will get a job, pay off our student loan debt, and continue to grow our savings account (hopefully for a house).

The things that I would like to better about myself this year is my patience with life.  I think too far into the future and I need to look at what I have now and how well my life is turning out.  I couldn't have planned a better life for me. It isn't for everyone, but I really like the way my life is.  I need to be able to appreciate the life that I have in this moment.

I know that this year will be better than last year.  Last year was rough.  I am loving being in my classroom.  I can only imagine myself in my own class where the students have only seen me as the authority figure.  It makes me really happy.  I am to the point that I like being in the school teaching more than I would being at my house reading a book or watching a movie during that time.  It is a really rewarding job.

I got a much needed boost from a friend from high school that I helped to get the initial understanding of economics for her.  I am so glad that I was able to help.  I can only hope that I will have some impact on the students that will be in my classes.

Now I need to buckle down and grade the 70 tests from 2 classes I taught today to prepare for the 70 more I will need to grade tomorrow.  I love it.

First Day of Student Teaching

Today was the official start to my student teaching.  I taught 4 classes and it wasn't as very difficult to transition because I have been transitioning the whole time.  The students know me and expect me to be in the class.  Now they will know that I will taking over the class on a more permanent basis and I didn't get any uprising against that.  They seemed to welcome me as the teacher.  It will be interesting to say the least.  I will be even more excited when I am able to do my own lesson plans.  I don't like doing other people's lessons that I can't plan ahead of time.  It will be interesting for the next 3 weeks.  After that, I give all of my lessons to the teacher and she will teach off of my lessons.

I am so ready to be a teacher.  I was truly born for this profession.