In Amazed Shock

This morning I did what I have done every morning, noon and night for the past week; I checked my grades.

I have been dreading the grade for my Urban Education class.  I have been hoping to squeak by with a barely passing grade.  It was a horrid class that I learned a great deal in.  I re-did my midterm exam 3 times because I couldn't pass it.  Well, the grade was posted today.  

I got an A.

Not an A-

Not the B- I was expecting.

An A.

I am in shock.  I am extremely happy.  I get to fully keep my scholarships.  I am not kicked out of my program.  Endrit informed me that I do this at the end of every semester, but still, this grade shocked him a little bit too as to how good it is.  I will take it!  I just wanted to share.

The Waiting Game

Nothing can ruin a perfect holiday season but professors taking forever to post grades.  Out of my 4 classes that I took this semester only 1 professor has posted grades.  I already knew that I was going to get an A.  It was for my student teaching and of course I learned a great deal and did well in that class.  It is the other classes that I am unsure in that I need to know the grades.  Ugh.  Wait, wait and wait.  I guess that it is the season to wait for grades.  I go in and check them about every 3 hours.  It is almost pathetic.  I am sure I passed all of them but I want to know the grades that go along with them.

What a Day

I am writing this before my final so that I am able to calm down a little bit before I get into the computer lab and take the exam.

Today I got an email from my site teacher saying that she would appreciate if I were able to be at school to help the substitute teacher with the project that the students were working on.  It is good to have some cohesiveness so I was more than willing to do that.  The best part about it, the substitute let me be the head teacher.  He was more of a TA that helped me out with individual questions.  I made copies, I emailed students, I talked about the term project, I explained things clearly today.  It was really awesome.  I like days like today where I feel that I succeeded as a teacher.  I was able to be head teacher and the students listened to me.  It is a great thing.  The principle came in and I was busy teaching and he went over and talked to the substitute and shook my hand as well.  He is a really nice guy once you get to know him.

I did some more proactive steps to ensure that people in high positions know that I am serious about becoming a teacher.  I went in during last period and talked to the principle to see if he would be willing to observe my classes and give me some constructive criticism.  He was happy that I would come in and ask him to do that for me.  He gave me a form that he does for teachers and ensured that I would be on the rounds for him and the vice principle to see me teach.

I also talked to the secretary and she is giving me a key to the classroom that I will be teaching in.  I will have my own key!  I am feeling like I am part of the school.  I feel like faculty.  I have a district email address.   I have access to the computers as an administrator.  It is beyond awesome how I have been able to mesh into this school.  I even talked to the math teacher on my team to see if she would be willing to help me through teaching the remedial math that I will need while teaching physical science.  She was way more than willing to help me with that.

It has been a great day.  I have accomplished a lot. I feel that I am making real strides to becoming a full on teacher.  I have started my motion lesson planning.  It is really fun to think of activities that I can do with the students.

It is going to be an interesting winter break.  My site teacher isn't very specific in all of the things that she wants to do and the timeline of those things.  I am really excited to make my own lesson plans.  I have some ideas that might work, as well as they might blow up in my face.  But, that is how teachers learn.  I am truly grateful that I have a site teacher that is letting me have complete control with all of the lessons.  I can be as creative as I would like to be.  It is beyond awesome!

So, I am excited.  I need to do one last review before my final in Music.  My last general EVER!!  I am also very excited about that prospect as well. No more generals!

Me=Nerd and I love it!

Here is a LINK to a website that I have been having so much fun on!  It has awesome simple science experiments on it.  My favorite is the LAVA LAMP. I am going to be doing this for the nieces and nephews this Sunday for the Smith Christmas get together.  I hope that I can get enough of these simple experiments together so that I will be able to do these once a week for my classes.  I think that it would spark a little more interest in science.  Crazy science teacher.  I love it!

Passed!!

I was writing my resume today before meeting with the career councilor at the U and I realized that I didn't get my scores from my Praxis PLT and my Content Praxis.  These are the 2 tests that I needed to pass to become a fully certified teacher starting in May.  They were posted when I checked them.  It took forever for me to find the score needed to pass for the PLT, but once I did, I did the biggest happy dance ever!!

For the PLT I had to get a score of 160 or better. I got a 166.  I had no idea how I did on this test so I was happy that I passed by more than 1 point.

For the Content Praxis I had to get a score of 153 or better.  I got a 184!  I knew that I was going to pass it.  I am really glad that it was by such a big margin.  They know that I will definitely know my content!

I was just really happy about this. 

Back From Vegas

This trip was a much needed break.  I am rested and relaxed.  It was really nice that Endrit and I were able to just get away.  We weren't allowed to take our camera into the concert.  We already knew that so there are no pictures of the concert, but we have a few Vegas pictures.  The concert was beyond awesome.  It was so worth the drive and the money to go there.  Muse is absolutely amazing live.  Paper Tongues and Cage the Elephant were pretty good too.   Muse played for 1 hour 10 minutes.  They played my favorite song.  It was beyond awesome.  Endrit had a great time too.  He doesn't know the words to most of the songs.  But, he was amazed by how they sound live.  Better than on the albums, we both agree. 

On Sunday we were able to see my friend Nichole and walk around the Bellagio. It was awesome to see Nichole again.

Here are some pictures from the trip :)
Here is a LINK to the album I made.

Coincidence

It is just a coincidence that my good friend from Arizona is having her bachelorette party in Vegas this weekend.  I haven't seen her in 7-8 years.  It will be so nice to see her and hang out for a while.  I am sure she knows Vegas better than me. 
I am getting really excited to go to Vegas.  It is a much needed break from reality.  Not much has happened the last couple of days.  It has just been cleaning and relaxing.  I have to go to school tomorrow, but that is life I guess.  I am sure that this weekend will turn out more than great.