I've decided to become a professional actor.

I originally thought that I wanted to be a teacher, which is why I am spending my college career studying education. Well, turns out it's not what I thought it would be. I thought I had gotten myself into a career where I would be presenting information to other human beings, they would learn the information, we would play a game or two to practice, and then we would repeat the cycle with new information. Turns out, I was wrong. Apparently when you decide to teach a foreign language, you are really an actor, not a teacher.

Acting is what it has come down to. I act everyday. I act out grammar concepts, I act out vocabulary, I act out two person conversations (all by myself, might I add), I act out directions/instructions, I act out games, I act enthuistic when I'm tired; I ACT all day long.

Now, don't be fooled, my acting is not as glorious as Hollywood acting. For starters, my audience is a group of very critical, self-conscience, too cool for school...but yet really interested... teenagers. I act, not by choice, but for understanding. You see, I teach about 95% of my class in Spanish (I mean, it is Spanish class after all). The only times I speak in English are when the kids are in trouble (warnings one and two are in Spanish, but three deserves some serious English), when there's an emergency (so far we have not had one), or when I'm going over an important test or project that has picky details (I have to make sure the "spacey" kids are on the same page as the rest of us...I mean this both figuratively and literally).

Because my job has come down to acting in front of teenagers everyday I have found that my days are very inconsistent. Some days are GREAT; everyone understands, everyone behaves, everyone does their homework...and then some days are not so great; no one understands, I see blank stares on faces looking at me know matter how many different ways I try to act out "get your homework out" (even though they've heard the phrase 1,000 times), everyone talks while I'm talking, and no one does their homework and therefore does not understand the class work.

The organizational part of teaching is way easier than I thought it would be. The "up" and "down" days are what makes teaching harder than I thought. When my student's are having an "off" day it gets taken out on me. No matter what I'm doing (good or bad) they react the way they are feeling. Unfortunately, I take that as a personal reflection of the lesson I prepared for them. I love teaching, I really do. But, I wish there was some consistency. When I go into school in the morning I never know if the students are going to have a "good" or "bad" day.

It's also hard to only talk Spanish on those "bad" days because the kids don't want to think and they don't want to push themselves to interpret a foreign language. So no matter how hard I act, and no matter how enthusiastic I am, and no matter how many crazy things I do in front of them to get them excited about Spanish....they just sit there.

So, I like the challenge (well, usually) but I've decided that being a plain ole teacher (one that lectures, gives lots of worksheets, and has so little interaction with the students it doesn't even matter if their having a "good" or "bad" day) is, well ....EASY; but being an ACTOR, that acts because they love it, that acts because they want to convey a message, that acts regardless of the audience's response is, well....hard.

As for the weekend...
Sarah Riddle is coming up tomorrow to spend the night. We, and a bunch of Destino girls, are going to a Campus Crusade Girl's Sleepover tomorrow night. There's a talent show and we are all Salsa dancing. Then Saturday I have my long run (I'm going for 17/18 miles...yuck!) and then afterward I'm going to the fair with some friends. I going to EAT WHATEVER I WANT at the fair because I'm burning so many calories in my long run! Wahoo!

Fall is in the air!

This past weekend I went home for "fall-break" except I
didn't really get a fall-break because of student teaching. However, I went home for just the weekend.

While at home, I got to hang out with my friend Sarah. We went out for dessert and then went out salsa dancing. It was also fun to see friends form work. I went to visit my friend Maria and her three week old baby, Vanessa. Maria was one of my ESL students this summer. I also got to go to Wal-Mart (my favorite!), go to church with Caroline, play games at the Skinner home, go for a long run (it is soooo much more enjoyable running in Asheville than in Raleigh), and go out to eat with my parents. When I was leaving on Sunday afternoon my sweet Bug (aka: Audie Murphy the Cat) was in my car all ready to go....he got out reluctantly with a kitty-treat.






































Student teaching has been going wonderfully. I really really love it. My kids are great and with the right motivation can be really fun and enthusiastic about Spanish. They make me laugh; a lot. This week we danced (the students and me) to techno, played "Steal the Bacon", and had conjugating wars. Next week my students have a test, then we will be reviewing for the midterm, watching the movie Selena (they need a break every now and then), and then learning how to dance Cumbia (a Latin style of dance similar to Salsa). The singer Selena is known for her Cumbia music so I figured we should experience it first-hand. I'm really excited about the lesson.

This weekend I plan to go to the NC Fair (for the first time!), go to an RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) pot-luck/bonfire, attend Spanish Church, run 14 miles, and sleep "late" (8am is now late to me....how lame!).

I love the fall weather. I can feel and smell the holidays around the corner. I do miss Asheville during this time of year, but Thanksgiving break will be here before I know it.

Thanks for reading!

This is how I dress for work:

This morning I taught a whole class by myself. It was really fun! The planning that goes into the classes is draining, but overall I like it. I also way OVER PLANNED. This is better than under planning, but I was really sad when I didn't get to do half of my activities...and I put all that time into stuff that I didn't get to use.

This week at Panther Creek it has been Homecoming Week, so their are "Spirit" days to show school spirit. Wednesday was "Wacky Tacky" day...and I participated, hence the many colors from the red/pink family!...and I just wanted an excuse to wear my RED BOOTS!

Catching up...

I had every intention of writing several times on my blog this week, instead of just giving one large weekly update, but it just didn't happen. Sorry. So here's to "bulk blogging"...

I finished Methods this week! I had my final exam (a presented lesson plan) on Tuesday. I actually finished creating my lesson plan on Sunday and found myself to be bored out of my mind on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because I usually have so much to do. My finial went well and I got an A on it, but I have not yet received my grade for the class.

Monday afternoon I went for a walk around a lake and read a book for enjoyment because it was such a nice day. It was weird not having anything to do.

Tuesday I had Destino. I made Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (a childhood favorite) to take to Destino because I had so much free time! After Destino I went out for Sushi with Allison (roommate), May (resident from last year), and Jen (methods classmate) to celebrate Jen and my completion of Methods. Sushi Blues in Raleigh has half-off sushi on Tuesday nights AFTER 10pm. Allison, Jen, and I were all falling asleep by the end of our meal because we are all on teacher schedules!

Wednesday I still went to methods class to watch other students present their final projects. Then Wednesday evening our methods class had a pot-luck to celebrate our completion of our Methods class.

Today (Thursday) I had my first official day of Student Teaching. It went well. I'm currently "team-teaching" with my CT, so each of us do an activity or two during each class periord. I love my first periord (level II). They are quiet, stay on task, and still participate. My third periord (level III) are a challenge. They love to socialize and talk, and I get them right after their lunch when they seem to have lots of energy (they get to go off-campus for lunch). This is also my largest class (35 students...yuck!) which does not help. Then I have my sweet fourth period class (level III). They are clamer, usually on task, and attentive.

Tomorrow, I will be teaching a legend to my level III's and then doing story books with them. In level II we will be playing a fun game to practice our reflexive verbs. Also, my level II's are reviewing clothing vocabulary, so tomorrow I'm wearing a coat, scarf, jeans, boots, sweater, jacket, tie, gloves, blouse, t-shirt, bathing suit, scocks, belt, hat, and maybe a few more things, in layers. At the beginning of the class I'm going to dance to techno music and take off the clothes as they call out the names in Spanish. Sort-of a VERY APPROPIROATE version of a strip-tease, that embarrases me, wakes the students up, and helps them learn the vocabulary.

Tomorrow night I have a Barn Party with Campus Crusade for Chirst. Their will be hay-rides, corn on the cob, mechanical bull riding, line dancing, ect. Saturday morning I'm playing in the Mi Familia soccer tournament on the Destino team and then we are having a Quesadilla party on Saturday afternoon.

I think that's about all!

Week six, or so...

I'm sitting here watching the season premier of Grey's Anatomy with two of my roommates (Rainna and Amanda). I don't usually follow seasons of shows on television, for time's sake, but I guess if other people are watching it, I might just get suckered in!

This week's short re-cap:
-I went to the NC State vs. Gardner-Webb Football game. I tailgated with friends at the Campus Crusade for Christ tailgate last Saturday. We ate BBQ, hush-puppies, baked beans, and banana pudding.
- I got the Flu Shot
- I've been working on my schedule for next semester (I'm trying to take a graduate course)
- I've been looking into graduate schools (mostly Appalachian State in Boone) where I will study Spanish Education. I am deciding if I want to go full-time for a year and two summers, or try to complete graduate school while going to school part-time and teaching high school Spanish part-time (hopefully in the Asheville area).
- in Destino we had Pastor Grabriel Angles come and speak with us. He is a pastor in a local Hispanic church. We had 18 students in attendance and about half boys, half girls! (last year we mostly always had just girls)
- Tonight I ate dinner with some friends and then went with them to a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting.
-Friday and Saturday of this week I am required (for my methods class) to go to the FLANC Conference (Foreign Language Association of North Carolina). The conference has lots of GREAT foreign language teachers that offer seminars on everything from "Songs in Spanish for learning grammar concepts" to "games in the foreign language classroom" to "Engaging students", etc. The teachers teaching the seminars are fenomenoal and I'm excited to network with other Educational professionals and meet other teachers.

Yay for sunshine today!!!!

FLES (pronounced "F-less")

FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools) is something I have recently become a huge fan of. I've always liked younger children, but never thought I would want to teach elementary school....however, these past few days I've felt differently on the subject. I've been teaching/helping in Senora Turco's class at Green Hope Elementary school for the past three days. Because I am K-12 certified I have to spend time teaching in each of the grade levels. My days have been filled with songs, games, excitement, ethnusicatic kids, hugs, smiles, more singing, kids wanting to hold my hand and sit in my lap, kids wanting to be in school, and of course, more songs. I have loved it. Each day Mrs. Turco sees a Kindergarden, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class. The school has five classes of each grade level, so each class gets Spanish once a week for 40 minutes. Essentially Mrs. Turco repeats her days five times each week (what SIMPLE lesson planning!!!). Also practically nothing is written in a FLES classroom...it's all verbal (half the students can't even read in English yet anyway). Today we played musical numbers with the kindergartners to learn numbers in Spanish and used PICTURE dictionaries to create really cool family trees with the 4th graders. I play all day!...and I love it.

The great thing about teaching a foreign language in general is you can be creative and play even in the high school level...because they too are learning basic speaking skills; but sometimes it's just harder to get those high schoolers to be excited about singing little songs and doing the hokie-pokie in Spanish. One great thing about high school are the relationships you can form with the kids...slightly different then the relationships you can form with the younger kids.

I'm not saying I've made a life altering decision to switch to elementary school, I'm just saying it's been refreshing and fun to be part of these past few days and I'm glad my licensure is K-12 so that I always have the option of teaching any level I choose. For that I am thankful.

desk, race,birthday, and PICTURES

These are pictures of the really awesome desk my dad built for me. It's perfect in my room!





Let's see....

I went home again this weekend to run in the Asheville Citizen-Times Half-Marathon. It was AWESOME. I felt great and enjoyed every minute of miles 1-12. Mile 13 was not so enjoyable, but I loved the race and I'm so glad I did it. I would definitely like to do more in the future and as of Monday I have started on a full marathon training plan that has me ready to run a marathon in December. I'm not sure if I will be able to stick to it with student teaching. I would have the time, but I won't be able to run before school (4am=insanely too early) and soon it will start getting dark around 5:30pm...so we shall see. I rested Sunday, ran 5 miles yesterday, and today I ran 3 miles and did some sprint work. My legs did feel pretty tired today. This evening before Destino, I went and swam for 45 minutes. If felt good to give my arms a little work out.



















I was having problems with blisters on my feet. I attributed it to increasing my weekly running (which is adding to the problem) but I got new shoes on Saturday and I LOVE them. They don't rub where my old shoes rubbed. The lady at the Jus' Running store where I buy my shoes thinks I was running in a shoe that was a size too small. (So, I'm guessing my race time would be like 15 minutes less with my new shoes...haha...just kidding!) I also bought some running socks (basically non-cotton) and that has helped reduce friction which causes blisters.

(This paragraph was more for my mom and grandmothers who love me and were concerend about my feet.)

While home I also got to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had a nice celebration for Rico (who also ran in the race with me) and I made him a homemade white chocolate cake with white chocolate iceing.