Smile.

I made a kid smile the other day. It was a big deal. He hides in the corner and tries to blend in. And it was at a joke of failing out of high school of all things! 

When I got to the temple yesterday, it was an hour and a half long wait and I didn't have time do that. But I walked out of the temple in a much better mood. Turns out it was bring peace to your life if you spend just a few minutes there. I sat out front for a few minutes but it was super windy so I took a power nap in the car. I felt weird, but it was so great.

I made a difference in an IEP meeting today! I see now that listening to the parent and validating what they’re saying is SO important. I just sat there for a lot of it because I’m “just a student teacher” but I saw the mom looking for help- I saw that look in her eyes- and I just couldn't take it anymore. So I spoke up. And I know I helped the mom feel better.

Because of this experience, I’m think I'll look into taking a conflict resolution class as some point. Maybe I can be a mediator for a school/district. A good friend once told me he really values that I am able to look at both sides of a stressful situation and give level-headed advice. He wasn't even surprised when I told him about it. My mom said, "You always were an empathetic type person." I think that is worded weirdly, but, hey, I'll take it!

My mentor teacher taught today because he had to be evaluated to renew his teaching license. He implemented using a task analysis. The importance of steps was drilled into my head at BYU so I brought it into student teaching and suggested it. A girl the other day said, "That really helps me," as I was pulling up the steps. YESSSSS. *Cue happy dance*

Anyway, I didn't have to teach at all today! Well, that's not entirely true. I LED a center in one of our co-taught classes. Granted, it was the easiest thing and the kids basically already knew had to do it, but the gen ed teacher finally trusted me enough to do that! 

I think the kids in our resource class today were a bit sad I’m not teaching, which is AWESOME. But I also may be imagining that. But a kid did say “Where are your Starbursts??” MT: "My Starburst are Cool to Care cards." Student: "Awwww." A little later, Girl asked if she could have a Starburst for catching his mistake and MT said, “Yes…......... or a Cool to Care card. Which would you rather?” She chose a Cool to Care and he was pretty pumped about that!

Girl: Let me help him get started. Maybe you should try a different browser.

Girl figures out math problem.
Boy: You are so smart. Your intelligence is amazing. You have really nice eyebrows, by the way.
Dude: Yeah............... Best eyebrows ever.

FUNNIEST THING: Boy just tripped over Kid's laptop cord and Kid said “Wow” in a super mellow voice and I LOST it because I’ve been saying “wowwww” in a sarcastic tone recently and a friend pointed it out to me. So now I catch myself doing it. Boy thought I was laughing at him and I just laughed harder. I had to hide my face.

Unprepared. And Plans.

Today was the first day I have ever been unprepared to teach. I knew the concept but forgot to find good example problems. My bad. I got distracted by looking at the 50 highest-paid districts for first-year teachers. A worthy alternative in my opinion.

Lesson learned: The kids can totally tell when you are having an off day. 

New plans:

• Teach in Utah. Close to Provo. Maybe in secondary, maybe not. Still debating.
• Or maybe do Teach for America?
• Live in (or near) Provo and have a private room.
• Buy a car.
• Buy a desktop computer. With a BIG, FAT screen.

A new PR.

So Jack and Ronda, the couple who own the house I live in, are visiting until Sunday for some dentist, doctor, and hair appointments. They are a very nice couple and are, not surprisingly, very fond of their house. Jayna and I were a bit nervous to have them come because.... it's their house. And we're living in it. And I've never met them. And they didn't know my name. Anywaysssss, they seem to be happy with how we have kept the house clean (thank goodness!) and haven't damaged anything.

This morning, I had my first student teaching panic attack that wasn't related to snow: I woke up 50 minutes late! After my roommate's alarms stopped going off, and I fell back into a nice slumber. I was in the middle of a very real-feeling dream. Interesting dream. We drove away from a fancy wedding reception, drove over railroad tracks, and ended up in a cabin by Lake Allatoona in Georgia. A few of us started going down the big hill to the lake when we realized we would have to hike back up in our nice clothes and heels. Then we started playing piano? But it was more like Tap Tap Revolution in a book. Needless to say, it was weird.

When I woke up, I panicked. It was 6:56 and I needed to leave before 7:15.

So I rushed; I brushed my teeth, turned on my flat iron, did my makeup in 90 seconds, straightened half my hair, jumped a foot in the air when Ronda popped up out of nowhere, applied deodorant, got dressed, straightened the other half, grabbed my "lunch," and was out the door at 7:13. Boom! Then I got to school 3 minutes before contract time started, and sat in my car for a couple minutes. I needed a little time to calm down.

Morals of the story: Don't rely on your roommate's alarms. Set a later alarm justttt in case. Showering at night is a really good thing even if you get crazy bed head. Make your lunch the night before. Always have a shirt you can wear a sports bra with and still look professional.

Good Ol' George

There is a certain student that has been making student teaching way more fun. I do not understand where he comes up with some of these things or how or why he says them out loud at school, but I am grateful for him. And I pray for him based off of some of the things he says. For this post, we'll call him George.

George: Can I fall asleep at the end of class?

George: I never knew your car would get towed if you parked in a handicapped spot....... That's what I did.

MT: It looks like you're sweet talking Student.
Boy: It's called talking.
Dude across the room: Talking. Ha! I see your googly eyes!

George: Is gambling illegal?
MT: Yes.
George: Dang it.
MT: Well, it depends how old you are and where.
George: I'm addicted to gambling.

MT: I have to get Boy caught up too.
George: He got suspended.
Student: Why?
George: I ran over him.

LOL

These three things made me LOL!

Boy keeps asking us if he'll get arrested if he gets caught in a casino. Then he added, "Down the road, at KFC, they close at 11 and play poker till 2 in the morning," matter-of-factly.

The boys are all huddled around one boy's phone.
Teacher: You guys can't look at naked pictures at school!

A couple minutes later....
Teacher: I hear you guys have a picture of Girl in a bikini.
*Girl's eyes get wide and mouth hangs open. Not gonna lie, she looked guilty.*
All other girls in the class: Ohhhhhhh. What?! Shoot, Girl! I didn't know you were like that! Why you gotta do that? Whatchu thinkin??

Still the Little Things

You know, I have seen several times in my life that I am happier when I look for the little things to be grateful for. Soooo he's round two of things that have made me chuckle!

Boy stays in our room during intervention to play a dinosaur game. The way to get to this came is to disconnect to the internet and try to load a website in Google Chrome. Tricky people. Anyway, he goes "Ouch!" everytime he is killed. Then he starts talking about his brother and how he just kinda has to deal with him especially since they are going to be together forever. That's when this happened: "You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."

I bribed one of my classes with Starburst candies. It worked like a charm! Everyone wanted to answer.

Girl: What's your name?
Me: Ms. Prestwich.
Girl: Do you have a first name?
Me: Yes.
Girl: What is it?
Me *mischievously*: Ms. Prestwich.
Girl: That's kind hard.
Me: You can call me Ms. P-wich if you want.
Girl: P-witch?
Me: It's just kind of a nick name I've gotten used to.
Girl: Why? You're not mean.....

Girl came in to class and said, "I saw you yesterday and meant to tell you you looked really good!"

I went to borrow an eraser for the white board from another random bald teacher. Since I am a Southern Belle, I asked very nicely with a warm smile and kind eyes. In essence he said, "I don't care," and rolled his eyes. I held in my Southern sass, smiled, probably curtsied, thanked him, grabbed the eraser, and got the heck out of there. After class was over, I took the eraser back, announced so as if I were telling an old friend I finally brought their knitting needles back, put the eraser back, and walked out. I think he thought I was a student. JOKE'S ON YOU PAL. I don't know why I thought that was funny....

Girl walks into class and immediately starts telling me about Friend's boyfriend and how he isn't nice when Friend isn't around, doesn't respect Friend, and is starting to like the cheerleaders. I had noooo idea what to tell her; that's a hard situation for a friend to be in. So Girl went on for while and I just nodded my head and verbally agreed at the correct times. I'm getting prettyyyy good at doing that. MT's stories can get pretty long.

A few days ago, the whole school watched a suicide prevention video. It gave a few different situations of teenagers who were having suicidal thoughts. One of the situations was about a girl who was depressed because her boyfriend broke up with her. As I was walking a packet up to the office right after I ran into one of the other Special Education teachers. She told me that during the example about the girl, a girl burst into tears and said she needed to talk to someone about her boyfriend. Why is this funny you might ask? This girl has Down Syndrome. Can you imagine that? How cute, but sad, that is!

It's a Student Teaching Miracle!

My internet randomly started working at school today. After having 3 techy people try to get it to connect. Turns out Ronald (my computer) just needed a few days to figure out whether he wanted to persue a relationship with the strong and mysterious internet.

Cue "There Can be Miracles" from The Prince of Egypt. And hearts. Lots of hearts.