One more thing...

...I almost forgot! The other exciting thing that happened this last week was that I got my scores for the WEST-E test back. I passed w/ flying colors! : )

One down, one more to go

...holiday, that is. (Side note: it's been bugging me that everyone keeps calling this time "the holidays", when really it's Christmas. Though Hanukkah does occur in December as well, I've been informed in my multi-cultural class, that in general Jews think it's really all about Christmas too. So the only other holiday I know of around this time is New Years. That's the assumption I'm opperating under for that last comment. Now that I've taken a complete and utter tangent even before I really began this post...)

My time in Colorado was great. It was cool to see family I haven't seen in many years, as well as some I've seen in the last 6 months. I think it was just neat that many of us on that side of the family actually get along and enjoy being together. While there were the obligitory "I want to kill >insert family member's name here< times," and the "I'm so bored I just want to go home" times, one the whole it was a great trip. And we got snow and cold temps, so I was happy. : )

For those who care, probably the two most exciting gifts from family this year were the Star Wars DVDs (original trillogy) and my lava lamp (it demonstrates density and buoyancy, so I have to have it for my future classroom, you know). But I enjoyed getting gifts for friends and family, and got many cool gifts in return.

This week consists of not much so far, but I'm sure it'll fill up quickly. Tomorrow I'm going costume shopping w/ Lisa Fast for the JH skit box at Value Village. Should be fun. Then Wednesday night I'm going to a post-Christmas party w/ some friends from high school; looking forward to that. Don't have any set plans for New Years yet, so if you've got some rockin' party planned, let me know. : P Then I 'get' to start school on January 3rd, so I really only have a week left of vacation. But I plan to make the most of it.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and hopefully I'll bump into you soon.

>insert witty title here<

This will probably be my last post before I head off to Colorado tomorrow afternoon. I may be bringing my laptop w/ me, but am not counting on being able to do any web stuff from there. We shall see.

Had a wonderful night last night. I was over at Megan's house for some games w/ her, Jeff, Ingrid, and James. Good times were had, along w/ a very long game of Loaded Questions. If any of you are wondering, yes, you should probably roll the dice each turn, not just at the begining. That's my tip. : )

Let's see, what else should I update you on? Oh yes, I found out yesterday that my good friend Dan is now engaged to the wonderful Jane. So a big congrats to the two of them.

Today will be filled with house cleaning as we prepare to leave for a week. I really should have started already, but am procrastinating as usual. I suppose I should do some laundry as well, since I'll have to pack tomorrow and all.

So far I'm 2 Christmases down, and 2 more to go; I'm halfway there! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and hopefully I'll see ya' when I return!

DONE!

Yes, it is true, as of about 12:15 Tuesday afternoon I officially finished my first quarter of graduate school. There were times when I wasn't sure I'd make it, but God has once again proved faithful and pulled me thru.

So many things have happened this last week, there's no way to put it all here. I've had many situations and people to pray for, as well as lots of extra time spent at church preparing for our first Sunday in the new building, which seemed to go quite well. (for those of you who are interested, I have now been in both the ceiling and floor of the gym of our old building; both experiences I'm glad to have behind me)

Amy came home from college today and Cari should be home sometime Thursday night. As of this writing I don't have anything Friday, am spending Saturday w/ my dad, and Sunday is a good ol' fashioned game night w/ some good friends. : ) Monday is packing and Tuesday we leave for Colorado. Be there until early Monday morning, and then I have no idea what's comming. So in case I don't post for a while, that's what I'm up to in general. If you've been out of town and are now (or soon) back in town, give me a buzz, I'd love to get together!

Professor Meeting & New Building

So I know some of you are wanting an update on my meeting w/ my prof today (see previous post below). Overall it went well. It ended up lasting for an hour, which was longer than I originally anticipated, but it wasn't horrible. She was very reasonable and tried to be understanding.

I say tried because she thought she understood me and where I'm comming from more than I think she really understood it. There were moments when I thought I was actually getting thru to her and we had reached an understanding about what she meant about a certian pedagogy (like that educational jargon?), but then another comment would come and I'd be reminded that she only thinks she understands.

But she was very willing to take me step-by-step thru somethings I didn't get to help me understand some of the things she's teaching better, which was one of my frustrations. I do feel like I have a better understanding of several things in the course, especially the inquiry project that has been the bane of my existence all quarter long.

My one beef w/ the whole meeting was that she seemed almost too happy at times. She was always trying to say something good and how what my complaints were were actually good things and modeld the type of thinking she was hoping I'd have and such. While I don't think she was outright lying to me, it did feel kinda' fake; like she was trying to be positive and not really say what she thought. I dunno. I guess it was frustrating that she never came out and said that she disagreed with anything I said, and yet that was/is the feeling I get sometimes. I guess its the vagueness of it all that bothers me. If you think something, just say it. Too much sugar-coating makes me sick.

The other thing I've been up to this week is being trained on the new A/V equipment at our new church building in Eastgate. It's been interesting, but overwhelming as well. All this new stuff to learn and understand, and when the guy is explaining it, I get only about half of it, and have to fill in the rest. I also will be moving the old sound equipment from our old building to the new one and setting up the youth systems this week, probably on Friday mostly. The couple of people I thought I had helping me seem to keep getting pulled into other tasks, so I'm just going to have to do it myself if it's going to be done by Sunday. We'll see how things go then!

Ok, enough of that, I should be off to do something productive...like eat and veg : )

No, I've not given up

Just so you all know I've not given up on being a teacher, I thought I should explain the last post briefly. Last night I got very frustrated for a number of reasons. All of my frustrations about my teacher ed program that have been building up all quarter finally hit and I lost it. Not a good thing.

The biggest part is that I cannot express my feelings w/o feeling like I'm wrong. So I've just been stuffing them inside all quarter (which I already have a tendency towards, so not a good thing).

But fear not, things will be fine. I only have 1 regular week of the quarter left, so the end is in sight. I also e-mailed my professor and she responded well. We are going to talk about it next week. (for those of you who want to know more details about my frustrations, it's contained in the e-mail).

That's it, I've had it

When did being a teacher cease being a teacher?

This is not what I signed up for

"If I try and bend that far, I'll break"

I'm tired of not being allowed to have an opinion