The End

There are so many "the ends" going on right now and I'm beginning to have trouble processing it. First and foremost, as many of you know, I am graduating Saturday along with my brother! I do enjoy being able to say that I am graduating the same as my 4 years older brother...but that's besides the point :0). It is actually really special to me that we get to share this day together! We'll get to that later. Firstly, Saturday marks the end of my college career as an undergraduate. I haven't decided yet if I want to get my masters, but if I do it will not be right away ( I know many are saying, "don't do it! start right away!" but, I've made up my mind about that part. I have worked very hard in my studies and I would like to get a few years of teaching under my belt. I achieved my goal I set for myself four years ago by graduating with a 4.0 Summa Cum Laude! Exciting! I feel very accomplished and thankful that God gave me the patience and endurance to reach that goal. God gave me a brain and helped me use it!

Back to my brother. This marks the end of living in the same city as Jeff, Sarah, Coling, and soon to be here Carley. I am so sad about this! I have only spend one year away from them and that was when I went to Texas Tech my freshman year and Jeff and I unknowingly decided to transfer to ETBU the same semester. It has been so much fun and such a blessing to have friends (family as well) like them here with us every step of the way! I am going to miss them so much! No longer will I just walk in their house like it's my own...we'll have to drive 2.5 hours then walk in. Hopefully, they will realize that God really ACTUALLY wants them to go back to the Metroplex :0)!

This also marks the end of our service with the youth group at Crossroads. We have been a part of the student ministry for so long now and we have seen our students grow in maturity, spiritual maturity, and had so much fun along the way with them. This Sunday will be our last Sunday at Crossroads. I will not longer play bass for the church or teach small groups in the youth group. This makes me so sad. I love those kids so much! I love Crossroads so much and I pray that God leads us to a church as thriving and encouraging as this one. Our official last day with the youth is two weeks from yesterday and I can't say I 'm looking forward to it. Too many goodbyes and sadness.

Another end is the end of our first apartment together. Tim and I will be parting with married housing 707 E on May 15. It has been a great little apartment for us as our first place and our neighbors have been wonderful! It will be sad to leave behind our first apartment...but it will also be exciting to move on...even though I get in moods that I feel like I'm not ready to move on. Let's just say I'm a sappy wreck lately going from extreme excitement to extreme sadness, good grief!

Tim and I are still on the job hunt. We will both be working at Camp Thurman as counselors for June and July and will be praying for doors to open up for us for our actual careers. I am praying that God will open doors before June and July so I don't have to worry about work and interviews clashing...so pray for us please! AND, if you have any tips for teaching jobs in the metroplex let me know!

Onward Ho to real life!

Ready to slow down!

Being a senior education major who graduates in 23 days has its pros and cons! Obviously, the biggest pro is that I am ALMOST done! Who knew the light at the end of the tunnel would actually fully emerge! I am definitely ready. I am not, however, ready to leave our friends here at ETBU. Life will be different without them!

A con of being a senior education major about to graduate is the frenzy that accompanies it. Tonight was our rest night on p90x...I was so excited! Yet, I am reminded that it was in fact not restful as we just got home at 9:05 pm. We firstly went to my Education banquet. There, I won the Delores Neally Spruell Award...they explained it as was I was nominated unanimously by the education faculty as the elementary teacher most likely to succeed. The reason there is a name on the certificate is because there is a $100 reward for my efforts! Our dean said some very nice and flattering things about my GPA, my teaching, and my attitude and I am so encouraged! After the banquet, we took Sarah a cake for her birthday! Then we headed to the Alpha Chi honors fraternity induction. We had our yearbook picture for the year and then we headed to a forum on spiritual warefare. It was very interesting...but only so much can be discussed in a 60 minute block.

So, here I sit updating my blog instead of getting to bed on time. This weekend is our macho man/girls rule weekend! It's a weekend aimed at purity and modesty for our students! We are so excited about this event! It is going to be a great weekend for our students and us, too! Also, Saturday morning I am going to have a dog for the morning and parade him around for someone to adopt him! SO EXCITED!

I have job fairs and applications out of my ears! Please pray that God would reveal his plan for us so we can know where to have a home!

Hiatus

I am so sorry for this unintentional hiatus! I have had so many things going on that I kept pushing updating aside! I am now sitting on the couch watching the Stars (who will miss the playoffs for the second year in a row, first time to miss twice in a row since 88-89 when they were in Minnesota) and I finally have some time to update.

Much has happened in the past month. First off, I am at my new location for student teaching. I am at Crockett Elementary in Marshall, TX and it has been quite an experience. Absolutely different than Spring Hill but I am learning a lot and my mentor teacher is so sweet! I have really been forced to learn intense organization and classroom management strategies but it will be great for my own class.

That brings me to my next topic...finding a job. I have applications out for Arlington, Mansfield, Kennedale, Spring Hill, HEB, and some other schools in the DFW area. I find myself getting discouraged at the issue of trying to find a job in the DFW area when I am stuck over here. But, I am reminded that it is early and people are just now signing contracts so it will be just fine! Also, God is good and always provides, he has his timing and it's perfect...I just need to chill.

I graduate 34 days from today! I am very glad...and I succeeded with my 4.0! Woohoo! I will be graduating Summa Cum Laude. Also, I was asked to read a scripture verse at our graduation because I have been an "academically outstanding student." I am honored I was chosen for this occasion. I was also notified last week that I will be recieving an award at our education banquet next week! I will update and share what I am recieving because as of now, I have no clue! But, I was very happy to recieve the email that told me of this good news! I feel like my hard work has paid off for sure!

Another big happening in the Darst household is that we have started the P90X workout program! We are on day 9 and I will just tell y'all that I am already seeing results! It's so encouraging because I have been at a plateau for a long time! (I actually gained a little weight this semester, haha). But, we have a different work out every day and one rest day (every Thursday). I am LOVING it and I can't wait to see how well it worked 81 days from now!

We went on a mission trip to Galveston, TX this past spring break and it was awesome! We were actually in a little community called Bayou Vista and we fixed up a church that had taken some big damage from Hurrican Ike. It was a great experience!

I will update more often...sometimes I just need one post after a long time to get me started!

Fun Stuff

I wanted to share a few things with my readers! In our classroom, we have been doing some fun things in social studies!

This is called the eight fold person, it was made out of 1 sheet of white paper and a circle from the head from another piece of paper. On the inside of the character's shirt, you can write facts or stories about the character! What's neat is that you can use these for historical figures, your students biographies, story characters, athletes, etc. It is so cute so I thought I would show my student's work. This is our People of the Alamo display!

Here is one of the Suzanna Dickensons upclose!

This is a folder game that I made for a review for our social studies test! They are incredibly simple to make since you design it yourself! I made the rules to be generic so the game can be played for any kind of review of any subject, you just have to make new questions each time!

The last thing that I wish I could post a picture or video but I can't seeing in that I don't have permission to use my students' faces is our news cast! We had a lesson guided by one of the lessons in our social studies book. We read the lesson the day before with a picture slideshow for engagement. Then, the next day, we reinacted the events from the lesson as if they were unfolding in real life! We reinacted the Mexican War including the boundary disputes, the skirmish at the Rio Grande, the Battle at Palo Alto, General Winfield Scott taking over Mexico City, and the Treaty of Hidalgo being singed. They all had one of those specific events and had to write a newscast as a group. They then acted out the news cast with interviews, news anchors, and field reporters. It was the cutest thing I have EVER seen! I wish so badly I could show everyone! I also want to post our class picture, but I'm pretty sure I can't do that either!

I miss my Spring Hill students very much! I am now embarking on a new journey in Marshall at Crockett Elementary in third grade. It was been interesting thus far. We will pray for a great second half!

Such a nerd!

In high school, I really began to appreciate history. I had great teachers and I finally paid attention to how interesting the stories and events from history were. From my classes, I have learned that stereotypically, many elementary teachers do not enjoy social studies and history (which can be seen when it is saved for the last of the day when there is no time left). BUT, I am not the norm. I LOVE social studies. If it wasn't for the ridiculously hard Texes test and the history department I'm not the fondest of here, I SO would have done a history specialization. Anyways, I will only be able to teach history up until 4th grade because of my specialization. This makes me sad because there aren't "history" teachers in the younger grades...I would LOVE to just do social studies! I am enjoying it even more than language arts! Anyways, my kids are having fun with me and getting excited with me and I LOVE it! Friday they are turning into news reporters and will be reporting events LIVE from the Mexican War! I cannot wait!

Last week I lied to my students. I am not normally a liar and I want my students to trust me, but they definitely will remember our lesson. I typed up an official letter from the SHISD saying that the students would be required to pay ten cents for sharpening their pencil, then cents for getting out of their seats, etc. I gave this letter to our math teacher across the hall and told her to come interrupt our "lesson" to give me this letter. She did some wonderful acting and came in telling me that I needed to read this. So, my teacher and I reacted to the terrible news in front of the students. I read the letter to my students and they were boiling angry! They were raising their hands, questioning, telling me it wasn't fair. So, we decided that we would write letters to tell the administration why it wasn't fair. I felt bad because two of my students were crying (but Mrs. Jordan pulled them aside). They wrote these incredibly angry letters and signed a petition. After they had written their letters, I told them it wasn't real. They were so relieved/laughing/mad that I had done it. BUT, I explained to them that this is how the Texans felt when Santa Anna was taxing things he was not able to tax. It was awesome! They all forgave me and told me they would always remember that lesson. It was so awesome!

My students are asking me everyday not to leave and it breaks my heart! I absolutely don't want to leave them, I love them! But, I must do it to graduate. I am so sad about that :-(. I am going to miss them SO much.

Breaking the Habit

I am already trying to break my coffee habit. I thoroughly enjoy the caffeine boost I get from the stuff, but it makes my stomach want to revolt...not badly...just enough to make me know that I don't feel completely right. Obviously my body is saying, "your selfish idea of waking up is not fun I will make you miserable." So, I am trying to just get enough sleep at night. Every morning, I would love to drink a nice iced diet dr. pepper, but it just messes with my breathing too much when I run. Speaking of running, I went yesterday but skipped out today. I am trying not to feel guilty because I know that I need rest...I felt awful today...but I still do feel guilty because I can't seem to get back into a consistent work out regimen...bah.

I had my first lesson that my university supervisor came to watch. She had so many good things to say (encouragement and critique)! She told me I was a natural and I was very flattered by that. She also was so excited and impressed that I use my new iPhone in class for a lot of different things. If I need to look up a picture online, I can do it and zoom in on it with the elmo. I was able to play the song that the Mexican army played as they marched in towards the Alamo for my class off of my iPhone, too! What a great tool! She thought that was genius! I felt clever :).

Everytime I make games for my class that is for two teams (the class divided in half), I give them ridiculous names that I hope will make them say, what?? or gross! We have played Jeopardy twice and a cloud game and the names have been given as followed: Llamas vs Wombats, Armpits vs Feet, and Aplacas vs Squid. At first, the students reacted like, "how could you do this to us??" But they quickly embraced the names and begin yelling for their oddly named teams! I had students saying "Armpits are smellier, so they're better!" and another student rebutted with, "but feet sweat more!" It was entertaining to me that they enjoy their names. I love being able to share some of my oddity with them. They really look forward to what their team names will be when we play. I love it!

Happy Birthday to my Granny! She had a birthday yesterday and she is one of the most wonderful ladies on the face of this planet!! She is beautiful, graceful, and so kind. I can only pray to be as wonderful as she as I mature! I love you Granny!

Week 4

I am almost devastated to type week 4 in my title. I cannot believe this will be the halfway point of my first half of student teaching! Gosh, I am so sad! I am loving every second of it. I never dread going to school everyday and when I'm gone, I miss my kids! I may be ridiculous, but I praise God everyday that this experience was dropped in my lap when I thought it was a huge mistake in the first place. Wow, God...you're such a silly guy!

Anyways, I teach in the afternoons. I teach spelling and social studies or science (right now is our three week social studies interval). Next week I will start teaching ALL day. Can I just say I love social studies? Today was the Alamo lesson...SO much fun. I get so excited and I think it gets the kids excited, too! I am almost positive that I have the assertive presence I have been lacking. My students are no longer testing my boundaries and I am thankful for that!

I dealt with my first throw-up student last week. She came up to Mrs. Jordan's desk to make corrections on her paper and she just started getting sick. I told the students to turn around and do their work and gave the girl the trashcan and she walked up to the nurse. It was really sad because I, being the Madame Barfs-a-lot of elementary school, know how it feels to puke in front of a class. She went home sick, obviously...but the situation was handled...and I didn't throw up myself, so SUCCESS!

I finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and I loved every page of it! Almost every student in my class who is able to read that level has begun the series and I am excited that I was able to help them get excited! I have started the Harry Potter series again....don't judge me, haha!

Anyways, life is so wonderful and I am loving every minute of this whole teaching business!