Farewell Dinner at Wasatch

This is way overdue, but I do want to write about it.  Last month on February 12th, there was a small farewell for me at Wasatch Jr. High.  I quit teaching at semester change and they wanted to do the farewell where almost all of the teachers would be present.  Usually Friday meetings do the trick, but there weren't any that were happening when I was leaving.  I was fine coming in at a later date and they decided to combine the dinner that they have before parent/teacher conferences with my farewell.

Scott & Kylie came with me and it was just really nice.  Jodelle, my co-teacher, put everything together and I was touched with what she did.  She took an old apron I would wear all the time (from the pork lady who used to come and teach the kids about pork) and had everyone sign it.  Then she bought me a new apron to replace the old one.  Jodelle also bought Kylie a cute grocery cart with play food in it.  Jodelle said some nice things about me and then I said a few things as well.  I did quit pretty quickly and you always wonder how people really think of you.  It was nice to know that I was appreciated and that everyone understood I was leaving teaching for a good reason.

Old, signed apron

New apron

Jodelle, Kylie & I

Kylie checking out her present.

On my actual last day of teaching, it was the last day of the semester so there wasn't much planned anyway.  I had them fill out surveys and watching a video.  Scott, Brita and her kids came to see me at the start of my 3rd period.  They brought flowers and cake!  I fed cake to the rest of my classes and the teachers during lunch.  I also brought Kylie to school with me since Scott worked the night before.  It was a bittersweet last day of school.

Yes, Scott realized later that he made a spelling mistake. :)

Part of my teen living class.

Thank You, Wasatch Jr. High

This is also a little overdue, but I wanted to write down my experience and 5 things I learned during my 4 1/2 years of teaching.  My major, Family & Consumer Science, is an education major.  Up at BYU-Idaho, people called it the MRS. degree meaning that it was the major girls took in preparation to getting married and becoming a wife and mother.  I didn't necessarily go into that major for that reason, but I knew that what I would learn would be helpful.  I took it because I was interested in those subjects, such as cooking, sewing, money management, child care, interior design, etc.  Since it's an education major, you do have to student teach to graduate, but most people I graduated with didn't become teachers.  Some students were already married so they became moms pretty quickly and others went on to study something else.

Bulletin I made advertising our major.

My student teaching experience was actually pretty horrible.  I decided to go to Vegas as I thought it would be a fun experience, although my experience was just the opposite.  The environment in Vegas was difficult to handle, especially being just out of college.  I had an awful cooperating teacher, who did nothing to teach me anything about teaching.  She would leave me on my own quite often without any help on how to prepare lessons and then get upset at me for how poor my lessons went.  I would cry almost everyday after teaching because it was so draining.  I passed, but I went back home to Missouri thinking that maybe teaching just wasn't for me.  I was about ready to put in papers to just substitute teach when I got a call from a friend, Teresa, from college.  She had student taught at a school in Utah and the school was looking for a part-time teacher.  My friend had gotten a job somewhere else and told the school about me.  I did an interview over the phone with them and left for Utah a few days later to teach part-time at Wasatch Jr. High.

I have to say that I really wasn't prepared to teach that quickly after graduating.  I just finished a student teaching experience that really wasn't that beneficial.  Jodelle was great though at teaching me and letting me use whatever she had to prepare lesson plans; something my cooperating teacher didn't do.  I started halfway through the year and it was a rough start.  My first two years were actually pretty rough.  Teaching is something that doesn't come naturally to me.  I really have to work hard at it.  My principal was nice, but really didn't do much to help me grow as a teacher.

Of course you can make a giant cinnamon roll instead of following my rules and making smaller ones!

I would love for you to make me a cake instead of being in class because it's for me and my boyfriend! How nice!

It wasn't until we got a new principal that I really changed my teaching methods.  This principal was definitely more strict at how things were done.  Other teachers were struggling as the old principal was more relaxed, but I actually enjoyed finally having some structure.  Because she was more strict, she didn't approve of my teaching methods and put me on probation.  It was definitely an emotional time and I had to really work hard for a month to prove I could do it. 

Check out this shoebox room display!

What an awesome critical thinking poster Mrs. Fletcher. Your kids are great!

I had so much support from Jodelle, the other teachers and Scott which brings me to my first lesson learned.

     1. Teachers really do support and stick together.  I was surprised at how much support I got during my "probation".  There were certain teachers that I knew better than others and even the ones I didn't know as well showed me their support.  There were many other times that I felt love from fellow teachers.  I am truly grateful for them and they are the ones I will miss the most.

     2. In the beginning, I was a little soft and tried to be the student's friend more than teacher.  I learned that it's okay to be "tough" and "mean".  Just like a parent, being a friend is not enough and a student will learn better when they are disciplined and have consequences for their actions.  I noticed my classroom management greatly improved when I enforce discipline into my classroom.

     3. Just like anyone else, students like it when you are yourself.  You can only keep up a teacher persona for so long.  You need to incorporate some of you into teaching.  Even if you do or say "embarrassing" things to the students, they do appreciate you being real.

     4. Preparation is key!  I noticed that once I started putting more effort into being prepared that my lessons would go more smoothly and efficiently.  It was not only helpful to me, but to Jodelle whenever we shared lessons.

     5.  You have to enjoy it for it to make any sort of difference in your life.  Once I got down the type of teacher I wanted to be, teaching became enjoyable and made it easier for me to connect with the students. 

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to teach and have a career for 4 1/2 years.  I know some people graduate and either don't know what to do with their major, can't get a job or become a mom right away and don't have the opportunity to get a job with their major.  I am glad I had the opportunity to teach before having children.  I received my tenure which makes it easier for me to return to teaching whenever I would like.  I like having a job that I know I can do as a back-up in case of emergency.  I know that being a mom to Kylie is the job I want to have right now, but it is nice to know that I could teach later on if I wanted to.

There is no doubt that I learned way more than 5 things while teaching, but these are some main ones that come to mind.  Honestly, I wouldn't have lasted 4 1/2 years without Jodelle (and the rest of the staff) and Scott believing in me.  So many times I put myself down, telling myself I was not an adequate teacher.  Sometimes it was Scott or Jodelle bringing me back up, but receiving a thank you note from a student is really what made me realize that I was doing something right.

There were definitely a lot of ups and downs during those 4 1/2 years, but I wouldn't trade the experiences I had for anything.  I loved being able to share my life with students and co-workers.  They supported me dating Scott, witnessed me getting engaged, shared joy in my marriage, were ecstatic when I became pregnant, and loved Kylie as if she was their own.  Thank you Wasatch Jr. High for an unforgettable 4 1/2 years.

Kylie's First Hockey Game

On Saturday night, we wanted to get out of the house and go do something.  There was a hockey game and we headed out to go see our first one of the season.  The Grizzlies were playing Alaska and they won 4-3!  They were ahead 2-0 by the end of the 1st period, but then started not defending very well and let the Alaskan team score.  During one of the breaks, the jumbo tron pulled up the kiss cam and Scott and I were the first ones to be shown!  I wasn't paying attention at first, so I had to look up and we kissed for the camera.  Scott was holding Kylie on his lap and I'm sure we were chosen because we had a cute baby with us.  Every time we've been to a hockey game with Brita and her girls, we've always been on the jumbo tron.  People can't resist cute babies!  I was pretty excited as I've never been on the kiss cam before! 

We had to re-create the kiss afterwards.

Kylie was great the whole time.  She was up way past her bedtime, but she was not fussy at all.  She enjoyed taking in all that was going on, so she wanted to be awake to see it all.  After the game, you can put your hand out to try to high-five the players as they go to the locker room.  Scott ran down there with Kylie, but she was still too high up for any players to notice her.  I kept imagining Scott dropping her and telling him to hang onto her tight.  Haha, I'm such a mom!  It's nice that hockey games are cheap enough where you don't feel like you're breaking the bank when you go.  I bet we'll go to a few baseball games this summer as they are cheap also.

February Goals

There were some things that I did better on this month and some things that I did not complete.  I think that's how it's always going to be.  I'm not sure I'll ever get every goal accomplished and that's okay because life gets in the way.  It's better to be flexible than to cause stress trying to get things done.  I feel good about what has been accomplished so far.  

Monthly goals--

     Craft project: I did two again this month. One was the valentine's for the grandparents and the other was Scott's valentine's present.

     Kylie's baby book: it is completed up to 5 months! I most likely won't update this every month, so this will change to activities to do with Kylie for the month. I get an e-mail from baby center that gives ideas of activities to do.

     House project:  I had a goal to complete a family gallery wall again, but I didn't do it.  I am still trying to figure out how exactly I want it to look. It's hard as it's the first thing people will see when they walk in our house and I want it to look nice. There's so many ideas, I'm just not sure what I want.

     Scott soccer game:  I didn't see him play this week as he had a lot of late night games and the one that wasn't, was a night Kylie was a little fussy.

     Date night: We went out on valentine's day

We were able to go out and do an activity as a family once a week. We took a trip down to Provo, checked out the sport's store Scheel's and went to the zoo on free admission day!  I've been pretty good at exercising too!  Lately, I've been doing 3 days a week, but I need to start doing more.  I've mostly been doing Tae-Bo by looking up videos on YouTube and watching it on the tv. I don't think Tae-Bo is as popular as it used to be, but I still enjoy it!  Just Dance can be fun, but I don't think it gives me a great workout.  Some weeks I do great at sticking to my meal plan and others, not so much.  The week of the 17th, I didn't do well at all! I think we maybe ate out 3 times. Oops. 

I also had a goal to try to have a dinner with friends as often as we could. We hosted a dinner at our house on the 22nd with an Italian theme.  I made spaghetti and meatballs for the main dish. I found this recipe off Picky Palate. I couldn't find the mozzarella balls, so I had to just cut up pieces of mozzarella. I guess I didn't fill them up enough because I couldn't really taste the cheese.  I don't know about anyone else, but that was just me.  The meatball itself was quite good though!  I also had my friends bring a salad and ingredients for Italian sodas and we had garlic bread. Yum yum! It was a good dinner.  For dessert, I wanted something Italian. I looked up recipes for cannoli, but I wasn't sure how good it would taste as I don't think I've ever had one.  So,  I looked up a recipe for homemade gelato!  I found one with perfect, easy to read directions that work with any ice cream maker.  I puréed strawberries and the strawberry gelato was delicious! It is true in that if you freeze the gelato, it doesn't have quite the same texture after.  It's a little more gritty so it's best to eat fresh when it's creamy.  For activities, we could either watch the movie The Italian Job or play the game Bang, which is an Italian game.  We opted for playing Bang and everyone had a blast!  We probably could have played the movie in the background, but we had too much fun playing the game.  While looking through our movies, we were thinking of other theme night dinners and I am excited to do more!  It's nice to be reminded that we do have friends.

Bring it on, March!  I'm ready to tackle your goals.

Free Day at the Zoo

Last Wednesday was free admission day at the Hogle Zoo.  The weather has been nice here in Utah (50's) so I wanted to get out of the house and take advantage of the nice weather.  And going to the zoo for free? Even better!  We stopped at Einstein Bagel's for breakfast beforehand (I had a gift card to use) and arrived at the zoo an hour after it opened.  I was a little worried about the crowds, but we went at the perfect time.  We were there about an hour and a half and it started to get busier as we were leaving.  I love having this goal of doing a family outing once a week.  It's nice to have a little change in the normal routine.

We checked out the monkeys first and we found out that Kylie does not like monkeys.  At least ones that jump around.  She started crying when we were standing in front of some monkeys that were jumping from branch to branch.  We saw the elephants next and I think they were waiting for food because they were just standing by a gate.

Since Kylie loves Maddie, we had to check out the cat section of the zoo.  Kylie loved it! Some of the cats were very active and walking around close to the fence or glass.  The Lynx was the most active and Kylie became excited seeing the cat so up close.  It was fun to watch her be so excited.

Polar Bear

On the way out, I wanted to stop by the elephants again to see if they were more active.  We caught the trainers doing some tricks with them! I was so excited and took a video, but it's still on Scott's phone and it's a little long, so I don't know if it would even upload to the blog.  It was super fun to watch.

Trip to Scheel's

Scheel's is a giant sports store that opened about a year ago.  It is unlike any other sports store I've ever been to.  It has two floors as well as a mini ferris wheel on the inside!  It also has a fish tank, fun backgrounds to take pictures with and a test your skills with an interactive program.  There was nothing in particular we were looking for; we just wanted to check it out.  The store has anything you could think of when it comes to anything sports related.  It was a nice family outing.

6 Months!

Kylie is already 6 1/2 months. My computer got some sort of virus and has been running slow, so I haven't been able to update as often as I'd like.  Kylie is becoming such a fun little girl to hang out with.  She just lights up whenever you even look at her.  What this half a year old is up to:

* She is a crawling champ now! She is loving this new discovery of being able to move.  Before,  I could sit her on the floor to play with her toys and walk into the kitchen to do something. Now, she'll notice I'm gone and come crawling toward me!  I love it, but I am starting to understand the whole 'you lose your privacy once they can start moving' thing.

* Can roll over with ease now.

* When she starts to get upset, she starts babbling. It sounds a little bit like "mama" and "dada", so sometimes I let her get a little upset on purpose, so I can hear her say it. :)

* She weighs 15lbs and is in the 27%. She is also 26 inches and is in the 80% for height. She is a tall, skinny girl and no wonder why her pants aren't fitting anymore.

* I'm trying to read more stories to her. I was able to find Love You Forever at the D.I. for a dollar. I was so excited!  

* Kylie is starting to laugh more now. She will only really laugh if she is in the mood, but I take full advantage when she is. While grocery shopping the other day, waiting in line, I was making Kylie laugh and laugh. It just makes me so happy when she laughs!