So close but so far away!!!

Even though the semester is almost over, there is still a lot of work to be done. Today I am doing two lesson plan demonstrations and helping out at an English event tonight. Yesterday I worked in the library all day long!!! Then I went back to my room and looked over everything that I did. I'm so glad that I only have one more paper to write, a few assignments left and then the only thing standing between me and Summer vacation is finals week!

I'm going to be going back to the same pool that I have been working at for the past few years. I love working at Spook Rock Pool, even though I have to deal with all of the angry customers and get yelled at by them a lot. I'm a terrible swimmer so I work in the front office as the cashier. I swipe the pool passes, answer the phone and take people's money$$$ It's not the most exciting job but I get to go swimming anytime I want and I have some great friends who work there. There is always some sort of drama, but I'm not getting involved! The summer heat always causes big fights! It never fails!

This summer will be bittersweet for me because my boyfriend will be going away for bootcamp for the next four months. He leaves in a week and I am going to miss him so much. He's my best friend but I know that only good things will come from him being in the Army. This past weekend I threw him a surprise party at my house and it was great! Some of our friends from school and some of his family members came over and we had a great time. He was so surprised!

 <3

 We needed another tablecloth...the only green one we had was from St. Patrick's Day!! It's still lucky!

My parents, my brother and Eli and I

Great Weekend!

This weekend was so much fun. It started off really rough because I went home but forgot so many things that I needed, but the weekend ended up being so much fun.

My family hosts a couple of fund raisers during the year in memory of my older brother who died a few years ago and this weekend we hosted a celebrity basketall fundraiser! All of the volunteers wore bright orange jerseys and there was orange everywhere! I love seeing that so many people still remember my brother and show support for our fundraisers.

There were 10 teams of friends and family and other teams that wanted to play and one team of retired NFL players. My favorite player was Stephen Baker because he always brings his Giants Superbowl ring and lets everyone hold it and take pictures with it. He is such a sweet guy! All of the other players are great too! This year my brother Josh's team got creamed by the celebrities! My Mom had a team this year too and she was the lead scorer! I couldn't believe it! She will kill me for this, but I recorded her playing and I will never let her live that down! I was so proud of her! Clearly we can see that she has all of the talent in my familiy!

We had the coolest prizes for our raffle this year...we were raffling off a huge flat screen TV, baseball tickets, a deluxe ice cream maker and Jet Blue plane tickets! They were round trip tickets to dozens of places all around the world! I was hoping to win the ice cream maker but unfortunately someone else did :(

After the fundraiser this year, we invited all of the volunteers and celebrities to come back to my house for a big dinner. My house isn't small, and it's not big either, but having over 50 people was a very cozy house full of people! Either way it was great to talk to all of the players and listen to them talk about being in the NFL, especially hearing Stephen Baker talk about catching his touchdown in the Superbowl that led the Giants to win their first Superbowl title!

I'm so happy that this event went well and that everyone who came had fun! I know that I had fun and cuoldn't wait to get in my bed and go to sleep after the long day. These fudnraisers are always bittersweet but its easier to make it through the days knowing that I have such a great suport system <3

My brother Josh and I on Saturday <3

The Homestretch!

I am so glad that I have about a week to get some more projects done for school. That gives me some time to take a break and relax in between my assignments! I still have one more lesson plan to write for this semester in my ED 340 class, and then I am going to present it in a few weeks. I'm nervous but excited. I also have to present another music lesson for my Music Fundamentals for Elementary School Teachers course. The last time I presented, my professor told me that I looked really nervous, so hopefully this next time I'll be more confident looking. I love making up the music lessons because I get to be as creative as I want by having the students move around and sing and be active. As much work as this music class has been, it is fun to do all of the songs and activities that we get to do.

With all of this work left to do for the end of the semester, I'm glad that I have my Easter candy left to keep me going!

Let's Go Yankees!

This week has been so hectic but it has been worth every minute of no sleep! I knew that I was going to last night's Yankee game against the Minnesota Twins, so I knew that I had a lot of work to do so that I could go. After all of the stress it was worth the fun!

The rain, the cold and my sleepiness couldn't have stopped me from going to the game yesterday! I had such a blast! This was the first Yankee game that I have ever been too and it was so exciting! Our seats were really good, but far up so all of the players looked like little ants. It was also my first time riding the Subway...and it was so scary! Being a little person in such a busy place is so scary! I kept trying to stay with my friends, but sometimes people would cut through us and separate us a little bit. At one point, I grabbed onto my friend's boyfriend's arm and held on to him so that I wouldn't separate! The Subway itself wasn't too bad, but I didn't like being squished in with random people. I've heard bad stories about the Subway so I was on my guard! Once we got to the stadium, I was so impressed by the new field. Since I never got to go to the old Yankee Stadium, I don't know the difference, but I do know that this new stadium was so cool! There were so many food vendors and I wish it was warmer so I could have gotten some ice cream! Nothing is better than eating cold ice cream on a hot day, especially when my friend kept talking about eating the Carvel ice cream all week!!

                                                             Amy, Sarah and I!                                                     

All in all I had such a great time! I want to keep going back and watching more games..except I'd rather avoid the Subways...they're too scary for this country girl! Like my friends and I said while commuting to the game, "Country girls need to stay in the country"! I'm not a city person at all, so I was so lost! Thank God my friends all knew where to go!!

I've been finally getting my journal entries done for my education class. So far I have only done two, but thats two more than I had done before!

Thank God It's THURSDAY!!

I can't believe its over!

After about two months of observing my co-operating teacher, I can't believe that I am done! I'm so sad that I won't be going back there to help the children and participate in their fun lessons! I had the best time helping them write papers, and revise their work and even give out spelling tests! Everyday was something unique and the children were so interesting.

Now that I'm done with my hours, the hard part is yet to come...doing my observation journal entries. I had every intention of writing a journal entry after every day I observed, but then I got busy or I was too tired to do more work. Hopefully I can focus enough and remember enough of the information I need to complete all of the journal entries.

I can't believe there is only one more month left of school! It feels like it was just last week that the Fall semester began and now we are already making our schedules and getting ready to pack up! So sad! There can never be a new beginning unless there was an ending though, and ending yet another semester just means that we are all getting one step closer to reaching our goal of becoming teachers!

This week has been amazing! I loved the beautiful weather and the sunshine. But....all my schoolwork has killed me. Between observing, going to class and doing homework my week has been crazy. Thank God its the weekend! 


I was so happy to watch part of the "Wax Museum" project that my co-operating teacher has her 6th grade students do.  First the children pick a famous person from now or in the past, then they write a biography on that person and finally they write a one minute speech summarizing the person's life. The last part of the project is to dress up as that person and have the school come and listen to your speeches. All of the students lined up around the perimeter of the gym and were "frozen" in place until someone came and pressed on their button on the floor. All of the students that I got to see were fantastic! I was so impressed by how hard they worked and how amazing their costumes looked. 


One boy dressed up as Pope John Paul II and had a full pope's outfit on! Another little boy was Shaun White, so to complete his costume he wore a long red wig and snow pants. Some of the other students were Beyonce,  Princess Diana, Justin Bieber, President George Bush and Rob Dydrek. One girl was a ballerina and she came in her full ballet outfit and even stood on her toes when someone pressed on her button! Every student did great and I wish that I could have been able to go see the second day but I had class :( 


Unfortunately, I'm almost done with my 40 hours and I'm going to miss these classes so much. My co-operating teacher has so many great ideas and now she is having her 6th grade class do mock trials and in April they are going to do "Law Day" and are going to have a mock trial with real lawyers and a real judge from the Newark Courthouse! These students have such a great time and I love seeing how excited that they get! I got so lucky to be with such a great teacher who has such great students! 

Since I didn't post anything new about St. Patrick's Day, here's a picture of my dog Dixie from St. Patrick's Day. She got her nails painted green and wore a Happy St. Patrick's Day button! 

Almost Spring Break!

I cannot wait until next week for Spring Break! I'm so happy that I only have two mid-terms to take before the break, bt unfortuantely they are big tests. My favorite part of the week is Friday because I get to go into the classroom that I observe and interact with the students. Since my teacher is the language arts specialist for three sixth grade classes and three fifth grade classes, its hard for me to make a bond with any one particular class, but there are some students that I have gotten to work with that are so sweet. They are so happy when they get to have one-on-one attention and work with a grown up. Nothing feels better than spending the day helping the students with their writing and helping them with projects. I love it!

I was very surprised that my co-operating teacher didn't do anything Dr. Seuss themed for Read Across America Day on Friday. I think that since the children are older, she had to stick to her lesson plans, but the school was extremely decorated where I was. When I walked in, there were giant Dr. Seuss plants (I don't know what else they would be called) outside on the walls in front of the main office, and there were younger children wearing "Cat in the Hat" hats wakling in the hallways. They looked adorable!

My co-operating teacher is so good with the kids, and I am so lucky that she wants me to get super involved with them. I love being able to work with them and she offers me so many experiences to be in front of the class. I'm still a little nervous to do that yet, but soon I know that I'll feel confident enough to go.

This past Saturday, I attended a music teacher's workshop in William Paterson for my Fundamentals of Music class. I was surprised by how much fun that I had, but I felt that the workshop was best for the current music teachers that could apply everything to their classrooms right now. For me, I may not ever have the need to use those new techniques in my classroom, so I made sure that I didn't intrude or keep any teacher from being able to participate. It was fun to learn new songs and activities, and it was worth waking up early on my Saturday morning!