Relax... It's Christmas

I got exactly what I wanted from Santa this year ~ a relaxing Christmas.

M & M got up at around seven and opened their gifts. They were very happy with the presents that Santa brought. They each got iPods and cool accessories. Their favorite is the iDog that connects to the iPod and acts like a speaker, a cute little speaker that moves and lights to the beat of the music.

Later, we had Christmas dinner with family and went to the movies to see The Chronicles of Narnia. This is an excellent movie. The kids, the teenagers, and the adults all loved it.

It was the most relaxing day I’ve had in several months and just what I wished for!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family.

Where's Your Holiday Spirit?

I’m exhausted.

I have stayed up late every night wrapping presents, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, and decorating the house. Even though I finished my shopping over a month ago, I’m still falling behind! Christmas will be here in two days and I have no holiday spirit.

This whole month has been nothing but work. We didn’t go to any holiday concerts or plays. We didn’t go visit Santa and sit on his lap. We didn’t even take a drive and look at all the Christmas lights. Nothing feels Christmas-y to me.

Ok, so I’m being Bah Humbug, but I really need a boost of Christmas spirit.

Quick!

What an experience!

Now I can’t wait for January! I will be student teaching first grade and the teacher is awesome!

I visited the classroom on Monday. I met the students, some of the other 1st grade teachers, and the principal. The atmosphere at the school is very inviting; there are student-made decorations everywhere, parent volunteers, and tons of staff.

The best part, though, was my class. I learned all of the students’ names, read a couple of holiday stories, and helped with a holiday craft project. I left the school with 5 notebook pages full of great ideas that I had seen all over the classroom! I am definitely going to learn a lot.

Wish Me Luck

Tomorrow is my visitation day at the school where I will be student teaching in January. I’m a little excited and a little apprehensive. I substitute teach and I have kids of my own, so talking in front of a classroom to 20 six year-olds doesn’t bother me. The fact that I have to spend sixteen weeks with them makes me nervous!

I have never stayed in one job for too long (most of my jobs were summer jobs, I live in a resort town) and I don’t usually like the monotony of M-F, 9-5. I guess like any college student, this will be a test of whether or not I’m ready for the real world.

Well, wish me luck and if anyone has any advice I’d appreciate it!

Little Bloggers

I now have little bloggers. The kids wanted to have their own pages to write about their favorite things.
Check out the links that I’ve added on the left. The first one is my favorite teacher site; the other two are the kids’ creations. They would LOVE comments!
Just as much as they love finding mail for them in the mailbox!

Last Class

It’s finally over!
I just finished my last final exam and the fall semester is officially over for me!
Wahooo! I ‘m so ecstatic!

I have a month off before I begin student teaching 1st grade in January. Now, I can finally have a real life; one where I go to school from 8 to 3, Monday through Friday.

This last semester was rough, mainly because I took seven classes over the summer and haven’t really had a break since last January. I’m definitely burned out!

Let’s hope life gets more interesting from here. Cheers!

Art & Soul

We have a wonderful little paint-your-own pottery studio near the beach in Cape May, NJ. Art & Soul Pottery is owned by David and Melissa, two of the nicest people you could ever meet!

The kids and I hang out there every chance we get. M & M even had their 7th birthday party there with a dozen of their friends! The picture above shows just a few of the projects that the kids have painted over the last two years. Today we finished our holiday ornaments at a kid's holiday painting party.

So, if you're ever in Cape May, visit Art & Soul on Gurney Street and take home a one-of-a-kind souvenir! If you can't get to Cape May, find a pottery store like this in your area. The kids (and adults) will love it and it's always nice to give local store owners our business.

David's journal and photo-a-day blog http://davidmacomber.com/
Melissa's blog http://melissamae.blogspot.com/

Lucy, You've got some 'splaining to do...

Okay, well I feel the need to explain that last entry (and in doing so, explain my ten day absence). This blog was created for a class assignment. The assignment required creation of a blog, eight blog entries, and several outside links. The due date was December 1st.

Notice that my last (number 8) entry was posted late on November 30th. Have I mentioned that I am an insane procrastinator?
Yes, there were light blue accents on my blog page that night, although they were gone the next day! Still trying to get to the bottom of that mystery.

The class has now moved on to creating web pages, which has diverted all of my attention from my blog baby. When my page is even close to looking the way I would like, I will post the link. Have I mentioned that I am also a bit of a perfectionist?

For now, I will try to keep up with my blog. I wasn’t a big fan of this blog stuff in the beginning, but now I’ve learned to like it. Life is about to get a lot more interesting—finals week, the holidays, student teaching 1st graders, and college graduation! I’ll try to write about it all here!