Slip and Slide Video

2008 was a great year!!

Wow - 2008 has come to a close. It seems as if it has come incredibly quickly. There was so much about this year that I loved and enjoyed. I thought I would say one of my most favorite activities from each month of the year.

January: Beginning of 2008. I started my major of Elementary Education!! AND... loved it. This was my most favorite semester. Jen and I had no class Fridays and we had a great class load. I made new years resolutions that I somewhat kept... half and half... which inspires me to do better this next year.

February: I met my dad and Tom in Arizona for the weekend. We had a great weekend together. My dad and Tom went to a Law Conference. I got to go to school with Jen and see her classroom. The best part was being all together.

March: Man of La Mancha!! I got to come home and see my brother perform in his school musical! He did such a great job.

April: My last month with my wonderful roommates... well all of us together. Tara, Shu, Laura, and Jen. You guys are so wonderful and wee had some good times together. I miss you all a lot.

May: Moving in with my sister, Jen! I absolutely loved everything about living with my sister. She is truly an amazing person. We get along so well, probably becuase we are so similar... "Are those dishes in the dishwasher clean or dirty?" Together with an English Accent: "Dirty". I can't wait until I can live near her again.

June: In June, my parents and younger siblings came out to visit us in Arizona. We all decided to go tubing down the salt river. It was CRAZY hot, but so wonderful.

July: Going home to Indiana with my whole family. While we were all home, we made a our own slip and slide. It started at the top of the driveway and went down our front yard. We had a great time!

August: I spent my last few weeks living with my sister in Arizona. Again, we have the best time when we are together.

September: Moving back in with Tara!! I sure missed her all through the summer. Another great part of September was going out with Russell. I had a great time with him.

October: Knee surgery!! Even though this was a rough month, I am sure it will be worth it when I can run and have a good knee again. It has been almost seven years since I have had knee problems. It will be nice when I am completely healed.

November: Being able to spend a month in first grade. I loved first grade and all of my students. It was a great opportunity and I learned so much that will help me in my teaching career.

December: Not Christmas, end of finals, coming home, talking to Jen over webcam, talking to Tara on the phone, spending Christmas with my entire family, etc. December was such a wonderful month.

What a great year!! I hope next year is even better!

last for class

answers for class:
Having a blog helped me let people know what was going on in my life. I was able to put up what I thought was interesting and fun. I didn't really like posting about my homework as much as I liked writing about life. However, it was still helpful. I think I will use it in my classroom.

almost done

School is winding down and winding down quickly. I think being out of class and in first grade for a month makes the rest of the semester speed up a bit. What an interesting semester it has been. I iwll have to write about it a little later.

Answers to internet questions: Here are a few of the sights that I went to...
Webcast 1: Privacy and the Internet Webcast 3: Intellectual Property
Webcast 6: Social Issues
http://www.internetsafetypodcast.com/ - safety podcast


It was interesting to read and watch some of the articles. It was a good reminder about how easy it is for kids to plagiarism. It is important for them to realize what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. These videos gave helpful ideas and tips on how to avoid getting into trouble. It is important for students to learn this. As a teacher, I can help.
Another issue they talked about were social issues and how easy it is to get in trouble on the internet. It is important for students to be aware of the dangers, but also be aware of the safety precautions they can take. For children in Elementary school, internet access is always available. If I can explain the warnings and the precautions, I can be a good influence for them.
All of these videos were helpful. Hopefully I can share these videos and advice with my students.

Thoughts on our choices

This week for IP&T, we were asked to read articles that talked about the different aspects of media and internet. For my fourth article, I chose to read the article entitle, "Leave it Alone" by H. Burke Peterson. I learned a lot from this article. IT is so important for us to work towards our goal of becoming like God. We need to get rid of those things that are holding us back. Even though it may be hard, it will strengthen us spiritually. I hope that as a teacher and a parent I can be an example for my children. I thought about some of the TV shows that I watch and I asked myself if I would be comfortable watching those with my children. My answer was sometimes yes, sometimes no. I realized that I would like this to be a definite answer. If I can do this, then I can be an example to more than just my kids one day. The readings we read were all very supportive and positive towards making changes in our lives that will lead us on the correct path. I want to incorporate these and try to be better.

Last week

This was our last full week in the schools. We still have one more day left on Monday. I can't believe how fast this month has gone. It seems like I just got in the schools and now it's over. This week was really fun. I got to take a lot of pictures of the kids and they loved it. Maybe I will try and out some up soon.

My lessons all went pretty well this week, well all except the one that we had during the fire drill. I did realize that it is important not to joke with first graders during a fire drill. We finally made it outside, got a head count, and then were heading back into the school when one of our kids turns to me and says, "It wasn't a real fire, nothing is even on fire". I turned and said, in what I thought was a sarcastic voice (first graders can't tell the difference) and said, "yeah, it is real. Can't you see everything is on fire?". The little kid behind her turns to me with freaked out eyes and says, "EVERYTHING'S ON FIRE??!!! OH NO!!!!". Then it spread down the line... that was my own bad!!

We also had another adventure when I was getting observed during one of my lessons. I call the kids back to the table and all of the sudden one of the other students in the class starts throwing up on lots of things, fortunately no people, but it was still gross. Fortunately I had a good lesson planned. I had a powerpoint prepared and they seem to love those. They are always so interested in what is on the computer. Fortunately the lesson went really well, despite the nasty throw up smell. OH how I am going to miss 1st grade!!

week 3 in school

Wow, I can't believe it's already been three weeks since I have been in the school. Everyday I have another confirmation that I am doing the right thing with my life. I love going to school and being with the kids. I do wish I could get a little more sleep, but since when is that different than anything else in life? This week I used a powerpoint presentation in one of my lessons and the kids absolutely loved it. Our teacher had never used one before, so it was a new experience for them. It really kept their attention and I will for sure be using it again!!

In our math class right now, we are creating our own math tasks. I just love math. Sometimes I don't like going to class because I am way too tired, but I still love the concepts. With this task that we are creating, I feel like I have stretched my brain. I love learning new things in math and creating new ideas!! Fortunately I get to teach math for a living!! I haven't taught a math lesson in the classroom yet, but I get to next week and I am really excited. Hopefully it goes great!

This weekend my little brother is coming to visit and I am so excited. Family is just the best thing ever!! I can't wait to get a hug from my brother, mainly because he is the best hug giver ever!! He won't be here for very long, but I still can't wait to see him. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. I also got to talk to my older brother today, which was wonderful. We just chit-chatted about random things that we both love. It always makes me super happy to talk to my family!! What a blessing!! Right now, I feel good about life. I feel very close to my Heavenly Father. It's truly amazing what he can help us do in our lives. I feel, everyday, that he wants me to do better. What a blessing it is that we can pray to him and ask him for advice, strength, and comfort.

week two of the schools

First graders make me laugh. They are so honest, but only want to be honest in the most heartfelt ways. Today was a day full of some good laughs (especially because the kids were not trying to be funny). We had to have a discussion about our new president and how he can be the president of the USA if he's black. We also got to read some interesting stories like SkippyJonJones. They were great stories. I feel like the kids are starting to be more comfortable with me and I love it. There is one girl (ESL student) who will hardly ever open her mouth, but the more I try and help her, the more she opens up. She brought me a heart that she made all by herself. It's amazing how much a small piece of paper can make you smile.

I taught my first actual lesson this week and it went pretty well, to my surprise. The kids were a little routy, but it's first grade, what did I expect?? It was actually pretty enjoyable for me. I feel pretty comfortable in front of the class. I feel mostly comfortable, but still a little nervous. I assume it will take some getting used to. I think it would help if there weren't people observing me and taking notes on every move I made... oh well.

During my lesson this week, I got to use some of the great technology our school offers. I think they call it an Elmo Camera, or something like that. I talked about it a little bit in my last post but here's refresher. It's like an overhead, but way less complicated and way smaller. I put my book under this camera and followed along throught the story with the kids. All the pictures were in color, which was pretty awesome. I think it is more interesting for the kids to see the pictures in color, rather than just an overhead. I can also use this camera to zoom in, zoom out, or freeze a picture. I hope to have something like this in my own classroom, which coud be happening sooner than I thought.

This week we got to go to the computer lab, which was really nice. We don't have any computers in our classroom, so it was a great aopportunity for the kids. We actually started using them for math testing. They have a program in which the kids go through 30 problems and on each problem, they can read the problem or press a button to hear the recorded question. It's really helpful for ELL and ESL students.

First week in First grade

This week was my first week in first grade. I did not realize how much i would absolutely love it! I also didn't realize what first grade was like. I guess it has been a while since I've been there (like 15 years or so). This week we began our month longth expedition into the schools. I am in Mrs. Parker's class at Copperview Elementary School in Sandy, UT. Actually it might be in Midvale, I can't remember. Our school is a Title One School, but I'm not exactly sure what that means. I know we are in an area of low economic status and low income. About half of the kids in my class are ESL (English Second Language) students and many of them are hispanic. Because of the economic status of our school, we don't have the nicest school.
Despite the low status of our school, our school did just get remodeled and they inserted a lot of nice technological gadgets that are useful in the classroom. All of the classrooms are now equipped with microphones for the teachers. I think these are great ideas!! None of the rooms have overhead projectors anymore, but they do have these amazing devices (can't remember their names). They are cameras that connect to the display screen in the front of the class. No matter what you put under the camera, the students can see. It's very clear, easy to use, and in color. I am excited to try and use it.
I teach my first lesson on Monday and I get to use the Camera-View option. I am very excited to use it becuase it makes working with the kids really easy. I hope I don't have too many problems. We are going to be reading a story about Animals in the Cold. It should be interesting.
What I love about first grade right now is how eager the children are to learn. They also have this strong desire to make their teachers happy. They all want to show us their projects, read with them, play games with them, and be around them. It is amazing how happy I am when I am there. I thought that I would not really like first grade because of how young they were and because of how many basics I would have to teach them. After spending 3 days with them, my opinion has changed to the complete opposite. I love everything about first grade. I don't know if I necessarily want to teach it, but I know that it's a possibility. I love all the kids and I know most of their names already. They truly are sent from Heaven.

13 colonies

For IP&T this week, we created a tour on Google Earth. I decided to make my tour of some of the 13 original colonies (5th grade social studies, standard 1 obj. 1). I found out a lot of interesting information while doing this project about the different colonies. I also learned a lot about google earth. I found it interesting that I could put an image on top of the map that I was looking at. I also used the rule to measure different lengths between the colonies. I would use this tool in my classroom to teach the students about the different colonies and the order in which they developed. I think it would be a lot more interesting than just talking about it. I looked at one person's tour and they did different mountain areas in Utah - I thought this was a great idea, especially if you teach in Utah. Another group went through where Lewis and Clark traveled. I thought it was interesting how they marked the path they followed. All of these can help children be more excited about learning.

Not Halloween

My mom used to play this game with us when we were younger and we had to pick our Hero of the day and say why they were our hero. I've been thinking of this game a lot lately, but I'm not sure why. Anyways, today I thought I would share who my Hero was for the day. Actually, I had two. The first one is Tara - she finished my cleaning checks for me. She said if I tried to mop the floor, she would steel my crutch. Mopping is quite the task for me, so I was so very grateful that she helped me finish. My other Hero is Shu - she called this morning to ask if I needed any help with my cleaning checks!! How nice! I truly have wonderful friends. Oh man, I have another Hero, I just remembered. Jen (roommate Jen) is my other hero because she is so brave!!

Last night was "Not Halloween", or in other words it was a day to celebrate the holiday, but not on the actual holiday. We did this last year a couple of times with some of our guy apts and we loved it. So we decided to carry on the tradition this year. We had quite the full apartment, but it was really fun to carve pumpkins.

Tara and I were partners for part of the night and we had some creativity blocks. We decided to do what we always do "heartcha". Nate and Shu came (which was wonderful) and our current roommates came as well. It was really fun and we had a great time. Adam stopped by for a little bit as well. Then Jen and Derrick showed up with baby Zach. Then our roommates had some of their friends come. There ended up being about 12 or 13 people here. It was a great night.

Update

So it's been a while since I've written something other than a School post, so I thought I would gie a little non-school update. It has been a little over two weeks since my knee surgery and things are going pretty well. I am so grateful for my mom, my dad, and my sister. I could not have gone through this surgery without them. It was a little bit more intense than I thought, but it worked out. I could not have done it without my family. I can't even express my grattitude!! My knee is healing and it seems to be healing pretty well. I am still in a pain and I'm having trouble sleeping, but it's still not too bad. The scar is the biggest I've ever had and it is looking pretty good. Here is a picture - I know, it's lovely! It actually looks a lot better when the tape has come off - which most of it has. The scar (8 inches long) is not as gross as I thought it would be, so I'm pleased. All in all, I'm healing well. I have been pretty limited in my activities, which is to be expected. However, i'm not letting it get me down (most of the time :)). I have been at home a lot and sleeping a LOT, but I figure it's a good thing.

This weekend was a great weekend. Tara and I went on two double dates, with the same guys, both Friday and Saturday night. We have just found this foursome to be so great. We all feel really comfortable around each other and we all have a really great time when we hang out. On Friday we were at our apartment and we ate dinner, played clue (I won - and cheated), and then watched a movie. Saturday was a GREAT day. I slept in until 10, talked to Jen on skype (heart you), read Breaking Dawn (again, I know, but I just can't resist Edward), watched Chuck, and THEN I took a two and a half hour nap. I was just oging to close my eyes really quick (3:19). Tara jumped in the shower and I was going to wake up when she got out. At 6:10, Tara tells me we are leaving to go to a movie in 45 minutes. So my short little nap turned out to be HUGE!!! Oh well - I liked it. Then we went and saw Wall-E. It was a good movie, but I was a little distracted... not by the cute guy I was sitting next to, but by my knee that hurt incredibly bad. Usually I keep my leg up and when I do, I feel a lot better. After sitting in the movie theater for 30 minutes, my leg hurt. And it hurt the rest of the time. Oh well, it was still a good movie.

Sunday was a great day as well. We had what I like to call a "Powerhouse Sunday". We had three great talks in Sacrament meeting and two great lessons in Sunday school and Relief Society. I love Sundays like these, the ones that make you want to dive into the scriptures and turn your heart to the Lord. I want to somehow make that happen every Sunday. I'm working on it. The rest of my Sunday was spent with friends. How blessed am I to have such wonderful friends!! I had the best time with my wonderfulo roommate Tara. We often talk about how blessed we are that the Lord lead us to be roommates. We always have such a wonderful time when we are together. There is never a dull moment. Yeah I know, great picture!!

We are discussing options of living together forever... well, actually just a little longer than we first thought. We want to live somewhere in Utah (maybe, not provo though) while I do my student teaching. Jen is going to come live with us again as well. Finally we will all be reunited!!

What a great weekend!

Google Earth

This week for IP&T we did a lot of touring around google earth. I loved it! One of the searches I did was for Tornadoes, especially in Indiana, which is where I am from. I Think this is a great tool to use during a lesson plan, especially about weather and tornadoes. I also liekd it because it gives some background on my own personal history, about where I grew up.
This is the tour I took.
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/placemarks/cl-11-14-05-637566122.kmz
This would be great to show students about different areas of the country and what kind of weather they have. Not every state has tornadoes, for example. I think kids would find this really interesting. I found it fun to see which areas of Indiana had more tonadoes, especially when it showed my hometown as one of the major tornadoe areas.

photostory

This week was really interesting for me. I thought this was an interesting tool for all of us to use. I watched a couple different photo stories and I thought they were realy interesting. I watched 'Romeo and Juliet' by jessica Oler - I liked how she used the 'Romoe and Juliet" song - it tied in well with her story. I also watched "A Wrinkle in Time" trailer. It was nice how she used real pictures to do a trailer for the book - I found it very entertaining. The other one I watched was about Healthy eating for children. I thought this was a great idea to use photostory for. IT was informational, but also enjoyable. I think this tool can be really helpful for children. Like I said, it can be very informational, but interesting. I tried to put the video up, but it was having problems. So I talked to some of the other people in the class who had this problem, and they said to just put the link. i enjoyed making mine and realized there was a lto to do with these options.

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=979d0a8d1981803f957e

STORY

This week for IP&T we have to create a project using PhotoStory. I decided to do a twist on a fairy tale. Here are my layouts. Hopefully it turns out cool... : )
I learned a lot doing this, even though we haven't quite finished it yet. I have never used PhotoStory before, but I really like it. It's a new type of technology that I think can be really helpful in the classroom. This would be great to do to introduce a new book or a new them to the classroom. It is nice to have a lot of different methods to teach. I realized I can do a lot with photostory like claymation, fairytales, ABC books, music vidoes, and voice recordings. I thought they were all really good ideas to use. I did not realize that it was so accessible. Now that I have Photo Story on my computer, I think I will use it a lot more.

Talk about a great weekend

I just love weekends, especially ones like we are having so far. It started last night with a great date with this guy in my ward, which was really fun. We also cleaned the apartment this weekend for cleaning checks, so our home is wonderful!! THis morning we slept in until about... ten.. I know, kinda late, but so wonderful. When we got up, we were waiting for our cleaning checks to start so I just layed on my bed for a while. We listened to all the David Archuleta songs we could find, read scriptures, and talked about our great Friday night. Then cleaning checks came and we passed!!! Then Tara said she would go on ANOTHER bike ride with me. She's truly amazing. We went for another ten miler and it felt great. It helped that Tara FINALLY had a bike that fit her. We made pretty good time and only ate a few bugs on the way. Oh yeah, Tara did freak out because a grasshopper was "attacking her bike"... yeah, she's great. Now we are home and we are going to go shopping before we head up to Salt Lake for the Relief Society Broadcast and dinner after that. Tomorrow is Sunday, which is always wonderful. I love having great weekends. My parents are coming in town this next week and I can't wait to see them. They are the best parents ever!! Well, there's my weekend. It was great.

Tech Savvy

This week I learned a lot of interesting things about Google Earth. Not only did I use it to imitate a newletter for my imaginary classroom, but I found my house! It was actually really fun to look at my house. I even showed my roommate - it's crazy how close it can get. I can see the window to my bedroom. Anways, it was fun to use new tools and explore new things. I am learning a lot.

Two weeks left

I just found out that I am having reconstructive knee surgery on October 2nd, which is a little less than two weeks away. It's a pretty intense surgery, complete with a few days in the hospital and three months on crutches! It's not my first choice, but right now, it's the right thing for me. SO... My roommate (aka fairygodmother) has decided that she will make all my wishes (or most of the wishes I can do on two good legs) come true. We are going to do all the things I want to do and can do with two working legs that I will not be able to do for quite a long time. Last night we went to the park and we played night games, bases to be specific. It was a great game and tara got to know a few people a little better than she did before. Today we are going for a bike ride, next week we are going country swing dancing and play some ultimate. It should be a pretty sweet two weeks.

School is going well so far. I am able to stay on top of most things and I'm not really procrastinating, which is a good quality. I am also enjoying most of my classes, which is also really good. Roommates are wonderful - we are all getting along really well. I don't know what I would do without them!! They make like a lot easier and a lot happier, especially when we have unexpected trials pop up! (especially roommates who are living in other countries). We are going on our first roommate date this weekend - World of Dance Concert - should be exciting. Dating in general, well that's about as wonderful as it always has been... hahaha. I still plan on eating at Olive Garden in April and have Tara paying for it!!!

Overall, life is going well. We are enjoying the time of two good legs, before we are down one leg and up two (crutches)

New info

I learned a lot about fair use this week. I did not know that there were so many opportunities for teachers. I never knew that the laws made exceptions for teachers, research, scholarships, and criticism. I never thought about it before, but it does make sense considering all the technology that has been used in many of my classes over the years. I do realize that there are rules that we still have to follow, but when we follow these rules, it allows for us to have more opportunities.
Here is a link to one of the sights I went to: www.Legalzoom.com

NEW TOOLS

This week was very enlightening with all the new tools we used. I found that having an RSS feed can be really interesting. I have mine connected to a few different sites. I have one connected to a teacher website, one to the washington post, and one to LDS spiritual inspirations. It's nice to be able to find articles that i want without haveing to go through a ton of information. It is easy to find what I want when I want it. I also found that using Goodreads can be very helpful. It is a great way for students to find new books and new ideas. I think it's also helpful for teachers to find new books. Is nice to have so many research tools close at hand.

Sundays are for Naps.. and Surprises

So today was a great Sunday. We had Regional Conference and Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Packer came to speak to us. It was a great way to start off the semester. It was so wonderful to have the leaders of the church come and give us the words of the Lord. It was wonderful! My favorite thing Elder Uchtdorf said was "do not fear. Fear is the opposite of faith". I really liked this. I need to remember it more often. After church, we came home and had roommate dinner, which was the first time we have all eaten together at the same time, in the same room, I think. It's always a good time for some roommate bonding. Because we had Regional Conference, we had church from 10:00 to 12:00, instead of 1:00 to 4:00, so we had so much time after church today. Perfect time for a nap. I slept only for an hour and a half, pretty impressive for being an Armstrong. But the reason I only slept for a short while is because my roommate came in and told us it was a perfet time to prank our neighbors! We've been planning a prank for a bit now and we've been waiting anxiously for the opportune moment. We are now starting a prank war with our guy friends in the apartmen down the alley from us, who we know from last year. We tried to go into their apartment this morning at 8:00 because we knew some of them had a meeting to attend. HOWEVER, darn responsible boys, locked their doors. So in the middle of nap time we tried again. The doors were unlocked when we went over there and no one was down stairs. Perfect! We placed our ransom poem on the table and then took all six of their kitchen chairs, their computer chair, and three banana chairs. We said they could have them back if they cooked us dinner... and so we wait. Needless to say, I love Sundays.

video upload

This is my niece, I think she was two or three at the time. She wanted me to wrap her feet together in an ankle wrap. Then she tried to get up and walk around. It makes me laugh. OH and if you are wondering why her hair is so short, this is right after she gave herself a new haircut.

FIrst Time Blog

So this is my first time having a blog and I am pretty excited about it. I know a lot of my friends have blogs and they have always seemed to enjoy them. I am excited about learning a lot of new information. After watching the teachertube videos I realized how much technology can help us. I didn't consider how much we, as teachers, could use digital technology to connect with our students. I think by learning about these new resources, it will help us to connect to our children better. So far, I'm enjoying this class.