Finals Week
It is finals week, which for me is actually a relief from last week. Last week was probably known as my “hell week” with all the work I had to do. I had to get ready for two presentations, although they were not too bad, but just took up a lot of time. I also had to write two papers. One wasn’t too bad, but the other one was my seminar paper and that ended up being a 15 page paper. Along with the paper my poetry portfolio was due, so that meant I had to revise my 4 poems (which is harder than it sounds), write a new poem in one of the styles I liked best, and then write a reflection about my progress in writing poetry. I was able to get that all done, but between Monday to Friday I only got 16 hours of sleep.
Now it is finals week. I only have one in-class exam so that is really nice! I have already turned in two take home exams, so now I just have 2 more take home exams and 1 in-class exam to go. Then I’m done with my fall semester and moving on to the spring, which hopefully will fly by towards my graduation!! 
Thanksgiving Break
Thanksgiving was busy, but overall it was good with only one thing to bring down the goodness. But let me start from the beginning. I went home on Tuesday after my class and I just hung out at home with my family. I was also running a fever that night (101.2) but I drank water and took some Ibuprofen and that dropped down my temperature. Most of the time at home was just relaxing and hanging out with my family and my boyfriend. Thanksgiving dinner was good. I had dinner at my house, cajun turkey…yum! Then I went to my boyfriend’s house to hang out with his family. Then we went back to my house to hang out and play some board games with my family. We played Taboo, boys vs. girls. That meant me, my mom, and my grandma versus my dad and my boyfriend. The girls won! Friday morning was good because my mom, my sister and I went shopping on Black Friday. So we got a lot of good deals and I was able to buy stuff for myself and get some Christmas presents. I had a good time. That night I went to Tysons Mall to have dinner with some of my friends. I ended up backing into someone, so I got into a car accident. Luckily it was not that bad, just some scratches. It just brought me down and left me upset for most of the night. I also just felt bad because I’m on my parents insurance and that means their insurance is going to go up and I don’t want that to happen again because of me. So Saturday I was supposed to meet my friend for lunch but I just did not feel like driving. I did go shopping with my mom (she drove) and we went to Kohls to exchange something and then got some stuff at Target and Rite Aid. My boyfriend also came to visit that night. I did a lot of homework that night too. I did homework before but I got more done that night. Sunday was sad because I had to leave and go back to school. I was happy to go to see my friends but I hate leaving my family and my boyfriend and I don’t see each other as much. I ended up getting lunch with my friend and didn’t hit to much traffic. So now I am back at school and I am just trying to get through these next three weeks so then I can go back home for a month.
Lesson Plan and Germs
Last week in practicum I did my lesson plan. I took five students out of the classroom into a different room and did a guided reading lesson with them. They were a little chatty at first, and I don’t think they have had a guided reading lesson because they did not seem used to guided reading. The discussion went well and I think the lesson plan went over well.
After my lesson plan, the students went to go read to kindergarteners. The kindergarteners had been sick and were coughing. One of the kindergarteners was with his 5th grade partner and the kindergartener had been coughing and then put his hand on the 5th grader. The 5th grader told the kindergartener when he coughed to not wipe it on him because that is how germs are spread and if the kindergartener spread the germs to him then he would get sick as well. When they left, he told the teacher that was the worst experience ever because of that. It was funny.
UVA
This weekend I took my sister to UVA. She is a senior in high school and is looking at going to UVA, JMU, and UMW. I want her to look more at UVA and JMU because she is in the marching band and UMW does not have a great band program. UVA and JMU are better for band. She went to UVA once and took a school tour, but I know someone who goes to UVA so we decided to go there and my sis could get a personal tour from her. So we went up to UVA Saturday morning and took a tour of UVA, it was my first time there. Then my sis met up with one of her friends there and talked to him about college. After the visit, she decided that UVA was her top school and she wanted to go there. I am glad that the visit was worth something and helped her make a decision about colleges.
Kindergarten Buddies
This actually happened a few weeks ago in practicum, but I really liked it and decided I wanted to write it down. My 5th grade classroom goes to read to a Kindergarten classroom sometimes when I’m there on Thursday. It is really cute to watch the 5th graders read to the Kindergarteners. My favorite part was watching on particular Kindergartener who was reading the pictures to the 5th grader. I loved watching him read the pictures. It was about bears and one of the pictures was a bear in a tree. The Kindergartener was saying that the bear was climbing the tree but he fell down on a stick and hurt his eye…and he went on. I thought it was interesting to watch him read the pictures in the story.
My Computer
I have been having some difficulty with my computer recently. I do not know why my computer is acting up, but my cursor has been moving on its own for the past couple days. It will start acting up and just move along the screen left, right, up, and down. It moves quickly so I cannot use it at all. It is very difficult to use my computer. Right now I am on my roommates computer. This actually happened a couple of weeks ago but it only happened for a day. If this continues throughout this week, then I am going to need to get my computer checked. Luckily for me, my boyfriend has a laptap and does not really use it a lot. He said I can use his laptop. So hopefully my computer will get better, but if it doesn’t I can use my boyfriend’s laptop while I get my computer checked out.
Poetry
On this past Thursday, my practicum students had to recite a poem. They had to pick one out of four poems to recite. They had three weeks to memorize and prepare for this presentation and it was an important one, a big chunk of their reading grade. The poems were a little long, 5 stanzas or more. My teacher said she was going to do four poems throughout the entire year, so one every nine weeks. Many students did very well reciting their peoms. Some said them a little fast, but they are young and nervous speaking in front of an audience. Others did not do well at all. Some only remembered part of the poem, while others only knew the title or first line. Some did not even know the title of the poem.
I asked some of my fellow education friends if they thought three weeks was too much time for the fifth graders. If they have too much time, they aren’t going to take the time to study and more will wait to the last minute to study. I agree with them and I think my teacher did too because after listening to so many students who obviously waited until the last minute to study, she changed her mind about the poems. She said she would do weekly poems. They would be shorter and present them every week. She would see how her students did with those compared to the first presentation.
Halloween
Yesterday was the last day of October, Halloween. My friends and I decided to go trick-or-treating in our costumes, Legends of the Hidden Temple partners. We had made them for Halloween Houstons Dance, but we also wanted to use them for Halloween. Me and my partner were the Blue Barracudas. We also wore light up necklaces or horns that we took from Kings Dominion after working there. It was a lot of fun trick-or-treating, but a lot of people kept asking us “Aren’t you too old for this?” or “Don’t you have to be this tall?” or just gave us a look like they wanted to say that but didn’t. Some people were really nice and gave us lots of candy. We also went to some houses that were owned by college students, so that was a little embarassing. Overall it was a lot of fun! Afterwards we went back to the house and started watching scary movies (which I don’t like!) But my boyfriend came and we went back to my apartment because he had a headache…which saved me from watching scary movies!!! It was a fun Halloween and I got lots of candy!
Baby!
This past weekend was a busy one. I had to go home, and miss UMW Homecoming weekend, because it was my sis’s senior homecoming and my parents went out of town. So basically, I took pictures of her and her boyfriend and then hung out at the house with my boyfriend and grandma, studying for my midterm Monday and watching the Red Sox game. She had a good homecoming and looked really pretty.
The Red Sox ended up coming back to win three games in a row and are now the ALCS champions and moving on to the World Series! This was exciting, especially for my boyfriend because he is a big Red Sox fan.
But this isn’t even the best news. Yesterday, my boyfriend called me about 2:30 and told me that he was an Uncle! His sister-in-law had her first baby, a boy. I was very excited for them! My boyfriend even texted me a picture of the baby. He is so cute. But very big. He weight 9 pound 7 ounces!
On Campus
I was on campus walking to the Nest with my friend to get some lunch, when someone gave me a brochure. I didn’t know what it was right away, but my friend did and took it from me and threw it away. It was a brochure on abortion by some people who decided to go on campus and spread their views about pro-life and say that people who have had abortions are sinners in the eyes of God. Not only did they have brochures, they had HUGE posters of children who had been aborted all over campus. There was one by GW, two by Trinkle, one by Ball Circle, and three or four by the fountain in between Willard and Virginia. I don’t know if there were any by the library, Jepson or the gym. I didn’t walk over there.
Now, I am a Catholic and I know the rules about birth control and abortion, I went to a Catholic and pro-life high school, but some people take it to the extreme. Those people had no right to come onto our campus and try to place their beliefs in our heads. Brochures are one thing, but those posters were horrendous and I could not look at them. I’m not saying I’m entirely pro-choice, but I’m not entirely pro-life either. I can look at it on both sides and I would say if someone was raped or had something horrible like that happen to them, then they should have the choice to have an abortion or not. My friend I was with knows people who had abortions, some people in their 30′s. She knows that they had to make a decision and it still tears them up inside and they do feel guilty about it, but it was something they had to do. It would make people feel HORRIBLE who had abortions to look at these people who are calling them sinners!
I’ve talked to a few people about this, and most of them agree with my views. I wouldn’t mind if they just handed our brochures, I can just throw it away if I don’t believe what they believe. But the posters are another thing. They are using those posters trying to force their beliefs on other people and I do not think that is acceptable.
I know I am ranting about this but it really upset me. I’m not being heretical because I do believe in God and I am a Catholic, but I choose not to believe in all the strict rules they have set down. I can understand pro-life and I can also understand pro-choice. I think if someone is not careful with their boyfriend and gets pregnant, she should have to keep the baby, but if someone is raped they should have a choice because it was not their choice to be raped and get pregnant.
I think I’m done with my ranting right now. It just ticked me off to see those people all over campus trying to force their ideas to students. This isn’t even a Catholic school so I don’t think they should be here. I think my roommate told me they were here last year and were told to leave, so hopefully that happens soon.
