Student Teaching

I'm officially a student teacher, remember growing up and having student teachers in your class and you always wanted them to go away because they didn't do things "right" like your real teacher. Well I'm the one "doing things all wrong" now. Haha. Actually as it appears, the last couple of classes I have been in have seemed to enjoy having me there so I hope this continues.
I am teaching in a first grade class which isn't a grade I ever saw myself teaching. It's fun so far but I'm starting to feel intimidated. I really like my mentor teacher and I love picking her brain in all aspects of teaching. I love the students, they make me smile at all their fun comments such as..."My Grandpa fought in the Tsunami war, he died last year when he was 82." I heard that this same student told someone else that his Grandpa fought in the civil war. They make me smile. and I get excited about their successes I see everyday.

I feel like I'm being exposed more to what it takes to be an elementary school teacher and it honestly scares me. If all teaching was was teaching this would be the greatest job in the world but I'm really worried about all the extra stuff such as the random commities you must participate in. the many protocals that need to be noted (many of which don't make sense) the way the education is turning into "memorize this becuase it will be on a test," the many required tests that leave no time for quality teaching, and the increasing workload to go along with a decreasing paycheck.
I also know that there is a ton of value in teaching and there are so many wonderful rewards I can look forward to. I love that a seven year old boy, out of nowhere asks.."you know how right now its night time on the other side of the world, I don't get that." I love that these students are curious and excited to learn and it would be my privledge to work with them but I fear I will be incapable, I fear I could fall into the trap of giving one good lesson for every 5 "know this for the test" lessons.
In August when we move back to Oregon, I hope to do some substitute teaching as far as my body let's me with my growing baby. Then, depending on our baby and Max's work situation I plan to sub for the rest of the school year and maybe apply to fulltime jobs the following school year. If Max is working as a firefighter, this is very realistic as he only works two days a week. So this is the plan thus far. Subbing can give me a better idea if this is really what I want to be doing. I sure hope it is because I have spent a lot of time in school preparing for this.

So I don't mean to sound like a downer here, I truely am happy to be teaching and I feel I get to teach in a great class, I only just worry about the teachers of the future and if I will really be able to handle it.

Catching Up...

I miraculously have had a lot of time this week while I have a break from school and Max has been working a million hours... So, I finally got a ton of pictures off our camera and here are a bunch of photos showing what we've been up to the last semester...(at least the things we took pictures of)

Several Months ago we had an Armenian weekend. Anna and Buck came over and we cooked some brashkis. I was so impressed with how they turned out. Completely Armenian!

Max even put our hair up in matching Armenian clips...completely authentic. The next day we went for a wonderful visit with an Armenian couple that just moved here. Hrach and Donara. Hrach was our branch president while I was serving in Gyumri. It was wonderful to visit with them and realize how much I have lost my Armenian.

On another day...we played some dancing kinect game. Max is a dancing champion!

Later...Max competed at state in a job skills competition. He won a silver medal and a chance to go to nationals in Missouri.

We spent general conference weekend doing puzzles.
And...Sometime in February we made a baby.

Happy Easter!

Yesterday was Max's day off so he had a little fun dying and hiding easter eggs. We found out that our friends, Ceci and Nelson Chan, had never dyed eggs or done an Easter egg hunt so we made them join the festivities. They both grew up in Hong Kong but have lived in Utah and Hawaii for the last 5 or so years. We had so much fun!

Then we dried the eggs and hid them for our lovely guests to find. They hunted like pros.
Then they hid the eggs for us and apparently, they are experts at that too...we were stumped when we thought we knew every nook and crannie of our own house.

We continued to hide then find the eggs for several rounds then called it a night.

Thanks for joining our Easter fun!

Summer begins

It's not really summer yet but winter semester is finished for both of us and it is a time of transition. I just finished my last semester of classes before starting student teaching next week while Max finished the first half of his paramedic program and will now spend most of his life doing clinical stuff in fire stations and hospitals. So, needless to say we aren't having much of a summer. We have to be grown ups this year. (Luckily I'm becoming a teacher so I get to have fun summers the rest of my life.)

So, I finished my last 3 finals yesterday, my last final was for social studies and my teacher changed it from a 200 question exam in the testing center to going to the humanitarian center and tying quilts to send to Japan. What a relief!

I will be student teaching at a year-round school this summer. I will be teaching a 1st grade class. I was hoping to get an older grade but I know I will love these kids just the same. I start on Monday. I qualified for Summer student teaching because we plan on moving back to Oregon in August!

Max started his clinicals on monday so I'm pretty much wont be seeing him much this summer. He is scheduled to "work" (I say this loosely because he's paying the school to do all this laborious work) over a hundred hours a week on most weeks. On friday morning he goes to the fire station and doesn't get to come home until monday morning right when I leave to teach. Which means he will be gone all weekend including Easter. I haven't decided what I will do with myslef yet. I will miss him so much. He did however get the next weekend off for our 2-year anniversary!!! I am very excited for the thorough training and education he is recieving and he will be very job ready when he's done at the end of July.

So that's our busy life in a nutshell. I'm excited to almost be graduated!

I want to do anything but homework and dishes right now...Interestingly enough, those are the two most urgent things in my household right now. This last semester is almost over...