I AM D-O-N-E!!!

 

My last class was today, and I am now officially done!!!!  The only thing I have to do now is pick up my student teaching portfolio later this week, then I can say "adios" to LCCC! It is a little sad, in a way, because college, for these past 3 years, has been my "comfort zone" just like EBA was for 13 years of my life! Now, I have to get out of my comfort zone again! It shouldn’t be that bad though….I will continue working at the day care for most of the summer with my wonderful little one-year-olds. Later in August, I will spend the month preparing for my kindergarten class. I still can’t believe that I will be teaching at EBA! I have always dreamed of someday returning as a teacher, but, of course, EBA isn’t that big of a school, so I thought I would never have an opportunity. Well, now I am starting my career teaching kindergarten in the same classroom where I was taught kindergarten….weird  

 

Today, after class, we had a "tea" in celebration of my student teaching professor officially becoming a "professor" of the college, not just an assistant professor. The main professor of the ECE department has been out this whole semester because she is battling cancer. However, my professor, Laura Segatti, has done a GREAT job taking over practically everything this semester. She has been one busy lady! I am posting some pictures of her being "honored" today. I also posted a group picture of some of the girls in my student teaching class. We have been through a lot together!!! These girls also were in my other class with the HUGE workshop. We are soooo glad to be done!!

The other picture is a photo of Tabby and me. Tabby and I have been through ALL the ECE classes together these past 3 years. We hit it off the first day of class when we had NO CLUE what we were doing, and we have stuck together through it all  I’ll definitely miss her!

 

Ummm…I guess I’ll explain the picture of me looking "sad" by the snack machine. Practically every class during our break, Tabby and I would stand in front of the snack machine and just look at all the snacks trying to make up our minds as to what to buy. There are a lot of choices you know  We were both bad at making decisions! Anyway, I would ALWAYS look for honey mustard pretzels. I would be sooo disappointed when they weren’t there. So, today, we decided to go to the snack machine one last time together. I had Tabby take a picture of me in front of it because they didn’t have my honey mustard pretzels!! I was sooo sad!  Hey, it’s a memory I’ll always cherish.  

My workshop is….

OVER!!!!!!

 

I thought I’d never make it to this day! All this past week, I have been working practically nonstop on preparing for this workshop. As I said in my last post, my workshop partner called me on Tuesday night and told me she was in the hospital. Well, that put an interesting twist on things. Thankfully, my professor found a replacement to help me. The girl contacted me right away and told me that she was really excited and looking forward to it. Last night, my whole family came to help me set up the room (they didn’t have to be bribed with candy…although they did take a few pieces!!!) This whole week I have felt ready, prepared, and organized about this workshop. I enter the classroom last night, and go completely blank. What am I doing? THIS IS IT!!!!!! Well, despite my panicked state of mind, we got a lot set up and then went home around 10:30. Needless to say, I didn’t really get a lot of sleep last night thinking about this workshop.  So after getting up feeling "refreshed" for my day, I headed off to LCCC at 7 a.m. I was able to set some more stuff up, then I met my new workshop partner for the first time. She was REALLY nice, and she had that optimistic, bubbly attitude which was just what I needed! (I think the Lord knew that I needed her to be my partner today) So anyway, we looked around at the other workshops, and then finished setting up our room. Then, the waiting began. When the first group entered the room, the first thing they spotted was the candy…..let’s just say, they got generous helpings of that before I started my "welcoming speech". We were told to be prepared for 30-35 students, but I think our total number for 3 groups was 45!!! What a blessing! The first group we had 21, the second we had 15, and the last group we only had 9 because some had to leave early. I was all "prepared" for rude, crude teenagers, but other than the first group generously helping themselves to handfuls of candy and trying to paint each other instead of the paper, all three groups were great and actively engaged. They loved all the activities we did with them, and the time just flew by! After the workshop was over, a lot of girls offered to help me clean up the room and take things out to my car, which was really nice of them. So all in all, it was a lot of fun. My professor kept on telling us throughout the semester, that when it was all over, we would wish to do it again. We were all like, ‘sure, yeah right’, but she was right as always! It wasn’t that bad, and it was actually FUN…what was I worried about? The Lord definitely took care of all the details. 

 

After we got done putting stuff in my car, we went over to the other building and had pizza and soda in celebration. We then had our LAST student teaching class…..I can’t believe how fast this semester has flown by!! We even had a mini graduation, where our professor presented each of us with flowers and a "graduation speech" of sorts. It was nice….to think that I won’t be seeing these girls again…although I can’t say never, because this is definitely a small world! We sure had lots of fun this semester stressing out together!

 

Just what I needed to hear…

I get a phone call tonight from my workshop partner…

 

"Hi, Becky, I just wanted to let you know that I am in the hospital."

 

GREAT!  What next?!!!! She has a medical condition where she gets so sick at times she ends up in the hospital for 5-7 days. Today is her 2nd day there. She feels really bad that it happened so close to the workshop, and she hopes she can get out by Thursday or Friday. However, I am not crossing my fingers  I e-mailed my professor to give her a heads up about the situation, and we shall see what she has to say about the matter. Being in charge of a workshop with 30-35 high school students on my own is not sounding too pleasant right about now.

 

Now I am really serious…any of you who want to be a true friend can come help me and be my partner for this workshop…..remember, I HAVE CANDY!!!!  

 

I am sure my professor can work something out, though. She has done this many years in a row and I am sure she has dealt with a lot of issues!!

 

All I can do is keep reminding myself that God is in control, and He knew that this was going to happen long before tonight!!!

Is it considered bribery when….

…you offer LOTS of candy to a bunch of high school students just so they love your workshop????? Could the saying be true that "A way to a student’s heart is by offering them candy?"

 

Hmmmmm…..we shall see!!!

 

Actually, I was originally just going to offer apple flavored candy because of the Apple theme and everything, but then I got to thinking….what if there is a student who hates apple flavored candy??!!!  Horror of horrors that I would displease anyone….oh, yes, one of these days I have to face reality….I CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE!!!

 

Well, I can try at least

 

So if you want to be a great friend…you can offer to come help me set up on Thursday night…9 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. and I might just "bribe" you with some candy!!

 

Doesn’t it look yummy?! Do you think any of it will be left after about 100 high school students pass through the workshop???

 

Counting Down the Days…

In celebration of almost being done with school, I thought I would create a blog to post some pictures of this past semester.  I have told many stories about my "little cherubs" at day care, and since I know all my friends are just DYING to see photos of them  I thought I’d post some.

 

 Although I did my student teaching with the young toddlers (one year olds), I had to do a project with the preschool children for my one class. We made cinnamon applesauce ornaments (which is one of the activities I’ll be doing with the high school students this Friday…we’ll see how it goes….the preschool loved it!!!) Don’t be deceived by these cute little faces…they are definitely a "challenging bunch"

 

I posted a bunch of pictures of my toddlers for you to see…I love them dearly, but just by looking at some of these "angelic" faces, you can tell that they are full of mischief…what can I do to make Miss Becky go crazy, get flustered and turn bright red?  Hmmmm….let’s just say, they know EXACTLY what they are doing! Oh, yes….gotta love them!

 

For my student teaching class, I had to do a child portfolio on one of the toddlers in the classroom. I chose a girl named Elena. She is full of energy and she certainly knows how to test the limits!!! She is one smart, cute little girl, though, and I learned a lot about her this semester!

 

Last, but certainly NOT least, I posted some pictures of the classroom where my workshop is going to be held. Isn’t it a rather dull, boring, ugly room? Hopefully, it will look a lot different once we set up the workshop! As a HUGE final project, we get paired up to do a high school workshop. My partner and I have an Apple theme for our workshop. About 200-250 high school students from schools around the area will be coming this Friday, April 27, for these workshops. I think there are nine workshops altogether. We each do 3 workshops with 30-35 students, and each workshop is 20 minutes long. We have to make a bunch of things to fill up the classroom….I will not spend time making a list of all the things that I have to make and bring along, but if you look at the picture of the pile in my room…you can see that it is a lot of stuff!!! We will be doing 3 hands-on activities with the students…one being the cinnamon applesauce ornaments I did with the preschool. This workshop is basically to promote the Early Childhood Education department at LCCC, and hopefully, "encourage" some of these students to enroll in the program. I guess it also benefits us by teaching us how to be professional and how to work together as a team (hahahaha!) It has definitely been a new experience for me to be the leader instead of the follower. I have had to make practically all the decisions for the workshop…how the room should be arranged, what projects to do…my partner has the "whatever, it doesn’t matter to me" kind of attitude….yeah  Oh, well!!! If I survive all this it will be a miracle….and if I hear the word APPLE after this workshop, I will literally scream (if you know me at all, you know that if I scream, it’s gotta be bad!!)

 

So enjoy looking at the pictures…I will be sure to post the "after" pictures of the workshop….that is, if I am still alive after all this is over!!!!