Teaching assignment & students

Well I haven't blogged in forever so I thought I would blog a little about my teaching assignment for this year. I am teaching all of eighth grade which is awesome because I do not personally like the 7th grade curriculum. Seventh graders are sometimes fun to teach, but the math isn't for me. I am also teaching a new class for me, Geometry. This means loads of planning and taking notes on the content before I actually teach it. I sometimes feel like a new teacher since I am re-teaching myself (with the help of Claudia) Geometry all over again. Last time I saw it was in 9th grade! YIKES!!!

As for my students this year, they all seem awesome and for the most part eager to learn. Of course they all are not super excited to be sitting in my math class, but they are pretty good overall. My double block is sometimes a challenge, but that's what a double block is for. :) Too bad I have them for two and a half hours because our advisory period is not running like it should. So I am keeping a positive attitude with them and I understand they are tired of me and I tired of them. Hopefully we can start to switch kids around because they need a change of environment and teacher as well.

Overall I feel both positive and excited for this year. I feel like a brand new teacher at times (geo) but I also feel that I am becoming a better teacher with the way we are presenting the material. Hopefully I keep up this positive attitude for the rest of the school year. :)

Aquarium of the Pacific

So my sister had two tickets to the Aquarium, so we decided to all go and enjoy the Sunday in Long Beach. It was all of our first time to the Aquarium so it was a great experience. Watching Audrey get super excited about all of the animals was very funny and it was even more exciting to watch her when the ray came up in the water right by her. She laughed and said "that's funny!". She was even more excited when she walked by the "Nemo and Dorry" tank full of fish. So my sister had two tickets to the Aquarium, so we decided to all go and enjoy the Sunday in Long Beach. It was all of our first time to the Aquarium so it was a great experience. Watching Audrey get super excited about all of the animals was very funny and it was even more exciting to watch her when the ray came up in the water right by her. She laughed and said "that's funny!". She was even more excited when she walked by the "Nemo and Dorry" tank full of fish.

Our next trip is definitely Sea World!!!! We want to see all of the shows!’

We ended the day with dinner at Bubba Gump’s…it was delicious!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!!!!

My dad had purchased a kite from Costco a couple of years ago thinking that he would take it with us up to June Lake, CA when we go every summer. Well every year we forget that we have it and we go up there and then remember...Hey we forgot the kite. So now that Audrey is old enough we decided to fly the kite outside one day. My parents have a half acre of land so we had plenty of room to fly it.

It took many attempts to get it up in the air, but we finally did it! Audrey thought it was the greatest thing that Nemo was flying up in the air!

Fruit trees

So my house has many surprises as many of you already know, the latest surprise is that I have a couple of fruit trees. I knew that I had a tangelo tree (orange and tangerine mix) and my friend Claudia figured out that I had a persimmon tree as well. ( I have no idea what to do with persimmons.) I have now discovered that I have a peach tree as well (apparently it's a late bloomer) and I have purchased a nectaplum tree as well. (nectarine and plum mix...delicious!)

So I am going to have lots of fruit with a little extra in some cases. :)

Peaches!!!

Persimmons

Master's in Education X 2

Well as many of you know I have finished my second master's degree in Education Administration. I finished my first master's degree last year in 2009 and during the winter session in '09, Jennifer talked me into starting the second master's degree. I complained A LOT since I really didn't think that I could be a principal or even a vice-principal. I still do not know if this is the path I am supposed to follow, but I do know that if I do I have the master's behind me so I don't have to go back to school.

There are many times when I sit and think, Wow I have two master's degree and there are many teachers out there that do not even have one! I know I am thankful and blessed that I have had the time, money (kinda...thank you Direct Loans), and the support to finish all that I have. So THANK YOU JENNIFER for making me work on the second degree. I know one day it might come in handy and I will be very grateful that I finished it back when I was only 28. :) (After 23 years of school, since kindergarten, I am officially done!!!)

Master's in Education, Curriculum & Instruction 2009

Master's in Education, Education Administration

My family

The "Fab Four"

Arizionians

Math Buddies

She was practicing holding a college degree!

:)

Memorial Day Weekend

So I am finally blogging about my camping (not really camping) trip to June Lake, CA. My parents decided to drive up there for the weekend and I wanted to go as well because I wanted to see it with snow! Well there sure was snow and freezing weather...well not freezing, but sure darn cold! Here are some of the pictures to capture how lovely it was up there.

Chuck E. Cheese

Since I did not blog very much this school year and I have lots of time off, I'm taking the time to blog events that happened this year. The first one is when my mom and I took my niece to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. She was excited and scared at the same time. She loved the music, games and food, but not so much the dancing puppets on the stage or Chuck E. Cheese.

Here are some pictures to enjoy...

My mom making sure she didn't get too scared.

She is dancing to the music, but she would not get any closer.

We told her we were going to go play games and she took off running.

I made her stop and smile!

She loved this ride!

Staring at the screen in concentration.

Her cheesy smile...

She was amazed with the balloons.

She had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again! :)