Part 3: My friends on the Metro

      In this post I would like to tell you about the people on the Metro.  Every day my train would stop at the Pentagon and every day I thought of how grateful I was for the soldiers (getting on and getting off) and their sacrifice.  It was always a good morning when I would see a friend from my ward waiting for the train as well.  A friendly smile can mean so much to one who is travelling alone.  After awhile I also started to notice other riders on the Metro that I would see almost every day.  This is probably due to my hobby of people watching.  There were three people that stood out to me in particular - Bob, Mr. Hayfever, and the German Professor.  Those are not their real names but that is how I came to know them.
      Bob was a pleasant young fellow, probably in his late twenties.  We never actually talked, in fact I don't think he ever even noticed me.  He was too engrossed in his music.  Whatever he was listening to every morning at 7 a.m., it must have been good because he would just ride along and bob his head along with the beat.  Therefore,  meet Bob.
      Mr. Hayfever and I would ride the Metro home from work quite often.  I hadn't ever particularly noticed him until the spring when all the trees were in bloom.  The poor guy had really bad allergies.  One day he didn't stop sneezing for at least two stops, so I casually brought up the topic of allergies and gave him the same honey remedy I suggest to everyone with allergies - just a spoonful of honey makes the allergies go away.  I saw him a few times after that day and he seemed to be feeling much better.
      Last but not least was the German Professor.  He was an older man who always studied German on the Metro.  He could have been a student or a professor, but he seemed more of the professor type to me.  Actually how I "met" him was quite funny.  When my BFF Annie came out to visit we went to the Spy Museum and while there saw a lot of little clips about being a spy.  One such clip was detecting suspects that were in disguise.  A couple days after she left, I was sitting there on the Metro and I noticed that the person sitting in the side seat in front of me was studying German.  I looked up and thought to myself that he looked just like one of the suspects from the clip in the Spy Museum.  I let my imagination run a little wild as I day dreamed about how being a German Professor might be his cover.  I never asked him though.  It didn't seem like a good idea. Hahaha

Part 2: Spring Break

      Let us begin our tale of Spring Break on Friday March 30.  It was a beautiful half day and as soon as I possibly could I left school and went home.  It being the last day of the term and all there were quite a few students that stayed after school for an hour or so to turn in some last minute make-up work trying to save their grades.  All that grading that rolled in took a backseat to my TWS.  I had to write a paper for my professors about a 4-day lesson unit.  When I got home Friday night it was determined to finish it.  I worked and worked and typed and typed and listened to music until about 2 in the morning.  I still had about an hour left to go but I was exhausted.  So I went to sleep and woke up early Saturday morning to finish it.  by the time I finished the sucker, it was 24 pages long and 11534 words.  Yeah. That's long. Really long.  But I finished it and as long as I pass it I never have to do it again.
      Saturday and Sunday was General Conference which means I spent eight hours sitting on my bed watching conference on my laptop.  Between sessions on Saturday I went to the grocery store and picked up some supplies for a top secret craft project.  Saturday night after conference, I worked on my craft project.  An arrangement of pressed cherry blossoms in a frame for all the important women in my life.  My roommates failed at a few attempts at an April Fool's Day joke.  I guess the joke was on them.  One of my roommates rented a movie from Redbox and we watched it together that night.  Sunday was a repeat of Saturday with the second half of conference, more of my cherry blossom project, and a walk back to Redbox to return the movie.  This would start a tradition of renting movies that lasted for the rest of our stay in D.C.
      Monday my roommates Sarah and Kate and I went and did a little sight seeing after we mailed in our TWS's.  The others went to NYC for a few days so we stuck together and had great time.  On Monday we went to the National Museums of Art (modern and European).  We also discovered the Botanical Gardens, a beautiful little spot right in the middle of the hub-bub of D.C. but completely separated from the hub-bub.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we found a nice little table to sit at and enjoy the sunshine and have a pleasant conversation together.  We had sushi for dinner (I just had teriyaki chicken) and rented a movie from Redbox again. This time we got "In Time".  Tuesday we did what girls do best - shopping, in Old Town no less. We spent the afternoon trying on clothes and stopping in many shops.  We went home and rented another movie from Redbox. We got the one we wanted this time - "Footloose". AMAZING!!  Definitely worth the wait and several trips to Redbox.  Tuesday evening our other roommates came home and we all went to Kelli's soccer game.  Marie and I made up the entire cheering section. It was a fun game and when we got home I packed my bags to get ready for my flight home the next morning.
     Wednesday I spent the day travelling.  I made it home by 4 pm.  Had dinner and went to Provo to hang out with a friend after they got off work.  Jet lag was determined to slow me down but I wouldn't let it.  I went back down to Provo on Thursday and ate lunch with my friend.  Friday I went shopping with my mom and dad.  I got a new dress for Easter.  Saturday morning was Jackson's baptism.  I was beautiful and I was so proud of him.  I was really glad that I could be home to be a part of his special day.  Saturday afternoon we dyed Easter eggs.  We had our first spill ever on Woogie's new carpet.  It was amazing.  No one got upset or mad.  Everyone just got up and started helping and would you believe it, not a single drop of blue dye stained the beige carpet.  Sunday was Easter. It was a great day and we had dinner at my grandma and grandpa's house - prime rib and twice baked potatoes with strawberry cream pie for dessert, my favorite!  Monday I was at the airport by 5 and spent the last day of my Spring Break making my way back to D.C.  School would start up again on Tuesday, my last week.  The bittersweet-ness is already setting in.

Last week of teaching

      I got behind again so I will end my story with four parts.  This is Part One.  The last week of teaching was fun.  A lot of my time outside of school was dedicated to grading and writing my TWS. What is a TWS? Good question.  It's a 24 page 11,534 word paper on a four day lesson sequence.  I taught the lessons at the end of January and it took me until the end of March to finish it.  It took hours of reflection and revision and music.  School was entertaining.  The last two days of school, my Algebra II students had presentations on a mathematician of their choice.  They are so funny! I loved watching them express their personalities in their presentations and show their creativity.  My Pre-calculus classes and I were working on verifying trigonometric identities, not the most exciting of tasks but by the end of the week they were so good at it.  We even did a problem about Bill Cosby.  They loved it and more importantly they got it! I was so proud of them.  The students that usually struggle and don't participate very much were volunteering to work problems out on the board.  At the end the section I reminded that the most important thing to take away was that if you try one way and it doesn't work, try a different way and if that way doesn't work, pick another way and KEEP TRYING!
      On Tuesday (March 27th) we did something kind of exciting.  We marched to the White House as a school to raise awareness about the death of Trayvon Martin.  The students organized the march and we as a faculty supported them.  It was interesting to see a group of young people so passionate about something.  I was glad that I could support them and also support the students that chose not to march.  It was quite the experience.  You always see/hear of these things happening on the news, but this time I saw it with my own eyes.
      With the end of the week came the end of the third advisory.  With the end of the third advisory came a lot of make-up work.  Most of the work came from the test corrections from my Pre-calculus classes.  We had to rush to squeeze those in, so naturally they all came in on the last day.  We also had to get all the students from Europe caught up, or at least the four or five that actually came back to school for the two days before Spring Break.  Can you blame the ones that didn't come back though? I mean we all had Spring Break fever two weeks ago and it's only getting worse.  My case took a severe turn for the worse when my parents surprised me with plane tickets home for Easter, but that gets into Spring Break which is Part Two. Cliff hanger!! :)

Spring has sprung in D.C.

      This week was much calmer than last week and I spent as little time walking as possible.  Nothing too exciting happened at school.  I gave my first test in Pre-Calculus and started my third chapter with Algebra II.  I'm only going to teach 3 of my classes two more times.  Crazy! The term ends on Friday, so we'll have a half day and it's the last day of school before Spring Break.  Any guesses as to how many kids don't show up?  A lot of my students were gone by the end of this week on various school trips.  I'm kind of jealous of the kids that went to Europe.  They will be gone up until the day before Spring Break.  I ask myself, "What's the point in them coming back? It's not like they can make up all the work they missed in one day. Lucky ducks."  I did get a little break.  Today was professional development day, so I didn't have to plan any lessons for today.  Yay! And as if that wasn't exciting enough, I got to go to a very scrumptious brunch this morning.  I love food!  I got to sleep in an hour, got a tasty meal and our meeting got out an hour early.  From our meeting, I walked to the Tidal Basin and took pictures of the cherry blossoms with all the other 4 zillion people there.  Despite the crowds, I think I got a few that are worth framing.  I came home from my little stroll and starting working on my Teacher Work Sample.  It's a portfolio of a unit that I taught that I have to turn in to BYU.  If I don't pass it, I don't graduate. No pressure.  I'm about two thirds done now.  All I've got left is the hard part.  Joy.  Oh and I did a little job hunting this week too.  I've got fingers crossed for some things to work and I've got my toes crossed for extra luck on others.  The semester's starting to wind down and April is coming fast.  Before I know it, I'll be home.  I've got to make the most of these last few weeks (25 days to be exact, but who's counting?)  This is my time to shine and live it up.  I've got miles to go and promises to keep, but for right now, it's time for me to go to sleep.

The buddies laughed as they walked and walked and walked and walked....

      Sorry it's been so long but let me catch you up on what I've been doing.  I've been walking and teaching and walking and grading and walking and planning and walking. Did I mention that I've been doing a little walking?  You see, my best friend from high school, Annie, spent her Spring Break out here with me.  She flew in last Friday morning and as soon as I got out of school the week of walking began.  She and her uncle (Uncle Keith who happens to be in my Stake Presidency) picked me up from school and we went to lunch and then the National Zoo.  It was a beautiful springy day and it was so nice to see Annie.  The zoo was a blast! We laughed and cracked jokes and had the best time.  Then Uncle Keith took us to the temple so we could see it.  We got there just in time to see it in the most beautiful light that comes at the beginning of the sunset.  From the temple we went to Uncle Keith's house to stay the night, grabbing a few groceries on the way.  We dropped off our groceries and then went to dinner.  I had almost forgotten what real food tasted like.  We went back to the house and we got to hear some of Uncle Keith's stories about all the cool places he's lived (Mexico City, Brazil, Beijing, Thailand...) By about 10:00 we were all exhausted and a little after 11:00 we were all in bed.
       For the first time in 2 moths I slept in a comfortable bed in the most beautiful room. The windows in the room were on the east side of the house so I woke up around 8:30 to the sun shining on me, feeling perfectly rested.  Annie and I got ready for the day, had our breakfast and Uncle Keith took us to Mount Vernon.  The second time around was even better.  We walked around the entire grounds and had a grand time laughing with each other.  At one point the three of us got the giggles at something one of the workers said.  When they send you on tours of the mansion, they break you up into groups.  Well this particular worker informed us that they "typically break you up into groups of between 20 and 21 people".  We all waited until she was out of ear shot and then laughed at the idea of 20.5 people in a group.  After the tour of the mansion, Uncle Keith left us to explore the rest of the grounds and the museums.  Then Annie and I walked two miles along the George Washington Parkway Trail.  It's a pedestrian trail that goes through the woods between the Potomac River and the George Washington Parkway.  We called Uncle Keith and he met us at the 2-mile check point, picked us up and from there we went to Old Town.
      We did a driving tour first.  We saw all up and down King and Duke street and stopped for a photo shoot at the George Washington Memorial Masonic Temple.  Then we drove back to King Street and did a little shopping and had dinner.  After dinner Uncle Keith drove Annie and I to my apartment.  We took our stuff upstairs to my place and then walked to the grocery store for more food and brought it home.  Then we went upstairs and borrowed a mattress from the other girls in our group. We brought it back down to my apartment, got it set up and crawled into bed around midnight.
      Well with the long week of teaching beforehand, two straight days of adventure and Daylight Savings Time, I slept through my alarm and we missed my ward.  So we got up and walked to church to catch sacrament meeting with the ward that meets after mine.  Then we walked home and changed back into our adventure outfits.  We started our adventure by walking back to the grocery store to get the groceries that I left there the night before (oops!).  Then we jumped on the Metro and went to Arlington Cemetery.  We walked around there for a bit, watched the changing of the guard and two wreath laying ceremonies, and went to the burial site of JKF.  Then we walked back to the Metro and went to the Pentagon Memorial walked around there for a while and walked home.
      Monday I went to school and when the day was over, I walked to the Mall and met up with Annie where we continued to walk until Annie got pooped on by a bird.  Perhaps it wasn't very nice of me, but I laughed so hard.  She FLIPPED! She really doesn't like dirt or germs and that almost did her in.  We promptly walked to the Metro and came home so she could change her clothes.  A little while later her cousin Betsy picked us up and took us to dinner. Mmm! Pizza!! It was so tasty! After dinner Betsy took us to see Iwo Jima (the Marines monument).  When she dropped us off at my place we made plans for another outing Wednesday evening to see the Mall at night.  I was very excited for that!  We got up to my apartment and once again I collapsed.
      Tuesday I got early again and went to school.  After school I walked to meet up with Annie again.  We went home dropped off my heavy backpack and headed out for Old Town again.  This time we got to take our time and not have to worry about boring Uncle Keith with all our shopping. We walked up and down King Street, did some real shopping mostly for Annie's souvenirs and a lot of window shopping.  Then we came home and Annie helped me with my grading.  We tried to get to bed kind of early because we had a big ahead of in the morning. Annie was going to come to school with me for Pi Day!
      So we woke up around 5:30 and got ready for school.  We got to school and had a Pi Day party with my first period class.  Some of them thought that it was lame and that they were too cool for it but I think they're just being dumb teenagers.  They need to learn to have a little fun.  The rest of us had a grand ol' time eating pie, listening to a cheesy song about pi and I read them a children's book about pi.  I think the party went off without a hitch.  Second period was homeroom and they made waffles.  Third period I had planning period so Annie and I walked to Georgetown for some cupcakes.  Mmm! Clearly today is not about eating healthy :)  We ate our cupcakes and I walked Annie back to the Metro so she could go to a museum before going to meet up with Betsy for lunch.  Then I walked back to school and had another Pi Day party with my fourth period class.  From school, I went to my weekly seminar where we ate more pie since the majority of us are math teachers.  After the seminar I walked to the Metro and met up with Betsy and Annie for our nighttime tour of the Mall.  We parked the car and walked around the Lincoln, Korean and Vietnam Memorials.  Then we got back in the car and drove to the Tidal Basin where we walked around the FDR Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.  I got to see my very first cherry blossoms! They are so pretty!!  After our tour, we went to dinner, had another piece of pie and then Betsy took us home.  We walked in the front door of my apartment at 11:45 (fifteen minutes before midnight), kind of late for a school night, but it was SO worth it.
      By Thursday morning I was starting to feel it.  All this walking and burning the candle at both ends and in the middle was starting to wear me out, but I wasn't throwing in the towel yet.  I still had Annie for two more days and I had to make the most of them.  Thursday I got observed by my supervisor again. She said that I keep improving which made me really happy. After school I walked to the International Spy Museum and met Annie for our last full day of fun.  We crawled in air ducts, took a couple forbidden pictures, walked some more and laughed a lot.  We stayed until it closed and then walked to the Metro and came home.  We cooked dinner which we were too tired to eat and crashed around 10:30.
      Friday, I woke up telling myself I only had to make it to 12:30.  I had fourth period planning so I was going to leave school at lunch to see Annie off.  One of my students from third period pushed my buttons and I almost went to get the principal to handle the situation, but we got it resolved and the period ended.  I've never been so excited for the weekend in my life.  My sanity was slipping through my fingers and I had had all that I could take.  I needed a break.  I ended up having to stay through lunch to help students but at least they were the nice ones.  When I got my chance, I booked it out of there! I met up with Annie at the Mall again.  We walked to the Metro and went home so she could finish packing.  Then I saw her off to the airport, went back to my apartment and took the rest of the weekend off.  I posted a few pictures of our week, took it easy and went to bed extremely early (9:30).  I slept straight through the night until 8:30 the next morning.  Feeling well rested again, I woke up got ready for the day, put on my St. Patty's Day socks, and got to work.  I did all my laundry, cleaned my room, and spent the remainder of the day grading papers while watching movies.
      Today was the first time I left my apartment since Friday.  I went to church, came home, read a little Narnia, went to lunch at the second councilor in my bishopric's house, came back home, put on my sweats and resumed the lesson planning and paper grading.  Well folks there you have it.  The week of walking and laughter.  It's been the most intense week I've had out here, but it's also been the most fun.  I think I'll give my feet some time before I do that again though.  I have 9 school days left to teach and 29 days until I come home.  The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to burn bright but I've got miles to go before I'll have everything done and be ready to come home.

I'm rather fond of walking.

      Since I've been out here, I've traveled many miles and most of it has been on foot. I'm good really good at walking places.  I've learned how to get by without a car.  Since I'm out hoofing it around D.C. everyday, I've realized something.  I love going on walks! Not just a little bit. A lot! I love to just take my time and take it all in! The neighborhoods are my favorite.  They are so quaint and quiet.  The houses are beautiful!  It's kind of funny that I would come all this way to see the sights of our nation's capitol and fall in love with the neighborhoods in the suburbs.

Cell Phone Police, Cool Points and My First Trip

      What a week!  I got so pumped for Pi Day (March 14 because it's 3.14).  I already have the festivities planned, but I can't tell you right now.  It would spoil the surprise.  So, you'll just have to wait for another week and a half.  Get excited though. It's going to be epic!:)  This week, I felt like I really took on the role of teacher.  It felt more natural and things just started coming to me.  I caught 4, count them FOUR girls in a single class with their cell phones.  I have to admit that I almost laughed.  I mean, either they weren't all that sneaky or I have a sixth sense.  It was awesome!! It actually gave me an opportunity to talk to those girls after class and get them on my side a little more and the rest of the week I saw a big difference.  Speaking of students and seeing a big difference....my one student that I was having problems with had a much better week after I contacted her parents.  That's a tally in the win column folks! Whoo!  I'm on a roll!!
      After school on Wednesday, I was helping a student and she gave me three cool points, two of which came from having "There's a whole in the bucket" on my iPod and playing it for her. Looks like Chloe will be in the running for favorite.  Just kidding! But I really am grateful for students like her that will laugh with me through my mistakes , be patient with me through the rough times, and have fun with me and enjoy the good times. It's those kinds of students that make teaching so worthwhile.  I love feeling cool even if she thinks I'm a little crazy. :)
      After helping Chloe, I got on the Metro and went back to my apartment.  There was a quartet singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" at the entrance of the Metro Station and it put me in an even better mood.  I was all aglow.  Life could not get better.  I got off the Metro still floating somewhere between cloud 8 and 9, when I came crashing down....literally.  For the first time since I've been out here, in my life and possible in the history of man kind, I tripped up the escalator.  Who does that?! All you have to do is stand there and it will do the work for you.  Well apparently I was a little too excited to stand still, so I decided to walk up it.  Now I usually walk up the escalator, so I've had plenty of practice but we all know how little grace I have.  It was bound to happen.  But don't worry, there's more to the story.  So after tripping and catching myself with my hands just in time to save my face from meeting the steps of the escalator, I thought I had better try to play it cool and keep trucking.  I took one more step and what should happen?  My shoe goes flying down the escalator behind me.  Right in the middle of rush hour, really?  It's like my subconscious wanted to play Cinderella or something.  The Metro Station during rush hour is most definitely not the time or place for that.  The worst thing is that there's no pulling that one off or covering it up.  You're going to get caught.  And get caught I did by the man behind me who coincidentally caught my shoe.  He was kind enough to walk it up to me, but I didn't have time to get it on before I reached the end of the escalator.  So, for fear of being trampled I continued to walk looking very guilty with one shoe on and the other in my hand.  All the man said to me was "One of those days, huh?" to which I promptly replied, "Oh yeah. It's Wednesday."  "It's the third Monday of the week." was his friendly reply before we went our separate ways.  I walked the rest of the way to my apartment with a bruised hand and a wounded pride laughing all the way.
      The rest of the week was more like fourth and fifth Mondays as the shoe catcher would've called them.  I struggled with counting and saying words in the right order or simple mundane everyday things but my students and I got a few good laughs out of my week full of Mondays.  I know there were a few rough weeks, but I feel like those are behind me for the most part.  I'm sure challenges still lay ahead, but I feel like I can take them on now.  There's only 18 school days left to teach.  I can look back now and see how far I've come and I feel good about it.  No, I am not the perfect teacher.  I'm not even half the teacher that I want to be one day, but I am twice the teacher that I was and that's the important thing.  It's crazy to think that next month I will be coming home.  It's coming so fast and I'm excited and at the same time I feel like I'm just getting the swing of things out here.  Luckily I still have this month to live it up and make it all count. :)

Whatever happened to 9 to 5?

      Seriously.  Teaching is more like a 5 to 9 job.  My alarm goes off at 5:30 (I usually hit snooze a few times), I go to school, I teach and grade and plan all day, I come back to my apartment around 5, I keep planning and grading, and finally around 9:30 I take a minute or two for myself and get ready for bed.  The next morning, I do it all over again.  I don't mind being busy though.  It makes me feel accomplished and it makes the time pass by a little faster.  I do wish that I had a little more time to go out and see things.  By the time the weekend comes I'm usually too tired to do much.
      Over the long weekend, I spent Saturday afternoon shopping with my roommates.  I bought a new pink cardigan for Spring and wore it the very next day at church.  I did a little grocery shopping and a little more than a little skyping.  Monday on my day off I skyped some more, graded the tests my class took on Friday, and watched a couple movies.  Having something fun going on in the background makes it easier to focus.  I know it sounds backwards, but I've found that I work much better when there is something that I enjoy going on in the background.
      Last week was....a week.  My mentor was out of town on Tuesday, so I taught all day again.  That will be a regular thing soon so it's a good thing the student and I are getting used to it.  Wednesday I met with a parent about their student's grade on the test (she didn't do so hot).  Thursday I got observed by my supervisor and I felt really good about my lesson.  In fact, I kinda thought it rocked.  It wasn't perfect but I was so pumped afterwards.  Thursday was rough.  I've been having a hard time with the girl that didn't do well on her test.  It's not a recent thing, but it's gotten a lot worse since the test.  I felt like no matter how hard I tried and no matter what I did, I was never going to be able to respect me.  Friday I got a chance to talk to her and she admitted to not liking me. Um....OK but I still want her to respect me.  I didn't push the issue though.  Saturday I went back to school to help with the admissions interviews.  The best comparison for the process came from the parent of a child that we interviewed - speed dating.  The student would come in and the panel would ask them 5 questions, score them based on their answer, send them out, and call the parents in to ask them a couple questions.  The whole process was only supposed to take 15 minutes per student.  At one point, we were 15 minutes ahead.  I actually enjoyed spending my Saturday doing that.  I got to talk to some of my students more.  They even invited me to eat lunch with them.  How cute are they!  Sunday was Stake Conference.  I left the meeting pumped for General Conference from H. David Burton's talk and excited about being a woman from Richard G. Scott's talk.  April can't come fast enough for me now :)  I spent the rest of Sunday feeding myself spiritually.  I listened to a few conference talks, listened to hymns, and read Chronicles of Narnia.
      That brings us to today.  The girl that I've been having a hard time with starting talking back and swearing so I had to contact her parents.  I was busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest the rest of the school day.  It was such a weird Monday.  Everyone was surprisingly hyper.  Someone must have slipped a little extra sugar in their coffee this morning.  Now I'm back at my apartment getting ready to write a couple lesson plans and hopefully go to bed a little early. Three more hours and it's quitting time. :)

I made it......barely.

     I can that weeks like this one that try teachers' souls.  I've been frustrated, let down, discouraged, disrespected, and worn out.  I've burned the candle at both ends. I feel like I have been trying so hard to fit the several different molds of the teacher that everyone else wants me to be that I've had to give up on being the teacher that I want to be.  I've dreamed of being a fun teacher that students love.  Instead I find myself being strict and cross because the students are disrespectful and whose favorite teacher is the grumpy one?  I know that a lot of how I'm feeling right now has to do with being stressed with a busy week.  Hopefully next week will be a little better. It's bound to be because, well for one thing it can't get much worse (knock on wood) and secondly it's a short week because we don't have school on Monday. Happy President's Day to me!!!
      Thursday was actually quite nice.  There was a little chaos and mayhem at school over drug/alcohol use and possession.  The principal had assemblies with each of the classes. I was teaching during the Freshman and Sophomore one and then I had planning during the one for Juniors and Seniors.  My mentor teacher didn't go so I just stayed back with her.  It was the talk of the school though.  The kids were all worked up about it.  My fourth period wanted to spend some time talking about it, but I didn't think that was a very good idea.  The last thing anybody needed was to get even more worked up.  So we learned the Binomial Theorem instead :) When I got back to my apartment after school, I made dinner and settled down with a good movie. I was giving a test the next day so I didn't have any lesson planning to do. I took the opportunity to have a night off.  What movie did I watch? I'm glad you asked. I proudly say on my couch and watched "Winnie the Pooh" on my laptop.  My roommates made a few comments that suggested their disapproval, but clearly they don't understand the joy that comes from Winnie the Pooh. I laughed out loud through most of it and enjoyed every minute of it.  I don't get a chance to laugh that hard very often out here.  It felt so nice to really let loose and have a good laugh for a change.  It felt so good in fact that I kept laughing even after the funny part ended.
      Today was the roughest day at school by far.  The test went great during period.  I haven't graded the tests yet but the students were angels and I wasn't even nervous. Second period was Pre-calculus. Since my mentor went out of town again, I was covering the lesson for her.  It was just a review for their mid chapter test.  We had a really good time.  We were cracking jokes and having fun.  I really liked it.  It was a great day...then I went to third period.  I don't want to dwell on it so let's just leave it at this: a student mouthed off and called me disrespectful for talking to another student trying to get him on task while she did a problem on the board, I had to take a girl's cell phone and ipod away, and that same girl tried to run out of class and then laughed at me for stepping between her and the door.  At that point I had had enough.  I put the marker down, reminded them all that if they wanted me to respect them, they had to respect me, gave them an assignment to do silently at their seats, and tried not to cry the rest of the period.  It was awful.  It took me awhile to not be upset about it anymore but by the end of lunch I was feeling better.   When the day was over, I beat half the students out of the building.  I all but washed my hands of that place today.
      But it's the weekend and the weekend is no time to be down. So, I went back to my apartment,had some ice cream, had a little nap and watched a movie with my roommates and Anna.  I'm so glad Anna came.  I would've been miserable without her.  We watched "Breaking Dawn", not the movie I would've chosen just because of what I've heard of it.  I can say I've watched it now though and I don't ever have to watch it again.  I feel like they spent too much time focusing on all the wrong parts, but it was fun to watch together and have a good time with my roommates and Anna, AND I only had one piece of chocolate.  After the week I've had, I find that impressive. :) I'm not sure what adventures I'll get to go on this weekend, but I can't wait for them! I'm ready to do a little exploring! :)

busy. Busy. BUSY!

      As you might have guessed, I've been really busy. I've been so busy that busy doesn't seem to be a strong enough adjective.  Things have been a little on the crazy side.  My mentor teach went out of town last weekend so she was gone Friday of last week and Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Because she wasn't going to be in school I had to prepare lesson plans for Algebra II AND Pre-calculus.  In that time, I got observed by my supervisor twice.  I've been teaching all day at school, staying late to help students, going back to my apartment, planning lessons and grading papers, going to bed, waking up before the sun so I can get to school early and do it all over again.  Needless to say, I came home on Friday after a long and stressful week at school, put on my sweats and hunkered down for the weekend.  I was too pooped to be overly social and just felt like a little down time would do me some good, so I stayed in and enjoyed the me-time.

      This week it's been more of the same. Going to school early, teaching all day, staying late, grading papers, and planning lessons.  This week I've also written my first test.  I'm giving it on Friday.  I'M GIVING MY FIRST TEST EVER ON FRIDAY! and I'm terrified.  I'm worried about my students.  I don't want them to do poorly.  I'm so nervous for them. A little piece of my heart breaks when they don't do well on their daily quizzes. This is a test.  It's a much bigger kettle of fish.  I have a feeling I'm going to need to have a little ice cream handy when I'm grading them this weekend.  My mentor teacher is going out of town again this weekend, so I'll be back behind the big wheel Friday and next Tuesday (thank heavens for a 3-day weekend!).  I guess in this case the test is a good thing because it gives me a little extra time for lesson planning so I won't feel too swamped...I hope. Wish me luck!

Yesterday? Don't ask. Today? Much better.

      Yesterday was the roughest day of school yet.  I had to reteach synthetic division because there was some miscommunication and misinterpretation last Thursday.  The kids weren't happy and I could tell that some of them just don't like me at all.  My mentor teacher even pointed out that she could sense a mutiny brewing.  That was less comforting.  When I asked her for suggestions of what I could do to avoid a catastrophe she had nothing.  It wasn't that she didn't have suggestions.  It was that she didn't think they would work.  I left school feeling discouraged and very low in spirits.  I felt like a failure in every sense of the word.  I went up to Anna's for a little therapy session with Ben and Jerry's and Edy's.  We both vented about our days and encouraged each other and then changed the topic to happier things.  I decided to pray a little harder that night about being a better teacher.
      Sometimes, the answers to our prayers is "No" but this time the answer was "Yes".  Things still were far from perfect but there was much less tension in the classroom.  I even felt like the kids that didn't like me yesterday were on my side today.  The pace of the lesson was much slower than I am used to, but it was more of the pace that they are used to and more comfortable with.  So after a fairly successful first period, I was able to breathe easy.  We had a school-wide field trip to the GWU Women's basketball game.  The game was a nice break.  It made me miss the Marriot Center and Jimmer-mania a little bit but I enjoyed myself.  From that field trip we went back to school and reported to fourth period for which we went on another field trip to Georgetown and measured the height of the Old Stone House, a historical building in the middle of Georgetown.  We walked to and from Georgetown in the rain but I didn't mind.  It was fun to be outside and it gave me time to bond with the students and with my mentor teacher.
      I came home from school and went to my seminar meeting.  We all shared our successes and our concerns and gave each other advice.  It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one that was having hard days.  From the seminar I went home and started working again.  I wrote a quiz and graded some papers while I watched a movie.  I got a lot of phone calls from home which were greatly appreciated.  It's nice to know that I'm not forgotten.  Plus talking with loved ones just makes the distance between us seem so much smaller. Ten more weeks and I'll be home!

The weekend and Parent-Teacher Conferences

      Saturday ROCKED!!!  Really, it was one of my favorite days since I've been out here.  I spent the whole day with Anna.  We met a very cute black boy on the Metro on our way to see some sights.  He was adorable.  Almost as soon as we got on, he started trying to talk to us.  We were playing with him and laughing the whole time.  He even came back and sat on our laps.  He stole a little bit of our hearts with his smile, his laugh, and his friendliness.  His parents joked that we were too old for him.  I wish he could've stayed with us the whole day but alas we ended up going in different directions.
      Our first stop after we got off the Metro was the White House.  We got a little lost but we eventually found it.  We took pictures of both the north and south sides of the building.  What  I wouldn't give just to be important enough to go inside there for lunch one day.  I bet they have the best lunches.  :)  From the White House, we walked to a park where we found a huge statue of none other than Albert Einstein.  Many pictures were taken here to demonstrate our love and admiration for good ol' Albert.  Once the photo shoot was over we went the the War Memorials in the Mall.  It was overcast, but it was a beautiful day to be outside seeing the sights.  When we got home we grabbed a few not-so-healthy snacks and watched "The Devil Wears Prada".  After the movie, I went to the temple with our ward.  That was a really cool experience.  There we were driving along the dark road in the fog and rain and we came around the corner and WHAM there it was, glowing above the darkness of the trees.  The lights lit the fog around it so the air around it looked like it was glowing.  I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful sight to end a wonderful day of sight-seeing.
      Sunday seemed really long.  I went to church, came home took a nap and still had half the day left.  I tried to be constructive in my time use but it still felt like the day was dragging on.  I think it was just because I was inside all day.  I was super excited that the Giants won the Super Bowl, even though I didn't win any money from the family pool.  I was glad I could watch it on my computer and feel connected to them as they watched it together at my grandparents house.  I don't like missing out on things, but this made it feel like I wasn't missing out on too much, just the food...and being with each other of course.
      Today we had Parent-Teacher Conferences which meant that I got to sleep in again.  That was FABULOUS! but I'm not gonna lie, I was really nervous about meeting the parents of my students.  I thought for sure that they wouldn't like me.  They all turned out to be really nice though.  It helped me understand my students a little better and get to know them a little more by getting a small glimpse into their home lives.  There wasn't a single parent that came in that wanted to point the finger at me or my mentor teacher.  They all had positive things to say about what we were doing which was very reassuring to me.  Because Parent-Teacher conferences didn't start until noon, I was at school until almost 7.  I hurried home, ate a little dinner, gave myself a little time to unwind, and jumped right back into lesson planning.  It never ends!! That's alright. I'm really excited for tomorrow. I really hope it goes better than last Thursday. Oh and I got a letter from my lovely pen pal in Indonesia, my dear roommate Leah.  I love getting mail! :)

A Whole New Week

      Whoops!  I got a little busy, a little sick, a little tired and forgot to write. Sorry.  I'll try to make up for it now.  Let's go back in time to last Friday.  School was school.  I taught first and third period.  My supervisor came and observed me during first period.  My lesson was decent, but I did recognize a few things that I could do better.  I think third period went a lot better.  After school I walked to CVS, bought a few snacks for our trip to Gettysburg, and jumped on the Metro to go to our supervisors house for our weekly meeting and a sleep over.  I got to the pick-up point an hour before everyone else and about five minutes after the wind.  So I spent that next hour getting chilled.  I started putting on all the clothes I packed for the weekend just to stay warm.  We finally all got there and got picked up.  We ate dinner, had our meeting, watched "The Great Debaters", and went to bed.  I got to sleep in a big, comfy bed, and tried my best to not snuggle Anna too much.

     Saturday we all got up, got ready, loaded into the cars and drove to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.  It's the site of John Brown's rebellion.  It's also the place where the Shenandoah River meets the Potomac River.  The historical part of it was neat, but the scenery was beautiful.  I could've spent all day just looking at the river(s).  From Harper's Ferry, we drove to Gettysburg.  We hit the museum first and then did an audio tour in our cars.  We got to the battlefield just as the sun was setting and my camera and I went nuts.  We had the radio playing on the way back home and naturally I was singing along.  I tried to sing quietly.  Anna joined in for a lot of it too.  She's a girl after my own heart.  A few times we were harmonizing with each other and other times I was belting a solo of Celine Dion songs.  It was great fun!

      Sunday, my cold started to hit.  I was just feeling a little congested and really tired.  Our home teachers came after church.  They're swell guys.  I'm excited to get to know them better.  Monday was a little rough at school.  I woke up feeling even worse.  I got observed during first period again and it wasn't my best lesson.  I ran into a few speed bumps that I wasn't expecting and it really slowed us down.  It got better as the day went on though.  I went home and took it easy until FHE.  We made homemade donuts.  Yum!

      Tuesday, things were a little better at school.  I gained a little more confidence and tried really hard to apply the things that I learned the day before.  My cold had settled in by this point, but I stuck it out.  The weather was beautiful!  The sun was out and shining brightly and the temperatures were in the 60s.  It was great!  I came home from school, went to the grocery store, did my laundry and discovered the joys of Skype.  It very well might be my favorite form of long distance communication.  It makes big distances so much smaller.  I'm hooked!  Wednesday was a pretty easy day.  I only had to teach first period and it didn't seem to go to poorly.  I wasn't feeling very good at all, but I made it through the day.  I went home from school, took it easy, and spent some more time with my new friend Skype.

      Thursday was just a rough day all around.  The kids were disrespectful and they didn't understand synthetic division.  I left school feeling like I caused more damage than I did good.  The storm of disrespect and misbehavior wouldn't have been a problem if they would've learned it.  I knew that bad days were inevitable but I really took this one personally.  I felt like it was my fault that things went wrong.  Luckily my cold was getting better.  Otherwise I fear it would've been the straw to break the camel's back.  I came home from school, took a mini nap and prepared myself for a 3-day weekend.  The idea of having a day off made everything a little easier to bear.  I went to the gym, watched the BYU basketball game and went to bed.

      And that brings us to today.  There was no school for the students because it was professional development day and my mentor teacher told me I didn't have to go.  So, that meant no school for me either. Yahoo!  I took the opportunity to sleep in and have a personal day.  I ate my breakfast, found out I'm going to have a niece at the end of June, ate lunch, painted my nails, watched a movie, and ate strawberries with cream and sugar.  For dinner, my roommates and I went to a theater that serves you dinner while you watch your movie.  Why haven't I seen more of these?! It's dinner and a movie in one stop.  We saw the new Muppets movie.  It was hilarious!  Definitely a must see for every inner-child.

Crossfit, The Washington Examiner, and Hamilton

      So yesterday was just a day at school.  I didn't have to teach and so I spent most of the day working on lesson plans and my teaching portfolio type thing, more commonly referred to as a Teacher Work Sample (TWS).  We had a Relief Society activity last night and at first I wasn't sure if I was going to go.  It was a workout at a fitness center called Crossfit.  Well as you probably know, I don't go to the gym.  I was on the fence about going, but I knew that if I was going to make friends I had to go where the potential friends would be.  So I went.  I almost died, but I went.  We threw ten pound balls at the wall and jumped on 24 inch tires.  We did sit ups as fast as we could and did these tortuous things called "burpees".  I was so pooped by the end that every muscle in my body felt like mush.  I could hardly get them to do anything.  After the gym we went to a girl's house and had smoothies.  That's more my style.  I had three. I had to try every flavor, naturally.  I went home, showered my stinky mushy self, and went to bed as fast as I could.

      This morning I woke up still feeling like mush and pretty tired.  I got ready and went to school.  When you come up out of the Metro station, there are like six people selling different newspapers.  One guy (he always seems to be right in the middle) has a very distinct voice.  Every morning he says "I've got it right here in black and white" (apparently the newspapers these days aren't red all over) and then of course like every good advertiser he shouts the name of his newspaper, "It's the Washington Exam-NER!"  It's just not a normal morning if he isn't there.  Well today we came up and I could feel the tired, worn-out expression on my face, but I couldn't get it to change until he looked at me and said, "Put a smile on your face. It's Thursday!"  I was beaming the rest of the walk to school.

      When I got to school, I helped a group of boys with their homework.  Then I went to go see if any of the other students that had shown up early needed help.  That's when I talked to Hamilton.  He's in my Algebra II class.  He's really smart and really quiet.  I asked him how was and by his response I could tell that he was down.  Echoing the Washington Exam-NER man, I tried to make him happy with the fact that it was Thursday.  He didn't buy it.  I thought that he was just ready for it to be Friday, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  He was dreading Friday.  Friday was the day of the Winter Formal and they elected him to be "the stupid duke", the sophomore class version of the prom king.  He wasn't going with anyone in particular but he must have a lot of friends if got voted to be the duke.  I told him that I would bet that all the girls were going to want to dance with him.  He thought that it was just because he was going to be the duke.  I corrected him and told him that it was because he was cool and he was nice.  He looked back at me as if no one had ever told him he was cool or nice before and asked, "Really?" I reassured him and he seemed to cheer up.  I felt so good that I was able to connect with a student and make him believe in himself.

      I got to teach first period and then the principal asked if I could chaperon a field trip.  So thirty minutes later I went on my first field trip in four years.  It was so fun!  We to a dance performance that was put on by The Children of Uganda.  It was amazing! The whole thing was cultural dances from Uganda.  I was amazed that they could dance like that for that long.  I would've died.  Maybe I just felt that way since by then my mushy muscles were starting to become achy muscles.  We got back to school in the middle of lunch, I finished out the school day and went back to my apartment.  Tomorrow we're having a sleep over at our director's house and going to Gettysburg by dawn's early light on Saturday.  I can't wait! It should be a blast and a half!!

"All aboard!", The Buzz, and Institute Choir

      Oh goodness! Monday was great!  I was a little tired, ok I was really tired, but it was a great day.  The driver on the Metro on my way to school called "All aboard!" three times and it totally made my morning.  I'm not entirely certain why I enjoyed it so much and I think I'm the only person that did enjoy it, but it was great! (I also saw a mouse crawling down by the tracks while I was waiting for the Metro, but let's not think about that.)  School was school.  The kids were taking tests so I did a lot of lesson planning during the day.  I came home and had a nap and got ready for FHE.  We met at the church and carpooled to the bishop's house for our activity.  Three of my roommates and I rode with a kid named Russell.  He was really nice.  Bless his heart, he had a car full of girls that he didn't know, but he was a good sport about it and started getting to know each of us really fast.  He also pointed out a lot of good places to eat while we were driving.  He saw right through me and realized that I like food.  FHE was fun.  We played a game where you write down something no one in the room knows about you and then you guess who wrote what.  The person that is the last one to be guessed wins.  The winner jjust happened to be yours truly! I felt so cool in that moment. hahaha :)
      After FHE, Russell and his saintly self, treated us to cupcakes at The Buzz.  We only have one problem.  Now I can't decide which place I like better: The Buzz or DC Cupcakes.  I had the "9:30" special which was a devil's food cupcake with a vanilla cream middle and ganache on top instead of frosting.  Um....delicious is an understatement. From the outside it looked like a hostess cake, but in my mouth it was absolutely divine!
      Today I was supposed to start teaching.  I was supposed to take over the second half of Algebra II, but just when I got up to teach we had a surprise fire drill.  When the drill was over, they dismissed everyone early to lunch. So I guess you could say that my first lesson was smoking.  So smoking in fact that two hours later, the fire alarm went off again for a surprise not drill.  I thought it was really warm in that building today.  After school I came home, did a little reading to unwind, made dinner, ate ('cause what's the point in making it if you aren't gonna eat it) and went to Institute.  I went an hour early to go to Institute Choir practice.  It was so fun to be singing with a choir again and I'm really excited about the pieces we're going to learn.  We're singing a lot of the songs that I learned for All-State in Florida when Craig Jessop came that I never got to perform.  Sad news though, I'll be gone before our performances start, so I still won't get to perform them.  Oh well. I'm just excited to be able to sing them again. :)

Shout out!

       I'd like to give a quick shout out to a few people.  First, Mom and Dad.  Y'all are great! I'm so lucky to have parents like you that know what to say when I call you crying, know how to boost me up when I feel low and believe in me even when I don't believe in myself.  To, Amy and Dust - you're the best!  You're the best sister and brother I could ever ask for.  I can't wait to see you again and have some more crazy times together.  Mac, thanks for being the angel I rely on to get me through the day. I love you, Boo.  Grandma and Grandpa, I can't ever tell you how much you mean to me.  You're the constant source of optimism and encouragement.  Thanks for supporting me through my adventures whether they are big or small.  Woogie and Grandma Grant, (if you're reading this) Thanks for teaching me to laugh at myself.  Woogie, you're my favorite roommate I've ever had and, Grandma, I wish you could be out here seeing all the sites with me.  I think of you every time I go somewhere.  To my aunts, uncles and cousins - Thanks for loving me the way I am.  You make our family so fun.  I always brag that I have the best family ever!  Annie, you're the best friend I have ever had.  I wouldn't make it without you.  Thanks for being the shoulder to cry on, the friend ready to fight my battles with me.  To all my other friends, thanks for being there and making me feel special.  Friends are the chocolate chips in the cookies of life and what's a cookie without chocolate chips? :)
      Thanks for always telling me how proud you are of me.  It reminds to keep working hard so I don't let you down.  I love you all very much and I can't wait to see you again soon.  April will be here before we know it :)

A massive update

     It's gonna be another long one, folks.

     Thursday:  Today was an okay day.  I was struggling a bit with finding my place.  I felt inadequate and out of place.  I missed home and my friends.  My teacher has me doing a lot of the grading and some students came in to ask her why they got points off.  I felt like I was the bad guy because I wasn't as lenient as she is, but I was just doing it the way she told me.  It was just a day at school.  Nothing really bad happened, but at the same time nothing really good happened either.  I came home from school, got a little rest to help my cold, and watched the BYU basketball game.  That didn't really help my mood, so I just went to bed.

      Friday:  It was a half day at school today and I was super excited about it.  I took a trip down memory lane and had macaroni and cheese.  Mom used to always send us to school with mac and cheese or spaghetti-os on half days.  I didn't have a thermos to transport the lunch in, so I ate it when I got home. And I didn't have spaghetti-os, so I had mac and cheese.  I also had a donut and Dunkin Donuts hot chocolate that I grabbed on my way home from school.  Man it was good!  I think I have it all figured out.  I'll get a sandwich from Potbelly's, hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts, and a cupcake from DC Cupcakes.  It's the perfect meal!  After school I took it easy, read a book, and took a nap.  I had a long distance movie night with a friend from school.  We watched "You've Got Mail" (one of my all time favorites).

      Saturday:  I slept in this morning.  I knew that the only way to get rid of my cold for good was to get a lot of sleep.  I thought for sure that I would sleep in really late (partly because I was up late watching "You've Got Mail" and partly because I was exhausted) but surprisingly I woke up at nine completely rested.  I got up and made myself a tasty breakfast.  It snowed overnight and was still snowing a little bit and it was actually sticking!  I made the executive decision to stay in today and get a lot of work done.  I went to the gym with my roommates and they all about died when I went.  It kind of made me feel worse.  I went to the gym to feel like I fit in with them better but instead I felt even more like I didn't belong.  I got really homesick.  I wanted to do something with someone, but all the people I wanted to be with were in Utah. I missed home.  I missed my family and my friends.  My roommates continued to do things together without inviting me to join in.  So I watched the BYU game on my laptop and went to bed excited for church the next morning.

      Sunday:  I went to church this morning, stepped out of my comfort circle and sat by people I didn't know in every meeting.  In sacrament meeting we sang "Where Can I Turn For Peace?" and I realized that that was the question I was asking myself all day yesterday.  I was aching for peace but didn't know where to turn.  I found my answer in the third verse.  "In my Gethsemane" the Savior is my friend and He is constant and kind. When I remembered this, I filled with instant peace.  I didn't feel alone any more and most of my lingering homesickness disappeared.  I took a big nap after church of course and went to a New Member Dessert Social after dinner.  I'm getting more comfortable in my ward and I'm making a lot of new friends there.  A friendly smile from a familiar face does wonders. :)

It's Wednesday, Miss Davis

     It's only the second day of the work week and I'm already wishing for the weekend.  Trying to fight this baby of a cold is tiring and long days at school and in meetings take the rest of my energy.  At school today the students were taking their chapter tests.  I did get to help a few before school, during lunch and after school.  Their starting to call on me and ask me questions.  I can't help but love it when I hear "Miss Davis" and find a pair of eyes eager to learn looking at me.  It gets me excited every time.  I get to go teach someone!!
      After school we had our weekly seminar.  It was two hours long and right through dinner.  I literally went straight there after school.  The whole time I kept thinking about the yummy food I just got at the grocery store.  Luckily I had some carrots in my backpack to munch on.  I felt like a rabbit, but I didn't care.  They kept me entertained and suppressed my hunger.  Our meeting this week was on management techniques.  Some of the techniques seemed like they would work better for a younger class than the ones that I am teaching, but I still found it useful to talk about them.  I guess there are some people in our group that are really having a hard time with management because they are coming into classrooms and schools where management is already an issue.  I'm really glad that my students aren't like that.  They aren't perfect but neither am I.  I feel like we still have a lot to learn from each other, but I also feel like we've got a head start because we don't have to worry about management as much.  I really do love my students.  The more I think about them, the more I realize how incredible they are.  They are funny and smart and a joy to be around.  I hope that when I take over as a teacher, I can instill in them a little bit more of a love for learning and that I will know the best ways to make learning fun and enjoyable for them.

Tuesday that really felt like a Monday but I really wanted it to be Friday

      I had a really hard time waking up this morning.  Despite my efforts to avoid a cold, my symptoms got a little worse over night.  The full thing hasn't hit yet, but my throat feels a little scratchy and I was exhausted all day.  School was really good though.  We wrapped up the chapter in each class and got them ready for the tests they have this week.  It's interesting to me to see the difference between the kids that really try and want to learn and the kids that really don't care.  I can't help but favoring the kids that want to learn.
      After school, I came home, went straight to my room and fell asleep.  I slept for about an hour and a half and woke up just in time to get a few things done and eat my dinner before Institute.   Institute was fun and I'm starting to recognize people by their names and not just "Oh they're in my ward but I have no idea who they are."
Now that I'm home from Institute, I'm going to hit the hay and try to sleep off this bug that I refuse to let my body catch.  Good night!

Mount Vernon, Game Night, and MLK Day

      Prepare yourselves for a long one folks.  I have so much to tell you about.

      First and for most, Mount Vernon was amazing! It was my favorite thing I have seen so far.  I LOVED it!!  We were there from 10:00 in the morning to closing at 4:30 and I still felt like I didn't get enough.  The grounds are amazing!  I always thought that I wanted to live in big ol' house like Mr. Darcy lives in, but I was wrong. Dead wrong.  I want to live on a plantation like Mount Vernon!  The house was exquisite with the best view no matter what direction you were looking in.  My favorite had to be the back porch.  It had a row of green chairs like they have at Cracker Barrel that you could sit in and look out over the hill that the mansion sits on all the way down the river.  You can also see across the river.  Everywhere you look is just trees and plants and flowers and just perfect.  It's amazing that a place that close to the bustling city of Washington, DC can feel so remote and separated from the world.  No wonder George Washington loved it so much!  The only downer of the trip was that our director kept us outside in the freezing wind for a long time and I think I made myself vulnerable to a cold.  Don't worry nothing has settled in completely, so I might be able to avoid it.

       Sunday we had church at the crack of dawn again.  I was so tired from our adventure to Mount Vernon that I slept through my alarm and woke up 40 minutes before we had to leave.  Whoops! A nice kid from our ward saw us walking and gave us a ride the rest of the way.  Bless his heart!  We had a munch 'n mingle after our meetings.  Egg rolls are a surprisingly delicious breakfast at 11:00 am.  We went home and I tried to take a nap.  I maybe slept for 30 minutes.  It wasn't very long at all.  A few members of the Relief Society came over and I felt like I made my first friends.  One girl even gave me a hug.  I didn't realize how much a I needed  one of those until she gave me one.  It was just what I needed to feel like I was starting to belong.  Later that night, my roommates and I got invited to a game night.  Holy fun!  We met like twenty people from the ward and had the best time.  A group of about ten of us played "Signs" in the basement.  I've never had so much fun playing that game.  I laughed most of the time.  The only times I wasn't laughing were when I was under pressure of not getting caught with the sign.  I'm really starting to feel like I'm starting to fir in around here.

      Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!  I started out my celebration of the day by sleeping in.  I didn't set my alarm and just let myself sleep until I was ready to get up.  A little before 10 am I got out of bed.  I got ready for the day and had a wonderful morning.  When we all were ready, we went to see the wonderful sites around DC that are related to MLK.  Our first stop was the Museum of American History.  They had a man there that half gave a summary of Martin Luther King's life and half acted like Martin Luther King.  We started the program with Martin Luther King's favorite hymn, which no one knew, and ended it with another hymn that it seemed like everyone knew but me.  Don't worry I was able to pull it off.  Like most songs, it was fairly predictable melodically and lyrically.  At the museum they had boards where people could post sticky notes with their own dreams written on them.  They had one board full of sticky notes of things that people believed were worth standing up for and in a little kids handwriting was written "No Spanking!"  Hahaha It was my favorite for obvious comical reasons.  From the museum, we hiked to the Abraham Lincoln Monument were MLK gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, braving the wind once again.  I was more excited about Abraham Lincoln at that point than I was about Martin Luther King.  My two favorite presidents in one weekend!  What fun!  Before heading home we stopped by the Martin Luther King Monument.  It's kind of like a one man Mt. Rushmore, except he's not in an actual mountain, just a giant piece of rock that they moved there.  It's a pretty cool monument.  By this time my feet were practically numb so we grabbed some lunch at Potbelly's (YUM! I"m getting hooked) and headed home.

      I did have to go back out once more to go to the grocery store.  I miss my car so badly when I have to go to the store.  Carrying all those groceries in my backpack and in my arms is a pain, literally and figuratively.  I have a feeling those new friends are going to come in handy ;)  Tomorrow it all starts up again.  I have a whole chapter's worth of lessons to write this week and Institute and lots of other things to do for school, but I have a feeling it's going to be a good week.

T.G.I.F.

      I never really understood how exciting Fridays could be, especially the Friday before a three-day weekend.  The thought that I only had a few more hours before I got three whole days off was the thought that got me through the day.  School was great! I've learned all the names for my first and third period classes and I'm about half way with the names in my second period class.  I found out today that I start teaching Algebra II in a week.  They're wrapping up Chapter 5 next week and taking a test on it at the end of the week.  Then, we start Chapter  6 and that's when I come in.  I'll be the big cheese before you know it!  While we are out here we have to do a lesson plan for a whole unit.  It's pretty much my entire grade.  It's not due until April but I'm doing it with Chapter 6.  I figure it's better to get it out of the way and enjoy the rest of DC.
      I came home from school, had my routine nap, got a package (Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa!), and did one of my mini-assignments (we have to write weekly reflections on what we learn about teaching).  We were thinking of going to that party tonight, but no one decided to go until after 9 and it was a 2 mile walk to the place.  I decided I would stay home and watch "Hello, Dolly" instead. I almost fell asleep during the climax that's how tired I am tonight.  Now that the movie is over, I'm headed to bed.  I've got a long day at Mount Vernon ahead of me and I need all the sleep I can get so I can take it all in. George Washington, here I come!

A case of the Thursdays

      Today seemed like a regular old day at school as a TA.  I was an annoying shadow that did a lot of grading. But, hey, I've almost got grading down to an art.  I graded the Warm-Up quiz and homework for each class and recorded the scores and attendance online before the period was even over.  I'd like to think that takes talent, but it really isn't all that hard.  You just have to be able to focus, and, when you have nothing else to do, focusing is really easy.
      Let me tell you about the metro.  I don't recollect that I've ever mentioned much about the metro before.  They aren't as bad as I thought they would be.  I still want to wash my hands every time I get off but that's just me.  You can meet some really nice people on the metro and some people would rather be left alone, especially in the mornings.  I get a lot of funny looks for laughing out loud at things, but hey, what else is new?  A few metro stations are common areas for promising musicians to play/sing with the hopes that their up ended hat will fill as they perform.  There are quite a few saxophone players in DC and today there was an A' Capella  trio singing as I got off at the stop by my apartment.  They were quite good and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.  I sometimes wonder what it would be like to perform for people for the sheer joy of performing.  Performing like that would make me so nervous.  I wonder how they do it...
      I came home from school and watched a movie in my bed with the hopes of falling asleep to it but had no such luck.  When it was over, I finished writing the answer key for the homework assignment that is due tomorrow and then I wrote a quiz for my Pre-Calculus class.  I think I've decided that Wednesday and Thursday are the hardest days of the week.  Wednesday is when you really start to get tired and Thursday, you want it to be Friday so badly but it just isn't.  The weekend can't come fast enough sometimes. Only one more day and luckily it's a short one, well at least it feels shorter.

A rainy day in DC

      Today was a blustery, gray day.  I played more of the role of observer in school today than I did teacher.  I did get to help a few students before and after school.  Chase even told Ms. Willerth that I was a good teacher.  Looks like he's getting a A. hahaha :)  I went to a few meetings today and met the Physics teacher at SWW.  He was nice but not as cool as Mr. Duncan.  I discovered the smelly first floor teacher workroom.  Teachers are hilarious!  They have the same kind of tiffs as roommates (Who's food is that that's making it stink in here?! If I find it, I'm throwing it away!") and some of them can't spell very well either ("This frig will be cleaned out on Friday.  Pls take ur food out by then.").  I graded a lot of papers and put all the grades and attendance in the grade book.  By the end of the day, I'm not entirely sure who was more excited to go home me or the kids.  There were more of the kids so their excitement was expressed at a higher decibel, but I think my headache caused by their volume outranked their volume.
      I came home from school and took a ten minute snooze.  It was more like a ten minute blink than anything.  Then we had our weekly seminar with our director.  It was two hours long!!!! That's about one hour longer than necessary if you ask me, but we had to catch up from what we missed last Friday.  We talked about Mount Vernon.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed, guys.  The plans have been put in place for Saturday.  I've gotta admit that I'm stoked! The weather last weekend would have been perfect for it, but I'd go see George in a blizzard.

Substituting

     I fell in love today.  I fell in love with my kids and I fell in love with teaching.  The day started off with Chocolate Drop coming in for first period.  He walked right up to me and said, "I got it! At first it was hard, but then I just looked at it.  Then it made sense.  It was still a little hard, but it didn't matter because I could do it."  I wanted to hug him and cry some of my happiest tears at the same time.  He got it! And the best part was that he knew he got it and had confidence in himself.  I loved it!  First period is Algebra II and it's the shortest class of the day and seemed to go by even faster than usual.  I see those kids every day, so it's been really easy to learn all of their names and get to know them better.
     Second period was Pre-calculus.  They're a little more rowdy and at times it was hard to keep their attention.  I think out of all my classes they were the toughest to manage.  They are mostly juniors and kind of have that "you aren't the boss of me" attitude.  One day though, they're going to see that Ms. Willerth (my mentor teacher) really nice to them.  Hopefully, for all our sakes, some of her patience will rub off on me before I become the boss :)
      Third period is two hours long.  It's another Algebra II class.  Maybe it's just the content, but my Algebra II kids are so nice.  They are just fun loving and are really easy to work with.  I kinda had a Freuline Maria moment though.  A couple of kids were trying to pull my leg and get away with things that Ms. Willerth doesn't do, and good ol' Sam stepped up and set them straight and helped me.  He was my own personal Grettel.  Things went smoothly after that.  I got a few new name requests in that class: Queen of the World and Chase (pronounced Chaw-say).  Haha kids! :)
      From the beginning of lunch to the end of the day, I had planning time.  I put the attendance in the grade book and graded the quizzes they took that day.  I came home from school, took a little bitty nap (substituting really takes it out of you) and then went to Institute.  I'm really excited for Institute! I still felt like a little bit of an outsider but once I get into a class and find friends it will all be so much better.  Oh! and my roommate invited all of us to someone else's party Friday night.  That could be fun...

Sunday and Monday

      OK. First of all, sorry I didn't write yesterday.  Church was at 8 a.m. (not gonna lie I don't like that hour too much).  Church was good.  The new ward seems great, but I kind of felt small and insignificant.  We have three Relief Societies and two Elders Quorums.  Yeah, it's a pretty big ward.  I felt like I was the only new kid and everyone else was already BFF's.  I wasn't exactly sure if I'd ever fit in.  I guess that will come with time as a I meet more people.  When I go home from church I crashed....sorta.  I was pretty much too tired to even sleep.  I did manage to get a little nap in though.  Then we had roommate dinner and went to the CES Fireside.  Overall, it was a good day.  I just can't wait until I find my spot in the ward and start to feel like I belong.

      It snowed out here for the better part of today.  Nothing really stuck until I got home from school which was a blessing because I was walking around in flats.  My feet got a little wet but it was not as bad as having my shoes full of snow.  I got to know a lot of the kids' names today.  I called roll in each of my classes and collected their warm-ups.  I can already tell that they are a good group of kids.  Some of them are absolutely hysterical (one kid asked me to call him Chocolate Drop instead of his real name) and they all are still very welcoming.  I helped Chocolate Drop with a problem and I watched his face as the light bulb went off and he got it.  We did a little handshake/ pounded each other's fists to celebrate and then he proudly explained how to do the problem to the class.  I was so proud of him.  He went from frustration to elation in 5 minutes.  Now I just have to get them all to that point every day.  My teacher wasn't feeling well today and decided she would take tomorrow off to get over whatever it is that she has.  That means that yours truly will be the teacher tomorrow.  I'm excited for it...and a little nervous.  It will be a good dry run for how things will be when I take over the classes here in a week or two.

      It was my roommate Sarah's birthday today, so we all went out to dinner to celebrate and then went back to our place for a little cake and ice cream.  We ended up missing FHE but that's ok.  We got to tell stories about our schools and get closer as friends and roommates.  I feel that is a little more important.  Plus, you only have one birthday a year.  You gotta make the most out of it.  Well, it's time for this student teacher to hit the hay.  Substituting takes a lot of energy, but it's so fun!!

The Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery, and Aunt Annie's Pretzels

      Today was the day that we were supposed to go to Mount Vernon, but our director wasn't feeling well so we had to cancel the trip.  Rats.  We took the opportunity we had to stay up late last night and sleep in this morning.  It was grand!  My roommate's sister picked us up last night and we got to experience a DC Friday night.  We went to Old Towne in Alexandria and just walked down the streets looking in all the shops.  It was a quaint, little place, just my kind of town.  They had lights in the trees still and the sidewalks were filled with couples walking hand in hand.  It was a beautiful night!  Oh and I think that Old Towne can give Provo a run for their money as being the city with the most ice cream places.  There were no less than twenty different types of ice cream/ frozen yogurt places down just one street.  I loved it! I would go back every weekend if I could, but you have to have a car to get there.
      This morning I slept in until 10.  I was going to wake up earlier but sleep felt so good.  Saturday is the only day that I don't have to be anywhere by or before 8 in the morning, so I feel justified in taking a little extra time to catch up.  Once I got up, Anna (another girl in the student teaching program) and I walked to the  Pentagon.  It's only three blocks from our apartments!  It was a beautiful day in DC.  You really only needed a light jacket and that was only when the wind was blowing and/or the sun was behind the scattered clouds.  When we got to the Pentagon we whipped out our cameras to start taking pictures and then we saw the "Photographs Prohibited" signs.  We thought it would be best to not try to sneak pictures on the nation's military headquarters.  We returned our cameras to their cases until we reached the Pentagon Memorial.  It was a beautiful memorial for the people that lost their lives at the Pentagon on September 11th.
      From the Pentagon, we went to Arlington Cemetery.  We watched the changing of the guard, went to the Arlington House, and the grave site of John F. Kennedy.  As we walked around I couldn't help thinking about all the men and women buried there.  Some of them I knew their names and saw them as extraordinary figures in our history.  As I thought about these people and learned more about their lives, I came to see them as ordinary people as well.  For the first time saw them as people that went through hard times, that lost loved ones, that had bad days.  It gave me hope.  If they could overcome trials, then so could I.  Then I walked passed the graves of hundreds of thousands of men and women that I didn't know.  These people became heroes in my eyes.  Some people might be sad thinking of the things that the fallen might have brought to life and all that they had to offer the world.  I was humbled with the knowledge that they offered their lives for me.  They gave the ultimate gift so I could live in the country that I live in.
      From the cemetery, Anna and I headed home.  On our way we stopped off at Aunt Annie's Pretzels for a snack and a little lemonade.  It's been tempting us all week and we needed to do a little refueling after all that walking.  Never has a pretzel and lemonade tasted so good and made me feel so much at home even though I was on the other side of the country.  I had a great time today enjoying the sunshine in the capital of this wonderful nation with a new friend!  Tomorrow is church (at 8 a.m.).  Let's see what friends I can make tomorrow.

First day of school!

      Today was my first day of school.  Despite what everyone said, the kids didn't try to eat me.  They just seemed like high school students.  They're are just at that age of finding out who they are and they want everyone to know it.  They say it like it is and are not afraid to be themselves.  They are extremely friendly too.  It might be that I'm new so they wanted to make a good impression, but they made me feel so comfortable.  A few of them even feel like people that I know. I'm starting to love them already.
      I will be teaching Algebra II and Pre-calculus.  We talked about solving quadratic equations by factoring today in Algebra II.  That was something that I loved as a student because I saw it as solving a riddle or a puzzle, but the first period moaned the whole time.  I think I found my first goal of teaching: Help them become excited about the content.  One kid asked for a real life application and I wanted so badly to give him a physics example but I left that to my mentor teacher.  Speaking of my mentor teacher, she's great! She is a patient teacher and you can see that she has a good relationship with her students.
      There are definitely some things that I am going to have to get used to, such as the School Without Walls doesn't have any bells either (thank goodness for watches!); there is very little board space because we share the classroom with at least one other teacher throughout the entire day; and I'm going to have so many teachers watching me (they're more intimidating than the students).  Did I mention that there are, at one point durning the day, three other teachers that will be watching me teach?  They might be the ones that eat me alive.  Not my mentor teacher though.  She's a good egg. I really like her a lot.  I can't wait to work with her and her students, to learn with them and from them.  What an adventure this will be!

The Library of Congress

      Today's message is brought to you by the word "awesome"!  I got to sleep in. Awesome. I woke up to three home maintenance guys coming into the apartment.  Not so awesome.  They fixed the shower. Awesome! We didn't get lost on the metro. Awesome!!  I got free gelato with my chicken salad sandwich.  Awesome!!!  We went to the Library of Congress.  AWESOME!!!
      We had a little meeting outside the Library, and I was too cold and too excited to sit there for long.  Luckily it was a short one. Then the tour began.  We spent a few minutes outside talking about the architecture.  The whole stinking building is symbolic!  The architecture, the sculptures, the books, it all represents knowledge and wisdom.  There were like a zillion quotes, a kajillion of which were awesome.  It's crazy to think that someone (or maybe a group of people) decided what quotes to include on the ceiling, what mosaics they wanted up there, what carat of gold to use, and what statues they should have all over the place.  And THEN they had to make it.  I can't even begin to imagine how much work must have been put into making something that exquisite!  It kind of makes you think that if a group of ordinary men (and maybe women) can make something that incredible, then maybe there's hope for me and I know there's hope for my students.  I just have to help them see that hope and help them realize that that hope is obtainable through their educations.  That's their ticket into making something of their lives.
      I also went downstairs to look at the Bob Hope Exhibit, the Gershwin Brothers Exhibit, and the children's reading area. It got me to thinking about the legacy that I would leave behind and what quotes might added to the ceiling in my own exhibit.  I hope that someday, every kid I ever teach will look back and remember that I thought they were special and that they could do anything, that I believed that there was more to life that arithmetic and I knew that they could find it.
      In short, today was the first day that it really felt like I was in DC.  All the other days I felt like I was trying to find this elusive exciting place and today I found it!

DC Cupcakes and the School Without Walls

      After a completely restless night, I arose early this morning and got ready for the day.  As I got ready, I listened to "Jet Lag" by Simple Plan.  My plan in doing so was apparently not so simple.  You see, it's hard for me to get used to this time zone thing.  All the people I want to talk to are two hours behind me.  That means I'm going to bed when their evenings are just beginning and my day starts right in the middle of their nights.  So  I thought I'd listen to that song because I could relate to it.  It just made me want to talk to everybody even more. I was proud of myself though.  I resisted the urge to disturb the peaceful slumber of each and every contact on my list at 5:00 am their time.
       Today we went out into three of the schools and met our mentor teachers.  The elementary school was the first stop.  Holy CUTE kids! I wanted to change majors on the spot! And the principal was AMAZING! She was so passionate about the kids and that's what it is all about - the kids.  Then we went to the performing arts high school where my roommate will be teaching math.  I couldn't get Step Up out of my mind.  I seriously expecting to turn the corner and see Channing Tatum standing there.  Unfortunately he wasn't in school today.
      We left that school and made a pit stop at DC Cupcakes.  Two words: YUM ME.  Seriously.  I want another one.  I could eat one of those every day. The two I bought were Toasted Marshmallow and Chocolate^3.  The first one was just like a s'more but with chocolate graham crackers and ooey gooey chocolate and the other one was....well it was divine.
      After our delicious cupcakes, we went to the infamous School Without Walls, my school for the next three months.  I am happy to report that, despite its name, it has many walls.  It is actually quite the building.  It's right on George Washington University's campus and has the best interior design I've ever seen in a school.  The set up is awesome and it has all the latest technological hookups.  I also got to meet my mentor teacher.  She seems super nice and like a really good teacher for me to work with.  Oh and guess what! She did her student teaching out here in this same BYU program and now she's the head of the math department.  Cool story huh, Hansel?  I will be teaching Pre-calculus and Algebra, my two favorites!
     When we finished all of our school visits, we went back to the apartments and had another seminar about what we're going to be doing out here and the philosophy of teaching.  After a seven hour period of listening and driving around and sitting in meetings, I was pooped.  My roommates and I went home and watched a movie.  That late in the evening there's not too much to do around here for the time being (that is, while we don't really know where much is).  The museums all close kind of early and so by the time we got there we'd have to just turn right around and go home.  We've already seen the Costco and it gets too cold and dark for too much exploring.  So, we watched a movie instead.  I know. Not the most exciting of things to do in a city like DC, but hey, as long as your having fun right?  Besides tomorrow is all about the Library of Congress....and another meeting.

Potbelly's Sandwiches

      "Day One:"  ("Mulan" quote anybody?)  My oh my what a day!  I got into DC around 5:00 last night and managed to only get slightly turned around coming off the Metro for the shortest of seconds.  I met some really nice people that were willing to help me in so many ways.  A missionary talked with me all through the security line at the airport (He'll never know that for 30 minutes he was an angel in my life), the people sitting next to me on the flights were nice, encouraging and offered caring advice even though we complete strangers, an adorable older man helped me lift my suitcases up the 12 steps I need to go up to get headed in the right direction, and my roommates are a hoot.  We spent the night laughing and teasing and getting to know each other.
      My fatigue kept me from falling asleep at first but I was finally able to doze off.  I woke up to the sun shining in my window and I realized that the mountains of Utah gave me a little bit a later morning.  It gets bright so early here.  That should help me wake up early for school.....I hope.  We went on our first adventure today to get our fingerprints done so we can teach in the schools.  I found out that I will be at School Without Walls.  It's a more rigorous high school that students have to apply to get in.  The campus is on George Washington University campus.  Cool huh?  Again I met some really cool people.  I met a basketball coach and we talked about what in the world a griffin is (yes, it's still being used as a mascot).  I met the assistant superintendent.  She was the nicest lady and got us all excited for a new adventure of student teaching. When we were done with that meeting, a few of us went to get lunch at Potbelly's.  It was a mighty tasty sandwich and a great source strength, energy and comfort.  Travelling really takes it out of ya.
      Then, we all went back to our apartments, which are very nice I might add, and met our supervisor.  She kind of brought us all back to reality and reminded us that while this cake walk won't be easy, it will be worth it.  She told us a little more about our schools and what to expect.   "Oo-de-lally! Oo-de-lally! Golly, what a day!"  Oh and guess what! I'm going to Mt. Vernon on Saturday!!!