and then there was one

The after school program has officially begun as of Monday.  My CT and I are in charge of second graders.  The way after school is laid out is that students are brought to their classroom.  They work on homework.  Go have snack.  Come back and finish homework.  Do some type of fun recess.  Then, our classroom does math because that is what students signed up for.  

Today my CT had a meeting so I was told it would be and one of the leaders of the program.  The girl came in and yelled at my students for inappropriate behavior in the multipurpose room.  She told me she had to go talk to another class and then she would be back.  I'm thinking okay Ms. Shupert you can handle these crazy buggers till she gets back. I get the students silently working on homework.  I'm helping students when I all of a sudden look at the clock and realize it was snack time...THAT LADY NEVER CAME BACK!!! We went to snack, which was only slightly absolute crazy chaos, and I thought she might come back to help me after...no such luck.  I was in charge of those wild kids until my CT got back later! As time ticked on and names got written on the board and taken off for good change in behavior I ended up with one name on the board and all the students quietly participating in a math game with me when my CT walked in.  Okay Ms. Shupert you may now breathe.  You are alive, all the children are alive, and you're not crying. After the students were gone I admitted to my CT that I thought I did awful; however, he went on to explain to me how great I did.  I guess last year there was the Student Teacher and two other adults and he came back every time to a long list of students he needed to yell at and the class was not even close to under control.

Maybe this taught me that some chaos is okay when I have a class as difficult as our after school class.  They make my little first graders look like angels.  I'm learning a whole lot about patience and how to have a lot of authority when in actuality I'm not that threatening looking, unfortunately. Maybe I can be my CT for Halloween...they're scared of him! Then again when he yells at a kid I'm a little scared too!! 

In other news...my car is half broken.  It's the transmission.  It flipped out on me on 94.  Talk about freaking out!!! It's only slightly scary being on a highway where everyone is going 65 and you can only go 45.  People aren't very understanding.  They just get mad because they think you're a slow poke.  We, aka dad, got it figured out though till I can get home tomorrow night though.  I'm driving it in third and just not getting as good of gas mileage.  Oh well, I'll pay for some more gas as long as I can get home!!!

I guess that is all for now. Hope you were slightly entertained!!!

It's all about Love

Okay okay stop complaining....here's a new post :)


I've had the thought of love on mind a lot lately for few different reasons...I shall explain.


1.  Tomorrow will mark 299...AHHH!  To think that when Patrick and I started this countdown at 499 is beyond me.  Time moves so fast.  Although it completely breaks my heart each time we depart from one another I know our happily ever after will come sooner than either of us may realize.  I promise, you'll get your save-the-dates soon :)


2. Today in church we learned about leading someone to Christ by first forming friendship with them.  Aka showing them God's love. Now, I kinda have been wondering if I'm letting the light of Christ show as I work in an inner city school but I think I have it figured out.  I need to do it make sure I'm showing God's love to these sweet little kiddos (and the staff as well).  It's not the love that I show Patrick or my family or my friends...I think it's bigger than that.  I'm talking about showing God sized love because they don't know what that is.  So I'm making this my mission.  To show GOD SIZE love to every single student....even when they put a bag over their head ;)


In other news...this weekend: Grey's, time with my man, hanging with adorable kids, fun wedding stuff, time with my man, great steak, and awesome football....it was a good weekend.  I wish I could do it over.  Oh well, I'll just have to make sure this next weekend measures up to the same greatness.

307

Do you know what that number is?  It's the 307 long days I have to wait till I'm currently dancing the night away with my new husband.  I'm very thankful for a long engagement. I honestly love it.  The only headaches I have had are ones that I would have no matter what.  However,  sometimes I get in I can't really wait moods and I've been having a very long one lately.  Stuff is coming together and it makes it just that much harder.  Oh well.  I'll just keep watching the number and "enjoy" the same feeling as someone would who's watching paint dry. But I know waiting will be worth it. The man I'm marrying will definitely be worth it. 


Some more lovely news...I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick.  Saturday night I got hit with a sore throat really fast and it isn't gone yet.  I think it may even be getting worse.  Good news though....God created lovely people who created lovely medicine for people in my very predicament to ENJOY.   Let's just hope it's all strong enough to get me through a school day!


If I can keep my head up, SO CAN YOU! Have a great week!

One order of candy with extra sugar please...

I'm kinda like a kid already on a sugar high shopping in a candy shop.  (If you didn't read my last post, I was to teach almost all day Thursday).  Thursday morning as I was walking around our classroom fixing everything up and waiting for the perfect behaving students to arrive, I was saying to myself, "I have no idea what I'm doing!" HOWEVER, if you would have walked into our classroom between 8:15 and 10:10 you wouldn't have know I was just thinking that. Everything went so well.  I had one student test me when my CT left the room, but he quickly remembered who was in charge ;) (I may have helped him out just a little.) Then when I ended math my CT wrapped it all up for me.  In front of all the kids he told them how lucky they were to have me as a teacher, they clapped for me, and he went on and on.  Then after the kids were gone he told me he was talking to him mom (she volunteers in his room sometimes) about how natural teaching clearly is for me and to his guy teacher friends about how organized I am.  Seriously he just kept going on.  I told you I feel like I'm on some kind of sugar high.


 During reading however I was quickly brought back to earth as we had to tell one two students to take the plastic bag off their head, which naturally led to a 5 minute discussion on suffocation.  My CT: "You can't put a bag on your head because then you will die and you CAN'T die on MY watch" Child: HUGE EYES!!!  It took everything I had not to bust out laughing.  (announcer voice) Are you looking for a career that will keep you on your toes and never knowing what will happen next....BE A TEACHER!!!


Tomorrow shall be filled with lots of excitement as my mom and I are watching the little monster who decided my mini muffins went perfect with her breakfast yogurt this morning. (aka Lakin).  I seriously didn't not have the option of not sharing with her once she saw them!! We are also going to a purse party...I need to forget my wallet at home so I'm not so tempted.


Have a GrEaT weekend!!!

The Great Teaching Experiment...

Well let's just hope it's great at least...I am currently in the classroom with the students Mondays and Thursdays. Monday when I was planning for the beginning of the day with my teacher in the morning he mentioned something to me about doing the entire morning on Thursday (morning meeting and math).  This sounded good to me.  Then, during prep we were talking about planning for the afternoon on Thursday so I would know what was going on and my CT was like, you know why don't you do the reading. (entire afternoon except for 1 hour) So if you do your math and put all that together, I will be teaching ALL day on Thursday except for 1 hour.  Let's hope this "teaching experiment" goes great tomorrow! Ahh I'm kinda nervous.  But at least I can experiment now and not when I'm being observed by my supervisor.  I know I should take it as a compliment that he's handing his class over to me for almost the entire day...but I seriously went from a tricycle to a motorcycle overnight!!!

I try to look out the window and see the beautiful sunshine and smile, but I can't help clearing the smile off my face the minute I step outside lately.  For the 19th time in a row (we moved here when I was 3) WHY DO I  LIVE IN MN?!!  Where has the beautiful warm weather go.  I know fall is suppose to be a beautiful time of the year and it's not like it is really that cold outside, but I know the fall only leads to winter...cold weather, icy and snowy roads, and the feeling that spring will never come again. UGH!

I will end by asking for some prayers up to the Big Guy (aka God) for Patrick.  He has some pretty good job leads lately (at least for this next year) that would be much better than the current Shopko.  We both would really like it if at least one could pull through for him.

That's all for now...off to do some quality homework! :)

Tomorrow is cancelled...and officially cupcake day!

So you and I both thought this post would be not very upbeat to say the least.  Prepare to be wrong!!!  Tuesday morning I come to find out not only am I getting out at least an hour earlier than I originally thought, but also we are now making Thursdays teaching in our classrooms as well; however, the best news is that this doesn't begin till next week.  Result of all this good news Tuesday morning...Amanda gets home, like Byron MN home, on Wednesday at 1:00!!!!!!!!  How great is that.  Going from a 3 day weekend to a 4 days weekend is pretty tough.  ;)  And because we have Fridays as "work days" weekends to ourselves, we will always have 3 day weekends.  Today one of my professors pretty much made fun of all the student teachings who are still located in St Cloud, because not only do we have way better class hours, get to be in our classrooms with our CT's more, but we are also getting much better information in our methods classes (meaning more discussions with wiser profs and less homework)!!!  Urban Block was clearly the best choice.

Best story of my past two days follows....yesterday I had to go to my school to go to a meeting after school.  I got there with about 10 minutes left in the day (to beat the buses to the school) and as I walked into the room I instantly had a swarm of 1st graders hugging me.  My CT then says to me, "get in there and talk to them.  They've been asking about you all day long."  I honestly have never felt love like I did from these adorable 6 year olds.  I can't even describe how wonderful it felt to know that they missed me and wanted me back...even after having to discipline them.  I was born a teacher and I'm so thankful :)

So since I have little to no homework I was sitting in the condo last night watching Cupcake Wars as any good sweets loving girl would do and then as I sat and watched I remembered why I can't watch that show...I begin to CRAVE cupcakes.  Because I'm so darn smart you have to hear my solution to this problem.  Do I turn off the show?  NO!! I do the wise thing and call mom to get the ingredients to make Strawberry Filled Cupcakes with Laffy Taffy Frosting on my now day off. (click on link to see recipe) I haven't actually made these myself yet, but I have eaten them as my dear Emily's bridal shower and they were AAA-MAZING!  I'll have to let you know how it goes. Hopefully they turn out something like the picture below. :)



WISH ME LUCK!!!

Let the good times roll

So, the first week of school has come and gone and now my fun labor day weekend has come and gone as well.  Last week of school was such a blast.  I have already learned so much from my cooperating teacher that I can't keep up...thank goodness for journals.  I also have already done quite a bit of teaching considering it was my first week.  Our class is filled with a bunch of big personalities and it makes it so exciting to go to school each morning.


This labor day weekend was also a lot of fun.  Mom and I had a lot of girl time Saturday.  I also did some really fun wedding stuff. Now, I'm not one that likes to brag (a lot) but people this wedding is going to be pretty darn off the hook!!!  Trust me you're going to want to come :)  I know some of the wedding stuff is really crappy to deal with, but the fun stuff is so much fun that it makes up for all the crap. 


I also have some good news...I am no longer homeless.  The couple in the condo that I have already been at offered to have me stay the whole year.  I was also offered another option; however, God made it pretty darn clear that it was the WRONG choice. 


In the car on the drive back up here tonight I heard a song on the radio. You're Gonna Miss This was the song...see I got all fancy with my links!!! Patrick and I both feel that every time we have to separate lately just gets harder and harder because we just want to be together forever now.  But, I think it's important for me to enjoy the moments that I am having now because I'm sure one day I'll look back on this year and say it was one of my favorites (everyone seems to love their student teaching year).  Look around people...cherish it. Even the stuff you're not too thrilled about right now.


That's all the wise advice I have for tonight.  Methods classes start tomorrow so I have a feel my next post won't be quite as upbeat...enjoy the happy thoughts!!!