Final Stretch!

Okay, tomorrow I will start my last full week of student teaching. I am so excited for this semester to finally be over with. Although the time went by pretty quickly, it was very stressful at times. I tried to explain it to Mike by telling him that student teaching would be the equivalent (in the business world) of having your boss work in your office for 15 weeks and watch everything you do and give his opinion about how you could do things better. On top of that, I often I had principals and ASU supervisors coming into watch me teach. It was like I was in a fishbowl for 15 weeks!! Don't get me wrong, my mentor teacher is a good guy, but it wasn't always easy working that closely with another person for that long. On a positive note, I learned SO much and I am thankful for the experience. I formed some great relationships with the faculty as well as the students.

Next week (week of Thanksgiving), I will give back Math, Reading, and Language Arts to my mentor teacher. During that time I will go around the school to observe different grade levels.

The week after that I will give back all teaching/prep responsibilities to my mentor teacher. This will be my very last week. I will observe other grade levels and teachers all week long.

FINALLY!! The end is here! I am super excited for a break! After Christmas Break, I will begin substitute teaching so that I can sniff out a teaching position for this fall.

Kaelyn and Zack are doing great! Kaelyn started taking showers (instead of baths) this past week. It brought back the memory of my first shower .. it started with me begging my mom to let me take one. She repeatedly said no so I proceeded to throw a fit. Then she finally gave in ... I remember her standing on the toilet looking over the shower curtain watching me and telling me what to do. I remember feeling like a "big girl". Kaelyn didn't get quite as much coaching as I did. When I was towel drying her hair I noticed that she didn't do a very good job rinsing the shampoo out of her hair .. o'well.

Zack is SO SO SO SO into reading and spelling. He asks me ALL DAY how to spell everything he looks at. As much as I am pleased that he is so interested in learning, it wears a mama down! One day after I had been asked to spell about 7,000 words I asked him to "please stop spelling". After I said it, I started laughing because it sounded so ridiculous. Seriously, you have not seen anyone love to spell until you have seen Zacky. Instead of toys, he carries around a piece of paper with letters written on it. If you think I am kidding, I'm not! Everyday, several times a day, he asks Mike and I to draw his ABC's in bubble letters so that he can color them and carry them around with him. It sounds kinda strange, but maybe he will be like one of those home-schooled kids that wins national spelling contests ... only he won't be home schooled of course.

Mike is great. His job is going well and he is still working out like a maniac. I wish I had about a tenth of his drive in the fitness department. 430 a.m. appointments at the gym should be illegal in my opinion, but he enjoys it:-) He is getting to ride his mountain bike about once a week lately and he also picked up road biking (a while back). He's a great example to us!! The weather is finally getting nice enough for us to break out our cruisers and go on some family bike rides. FUN FUN!