I can't believe that I am already back from Celebration. The past six weeks flew by! This program has been a fantastic experience. I have stayed so busy teaching, writing lesson plans and sightseeing around Florida, but the experience has been worth it. I am always going to remember the school, my class, and all the friends I met here.
On leap day Magic Kingdom was open all night long so Vanessa, Christina, Hope, Joey and I all went to Magic Kingdom at 10 pm and stayed till about 1:30 am. It was such a fun experience and a great way to end our experience in Celebration.
The last day with my first graders at Celebration K-8 was a day full of emotions. The teachers in the first grade team worked together and planned a lunch for us, and we had a big lunch for our goodbye. It was awesome and I am really going to miss the first grade team at Celebration K-8. My first graders were so sad to find out that I was leaving to return to Ohio. It was very rough leaving them on that last day. A mother of one of my students came in that morning to volunteer and it was really neat to hear that her daughter loved having me in her class and the daughter talked about me all the time at home. That made my day.
We are back in Ohio now, and I am wanting to be back in Celebration with my first graders. The host families were so nice and welcoming and they made it so much easier to be so far from home.
Well, now I'm off to student teaching at my school in Ohio. I am excited to meet my first grade students here and see how similar and different they are from my first graders in Celebration. I am so glad that I was able to do this experience, and it has taught me so much!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The happiest place on earth continued...
A lot has happened since my last post. I spent Valentines Day with my first graders and I got plenty of chocolates and hugs that day :) I also woke up to a Valentines Day gift outside my bedroom door from my wonderful host family :) Here is a picture of the goodies that I got from Valentine's Day here in Celebration.
Teaching here in Celebration is fantastic! I really like my mentor teacher and my first graders are so adorable! No matter how tired I am going to school each morning, they always brighten my day when I see them because they always find a way to say and do things to make me laugh. First graders say the funniest things ever! I am teaching the entire day now and it is very exhausting but such a rewarding experience. I am learning so much by teaching the entire day.
Last Friday we had the day off from school because it was Rodeo Day, so we spent the day at Cocoa Beach. It was a great day to go to the beach and we really enjoyed laying out in the sun. It was a great stress reliever from a long week of teaching. We even enjoyed doing handstands and taking tons of pictures by the water :)
Then on Saturday we spent the day at Disney. We went to Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Animal Kingdom was so crowded but we got quite a bit done that day. Then we ate lunch and spent the rest of the day at Epcot. Epcot is my favorite disney park. They have many different rides and they also have countries that you can visit in the park. Amanda, Vanessa and I took a picture in each of the countries as we took a journey around the world. It was such a great time! Then we watched the fireworks and laser light show at Epcot and it was incredible! The fireworks were such a magical experience. I had such a great day at the disney parks! I can't believe we are leaving Florida in 9 days. This six weeks has gone by so fast, and I am so grateful that I had such a great experience here. I am excited to see what these last nine days in Florida bring :)
Teaching here in Celebration is fantastic! I really like my mentor teacher and my first graders are so adorable! No matter how tired I am going to school each morning, they always brighten my day when I see them because they always find a way to say and do things to make me laugh. First graders say the funniest things ever! I am teaching the entire day now and it is very exhausting but such a rewarding experience. I am learning so much by teaching the entire day.
Last Friday we had the day off from school because it was Rodeo Day, so we spent the day at Cocoa Beach. It was a great day to go to the beach and we really enjoyed laying out in the sun. It was a great stress reliever from a long week of teaching. We even enjoyed doing handstands and taking tons of pictures by the water :)
Then on Saturday we spent the day at Disney. We went to Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Animal Kingdom was so crowded but we got quite a bit done that day. Then we ate lunch and spent the rest of the day at Epcot. Epcot is my favorite disney park. They have many different rides and they also have countries that you can visit in the park. Amanda, Vanessa and I took a picture in each of the countries as we took a journey around the world. It was such a great time! Then we watched the fireworks and laser light show at Epcot and it was incredible! The fireworks were such a magical experience. I had such a great day at the disney parks! I can't believe we are leaving Florida in 9 days. This six weeks has gone by so fast, and I am so grateful that I had such a great experience here. I am excited to see what these last nine days in Florida bring :)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
And the memories continue!
I am enjoying being at the happiest place on Earth! On Friday Amanda, Vanessa and I took a walk through downtown Celebration. Then on Saturday we spent the day at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Magic Kingdom. It was a blast, and the fireworks over Cinderella's castle were incredible!
Then today we went to downtown disney and saw The Vow at a dine in movie theater. This is the first time I have ever been to a dine in theater, so it was quite an experience! Teaching is going so great! I am teaching basically the entire day, and my first graders are awesome! My mentor teacher has been great at helping me with everything that I need and she is a great role model teacher :) It is crazy to think that we are already starting week 4 of teaching! Time is going so quickly.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Almost lost the keys in the ocean!
This past weekend was such a fun one! On Friday Amanda and I took a road trip to West Palm to visit her grandma and uncle. When we arrived on Friday we visited and watched a movie with her grandma and cousin AJ. On Saturday we decided to go to the beach for some fun in the sun. It was a great day soaking in the sun, and we ate lunch at Benny's On the Beach. We asked a guy to take a picture of us, so we tossed our flip flops and the car keys away from us. We were checking out our awesome picture as a huge wave came up and started to wash away our flip flops and the keys to her uncles car. Amanda yelled "grab the keys!" and we began to panick about losing the keys in the ocean. I grabbed the keys just before they got washed away into the ocean :) We were scrambling to clean the keys hoping they would still work when we got back to the car. They still worked and now we look back on it and laugh every time we tell someone the story about it :)
Tonight, we had a super bowl party at my host families house. Amanda, Vanessa, Joey and a few others came over and it was a fantastic time! This week I am teaching quite a bit in the classroom and I am nervous yet excited for that. I can't believe we are in our third week here. Time is going so quickly and I am not sure I will be ready to head back to cold Ohio in three more weeks. I am really enjoying my time here in Celebration Florida, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to do some of my student teaching here :)
Tonight, we had a super bowl party at my host families house. Amanda, Vanessa, Joey and a few others came over and it was a fantastic time! This week I am teaching quite a bit in the classroom and I am nervous yet excited for that. I can't believe we are in our third week here. Time is going so quickly and I am not sure I will be ready to head back to cold Ohio in three more weeks. I am really enjoying my time here in Celebration Florida, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to do some of my student teaching here :)
Busy, busy, busy....
It has been quite a while since I have posted last. I have been keeping pretty busy with teaching, writing lesson plans and sightseeing around Florida.
First off, I taught my first lesson for my University Supervisor and it went quite well. I was so nervous because that was my first time being observed teaching in Florida. I did a great job, and my mentor teacher and University Supervisor both said they enjoyed the lesson. I start to take over teaching most of the school day this week so I will be quite exhausted once this week is over. But I am excited to begin to be the main teacher in the classroom. It is definitely a new experience for me. My students here in Florida are awesome! They are so polite and they love having me in their classroom each day. There are some differences between the schools here in Florida and schools I have taught in while in Ohio. Overall, I really like my school down here and the other teachers that I work with are so friendly and helpful. I couldn't have gotten a better school to do my student teaching at here in Florida.
Amanda, Vanessa and I have gotten a membership at the nearby gym so that we can go workout after school. We have been attending fitness classes there and we are loving them! So far we have gone to Zumba, Sha'bam, Body Attack, Body Vive, and Body Step. The fitness classes here are so much fun, and there are a lot of people that attend them. I would say that Sha'bam is my favorite one because it is like zumba, but we dance to songs that we know and are more popular nowadays. Going to these fitness classes is a great stress reliever from all of the lesson plans that we have to write.
About a week and a half ago after a long week of teaching, Amanda and I took an adventure to Old Town. Old Town is a carnival that is right around the corner from Celebration. They had many rides and tons of different shops that you can go to. We had such a great time just walking around and exploring what was there. We even stopped in the game room and played a couple rounds of skeeball! :)
The next day Amanda, Vanessa and I started off the day by going to Orange World. There were a bunch of oranges outside and we really enjoyed eating the samples of oranges that they were passing out. Next, we went to play mini golf at Congo River Golf. This is an AMAZING mini golf course. It had plenty of decorations and it really made us excited to see what was coming up next. This was one of the best mini golf courses I have ever been to.
We are very much enjoying our time here in Celebration. There is so much to do, and Celebration is such a beautiful town to live in :) The weather is perfect and we couldn't have asked for better host families to show us around the town. Time is going by so quickly and I can't believe we have been here for two weeks already!
First off, I taught my first lesson for my University Supervisor and it went quite well. I was so nervous because that was my first time being observed teaching in Florida. I did a great job, and my mentor teacher and University Supervisor both said they enjoyed the lesson. I start to take over teaching most of the school day this week so I will be quite exhausted once this week is over. But I am excited to begin to be the main teacher in the classroom. It is definitely a new experience for me. My students here in Florida are awesome! They are so polite and they love having me in their classroom each day. There are some differences between the schools here in Florida and schools I have taught in while in Ohio. Overall, I really like my school down here and the other teachers that I work with are so friendly and helpful. I couldn't have gotten a better school to do my student teaching at here in Florida.
Amanda, Vanessa and I have gotten a membership at the nearby gym so that we can go workout after school. We have been attending fitness classes there and we are loving them! So far we have gone to Zumba, Sha'bam, Body Attack, Body Vive, and Body Step. The fitness classes here are so much fun, and there are a lot of people that attend them. I would say that Sha'bam is my favorite one because it is like zumba, but we dance to songs that we know and are more popular nowadays. Going to these fitness classes is a great stress reliever from all of the lesson plans that we have to write.
About a week and a half ago after a long week of teaching, Amanda and I took an adventure to Old Town. Old Town is a carnival that is right around the corner from Celebration. They had many rides and tons of different shops that you can go to. We had such a great time just walking around and exploring what was there. We even stopped in the game room and played a couple rounds of skeeball! :)
The next day Amanda, Vanessa and I started off the day by going to Orange World. There were a bunch of oranges outside and we really enjoyed eating the samples of oranges that they were passing out. Next, we went to play mini golf at Congo River Golf. This is an AMAZING mini golf course. It had plenty of decorations and it really made us excited to see what was coming up next. This was one of the best mini golf courses I have ever been to.
We are very much enjoying our time here in Celebration. There is so much to do, and Celebration is such a beautiful town to live in :) The weather is perfect and we couldn't have asked for better host families to show us around the town. Time is going by so quickly and I can't believe we have been here for two weeks already!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Lesson plans, lesson plans...and some fun in between!
Well this week has been interesting that's for sure! I taught my first lesson today at Celebration K-8. It was a math lesson and it went really well! My first graders are hilarious. I was so nervous to teach my first lesson since it is in Florida, and I wasn't sure how it would go. My mentor teacher said I did really well. I take over teaching math every day next week and towards the end of the week I also teach Language Arts/Writing. I am so excited to be teaching more, but with all that excitement comes more nervousness as well because of the difference in states. I haven't noticed too many differences between the two states, but there are minor ones. I have been writing tons of lesson plans this past week, gearing up for teaching next week.
Tonight we took a break from lesson plan writing and we went to the Polynesian resort and watched fireworks over Cinderella's castle. We were sitting right by the water watching them, and the fireworks even had disney music that went along with them. It was seriously such an amazing experience. After the fireworks show, we stayed and saw a boat parade. It was so cool, I have never seen anything like that before. It was such an incredible feeling to be sitting on the beach watching fireworks and a boat parade :)
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Shop till you drop!
Today was a fabulous day. We began the day with Amanda and I going to church with Joey (another person who lives with the Ganley's) and it was pretty neat because while we were there we saw many familiar faces because a lot of the other host families that host AU students go there. Then Amanda, Vanessa and I continued to work on our Florida tans and laid out by the pool for a few hours. After that we went to the Orlando outlet stores and we shopped for hours! We just loved walking around in the beautiful weather and looking in all of the stores :) We finished off the night with dinner at the Ganley's friends house which was fantastic! I am loving spending time in Celebration, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to come here to student teach! Tomorrow begins my first day in Celebration k-8 in a first grade classroom. I am excited yet very nervous, it is a completely different type of school so I am interested to see how tomorrow goes.
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