Navasota Road Trip

This morning I visited my class at Bowen. When I opened the door all their little faces lit up and screamed "Ms. Rhodes!" While they didn't get the pencil bags I wanted to give them, I think they liked the aggie pencils. I'm glad I had one extra pencil...one boy bent the pencil thinking it was a bendable pencil. When did those come into make? Anyways...I gave the extra one to him. Another boy, my favorite, took the card I wrote "Merry Christmas -Love Ms. Rhodes" and crosssed out Ms. Rhodes, wrote his name and then handed the card back to me. It then read "Merry Christmas - Love C****" He's too cute!

~

Holly and I finally got our road trip.... to Navasota, Texas. Just a short twenty-minute drive and we arrived to a long narrow street familiar to Cuero Texas.


Holly was looking for a new computer chair. We searched through the antique shops on Washington Ave. It's amazing what people throw in those places.


There weren't any chairs that met Holly's price range, but we defintely had a lot of fun. My favorite part of antique shops are the old hats. Holly and I had a few modeling sessions with fun hats....we looked like Eskimos, or Russians, or like Aladdin.



Of course I mangaed to find some food.....fudge! I tried divinity and pecan fudge, but ultimately went with the chocolate peanut butter. It was delightful!

The evening ended at Olive Garden ... soup and salad, my favorite!

I can't wait to be home for fires, Christmas tree and lights, family, baking with mom

..... can't wait!

A Bittersweet End

Our last day on campus (Sabrina, Brenna, and I)

Yes Mom .... I know I look gorgeous- blah!

This is from a week ago... Elephant Walk

Harrington - Where I spent most of my time

~

Lauren reminded me today how far behind I am in the blog world. That girl keeps me on my toes. Im going to miss you Lauren! ~

Today was a redefined today for our methods section, which meant we were forced to go to class and play pointless games and act as though we cared to learn. What it really did was give us the opportunity to gossip about our Thanksgiving break and spend one last day together on campus.


During Social Studies, my favorite class by far, Mrs. Eidson shared with us a story of her first year teaching. She was blessed, and I say blessed lightly, with a student who was born to a crack addicted mother and was highly emotionally disturbed. He brought her to tears daily and gave my poor teacher a definte run for her money. Mrs. Eidson spent afternoon and afternoon in the counselors office crying, pleading for sanity, and wondering how this possibly could have happened to her. Then year ended...the young boy moved on....Mrs. Eidson started a family and moved away from the inner city. Eight years later she received a phone call from the counselor she had spent so much time with during her first year of teaching. The counselor was no longer working for the school district, but for the prison system performing psychiatric analysis work. During this time, the young boy, the same boy that nearly tortured Mrs. Eidson for a year, entered the prison system for a variety of reasons and the counselor was given the job of analyzing this man. One of the things she asked him to do was write down a list of people who loved him.....this was the reason the counselor had called my teacher. On this list, a list that many of us would not have enough paper for, the man wrote one name: my teachers. The story nearly brought us all to tears. My teacher had a hard time getting through the story in fact. At the end of her story she handed each of us a sheet of paper and an envelope. On the paper each of us wrote a letter to ourselves. A letter stating why we decided to become a teacher. She is going to mail it to us half way through our first year of teaching.....sweet isn't? I'm looking forward to getting it!


Overall, today's experience was surreal. My last day on a college campus....EVER! Mom asked if I was sad and I of course acted nonchalant about it. Yet, the longer I sit and ponder the thought the more depressed I actually become. The campus has been my home for three years, three very long years. It's felt my footsteps, swept up my tears, shined down upon my smiles, craddled my heart, warmed my soul, and strengthened my beliefs. It will be bizarre not spending my days walking to and from Harrington building.

I love this song ~

When the road gets dark and you can no longer see...just let me love throw a spark and have a little faith in me. When the tears you've cried are all you can believe. Just give these loving arms a try baby and have a little faith in me.


Time....Time is our friend, because for us there is no end...

The End Before A Beginning

Well, today was my last day at Bowen Elementary. I was sad, yet happy at the same time knowing I will return in the spring. Yep, thats right! God blessed me and gave me the opportunity to student teach just where I wanted!

Of course I couldn't just leave and not come back till January....I already told Mrs. Cade I would be back Monday morning to read the class a story. I think I will go into withdrawls from all my babies.

This is a card one of my girls, Allison, made for me. It's adorable!

It reads :

I'll miss you

Dear, Mrs. Rohds

I was so excited when I saw you in Mrs. Cade classroom. You are my first ATM student in my teachers room.

I hope you like teacher your new class. I will miss you so much. When Mrs. Cade said tomorrow was your lasst day I was so sad.

Just remember if you're upset of sad Just do your stratiges and remember Mrs. Cade class.

Does that get any more adorable? Ugh I loved it. Im not quite sure why she thinks I'm not returning-I told them I was...but the card made my day anyways.

She put an adorable photo of herself on the inside at the top...I cant show it yet until I get parental permission. Something I need to do! Shes precious.

Precious Precious Precious

Cross your fingers!!

Family Tailgate - Right after we won the beef BBQ cookoff!

Emily and I Saturday night

Amber and I at the tailgate...My stickers say "Beef" ... "Its whats for dinner" (family tailgate theme)

Geez I'm behind on my blog!

It has been nothing but crazy the last couple weeks with the end of the semester oming near. This past weekend is like a blur and I feel as though it should only be Tuesday...which of course its not. Why is it when your young you wish life would pick up the pace and keep on rolling as fast as possible and when your older you wish it could simply take a chill pill and relax? Funny how things work....I'm wishing mine would overdose for a couple days and just stop....so I could sleep and get caught up without losing time.

I had a good time this weekend with all of my friends but accomplished nothing. This procrastination left me stressed and overworked this week, BUT I finally got all my work done this evening. Well, it least what I had to get done. To add to my stressful week...I'm getting sick at the worst time possible. I already know I will spend the entire weekend preparing my online website, studying for two tests, and finishing up a final project...EEEKK

Today as school I graded papers on similies. Where you compare two things using the words like and as. The funniest one of all: The dog was as ugly as a baboons butt (written by a girl by the way)

Friday morning at 10 all methods students have a student teacher meeting. I will find out what and where my placement is in the spring. Cross your fingers and say a little extra prayer. If I dont get Mrs. Cade...I will cry. She gives me snickers throughout the day....it's amazing how a small piece of chocolate can make your morning go from blah to awwww!!!

Thanksgiving needs to get here ASAP~I miss home

Boooooo

It sure has been a while and yet I am still just as stressed as last week. Mom coming last weekend really did help though. She got me moving.

I just have to make it till Thanksgiving without having a mental or phyiscal breakdown...and then I will be okay. Three weeks...that's what I keep telling myself it least.

Instead of paying attention in math class, because it's just plain awful, Sabrina, Brenna, Lauren, and I play with our shape blocks. We are suppose to be learning how to use these to teach fractions (for FOUR weeks), but I think we all pretty much know how to do that. So, we play. This took Brenna and I a good fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes that I didn't have to listen to that woman talk. Well worth it...and it's pretty.

Bowen this week was busy. Busy busy busy. Or maybe I was just a bit more tired than usual? Not sure which one. Anyways, nothing out of the ordinary happened. I am starting some intervention work though with two of my students. They are on 1st and 2nd grade level reading. Very behind, poor things. They both have very committed families too. One of them really does need to be tested for special ed, the other just doesn't like to try. Although, the longer I am there the more she likes me. At the end of the day she asks if she can read with me. ....Anyways, I have to document what we do every week. If there isn't any documentation that they need to be tested it won't happen. I'm sure this will be an eye opening experience.

Tomorrow Lauren (the other methods 4th grade teacher) and I are going back to campus (on our lovely Friday morning) to work on our service project. I can't complain though...we are just helping the students make posters on bullying and then displaying them throughout the school. Fairly simple.

Normally I am not just suppppper excited about Halloween, but this year I have to say I am. I will be a bumblebee...it was the least trashy outfit I could find. It's actually pretty cute. It came with a stinger, don't ask me why, but it's one I dont plan on wearing.

The best part about this week .................... time change on Sunday. ONE extra hour of SLEEP!!!

I Was a Teacher!

I was a teacher today!!!!!

As a class, we discussed how reading a sentence can differ if it ends in a period, question mark, or exclammation mark. I paired off all the students, good readers with some that need help, funny with shy, and so on. Each group was given a short two page poem they practiced and then presented to the class. I didn't expect them to enjoy it, but they loved it! Mrs. Cade and I did it before to show them...mabye thats why. We made it look like fun. They did so well though and used expression. We had feet stomping and arms flying in the air. It amazes me how adorable they are. I call them my babies.

I was so nervous though. Mainly because Mrs. Cade was there. She asked me after school what I thought about the lesson. I told her I was actually kind of nervous. She said at one point she could tell I was a little nervous and remembered what that was like. She made sure to tell me that she would never be sitting there just critiquing me or judging me. After the lesson she gave me a little note telling me I did great, how great of connection I have with the students, and how much she appreciates me. I love her. If I dont get to be with her in the spring I will be devastated!!

Mrs. Cade gave me two pictures. One of the girls and one of the boys in the class. I tried to scan them, but it wouldnt work. Next week I will be sure to take my camera. I can't believe I havent taken any yet. Although, some schools wont let you take any without parental permission. Thats why I havent tried. Now I will....I need pictures of my babies!

And the procrastination goes on...and on...and on......

BOOK SALE !!!

While I was writing early this morning I completely forgot to provide a weekend recap. Finally Amber was actually in town!!! We hung out with our usually group of overly silly Aggie boys, along with a few graduates from West Point who are now in the Army living in Oklahoma. All the boys act like ten year olds, which is why they are so much fun! There is never a dull moment, never a smile that recedes ones face, or a laugh that isn't chuckling.





Friday night we all met to watch Josh dunk his ring. He did excellent....29 seconds, surprising us all. In addition to great chugging abilities, he tie dyed his own outfit. A head band and biker shorts....by far, the funniest thing I have seen in weeks!




Saturday all of us got up early. Well, as early as we could that is. ATM vs Tech was actually a bigger fight than expected. Not that I payed any attention....I learned a new game instead. It's called backyard golf. Two golf balls are attatched at the ends of a piece of rope. You throw the rope (by holding one of the golf balls) and try to ring it around one of three pieces of horizontally layed PBC pipe. Who has time to think of these things...Im not sure, but it was definitely fun...and I most defintely sucked at it.




Today at Bowen was fairly pretty quiet. The best part? Scholastic Book Sale OF COURSE! I got so excited when I walked in this morning to see the doors open, books waiting for me on crisp white shelves. I bought eleven....eleven well deserved and spectacular books that is!

After school I met Amber and Emily to head out on a mini roadtrip. Amber has been dying to get a puppy. She finally found a lady selling three Sheltie pups in Caldwell. We packed in Amber's small white mustang and headed down the highway. Three babes, big sunglasses, and the radio blasting. We make our turn onto private road 1007 and journey down a long narrow gravel road. We are what seems to be near this "puppy farm" house (as Mom calls it) when we see large bumps of unsettled sand and gravel. The road dips and rises. Clearly they didn't see if necessary to level the gravel they had recently placed on the road. Amber slowly drags her low car along the gravel before stopping halfway. We all had realized the cliff of gravel that lied ahead us would be impossible. Thank God for cell phones...she called the lady.

This lady, who must spend all day outside and have smoked for half her life, agrees to meet us where we are stopped. After Amber gets off the phone, she proceeds to try and turn her car around. In the process we manage to get stuck horizontally in this narrow road. We can go no more than a foot in front of or behind us, and our wheels are burried deep in sand. Luckily, the lady arrives quickly as well as the neighbors whose house we are sitting in front of. It took about 15 minutes, but the neighbor and his young son were eventually able to pull us out, but not without sand and dirt flying ten feet in the air....all toward us. .... The pups were adorable and Amber is desperate for one. Don't we all the moment we hold them! If she does end up buying the puppy I think she will be sure not to take her car back to get it!!!

Tomorrow I will be teaching my first actual lesson. Up until now I just helped out or did the daily warm ups for langauge and math. The lesson has to do with fluency and expression when reading. Two students will be paired, each with a set of lines. They will practice together and then present their poem/story to the class using as much expression as possible and reading fluently while doing so. I'm not exactly having to teach anything, it's mostly the students working. Although, I'd much rather be walked into the lesson process than thrown.