That's When I Miss You, You Who Are My Home

This semester has been going wonderfully and I've been very happy lately. The weather has been beautiful, pretty much the perfect temperature and the leaves are starting to change color! It really puts me in a fabulous mood.
I have been crazy busy and doing a million things at a million miles an hour, but I am enjoying everything I am doing.

This weekend I went home for the first time since the semester started, and it was just the best weekend. I just felt really, truly, happy the whole weekend.

On Friday night I got to see a lot of people that I really missed and it was nice for that day to finalllly arrive after I had been anticipating it for about a month. We spent the night outside and I enjoy being outside as much as possible before it becomes ridiculously cold.
On Saturday morning I went to a cheerleading practice to help a friend who is the coach. I love going there and helping the team- it gives me my cheerleading fix that I don't get anymore.
Then I went with my parents to look at the pub-in-the-making. There is still a lot to be done before it opens but it was cool to see the construction in progress and see how much has been done in just 3 short weeks. This is also something that is making my parents very happy. We are all in the same place-extremely busy...but working towards something that is going to have amazing results when it's finished!
My mom and I tried to go apple picking but there was just wayyyyy too many people. I'm pretty sure every in New England had the same idea, so we just bought some apples from the orchard and enjoyed those.
Saturday night I spent with my mom and sister just catching up and enjoying each other's company- another perfect night.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon with more people that I hadn't seen in awhile and missed very much. We ate lunch and reminisced. Nothing better.

As much as I love being in Newport, I still have so many ties to home and people I love there.
"There's no place like home"

"As each person makes a new decision to stand up for what's most important to him or her, this trend gains strength."

I have recently started setting aside time each night (even if it's just 5 minutes) to read. The book I most recently finished and the book I am currently reading both deserve a post because I personally think they are so inspiring!

The book I finished about a week ago is called The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. It was recommended to me by my cooperating teacher who found it inspirational and I definitely agree with her. It is so interesting and different from any other book I have ever written and it totally makes you think twice about how you are living your own life. I literally could not put it down. If you need some uplifting or want a feel good book, read this book!

The book I am currently reading is called Me to We by Craig and Marc Kielburger. The authors are same people who started the Free the Children organization, which my summer program raised money for this year. I was inspired this summer by this organization and can't stop thinking about how much I would love to continue to be involved with it and when I saw this book on the shelf I couldn't resist buying it.
The Me to We philosophy was started by these authors, who basically inspire people all over the world to stop thinking just about themselves and come together for the greater good of the community. The book talks about all their worldly encounters and experiences they've had, but my favorite part is the end of each chapter that gives examples of how you can live your own life by this philosophy.

This book has really inspired me to make a conscious effort to try to live by the 'We' philosophy. How can you start moving from Me to We?

This video is one of the authors of Me to We explaining their philosophy. So worth watching!

Approaching Autumn

Although in my mind Fall started approximately 4 weeks ago, tomorrow is the first official day of Fall! Being in an elementary school makes that seem so much more exciting. Hopefully we will start planning lessons around the leaves changing colors and apples, it seems so cliche but it would make me so incredibly happy!

In addition to the seasons changing....the weather we have been having as been amazingly perfect. I'm pretty sure I talk about it everyday, but I just can't get over it. I could live in Sunny and 70 degree weather every single day. I need to find the place that that exists! It certainly isn't New England. But I am grateful for the month of September, it has been fantastic in so many ways.

This past weekend was also fabulous. I went to bed early one night, spent a morning at the beach and helping the environment while i enjoyed the scenery, shopped on Thames (bought the cutest sweatshirt), played pool at a bar that night, and ended the weekend it with a delicious dinner at Panera with wonderful friends. It really doesn't get any better.
Anddddd this weekend is going to be equally as amazing! I am counting down the days!

I also can't complain about the days that occur between these wonderful weekends. Student Teaching is going so well. I have loved just about every minute I have spent in that second grade classroom. Even the challenging moments and the children that are more difficult to work with are all learning experiences. I have begun taking on a lot more responsibility in the classroom and I've been teaching Writing Workshop everyday. I had my first observed lesson last week which was scary and I was really nervous about! It went very smoothly though and I was so relieved! The kids have been amazing and their excitement about learning blows me away!
I did catch one little boy passing a note to a little girl on the rug today. This was becoming very distracting to all the children in that area so I made the little boy give me the note. I guess since they are just second graders I didn't need to act so strictly, but the best part is that once I got the note it just said "Hi 'girls name'. From 'boys name'. A love letter in the style of an 8 year old I can only imagine. Maybe there will be some romance blossoming in my classroom! Hah!

Despite all the hard work and long hours that comes with Student Teaching, everything is just wonderful. It is so nice to finally feel like everything I've worked so hard on in the past few years at Salve is all finally becoming worth it. It is nice to sit in a faculty meeting and actually understand the 'teacher jargon' that is being thrown around. I hope these wonderful feeling stick around and things continue to go smoothly.

Check back for updates on more Second Grade love notes! Fascinating stuff...I know!

Student Teaching!!

So, yesterday I finished up my first week of Student Teaching! It is just so crazy to me that I have been thinking about my student teaching since freshmen year and even when I was applying to Salve and they talk about it at all the open houses and things...and it is actually here!

This week was incredible! I have already learned so much in just one week! My cooperating teacher is phenominal. She is so energetic, fun, and loving with the kids and she is so kind to me. She really has made me feel so comfortable in her classroom and demands that the students respect me the same way they do her.

The school that I am at is beautiful! All the teachers that work there are so nice and friendly and the actual building is really nice! We have a door in our classroom that opens up to the outside...right to the playground! It's incredible! Andddd it is about a one minute drive to the beach and my new favorite place.. Ocean Mist!

The second graders in my class are the most adorable kids you will ever meet! They are so cute and funny. They are also really smart too! I am so impressed by their reading levels, drawing abilities, math skills, etc.! Just about everything they say makes me laugh but my favorite kid anecedote of the week was when we were telling the students the importance of being themselves and liking themselves for who they are and accepting others despite their differences, we asked them to all share something they were good at. Many of the answers were things like 'Im good at baseball' or 'I'm a good big sister' or 'I'm good at dancing'. But my favorite of all answers was from one of my favorite children in the entire world when he said 'I am good at being myself'! Ahh melts my heart! So precious!

I got to spend my week painting rainbows, coloring a puzzle piece, drawing a picture of myself, and getting to know 21 amazing second graders! What more could you ask for?? I have a feeling it is going to be a great 8 weeks! (I am, however, not so much looking forward to the whole Salve classes/seminar thing that is going to happen after next week....things could be getting much more stressful!)

On the last note, I can't believe that the Project has been over for almost a month! Jeez, I thought that time was flying by while I was there! I am so incredibly glad that many of those people have still been keeping in touch...hearing from them never fails to put a smile on my face.

Definitely more updates on the lives on second graders!! There is just so much to include!

My First Day of School Outfit!

All their little backpacks!! So cute!

Where Has the Time Gone??

It seems like just yesterday I was writing my last post. That was now a good month ago and it was during the very middle of my summer program. That has now ended and I am moving closer and closer to school-mode.

This summer was incredible. I can't even begin to describe how incredibly quickly it feels like it went by, but sitting here looking back on it...there were so many good memories. It would be impossible to include everything I did this summer, and if you know even a little bit about my job you understand, but I made the most amazing bonds with both students and the staff this summer that I could never forget. I was genuinely proud of the kids for the things they were doing and I really respect the way they treat each other (I think more people in the world could learn a little something from them!) and I now feel like some of the people I work with are my best friends (also respectable people whom the rest of the world could learn a little something from). It may be corny but I feel like I grew as a person this summer and reflected on what was going on and the people around me. Damn Salve for making 'reflecting' a new habit of mine.

Now that summer is quickly coming to an end I've also found myself in disbelief that: A) I'm going into my senior year, B) I'm going to be student teaching in about a week, and C) that 3 years could possibly go by that fast. I don't know when I went from the girl who was petrified of college and never thought I'd be brave enough to go to the girl who looks forward to going back every year and has become so involved in school.

I had a conversation yesterday that keeps running through my mind, it went something like this:
Me: "I always have to get a sticker for my car in the summer and I always forget and drive around with an expired sticker. And now next year my sticker is going to be up in August and I'm going to forget to get my car inspected, then im going to go back to school with an expired sticker and it's going to be such a hassle to get a new one...rant, rant, rant..."
Friend: "You're not going to be going back to school after next summer..."

!!! Reality check! I think that conversation is the real reason for this post because it FINALLY hit me that this is it, the last time i'll be getting ready to go back to Salve. So weird! I can't really wrap my mind around it. Anywho, I'm really excited for this year. Lots of big things happening and it is going to be lots of fun!

Student Teaching posts to come for sure! Stay tuned...

♥ You Left Your Imprints On Me ♥


"So long sweet summer, I stumbled upon you and gratefully basked in your rays. So long sweet slumber. I fell into you now you're gracefully falling away. Hey thanks, thanks for that summer.

We're Half Way There

It's been so long since I last updated! YIKES! So much has happened in the past couple weeks that I could never do it justice just by blogging.

The Project is 'half way over', however, I prefer to say that we still have a whole half left.
It has been amazing. The students are awesome and I have found myself dreading Fridays because I am content hanging out with them.
My scrapbook is really starting to come along nicely. I have completed a few pages now and I am very pleased at how they have come out.

Some other things that occurred this past two weeks...I had a Pow Wow, I dressed up a music stand and it is now referred to as my boyfriend, I threw a Spa Party and put face masks and cucumbers on the kids, I FINALLY got to wear my Salve football jersey (Sorry Miss...I wish we could've worn them together), I had a quite successful cheerleading event, I had a few karaoke parties, I did the Hoe Down Throwdown AT a Hoe-Down and it was everything I hoped it would be, I laughed until my stomach muscles literally hurt, and I managed to escape the Week 3 plague (cross your fingers that it doesn't carry over into Week 4).
So much more has happened but I really just can't even remember anymore.

Tonight I went to the Billy Joel and Elton John concert and it was incredible! I'm not a huge concert-goer so I don't really have many other concerts to compare it to but they were awesome and picked such good songs to play and they ended with Piano Man so I really couldn't ask for anything more!

I slightly feel like I am living in a dream at the moment and I need to be pinched. I feel like every day just passes me by so quickly and I go through a very similar routine that I am not appreciating all the things I'm doing at the time. Sometimes I wish I had the power to make time stand still. I count down the days til this time every year and it makes me sad when I can't remember every minute of every day. The next few weeks I am going to work hard to let everything that is going on around me to soak it in and appreciate it. Then hopefully I will have more to blog about!

Finally, I must mention how extremely excited I am that the weather has finally turned around and actually gotten warmer. We even made it through an entire week without rain! Hallelujah!

Let's make time slow down... ready, set, go!

Happy 4th Of July!!

I am sure that this is my favorite time of the year. I like Christmas and my birthday and all those exciting things, but every year when the 4th rolls around I am at my happiest.

The Project is underway and if you ask me I'd say we're off to a running start.

In the past week I have shook hands with more people in 15 minutes than I probably did all year, created an 8 foot jail out of paper, played 4-square, skip-it, colored with chalk, recieved friendship bracelets, had a paper snowball fight, had a dance party, dressed in all 'gold', did the hoe-down throwdown at a real dance, and reunited with many people that I missed very much. I don't care what you do during the summer...my job wins.

Anyways...that is just a small list of things that I crammed into the past 8 days. I wish I could make time slow down, I wish I could remember every minute of everyday so that 5 weeks from now I could sit down and enjoy all the little things that occurred. However, I am positive that just as in the past 2 years, the big picture at the end of the summer will be one I won't forget.

This 4th of July weekend was also spectacular. I am arrived home on Thursday to find my favorite 4 month old at my house ready to drool all over me. He is wayyy too cute to even care. Its funny how you can only know someone for 4 months and go through withdrawals everyday that you're not around them. This baby melts my heart and I love him. I then stayed in and enjoyed all the rest and relaxation I could.

The 3rd of July has always been a favorite of mine. For the past 9 years I have gone to the same beach with just about all the same people. This year I only made an appearance at this beach which is unusual behavior for me...but things in life are changing and whether we like it or not, I think we just have to accept it. I am very glad that I got to see those people though, I miss them a lot. Later that night I went to a cookout, which was very very fun and I am also glad that I did not miss that gathering as well.

The actual 4th was filled with sisterly bonding, fireworks, and some low-key 'hanging out'.

It's very tough to catch up my blog with everything that has happened in my life the past week or so, but I will put an end to this very long post with a picture of those Gold leggings I previously blogged about, being worn in all their glory...