A Long Week

This week was a pretty nice one for Jake and I. Jake worked a lot as usual, and I had my hands full with school assignments and classes. Once Jake gets home from work he launches straight into homework for his two online classes, and I'm usually still working on mine, so the evening hours in our little apartment are pretty quiet. However, we still make time to actually be with each other. We read our scriptures together, of course, and we've also started reading "regular" books together. Right now we're reading Paper Towns by John Green, and LOVING it! We take turns reading a chapter or two aloud to each other when we're cuddled up on the couch or right before we fall asleep, and it's just a really relaxing way for us to enjoy each others' company.

On Wednesday I taught my first solo lesson at the middle school! I was assigned to teach about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, and I spent a lot of time the weekend before I taught brainstorming and trying to think of an awesome lesson idea. Finally, an idea hit me and I ran with it! The kids got to play “detectives” by looking around their classroom for clues (puzzle pieces) to put together the who, what, when, and why of the assassination. Once the clues were found, they were to copy the information onto their detective note sheets, and be prepared to teach each other. For this portion of the lesson, I used a method recommended by one of my TA’s for my ED361 class called the Jigsaw Method. One kid from each previous group (who, what, where, when, and why) was put into a new group. This meant that no one else knew the piece of what happened to Lincoln, so they were all relying on each other to teach the other pieces of the puzzle. This was a great way for the kids to practice sharing what they've learned, and for me to see if they actually absorbed the information from the clues! 

The lesson was a little rough the first time through, as they always are, but the feedback my teacher gave me was all positive and she was pleased overall with what I'd done. The second time around went MUCH better, and everyone was happy! I'm so proud of myself for accomplishing my first solo lesson without too many bumps in the road, and that the kids were actually able to learn something from me.

On Friday, a massive storm hit Rexburg. Starting around five, right after I picked Jake up from work, the sky just opened up and we got a TON of rain! We needed to go grocery shopping, so we waited a few hours hoping that it would die down enough for us to venture outside...which it did, but not by much. Trying to get all our groceries to the car while holding an umbrella, pushing a grocery cart, and trying to dig keys out of Jake's pocket was a pretty intense adventure!

Saturday Jake worked from 9-5, so it was a pretty long day for both of us. My hours were filled with homework: outlining a paper for one class, reading and analyzing articles for another, and reading two books for two other classes, along with working on a research paper. I took small breaks between assignments to watch some TV or look at Pinterest, so my brain wouldn't completely melt.

That evening, we went to an Academy of
Comedy performance on campus. It was an improv comedy show put on by a group from the university, and it was surprisingly funny! It was only $1 so it was definitely worth the price!

We have church at 8:30 am, and usually get up between 7 and 7:30. This morning, however, we slept through three alarms...so we didn't wake up until almost 10:00! We both just had to laugh about it, because our week had been so long that we needed a lot of extra sleep apparently!

This Week's Spiritual Thought

This week in my education class, we were talking a lot about how the power of giving choices to our students when they act inappropriately. Instead of saying "sit down and shut up!" we can approach them and say "do you think you can handle yourself where you are, or do you need to move to another seat?". We discussed the idea for a while, and one of my classmates made the comment that agency is an eternal and extremely powerful principle. I really liked that, and it made me think about how when I teach, I'm going to be teaching other children of God. So, I should treat them like they are precious and important to God's Plan.