The Beginning of the End

So, the end of my college career is looming ahead of me. I don't graduate until April, but starting in January, I will be student teaching and so will not be on campus much at all. My time at BYU is coming to a close. Before I start to get all sad about all of this, let me tell you how excited I am! I cannot wait to be a teacher. This is what I've been waiting for. Just let me at those kids and I'll show 'em... everything! I have loved the little tastes I've gotten through my practicum experiences and I can't wait to have a class of my very own. On the other hand, BYU has been really good to me and I've really had a wonderful time in this little bubble within a bubble within a bubble... The people are so nice, the grounds are so beautiful, there is always free food to find (I got lasagna today), the possibilities are endless. I will be sad to leave this community, but onward I go into the unknown and I couldn't be happier.

It Amazes Me...

I am in a teacher education program. You would think that those entrusted to teach teachers how to be teachers should be the best of the best of the best - especially here at BYU with such a big education department. Yet I continually am amazed by how much busy work and poor instruction I come across here. I consider myself a teacher - I have taught for 3 summers at a day camp, I helped to teach 1st grade for a month last year. While this is not a lot of experience, I am not just a student trying to impress the teacher into giving me a good grade.

As graduation looms ahead of me, the most important thing to me in a class is no longer the grade - it is information that will help me in my own teaching. Making me jump through hoop after hoop of junk will not make me a better teacher. Making me do an assignment 3 times, once in a whole group with the teacher, once with a partner, and once on my own will not help me when the assignment is so simple I could have done it on my own the first time is not efficient. Filling time with useless activities is not helpful. Making a class hard, full of bunk, because "teaching is hard, so we're trying to get you used to that" is just plain stupid.

ok, I'm done ranting.

In the Library...

So this semester I have become much more acquainted with the library on campus than I have in past years. I got a locker for the semester down on the first floor and keep all of my textbooks down there. After classes and work every day, I come down to this basement of all basements (no cell service = no less distractions) and do my readings and homework, then drop everything in my locker and go home with a light backpack and a lighter conscience. It's been working pretty well.
I realized something today as I was going to my locker to drop off my books. I have developed a personal attachment to my corner where my locker is. There was a library stool (you know the ones I need to stand on to reach the shelves) out of place and I felt like someone had messed up my newly made bed. That was a weird feeling.
Also, I made a discovery. There are a lot of weird books in the social studies area of the first floor. I came across a whole section of books on clothing and makeup. There were books on wedding dress around the world, why we where uniforms, and womanly adornments. Wow. Who knew people wrote books about all these things, and that people bought them?

Life!

So I was recently informed that someone checks this blog semi-regularly hoping for an update and they are constantly disappointed. Well, I don't want to disappoint my friends anymore...SO my life. It's quite exciting.

I'm working full time during this spring and summer here in Provo. It's an interesting little office in the basement of the administration building where we scan tons and tons of documents and I data enter the numbers attached to them. You know, dream job.

It's really nice to not have homework when I get off. I punch out and then my time is mine to do with what I will. Because of this I've been able to have some really fun times. Becca and I have ridden our bikes down to Utah Lake a few times which is a really pretty ride. And we always have all kinds of adventures. We had a bonfire last weekend and I tried my very first roasted starburst - they are so good! We go to social dance club on Tuesdays and dance the night away, and we have started a book club on Wednesdays - we're reading The Giver which is much better than I remember it being, and we have a dinner group on Thursdays and Sundays - it's really fun to eat together as a big group (yesterday's group was 9 people). We're basically living the dream.

One thing I don't like about just working all day is that I don't actually accomplish anything. Most of the time we don't have enough work to keep us all busy and so I am left to waste away the time. The fact that I could be doing something worthwhile with my time, but I'm not drives me a little crazy. But you know, a job's a job, until I get my degree and get to teach! THAT will be fun. Really difficult, draining, and sometimes frustrating I'm sure, but I'll be doing something worth doing.

But other than that, life's great. So there, now I've updated. That's all.

Isn't it ironic

I am in all of these classes for education. I really like the classes, but they keep assigning me all these hugely massive readings that are so boring and dense I can hardly get through them, least of all interpret them. The funny part is that most of these texts are telling me that in order to be a successful teacher, you have to go beyond the evil "traditional" teaching style, that is ingest and regurgitate, and teach dramatically! Teach creatively. Teach with passion. Teach with excitement. Teach differently. One book even quoted Aristotle saying that a person has to be entertained to really learn.

Does anyone else see the massive disconnect here?

Testimony

I and some other college students home for the summer were asked to bear our testimonies on a subject that has been on our minds or we had studies recently. So we gave our "talks" last week.

I bore my testimony that the church was true and that scripture study will bring us close to God and will teach us more about God and His son so that we can love Him and revere Him more. I said that as I studied regularly for my New Testament class, I grew to know and love the Savior more than I ever have. Also, our agency is the only thing we can actually give to God and so when we do, it is a sign that we really have been converted. And when we give up our worldly wants or wishes to stop and study the scriptures, that is showing who is really first in our lives.

I don't actually remember exactly what I said, this is kind of the jist of it. I had prepared by looking up scriptures on some subjects and writing down some phrases and truths that I came across, but when I stood up to the mic, I really believe I was led by the spirit to say what I said. I just talked and I was surprisingly eloquent, knowing myself. I also noticed that I was smiling the whole time I was speaking and I didn't know why, but I was so happy. This was a testament to me that the spirit and the gospel bring joy and reaffirmed my testimony as a whole. Anything that can bring that much true joy is worth following no matter the price, and for me right now, the price is small and for that I am grateful. But even when it gets harder, it is worth it because it is Good and True and brings Joy.

There's No Place Like Home

So I haven't posted in a while. Oops.

I got home on the Friday the 19th and started a drama camp 11:00 Monday morning. Before that time I had to write a play with three musical numbers, find songs to go along with the plot, choreograph dances for the three songs, find costumes for everyone, oh, and help my family clean out all the stuff from the floor of the barn so we could perform there. It was an eventful weekend.

The camp went well, we had 9 students and we did a play about a little stowaway who wanted to be a pirate, but they wouldn't let him until they found out what a lovely singing voice he had (they needed him to win the annual pirate singing contest - the prize was a bottle of rootbeer). Thursday's runthrough was a distaster. No one knew their lines - Michael was playing prompter and he read more lines than anyone on stage did. The two littlest campers were having problems staying on stage and the dances just weren't coming together. I made them all promise to practice Thursday night, and Friday morning...it was exactly as bad. I was so worried! But the final dress rehearsal started to go better, and the performance for the parents was better than I'd ever seen them do it. It was kind of a miracle.

the cast plus Michael and me - aren't they cute?

So now I have a couple weeks of no camp - just advertising for the next ones in July. Last weekend I went to the Lake Oswego Farmers Market to advertise. We ran the "Kids Corner" - Christine and I painted faces and hands (mostly hands - you can hold those still on the table as you paint them) and let the kids dress up in our pirate costumes and swordfight - very carefully. It was a good success and I think we got some good publicity. AND at the end, Christine and I found out that the booth just a little ways down from us was a Cheesecake man and he sold little gourmet cheesecakes in all different flavors. We got a chocolate caramel one (I had to pay her somehow for her time) and it was SO good.

mmmm, so yummy!

So...that's my life right now. Drama Camp. ooh ooh ooh! Except yesterday we went to Powells. I love that place. And I've decided that this summer I want to explore downtown Portland more. I've kind of avoided it growing up because it was loud and big and scary - we're kind of country people, but I think Elise and I will have to go check the whole thing out (ok, maybe not the whole thing, ... or maybe we will).

So...that's my life. I really like being back in Oregon. I always forget how green it is until I come back. I like it. Even though it seems I'm allergic to all of it.