College/Career Transition

So the time has come finally where I can see the end of my college career. I have one week of student teaching left. On Friday I will be officially done and have a bachelor degree in Math Education. As I look back on the semester that I have had and the experiences that I have had it has been great to see it all. I started as a nervous student teacher that was still trying to learn if he could handle himself in the classroom and take control of 30 students at once. I still remember that first day that I was given to teach by myself. I was TERRIFIED. As I continued to get a lot more opportunities I began to see a lot of growth. That nervous feeling began to go away and I felt more confident. It was never a lack of confidence in knowing the material but in knowing whether the students were able to get the material through my teaching. I was talking with my mentor teacher on Friday and it was really cool to hear her talk about how far she had seen me come. She has even seen tremendous growth in the last few weeks with my teaching.

This week I am still a little bit nervous but that is because I have an observation on Wednesday where the vice principal of Mesa High School is going to come and observe. He is doing this to see if I would be fit to teach at Mesa. I received word of this last week and the process has been trying to get my teacher certification but they mentioned that if it was impossible to get it before the start of second semester that I would get my substitute certification and I would become a long term sub while I finished all the requirements for a full time teacher certification. I have been preparing all weekend and I think that he will like it. I plan on reviewing with the general 7th grade class adding and subtracting fractions with fractions bars. Also we are going to review order of operations through the warm-up. We are doing a lot of review seeing as they have their CRT's the week after.

With all of this going on there have been some interesting things going on in my life outside of school. I don't like talking much about it but to say the least I am amid confusion and trying to figure it all out. Sometimes life can be going great in one area but be in dire turmoil in another. I just wish for that day when that will be solved. I know it will happen but sometimes the patience runs thin and I get ansy. With that though life continues and will never stop.

Im excited to go home to Colorado as well for Christmas. It has been hard to not be able to spend Thanksgiving will family for the last 4 or 5 years but spending Christmas with them is just as good if not better. After the new year if I do recieve the job I will be taking a trip with my Dad back down to Mesa. I am looking forward to that time to talk to him and to spend that time with him. I always cherish our talks even though we may only talk sports the whole time. I sometimes wish that I had more time to talk to my Mom and just tell her about my life and what is going on. I love them both and especially my Grandma who says that she wishes I was there to clean up her mess after cooking sometimes. :)

Finally I want to thank some of my true friends that I have had over the years that have kept me going and have really stood by me in the rough and good times. I don't think I would ahve done it without them.  Above is the picture of 2 of them. Sarah Shock and Emma Zachreson. I want to thank you all for everything you have done for me and our continuing friendship. I miss you guys a lot and I hope that someday our path will cross again. Also I cannot forget Paige Laney, Carly Firth, and Heidi Stott. We made our math classes a blast and I hope I was neer too dull for you or crazy! I will cherish all of those memories.