The Sweetest Thing

I guess a tender mercy right now in all of this craziness of life is that today I had student after student leave class today and give me the most sincere thanks.  One boy in particular came up to me today and said, "thanks for teaching me today."  At the moment I was in a little bit of a rush to make sure all of the kids got out on time and mentally prepping for the next class, but for just a second I FELT SO GOOD.  I'm so grateful for my cute students who appreciate their teachers!

Day 28 - Career goals

My very most current (short-term) career goal is to remember all of my students names.  While this is a short-term goal, I realize that this will take me quite a long time, probably until December (and then hopefully I don't forget over the Holiday Break.

A couple of longer-term goals that I have are to get all of my IB training/certification and help my school become completely IB official.  At that point I would love to teach in another country (I think you all know which Spanish-speaking country I'm dreaming of living in again).  Another goal I have is to get my masters at some point.  Thanks to my super cheap ESL endorsement I'm 1/3 of the way through a Master's program @ SUU and it would be cool to finish that--but not until I get my undergrad student loans paid off.  To be honest, I feel like right now, getting my Master's will cost much more than it will actually benefit me salary-wise, which is another reason I'm holding off for now.

I guess another career goal I have is to stay in contact with old students and go to their High School graduations and missionary farewells and all that good stuff.  I suppose this is more of a hope than a goal.

Day 27 - College you are attending or want to attend

BYU-Idaho was absolutely my dream college.  Going to school there was one of the best things that has ever happened to me in my life.  I think people think I'm weird when I tell them this (by-the-way, isn't weird a weird word?  I always spell it wierd, thank goodness for spell check).  It's hard to explain to someone who didn't attend school there.  But if you're a current or past student, you know what I'm talking about.  You can't go to BYUI and not LOVE it.

*DISCLAIMER*  I'm sure there are a few people who might have something negative to say, most likely because they either hated the honor code, broke the honor code and got in trouble, or both.




BTW my school made the top 20 list of of best value for your dollar...came in at #9.

Day 26 - Favorite book

 I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens. 






Growing up I was definitely a book whore.  I had a great vocabulary as a child thanks to being such an avid reader.  I once read the entire Work and the Glory series in a week and half.  As I started getting busy at the end of High School I stopped reading for pleasure and that is really sad.  I kind of forgot all about fiction (though I must say I'm glad I got to experience and learn to love non-fiction in college).  However, I rediscovered the public library this summer.  My love for fiction is back!  I'm really liking the mystery genre at the moment.  Truthfully, I think I began to rekindle the reading flame about this time last year when someone lent the me Hunger Games trilogy and I devoured them.  By October I had set my sights on the Harry Potter series (I'm so glad I hadn't seen the movies first).  I feel like life is going to get very busy again and that sad because I love being lazy and lying in my hammock all day reading a good book.

Day 25 - Favorite stores to buy clothes from

Oh goodness.  I LOVE finding fun dresses from Thrift Stores, but for some reason the DI stores in Utah stink.  I always seem to get lucky in Oregon though.  There's a really fun one in my hometown called Red, White and Blue...my mom goes every week to check out the "new" merchandise.  Other than thrift stores, I really enjoy Ross, Downeast and department stores for dress shopping.  Pants I buy almost exclusively at Old Navy.  Shirts, Old Navy and Downeast.  And those are my favorite stores to buy clothes (I will not end this sentence with a preposition even though whoever created this topic did).

Day 24 - If you could change your first name, what would you change it to

Honestly, after 28 years, I've really gotten used to the name Amanda, it's hard to imagine anything else.  I will say that I really like androgynous names, I could dig a name like Micah or Levi...I think they're cool names for boys or girls.

Day 23 - Five people you are annoyed with right now (no names)

I don't want to answer that question, instead I'd like to tell you that I really thought the log ride at Knot's Berry Farms was scary and my smile is very fake.  I'm a good faker.

Day 22 - Anything you want to post about

I am having a very cranky month.  I don't want to get into it beyond the fact that August has been a crappy month for me since 2008.  It just sucks and now I dread Augusts, I don't know if it's now become one of those self-fulfilling prophecy deal-things (I just kinda hyphenated two words that really don't go together, hopefully you follow me anyways).

On to other news, just got my class lists and I have 325 students that I teach Spanish to on a M-W schedule or a T/Th schedule.  The breakdown of those 12 classes is as follows:  4 classes of 6th graders, 7 classes of 7th graders and 1 class of 9th graders.  I'm scared to teach little kids, they're not even teenagers and when they do turn 13 they're like the awkward smelly teenagers not the cool 15 year olds who are excited to be getting their permits.  Then on Fridays I have about 85 students that I teach either cooking or creative journaling.  It's just underlined the word journaling in red, so apparently journaling isn't a word.  If you had a Friday elective class called "Creative Journaling" what do you imagine that would entail?  Seriously, I want to know.  I have no idea what I will do next Friday with these kids.  Also keep in mind that I will most likely not have access to portable computer lab and definitely no access to digital cameras, an lcd projector or basically any other kind of technology.  Oh yeah, and no art supplies.  Charters schools are an adventure.  BRAND NEW charter schools are an adventure.  They built the facility in 26 weeks and it is gorgeous...just no technology.  Hopefully we have some VERY generous parents.  I wish I could say I am thrilled about this new chapter in my life not working for the JSD, but alas, I am not thrilled.