Yesterday was Adrienne's first day in school, as well as benchmark testing day, so it was much different than I was used to. The first two and a half hours were just testing for the entire school. No one was allowed to leave their rooms, be in the halls, or talk unless it was during a break. I wasn't sure how the students would handle it, since they usually have trouble being quiet, but they handled it like pros. They were actually really quiet and took the test without a problem. Now I know that they can make it a few hours without talking, so the bar has been raised! Corps Members don't really have much to do during testing, so we just sat in the back and read a book (thank goodness I remembered my kindle!).
It was good to ease Adrienne into school with testing, though. She could observe the students without having to really enforce rules or make them work. I was able to point out the class clowns, the talkers and the teacher's pets. In the afternoon, though, they came in full force. She was thrown into our most talkative class and worked with a student who has popped up on the radar of a lot of teachers as being a potential problem. I think the students were a little thrown off by her sarcasm, but I think they'll warm up to her.
Today at the office was somewhat productive. I spent the morning tweeting for our twitter account. There is a website that you can input tweets and schedule them to show up throughout the week. This is awesome since I'm in class three days a week. It helps to make sure that things are being tweeted regularly without taking me away from my in-class service. Pretty cool if you're really into social media stuff like I am! In the afternoon, Sean, Joe, Adrienne and I met to plan out this Friday's trainings. I really like my Project Leader role because I get to use my Communications degree in my service. Very cool.
Last, I also started looking at grad schools for next year. After spending last year in first grade, I realized that I love my first graders, but could never teach them full time. I've come to realize that I love middle schoolers. Their spunk and attitude makes it so much fun, but they're still young enough that you can be kind of cheesy and corny and they secretly like it. Anyways, I've also realized that I love middle school math. Kind of perfect, huh? When I first started looking, I was realizing that it's hard to get a masters in middle school/high school education if you didn't major in the subject you wanted to teach. Luckily, after some searching, I found a program at Lesley, a school in Boston (YAY!), that offers a masters for grades 5-8, which is perfect. I love the older elementary and younger middle school. I had contemplated going for my elementary education masters since it's through sixth grade, but this is perfect. I'm really excited about this possibility and can't wait to get started on the application process.
Basically, this whole blogpost has been one big nerd alert. From talking about how much I love my major and using it in my service to saying how excited I am to start on grad school applications, I'm a self-proclaimed nerd. Nerd alert.
Hope you all are having a great start to the week!
Instead of a quote, I'm going to leave you with this video, just because I love JMU and miss it every day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMky7dyVjlc
watch. fall in love. apply.
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