Hello blogging world!
Sorry I've been absent for the past 8 weeks.
But, some big stuff has been happening and I've been awfully busy!
I mean, things to announce....
exciting things....
Like....
our lives will be changed FOOOREEEVVEERRR
because------
THATS RIGHT.
YOU GUESSED IT.
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^I FINISHED MY MATH CLASS!
HA, gotcha!
Now that spring term is over, I'm taking a few independent study classes, and working. Jon is still enjoying his internship with the church and will be taking 2 classes.
We've been working hard on our summer bucket list and done so many fun things together.
Here's what we've done the past two months:
Gone to the aquarium
Gone to the drive in to see Star Trek: into darkness
7 Peaks swimming (lots)
Went to Pie Pizza (finally!) It was really good!
The Zoo. It was great, but man, I love the STL zoo. It's free and a lot bigger!
Planned a trip to STL in July (can't wait!)
Rented the most adorable puppy (We really REALLY had a hard time not adopting her!)
Went to the ducky derby and got 1st and 3rd place, respectively.
Each read Mistborn (jon's first time, katie's 10,000)
Mini Golfing/ go karts at trafalga
Beat Mario Kart together
Went to the Salt Lake Farmers market (Need to go back, it's amazing!) **Shoutout to D & A--we must go in August!
Hike the Jordan-river trail to Bridal Veil Falls on a gorgeous summer day
Taken plenty of walks on the new campus trails
$1 bowling at Fat Cats
WOO! We've really done a lot--we have a lot more on our bucket list, but it's more "big trips" like Zions, hiking Timp, etc. Can't wait!
I just love my sweet husband! He is amazing. Always does the dishes, no complaints. He works so hard for our tiny family! :)
We had the pleasure of getting to see Sharla and Bret all weekend! They're moving to Delaware to be near Jon's sister Christina, so it was great! Friday I went to a sleepover at Tami's with all the girls--I love them! I seriously hate not having sisters, and they are fantastic. I feel so close and loved by them, and I LOVE those girls! They are amazing and so fun to be with.
We went to dinner at Gma and Grandpas on Sunday, saturday we went to an amazing chalk art festival, red iguana, and saw superman with jake, misty, bret, and sharla. Then on Tuesday, we went to 7 peaks with bret and sharla. So fun! They are awesome to be with. I think I definitely lucked out because I have the BEST MIL! She is the nicest person you'll ever meet and so, so kind. We have a lot in common and I love spending time with her! They're heading to STL today and my parents are so excited to get to spend some time with them. I hope they love STL as much as I do.. and the humidity....haha ;)
Just keep swimming!
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Happenings.
Hi.
We're not dead.
Just busy.
Here's what our day looks like:
-Wake up at 6:20, drive Jon to the front runner.
-Tell myself I WONT go back to sleep
-Go back to sleep
-Pack, pack, pack
-Keep Grey's anatomy running while I back
-Go for a run
-Go to work
-Pick Jon up at the train station
-Eat dinner
-Watch shows
-Sleeeeeeeeep
Luckily, my math class for Spring was cancelled tues, wed. So tomorrow is my first day of my (HOPEFULLY) last math class EVEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR.
^^Cannot even express how excited I am for this.....
Things I am trying to find this month:
Aztec maxi dress
Skinny jeans
Capris
New tops for spring
Our apartment smells really musty..........like a basement. How do I make this go away? I opened all the windows, but I'm scared it's mold and I don't know how to tell....cleaning tips?
We are moving saturday and I'm so ready to just be moved in already!
Clothes I'm dying to get:
We're not dead.
Just busy.
Here's what our day looks like:
-Wake up at 6:20, drive Jon to the front runner.
-Tell myself I WONT go back to sleep
-Go back to sleep
-Pack, pack, pack
-Keep Grey's anatomy running while I back
-Go for a run
-Go to work
-Pick Jon up at the train station
-Eat dinner
-Watch shows
-Sleeeeeeeeep
Luckily, my math class for Spring was cancelled tues, wed. So tomorrow is my first day of my (HOPEFULLY) last math class EVEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR.
^^Cannot even express how excited I am for this.....
Things I am trying to find this month:
Aztec maxi dress
Skinny jeans
Capris
New tops for spring
Our apartment smells really musty..........like a basement. How do I make this go away? I opened all the windows, but I'm scared it's mold and I don't know how to tell....cleaning tips?
We are moving saturday and I'm so ready to just be moved in already!
Clothes I'm dying to get:
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Blog Update
Soooo I decided it was time for a new look for the blog. And I love it! It looks so cute and so much better! I also added a feature on the sidebar: you can click on the two pictures (either one), and it will take you to my instagram so you can see all my pictures there as well.
xoxo
xoxo
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Summer Lovin'
Next year will be interesting. We have absolutely no idea where we'll be. We could be in Utah, Oregon, Missouri, or any other state. I could be teaching, or crying from not getting (or allowed to do if we move out of state) an internship. We just have no idea. So, we decided since this is our last year as BYU students (and possibly utahns), we would make a bucket list. We decided to start it now and do things this summer. Highlighted things are what we've already done (well, we've pretty much eaten at all these places, we just want to eat them one more time!). SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!
Food:
- Gurus
- Sammy’s pie shakes.
- Communal
- Costa Vida
- The Pie
- Red Iguana
- Joseph Smith Building
- Bombay House
- Spicy Corea
- Art Museum
- Provo Bakery
- French Toast at Kneader’s
- J Dawgs
- Sweet Tooth Fairy
- Slab
- Awful Waffle/Bruge
Places:
- Zoo
- Thanksgiving point
- Park City
- New Outlet mall
- Zion’s national park
- Hike the Y
- 7 Peaks
- Hike Mount Timp.
- Farmer’s Market
- Stay at Inn on the Hill
- Bridal Veil Falls
- Bean Museum
- Weekend trip to Disneyland
- Weekend trip to Vegas
Things:
- Get all sports pass and go to almost every game
- Go to at least 2 art events on campus
- Go to at least 1 divine comedy & humor U event
- See MOTAB perform live
- Visit Temple Square
- Float down Provo River
- Ride a tandem Bike together
- go camping
- Do a session at the Salt Lake Temple
- 10. Go to a BYU Planetarium show
- 11. Go to at least 2 devotionals
Jon started his job with the Church and he likes it. Although it is realllly far away. We are in the process of moving but haven't really done much yet :/ moving stinks. but it will be nice to live so close to campus. We went and played with puppies at petsmart today. I fell in love with a Lab/blue heeler mix that was SOOOO sweet. She cuddled up with me and I did not want to leave! I could hold puppies all day. Jon always asks me why I don't go to veterinary school. I WOULD LOVE TO. ( I mean besides the fact that it's medical school and like another 4-6 years of school...yeah...no.) except, I would just tell everyone their pets died and then keep them for myself. Wait that's creepy. But sometimes I'd just want to keep them, you know!?Ugh. Non pet people. gross.Also. I complain about having to get my ESL endorsement, but I honestly just realized what a blessing it is. If you're already graduated, an ESL endorsement is basically a master's degree--you have to get accepted into a program, and it's 24-30 credits of masters level learning...which is like thousands of dollars to get, too!I want my special ed. and reading endorsement, but I can't justify shelling out $12,000 (which I don't have) plus two extra years of school (for each), without getting a degree, just an "endorsement". But, it makes you a lot more marketable to have endorsements, so I'm grateful for my ESL one. se habla espanol? I don't, but i can teach you how to speak english!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
College
Some days,
I just want to stay in college foever.
I love being a student. I know how to be a student. I love everything about campus. I love learning! My passion for education lead me to choose a teaching major. Part of my teaching philosophy is creating, "life long learners". I know I'll be sad when I leave college, but I'll never stop learning. I am the nerd that downloads textbooks to my kindle so I can read MORE about being a good teacher. I just want to know EVERYTHING. (this also leads to me acting like I know everything, which is quite annoying. And I don't. I just really like to research and learn). Like for some reason I decided I REALLY wanted to learn about how health insurance worked. This led to several hours on the internet researching and learning. I know, I'm kind of weird. My friend in high school used to laugh at me because I had books by my bed that i called my, "fun books" AKA fiction books, haha! I want to instill a passion for reading in my students. I am in a literacy class right now ,and it is incredible how you learn to read and write. A lot of it is done without the help of anyone, it's kind of automatic. Writing starts with pictures, moves to scribbles, moves to pre-writing with scribbles and a letter or two thrown in, then phonetic spelling, then advanced writing/spelling. The better you are at spelling the better your reading comprehension is. That's why teachers make students memorize and take spelling tests! You are better are decoding words if you've seen a familiar one before. It's awesome! And there's like 1000 theories on the "right" way to teach writing, reading, and spelling. And it's my overwhelming job to take these methods, make sense of them, and create my own idea of how to do it.
I'm excited to teach, but also extremely nervous. There's a couple classroom management theories I playing with:
1) cooperative discipline: this means you allow the student's to create the rules and consequences in the classroom. it creates democracy and the responsibility is to the individual since they agreed and created the rule.
2) assertive discipline: I love this book called Tools for Teaching by Dr. Fred Jones. And he is assertive discipline. It's basically about stopping undesirable behavior before it becomes a problem. There are several techniques to do this-->this is a "high control" teacher. I think I am high control. I want my room to run smoothly. I will trust my students to be responsible for themselves, but if they choose to not be, there will be consequences. If you trust them and give them the opportunity to behave, they will.
3) Love and Logic. Jim & Jay Funk created this theory. It's basically about using logical consequences, but LOVING your students so that they want to behave because they respect and love you. I like this one, but it is low control--meaning, you really don't do much disciplining. Which is great, as long as it works!
Every classroom is different, I just really want my students to create a democratic environment where they learn to trust each other and myself. I want a learning community, not a classroom. We will learn from each other (Vygotsky's theory of cooperative learning.) rather than from me. I will not lecture or give worksheets (except for a few). They will learn from hands on.
You do NOT want your child learning from a teacher that sends home a daily worksheet. Trust me, this is a sign of a lazy teacher that does not care! Worksheets are easy! experiments, group activities, discussions, are difficult to plan and teach, but they teach and reinforce soooo much more!
WOOO that was a long post. But this is really for me to remember all that I have learned this semester & how I feel about it!
I just want to stay in college foever.
I love being a student. I know how to be a student. I love everything about campus. I love learning! My passion for education lead me to choose a teaching major. Part of my teaching philosophy is creating, "life long learners". I know I'll be sad when I leave college, but I'll never stop learning. I am the nerd that downloads textbooks to my kindle so I can read MORE about being a good teacher. I just want to know EVERYTHING. (this also leads to me acting like I know everything, which is quite annoying. And I don't. I just really like to research and learn). Like for some reason I decided I REALLY wanted to learn about how health insurance worked. This led to several hours on the internet researching and learning. I know, I'm kind of weird. My friend in high school used to laugh at me because I had books by my bed that i called my, "fun books" AKA fiction books, haha! I want to instill a passion for reading in my students. I am in a literacy class right now ,and it is incredible how you learn to read and write. A lot of it is done without the help of anyone, it's kind of automatic. Writing starts with pictures, moves to scribbles, moves to pre-writing with scribbles and a letter or two thrown in, then phonetic spelling, then advanced writing/spelling. The better you are at spelling the better your reading comprehension is. That's why teachers make students memorize and take spelling tests! You are better are decoding words if you've seen a familiar one before. It's awesome! And there's like 1000 theories on the "right" way to teach writing, reading, and spelling. And it's my overwhelming job to take these methods, make sense of them, and create my own idea of how to do it.
I'm excited to teach, but also extremely nervous. There's a couple classroom management theories I playing with:
1) cooperative discipline: this means you allow the student's to create the rules and consequences in the classroom. it creates democracy and the responsibility is to the individual since they agreed and created the rule.
2) assertive discipline: I love this book called Tools for Teaching by Dr. Fred Jones. And he is assertive discipline. It's basically about stopping undesirable behavior before it becomes a problem. There are several techniques to do this-->this is a "high control" teacher. I think I am high control. I want my room to run smoothly. I will trust my students to be responsible for themselves, but if they choose to not be, there will be consequences. If you trust them and give them the opportunity to behave, they will.
3) Love and Logic. Jim & Jay Funk created this theory. It's basically about using logical consequences, but LOVING your students so that they want to behave because they respect and love you. I like this one, but it is low control--meaning, you really don't do much disciplining. Which is great, as long as it works!
Every classroom is different, I just really want my students to create a democratic environment where they learn to trust each other and myself. I want a learning community, not a classroom. We will learn from each other (Vygotsky's theory of cooperative learning.) rather than from me. I will not lecture or give worksheets (except for a few). They will learn from hands on.
You do NOT want your child learning from a teacher that sends home a daily worksheet. Trust me, this is a sign of a lazy teacher that does not care! Worksheets are easy! experiments, group activities, discussions, are difficult to plan and teach, but they teach and reinforce soooo much more!
WOOO that was a long post. But this is really for me to remember all that I have learned this semester & how I feel about it!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Dear Spring
Dear Spring,
Please stay. I really love feeling the warm sun on my skin. I love soaking up your rays and falling asleep while I bask in your light. I think we've had enough winter for one year. Stop teasing me with days of warmth and sunshine and then laughing while I am soaked with wet snow and disappointment!!! Kthankyou. I would really appreciate it. I love seeing the flowers start to grow buds and people sprawled out around campus. I'm ready for you! So don't leave.
Love,
Katie
Last week my little brother Riley came and stayed with us! IT WAS AWESOME! He is the coolest, funniest, most awesomiest (yep) brother in the world. He is a giant at 6'2. He is a junior in high school and he was on spring break. We ate soo much delicious food. We went bowling, to the nicklecade, played board games, watched movies, went downtown, it was great! I am sad he is going to be on a mission so soon but I know he'll be an awesome missionary. I just don't want to miss him for two years! School is winding down and I feel like I can kind of breathe. Except then I'll head straight back into spring term and once again be drowning in papers and work. But luckily I will only be working one job spring term instead of two like this term .Working two jobs has been really difficult! I have not had enough time to study and I feel like I am stretched soo thin, so it will be nice to JUST focus on school and one job, instead of two. I'll be leaving the bookstore but returning Summer term. The classes I'm taking in spring include:
1) Math Ed.
2) Bowling (YES I AM SO EXCITED)
3) Astronomy (G.E)
4)TELL 440 (teaching english language lerarners--my minor)
total: 8.5 credits
Please stay. I really love feeling the warm sun on my skin. I love soaking up your rays and falling asleep while I bask in your light. I think we've had enough winter for one year. Stop teasing me with days of warmth and sunshine and then laughing while I am soaked with wet snow and disappointment!!! Kthankyou. I would really appreciate it. I love seeing the flowers start to grow buds and people sprawled out around campus. I'm ready for you! So don't leave.
Love,
Katie
Last week my little brother Riley came and stayed with us! IT WAS AWESOME! He is the coolest, funniest, most awesomiest (yep) brother in the world. He is a giant at 6'2. He is a junior in high school and he was on spring break. We ate soo much delicious food. We went bowling, to the nicklecade, played board games, watched movies, went downtown, it was great! I am sad he is going to be on a mission so soon but I know he'll be an awesome missionary. I just don't want to miss him for two years! School is winding down and I feel like I can kind of breathe. Except then I'll head straight back into spring term and once again be drowning in papers and work. But luckily I will only be working one job spring term instead of two like this term .Working two jobs has been really difficult! I have not had enough time to study and I feel like I am stretched soo thin, so it will be nice to JUST focus on school and one job, instead of two. I'll be leaving the bookstore but returning Summer term. The classes I'm taking in spring include:
1) Math Ed.
2) Bowling (YES I AM SO EXCITED)
3) Astronomy (G.E)
4)TELL 440 (teaching english language lerarners--my minor)
total: 8.5 credits
Friday, March 15, 2013
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