Just Call Us Martha Stewart

Good Afternoon Bloggers!

Ever since I started blogging, I began searching for awesome craft blogs I could follow. Although I am not the best at implementing things (anyone will you tell you this), I am great at digging for good ideas and putting a creative spin on ideas to make them more exciting! I found some marvelous ideas on different blogging sites of DIY projects for the house. Since I am FINALLY getting my own room next year (I love you Kappa Kappa Gamma, but my time of living in the house has officially passed) I needed to find decorating ideas they were not the KKG letters, fleur de lis, and owls ha!

Kimmy and I spent the weekend looking for the best deals on decorating things around town. Some things we bought because we found a great deal such as

...this mirror, a STEAL at Hobby Lobby. Rod iron, originally $80 on sale for $25!!! I am going to buy some turquoise color and paint it to match my room and it will be totally pretty....fingers crossed :)

...or, this beautiful pearly white lamp from Kirklands. A sale in the store plus a 20% off coupon took this lamp from $40 down to $21!! The flowers were originally priced at $20 (way overpriced if you ask me) and I got them for $8.50 :)

Other ideas I found on blogs, as stated above, and my mom and I spent yesterday and today creating the perfect decor for my room such as...

...these super cute clothes pins. A pack of 24 was $2 and then I bought three different sheets of scrapbook paper that matched the color of my room. I cut the pieces to fit the clothes pins and then used rubber cement to glue them on. I am going to hang black and white pictures from a clothes line on the top of my room with these pins. Great idea and very inexpensive.

...I found a heavy duty insulated bin on sale from Target for $5, and I picked out this beautiful fabric ($1.80 from JoAnn's) and covered the box with spray adhesive. It was a bit hard getting the edges on there, but the final product looks great! My mom found some crayon fabric so she made one too for an extra crayon holder at school! Cheap and cute idea to bring in the colors of a bedroom, hold extra papers/mail, or use for many purposes in a classroom!

...these four were my personal favorite thing we made. You can buy sets of 2 of art canvas on sale at Hobby Lobby for $3 a pack, and then find some fabric that you like. We covered the canvases and then they can be placed on the wall as decorative art that you made all by yourself as opposed to purchasing it for way more money!

Thrown in the mix was also a pencil jar I made with extra fabric out of a green bean can, a candle that matched perfectly on sale for $6, and some other white flowers I got from a friend for Christmas ($10 at Pottery Barn).

I have loved doing the projects and can't wait to fill my room with all this stuff and see how it turns out!

Until then,

Brittany

Week 1 of My Job is Awesome

Good Evening (night??),

Week 1 of work is over and I am still awake right now, which is incredibly surprising given that these kids are emotionally DRAINING!! However exhausted I may be at the end of the day, it is all worth it. These kids (the 20 that I have met already, this number will double next week) are incredible kids! They are respectful, have undeniable manners, and play together wonderfully (for the most part). Sure, kids will be kids so there are moments where I don't hear "thank you" or they are arguing over who gets to read with the pretty "zebra striped pillow" but for the most part they are great kids who are looking forward to an awesome summer :) Every week I am going to try and track the funny comments I hear so I can blog about them, because let's get real, kids are hilarious. I will give you the funny quote, followed by the story. I hope it entertains you as much as it did me :)

Day 1:

"No I get the top bunk and you can crash on the floor because that's what you do in college when you have a book report due." 

The kids each have a pillow they get for free reading time, however since we only had 20 kids this week, we had lots of extra pillows. A group of 3 girls going into 4th grade created a "Book Club" where they each read a book and write a summary of each chapter (golly, as a future educator I was BEAMING as they were doing this all on their own!) They created a pile of pillows and called it their "bunk beds" as they worked on their book reports, which is where this quote was said. To be honest, this is not far from the truth. I can remember many late nights freshman year in room 238 where Breanne, Steph, Whitney and I were all crammed in my room attempting to get some homework done :)

Day 2:


"This is scary, am I going to die here in this room, right now? Everyone assume the correct positions."

We had some bad weather earlier this week, and the tornado sirens went off around 11 AM on Tuesday. We quickly got the kids into one of the director's office downstairs and closed the door as we waited for the tornado to pass. The kids were freaking out, as you could expect, and a precious little boy who is going into 1st grade was worried that this tornado would be the death of him. After saying the above statement, he quickly knelt down and covered his neck with his hands and assumed the "correct position." It was so endearing and it made me fall in love with this cute blondie :)

Day 3:

"I'm sorry Miss Brittany, but it was a sneak attack water puddle. I couldn't help it."

We took the kids to the park the day after it had rained an extensive amount. We specifically told them not to go anywhere near the mud or any  puddles. Within 10 minutes of being at the park, the same kid I talked about above with the tornado story was running around with his shoes off. When I went up to him and asked why his shoes were off he said the above statement. It was one of those moments where it took everything that was in me to not bust up laughing. Instead, I calmly said, "Okay buddy, we will dry them off when we get back to the church." Priceless moment, this stuff is so not scripted.

Day 4:

"No no, it's an underwater roller coaster, DUH!"

A new kid to the camp this year, has a wild imagination! He is constantly off playing by himself and creating extravagant stories and characters. We were coloring and he was avidly drawing a picture...he even had his tongue out which is a true sign of an artist hard at work. One of the little girls were quite confused about what his picture was of, so he responded with the above statement. HA, it was awesome. He could be one of the funniest kids I know. He's great.


Day 5:

"Well in my house my mom cooks, my brother and I do the dishes, and my dad sits on his butt and watches sports center."

On the bus back from the pool today we were talking about the roles of men and women in the house. A going to be 3rd grade girl said her family was a little different than others. She followed by saying the above statement. We laughed and with the straightest face ever she said "You think I'm kidding...well I'm not. That's all he does..hogs the TV with sports center alllll theeee timmmmeeeee." HAHA, I laughed out loud at that one, I couldn't help it. I so badly wanted to say, "Well, your dad sounds like the typical American man," but I refrained. She will learn that lesson sooner or later :)

It was a great week, and when we double the kids next week I'm hoping to have double the stories! Have a fabulous long Memorial Day weekend!! :)

Until then,

Brittany

Teacher Practice

Hello Again!

Work has been boring to say the least for these past few days. The beginning of last week we were busy setting up, but these past few days have been a lot of sitting around, talking, playing ping-pong, card games, facebooking, etc. No, we are not being lazy, we just don't have anything else to do until the kiddies get here (which should be tomorrow afternoon, fingers crossed!!)

We finished setting the room up last week and it looks just like a real classroom, except for less educational stuff and more games! Making the bulletin boards, organizing things, and setting up cabinets was good practice for when I will do it on my own (next year hopefully!) Enjoy the pictures of the "Explorers Summer Camp!!"

Our pillows for "rest time." Yeah right, like 12 year-olds are going to want to do that? I think not.

My co-worker, Adam, and I put these together from SCRATCH! It took us forever to figure it out, (one of them came with no instructions, awesome right?) But they looked good in the end...they are all labeled and ready for kids to use!

Setting up was fun and good teacher practice. Now all we need is the kids. Bring. It. On.

Until then,

Brittany

Weekend Festivities

Good Evening!

I have decided to write a blog post of my weekend activities before I go to sleep for the night! Working full time results in bedtime at a much earlier time than usual...sigh, I am a real adult now. THAT SUCKS. Although now I do understand why adults live for the weekend; those two days are absolutely precious.

Saturday a friend of Cameron's family was turning 5, so we ventured to their house for a SWEET birthday party. Not only did I get some babysitting jobs, but I also got some great ideas for future birthday parties. This party was legit, as seen below.

They had a moon bounce, balloon maker, pinata, face painter, TWO birthday cakes (for two birthday girls) and so many other awesome things, INCLUDING...

this sweet treehouse! I was talking to Gary, the owner of the house, and he informed me that he built this all by himself! Not only was I quite impressed, but I took a picture so Cam could remember what it looked like so he could replicate it a few years from now when I need him to :)

We also went to Crate and Barrel to buy a wedding gift for my cousin's wedding in a few weeks (that store is AMAZING and so decently priced). Cam and I found some great lawn furniture that we tried out :)

This chair was very cushioned AND, it rocked! So fun, we may have to buy one of these someday for my white wrap around porch that may look something like...

this! We drove around Gardner today to house shop, (just for fun, no we are not actually BUYING a house, calm down!) This house was BEAUTIFUL and I loved the wrap around white porch. That chair that we found at Crate and Barrel would look marvelous as a part of this house :)

Saturday night we went to dinner and a movie with the wonderful Ashley James and her BF Jordan. We saw Bridesmaids which was funny, yet somewhat disturbing at certain times. We found a theater with tickets for $6.50 each so it was well worth it! After the movie we went to Olive Garden for dinner and had a waiter that sounded JUST LIKE Kurt from Glee. Haha, good thing I am now referencing Glee as a part of my daily life :)

I told Cam I would take him on a shopping spree if he got the internship, so we took a family trip to JC Penny's today to shop and we all had quite a good time as Cam tried some stuff on...

He found some good stuff and is now ready to "Dress for Success."

I also have been looking for a bedspread that can be used for my room next year, and beyond for a guest room someday. I found a GREAT deal at the Home Goods store for a comforter, 2 boudoir pillows, 2 pillow shams, and a pillowcase so I snagged it! I am going for a light and airy feel for my room (since it is so small, I don't want to use dark colors that will make it look even smaller). The color choice, after much dismay, has been decided as light blue (teal-ish) and white! I am looking forward to finding more cheap, cute decorations for my room throughout the rest of the summer.

I hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to another busy work week! :)

Until then,

Brittany

A Farmer in our Midst

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a farmer in our midst!! Okay, not a literal farmer, but if you are curious as to what I am talking about, read on.

Last semester Cameron FINALLY decided on a major; personal family finance. This semester he finally got into classes that actually mattered to him, and he sort of began to enjoy school (ha, who thought I would ever say that about Cameron Thomsen). Since he was late to switch majors, he had not looked into any internships in the fall when most of them were being offered. He frantically began searching for an internship in mid-January and caught a break with a company that called him for an interview in mid-Febrary. He got all geared up, put on his Sunday best, and headed to Holtz Hall at KSU for his interview. They told him he was a good interviewer, however after not hearing back from them in over three weeks, he figured that job was a bust.

Feeling rather down on himself, he continued on with the semester and continued searching for other internships opportunities, but it was truly slim-pickins (sp?). In the beginning of May, my dear friend Valerie Fernandez (holy cow, that still sounds so weird!!!) alerted Cameron of an opportunity with Farmers Insurance (her company) that was a nine week internship program. He immediately applied and was notified that the process to get an actual internship was rather grueling--it began with an intensive background check, followed by a series of tests that he had to pass, a phone interview was next in line, and if you made it through all that, then you got an actual interview.

To Cameron's surprise, he quickly passed all the tests and was given a phone interview. Alex, the HR College Recruiter that talked with Cameron was extremely helpful with offering advice on how to become a more effective interviewer. Cameron tried to take all of this advice in as he spent the remainder of the week studying for finals, while trying to prepare for the big interview (he was totally stressed this week, so he was a bit a LOT moody this entire week!)

His interview went well and then it was a waiting game for the next week as they conducted more interviews and deliberated over who would be a good fit for the company. Farmers likes to find people that are there for a career, not just a job, and getting an internship with them really opens the door for future employment. We spent the last week praying and trying to surrender to God's plan for Cameron's life. We had to realize as heartbreaking as it would be if he did not get the internship, that God has something even better in store for him.

This afternoon, around 3:00, I had a phone call from Cameron saying he got the job! I was beyond words excited, and I couldn't manage to say anything other than how proud of him I was. He had done it and this wonderful summer opportunity was just beginning!! I promised Cam I would take him out to a nice dinner and then treat him to a shopping spree to get some awesome new "professional" clothing. Tonight we had a celebration night in honor of all that Cameron has achieved!!!

The card I gave Cameron right after he first found out!

I gave him a little car to symbolize him "zooming" into a new opportunity in life! Cheesy, yes. It was SUCH a teacher move on my part...oh well!

I surprised, (well, attempted to surprise Cameron) with a trip to the Melting Pot for a little celebration!!

Us at dessert...sorry my neck looks like a total giraffe :(

Kimmy and JC joined us as well :)

It was a great night, and very relaxed to show Cam how proud we were of him. I sound like a parent to proud of their child, but it was an awesome day that deserved to be blogged about! I hope it was some good Friday night reading for you all :)

Have a wonderful weekend and try and stay dry....and enjoy your last night before the "end of the world at 6 PM tomorrow" ;-)

Until then,

Brittany

Double C, Double G, O

Well friends, SUMMER IS HERE!! Thank goodness, it was time for the school year to be done and I am so glad to be at home sweet home again with a full plate for the summer! After one day of my job, the signs of it being a fantastic summer are clear, but I will save summer stories for another post :) So Double C, Double G, O you ask? Well, here it goes. My summer thus far.

Cookies. I got home and was absolutely yearning to bake! Although I loved living in Kappa for so many reasons, the downfall was no kitchen! (Yes, technically we could use the kitchen for our own use, but it just wasn't the same as cooking in your own house). My speciality, or so I think, is chocolate chip cookies. I have been told they are some of the best CC cookies ever, but really, it's the nestle tollhouse recipe..for real. The key to my success is the brown sugar. Brown sugar is always meant to be packed, and that is how my chocolate chip cookies turn out so well. As you eat each cookie, you can taste the brown sugar melting in your mouth, and there is seriously nothing better. Yummy...I want to go make some more now! (Thank you JC, Kim, Brandon, AJ, Danielle, and Cameron for eating them all already!)

Children's books. Oh yes, of course we all know I am obsessed with children's books, but this weekend was the opportunity of a LIFETIME! Scholastic Books has a warehouse, and a few times every year they have a trunk sale. My mom and I went this weekend and it is seriously a teacher's heaven. Aisles, upon aisles of books all categorized by genre, grade level, and so much more. I could have spent hundreds of dollars here, seriously, but I limited myself. However, I did get the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (5 of them) for $20 which is unheard of! Miss Martin (my 4th grade practicum teacher) said the kids LOVE these books, so I went for it and bought them all. I am sure they will get some good use someday!

My children's book colletion keeps growing by the day it seems, so I am beginning to need more space to store them all! Just give me a stinking classroom and that would totally fix my problem, now wouldn't it?!?!

Garage Sales. Holla, these are the best things ever for so many reasons! They are great for furniture, household items, teaching supplies, books, seriously you name it, I guarantee there is a garage sale that has it! Katie Wiz and I ventured to garage sales on Saturday (which by the way, I LOVE THIS WOMAN. She is heading to Colorado in a week for her summer internship and I am so proud of her and excited to see the great things God is going to do in her life in Colorado...I know she will be a light to everyone she comes in contact with and those kiddos in Colorado are lucky little campers!! Anway, I found some great board games for my future classroom (Guess Who and Connect Four for a BUCK each) and Katie made me buy this little teacher apple to set on my desk (not necessary, but she said it was a teacher staple and it WAS necessary that I have one). I also got some childrens books for 25 cents each and a beautiful white frame for 50 cents (I think white is going to be a color for my room next year so this frame works perfectly!) Basically, garage sales are great, and you should go and check them out if you haven't already!

GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow, this is my "Passion Topic" of the week. (For you, Shelbi :) Okay, so I did theatre and choir in high school and have pretty much sworn it off since then, however Glee is something that a former theatre nerd would love. I have become slightly obsessed with this show in the past week, and have watched almost an entire season of it in a mere 6 days. It is a fun, uplifting show, with some dramatic twists that will get you hooked if you start watching it. The dancing and singing will BLOW YOUR MIND, and Lea Michele (the lead) starred on freaking Broadway for years, so hello, go watch it if you haven't already!!!

And last, but certainly not least, O stands for organizing. Anyone who has left for college and then returns home for the summer understands what I am about to say. You come home with so much crap, you don't even know how it all fit in your small dorm room or wherever you lived. I had a massive heap of stuff in my room for like three days before I even attempted to sort through it all (I was preoccupied watching Glee, duh). Once I got started, I GOT STARTED. I went through old clothes, letters, books, everything and tried to organize it all. My room now looks back to normal, and just delightfully clean. I can actually live in there now which is refreshing :)

This has been a long post, but hopefully insightful. Next time, I hope to have some great kid stories, and an update about Cameron's possible-internship (he should find out about it this Thursday. Continuous prayers are welcome, he really really wants this, and frankly, I want it too :)

Until then,

Brittany

The End...For Now

Good Evening!

Finals are OVER for me, which means it is the end, for now. All I really had for this finals week was a music presentation today, which, might I say, we made total fools of ourselves in front of the entire class. We turned the popular children's book Polar Bear Polar Bear, what do you hear? into a circus production with a Ring Master and all. It was entertaining I guess you could say, but A worthy, I'm not so sure (apparently the teacher NEVER gives people good grades when it comes to these projects, so I can't wait to see her rip my group up for not being "creative enough" or not "incorporating music in a real way").  Oh well, I am DONE other than that. All online finals have been turned in, all final papers/reflections have been written, and all presentations have been presented, meaning I peace out of Manhattan TOMORROW!!!

This weekend was a crazy one filled with lots of awesomeness and great times. Friday evening we went to Little Apple Brewery for a friend's 21st birthday, and then we killed time at Bed Bath and Beyond, which is a dangerous place for four girls who are moving into a house next year to venture to. We looked around the store at every possible thing, but spent most of our time looking at...yup, you guessed it, Kitchen Aids.

They are SOOOO expensive, but they are a Chef/Baker's best friend and we just sat and admired them for a good ten minutes. They come in colors of all sorts, and we fantasized about registering for our wedding gifts (yes, every conversation with my group of friends somehow always finds a way back to weddings). The whole reason I even bring this up, is that Shelbi tells me when I get passionate about something, I get PASSIONATE about it! I tend to do this with objects, foods, machines, clothes, etc. so in every post from this point on, I will post a picture of something I just adore and I will rant about it for a few minutes. Hopefully this will cause you to want to purchase whatever it is I am trying to sell to you (gosh, I should have been in sales...this is somewhat of a strength of mine; I can make anything look and sound appealing :)

On Saturday, we had roomate pictures taken by the beautiful Sarah Hambley, owner of Banana Pancake Photography. She does a GREAT job of taking pictures, she has a natural eye for what looks good and the few pictures we have seen are fabulous! I can't wait to see the rest once she edits them (there are 600 total so hopefully there will be more good ones to come...for now enjoy these few!)

GAH, they were so fun to take and I love these girls with all my heart, so it made me even more excited for next year! If you ever come visit, we will have sprinklings of these pictures throughout out house as decorations, so that is something fun to look forward to :)

Saturday afternoon began the festivities of parties. Cam's mom and step-dad threw a Kentucky Derby at their house and it was so fun! It is definitely a tradition I would like to start someday. We all got all dressed up and had beautiful, extravagant hats we wore. Jill, Cam's mom, made my hat, along with lots of others and it was beautiful and matched my dress perfectly! Below are some awesome examples, so you can be preparing for a future Kentucky Derby Party I will be holding :)

After the Derby party, Cameron's siblings and I headed to KC for his dad and step-mom's combined 50th Birthday Party at the Cedar Creek clubhouse. It was fancy, but fitting for them. Michelle's band performed, (they are primarily swing/jazz music) and it made me realize I was born in the wrong era. I LOVE that type of sassy, elegant music and I would totally have it at my wedding, except for the fact that it would bore people out of their minds. Oh well...a girl can dream right?

Mother's Day was fun and relaxed. We took my mom to Fiorella's Jack Stack downtown for dinner and had a pleasant meal outside on the patio and gave her our gifts/cards. She loved the Kona Coffee from Hawaii that I gave her, and I'm sure she has already busted into the bag for some delicious coffee this week :)

This week is low key for the rest of the time until I start work full time on Monday, YUCK! Continue praying for Cameron and his interview Friday with Farmers Insurance. May God's will pan out for him, whatever it may be :)

Stay cool these next few days!

Until then,

Brittany

Making Memories and a Gardner in the Making

Good Afternoon!

Yes, I did just update yesterday, but you deserve a golden metal if you actually read through that whole thing I posted! Today's blog will hopefully be a bit more interesting...if not, I am rather sorry indeed.

This week has slowed down much more than I was expecting. Today I officially became CPR/First Aid Certified so if you are ever in a bind, you know who to call :) I spent the rest of the beautiful afternoon running errands with a dear friend of mine. We didn't do anything too exciting, just went to Dillons to pick out some snacks (for a class, imagine that!) and some Mother's Day cards. Among the things we purchased was a box of Peppridge Farm's "Baked Natural Pretzel Thins." I am telling you, if you have never had one of these you have NEVER LIVED!! They are so yummy, and while they are not the healthiest things in the world (I certainly thought they were until I looked at the package and saw there were a 110 calories in 6 little crackers, YIKES!) they definitely hit the spot on what I was looking for.

After eating a few of these deliciousness crackers, we felt it necessary to grab a Sonic drink, which not only quenched our thirst, but it also was free AND they didn't take our coupon so we are good to use it again :) Kind of cheating, yes, but they never asked for it, so we never gave it.

No the afternoon was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was a great time for "Making Memories" which is our new catch phrase from now until the end of the school year. After the senior pass the candle last night (a some-what emotional night where the seniors share their wisdom with us) we all realized the importance of making memories no matter where we are and what we are doing. This was seen today. It was an ordinary afternoon, doing ordinary things, but I made fun memories I will never forgot. I will not always have my friends at my disposal to hang out with me whenever I need, and I take this for granted. In a short year, we will all disperse as we go our own ways to be "Big Girls" and the memories we made here at Kappa/college will be a thing of the past. I want to so tightly hold onto this last year of college, becasue I know it will be gone before I even know it.

On a brighter note, I was creeping on a teacher of mine (which I sometimes do, no big deal, it's just utilizing my resources) and she has the DREAM HOUSE! My house will never be that big, or extravagant but I did some good ideas away from her on decorating and gardening! She has so many flowers, plants, vegetables, etc. and it makes her backyard look so cozy and inviting! I didn't grow up with a gardening family, however that doesn't mean I can't take this up as a new hobby, right?!?! I adore flowers of all kinds, and gardening fits right in that category. And who knows, my backyard could look just like this someday.

Well, this seems like it has been a rather lengthy post. Hopefully it was enjoyable for you to read, becasue I had a lot of fun writing it! When I have days like this, I realize a blog is the perfect thing for me.

Well folks, off to write birthday and Mother's Day cards. It's going to be a crazy weekend, so don't fear, I will update you as soon as I can.

Until then,

Brittany

Signs of Science Fun

So, for my final for Science there were a few things we had to fill out, and one of them was a reflective question on how I have grown as a science teacher over the semester. I felt like my response was interesting to read, and somewhat surprising, so I thought I would post it. Feel free to skip over it, I just felt like posting it for those who understand education and would enjoy reading it :) Another fun post will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Brittany

I can remember back to the beginning of this semester when I first entered room 242 for the class, Teaching Science K-6. I was nervous out of my mind and excited was the last word I would have used to describe myself at that moment. I remember Dr. Staples handing us a Science Efficacy Belief survey and a copy of a sheet where she instructed us to “draw a picture of ourselves as a science teacher at work.” I remember laughing to myself at both of these assignments because at the time, I hated science. I personally had never liked science in school, and I certainly did not feel qualified to teach it to students. I answered the questions on the survey as best I could and I drew a dysfunctional picture of myself attempting to teach science to a class full of students. Little did I know that in a matter of months, my opinion of science would completely change.
    As I began to learn more and more in the methods class, I saw myself enjoying science more and learning new concepts, but I still doubted my ability to teach students these same concepts. I loved the random experiments we did in class, starting with the “Save Fred” experiment and ending with the “Meal Worm” experimentation. Each day I found myself learning more and more about science, and I slowly began to realize it wasn’t as bad as I had always perceived it to be. When our Literacy Practicum was over I got nervous again, because I knew this meant the Science Practicum was about to begin.
    I was in charge of the Explain phase for our first lesson we gave the 4th graders on Nutrition. I spent hours over spring break reading over my notes and practicing in my head exactly how I would relay this information to the students so they would not only understand it, but also have fun with it at the same time. The day finally arrived where we were to go to Ogden and give the lesson and I was nervous/scared/anxious out of my mind! I had to keep telling myself to stop over thinking it and just stand up there in front of them and do what I knew I was capable of doing. As I began talking, within minutes I got into my “teaching groove” and the rest was history. The lesson went off without a hitch and the students loved it. It was such a proud moment for me as a pre-service teacher when the students handed me their worksheets and I saw the final product. Every paper had tons of scratched out calculations written in the margins, and each answer was spot on. I knew they had learned something from me that day, and I was so proud of myself.
    As the semester went on, we gave more and more lessons and I saw what it meant to be a team player. It took the work of each of my team members contributing to make for a well written, age appropriate lesson and a well-executed lesson within the classroom. I had to heavily rely on my team members to help me gather materials and explain any foreign concepts before we began teaching. My team and I worked so well together and they taught me so much about team planning and learning to be flexible (which is a quality all good teachers must possess, or so I hear ☺).
    I was in charge of writing our final lesson titled “The Mystery of Fruitvale’s Water Supply.” By this time, I felt extremely capable of writing a coherent, age appropriate lesson that elicited higher order thinking and conceptual understanding of the students. The written lesson got wonderful feedback from all parties involved, and I felt like I had accomplished so much in such a small amount of time.
    Overall, this semester helped me gain the confidence I needed to go out and be an effective science teacher. I hope I get the chance in the future to teach science to students in a different grade level, so my knowledge of science concepts and process skills will continue to expand.