Teaching Moments

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the most enthusiastic teacher EVER!!!
Exhibit A:


Here is my little guided reading group:


And here is the "special visitor" our class had today (a lollipop salesperson):

Halloween

This is Devin and I on Halloween before we went to the haunted house. He didn't scream or get scared ONCE! I'm so proud.

OWWWW

So this week I was doing some average long boarding. It was an average day. I was headed to Smiths to buy some average groceries. I turned a corner and there in the road was a huge pothole! Did I see it? USUALLY I do, however not today. The board stopped, but my body continued to fly down the street where I executed about two somersaults and finally landed. Here is my battle scar:

The Fine Art of Dieting

Lets face it- society is so caught up with "Image" these days, who ISN'T dieting? Even if you aren't dieting, you are health conscious. Everyone is so concentrated on losing weight that multiple weight loss strategies have been born.

1. Counting calories (i.e. allotting yourself a maximum amount of calories, for example, one may not eat more than 500 calories per week, etc.)
2. Counting points ( i.e. "This cheese stick is 50 points, and I may not eat more than 10 points a day, therefore I will not eat the cheese stick.")
3. Counting Carbs (i.e. " This slice of bread has 30 grams of carbohydrates, which is more than my daily allowance, therefore I will not eat the bread.")
4. Counting pounds (i.e. "If I continue not eating, I will eventually lose fifty more pounds and weigh a grand total of thirty pounds.")
5. Counting Days Left of Life (i.e. "If I continue to cease eating I will live approximately two more weeks or less.")

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little facetious. However, I've noticed that these dieting techniques vastly contrast my own. Here is how I have recently been dieting:

1. Do not eat the extra dessert unless you really want to (i.e. "I know I already ate four candy bars, a brownie, and a bowl of ice cream, but the cookie looks really good so I'll eat it.")
2. Eat continuous small portions throughout the day, creating a more active metabolism (i.e. "I haven't eaten in three hours! I think I'm going to die of starvation!")
3. If there's a will, there's a way (i.e. By glaring at unwanted body fat and willing it away, it will eventually realize its not wanted and disappear)

These dieting techniques that I have created have only been in effect for a few weeks now, so I think its safe to say that it is too soon to tell whether they actually work or not. Since the beginning of this dieting experiment I have gained five pounds, however, as they say, "What goes up- must come down!"

Its so close but we're so far away

So I realized that this is my last Fall semester EVER. I've been so gung-ho on graduating early that it never hit me how close the end really is! I'm done with classes this spring! I mean I won't actually have the OFFICIAL degree or anything (wouldn't that be nice) but I'm done with classes, which is basically what school is. Next fall I start my internship and will be like a real teacher with real live kids and everything! I'm so excited to be so near my dream, however its been my dream for so long that I don't know what I'll do with myself afterwards. Fall semester is my favorite semester, I mean, don't you just love the smell of the air and the whole atmosphere of a fresh school year? I'm going to miss that a lot in fall '09. I technically could delay graduation and take the summer off and attend next fall and finish up next year, but I'm really so excited to teach! Sometimes its hard to pick between two really great things.

Ignorance is Bliss

I could begin the epic literary tales that have yet to be told by saying: "Hi guys, my name is Deanna, I have brown hair, I go to BYU, I am an Elementary Education major, and I love long walks on the beach and dates involving food ;)" however I don't feel as though these words are adequate. The life of an individual is so much more than labels, interests, and looks. What really fascinates me is what people THINK, and what they DO, their ambitions, dreams. So to really introduce myself I am going to share a story that happened not too long ago...

I dragged myself up the stairs of my apartment, pushed open the door to my room, and threw myself into a heap on my bed after briefly greeting my bosom friend/roommate, Jackie, who was "studying." The hours from eight to five had felt exceptionally lengthy that Friday. My eyelids drooped, but my mind raced.

"Jackie do you ever feel so tired, but you can't sleep because your thoughts are going and going?" I asked.

"YA! I just get these thoughts in my head and they don't go away! I just keep thinking about food over and over again, or I wonder WHAT this girl on campus was THINKING when she put her outfit together, and then I keep thinking the same things over again!" She replied.

"Really?" I asked, "Cause' my thoughts aren't like that. Mine frustrate me. I think about where time came from, and when was the beginning of it, and how is it going to end, and if it is circular and can't end, but if it is everlasting then how come life starts and ends, and is that because existence causes time to exist, and how did anything ever come to exist at all, and where everything that ever was and is and will be comes/came from, and if you really live in Heaven FOREVER, and what do you do with all that time, and wouldn't you ever become bored with existing because you know EVERYTHING and have done EVERYTHING, because you have been around for so long, and how can you even find out EVERYTHING anyways, and whats beyond the universe, and if the universe stretches out forever is it a line or a circle, and if it is endless does that mean that if you keep going that you'll end up where you start, and if it is endless how is there enough existence to fill it up, and if new existences keep beginning then how can the universe be endless and timeless with new things existing all the time, and where did everything and anything even come from and how did it all start?"

Jackie looked at me with raised eyebrows, blinked twice, then said, "I wouldn't want to be in your mind" as she turned around and continued to study.