Joys of Teaching along with Update

Sorry it seems like it has been forever since I have blogged. So I will give you the update! I started student teaching on August 19th. It really has been a great experience so far. I think the Lord definitely knew I needed it just a little bit easier because I ended up only teaching Health for one period a day. My other four classes are all PE which means minimum grading for the PE classes. I took over the Health class last Monday and it has gone well... for a student teacher. I realized a lot of things last week about teaching 7th graders and I am hoping it will help this next week with the lessons. Oh ya... I teach 7th graders in Health and 1 period of PE in 7th graders. Then I have 8th graders for my other three PE classes. It has been really nice though because they only have one PE teacher who is my cooperating teacher and he is a man. SO there is nobody in the girl's locker room so they gave me the office in there so that I would be able to have my own office and take care of the girls locker room. It has been fun! I have taken over Health like I said before and the 7th grade PE class so far. I take over one of the general girls PE classes this week. Every week I am supposed to add one more class until I am teaching full time. It ends up that the whole month of October I will be teaching full time. Then for like two weeks in November. Then I will start gradually giving the classes back to the cooperating teachers. It is just funny to think that I am teaching classes that Isaac would be in. Crazy!

This school does some interesting things. They don't require PE in 7th grade so it is a optional elective. So the 7th grade class I teach has only 6 girls. That is the other thing... They don't do co ed PE except for my Sports Conditioning class. They have girls do PE first semester and boys are second semester. They say that it really has helped in girls actually participating in PE which makes sense! The other things this school does is called the "ABC not yet.. policy". The students CANNOT get lower than a C on a test or homework. If they get lower than a C on a test, they have to re do it until they get at least a C. If they turn their homework in on time, they get full credit, But if it is late... up to the last day in the semester... they get a C on the assignment. If they never hand it in then the teachers can fail them, but that have to work to get the kid's assignments in. It is an interesting policy, but it seems to be working in the school.

I also have been helping with coaching the volleyball team which has been a lot of fun and a lot of time. I don't even get home until about 6:30 every night. It is worth it though for what it will help with. There is a A team who I am helping out with the most and then the B team. The A team has a lot of talent but have ball control issues... we are working on that. But we had a tournament yesterday in Idaho Falls and we got 1st place. Both our A team and B team got 1st. It was pretty fun! We have won all of our games so far... We will see how it goes. The season only goes to the end of September which is nice.

Well that's all I can think of about Student Teaching. I am done on the day that McKenzie turns 4 months, November 25th. We are still trying to decide what we will do for the holidays though. It already has been flying by.

The girls are doing great. Melia has calmed down a lot compared to right after McKenzie was born. We took off the front of her crib and put a bed rail up. She loves having a big girl bed. We are looking on craigslist for twin size beds so that we can get them for cheaper. We are hoping to have her switched into a regular bed by October. We will see how that goes! She did actually go to the bathroom on the toilet the other day and she cried because she thought she had done a bad thing. Then Treven and I started saying that she did such a great job and that she was a big girl and her fce turned into a huge smile! She flushed it by herself while waving and saying "Bye bye poop!" Ha Ha. The entertainment of our lives. We are trying to just get her used to going into the bathroom when she has to go because she is completely away. She runs around when she is about to saying POOP POOP. McKenzie is 6 weeks old and doing great! I am pumping during my prep period and lunch so I am able to keep her breastfeeding without having to switch over to formula. It is working great still so I am happy about that. She is growing like a weed though! I can't wait until her 2 month appointment to see where she is at. She is growing out, length wise, out of her footsy pajamas. She already rolls from her stomach to her back and she keeps doing it. I put her on her stomach for tummy time and she just flips righ over. She is also starting to smile. It is crazy how fast it seems to be going and I look at Melia and am like "YOU LOOK SO OLD!" Melia is growing as well she is growing out of 2T stuff and I am sure she will be in 3T by the time she actually hits her 2 year birthday. Funny story though about Melia. A lot of people think that she looks like Shiloh Jolie-Pitt which is Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's baby. The other day we had this lady follow us around in the grocery store for like fifteen minutes and then Treven turned to her and she was like Sorry I just can't believe how much your daughter looks like Shiloh! Treven said well without the lips. She doesn't have the big lips. But anyways, it has happened twice now and it makes us laugh everytime. Like Shiloh would be in the little town of Rexburg Idaho without her parents.

Anyway, Treven is doing well, just working which is slowing down for the next month. He is just taking advantage of the break before he goes back to school in the Winter. I am already 8 pounds under my pre pregnancy weight with McKenzie. I am starting to go to the gym with Kate, Matt's wife, every night starting on Monday so that we can do the circuit weights and ellipticals. Then after we are done Matt and Treven will go pump some iron! I want to reach my goal weight by my birthday which is great. If I lost 2 lbs a week I would be there by like the middle of January so I am giving myself a cushion. I also got my hair cut about a week or two ago. I got a A line cut and I really do love it. It is more professional looking and it is SO EASY to do which is #1 for me! I will post pictures which I have a good hair day!

Well this is a novel... Sorry for the rambling. Just has been forever! Oh! We got a new camera since our old one won't turn on. It is too difficult with our video camera to take pictures on there. So now I will be posting more pictures!