Am I Too Old For This?!

Over the last few days I went through the process of watching all the movies with Disney Princesses in them. It was so great to watch the classics, some on Blu-Ray, others on DVD, and some on VHS. It's interesting to see all the different quality of the picture! I also found it fun to compare how the art of animation has changed and the overall style of Disney animation.
Just think about Snow White-- the very first of the princesses. Very 2-dimensional. Her lips sometimes just a smudged red color over her porcelain skin. Now, think of Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They're 3-dimensional, very detailed, and complex characters.

This analysis is similar to what I've been doing this past weekend. All in the name to FINALLY decide who my favorite Disney Princess is. Am I too old for this? Probably. Was it worth my time watching all those movies? Definitely!

I made a list of criteria that I rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Beauty, Hair (yes, it deserves its own category,) voice, and personality.
Based on looks, Snow White and Merida were at the bottom of the scale, both with a 4. Though Merida's ranking was EASILY brought up with her gorgeous red locks. Snow White's hair is average and her voice is THE WORST. That alone put SW out of the competition.
The top beautiful competitors are Jasmine, Pocahontas, Rapunzel and Ariel. Cinderella was up there too. Cinderella's ranking was brought down by her average hair (reminding me of my own. kinda boring and blah) The beauty and hair categories kind of overlap, other than the outliers from Cinderella and Merida.
Most of the singing voices are all very good, all within the 6-8 range, except poor Snow White who got jipped because the popular style in 1938 isn't my favorite.
Personality is something that I never really considered in my youth when thinking about Disney Princesses, so it was interesting to compare them. Cinderella and Pocahontas are the highest ranking girls because of their maturity level. Pocahontas is pretty down-to-earth and spiritual (or as my brother likes to point out, was probably high on peyote) and Cinderella is just polite and a very grateful girl. Too bad her hair sucks. Belle's personality was my least favorite. She is very stubborn and deliberately does exactly opposite of what her capture tells her to. There's also just something about her development of Stockholm Syndrome... Elsa is kinda boring to me. Very responsible, unlike her sister Anna who received a pretty high ranking due to her quirkiness.

The highest ranked for a total of between 30 and 32 points so far...

I also gave an overall ranking on each movie based how much I like it. Each movie received a face varying between :) :/ and :( (happy, meh, and nah) I'm not a fan of Snow White at all, and just a few received a meh-- Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas, Brave, and Frozen (I am a bit biased against Frozen because the hype has kind of worn me out) Those respective princesses were voted out.

That left Jasmine, Ariel, and Rapunzel still in the running.

I then evaluated the characters' outfits. Call me crazy, but I love Jasmine's and Ariel's attire. Jasmine's usual turquoise Bohemian outfit = <3 and I adore Ariel's outfit in the scene "Kiss the Girl"
I also considered each of the boys in the stories. I prefer Eugene and Aladdin.
Another test was of the sidekicks. Flounder can sometimes be a voice of reason, but Pascal is more of a partner in crime! Which is much more fun... Rajah is a great comfort and friend to Jasmine though...
When I considered their personalities a bit further, I decided Jasmine isn't as fun-loving as Ariel and Rapunzel so I butted her out.
I thought about Ariel's kingdoms (both Atlantica, and in Eric's reign.) I love the ocean, so that's a plus! I wish I could have seen more animation within Eric's kingdom... Rapunzel's kingdom is very similar to the style of St. Mont Michel which I think is very cool!
I decided to take to the internet by this point and I took a quiz to see which Disney princess would be my BFF/Soulmate, and it came up with Ariel! But then I thought about her hobby-- collecting stuff? Not really my thing, but Rapunzel paints, does a bit of ballet, and bakes!


SO, I guess you could say Rapunzel from Tangled is my favorite Disney Princess! But if I was to dress up like anyone, it would probably be Ariel :)

Rereading Harry Potter

I grew up with Harry Potter but not like most of the people who call themselves hard-core fans.

I grew up watching the movies, the mere adaptations from the books. I enjoy the movies, I really do, and I loved having that time where I could enjoy them without criticizing them for what they excluded from the movie that was in the book. The movies tell the stories well without going into too much detail.

It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I decided that I should actually read the books, and gain a better perspective on the wizarding world of Harry Potter. I read the first during Christmas break, but it wasn't until March that I started reading the second Harry Potter-- I'm not sure why... But after reading the second book I couldn't stop. I wanted more. I craved that magic! I even caught up with my, then 12 year-old, little brother in the fourth book (which resulted in a major war over who got to read each day. Long story short, many doors were slammed, my mom yelled, and we had to sign a peace treaty.) I passed my little brother. Reading through Harry's teenage years and his angst. I experienced his liking for Cho Chang more fully than from what I'd seen on film. I learned more backstory about Lupin and Tonks. I grew to LOVE Harry Potter. Not just like him, but love.

But.

I read through them in such rapid succession that I cannot remember all of the details. I cannot remember more than what I originally saw in the Harry Potter movies. This is pretty common for me though, I do not have an excellent memory (just ask my husband.)

Now that I have graduated from college and am a mere substitute teacher I have quite a bit of time on my hands. I have noticed that the majority of teachers have the entirety of the Harry Potter series on their shelves, and it was just last week that I picked up "The Sorcerer's Stone" and started reading.

Upon completing the book this last weekend I watched the corresponding movie. This time I could point out how the storyline is different from the book, and mention details that have been excluded (like Peeves the Poltergeist and how Norbert is released) or simply changed (in the books, Seamus Finnigan isn't clumsy at all, it's all Neville.)

I finished "The Chamber of Secrets" just today and am going to watch that movie tonight. Here's to hoping I remember all the great details from the book forever.

To be continued....

New Year Update

Things were pretty busy for me for the remainder of student teaching, so I never gave an update on how that went, but here ya go...

Mrs. Thomas was a great mentor teacher. She worked with me well in that she let me do my own thing, which was pretty different from when I was at Jefferson Jr. High. There, everything needed to be extremely organized and I needed to follow a lot of the same teaching methods that Mrs. Brighton did with her classes. At Payson, however, I was free to discipline and manage and teach however I felt fit each objective for the day, as long as the students learned what was necessary. After picking up all 5 classes I did fall back on some of Mrs. Thomas' usual assignments and asked for insight on activities she'd normally do because I was running out of creative ideas, but she was more than willing to help me out!

I am so grateful to have been able to work with two very different, effective teachers within the FACS/CTE programs at my assigned schools. I learned so much from each of them that I will definitely take with me throughout my teaching career.

I graduated on December 19th in the Family and Consumer Science Education major at BYU. It was a goal of mine to graduate from BYU since I was in 5th grade, and it's nice to have actually achieved one of my long-term goals!!!

Now I am a substitute teacher in 3 local school districts, and fortunately I have been able to get a job most days so far. It's nice to be teaching again, but earning money this time! It'd definitely been different with me bringin' home the bacon instead of my husband this semester, but it has also been nice because I no longer have to take my work home with me!
That's kind of the nice thing about subbing, that I show up, teach the kids (sometimes dealing with devil children) and come home to do nothing but unwind... planning never to deal with the worst children again. I can also pick and choose what schools I go to, and what grades. It's been an adjustment teaching in elementary schools after having only taught junior high and high schoolers... and preschoolers. I refuse to teach Kindergartners for right now. I'm just not ready for that. I've already gotten a couple jobs lined up at a junior high. One being long-term for a Clothing/Child Development teacher taking maternity leave next month :)

All in all, life is grand. It's different, but I've been adjusting just fine!

Working it Out

I was assigned to Payson High School. I just finished my second week there, and I'm just now starting to feel the pressure. This may be because my mentor, Mrs. Thomas was out of town last week taking care of her daughter who just had a baby. I was working with a sub who knew just about as I did about the school, and she was really friendly. 

I still got to know how Mrs. Thomas teaches though. She's one of those packet teachers. Every day the students sit down and pull out their notes because they know they'll be filling out a couple pages in the packet of notes by looking at the information on a PowerPoint. The class that gets this the most is Child Development. The other classes I'm teaching, like Clothing I and Fashion Strategies are pretty hands-on. 

While Mrs. Thomas was away I asked the kids how they liked that style of teaching. The consensus was that it sometimes got old doing the same thing every day, and they learn better with hands-on learning. Now, with a class like Child Development, there is A LOT of content you have to work through, but there are plenty of activities you can throw in there to make the class enjoyable. The kids agreed that breaking up the class between notes and an activity every day is a pretty good way to learn. 

The reason I'm feeling stressed now, is because starting next week I will be teaching 5 DIFFERENT classes. Usually a student teacher can only do 3... but since that'd mean I was teaching only 4 class periods, I had to add two more to make it even. 

Right now I'm teaching Clothing and Child Development and next week I'll start teaching Fashion Strategies and helping in the Foods Lab for a Culinary class (YAY!) The following week I will start teaching Early Childhood Education- though the school got rid of their Preschool last year, I'll still be teaching students how to teach and integrate science, math, art, and language in a preschool setting. 

This semester is going to be super busy... And today I'm just trying to prepare for it all. It's overwhelming. 

And on top of that I'm thinking about my mom, because it would have been her birthday today. 

Mid-Semester Crisis

It's the middle of the semester and I have just completed my first student teaching assignment. Yesterday was my last day at the junior high, and I'm honestly kind of glad. I learned so much there, especially about classroom management, because 7th and 8th graders are just cuh-razy, but it'll be nice to teach students who are more self-aware.

I left Jefferson Jr. early yesterday to go meet my high school mentor. I'd emailed her twice but never got a response, which I thought was weird, but decided to go meet her anyway. When I arrived, she was shocked, because she had no idea she'd been assigned a student teacher, but kindly got to know me and gave me a breakdown of the classes she teaches. She told me over and over that she still had to make sure it was approved by the principal, though, because she hadn't heard anything...

Rewind. 

I got my assignments back in April after taking "Teaching Methods" with the department head as my professor. Now, over the summer, my high school cooperating teacher decided to take a job at BYU-I, leaving the high school, leaving me unassigned. 

BYU then contacted the high school's principal to make a new assignment there, but he never approved the new suggested teacher! Turns out the teacher I met yesterday is in a personal situation that it wouldn't be good for her to have a student teacher, which is fine... Except now I have nowhere to go! 

Today I had a mid-semester seminar at BYU and the department head had to pull me aside and let me know what was going on. They're in the process of assigning me a new school. I was supposed to start tomorrow, but was told to work on my teacher work sample tomorrow and just wait until I can go meet my new mentor once it's assigned. 

*sigh*

So I don't know what school I'll be at, and I'm hoping it's relatively close. I was looking forward to being at a school only 5 minutes away from my house, but that obviously didn't work out. I also don't know who my mentor is or what classes I'll be teaching... Which is frustrating, because I can't plan anything! I can't get ahead!
So, this weekend I'll probably be busy catching up, because that one principal didn't do his job and notify anyone that I, a student teacher, wasn't approved to still work at his school. 

Full-Time

Last week I started working full time with all of my mentor teacher's classes. Standing up and teaching every day has been difficult but I'm getting used to it. So far, however, both the seventh and eighth graders spend most of class time working in a lab. The Eighth graders are finishing up their last sewing project this week, and the Seventh graders just finished learning how to use Microsoft Excel. 

Seventh Graders: 

The first class of 7th graders is a pack of angels. There are only about 26 of them, and they're quiet, attentive, and are very productive in the computer lab. The other two classes, aren't quite as hard-working. There are about 35 kids in each of them, and it seems that everyone has at least a couple friends in there that they talk to. Constantly. 

The first class of the day is always the guinea pig. I'm not as efficient in that class, but it works, because it's such a small class and they work with me really well. As the day goes on, I find myself feeling more comfortable, making more jokes, and the kids get more time in the lab. 

Eighth Graders:

Strangely, my most productive class is the last class of the day. There are 36 kids in there, and it's chaos when I have half of them waiting to ask questions on their project at my desk. It's ridiculous that even though I give all my classes a step-by-step guide sheet, they still manage to be clueless as to what they should be doing... 

Long story short, student teaching is hard. It would honestly, be less stressful if I didn't have to do a teacher work sample in addition to writing lesson plans, teaching each day, etc. etc. Dealing with a mentor teacher isn't the greatest either. 

Today I had a hard time after receiving a lecture on how to instruct my classes better, that I shouldn't let them talk, like ever (even though it doesn't bother me in certain circumstances) and how to manage them, follow through, and discipline when necessary. I hear this same stuff every day, and sometimes it's just hard to receive criticism. EVERY. DAY. 

There are days that I'm practically in tears, thinking to myself how I've failed. Reminding myself that that's what a mentor is for. Trying to think of ways that I can fix all the problems in the world, all at once. It's overwhelming sometimes, but when it's in the middle of class I just practice my acting skills for the kids, because they have no idea all that teachers put into a single lesson. But as soon as the bell rings for them to leave, sometimes I just lose it. 

The only way I have been able to get through the last 4 weeks is by texting my husband through the day, and of course, constant prayer. God has helped me through so much. Even if it's just for comfort, or a clear mind so I can rethink my teaching strategies. He is always there. 

I couldn't do this without Him. 

Beginning to Sew

The best part about teaching within the FACS program is that a lot of these classes have time in lab. While taking these classes at BYU I always appreciated when the professor would play music while we worked at our sewing machine or while working the kitchen. It always made the mood a little lighter, and it gave you something to think about while you were doing the mundane tasks.

Yesterday, my students began working on their sewing machines. Their assignment was simply to sew along the lines of shapes they'd traced on their fabric. Some students finished with 30 minutes, while others took that long simply trying to thread their machine. But all the while I turned on some music from Pandora (after installing AdBlock, of course) and helped those students who were struggling.

I just found it interesting that their attitudes changed once the music was on. It was the Imagine Dragons Radio, and its alternative vibes created a calm environment. The noise level lowered, and the students were productive.

And I remembered why I wanted to teach.