Teaching.

Today I had orientation at my practicum school!

Practicum is basically a step down from student teaching. I have a classroom, but I'm mainly just observing and helping out and the regular teacher is still in charge and plans everything. I'm just there to get the hang of things.

Today was just kind of an overview. We met the principle and she told us about the school, then we went on a tour and got to meet our supervising teachers and classes. I have a kindergarten class and I only got to meet them all for about a minute today, but they're all adorable. It's a really small class too, maybe 15ish kids and Lilly the Rabbit so it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm super excited for this semester =)

Things are probably going to get pretty busy now that I have a bunch of kindergartners plus Ben the virtual child (who is now 8 months old and doing fine. I virtually went back to work so he's been going to daycare and it seems to be going well).

I should throw out that Ben is really not that much work, maybe 15-20 minutes a day. Definitely not as time consuming as an actual child. But still, I want to do it right ya know?

Back to the grindstone...

I actually think I'm going to enjoy my classes this semester.

All of them.

That's a first. I usually have a couple good ones and a couple terrible ones, but if the first day means anything, I think they are are going to go well. I haven't had my Monday-only class yet, since this Monday was a snow day (YAY!!) and next Monday is MLK Day (YAY!!!), so I don't know about that one, but so far all my teachers seem great and all my classes seem interesting.

Hopefully it stays that way, because I can not get up for 8 AM class if it's not going to be a good one.

Oh yeah, that's the crappy part of my schedule. I have to be on a bus by 7:30 three days a week or leave to go to an elementary school by 8 am the other two days. I'm going to have to become a morning person. I also get done at 4:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and have a night class on Mondays.

This is why I need my classes to be amazing.

But these first couple days of class were really encouraging because for once, I actually felt like I belonged there. I'm so excited for the rest of the semester. All of my classes are Child Development/Family Studies/Education something, so I really feel like I'm finally in the right major. I feel like I'm on the right track and taking my life in the right direction.

And it only took me a year and a half of college to figure that out!

Starting over?

Ok, so this thing was gonna end after first semester because I figured I pretty much had the hang of things, but after today I've decided I'm gonna extend this out for the whole year.

So this is Operation College, Take Two. New semester, new experiences.

UNL mailed us our schedules at the end of last semester, and you would think that schedules would be pretty straight forward.

If it says "HIST 101...0930-1020AM...MWF...FERG 217" you can safely assume that your History 101 class meets at 9:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings in room 217 in Fergusen Hall, right?

Wrong. My History 101 class meets at 9:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings in room 112 in Hamilton Hall. See the problem?

I showed up in FERG 217 at about 9:20 this morning with about 5 other people. This was immediately weird because it's a lecture class that should have about 50-100. None of us had received any sort of email or notification that class had been cancelled, and there was nothing posted saying it had been moved. The professor is the the director of the Honors Program, so it's not really like him to just not show up to class, but a couple people left anyways. Simple solution right? Just double-check Blackboard and your email to make sure you didn't miss it.

Weirdly, none of had our computers or anything to check the internet on. The kid with a Blackberry even forgot his phone. So we wander around until we find a computer. Nothing anywhere about class being changed. Finally, we find out that they had changed it on the online class schedule without telling anyone. WHAT THE HECK?!?

So by the time we figure out we have to go to Hamilton 112, it's about 9:50. The three of us walk into class just in time for it to get over. Skipping class on the first day is not the best idea, by the way. Everybody else made it to the right place except us, and I have no idea how that happened.

But at least we will be there Wednesday!

Tip of the Day: Always make sure you have access to the internet. ALWAYS. And double-check things.