Getting Involved and Giving Back

Happy 293rd day of 2013! (Thank you Yahoo News)

There are only 72 days left of 2013! Can you believe it? Sorry, I had no other catchy thing to say today so I looked up "Today in History" for some ideas and that's all I felt was worth sharing. I will try harder next time. 

So I am officially in midterm season! My one and only midterm is 2 days away and I desperately need to get back to studying but need to take a break from differentiating between total and annular solar eclipses. As exciting as astronomy is, a girl can only handle so much. So I have climbed out of my studying hole to share with you all that I have been up to this past week. 

I always find that having a holiday on a Monday just throws my internal schedule completely off, and this week was no exception - it flew by!! I also only had a total of 4 classes this week (no I did not skip,   two were cancelled) so I have no idea what I was doing with my time. Tuesday, I had my practicum which was amazing, no surprise there. I got to teach my grade 3/4 English Language Arts class which was really fun. I got to do the pre-class greeting, call them all to the carpet and then lead them in a discussion about what they did over the long weekend. I asked them to only share one thing each, but from a few, I got a detailed description about everything on their Thanksgiving dinner table! We unfortunately did not have enough time for all of them to share and I felt really bad when I had to cut them off, but they needed to do their silent reading and language activities. After recess, my grade 6 class was doing math and I had to take a group out in the hall to go over the rules of divisibility and then later, I took two other students out to review regrouping. Being thrown into all these teaching situations in one day was a lot of fun but was also very stressful as I still feel as though I need to prove myself in the eyes of my students, so I want to make sure I know what I am doing. My Associate Teacher is wonderful though, and has been helping me out every the step of the way. 

This week: wish me luck as I teach drama to my grade 3s and 4s!

I came home from practicum, went to class, went for a run and then to the free student dinner. We finally remembered to bring our own plates with us! They served a turkey dinner, my third turkey dinner of the week. Unfortunately, the turkey made me very sleepy during astronomy, and when I was going over my notes I realized that I had written "cannot measure the size of stars but can do their mom's hair." Hopefully, the real statement behind that will not be on the midterm because I will definitely not know the correct answer.

Wednesday I did not have either of my afternoon classes, so my friend Vicki and I watched the saddest episode of Glee ever and made a video proposal for one of our classes. Later that afternoon, we went to the Humanities Wine and Cheese, which was a social in the Gait for all Humanities students (and friends). As the name suggests, there was free wine and cheese served. A lot of my friends were there and I hadn't planned on staying too long, but I got chatting with some friends and ended up staying for over an hour. It was also a bonus that I was sitting an arm's length away from the food table. I then went to Provigo, came home and made turkey burgers for Elizabeth and me for dinner. It didn't even click in my mind that I was eating turkey for the fourth time that week until I was putting the burger on my plate. Oh well, it was delicious anyway. 

Thursday, I had my first session working for the Peer Tutoring Services and met with two girls to work on their MAT 100 Assignment, a course that I took last year. I was a bit rusty on my fair division knowledge but I hope that I was able to give them a little bit of help (and that they hire me again). I then had my own class and volunteering with the LES Outdoor Club. At Outdoor Club, the students were divided into groups and given a map of historical buildings in Lennoxville. We then took them around town to take pictures of as many historical buildings as possible. My group was able to get to six different ones. Next week, we are going on a hike at Mount Bellevue, a mountain behind the local high school. I can't wait!

That night, I tried out a recipe my mom sent me for cauliflower and chicken chilli and I am happy to report that it was delicious! Lucky for me, the recipe said it was only supposed to serve 4 but made way more so I was able to eat the leftovers all weekend. I stayed in with Jocelyn for the night to rest up for a busy Friday and Saturday. Friday, all second year education students had to attend a conference in the Gait, called CAST II (Conference of Associate and Student Teachers). All of our professors, associate teachers and supervisors were there. We went over how we are going to be evaluated over the year, the program expectations and requirements and picked the date on which our supervisor will come watch us teach our lesson. My supervisor seems really nice, but I ended up spending most of the conference chatting with my associate teacher as we rarely get a chance to talk. Following the conference was the Education Wine and Cheese, so the teachers and supervisors filtered out and more education students and profs filtered in for more finger foods and free wine. It was fun to mingle with everyone, but I mainly sat around with my second year friends and talked about our different practicums. It was fun to hear about how they are going. 

After spending close to six hours in the Gait, I rushed home to get ready to go out for dinner with my two friends that I worked with in the summer, Gavin and Jared, who had invited me out to talk about the fast-approaching camp 2014 application. We took the bus into Sherbrooke and ate at a little restaurant called Antiquarius. Unfortunately, they did not have any English menus, so we all took a bit of a gamble with our orders. I think Gavin ended up with duck and Jared had a boar burger, whereas I stuck to soup and bruschetta. Despite being at such a small school, we rarely see each other around so it was nice to actually sit and catch up for a while, and it was certainly great to talk about camp. By the end of dinner, I even caught myself using camp slang again! 

Saturday, I got up bright and early because the day for Empty Bowls had finally arrived. I think I may have mentioned this event earlier, but essentially what happened was local potters made and donated 250 bowls which we sold for $25 each. When people showed up to the event, they were able to choose their bowl and then enjoy soups made by local chefs, served with a side of bread and an apple. The message behind the event is that even though the bowls are filled up, we must remember that there are many people whose bowls remain empty; the empty bowl that guests take home at the end serves as a permanent reminder of this. So anyway, the committee met at 8am to start the set up and we were working hard until the doors opened at 11. The event was a huge success! My Associate Teacher attended with her husband and she bought me a bowl (the one that I had painted) as a gift, which I was both surprised by and super thankful for. I unfortunately had to leave part way through, but heard that the event was a success right to the end. 

When I left Empty Bowls, I headed to campus for Big Buddies. We all had to wear a Halloween costume, so I was a cowgirl and my little buddy was a lion. She looked adorable! We then took the bus to the pumpkin patch, the same place I went apple picking with my Japanese students back in September. We played at the playground (aka I pushed Hannah on the swing for a solid 20 minutes) and then rode the tractor to the pumpkin patch. She picked out the heaviest pumpkin in the patch and I had the honour of carrying it around for her! We then picked and snacked on some apples and decorated our pumpkin. She was so exhausted by the end of it that she fell asleep on my lap on the bus ride home! 

Hannah and me at the pumpkin patch!

After an exhausting day, I came home and holed up in my room to do some homework for a while, stopping only to take a break for dinner. After another 2 hours of studying, my housemates and I went over to our friends' apartment where they taught us how to play their new red solo cup game called "Mop." The name comes from the fact that you have to mop the floor after every round. Needless to say, I should have worn my purple Hunters over to their place! I did get a chance to play a few rounds and ended with a 2-1 record. Nice job, Erica, if I do say so myself. 

Me "bartending" at our friends' apartment!

Today was a big working day, and I was able to complete a lesson plan, write two blog posts (check out my official school blog for more on Empty Bowls) and study at the library with my two friends for astronomy. After studying in the seminar room all afternoon, I have decided that I would like to get a large whiteboard in my room to practice teaching lessons on. I even have the wall for it picked out! Unfortunately, my hour study break is quickly coming to an end, and I have a load of laundry that requires my attention so I will bid you farewell! Have a wonderful week! 

All my love, Erica xoxoxoxo

PS I also received a letter from across the ocean from my friend Anna, who I worked with in the summer. I am super jealous of a club she is a part of called the Expedition Society; she goes camping or  mountain climbing every weekend! I will have to write back soon and make my life sound half as exciting as hers!