No pictures yet... time has gotten away from me yet again and we returned a bit later to campus then I had expected. So maybe tomorrow I'll get pictures posted... I hope.
Break was pretty restful and relaxing. I got to sleep in, eat yummy food, and spend time with family. We spent Thanksgiving day at some friends' house and had TONS of food. Sabbath Grammie came to our house after church and we had another Thanksgiving meal. Saturday night Adam, my cousin, invited Karolline and me to go bowling with him and a bunch of other people. It ended up there were only 5 of us. It was fun. We bowled for about 2 hours and had some good laughs.
We headed out a little late this morning to meet the bus. The bus wasn't there when we got there but we didn't have to wait very long for it. One of the students thought that the bus wasn't supposed to be there until 1 instead of 12:30. We waited for him for an hour and then it was decided that we would meet them at the next rest-area on the thruway. We met them ok and were on our way. It seemed to take forever to get back but that's because we waited so long for that student and then there was a lot of traffic in a few spots that moved VERY slowly and the roads weren't the greatest in some areas. But we made it safely and picked everybody up without any problems.
Tomorrow starts our School Spirit week. We're starting with "Sports Day". I'm not sure what I'll do for it yet although Adam thinks that all of SA should go all out with our dress this week... I'm eager to see what the students come up with for all the days. One of the days is Dress like a Faculty and I had a girl tonight tell me that she's going to go as me and wants to borrow some of my clothes. The other days we're having are: Class Color Day, Mix and Match, and I can't remember the last one (and they aren't in happening in that order either).
Anyways, I should probably get ready for bed here before to long. I really will try to get the pictures posted tomorrow night.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Before Thanksgiving Break
I'm on Thanksgiving break! I've actually been on break since Monday. I got a day more then all the rest of the faculty... I was supposed to be there for a meeting on Monday but my ride was leaving Sunday morning so I got permission to leave early.
Last week was pretty busy. I'd dare to say perhaps a bit busier then normal. I worked in the cafe two afternoon/evenings and in the office and preping for class the rest of the time.
My second photo class went okay. I had gotten online and found this website that you can enter in words and clues and it will put them into a crossword puzzle. I did that with 20 words that I thought would be important for them to know. I also made a word scramble in case they had a hard time with the crossword puzzle they could ask for the word scramble and then have a word bank for the puzzle. I didn't realize that it would take the entire class period for them to complete it. Most of them finished it... there were a couple boys who didn't do much during class. One of them I spoke to about 3 times about sleeping in class (I nearly sent him back to the dorm). And the other boy just didn't do much. I then gave them a homework assignment. I'm having them research a famous photographer and write a short bio on them and then pick at least one photo by that person that they like and tell me why. They have two weeks to do this assignment if you count the break. I typed the assignment up for them after class and handed it out with a little note on the bottom saying that they had until 3:00 the next day to finish and turn in the crossword puzzle or they would get a zero. Dad told me that I was being mean/hard on them. My thinking was that if they would have worked on it during class like they were supposed to then they could have had it done before they left. We'll see how badly they twist my arm about it during the next class.
I spent most of the day on Friday making tickets for the musical the drama team and choir are going to be performing for Christmas (Dec. 20 at 4:30 if anyone is interested). There's four different kids of tickets/seating we're selling and we wanted to be able to sell them during parents weekend and start getting the word out. When I got most of the tickets done, I headed to the cafe to make 14 pies for dessert on Sabbath. I was there through supper and had a short amount of time to get home and changed before vespers. I ended up waiting for my parents to get there before heading to vespers about a half hour late. Vespers was good and we got to visit with people for a bit too.
Sabbath we went to Sabbath School but I left almost as soon as we got there to go help Rozita in the cafe for a little bit. I made it back to church in time for church. Three of the students got baptised and one more stood saying that he'd like to take lessons :D
Sabbath afternoon the choir and band had a concert. They did a pretty good job. I was really impressed with the choir. They reminded me of how they used to sound years ago. So many guys tried out this year she couldn't accept them all because there weren't enough girls to support them! They sounded great! The band sounded pretty good. Especially when you consider how many beginners they have this year and how little time they've spent on these pieces.
Saturday night the seniors had a program. They served supper and performed and episode from "Friends" (The one where Ross can't flirt). They did a good job and were very amusing. They then had the senior auction (the auction the seniors for four hours of work). They made quite a bit of money for their class. Then they had a little talent show. They had a couple duets, a funny little skit, and a group lip syncing class Jeremy & The Tempters. They were HILARIOUS!!!
Sunday we had breakfast and then a staff/parent meeting before splitting into individual parent teacher conferences. I didn't have any of these... I just sat through the general meeting. Then we said our goodbyes and headed home.
Monday I took Grammie to an appointment and did some errands for Mom and did some shopping with Karolline. Yesterday I spent the day in my PJ's and it felt wonderful to do absolutely nothing. Today I've done some stuff around the house and I'm about to go make a cheesecake for tomorrow.
I'll hopefully post some pictures later tonight or tomorrow.
Last week was pretty busy. I'd dare to say perhaps a bit busier then normal. I worked in the cafe two afternoon/evenings and in the office and preping for class the rest of the time.
My second photo class went okay. I had gotten online and found this website that you can enter in words and clues and it will put them into a crossword puzzle. I did that with 20 words that I thought would be important for them to know. I also made a word scramble in case they had a hard time with the crossword puzzle they could ask for the word scramble and then have a word bank for the puzzle. I didn't realize that it would take the entire class period for them to complete it. Most of them finished it... there were a couple boys who didn't do much during class. One of them I spoke to about 3 times about sleeping in class (I nearly sent him back to the dorm). And the other boy just didn't do much. I then gave them a homework assignment. I'm having them research a famous photographer and write a short bio on them and then pick at least one photo by that person that they like and tell me why. They have two weeks to do this assignment if you count the break. I typed the assignment up for them after class and handed it out with a little note on the bottom saying that they had until 3:00 the next day to finish and turn in the crossword puzzle or they would get a zero. Dad told me that I was being mean/hard on them. My thinking was that if they would have worked on it during class like they were supposed to then they could have had it done before they left. We'll see how badly they twist my arm about it during the next class.
I spent most of the day on Friday making tickets for the musical the drama team and choir are going to be performing for Christmas (Dec. 20 at 4:30 if anyone is interested). There's four different kids of tickets/seating we're selling and we wanted to be able to sell them during parents weekend and start getting the word out. When I got most of the tickets done, I headed to the cafe to make 14 pies for dessert on Sabbath. I was there through supper and had a short amount of time to get home and changed before vespers. I ended up waiting for my parents to get there before heading to vespers about a half hour late. Vespers was good and we got to visit with people for a bit too.
Sabbath we went to Sabbath School but I left almost as soon as we got there to go help Rozita in the cafe for a little bit. I made it back to church in time for church. Three of the students got baptised and one more stood saying that he'd like to take lessons :D
Sabbath afternoon the choir and band had a concert. They did a pretty good job. I was really impressed with the choir. They reminded me of how they used to sound years ago. So many guys tried out this year she couldn't accept them all because there weren't enough girls to support them! They sounded great! The band sounded pretty good. Especially when you consider how many beginners they have this year and how little time they've spent on these pieces.
Saturday night the seniors had a program. They served supper and performed and episode from "Friends" (The one where Ross can't flirt). They did a good job and were very amusing. They then had the senior auction (the auction the seniors for four hours of work). They made quite a bit of money for their class. Then they had a little talent show. They had a couple duets, a funny little skit, and a group lip syncing class Jeremy & The Tempters. They were HILARIOUS!!!
Sunday we had breakfast and then a staff/parent meeting before splitting into individual parent teacher conferences. I didn't have any of these... I just sat through the general meeting. Then we said our goodbyes and headed home.
Monday I took Grammie to an appointment and did some errands for Mom and did some shopping with Karolline. Yesterday I spent the day in my PJ's and it felt wonderful to do absolutely nothing. Today I've done some stuff around the house and I'm about to go make a cheesecake for tomorrow.
I'll hopefully post some pictures later tonight or tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Teaching for the First Time
So like I said in my last blog, Thursday was my first time really teaching a class. The class had been meeting in the computer lab and that just wasn't working for me. There's way to many distractions for them working in there. The Bible Room is right across the hallway and is open during that time so I got permission and moved my class into there. I had a few inquiries about why we were in there now but they didn't really seem to mind the switch.
I began class by giving them the handouts I had made and then I gave them their new journals. They were extremely excited about the journals which surprised me a bit, but it also made my heart happy to see them excited about something having to do with the class. I then gave them the writing assignment. There was NO complaining!!! One of the girls told me that it seemed like a real class now. As they finished their assignment I told them to start reading through the handouts until everyone was done. I had two boys fall asleep at that point and I went over and woke them up and told them to get back to work. Then, I told them I had one more thing for them to do and they could either do it in class or as homework. The promptly asked if they were going to have more homework if they did it in class and when I said no they all opted to do it in class. So, to help me get an idea of assignments THEY would LIKE to do I had them write down three ideas for assignments I could give them or stuff we could do in class. Some of them came up with some really good ideas. And of course you'll always get someone who says something like "Free class time to do whatever we want".
When everyone finished on of the girls asked me how you change a couple things on the camera. I had them all come to the front to see it on the one camera I had there. I explained how it can change from camera to camera and showed them what a few of the things in the viewfinder was. After all that I told them that we were going to be going into the computer lab to try and watch a couple videos. The videos didn't work in the lab so I had them read the information that will be covered in the videos (which I'll show them this week). By the time they were done that there were only about 10-15 minutes left in class and I told them they could check email or do other homework until the bell rang.
I began class by giving them the handouts I had made and then I gave them their new journals. They were extremely excited about the journals which surprised me a bit, but it also made my heart happy to see them excited about something having to do with the class. I then gave them the writing assignment. There was NO complaining!!! One of the girls told me that it seemed like a real class now. As they finished their assignment I told them to start reading through the handouts until everyone was done. I had two boys fall asleep at that point and I went over and woke them up and told them to get back to work. Then, I told them I had one more thing for them to do and they could either do it in class or as homework. The promptly asked if they were going to have more homework if they did it in class and when I said no they all opted to do it in class. So, to help me get an idea of assignments THEY would LIKE to do I had them write down three ideas for assignments I could give them or stuff we could do in class. Some of them came up with some really good ideas. And of course you'll always get someone who says something like "Free class time to do whatever we want".
When everyone finished on of the girls asked me how you change a couple things on the camera. I had them all come to the front to see it on the one camera I had there. I explained how it can change from camera to camera and showed them what a few of the things in the viewfinder was. After all that I told them that we were going to be going into the computer lab to try and watch a couple videos. The videos didn't work in the lab so I had them read the information that will be covered in the videos (which I'll show them this week). By the time they were done that there were only about 10-15 minutes left in class and I told them they could check email or do other homework until the bell rang.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Searching for something to Teach
I spent ALL day yesterday online reading through forums, looking for handouts, looking at sites that had ideas and information for photography teachers, and a number of other things. I found a few videos on youtube.com from a guy that has his own website that has photography lessons all typed up. He had a video on aperture, shutter speed, and exposure. He explains them quite well in just a few minutes each. I think I'll show them the videos and then try to answer and more questions they have on it. I want to make sure they understand. I then went to his website and the first lesson has a bunch of questions about what you want to shoot, what you want to use your photography for, and a ton of other things too. Tomorrow I'm going to have them write responses to all the questions. I bought each of my students a journal last night and I'm planning on having them write in them every week during class and I'd like for them to carry them around to write down ideas or questions they think of during the week. They'll probably hate me for it but I think it will be good for them to realize some of those things.
Last night Nina and I went out for supper and had to pick up a few things at the store. I wanted to stop in at the mall to go to the bookstore and see if they had any photography books that might be helpful. They had a small rack with some clearance books on it and I quickly found two digital photography books! I was quite happy to find something so cheap (one was $7.99 and the other was $4.99)!!! I got the $7.99 one because it looked like it would be the best and I'll use it for myself when I get back to school. I wish I could've gotten them each one but I don't have that kind of money and there were only 4 or 5 of them there. Anyways, the book has several different sections in it including equipment, Lens and focusing, light, composition, fixing your images, advanced correction and creative editing, and one on printing and sharing. I think it'll be helpful to both me and the students.
I'm not working in the cafe today because Mrs. Stanton is coming in. I'll be down there tomorrow through Sabbath though. So, for today I'm planning on going through the book a bit more and pinning down exactly what we're going to do in class tomorrow.
Last night Nina and I went out for supper and had to pick up a few things at the store. I wanted to stop in at the mall to go to the bookstore and see if they had any photography books that might be helpful. They had a small rack with some clearance books on it and I quickly found two digital photography books! I was quite happy to find something so cheap (one was $7.99 and the other was $4.99)!!! I got the $7.99 one because it looked like it would be the best and I'll use it for myself when I get back to school. I wish I could've gotten them each one but I don't have that kind of money and there were only 4 or 5 of them there. Anyways, the book has several different sections in it including equipment, Lens and focusing, light, composition, fixing your images, advanced correction and creative editing, and one on printing and sharing. I think it'll be helpful to both me and the students.
I'm not working in the cafe today because Mrs. Stanton is coming in. I'll be down there tomorrow through Sabbath though. So, for today I'm planning on going through the book a bit more and pinning down exactly what we're going to do in class tomorrow.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
A Fun Evening
Adam and I were on supervision duty this weekend and had decided to have a class against class volleyball tournament for the Saturday night activity. But with some people gone on the leadership conference and even more that went home we weren't sure how the tournament would go. So at the last minute we decided to set up one net and have whoever wanted to play volleyball and other people could play basketball or just sit and socialize.
Nina, BJ, Adam, and I all played volleyball against the students. The beat us the first game then the students played each other again before asking us if we wanted a rematch. We ended up playing two or three more games with them and I think we won all of them. During one of the games, Adam, who happens to be something like 6'4, ran up and spiked the ball and one of the girls, somewhere around my height, blocked it and sent it back to us (we missed it). She was SO shocked (along with the rest of us). I think she walked around with her jaw on the floor for 5 minutes.
After the games we started kicking people out and Nina found what she called "golfball numchucks" which was a small rope with a golfball on each end. She hit me on the back of the leg with it and asked if it hurt. I said no and she did it again with the same results. The third time she did it she missed my calf and wailed my knee. It didn't hurt too bad at first but I have a very prettily colored bruise on my knee.
After all of that Adam, Nina, and Karolline all came over and we ate peanut butter pie and played Apples to Apples with Laurie. We didn't start playing until 9:30/10:00 so we were all getting a little tired. EVERYTHING was funny to all of us. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. We picked on each other, laughed at each other and ourselves, and laughed at the cards we played. During the first game Nina and Laurie were getting all the cards and Adam and I went for the longest time without any at all. At the end of that game Adam told us that the green cards we got are supposed to describe you in some way or another. We had a good laugh about those too. The second game we decided we'd play to 17 (people here seem to like random numbers). Adam and I did better that game. Karolline and Adam were in the lead for a long time and I still had a hard time getting cards in the beginning. But I ended up making a big come back and won. We laughed at the green cards even harder after that game. Nina had cards like "nerdy", "violent", and "easy" along with some others. I told Nina that the "violent" and "nerdy could be a bad combo especially because of the "golfball numchucks" earlier. Laurie had "puffy"... that's the only one I remember of her's because she made such a big deal about it through the whole game :) Adam had "flirtatous" and some others I remember laughing about but not what they were. I can't remember any of Karolline's. And I had "distiguished" and "dirty" to name a few.
Anyways, Adam and Nina didn't leave til a few minutes after midnight. We had a good time and had some good laughs. I hope we can do something of the sort again before too long :)
Nina, BJ, Adam, and I all played volleyball against the students. The beat us the first game then the students played each other again before asking us if we wanted a rematch. We ended up playing two or three more games with them and I think we won all of them. During one of the games, Adam, who happens to be something like 6'4, ran up and spiked the ball and one of the girls, somewhere around my height, blocked it and sent it back to us (we missed it). She was SO shocked (along with the rest of us). I think she walked around with her jaw on the floor for 5 minutes.
After the games we started kicking people out and Nina found what she called "golfball numchucks" which was a small rope with a golfball on each end. She hit me on the back of the leg with it and asked if it hurt. I said no and she did it again with the same results. The third time she did it she missed my calf and wailed my knee. It didn't hurt too bad at first but I have a very prettily colored bruise on my knee.
After all of that Adam, Nina, and Karolline all came over and we ate peanut butter pie and played Apples to Apples with Laurie. We didn't start playing until 9:30/10:00 so we were all getting a little tired. EVERYTHING was funny to all of us. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. We picked on each other, laughed at each other and ourselves, and laughed at the cards we played. During the first game Nina and Laurie were getting all the cards and Adam and I went for the longest time without any at all. At the end of that game Adam told us that the green cards we got are supposed to describe you in some way or another. We had a good laugh about those too. The second game we decided we'd play to 17 (people here seem to like random numbers). Adam and I did better that game. Karolline and Adam were in the lead for a long time and I still had a hard time getting cards in the beginning. But I ended up making a big come back and won. We laughed at the green cards even harder after that game. Nina had cards like "nerdy", "violent", and "easy" along with some others. I told Nina that the "violent" and "nerdy could be a bad combo especially because of the "golfball numchucks" earlier. Laurie had "puffy"... that's the only one I remember of her's because she made such a big deal about it through the whole game :) Adam had "flirtatous" and some others I remember laughing about but not what they were. I can't remember any of Karolline's. And I had "distiguished" and "dirty" to name a few.
Anyways, Adam and Nina didn't leave til a few minutes after midnight. We had a good time and had some good laughs. I hope we can do something of the sort again before too long :)
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Pictures from Home
Here are some pictures from my weekend in Vermont.
The view from the covered bridge looking towards Simon Pierce
Quechee Gorge (where my lens cap was laid to rest :P)
Laurie on the wrong side of the railing
Glass Blowing at Simon Pierce
The view from the covered bridge looking towards Simon Pierce
Adam really focusing on the water below
Quechee Gorge (where my lens cap was laid to rest :P)
Nina smiling at the covered bridge
Laurie on the wrong side of the railing
Adam and Nina enjoying themselves
Glass Blowing at Simon Pierce
More glass blowing
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Adding "Teacher"
Well, it looks like I will be adding "Teacher" to my resume. One of our teachers is having to leave due to not having the right forms to remain in the US. He was the photography teacher among other things and I was asked today if I'd take that over since I'm the most qualified to do it.
I found out this and several other things this morning. Among them would be my change in schedule. My schedule will be changing because the teacher leaving also helped in the cafe a couple nights a week. Since he's gone one of the ladies that used to help down there a few years ago is going to come back. However, she already has another job and the days she works changes from week to week. So every week I'll have a different schedule... at least I'll know what it is a month in advance I guess.
On to happier news. I was able to go home this weekend with 4 of the other faculty/staff members. My home church was having a cider and donut social (we press our own cider and make our own donuts). We left Friday evening and got back Sunday evening. I got to show them a few of the sites around my house and just had a lot of time to visit and relax. We all enjoyed ourselves a great deal.
This weekend I'm on supervision again. I'm still not going to be on with Mr. Raymond (the guy I'm supposed to be on weekend supervision with). Adam will be switching with Mr. Raymond. Adam is also the other SA sponsor... and as SA sponsors we're thinking this would be a great opportunity for SA to plan and lead the Saturday night activity. We're having a SA meeting tomorrow evening and we're going to bring this up to them. I hope they are willing to help us out.
Speaking of meetings... I have one that's going to start shortly so I better be off! I'll be posting some pictures from the weekend soon.
I found out this and several other things this morning. Among them would be my change in schedule. My schedule will be changing because the teacher leaving also helped in the cafe a couple nights a week. Since he's gone one of the ladies that used to help down there a few years ago is going to come back. However, she already has another job and the days she works changes from week to week. So every week I'll have a different schedule... at least I'll know what it is a month in advance I guess.
On to happier news. I was able to go home this weekend with 4 of the other faculty/staff members. My home church was having a cider and donut social (we press our own cider and make our own donuts). We left Friday evening and got back Sunday evening. I got to show them a few of the sites around my house and just had a lot of time to visit and relax. We all enjoyed ourselves a great deal.
This weekend I'm on supervision again. I'm still not going to be on with Mr. Raymond (the guy I'm supposed to be on weekend supervision with). Adam will be switching with Mr. Raymond. Adam is also the other SA sponsor... and as SA sponsors we're thinking this would be a great opportunity for SA to plan and lead the Saturday night activity. We're having a SA meeting tomorrow evening and we're going to bring this up to them. I hope they are willing to help us out.
Speaking of meetings... I have one that's going to start shortly so I better be off! I'll be posting some pictures from the weekend soon.
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