Schooling Update

Yeah, I know you are all in shock.  I am writing another post and it has only been a few days.  But breathe easy.  I simply remembered something that I should probably update y’all on.

So, when I started the semester I was under the impression that I needed to work towards a 1 year early childhood certificate.  This entailed taking 30 credits of coursework, only 4 of which were covered by my studies in Hawaii.  I am currently taking 5 classes, which left 4 for me to take next semester: Music Methods, Child Development, Assessment, and a Preschool Practicum (sorta like student teaching). 

After the repetitiveness of this semester, I really didn’t want to have to take yet another development class (I’ve already taken two) and wasn’t so keen on repeating music methods either.  So I decided to appeal my case to the advisor and see if I could somehow wave these two classes during my meeting with her to get into the practicum.
 
Only in talking with her yesterday, I found out that the 1 year certificate ISN’T going to give me the certification to teach kindergarten–the entire reason I was going through this to begin with.  Thankfully, as she listed the 6 classes I DO need to take, I have completed or will complete all of them this semester.  
 
Therefore, after this semester, I just have to complete 5 weeks of student teaching in a kindergarten class, and I’ll be good to go.  A much simpler load than I was planning on, that’s for sure.
 
This also opens up a few other possibilities.  For example, since I’m so close to the additional certification, I could try and get a part time teaching job in a kindergarten class which would both fulfill the student teaching requirement and give me some paid teaching experience.  Definitely tempting.  Especially if I could keep my current job AND teach half-day kindergarten.  But that’s just a possibility.  I could also sub on a part-time basis.  Not my preference, but still experience. 

Regardless, I’ll definitely have to find something to fill in the school-void next semester.  It may as well be something that’ll benefit me down the road, right?

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Pretty much from beginning to end, this week was dedicated to the preparation and enjoyment of Halloween!  It all started Monday night with the annual Larsen pumpkin carving festival.  We even invited Jason to join us.  Carving pumpkins with my family is definitely one of the many things I missed a bunch while I was in Hawaii.  The final results?

Jared made his own pattern, using the cover of The Host to guide him.

Annie’s pumpkin said EAT and the ‘A’ was a piece of candy corn.

I did the Joker.

Jason did two–Darth Vader and the Death Star.  Not shabby for his first pumpkin carving experience.

Jori took the cake this year though.  She also did two.  Her first one was Gilligan but because of the unusually warm temperatures and how early we carved, he didn’t make it til Halloween.  So she also carved the Cowardly Lion.

Much of the rest of the week was spent preparing costumes.  Not my own though.  No, I had mine at the beginning of the month.  I ended up sewing Jason’s costume.  Then, Thursday night, Jared asked me to make him a shirt.  So on Thursday I ended up spending almost 12 hours on the sewing machine.  But it was worth it.

On the actual holiday, I went to work in costume.  During my four hour shift, I participated in a costume contest and had a potluck.  Basically I got paid for an hour and half of playing! That night Jason and I joined up with Cadence for a party. 

It was fun to get out and be with different people, but we ended up the evening back at my house where we kept with our theme and watched Star Wars.  A great day indeed!