Let me clarify...

The last post was SUPER short because I was very limited on time, yet wanted to share my joyous news with you all. Now let me explain.

Yesterday was a CRAZY day. I not only had a real job interview up against 34 amazing women with 24 openings; I had to pass this observation to be able to pass my minor. The reason this is particularly difficult is that I already had this same observation before and didn't do too hot. I'm not going to give any excuses, and trust me I have plenty, but it simply went poorly.

So my interview for my internship began at 10:10 in American Fork Utah @ the Alpine district offices. There are 3 other women begin interviewed AT THE SAME TIME AS ME. It was a group interview. All 4 of us walk in and there is a room full of principals. There were probably 10- 15 principals in the room. We had to state our name, the school we are in now, and our grade preferences (not to give away the exciting news, but I said I'd prefer 2, 3, or 4th grade and got 5th haha). Then we had 3 group questions. They basically throw the question out in the air and whoever wanted to could answer. Then they had 3 individual questions. That's it. On to the next room of principals. Then it was over.

It was a tough interview. The group aspect was hard because you had to think of the right group dynamics (being nice to them, not talk too much, or not talking enough). Plus the questions they asked were so broad and vague; it would have been difficult to say a wrong answer. How are they supposed to judge if you are a good teacher by 6 questions? I walked out of the interview feeling good about my answers and my impression, yet unsure because everyone was so great. How are they going to decide?

I left the district office back to my 4th grade class waiting for a phone call from the principal...waiting... with my stomach in knots...

I get to my class and get my lesson set up for my observation. We were doing a lesson on severe weather. Here's a quick synopsis. I read a children's book on weather. In the books some people had to miss out on their fun day at the beach because of bad weather. Then I had the students share experiences if weather had ever affected them in their life. (We could have gone on the rest of the day with just sharing those experiences. EVERYONE wanted to share). Then I said today we are going to talk about severe weather, what does that mean? We talked about what the word severe means and what are some types of severe weather. Then they had pictures on their desk of severe and normal weather. Then we sorted them into those categories on the board. Then we made a severe weather book complete with a glossary, table of contents, and title page. THEN we did this.

Well the first part of the video. We created a severe rain storm. Ya it went awesome. I got 100% on my second observation. My teacher was practically crying because of how well it went haha.

One thing down. Now I wait...

...and wait...

...and wait...

Then my phone rings. As soon as I heard the voice I knew I got it. It was the Vice Principal at the school I'm in right now!! As soon as he said hey Nikki this is Boyce Campbell. I said "this better be good news" (Apparently I'm rude when I'm nervous haha). Then he extended me a position in the 5th grade at the school I'm in right now.

Cool thing... I am in the 4th grade right now, which means I will get some of my same kids next year!!!! I am stoked about that!

Now let me explain the internship to everyone...
*I am the ACTUAL teacher. I do NOT have a mentor teacher in the room. I am evaluated quite often and have people keeping tabs on me so I don't kill the kids, but other than that I'm the real deal.
*It is a paid internship. I receive half pay and full benefits. Something crazy, my school district has the best benefits and we don't pay a cent for them out of our paycheck.
*My school is about 10 minutes away. It is so close and I love it.
I can't think of anything else... I'll let you know.

Anyways... it was a great day!! I am proud to say. I have been working really hard and it is great to see my hard work pay off!

5th grade

I got the internship! 5th grade here I come!!

My FIRST husbandless weekend

James was in Las Vegas this weekend for a soccer game, which they won 2-0. James played in the center for the full 90 minutes for the first time (he's usually in the back). He left Friday morning and will be back sometime Sunday evening (I think).

Friday I went to dinner with Katherine and Alissa. Cafe Rio. :)

Katherine is on the far Left, me, Emily (was supposed to come but she was doing wedding stuff in California), Ali (on a mission in Japan), and Alissa is on the far Right.

Saturday morning I went to breakfast with Emilee at Kneaders and we practiced interview questions. She was SO helpful!! (Side note: my interview for the internship is THIS WEDNESDAY!)

Saturday afternoon. Whitney came over to help me pick out my interview outfit.

Saturday night I went out with Anna, Brookie, Aubrey, and Ali for frozen Yogurt.

This is Brookie on the left and Amanda, I couldn't find a picture of Anna and Brooke. But this one from my bridal shower will suffice because I saw Amanda at Cafe Rio Friday, so she must be pictured.

This is Emilee (pictured above), Anna, and me at festival of colors 3 years ago. I didn't go this year.. yesterday.. too cold

Anyways pretty eventful weekend, not to mention on Tuesday I also went out to frozen yogurt with Melissa and Madi! (And we are going to see the Justin Bieber movie soon in the dollar theater).

I survived my first weekend without James and it was actually pretty fun. Not that I want to do it again, plus we might go bankrupt haha.

Confessions...

I've always had this tremendous flaw where I expect to be the best  without any experience or effort. I would like to blame the public school system for making things too easy, but it's mainly my personality.

Growing up I wanted to play the new song on the piano my first time perfectly... when I was 7 and my fingers couldn't possibly reach the distance between notes. I wanted to make every shot I went for on the basketball team when I was 10, which is impossible for NBA players.

I've always been incredibly hard on myself. Which 9 times out of 10 is a great thing, but I am just starting to realize something...

It's okay to make mistakes and learn from them. It's okay to not be awesome until after you have some experience and put in some effort. It's okay to not be the best, if you are continually working on getting better. It's okay to go 1 step at a time instead of 20 steps.

New goal: Don't be too hard on myself. Keep moving forward. Keep improving. But it's okay not to be perfect.

Oh hey by the way I'm talking about teaching. I'm obviously perfect at everything else :)

4th Grade!

(Ashely and my bulletin board about clouds).

For the month of March I am in a 4th grade class in the Alpine school district. It is SO different from being in the second grade class last semester! 

Today we taught a really fun lesson on clouds and it went really well. 

It is so crazy to me how teaching is such a roller coaster. Some days are tough. You feel like you're not making a difference. You feel like all you do is correct kids and help them pay attention. Other days are awesome. The kids are well behaved. They really "get" the lessons. They have really great input and thoughts about the lesson, and you feel like you're making a difference.

Today was a good day.