St. George

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip down to St. George. Matt, Joanne, Casey, Ryan, and I got to St. George at three in the morning. We camped outside of St. George at a place called Red Cliffs. Less than a mile hike from our campground is this awesome slot canyon with lots of little pools and waterfalls. You can slide down the waterfalls like water slides! It was so fun.The only group picture we took.The boys mountain biked Gooseberry Mesa. Snow Canyon sand dunes.Matt doing a cannon ball that he would feel for a couple of days. Chillin in one of the pools. You can see the edge of the waterfall that we slid down.

Graduation

A couple of weeks ago I graduated from Utah State University! I graduated with an Earth Science Composite Teaching degree. I would like to give a big shout out to my mom and dad and thank them for all of their love and support. They helped me get through school and also showed me the importance of education. I love you mom and dad! I also got a teaching job... I will be teaching 8th grade science! I am super excited about it.

Life Goal #98

Jump on a trampoline during a lightning storm... and survive.

1st Science Demo...

This was a while ago but still great. It was first hour at school and I was doing my very first science demonstration ever. I was trying to show my students what their blood is made of. I used corn syrup to represent plasma, then red hot candy to represent red blood cells, little red hots to represent platelets and so on. When you heat it up a little and mix it together it turns into a red substance and they can see why their blood it red. I started to heat it up and when I went to add more stuff it exploded from the bottom. The candies stuck to the burner and the classroom soon became very smoky. Luckily my classroom does not have a smoke detector or I would have set the fire alarm off for the whole school. The good news is that the students thought is was awesome.

From the mouths of 7th Graders...

-Why do I need math and science if I am going to be an Air Force pilot? After I explained to him the answer he then asked why he needed geography then.

-During a discussion about how your heart is about the size of your fist a student asks well what if someone gets plastic surgery to make their hands bigger...then what?

-In bold on the reading guide: pages 20-23, student raises hand for help, I go over, student "I can't find any of the answers", I look down at the book... he is on page 90

7th graders make me laugh. Stay tuned, I am sure there is more to come.

Um Update...

Well I have been receiving some grief about not updating the blog so here it goes... Life is good. I am student teaching this semester. Which means I will be graduating in May FINALLY. I am sure that my parents thought that day would never come since I have been a professional student forever. I am teaching 7th grade since at a middle school. I really like it minus the fact that school starts at 7:30 am and those who know me understand how that could be a conflict. The students in my classes are awesome (well that is my opinion today...tomorrow?). Seventh graders are still afraid of the teacher so that is a bonus. As long as they don't find out that their grades do not really count on their record until ninth grade things will be good. Just kidding, really grades are important and always count! (that one is for Kerry and Chase) In my school there is not a health class for seventh graders. So the science department teaches a little health. Right now I am teaching about the heart and lungs, it is fun. I am also coaching a club volleyball team. They are pretty young and most of them have never played club before. It is fun to coach them because they are excited about volleyball and just want to play.
Matt is working and going to school. He is playing in a couple of basketball leagues, snowboarding, and running. Matt also got one of the best Christmas presents ever! No we are not having a baby, he got a new mountain bike for free. The frame on his old mountain bike broke while he was riding it. The frame has a lifetime warranty on it but instead of building him a new frame they sent him a brand new 09 bike. He treats it like a kid and it lives in the house. Well that is about it as far as updating goes. The holidays were great. We had a blast spending time with our families.