Done with Semester One!!

Hi Everyone,
I am happy to report that as of 9am this morning, I have completed my first semester of CTEP! It is very weird to not have any work to do and for everything to be finished, but I will take it!

These past few weeks have been busy and full of lots and lots of work. I have had several papers, lesson plans to finish up, my sustained teach week, and a final to complete.

My Sustained Teach Week went pretty well. It was definitley fun and challenging to have and implement all the lessons for a full three days. Using the curriculum as a guide, I had to create and write up lesson plans for the major content area's and I created my own Social Studies Mini Unit. For this mini unit, I had to create lessons that taugh my students about Ellis Island Immigration. We started off by reading a book about a little girl coming from Ireland to Ellis Island and asking students what they know about Ellis Island already. The next day, students had a chance to do some research about Ellis Island and on the third day students wrote diary entries as if they were immigrants who had come over from Ellis Island. The students diaries were great!!

Yesterday, I went into my classroom to say goodbye and the Students had planned a surprise going away party for me! It was so sweet. They also gave me a little canvas bag that they had signed for me. It is definitely a great memory to have.

This semester if my classroom, has been great! I love my classroom and my mentor teacher and am really sad to leave them!

I have met my new classroom and they are so cute. I will be in a 1st grade classroom in Orange.

Well I am home for winter break now! I am excited to relax and read!!

I hope you all have a great Holiday Season!!

- Rachel

Much needed update

Hello Everyone,
Sorry it has taken me so long to post. Life has been pretty hectic.

I am throughly enjoying my 4th grade placement. I am in the class for the full day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My mentor teacher is really great and the kids are really cute. I have been leading morning meeting, leading a reading group and helping kids throughout the day while the teacher is teaching certain lessons. My mentor teacher has been really great about including me in the class and encouraging me to make the class my own. I have been learning a lot from my mentor teacher and I am excited to put some of the things I have learned into practice during my lead teach week at the end of November.
Classes are also going pretty well, but the work load is starting to pick up. We have several projects and papers that are due with in the next few weeks along with the normal work load. I am learning some interesting things in my classes and they are not hard, but they are just a lot of work.
My weeks are pretty busy. I am in the school full day Monday with a class a night, the same thing on Tuesday, just a full day in the school on Wed, one class on Thursday and two on Friday. I am also leading Bible Study on Wed Night. Bible Study is going really well. It has been nice to meet some new girls and to get to know them better.

In my "free" time, I have been hanging out with my roommates. I am living with three good friends, which has been a lot of fun. It is fun to joke around with them and have fun. It helps to take away some of the stress that has built up throughout the week.

So, overall life is going well!! I just have to make it to mid December where I can get a month break, before the craziness doubles during spring semester!!

- Rachel

3,2,1.. Grad School has officially begun

Hi Everyone,
Yes, I have started Grad School and so far it has gone pretty well. We had two days of Orientaion last week which were good but pretty overwhelming. We got a lot of information, learned about liscensure, did some group building activities, talked about classroom management, and talked to former students. I think we were all doing ok until we talked to the former studtents. Once we heard about how much work it was and how busy we would be, we all got a little nervous.

There is a total of 5 of us that will be going to the same school this fall. We will all be carpooling together and it will be fun to get to know them better as time goes on.

This week marked our first time in our classrooms. Monday and Tuesday were spent helping our Mentor teachers set up the classrooms and get oriented in the school. I really like the teacher I will be working with. I got to know more about her and about the school as we hung up stuff in the classroom, oragnized books into reading groups, organized where all the students were going to sit and did a lot of labeling. It was fun to see the behind the scenes work and to see how the classroom comes together.

We are slated to have 17 students in our classroom and we may have some more if students move in at the beginning of the year. My first day in the classroom with the students will be next Monday. I am excited to meet the students and to get started!

Aside from school I have been preparing for the Biblestudy I am going to be leading at my church this fall. MercyHouse Midweek( what our biblestudies are called) will start Sept. 23rd. I am excited to meet the women that will be in my study. We will be going through a book called
"Capture My Heart Lord" by Laura Wilcox. This study is a 10 week "journey towards a heart captivated my God". I think that this will be a great study.

I also found out on Sunday that I will be a Sunday School teacher at Mercy House. I think this will be a lot of fun and a good experience.

So as you can see this will be a busy year, but I am looking forward to it!

Wedding and NYC

Hi All,

Just thought I would write a little update. It has been a few weeks and a couple exciting things have happened.

#1: On July 25th one of my former roommates, Sarah, got married. We were able to spread out the celebration over a few days, which was fun. On Thursday her Maid of Honor flew in, and a group of us went out for a Bachelorette dinner. After dinner we went on a little Scavenger Hunt that we had prepared for Sarah. We hid "wedding" things at different memorable spots around campus and created different clues to help her find these items. Friday morning/ afternoon brought about a lot of setting up and organizing the church for the wedding and reception and then friday night was the rehearsal dinner. Saturday was the Big day and we were able to spend time in the morning getting ready with Sarah which fun. The ceremony was very nice and the reception was fun. After the send off, a group of us cleaned up and then went out to dinner in town.

Not only was this weekend a fun weekend to celebrate with Sarah but it was fun to reconnect with friends to came to the area for the wedding!

Here is a picture of a group of us and Sarah and Jordan and Sarah's parents from the wedding

#2: Last weekend two of my friends, Katy and Lauren, and I traveled to NYC! This was my first time in the Big Apple and it was a lot of fun. We spent a full day there on Saturday and half a day in the city on Sunday. We saw almost everything one would want to see in NYC. On Saturday we took our train into Grand Central Station and then made our way to 5th Avenue and saw the Empire State Building. We then made our to Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, FAO Schwarz, Central Park, The Met and the Guggenheim. Saturday was spent visiting Battery Park, Ground Zero, and visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Overall it was a great trip. It was definitely a whirlwind, and we saw a lot and came home exhausted. I would say my favorite part of it was seeing the Statue of Liberty. She was a pretty amazing site!

Here are a few pictures of us. The first one is us in Times Square and the second one is us in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Besides those two exciting events, I found out that I will start student teaching on August 27th and that Orientation is August 20th and 21st. Also as of today I have one more week of work and then I am done. I am pretty excited about this!!

I will be sure to write an update as soon as my student teaching starts!

Hope you are all doing well!

Miss Bandi, The Fourth Grade Student Teacher

Today I got my Student Teacher placement for this fall. I will be a student teacher in a fourth grade classroom at Sheffield Elementary in Turners Falls. While fourth grade is a little older than I would have liked, I am excited because I have worked with my mentor teacher before. Two years ago( my Junior year) I tutored all year in the 4th grade classrooms at Sheffield Elementary School and I spent some of my time in the classroom of my mentor teacher. I am excited to work with this teacher again and to see what a 4th grade classroom is like.
After I got my placement I looked at the school schedule to see when I have to start. Teacher work days are August 24-26 and school starts the 27th! So it is coming up fast.

Stay tuned to the blog and I will be sure to update throughout the fall about my experiences in 4th grade.

"Miss Bandi, Miss Bandi"

Yesterday, I got an email from CTEP( my Masters Program), with my class and part of my teaching schedule for next year. I will be taking 5 classes next fall; Advanced Child Development, Children and Their Literacies, Social Studies Methods, Promising Practices in Mathematics, Integrated Methods. I have even been given a 700 page book to read before classes start. I do not have my classroom placement yet, but I should get it in a few weeks!

We will have two days of Orientation in late August and then soon after that it is off to teacher work days and starting our student teaching. It is crazy to think that I will be a student teacher; creating and teaching lessons and being called Miss. Bandi everyday. I am sure this year will be a great learning experience!

Well that is all the exciting news I have now, I will be sure to update when I get my teaching placement. ~ Rachel

"All I hath needed, thy hand hath provided, Great is thy Faithfulness"

This is one of my favorite parts of one of my favorite Hymns, " Great is Thy Faithfulness". I have been going back to this truth a lot recently.

This past week has been a hard week.

My work schedule is finally getting to me and having a 48 hour work week is not helping at all. Though my job seems easy and nice, it has very wacky hours and I feel like I do not see my roommates that much, because my schedule is opposite of theirs. It has taken a lot for me to remain positive about this and to be thankful for a summer job. God has been faithful in providing me with a summer job in which I will be making a good amount of money.

This week, I also found out that I will most likely not be getting a scholarship that I applied for, for next year. I had been praying and trusting God for this Scholarship and was really hoping that I would get this. It was really disappointing to hear that I did not get this scholarship. Thoughts of, " there is someone better than you out there" and " you are not good enough" kept coming into my head and it was hard to see the good in this situation. I talked to my parents shortly after I found out about this and my Dad was very quick to remind me that God is in control and that God has taken care of us in the past and he will continue to take care of me now. My mom also pointed me towards Jeremiah 29:11, reminding me that God has a plan for me. It is so important to remember that God is in control and that " all I hath needed, his hand hath provided". So this is yet another time where I can trust our faithful God and see what he has in store for me.

This week has been a great reminder that I can not live life on my own. I need to continually rely on God and know that he is there to help me every second of every day. As I sat singing this song in my apartment last night, tears streaming down my face, I was reminded of what a great God we serve!

"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!"

The 4th of July in Amherst

Another 4th of July has come and gone. Yesterday was unlike any other 4th of July I have had, because I had to work in the morning. I am used to having the day off and having a cookout and watching some fireworks at night. All but the last, did not happen. I worked from 7-3 and then hung out until I went to see the fireworks in Amherst with a friend.

Overall it was a pretty uneventful day, but the fireworks were really nice. My friend and I went down to the UMass football stadium and sat amongst the crowds and watch the 30 minute show. It was a pretty impressive show and I am glad that we went.

Celebrating July 4th in Amherst this year, makes me think of where I was the past two summers when I celebrated July 4th.

Last Summer I was in Lusaka, Zambia. We spent the day celebrating with our Zambian friends. We threw a " American Night" party, where we cooked a lot of American dishes, had a bonfire and s'mores. It was a really fun day! It was fun to celebrate the 4th in a different way with our new Zambian friends.

A picture from our party!

Two years ago I was in Colorado Springs. I spent that summer in Colorado Springs at a Navigator Summer Training Program. We had the day of the 4th off and we spent it at the house of our leaders parents. We had a great day playing games, having a cookout and ended the night watching fireworks at the top of Lady Bug lookout( a spot at the Nav headquarters).

A picture of some of us playing Bocce on the 4th of July

This 4th of July might not have been that exciting but it was great to think back on the past two years and remember the good times I had!

Hope you all had a great 4th!! - Rachel

My Summer so far...

I do work 40 hour weeks, but I have also had time for some fun, during my days off.

Home: I have been home( Thornton , NH) twice so far this summer. It has been nice to spend some time with my family and to explore new areas of New Hampshire. On one of my trips home, I went on a 8 mile bike ride with my mom. It was a lot of fun and really pretty. There are not a lot of places that you can go for a bike ride and see beautiful mountains the whole time.

Getting to See Nelson: Last summer I spent 7 weeks in Zambia with the Navigators. While there I lived with a man named Nelson and his wife and 4 little girls. I became really close to this family and have really missed them since I have been back in the US. This past month Nelson came to visit the US and made a stop in Massachusetts. So a week and a half ago I was able to drive to Burlington, Ma and see him for the afternoon. It was great to see him and catch up with him and hear about my Zambian family.

Me and Nelson

Wedding: Last weekend, one of my Roommates( Katy) and I traveled to Haverhill, Ma for the wedding of a friend of ours from UMass. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to celebrate with our friend and to see other friends at the wedding. We also spent the night at the house of some family friends that I have not seen in a while, so it was great to reconnect with them as well.

Friends at the wedding

This summer has also been a great time to relax, read at coffee shops, sleep in late( that is when I am not working at 7am), and hang out with friends.

My Summer with UMass Summer Conference Housing

This summer I am working on campus, with Summer Conference Housing Services. Over the summer some of the dorms at UMass turn into Hotels for different camps and conferences that come to UMass. I am a desk monitor at one of the dorms. So I get to sit a the "front desk" for 8 hours a day and check people in/out, let people into their rooms when they lock themselves out, smile at people when the walk by, give directions and answer questions. It has not been to bad so far. Most of the time nothing is really going on and I get to read, watch movies, go online etc.
I like all my co-workers, it has been fun to meet new people and all the guests are pretty nice for the most part. I have gotten to meet people from all over the world which is really interesting. So far I have met people from Africa, Brazil, Puerto Rico, India, Estonia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Taiwan and a few other places I can not remember. It has been fun to talk to these guests and learn a little bit about their home countries. It is also fun to ask them what they think of Amherst and have them respond saying that it is so beautiful here eventhough it has been raining the whole time they have been here.
So overall the job has been a good one and I am looking forward to seeing who else I will meet!

First Blog Post!

Hello Everyone,
I have been reading other people's blogs for a while and thought that it was time for me to start my own. In trying to decide what to call this blog and I thought it would be fun to write about my adventures in Amherst over the summer and give people an updates on my year of Grad School which I will start in the fall. So I came up with the ingenious title: Rachel's Adventures in Amherst!
I graduated from UMass, May 23rd with a Bachelor's in Psychology and a minor in Education. I am working on campus at UMass over the summer before I start my Masters program this upcoming fall.
I will wrote a separate post about my summer job and about what I have been up to so far this summer! Hope you enjoy!