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!