5 Things You Maybe Didn't Know About Me...

This is the first time that I have been 'tagged' and it's kind of fun! I looked at some of the blogs of other people that were tagged by my friend Rayna and they had some pretty interesting responses. My only dilemma is that I don't have very many friends that have their own blogs (or at least would appreciate being 'tagged') so I won't be passing this on to 5 people, unfortunately.

These are the rules of this little tag: Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog (some random, some weird). Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs and then let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



1) I have a serious travel bug and can hardly wait until I can get in an airplane again and visit somewhere new on the globe. I spent last year travelling around Europe (on 2 occasions) and living in Ethiopia for 3 months to work for SIM (Serving in Missions). Near the top of my travel wish list is: China (anywhere in Southeast Asia actually) and seeing more countries in Africa. South America is very appealing (Brazil, Chile) and New Zealand and Australia. SO, pretty much the whole world!!!



2)I get really annoyed when I enter a messy room (my own or someone elses). I turn to cleaning or cooking whenever my life gets stressful. Being in school allows for a lot of opportunities for stress-induced cleaning:)



3)I love being outdoors, and actually think it's a great idea to live out in the bush for 10-12 days without showers, indoor toilets or real beds. Living in the bush is my idea of a good time.



4)In my dream world I will have at least 4 children, we'll see after I have the first one some day:)-



5)I don't really like silence. When I'm home alone I always have music playing somewhere or I'm creating the music! Being outside alone is never actually silence, because there are so many great natural sounds. Though I am trying to learn to appreciate silence in small doses:)



The people I'm going to tag are: Catherine, Sarah, Erin&Matt, Andrea (she has private viewing though) & ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE...?

Have fun!

Blogs in the Classroom

As part of my "Technology in the Classroom" class in the Education program at Brandon University I am sharing how blogger could be used in the classroom. There is the potential for teachers to post a new idea or controversial topic and allow their students to comment in a group discussion of sorts. Blogs are easy to set up because you can just choose a template and then insert your own text and images where you want. They are a safe place for students to share ideas, because the teacher can control who is allowed to comment on the site and even who is able to view the blog. It would also be possible to set up your kids as administrators of the blog so that all students could take a turn posting a blog as part of any subject really.

• You can insert hyper-links for sites you want your students to check out.


• You can insert images


• You can also include video clips

Blogger is easy to edit and alter to your own specifications.

All Done

Wow, hard to believe, but yesterday was my final day of Placement 1! How time flies. I had a really great time in my placement at Crocus Plains. At the beginning I wasn't sure if I was in the right profession, but by the end of the time in the school I know it is the right place for me. I have enjoyed going to school as the teacher (most days:)) even though sometimes the kids drive me crazy! Seriously, I'm kind of sad that I have to go back to my own classes on Monday, being a student again.

My formal evaluations were really good-my co-operating teacher even nominated me for an award that I may win at the end of my time in the education faculty (next spring). I guess I'm doing something right! (Not bragging or anything:)) No Really, the only thing my faculty advisor could suggest for improvement next time out would be to find a more difficult class so that I can practice classroom management and have kids that will give me a run for my money...if that's all he can come up with I'm not too concerned!

My next few weeks back at classes will be busy (2 major presentations and 2 papers to write) but it will all be over in a flash and then CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS!!!!! hooray! Incase you can't tell, I'm a little excited about that thought. I love the baking, decorating and general fun that comes at Christmas. I love that my family is all together and we can relax and play together. I'm only praying that we will have snow so we can play outside too (and it just doesn't seem right without some white stuff on the ground!).

What's your favorite part of Christmas celebrations?

(the picture is of my sister last winter during a saturday adventure to Adam's Lake in southern Manitoba)

Random Things

I've just entered my first online contest. I'm hoping to win this amazing sounding make-up (Mineral make-up) and all the details about this amazing product can be found at Pure Anada. I'll let you know if I win...

By the way-just wanted you all to know that I"m loving my placement at Crocus Plains and I'm getting kind of sad about the fact that I have to go back to being the student in a weeks time. I guess that's a good thing because it means education is what I should be doing right now.

Another exciting note is that my mom's brother's and their families are coming out to Brandon this weekend! It's gonna be loads of fun and laughs.

A little Magic!

I wanted to share some of my exciting (and some not so exciting) updates and events from the last two weeks. I had forgotten it had been so long since I last posted anything up here in blogger land. Anyways...



Halloween was probably one of my most favorite days so far during student teaching. Now usually I'm not really a big halloween fan but this year I helped plan and run a chemistry magic show for all my classes on the day of candy and costumes. I (being the student-teacher who is supposed to be impressing all the staff around) planned the chemistry show and made sure we had everything that was needed and basically hosted the show. There were 5 teachers who worked together to put on a 20 minute magic show for our classes during the five periods of classes on Halloween. It was a blast! Lots of fire and explosions...every person's dream (at least if they're at all interested in Chemistry or science in general). We dressed up in costumes and pretended it was a wizard's school and each 'wizard' had special tricks and talents that they had learnt. The kids seemed to get into it a lot which was great (and I didn't have any lessons to plan-though I quickly realized that this show took a lot more time, energy and effort than any lesson plan I could have put together)...that being said it was really a great time.

Here are a few pictures from the show (I was dressed up as a pirate incase you can't guess...)

I had a pumpking 'cauldron' and used my magic wizard powder (flour) to make great flames and flares that jumped out of the pumpkin's face.

We had 'flaming snowballs' that we could juggle. The kids were pretty impressed!

In other teacher news; I am getting to know my students more which makes my days more enjoyable because they are starting to trust me and a relationship of sorts is beginning to develop. It's hard to believe that I'm already starting week 4 (of 5) on Monday...where does the time go? My co-operating teacher is awesome. She pretty much gave me complete control over 2 of her classes (grade 12 Chemistry) for the 5 weeks I am in her class so I get the full experience. Officially, people in my position (1st time placement) are supposed to teach only 2 lessons a WEEK...I teach 2-4 lessons a DAY. It's more work, yes, but the experience is much more beneficial for me to be in there full-time teaching because observation is only good to a certain point. Eventually you have to get infront of the students and start coming up with your own ways of doing things. SO it's really working out well.

Enjoy your weekend!!!