Wow! I have trouble believing yet another year has gone by! This year seemed to pass by the fastest yet. This was a good, full, busy year to be sure. Here’s a bit of how I spent my time this year.
January 2015
January was busy with classes and club activities. Starting in January, for two of my education courses, we went to a local high-needs elementary school once a week to tutor struggling students in ELA and math. I also helped out at a girl scout event held by my education club on campus. I met with my “research group” (the group I presented with at the NYSRA conference in fall 2014) a couple of times, and also visited some local museums as part of my art criticism class.
February 2015
February was another busy month. We started the month off with a Super Bowl Party with friends at college. Five of my close college friends had birthdays in February, so we had plenty of birthday parties, including a cheese and Capri Sun party. I had a relaxing February break, followed by a visit from my sister for a weekend at college.
March
March was busy (yet again). I did a lot of work with my research group to prepare for a big presentation at the college as part of the college’s Arts Alive celebration. I attended a Save Our Schools Rally calling for an end to ridiculous standardized testing as well as additional support for our public schools in New York. I spent a lot of time working on my ceramics. We had a meeting about Cooperative Housing (on-campus apartments) and my roommate and I decided to go in with three other girls to get an apartment. I hosted an overnight prospective student (who now attends the college!), attended the Orchesis show (on-campus dance show), and my best friend visited me.
April
I spent some time doing filming with three classmates for a video for my Art Criticism class- we interviewed random people at stores and asked them what they thought about certain art pieces. Spring Break was busy but good, and included a surprise birthday party for my sister. After Spring Break, I started my first student teaching. I taught first grade students for six weeks in a relatively affluent area.
May
I continued my student teaching in first grade, but also made some time for some fun. I went home for a weekend and hung out with some of my best friends, went to see Pitch Perfect 2, and ate plenty of ice cream. At the end of the month, I headed back home for the summer. My first weekend home consisted of meeting up with one of my favorite teachers from high school for dinner, hanging out with several of my friends, and doing some painting for my old track coach.
June
I started working at Lucky Dog Organic Store at the very beginning of June. It’s an old general/farm store and cafe. I worked both in the store and in the cafe. On my days off, I went antiquing and got lunch with a high school friend, worked on my dresser makeover, babysat, made rolls with my grandpa, had a campfire with friends, and visited cousins to celebrate my cousin’s high school graduation.
July
I spent most of my time working, primarily at Lucky Dog, but I also babysat some. I also worked on my bedroom makeover, including redoing my iron bed. I went blueberrying several times (yum!). I also wandered on to the Peace Corps website one day and within a week, applied to the Peace Corps!
August
I spent a lot of time working (yet again-sigh!). At the beginning of the month, I had my Peace Corps interview. I also went to a local production of “The Breakfast Club” and celebrated one of my best friend’s 21st birthdays. The week of the county fair (which is right by my house), my mom, dad, and sister went to Oregon and Washington, while I worked and spent an hour or so at the fair each day.
September
I finished up my job at Lucky Dog at the beginning of the month, then packed everything back up and headed back to Elmira for my final year of college. I started my second student teaching, this time teaching 6th grade in an inner-city school. My roommates and I spent a lot of time cleaning our apartment (they don’t get cleaned over the summer and it’s been inhabited by guys the past several years). We also cooked our first meals in the apartment and ate a whole bowl of cookie dough in one sitting.
October
I spent most of my time student teaching, but also managed to squeeze in time with my roommates and friends. I spent Columbus Day weekend at home, but our midterm break at college because of student teaching. All but one of my 4 roommates stayed over midterm break as well, and we actually had a lot of fun just hanging out.
November
November was super busy with student teaching. The same research group I worked with earlier in the year and last year presented at a conference in Saratoga Springs in mid-November. It was quite the adventure to say the least (a 3 1/2 hour trip took us over eight hours…in pouring rain…and included a broken down car and waiting on the side of the road for a tow truck for 2 hours). My college has the entire week of Thanksgiving Break off, but I had to stay until Tuesday for student teaching. I’m pretty sure I was one of the only people in my entire huge building, which was a little creepy.
December
The weekend before the last week of classes, we had our annual Holiday Banquet at college. Everyone gets dressed up nicely, and the professors carve the turkey and serve us and then we sing carols and such. It’s my favorite event of the year. I ended student teaching, which was a very bittersweet moment. Over the course of three months, I actually grew to really like my crazy kids. I then headed home for my month-long Christmas break (yay!). The day after my sister got home from college, my siblings and I invited a bunch of our friends over for a 1920s-themed Christmas party, which was a lot of fun. Then there was Christmas, followed by a three-day visit from family friends (with three of the cutest little girls!).
The Oke Den 