When I grow up...

This past weekend I have been thinking a lot about the Fridays events. I have especially thinking about the adults involved and their heroics. I feel proud to be heading toward a profession that produces people like Victoria Soto and Kaitlin Roig.

A couple of weeks ago one of my classmates asked everyone in the class to answer two questions so that she could compile them into a book. The questions were: what does teaching mean to you? and Why do you want to be a teacher? I would like to share my answers here so if you are interested in my reasons for choosing education, here are your answers... (It's a little long and if you decide not to read it I don't mind.)


What does teaching mean to you?

To me teaching means so many things that it is hard to classify: It means heartaches and new beginnings… It means that every year I will have to stay as my students move on but at the same time that I will always have something new to challenge me whether it be students or curricula.

It means hard work… I will constantly be working, there is no way that I can just forget my work at the end of the day when the work I am doing has an influence on multiple lives.

It means creative thinking… I can walk through the changing leaves in the fall or the flowers blooming in the spring and use those experiences to create a lesson that will have the students invested in the lesson the whole time!

It means variety… It means that I can laugh, cry, and love all in one day maybe even the space of one hour. I never know what a student might surprise me with but I know that I will hear what my students think and have good times as they share their ideas and opinions with me.

It means Challenges…It does not mean that every day will be easy or that every day will be hard. It means that I have the ability to help one student with their classwork while considering how to alter the next activity to the students’ needs.

It means that I am important… I will never go out of style because no technology can bring as much to the classroom than a teacher who loves his/her students. Students need to have at least one person to look to and I need to work to be that person.

Ultimately to me teaching means… I can make a difference in the life of someone else. If I can succeed in doing that for one person I will feel successful as a teacher.

Why do you want to be a teacher?

I want to be a teacher for many reasons: because I love seeing people learn new things, I love seeing the ‘light bulb’ come on as a difficult concept is understood, I love working with the students that are so excited about everything. But after considering everything I want to be a teacher because it helps me to better understand the Atonement. It is amazing to me how quickly I can fall in love with any group of students that I work with. I can just imagine how much Jesus Christ loves us and I can sense a portion of how he feel for us. I would do anything for my students and I want to give them all the skills they need to succeed. I want to share a scripture that perfectly explains what I am trying to say: Mosiah 28:3 “Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.” I feel the same and I want to do anything I can to make a difference in my students’ lives.

When I grow up, I want to make a difference!

For those of you that made it through, here is a great clip!

Moments That Matter Most

I'll be short and sweet today but I just want to say how thankful I am for the time we have on this Earth and the knowledge that I have of life after this Earth. I hope that we may all work to make the best of our situations and learn to devote our time to others! Here are a couple of videos that I have loved this week and I hope you enjoy them too...

Heartbreak...

My heart hurts…

I was on the internet today to check my email and I saw the news. There was a shooter at an elementary school. There was not yet any news about how many had died but there was news that one shooter was dead while another was at large. After reading that article I continued to search for further information concerning this tragedy. I later found that the counts were high, so high that the deaths are much greater than the Columbine shooting. (here is the CNN report)

20 children and 6 adults…

First Graders I can’t imagine how devastating this is for the parents and families of those who were killed in this massacre. I am sick to my stomach at the thought of this happening in an elementary school where we strive to make our students feel safe.

I am heartbroken at what has happened and I am praying for those immediately effected by this tragedy. I know that Heavenly Father is looking after everyone involved and that his angels are helping the families and the children. I was talking to a woman today who shared with me her idea of the other side of things: “I often imagine the other side of things can you imagine how Heavenly Father and Christ are up there breaking the news of what has happened and preparing a welcoming for these poor children and adults who are soon to be arriving?” I think that that is a sweet image to keep in mind. I want to focus on the fact that those who have died are being taken care of on the other side. It is okay to mourn their loss but it is also important to accept that they are now in the hands of the Lord and he will take good care of them.

I just saw there was also a stabbing in China, I just feel so sickened.

I just saw this video that someone made and thought I would add it (Rather than take out the other)...

Almost there/Catch up

As for the countdown from last year (seen here) I am behind but I have finished 6 of my 7 tests... The 7th will take place Friday morning. Until then I have lots of time for work and cleaning and then I can enjoy my 3 week break!!!

By the way, last week my ward had a talent show I did something with my group (somehow the sound got off) and then I did a solo (I didn't have much practice but here it is)

P.S. I miss my first graders!!!!

Writing to kids

The last three days in my literacy class my teacher had a special assignment for us. Two days we got to be Santa's helpers and one day we edited a students paper... These kids were so cute I thought I would share.

The paper that I edited was titled "Bob Likes Banana's" It was a story about a monkey named Bob who loved to eat bananas but ate them with the peel on so when his cousins Elvis and Presley decided to come visit he was nervous that they would laugh at him because of the way he ate bananas. He explained this to his best friend Marley who said that Bob's cousins shouldn't care how he eats the bananas because it is his choice. Bob agrees and invites his friend to come visit while his cousins are in town. In the end Bob, Marley, Elvis, and Presley all eat their bananas together. How funny is that! From a third grader... I can't wait to have my own class.

On the second to last day of class we wrote letters to some second graders answering their letters to Santa. One student addressed his letter "Dear Santa (Mom and Dad)".  These students were asking for the craziest things and the sad thing is I bet most of them will get what they want and it is all electronics! Do we really need that much technology cluttering our lives? I understand it to a point but when it is the only thing you want I think it is a problem. (Sorry got sidetracked)

The Last day of class we were asked to answer letters from a fifth grade classroom. I know what you are thinking but they all wrote the letters to Santa. In the letters they explained what they wanted for Christmas and why they should get it. At the end of the letter I read the girl asked what Santa's favorite cookie was so that she could make it for him, so cute! But I think the funniest letter was the letter that my friend had to answer. The student had asked for a Blue Ipad mini, a smart phone with unlimited data/talk/text, and a large pillow pet. She said she should get the Blue Ipad mini because blue is a good color and it is cheaper than a regular Ipad. She deserved the phone because she didn't have one and she deserved the large pillow pet because she had a small one but she wanted a big one. Sounds like some pretty good reasoning, right?

I just think it is funny what students come up with and I am so excited to get the chance to work with some older students next semester and have those new experiences!

Also as a sidenote... Look at this cake I made for Megan Mitton's surprise party! It is a (homemade) three layer devils food cake with an almond frosting and marshmallow fondant and it was delicious! The black square on the front was going to be a missionary nametag but I'm just not that talented ;)

Ignorance is bliss...

...but only if you are the ignorant one. Practicum has been amazing but really busy it really is quite the struggle to get a bunch of 6 and 7 year old's to do what you want them to! I have lots of stories to tell but no time at the moment. I just really wanted to post about a conversation I had with a friend while I was doing my math homework (probabilities) and my perspective (which may be a bit biased).

Friend: You know some people come to college and work while some people come to college and play games.
Me: My major is not that easy!
Friend: My homework problems take me an hour for each problem.
Me: Just because your problems take a long time doesn't mean that mine don't take a long time. Once you solve a problem it stays solved, nothing changes. Once I solve a problem (plan a lesson, help a child) I have to figure out a new solution every time and often I have to solve the same problem more than once. Just because what I'm doing looks easy does not mean that it is actually easy!
Friend: But your homework doesn't take so long.
Me: Thinking: maybe lot but there is a lot more to my major than homework!

And to close my "teachers work harder than you think" post a little humor, I saw this on the web at one point in time and thought it was hilarious!

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
     Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.

     That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

     Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300
per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

     What about those special
education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an
hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute -- there's
something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher's salary
(nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days
= $277.77/per day/30
students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!

Disney Rocks!

I saw this the other day and thought I would share. I love that Disney produced this and I love the message it represents. My only grievance is that there is not a video for the boys. I feel like these characteristics are not only valid for girls (the princesses) but also for boys (the princes) in my future class it is important to show my students that I care about them and it is important to understand that each student can contribute something to the classroom daily! One week until practicum I am so excited... I found out a few days ago that I will be at Spanish Oaks in a 1st grade classroom!!!!

Conference Weekend

I am a Member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and  we had General Conference this last weekend. For those of you who do not know what conference is here is a video that the Church put out to help advertise the conference.


I loved watching/listening to conference this year and here are some of my favorite parts.

• Conference started off with a new announcement concerning the age of missionary work. Previously young men were not allowed to leave until they were 19 they can now leave at the age of 18 (if they think they are ready for a mission). Young women were not able to leave until they were 21 but they are now able to leave at the age of 19. This was quite a shock but I am so grateful for this revelation! I feel so blessed to know that we have a prophet who can receive revelation for us in this day and age! If you want to you can read, listen to, or watch the announcement here.
• Sister Dibb gave a talk encouraging members to be examples of their faith. The big quote that came from her talk is "I'm a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it." If you would like to look at her talk you can find it here.
• Elder Oaks gave a talk concerning children and helping to protect them, you can find that talk here.
• Elder Christofferson gave an impressive talk directed to the men of the church but we can all apply it to our lives. We just need to remember "that we have work to do." Find it here.
• President Packer gave a great talk concerning the Atonement you can find it here.
• Elder Clarke of the 70 gave an impressive talk concerning taking the sacrament you can read it here.
• President Eyring gave a great talk to members of the Relief Society concerning strengthening each other through service. You can find it here.

I only included one talk from each session of conference but the whole thing was amazing if you have the chance to look through each session you can find those links here. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I had to listen to the prophets for this day and age over this past weekend. I love the church and the gospel (refer to Elder Hallstroms talk.). I know that it is true and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be a part of this wonderful church!

I am in love

with:
1) This song (not so much the music video but I am getting there)

2) The Temple (A couple weeks ago I was able to go see the Brigham City Temple open house with some friends)

3) Fun times with friends (Last week we went to Nelson Grove to take some pictures)

4) Fall colors (I went up to the mountains with some friends today and we took some pictures. Here are some of my favorites)

Look at those colors!!!

5) Once Upon a Time (The season two premiere was tonight and it was brilliant!)

This is real life

Today was amazing on multiple accounts even though a couple of things could have been better… Let’s just run through the day, ready?

7:45(ish)- I get to campus and try to print out a paper but the printers in the nearby buildings are down! So me and a few other classmates run to find a printer we ended up finding one in the library and got everything printed out before rushing back to class.

8:03(ish)- We show up a little late to class and our teacher states that today is going to be a little different. Instead of a regular lecture there are going to be four short rotations and at each of those rotations we are going to get some new ideas for teaching!

            At the first rotation we were given materials to make ‘Palm Pockets’ and as we started to make them Ginger explained to us how we could use ‘Palm Pockets’ in our classroom. Just in case you want to know ‘Palm Pockets’ can be used for almost anything! Each child gets one and is able to put almost anything on it to show the teacher. I like the idea of using it for math students can put their answer, in numbers, onto their ‘palm pocket’ and show it to the teacher when he/she asks for the answer. This way every student is able to participate in the learning. The palm pockets can also be used for vocabulary or to test students on their knowledge of Adverbs vs. Verbs, etc. This was a cute cheap way to increase student participation in the classroom!

            At the second rotation we learned about the best way to use whiteboards in our classrooms. We also got a marker and put a pom-pom on the end to use as an eraser, such a cute idea for a future classroom. We talked about how to make sure that students got the most out of using the whiteboards, the importance of having a set time limit and setting rules like the ‘poison area’ (Where the marker goes when not in use). There were some really good ideas shared at this area that will be extremely useful soon!

            At the third rotation we were told to quickly grab 30 red, green, and yellow papers. As we counted them out we listened to learn how these could be helpful. The papers could be used for understanding. Each student gets a set of papers and are able to show how they feel about the new information when the teacher asks about it (Green: Good, Yellow: Getting there, Red: Lost). The students are asked to hold the paper next to the heart. That way the students don’t have to feel self-conscious about the speed of their learning. If you only use two colors the cards can also be used for yes or no questions or true or false. These cards are another great but easy idea to use in the classroom.

            At the last rotation we were told to grab two markers, 30 popsicle sticks, and a paper of our choice. Here we were making choice sticks for our future students. We glued the scrapbook paper to the outside of a soup can to create a can for our choice sticks. Then we colored both ends of each choice stick a different color. That way we can pick a student’s name out of the can and put the stick back into the can (with the other color showing). By putting the stick back into the can the students will pay more attention because they think they might be called on again! At the end of the class I had so many new ideas for my future classroom, it was an hour well spent!

A picture of my productive class period!

9:00- 335 Was amazing today! The presentations were good my favorite was the one on humor in teaching, and we got to tell jokes…

Q- What did the green grape say to the purple grape?

A- Breathe

Q- What has three E’s but only one letter?

A- Envelope

Q- What is smarter than a talking bird?

A- A spelling bee

11:00- I solved the mad gabs in the TEC lab and then headed to take my math test… I felt pretty good about that one ;)

Mad gabs to try on your very own ;)

Deled Elmer Made

Ask Rude Arrive Her

Cry Cub Hook

1:00- Literacy was a good point of the day because let’s face it Brother Wilcox is hilarious!

            Today we were talking about higher levels of comprehension and how you move from mastery (who, what, when, where) to understanding (how, why) to synthesis (what if?) to involvement (how does this relate to your life). After explaining this process to us Dr. Wilcox told us to pick a fairy tale and apply the process. Afterward he asked us to share with the class our answers the following is going to be anonymous:

-We chose beauty and the beast for mastery we asked who is the main character of the story? Understanding was why did Belle go to the beast’s house? Synthesis was what if Belle had gone back to the beast too late? Involvement was… well *** explained it so well

-I just said that I should tell the man I loved that I love him…

-Wilcox: Wow, I thought you were just going to say something about men being hairy and ugly, but follow advice like that and you will be engaged by the end of the semester! Her first child will be named after me, even if it is a girl… Bradette!

For the rest of class Wilcox kept referring back to Beauty and the beast ;)

Here are some other great quotes from today’s class:

-Brother Wilcox was talking about how he had his student’s sneak empty milk cartons out of the kitchen to raise interest in a story he was reading to them. The lunch lady found out and complained to the principal who told Brother Wilcox: “Brad, it’s probably not good to teach your kids to steal”

-‘You can’t tell me what we just read? We are going to read it again’ Oh that’s good, let’s do more of what’s NOT working!

- It’s En-Sign people! Not en-zine or en-sin… En-sign. I swear that’s what it is going to say on my Tombstone!

-What would rhyme with Cricket

-SWKT!

-She’s been at BYU too long… But wait we could do a BYU version. Milk and WILK, Trouble and HBLL. It could work

-Tell them to come to the power of teaching lecture tell them he’s really hairy and ugly but tell him you love him anyway (Last beauty and the beast jab as we left class).

**Moral of Today- I LOVE my classes! 

Oh and here is an amazing video that one of my friends shared a while back:

Sorry that this post was so long! Congratulations if you made it through...

I just want to say...

I absolutely love Sister Oaks, and every time I hear from her I appreciate her so much more! She spoke in our regional conference today and it was great! She talked about how when things are not going our way it is not necessarily because we are doing something wrong. Often we are doing things right and instead of asking the Lord what we are doing wrong we should ask how we could do better than we are doing at the moment. I thought that this was a great point! We are not always doing something that will hinder us but we need to focus on what more can we do right and see the kind of improvement that can make in our lives.

This clip is from the CES fireside last September that Sister Oaks spoke in...

Sunday Thoughts

We were talking about something in my Religion class that got me thinking of a parallel between God and I. My teacher was talking about why we get married, why we follow the word of wisdom, why we are charitable, etc. and the answer given was that we do these things because God does these things. Think about how happy he is when we follow in his footsteps? Now here comes the parallel... When I was younger, and my young cousins were younger they looked up to me! They would walk around with me and often, when I would do something they would do the same thing. It was always exciting for me to have my cousins doing the same thing as I. I loved feeling so important. I enjoyed the friendship that came as a result. Now that I am older and they are older things are different, they do not always follow me they entertain themselves and I always feel a little left out because they do not pay so much attention to me anymore. Of course they still like me and occasionally we will play but not as often. I think that God probably feels the same way when we do not give as much attention to him when we get busy, when we start slacking on our relationship with him. 

I was watching some of the Mormon Messages today and I found this one that I really liked, so here it is...

Back to School!

I was so excited for school to start! Here is a video that shows how I was feeling yesterday (I may or may not have actually acted in such a way...)



I love the start of school! New people, classes, routines, it has always been great to me. Well after waking up and getting ready for class I went to my only class of the day: Math Ed 306. It was a good class I know most of the girls in it and I can tell that it will be comparable to my Math Ed 305 from last semester which is good because that was one of my favorite classes that brought about funny videos such as this:



Today I had some okay classes and a couple that were awesome! My favorites of the day were my Literacy class with Wilcox and my Marriage and Family Prep class with Richardson. Both of these classes were AMAZING!

It really is the teacher who makes the class but starting a class with a clip from the princess bride makes an evening class go by so much faster...



By the way... for my Literacy class I am supposed to practice writing fairly frequently and one of the suggested ways was a blog so hopefully I will start keeping my blog more updated... ;)

**Sorry if this seems a bit scattered, that's just the way I am**

Hotel Carts

For a bit of background this (Below) is a hotel cart... (this hotel cart is actually the one from my story, see the dent? That will be explained later).

So yesterday I was at work (at the BYU conference center) and we were taking a hotel cart filled with chicken cordon bleu meals for the EFY kids and it tipped over on me. Yes completely tipped!!! How? I have no idea but it did... I got myself out of the way and no permanent damage was done but my knee was killing me because it got scraped up pretty badly. My shoes actually got stuck under the cart but they are sturdy shoes so my feet are fine. 

As soon as we got back to the WILK (I did have to finish my shift, did I mention this happened in the beginning of the shift?) I was told to go upstairs to report my incident to Shanlee. I explained to her what had happened and she asked if I needed to go to the hospital and I said no thanks, I should be fine. I then finished my shift and went home. 

I called my parents to talk to them about what happened and my dad (Who used to sell workers comp insurance) told me that I should really go get it checked out and was trying to convince me of this when RISK management called to talk to me. At the end of that conversation I agreed to go to the health center and get it checked out although I was pretty sure I was fine (other then the pain in my leg ;) ) 

At the health center the doctor inspected my leg and decided that I was fine... well as fine as you can be after having a hotel cart fall on you. I was lucky it was just my left leg that got caught and no bones were broken. She gave me an ice pack and sent me home with instructions to soon have a most colorful leg contest so that I could win and have some joy out of this...

Any takers? ;)

So funny!

For those of you who ever had an encounter with Dora the Explorer... This is wonderful!

Summer Nights and volleyball

This Summer has been amazing!!! Now that I am out of classes I have been having lots of fun... Here is what  I have been up to this Summer:

Picnic/Swing racing at the park
   see here
Donuts on National Donut day
        BreAnna and I walked around Provo to find Donuts to celebrate.

Cold stone (made possible by the bishop)
        Samantha and I were watching a movie one night when Samantha says "there's the bishop" soon enough he was knocking on our door. I answered it and asked him what was up... He replied saying "oh we were in the neighborhood for visits and we found this on your property (Produces a twenty dollar bill). We thought that you and your roommates should take it and go get milkshakes or something of the sort." He gave me the money and left the house. Samantha and I looked at each other for a minute and then went to relay the story for BreAnna before going to get cold stone! *You don't question the bishop ;)

Reading and lots of it
      I decided that I would join the Provo Library Summer reading program and have been reading ever since!
Seven Peaks
      Having the pass of all passes has been great for me this Summer I have been swimming so many times I love it!!!
Snow Cones
       Linnea is back in the States and we met for Shaved Ice and caught up.

Game Nights and Volleyball
      I love being able to spend time with people! Especially when I get to spend time doing the things I love!
Lu'au's
      Justin got married and Marie graduated I got to dance at both. I can't wait to dance at Robbie's wedding  reception in a couple of months!

There have also been receptions (Brianna and Sarah are married Lauren is engaged), lunches (Including a free meal at Tucano's), and time spent with friends that have been quite enjoyable...



Ohhh and I got Honors for my Latin medals exam!!! Woot Woot! (Here's the Samba and the Rumba)

You Matter to Him

I had the opportunity to teach the lesson this week in Relief Society. This was a new experience for me (I was subbing, it was a one time thing ;)  ) but it was a good experience for me. This week the lesson was based on a talk You Matter to Him by President Uchtdorf an amazing talk if you haven't read it you should! If you get bored or you want an esteem boost look it up. We had a great discussion concerning the points made in this talk and I wanted to share what I learned through the discussion today...

The first point I want to share is the idea of the paradox of man. The idea that "compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God" I think it is important to recognize the importance of perspective in our lives. I am not so great as I would like to be, I make mistakes, I sin, and there is always something I 'could have done better' but at the same time I am a Daughter of God. Christ performed the infinite atonement for my benefit. He cares about me and that makes me worth it!

According to President Uchtdorf, Satan recognizes the paradox of man and appeals to the extremes of the paradox. Some people he leads to feel prideful, "he tells them that they have transcended the ordinary and that because of ability, birthright, or social status, they are set apart...". Others he leads to feel as though they are insignificant or that they are of not worth. Through appealing to the extremes Satan is manipulating people and they are losing perspective. By recognizing that the paradox of man depends upon God's perspective we are able to recognize the importance of it.

"God knows that some of the greatest souls who have ever lived are those who will never appear in the chronicles of history. They are the blessed, humble souls who emulate the Savior's example and spend the days of their lives doing good". We don't need to be famous, and we don't need to seek for recognition; we only need to trust in God and live by being an example to others. Everything we do will have an effect on someone else! We must not ever get caught in the idea that we are worthless because in reality every second counts. We are always doing something that will effect someone else. Even if it is something as silly as buying a piece of gum every action taken will reach farther than yourself and it is important to keep that in mind and recognize that the way you spend your time, the activities you choose to participate in are effecting people other than yourself!


Okay so this video gets a little corny about halfway through but it is an amazing idea to help us keep perspective!

Did you know...

... that I am part Polynesian?? Truly I am! I know you would never guess it but I am a part Samoan and I believe (maybe too much) that I can dance like a Polynesian. That is why I have performed in BYU's Lu'au pretty consistently while I've been here at school.

For those of you that don't know about the BYU Lu'au here is a background... Every year BYU's Multicultural Student Service's office puts on a Lu'au. The Lu'au is based on volunteers (the choreographers, dancers, ushers, etc.) during the years that I have been at BYU I have volunteered as a dancer in the Lu'au and it is quite the time commitment. The Lu'au takes place at the end of March and practice starts at the beginning of January. The Lu'au has different sections that you can sign up for (Tahiti, Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, and Hawaii).

I have performed in Lu'au before but, this year I decided to do Tahiti and New Zealand sections. It was quite a time commitment starting in January I had practice from 6-8 (in the morning) every Friday for Tahiti, and practice from 10-12 every saturday for New Zealand. Despite the fact that it was a huge time commitment I really enjoyed participating in Lu'au this year. This was the first time that I have done New Zealand and it was exciting to learn the Poi Balls and to be able to learn some songs and have a chance to sing while performing.

I love performing and Lu'au is the only performing I have done at BYU so I always look forward to it!

New Zealand:

Did I mention I was the front row for the single poi dance?

Tahiti:

Thanks to my lovely cousin Jesi for these pictures!

Backstage:

Here is the Tahiti group that I performed with I'm sure we were all glad to get our Friday mornings back!

With Karmila and DeTiare!

And where would we be without a jumping picture!?

We Fiso's need to stick together! I convinced Steph to do Lu'au freshman year and then she was stuck! ;)

Melissa was helping backstage

Sadly DeTiare graduates this year! :( but it was fun to dance with her while we could!

Lexi joined in the fun this year too!

Last picture I promise but this one was inspired, though maybe not as much as we thought, by the other so we needed a comparison somewhere!

Finals

I am officially finished with Winter semester! I kinda failed the essay portion of Management (Well not totally but basically)... But thanks to Zach I went out with a bang for Ballroom!

Annnnnnd I got to be the first with all my final to do's checked off! =P

3.14

Happy Pi day all!!!!

In celebration I made pizza Pi(e), chocolate Pi(e), and Mini Pi(e)s. It was quite exciting and to finish off the day there was a dance lab! It is great knowing most of the steps that people are dancing!

Just for fun... Here is the Pi song:

Dancesport 2012

I did not compete in Dancesport this semester but I did go Saturday evening to watch and it was AMAZING!!!! I think my favorite event to watch is the cabaret and the final couples this year were all amazing. Here is the dance of the couple that won...

Issues of interest

This week, in the class I TA for (Multicultural Education) we talked about gender roles and the expectations that come when you are a certain gender. We watched this Youtube that I thought was hilarious! Truly, I love this lady's sarcasm!


We also had a really good discussion concerning gender roles and one girl brought up a conversation she had recently had with some guy in her ward. When he heard she was an Elementary Education student he said, "It's too bad teachers don't get paid more" which is exactly what we like to hear but then he finished his statement with, "because then more guys would do it." Ummmm really? What is that even supposed to mean?

Christmas Break

  Josh bought a Coke machine from a yard sale a while back and was storing it at the neighbors across the street. Well the neighbors were moving so Josh needed to move his machine elsewhere. The only problem was that the Coke machine was a bit heavy... So Josh called in reinforcements (Jason and a friend from the ward).

Joe decided he would watch from the comfort of grandma's living room and eat popcorn while enjoying the show... ;)

This is James he is Lisa's son and so cute! We were at the Fiso family Christmas party and he decided that he would have a conversation with the hat... I don't know what he got out of it but it was a pretty lively conversation!

We had Christmas at grandma's house which was different but still good. She let me set the table for Christmas Eve dinner and we got to use some of her nice china which was really exciting!

After dinner and a movie or two we decided it was time to open presents (Okay really Joe couldn't wait any longer to open his Christmas PJ's). So we opened presents and then went to sleep so that Santa could come. Santa came and Christmas was awesome... No, really. Most everyone came to grandma's for Christmas dinner and it was great fun!

*** Sidenote: while talking to my cousins my cousin Sam asked me if I told my college friends about them to which I responded, "not really, what do you want me to tell them?" he said he didn't really care but I should talk about them so here is me telling you what awesome cousins I have!!!! And of course how would you know how cute they are if there were no pictures!? (The pictures are a bit dated... whoops!)