Fun with Literature Circles

So, in my last post I promised pictures of zombie cupcakes!

My dad had a fantastic birthday and he really liked the cupcakes. They were so good! I do wish the cupcake cake had come out a bit better.Those are really hard to make, unless you have a good way to smush all of the cupcakes together, so there are no holes. My solution to the holey problem was gummy worms, lots and lots of gummy worms. I think it came out okay. :D

Today's post is going to delve into some more teachery! Literature Circles. 

My Young Adult Literature class last semester had seven lit circles over the course of the semester, this gave us the chance to read seven different young adult books. It also gave us a chance to try out the roles and the activity for ourselves, so we would know what it was like before we assigned this to our own students. 

The first thing my professor did was give us a list of books. She had split each lit circle into a different genre. Each genre list contained 5 to 7 books. 

Our first literature circle genre was "Classics", the books included were: 

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Now the way that my professor had us pick our books was pretty cool, she had brought in copies of each book and had us do a "book tasting". We were to look at the covers, read the back summary and then rate each book 1-6, 1 being our first choice to read and so on. 

This is what the form looked like:

Really simple, title in one column, any notes you may have while choosing and then your ranking. We did this for each lit circle and she collected the forms and then assigned our groups based on how many people chose which books. 

There were only 7 people in our class, so more often than not we got our first or second choice. 

Once we got our assigned book, we split into our groups and began assigning each other our "roles". 

Harvey Daniels wrote our textbook on Lit Circles, it is called: "Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups". This is the book you need if you want to do literature circles in your classroom, he goes over the history, the roles and the various activities and tools you need to do literature circles well. 

The roles are: 

Discussion Director - Leads the discussion

Illuminator - Picks passages from the text to "illuminate"

Illustrator - Draws a picture based on a scene or theme from the book to share

Connector - Connects concepts in book to real-life

Word Watcher - Looks for interesting/new words to define and share

Summarizer - Summarizes what was read. (We didn't use this one in our own circles)

Since our class was so small, our groups ranged from 3 to 4 people, so we had to combine or leave out some roles. We always had a discussion director and an illustrator, but illuminator and connector were are other two favorite roles. 

We were given a week or so to read our book after we assigned our roles and were told what our book was. 

I was the Connector for "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse, for the first lit circle. 

I thought about doing reviews for my seven lit circle books, but that would be long for a single post, so I'm going to do some book reviews later on this month. 

For now here are the other genres and books we got to choose from, along with the book I read, so you know the reviews to look out for. If you see any books you would like me to read and review, please let me know! :D

Adolescent Lives and Adventures

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork

Deliver us from Evie by M.E. Kerr

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher (Read)

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Historical Fiction

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson (Read)

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Strings Attached by Judy Blundell

Nonfiction/Memoir

Jesusland by Julia Scheeres

Claudette Colvin - Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Fillipovic (Read)

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found their Way by Land, Sea and Air by Stewart Ross

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Unwind by Neal Shusterman (Read)

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Feed by M.T. Anderson

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Verse Novel

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Read)

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Your Own, Sylvia by Stephanie Hemphill

Witness by Karen Hesse

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Graphic/Multi-Modal Form Novel

Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Read)

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

After we had read our assigned book, our professor had us do an on-going activity called "Think-Tac-Toe". There were nine squares and in each square was an activity, we had to choose one activity for each book we read. We were not allowed to repeat any activities. 

This is what that looked like: 

Many of these activities were a lot of fun, especially making a soundtrack, podcast and found poem. Since we could only use each one once, we had to be sure to pick the perfect one for each book. 

Now in a regular classroom, literature circles are usually done once a quarter, students meet once a week to discuss a book and as a group they decide how far they are going to read each week. I like the responsibility this places on students, and I think as a teacher, doing an activity like this frees you to have in depth discussions with small groups of students. This is a GREAT formative assessment. 

Well I think that is all I have to say about lit circles, I do have one request, if anyone is a pro at Blogger and knows how to change the format of the blog, please let me know. I have some questions about making my blog a bit more fun. I also hate the fact I can't post bigger versions of pictures, without it looking all ugly. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Until next time!

-Laura

I'm an Omnomnomnivore... nom nom nom :D

YAY! Here is my first cooking post!!

Preston has been asking to go out and get Indian food pretty much whenever we go out BUT ever since we had a terrible experience at a place called Bombay Bistro, I've been turned off of going out for Indian Food. The food at that place wasn't terrible, it was okay, but I sorta can't go back to a place that spilled a beer all over me, then charged me for it... I know there are plenty of other Indian places, I know this, I've been to them, but Bombay Bistro totally soured me to the whole restaurant experience.

So to please Preston's need for Indian food, I decided I was going to try and make some myself.

I came across these recipes on Budget Bytes.

Everything I have made from her blog has come out so so good, except for the miracle mac and cheese... but that was probably because of user error. 

Here are the links to the recipes: 

Tandoori Chicken Dinner and Homemade Naan

So the first thing that Budget Bytes says is to marinate the chicken EARLY. I was going to make this Monday night, but I went grocery shopping way to late, so I ended up moving this dinner to Tuesday. I marinated the chicken at 10am and let it sit in the fridge until I started cooking, which was around 7pm. 

Chicken is cut into thin strips and I have my spices all ready to go!

Looks pretty gross, but it smelled really good. 

So around 6pm, I decided to start cooking, I wanted to start with the naan. Here are some pictures of getting the dough ready:

Wet Ingredients, had to wait for the yeast to make everything bubbly

I was super surprised that the dough called for Greek yogurt, who would have thought to use that in place of milk? I'm not a fan of Greek yogurt, so I didn't find the smell all that pleasing. 

All the wet ingredients mixed together, pretty gross, haha

So I forgot to take a picture of the mixing of the wet and dry ingredients, but after you mix them and create a dough, you let it rise for about 30 minutes. That's when you get to the fun part, and you get to use a rolling pin. 

                 

Preston thought it would be funny to take a picture of me with my "blue Mohawk". I went and took a shower, while waiting for the dough to rise.

BLUE MOHAWK!

My first attempt at cooking the naan was a failure... partially because of the burnt milk from the miracle mac and cheese I made the night before. My stove kept smoking, so I had to clean it really quick so I could cook the naan. It was quite frustrating, but after that first piece, everything else came out perfect! I added some garlic powder to each little naan piece before I placed it on the skillet, this did cause a bit of a burn taste, so I think next time I'm going to incorporate the powder into the dough, Preston and I LOVE garlic naan. 

YAY! A finished piece, so yummy

After I finished the naan, I got started on the other two sides, yellow jasmine rice and curried chick peas. I didn't take any ingredient pictures, I was in a rush because it was already past 7 and I needed to be done before the Supernatural finale!

Nom Nom Nom

Budget Bytes cooks her chicken on a George Foreman grill. I don't have one of those, so I used my panini maker. It worked really well, but was a PAIN IN THE BUTT to clean!

Chicken before cooking

Chicken while cooking

Chicken after cooking

I was so excited to see that the chicken had taken on the typical yellow color of tandoori chicken. I was a little worried when the marinade didn't look too yellow. Can you see where I stole a little piece in that last picture? Heehee, it was really spicy and really yummy.

Here is the final result!

I have to say, the rice was my absolute favorite part. It tasted so freaking good. I had never made rice before... that wasn't uncle Ben's quick rice, so I was really pleased with how this came out. The chick peas on the other hand... totally didn't cook long enough. They were tough and just not all that tasty. Once again that is pure user error, I was paying more attention to the rice, than the chick peas, so they didn't get the full attention they deserved. 

So my first shot at Indian food was a success, my dad, who never ever wants to go get Indian food really liked it and is now willing to go to a restaurant to get "the real thing" haha

My dad's 50th birthday is this Sunday and I decided I'm going to do a zombie theme. My dad LOVES The Walking Dead, so I'm gonna do my best to put together some cool zombie themed cupcakes. I'm really excited. I'll be sure to take pictures and make another post all about it!

Until next time!

-Laura

I hope lesson planning is easier than life planning

Last Sunday I made up my weekly plan and as always, the weekly plan is followed for 2 or 3 days and then it begins to change. Sometimes it changes because of random unscheduled events or if I am feeling lazy. A couple of different things altered my schedule this week, but I will say it was mostly the fact that I had free time and I didn't know what to do with myself, so I just did silly time wasting things instead of all of the spring cleaning and organizing I wanted to do. 

I started doing Rockin' Body workouts again this past Monday. Last time I attempted them, I didn't get past the first day. This week I got past day two, but then woke up on day three with terrible muscle pain in my legs. I could barely MOVE! This of course was due to the fact that I thought it would be an awesome idea to do a 100 squat challenge and then immediately do a 45 minute long intense cardio workout right after. Yeah, I'm going to learn from my mistake and plan my exercise better this week! It felt really good to exercise again, I do feel bad for not keeping up with it this week, but I strive to do better next week!

I spent a lot time this week checking for my final grades. I definitely got the grades I worked for and that that I hoped for. 

I can't remember the last time I got straight A's. It felt so good! Hopefully I'll be able to make this a trend and see if I can keep a 4.0 throughout my grad program. 

Ooooo, let's talk a little bit about school, my online class starts tomorrow and I have already completed the first assignment, which was posted on Blackboard on Friday. I'm still nervous about doing a class online, but everything so far seems straight forward. Lots of message board discussions and readings. I think I'll be okay. 

As for my class that starts in June, I already bought the books I need!

The Big Lies of School Reform is co-written by my Professor, Dr. Zenkov. Super cool, my mom said I should get him to sign it. haha. I'm excited to read Speak, I saw the movie ages ago (Kristen Stewart's best performance lol) and really liked it, I'm sure I'll enjoy the book more. I'm super excited for this class. 

I got confirmation a few days ago that I will be doing four weeks of tutoring with Mathtree, a summer math camp I worked with back in 2012. I really enjoyed doing this, so I am excited to get back to it, especially since I will be teaching the puzzles and art class the first two weeks. The second two weeks, I'll be doing Bean Counting, which is the addition and subtraction class. 

If you are interested in becoming a tutor or want to send your kid to math camp, here is the website. The founder Lynn Salvo, has created a fantastic and fun curriculum. I'm not a big fan of math, but I had a blast teaching her lessons. 

http://www.mathtree.com/

With babysitting, class, mathtree and my regular job at the hospital, I am once again going to find myself really really busy. 

I went ahead and put together my schedule for June:

I got the awesome printable here: 

http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2013/01/home-management-binder-monthly-calendar.html

As you can see I only have six days where I have absolutely nothing planned. I'm sure I will be doing something my birthday weekend though, but that planning is not up to me, hopefully I'll be surprised. 

So flippin' busy!

-Laura

Finally, a little bit of free time!

Finally, the semester is over! Part of me is sad that it is over because I met so many awesome people and learned so much amazing stuff, but the other part of me is happy because now I have a little bit of free time. My free time isn't going to last for long though, the summer semester begins May 19th and I'm taking two classes. School is definitely keeping me busy. 

So as I promised, I am here with a real update, first off here is a picture of myself and my classmates enjoying a post-semester drink at the bar on campus. So much fun! 

Those are just a few of my awesome classmates, I'll be seeing a couple of them this summer, and all of them in the fall :)

This summer I am taking an Education Technology class. I'm a little nervous because this will be my very first class taken exclusively online. I decided to take it to save on gas and it turns out I'll be saving on books as well! This class starts on May 19th and will last until August. I'm excited to share what I will learn, I've heard the class is fun. 

My second class begins in June and will last until the end of July, this is another core class for my program and is called Foundations of Secondary Education. 

So much more fun stuff, but first I need to tell you all about the fun stuff that has already happened!

I was thinking of splitting this semester's adventures into a few different posts. This post is going to detail my fieldwork and what I learned while in an actual classroom. 

I also wanted to share some really awesome organizational tools that I have been using to keep my life in order. 

Let's talk about those first. 

So every Saturday and Sunday, I begin planning my week. My week usually begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. I have two organizers that I use, one is for meal planning and the other is more of a to-do list. 

This is the link to the weekly planner I use, she has A LOT of other amazing organizers, I recommend you check out more of her site. 

http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2013/01/home-management-binder-weekly-calendar.html

Here is a link to the menu planner, I use the second one that does not have a shopping list. I've gone through plenty of weekly menu planners but this is one I really like and have used for the past few weeks. 

http://www.delish-blog.com/2012/01/free-printable-menu-planners/

Those are great tools and if you need organization to keep you sane, definitely check them out. 

Now! On to some adventures in teachery!

Field work is a very important part of the pre-service program. It allows us to get into a classroom and observe some amazing teachers, we also may get a chance to work with some students, which is an awesome opportunity. 

I did my fieldwork at the Fairfax Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) and George Washington Middle School (GW). 

My partner, Bridget, and I observed Mrs. Christy's 6th grade classroom at GW. This was a lot of fun. The first few days, we just observed her two morning honors classes. The kids were reading a book called "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson. Most of them seemed into it. 

Mrs. Christy was an amazing teacher, she was very engaging and the students seemed to enjoy the class. They began each day with a warm-up and then moved right into the activity of the day. The first day we were there, they were instructed to transform a scene from their book into a script and then prepare to act it out. 

When I was in school any assignment that involved getting up in front of the class and acting terrified me and a majority of my classmates. These kids were so excited!

We walked around the room while the kids were working on this assignment and asked them questions about the book and their assignment and offered help when it was needed. 

The next week, Bridget and I decided to stick around for the entire school day. We saw the morning honors classes again and then we were introduced to the "bad classes". Mrs. Christy's 5th and 6th period classes were ELL (English Language Learners) and SpEd (special education) inclusion classes. They were general language arts classes and she had an ELL teacher in the room with her. 

We noticed a change in atmosphere very quickly. These kids were very rowdy and noisy. They were disruptive and off-task. We could see that they drove Mrs. Christy crazy. She had asked us to observe and give her any ideas that would help get them under control. 

One of the first things we noticed was the fact that the activities they were doing were pretty boring. They were told to read articles out of a science magazine and then answer some questions. Many of the kids did not bother reading and only a few participated and actually answered the questions. 

I noticed that Mrs. Christy did not use her "popsicle sticks" in either of her inclusion classes, but she used them in her honors classes. These popsicle sticks were color coded by class and had all of the students names written on them. To make sure everyone participated, she would randomly choose a stick and have that student answer the question being posed. 

I suggested that they she use the popsicle sticks in her inclusion classes. This will keep the students on their toes, because they don't know when they will be called on and it may keep them from slacking off. 

We were delighted to see that Mrs. Christy had taken our suggestion when we visited her one last time. The students did seem to be a bit more alert, even though once again, they were doing a boring read and respond activity. They attempted a game, but 5th period couldn't focus. 6th period was a little bit better, but it still took them a while to get the game going and keep it going. 

I had plenty of fun one on one time with students in her classes, in her first period honors, Bridget and I both worked with a student that was was assigned an aid to keep him on task. We were bothered by how much the aid DIDN'T do. He scolded more than he actually helped with work. We made it a priority to help out this student. I even managed to get him to focus on the writing activity of the day and his case worker was very pleased that he wrote more than a sentence. He even managed to use some of the literary terms of the day. 

Another student  I worked with one on one was with a girl with special needs, I helped her write her journal entry. She was in the troublesome 5th period class. She was awesome. We talked about what it would be like to live in a rain forest and talked about the animals we would find. 

Being in Mrs. Christy's classroom, was fun and I learned so much from her and her students. I definitely plan on "CASE-ing" many things (CASE = Copy and steal EVERYTHING *more on this concept later*). 

Now let's move on to the JDC. My experiences at this place really taught me what it means to be a teacher. I am so grateful I was given this opportunity and the results we got there were outstanding. 

Professor Zenkov, my methods professor (and my advisor), asked us in class one day, if we would like to join him at the JDC. He had been working on a project with the male students there and thought it would be fun if we came along to help. 

The boys were all high school age and they were working on a Slam Poetry project. Professor Zenkov and his colleague Professor Pellegrino had already been working with the students as a class, but they wanted us to come in and work with them one on one. 

Being there was a little daunting, the principal sat down with us and warned us about taking anything in with us and to make sure we leave with EVERYTHING we came in with. He said that the kids in the center ranged from bank robbers to murderers. Everything the Adult Center had, they had in there, just the junior version. 

After his speech we went in to meet with the boys. We were told that we would work with one of the boys and interview them. We were going to ask them questions about the photographs they had taken the week before. 

Each of the groups was given a laptop, we were then supposed to transcribe what our student was saying in response to our questions. 

My student was tough, he was an eleventh grader and he didn't want to have anything to do with this project. I had a really hard time getting any good responses from him. I felt like a complete failure when I left that day, because my classmates had worked with students that were very responsive. I suddenly began to doubt myself. 

I went back a few days later. I was determined to get this kid to talk. I had typed up the notes from the previous meeting and they were sent to him to read. He was supposed to have a poem ready for me to read and help him edit today. 

I was disheartened when I saw his name on the "not finished/needs work" list. When I sat with him on this day he was like a completely different kid. He smiled, he joked around with his teachers and most importantly, he had finished his poem. What he handed me did need some work grammatically but the words were very powerful. 

He wrote about how he just wished people would let him be himself and that the world would stop being a terrible place. 

The poem brought tears to my eyes when I read it. 

We worked on the poem for the next hour or so and we had so much fun. He was such a funny guy. After that session, I was so excited to come back for their presentations later in the week, I was so proud of the work we had done that day. 

Excitement was in the air on presentation day. The professors brought in treats and pizza. The podium and the projector were all set up. The boys seemed nervous. We were practicing with them, while we waited for some of their other teachers to show up. A few of them went off with a teacher to read a "surprise" poem. None of us were sure what they were talking about. 

Soon the presentations began, each boy got up and recited their poems. They were all very powerful and personal. My student got up and recited his and I was so proud. Then at the very end, all of the boys got up and each of them read a line of the "surprise" poem they wrote as a class. The poem thanked all of us for helping them. 

I remember looking at Rachael and Bridget, we all had tears in our eyes, the poem was beautiful and now that I think about it... Zenkov never gave us a copy! I must ask him about that. 

After their poem, one of the students got up and thanked us. His teachers were very surprised because he was a student that was very withdrawn and quiet.

It was awesome. They were awesome. Working with them taught me what it means to be a teacher and it taught me to never give up. 

Each day is a fresh start, this is something I will need to remember for the future. 

Well, this has been a REALLY long post. I apologize for any bad grammar or run on sentences. I'm at the end of my first 12 hour shift of the weekend and I only got about four hours of sleep last night. 

I hope some of this was interesting. I'll be sure to share more fun stuff I've learned!

-Laura

Well, April went ALOT faster than expected

Here we are again, a new month and a month gone without a post. I do need to get back on track and update this blog like I promised myself I would.

This is going to be a short update. I'm about to finish up my first semester of grad school, so I am going to have PLENTY to post about as soon as I get my last few projects done.

I have had a wonderful semester, I've met so many awesome people and I've learned so much. I can't wait to share what I have learned with all of you here.

So I promise, I wont forget to blog for a month, I'll be back soon with some teaching tips, classroom management tips and highlights from my field experiences.

Stay with me friends, I will learn this time management thing at some point!

-Laura

Random Thoughts about Nurses and Teachers

Working in an emergency room can be really interesting some days. I'm not a nurse, so I don't deal with patients, unless they call on the phone, but even then, I transfer them to an individual that can meet their needs. One good thing about my job is the fact that I am in the center of the action. I hear almost everything that goes on around me, whether it is doctors talking about patients, nurses talking to patients or the usual gossip that happens when we have a quiet morning, I hear pretty much everything.

I heard a conversation today that I had been hearing on and off for many years. What was interesting about it is the fact that I can relate it to the things I am learning in my pre-service teaching program.

Teachers and nurses aren't really that different. They get into their jobs because they care about people. Teachers want to educate the world, while nurses want to make sure the people in the world are healthy. Both work their butts off for hours on end to make sure that the people they care about are taken care of. The pay is crappy, the hours are crappy and sometimes the people you are doing the job for just don't seem to care. A cranky patient can ruin a nurse's day just like a rude parent can ruin a teacher's day.

Going back to the conversation I heard earlier, another connection can be made between these two careers. Each has a higher up that control everything, they even try to control things that really can not be controlled. Administrators are constantly trying to control every aspect of what happens in the... let's call them "care areas" (classrooms, patient areas, etc).

They seem to care more about numbers and money than they do about the people that come to these places, patients and students.

The ER has time constraints, if these numbers aren't met the nurses get in trouble. It doesn't matter if a patient needed extra time and care or if a patient's discharge was delayed because there was a coding patient in the next room. Wait times are all that matters.

The SOLs are what keep teacher's on edge. They are forced to teach to a test and it doesn't matter if their students are engaged and having fun. Test scores are all that matter.

I understand that administration is important when it comes to keeping order, but it would be nice if they understood what goes on in the "care areas" and know that the people they have running them know what they are doing and to stop restricting them because of numbers and statistics.

I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that nurses and teachers are awesome. I have been lucky to have had this experience in the ER for the past six years. Though I hate it some days. It is awesome to work with such dedicated hard-working people. I am glad I decided to become a teacher, because then I'll be on the front-lines instead of being on the outside listening in on what is going on around me.

Maybe, just maybe my experience here will help me make a difference.

I'm such a failure at this whole scheduling mission... quest... thing.

I am really bad at time management, like really bad. I guess that is pretty evident since I said I was going to post once a week and I haven't posted a thing since the end of January!

So it is now March and I am hoping I can get my time management issues under control.

Since it has been a whole month since my last post, let's catch up!

First off DISNEY WORLD!

It was so much fun and I enjoyed every minute! Seeing all of the different parks was really cool, as was meeting the different characters. The rides were amazing, sensory overload though; they all felt like you were inside a movie. They are mostly geared towards kids (my four year old cousin was able to ride everything but the big roller coasters) but they were still so much fun. The Star Tours ride was a huge highlight for me because of my obsessive passion with Star Wars.

Here are some pictures!

Buzz! This was part of the Toy Story ride in Tomorrowland

Cinderella's Castle, beautiful except for the large construction crane behind it... 

Donald and Carson

The map of our hotel resort

Carson and Ellie on a speederbike! 

The entrance to Star Tours

 So after my wonderful Disney vacation in 70 degree weather, I was thrust back into the freezing weather of Virginia, not something I missed.

Being back home meant it was time to get back to work and school. I had missed two classes, so I had plenty of work to make up, but so far I have been loving all of my classes.

I already discussed YA Lit, but this class is my favorite. I am reading and discovering so many new books and new ways to introduce these books to my future students. It is so much fun and I am always excited for this class, even though it has me reading four books at once...

My second favorite class is my Methods class. I am so so sad that I missed the first day, this class has been nothing but fun. We do various activities we will be doing with future students. We are currently discussing social injustices and beginning to learn to lesson plan. My favorite part of this class is how we are forced to think outside the box. I think that is a very important skill for a teacher to have.

My third class is Educational Psychology. This class is fun, but it has been mostly lecture based with a few activities here and there. My teacher is really funny and interesting though. On the second day of class (which was my first day) she ate a candle... it wasn't really a candle, but she totally blew our minds just to illustrate one of the theories we were learning in class that day. It was so awesome!

So these three classes have been keeping me super busy, lots of reading and lots of projects.

This workload has really made me begin to figure out how I can manage my time better. The first thing I have done is to go part time at work. I have been working full time and going to school full time for as long as I can remember, but lately it has been really hard for me to concentrate on school and work. I think this will be a good decision in the long run, especially since I haven't been happy at my job for a very long time.

Time management is a work in progress but I am hoping once I go part time at work and I get my school work under control, I'll be a little less stressed and I can concentrate on my other goals.

Here's a quick update on how some of them are going:

1. Read 27 books - Read five so far and will probably have three more finished before the end of the week. I'm currently reading Angela's Ashes, The Fault in Our Stars, and Partials. I am about to start Touching Spirit Bear.

7. Do well in school - I am loving school and I think I am doing well so far!

8. Level up Holden to 55 - I finally got Wreynn to level 55 and I have Holden up to 18 now. He is still a work in progress, but I think we have double XP weekend coming up!

11. Make friends at school - I have done this. My classmates are pretty awesome. It is so much fun taking classes with people that are so passionate about teaching English!

12. Apply to substitute teach and tutor - Done and waiting to hear back!

15. Organize my closet - Had to do this a couple of weeks ago to make room for Preston when he moved in! Still not super organized, but it looks a little neater.

These are goals I have made some progress on; all the others are either works in progress or will be made a priority when there isn't a foot of snow outside.

Well I don't want to promise another post next week because who knows what the next few days will bring. I can say once I get my life in order, I'll try my best to get back on track and posting more interesting things!

Thanks for reading!

-Laura