What I am learning so far

Farran, Monique, Mosiah

Kara and I at sunset

You can't tell but it really was a black sand beach, and I wrote in it!!! There is proof, even if it did wash away by the waves :)

I swam in that glorious water! There was one part where if you weren't careful the waves would take you out, so I had to hold on to one of the rocks. That rock was made up entirely of muscles (couldn't take a picture cause I was in the water) but I never got a big enough one to bring home. Monique, her friend Margaret, and Farran were excellent muscle catchers though. Guess I got to work up to getting those muscles, he he.

I love natural beauty!

Well, it has been an adventure and lots of learning, fun, and challenges. It seems like every year I am learning that more and more that life is like that and you have to take the good and bad. For example, I am going to post up some pictures of the fun that I had this past Tuesday. My host family and Kara and I went to Pia Beach, which is a black sand beach and absolutely gorgeous, and the water wasn't too cold, it felt wonderful just to swim and run around the beach! We were there at sunset too, so Kara and I were able to take some beautiful pictures of the sunset and the rock formations around the beach; New Zealand is so beautiful! Also, I felt so happy because I was surrounded by nature and realized the beauty of God's earth and the happy times with being with family and friends. That was a great day (even with the little bit of homework). This picture above is of my host dad, the bishop of our ward, Lincoln Ward. He is the nicest man and so welcoming and caring. Today I had a hard time trying to re-learn how to ride a bike because I haven't done it in years, and I got a little emotional because I was embarrassed and frustrated. Farran (our dad) came in to our room later and checked on me, making sure I knew it was okay if I didn't ride the bikes. Now, I am determined to learn again because I am persistent and I hate giving up; I did it once with riding a bike and I am not doing it again. Besides, when I tried I fell and got a nasty bruise; got to show the bike I can conquer it :) ~This is the hard part of my day; understanding my fear, realizing it, and then trying to conquer it. I didn't succeed today, but I'll try again tomorrow and the next day until I can at least pedal a few feet. May never be able to bike to the school, but my goal is to learn how to ride a bike.

This experience actually re-iterated to me the article by Gregory Clark, about faith and fear. Right now I have a large fear of losing my balance and falling on a bike, and in trusting myself on one, and I don't have the faith in my strong legs (because I can push those darn pedals, I am sure), or my old young self that used to love riding her bike until that one day she fell and never got on her bike again. I can learn a lot about life from this experience; there are many times that I will fall short and make mistakes, with teaching, relationships, school, and the list goes on, but I have to get back up and keep trying. That is what this life is about-enduring to the end. No it is not always pleasant and there are times when I just want to give up, but I am learning that life is not about being safe in your comfort zone, it's about getting out there, making new friends, learning and having new experiences and trying again and again.

I can apply this to teaching as well. We have been learning in our assessment class that "the best things worth learning cannot be taught." ~Oscar Wilde

I believe the above statement especially as I have been getting more education. Sure, I need to know general knowledge and take college courses, but as Dr. Jacobs said to us today, we know our stuff about assessment and really, we can't really learn how to be great teachers until we experience it. I guess that is what scares me the most about teaching: knowing that the classes I took at BYU were a great insight to my life and gave me some pointers such as how to make effective lesson plans, how to incorporate the arts into my daily classroom instruction, and what types of assessment to use, but I really won't be able to see how I do until I get out there and do it. Truly, I am scared, and frankly, I don't know if I have it in me to teach a whole class and incorporate effectively all the components, and I wonder at times if I chose the right major. But I think that is the fear speaking because I know that when I am in front of those kids I feel myself, I feel happy and confident. Sure there are bad days, as I learned from my 1st cohort, but the good days when the students understood a lesson, enjoyed it, or were really well behaved outweighed the times they were confused or my teaching was below average. Deep down, I know that teaching is right for me and my love of learning and children will help me so much. As long as I have a vision, skills, and do my part as a leader, the other pieces will fall into place.

That is a few of the things I learned in the past couple of days, and there is a whole lot more in store, along with the challenges and a whole lot of fun...

For example, tomorrow Kara, the family, and I are going to Whitney and Emily's host family's house for a pizza/pasta night! Yummy and good company!!



Kara studying-that fills up or days quite nicely

That should do it for this post...love you all!