Last day of classes for the semester!!!!

Side-ways view of our volcano explosion

volcano materials

Oh love, I miss you :)

Loving life!

Yummy goodness

Well, here it is-the very last day of classes for me for the winter semester! I can't believe that I only have a spring term left (3 classes) and then I'll either be student teaching, or hopefully* interning! It seems like just yesterday I was entering the ElED program in the winter-and now I am almost to the point of being THE LEAD TEACHER!! AHHHH! I can't help but freak out a little, but a part of me is super excited to get to learn and grow from 25 or more young lives. They have so much to offer to the world.

As the last day, it was a fun experience, but I must say that I was getting a little antsy by the end. Social studies was good, but not as great as yesterday when we were just left to our own to read children's literature and other resources about teaching social studies. However, we did watch an informing video about the Spring Bok Tour in 1981 that happened in New Zealand, and it really opened my eyes to how there are still many violent situations just right in front of us. This particular violent happening occurred over rugby, between the Pro-Tour (those who didn't want to mesh politics with sport) and the Anti-Tour (those who felt that South Africans shouldn't be allowed in to play rugby because the South African government still practiced apartheid then). It was demoralizing to see how the protest against the tour started out peaceful, but as time went on and the government or sporting association wouldn't listen to the protesters, police and protesters alike got ugly and violent. I realized how important it is to keep my students informed of the times-which means I better stay on top of my news too!

Science was not as heavy-we learned about the living world and how to classify objects into living and non-living things. We investigated (and ate) fruit and vegetables, learned about the process of how potatoes are grown, played with flowers, and made volcanoes and watched them explode! It was so cool! Science is fun and worth the time to teach to kids. It was a good last day and I am grateful for the teachers that took time out of their summer to teach us about how to be better teachers. It was worth it! Enjoy the pictures!