Here they are, my top 15 moments/experiences from 2013.
DISCLAIMER. This was a one-take blog post. I.e. not format checking, no spell checking, no grammar checking, no checking whatsoever. It took forever to write in the first place, and I knew if I checked it, then it would never go live. So you'll just have to deal with the mistakes.
Subbing for Weber School District
For the 2012-13 school year, I was a substitute in Weber School District. Let's be real, I was very popular. Amongst teachers and students. Evidence
Who can argue with that?
No but really, even though subbing got REAL old after a while, I made it through the whole school year as a substitute. It always helped when I got fun kids, or easy kids, or movie days. I watched lots of movies!
I think it will be best to tell the story of my subbing through tweets and instagrams. Just because I was bad at the Facebook social media doesn't mean I was bad at the others. (I'm including the whole 2012-2013 year because I do what I want.)
Handmade creations from 5th graders are sweet. But I sure don't get along with a classroom full of them.
Best sub quote so far. "Why can't she just be a normal teacher and get a sub that knows nothing!?" I won't apologize for my intelligence.
I finally got Speak from the library! I started it at a sub job and never finished... (*Addendum to this. I read this at a sub job for an English class which I'm convinced was people by the spawn of Satan. Teenage boys are sometimes horrific.)
Three cheers for Smart Boards! How else do you keep 8th graders occupied?
Substitute movie for the day: Sting's Brand New Day concert. Saweet! #substories #sting
Team names today. High school kids crack me up.
Half the team wanted to be Satan. Half wanted to be Jesus. I compromised.
New best way to sub: Reward 10 minutes of quiet work with @BYUDivineComedy Studio C videos from @byutv
Best part about subbing responsible 11th graders. You have time to finish your book as well as the one you grab from the teacher's desk.
Dear public school teachers who are no longer getting sick, well now I have no income. So thanks.
Eighth graders might be soulless.
Sub experience of the day: an eighth grader leans up against a wall, looks at me and asks "Do you like cheese?" #winner #substories
I guess the boys at Rocky Mountain liked me today...
Living with an infant
In late January, my sister Michelle had a baby boy. Caleb Iosepa Sonognini. Since I am the youngest of 8 children, I have never actually lived with an infant. I must be honest with you, I was pretty nervous about it. I thought it would be nothing but crying all the time. But guess what? Infants sleep a LOT. Like I rarely saw the kid awake for the first few months of his existence.
A lovely side effect of this is that I got to see Caleb every day for the first half year of his life which was very fun! So I got to see his transformation from this
To this
Being a long-term substitute at Fremont High School
So one of the only reasons I really survived the school year as a substitute is actually because for the last couple of months of the school year, I got to be a long term substitute for a history teacher at Fremont High. Thank the heavens! I even got to plan all my own materials. It was just what I needed. I put some serious prep work into it.
And now I am planning for my long term sub job. These are just books covering WWI to now...
That doesn't mean it was always easy...
If I don't swear by the end of the school year, might be a miracle...
But in all honesty, it was pretty awesome.
Um yeah, I just realized a Doctor Who episode is perfect for my class objectives. So yes. We're watching it. #doctorwho #nerdlikethat
Why is 1st period awesome? Well I googled narwhals and pink floyd for their questions today. Just for starters.
Team names in class today. Blind Germans and The Wave of Tropical Sloths. #loveteenagers
"This desk is gonna sparkle and shine"-said by a 16-yr old boy. #thingsteenssay
When your students want to listen to the Rocky soundtrack while they take a test. #winning
Apparently Benito Tortellini was the dictator of Italy and inflammation paved the way for fascism in Germany. #correctingtests
I got to finish the school year feeling like a real teacher and in an awesome school. Seriously, Fremont has such great kids, teachers, and administrators.
Another perk to subbing at Fremont so much was that I got to sub a bit for my old choir teacher. And then when I started long-term I got to help out with Legacy auditions, which is the chamber choir. I was in Legacy for two years so obvs I am boss. ;) Honestly I was pretty surprised and humbled when Mr. Anderson asked me to help (and let's be honest, I was probably at least a second choice. At least.) It was super fun to be in the auditions on the other side of the desk and to see some of the students I knew because I had been their substitute (or was currently their substitute) and others who I knew because of their siblings who had gone to school with me. It was also a little fun to be hit on constantly by one of the boys in the sight reading room with me. Oh teenage boys. No inhibitions.
Experiencing the competition/convention season as a dance teacher for the first time.
One of my favorite things as a dancer had been conventions and competitions. Between February and April, most of my Saturdays were taken up with conventions, competitions, or rehearsals for them. It was exhausting but I loved it. The smell of spandex, hairspray, and gel in the morning was seriously invigorating to me. This was something I truly missed while I was at BYU and was just doing modern and then folk dance. Performing is great! Competing is a rush. :)
So I was very excited when competition season geared up for my dancers. I got to go to a convention with them in Salt Lake where one of the teachers was none other than Ade from SYTYCD season 5. One of my favorites. Let's just say he was a party animal.
I also loved continuing a tradition from when I was in competition teams at my studio and having a little picnic after each competition while we read through the judges comments and discussed how to improve for next time. But mental note for next year. Less sugary items. Woa those girls were crazy.
Competing with the Fab 5 Studio
In addition to teaching I also got to be a competitor in dance again! Last year I got to clog at the Fab 5 Studio in Utah. It was SO hard, and SO tiring, and SO fun.
One super fun thing about this was at my very first competition, I did my all-around solos with Justin Kelly. I was Justin's first clogging TA, and his success in folk dance inspired me to try out again (I didn't make it the first time). Then a year later he and I were both on PAC and when we went to Europe we were clogging partners. So clogging with Justin was very familiar and comfortable, making my first competition do-able. We then decided to keep dancing together whenever possible at the competitions and it helped me calm my nerves a lot.
I don't think I have ever worn that much pleather, and I don't know if I ever will again (fingers crossed I can go back to clogging next year), but it sure was fun while it lasted!
Being happy with where I am
This was actually one of my New Year's resolutions from last year (which btw I totally did all three, yeah man). It took me a long time, but I slowly learned to really love and appreciate the time of life I was in. Even though it wasn't ideal and it wasn't what I expected or wanted when I graduated from college, it was great. I learned a LOT during my year at home, and I'm really grateful for it.
My Europe adventure
During my entire college existence I was tempted by a Europe tour planned by one of my favorite professors Lauri Haddock. By the time I had enough desire and comfort to go I was on the folk dance team with my summers taken up by tours of my own (dancing for Utah's children, a summer of Europe in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 parts; and a final tour in the southern states). But now that I was out of folk dance, I had my own summer decisions to make! And I desperately wanted to visit Europe with Lauri. So I did.
There were eleven of us total in the trip. All girls. SO fun. Lauri was there with her mom and her niece, and then she had a former student who brought a friend. Other than that they were all directly or indirectly there because of me. A couple of girls from my current singles ward, and one of them brought a friend, then two girls from my freshman year.
It was a party in Europe and I can't believe I didn't blog about it. But here are some highlights.
Stuck in North Carolina, gaining an appreciation for Cracker Barrel.
Beauty in the Louvre. Even though we were severely jet-lagged.
The unreal gardens of Versailles.
The best pizza ever. Flipping Italy. It spoiled me.
Ancient ruins! Oh my history nerd.
Twinner statue in the Roman Forum.
Meh. :)
Eating my weight in Kinder.
Anything I could see by Michelangelo.
If you want more (which, who doesn't?) here is my FB album. Enjoy.
Attending the FAIR Conference
In August, one of my favorite people ever, Talmage, asked if I wanted to go to the FAIR Conference. (For info on FAIR, here is their website. I won't even try to explain it to you, I'll fail) For free! Um. Yes. I had listened to some FAIR podcasts and knew that Valerie Hudson, also one of my favorite professors (as well as one of my favorite humans) would be speaking there.
So not only did I get to spend some quality time with Talmage, but I got to listen to some fascinating talks about many different aspects of Mormonism. Some of my favorite discussions had to do with those leaving the Church, there were some talks there by people who had left the Church and have since come back, and I loved that. I am usually mindful (perhaps overly so) of the outliers, of the contradictions, of those who are outside of the mainstream in Mormonism, and these talks helped me see where they were coming from and what they were experiencing. It was eye-opening, faith strengthening, and extremely uplifting for me.
My favorite panel was a panel of feminists. What I loved most about it was that all of these feminists were very different feminists. They all had different approaches and ideas, but they could come together and discuss what they had in common and discuss the importance of feminism and what it can achieve. I kind of maybe man-cried a few times.
Here is the page they have on the conference I attended.
Deepening my feminism
Obvs this one is quite tied to the last experience. I have felt myself to be a feminist for quite some years, but haven't ever really done anything about it. But after this conference, questions were much more incessant, and they seemed much more urgent to me than they had been in the past. With the lead up to General Conference and the hullabaloo about wearing pants to church and Ordain Women, I became more invested in these questions, ideas, and in the community. This became even more pronounced after posting a blog in defense of my feminism. That blog post by no means went viral, but it is my most read blog post and things got pretty crazy the week after posting it.
But what that blog most importantly did, was introduce me into an online group of Mormon Feminists where I finally saw people asking (and answering!) questions I had been pondering over for years. This is just the beginning of my journey and my study on many feminist subjects. And isn't that exciting!?
Getting a real life teaching job
After a year of applying, interviewing, and wanting to pull out my hair, I finally got a real life teaching job! From the moment I walked into Mount Vernon Academy, I knew it was where I was going to be teaching. Like I'm not joking. I know that sounds like a line from a book or a movie or something but for realsies. I walked in and it smelled like my grandparents house, and it felt comfortable, and it was perfect!
Now, this doesn't mean every day is perfect. Quite on the contrary, hasn't been a perfect day yet. And this has probably been about the hardest year of my life to date. But each day gets a little easier, with a few backwards step days crammed in there every once in a while.
As a general info to everyone, here is how it goes down. I teach at a private school which is K-12. I teach 6-12 graders. I am the only social studies teacher, so I do it all. I teach World History, US History, Geography, a mixed 6-8 Social Studies class, and a dance class. I only have one of each class so I only get one go at each of my lesson plans (consequently man of them are flops...). I also have mostly foreign students who are here to either learn English or get into American university. It's crazy town. And pretty awesome. Usually. :)
Some highlights
Yes my middle schoolers (and some of my high schoolers) really call me Ms. Yolomcswaggins.
Seriously, difficulties with my last name.
The first lesson plan I was intensely please with. Only took me until December to get one of those.
High schoolers like to sleep in class. I do not appreciate that.
Receiving my endowment
This really deserves its own post (as do all of these things really).
The short story of this is that after wanting to go through the temple for some time, I finally felt like it was the time for me to go through and receive my endowment. I made the decision on July 4, by August I had my recommend, and I went through on August 31st, the first weekend of the school year.
All of my siblings that live in Utah were able to come, we were only missing on brother-in-law and we filled that spot up with my good friend (and fake spouse) Megan. I went through the Brigham City Temple, which has been my favorite temple ever since about halfway through its construction. The only bad part to the day was the fact that I felt severely ill for much of it. But somehow it was still a great experience and one I am very grateful for!
2 comments:
Ummmmm.....wow. I forgot how much happened to you this year. What a year!!!!!
You have had a great year...And you are a great daughter!!!
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