Bring it on!

I thought I learned a long time ago not to take so much upon myself!  I guess I'm a slow learner...  :)

The contract has been signed, the salary agreed upon, the training completed, and the students registered.  Tomorrow, I get the keys to my first classroom, my first real job!  This week will be full of staff development meetings, setting up my room, and lesson planning to prepare for the 200+ 8th grade physical science students that will be entering my class in 1 week.  I've already decided that there is no chance I'm collecting daily homework from them (I will lose my mind way too quickly!).  Add onto that that the only other PhysSci teacher at my school is only just starting her second year in the classroom.  Welcome to Ms. Jackson's room, half of the class of 2017.

As if that's not stressful enough, try being a first year grad student as well!  I'll be pursuing my M.Ed. degree in Curriculum and Instruction.  Student and teacher simultaneously?  CAKE.

Oh yeah, and I'm getting really involved this year in HOBY Nevada...while still being one of the directors in HOBY Utah...

And when my principle heard about my experience with HOBY, she asked me to be in charge of the student council at our school.

Like I said, BRING IT ON!  And while I say that, here's what I'm really thinking...

P.S.  Please note the sarcasm in my over-confidence :)  I am not really that cocky.

Demystifying the Mormons

I think it is part of my calling in life to demystify who Mormons are.  Actually, I don't think it is, I know it is.  Coming into TFA, I spent a lot of time thinking about the relationships I would build with my students, but didn't realize that I would be forging such deep friendships among my fellow TFA corps members.  From day 1, I have felt like I have a huge stamp on my forehead that says "MORMON".  I couldn't hide it in conversations, even if I wanted to, because the first two questions people would ask are "Where are you from?" and "Where did you go to school?"  "I'm originally from California but now my family lives in Utah...and I went to BYU..."  Without even trying, the conversation would undoubtedly turn to being about BYU or Mormons or friends they had who are Mormon or missions or any number of other topics.  Sometimes I feel bad thinking that everybody must be sick of hearing from me by now, but the questions keep coming and I keep answering.

Seriously though, there is so much pure curiosity about my religion.  It's so mysterious to so many people, and I think a lot of that is due to the fact that too many Mormons have been trying to beat around the bush for too long about who we are.  That doesn't help!  I just give it to them straight.  That's the best way to go.  I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with the words to say to be able to articulate what I believe.  I'm also grateful to my new friends here for allowing me to be so open about what I believe and for supporting my resolve to not compromise my standards.  The conversation lines are open, and it is a blessing knowing that my new friends trust me enough to ask me  absolutely anything they are curious to know.

So, if you are one of my TFA friends, or any other friend who has curiosities about Mormons, please ask me.  I will give it to you straight.  Let me help you demystify it.  If you are curious to know more after that, I'd be glad to help you even more (or you can go to www.mormon.org).  But if not, it's not a big deal, I'm still your friend.  Just know that the invitation is always open.

One of the Kids

Sometimes, I feel like a little kid.  I mean, come on, I'm a grown up professional?  with a real job?  moving into a real house of my own?  Yeah, it's a little hard for me to comprehend.  I'm a teacher!  I won't necessarily say that I'm a full-fledged teacher yet, because my hand is basically being held through this entire TFA process and the paychecks don't start coming until September BUT! a teacher nonetheless.

Remember when teachers used to say, "Well, when you're a teacher, then you can do whatever you want" (like stand on the desk or make the rules or whatever).  That day has come :)

I still use little plastic tile manipulatives to figure out math problems, I like it when people tell me I'm doing a good job, I love writing on whiteboards, I get on the big yellow school bus every morning with my red lunchpail in hand, I love stickers (especially "teacher stickers"), and I loved it when one of the staff members, modeling a reward technique we can do with our students, made a positive phone call home to my mom.

It's a good thing I'm a teacher.  When I'm with my kids, I feel right at home.

Some things never change.

Easier said than done.

I'm always talking about how important it is to look at difficult situations with a positive attitude...well, I guess it's time for me to take my own advice.  I've just begun a 5-week intensive training for Teach For America in Los Angeles and it is rough!  Imagine an entire undergrad double majoring in both sociology and education, including your student teaching, all crammed into 5 weeks.  I think I listened to people talk to me for 12 hours today about everything ranging from the achievement gap in education to racial inequity to fraction/decimal conversions to lesson planning and vision setting...and I still have no idea how I'm supposed to carry out the assignment they gave me.  Frustrated?  Yes.  But then I thought back to a similar situation I went through in the MTC at the start of my mission.  I wish I had my mission journal with me, but it suffices to know that I did it then, so I can do it now.

I'm so grateful for my mission every day of my life.  Here's to a better attitude tomorrow!

These are the people who help me make it through each day.  Love my new LV family.

Summer Anthems

I'm all about summer.  I love this season, even in Bakersfield, Jersey, Vegas, it doesn't matter to me.  There are a lot of people that talk about how much they want summer to come (like when it's freezing outside) but then once it's here they hate it.  Not me!

Sno-cones, lemonade, water slides, sunshine, ceiling fans (I love those!), slip n slides, street fairs, farmers markets, strawberries, barbecues, fireworks, tans, swimming, popsicles/otter pops (basically anything icy), baseball...the list could go on and on as to why I love summer.  BUT, there is one thing that boosts my mood like nothing other...SUMMER ANTHEMS.  You know the songs I'm talking about; the ones you roll the windows down to, open up the sunroof, and go cruising down the street singing at the top of your lungs.  That's right, nothing beats a good summer anthem.

So here's my summer anthem for 2012:

Summer Paradise, by Simple Plan featuring K'Naan

And in case you're interested, some of my past summer anthems have included

Brighter Than the Sun, by Colbie Caillat

Summer Nights, by Rascal Flatts

Summertime, by Kenny Chesney

Summer Girl, by Jessica Andrews

Happy Summer!

"That depends on where you want to get to..."

My mind has been in 50 different directions lately: good, bad, and everything in between.  I'm going to attempt to explain a little bit of what's been happening in the hopes that it can help someone, somewhere, whether or not they are directly reading this blog.

Direction 1:  BLAST!  Bored.  Lonely.  Angry.  Stressed.  Tired.  Those 5 ingredients are triggers for temptation to come in and take over.  While I've always felt and known that coming out to California was the right thing to do, it has not been easy.  I was only able to find 1 part-time job.  Money-wise, it's hard but not impossible.  Time-wise, it's even harder.  I only work 4 hours/day in the afternoon...so that leaves all morning free.  Sounds like a charmed life, right?  Not really, not when you're me, at least.  I'm a DOER.  I love to be doing things and quite honestly, there's only so much to do in the mornings.  I can only go wander around the mall so many times (because I inevitably end up spending money), watch so many movies, go to the temple so often.  So that leaves time for BLAST to set in.  Let me tell you now, do not allow yourself to be found bored, lonely, angry, stressed, or tired.  Satan knows how to work against your weaknesses and he knows how to help you "justify in committing a little sin" (2 Nephi 28:8).  I've experienced this all too frequently lately, and it is not worth it.

Direction 2:  "Just keep swimming..."  I got to teach Relief Society last week on Elder Robert D. Hales' talk from April 2012 General Conference titled, "Coming to Ourselves: The Sacrament, the Temple, and Sacrifice in Service."  At one point in the talk he says, "No blessings will be withheld if we faithfully endure in walking the path back to our Heavenly Father."  Heavenly Father doesn't care how fast we are moving or how steep of a hill we are climbing, he just wants us to keep going, keep moving, keep climbing, because as soon as we stop, Satan has better aim.

Direction 3:  Excitement/Anticipation/Getting ready to move to Vegas!  Sometimes when I think about it too much, I get overwhelmed or paralyzed at the thought of all I should be doing, but then I realize that there's not a whole lot I can do yet, so I just have to stop my mind and take a break from over-analyzing the big changes coming up for me.  However, in preparation for what I will be doing out there, I just finished reading The Freedom Writers Diary and it was incredible.  I highly recommend it or the movie :)

Direction 4:  Missionary work.  The only people I know in this town are my friends from church and the kids I work with.  Since it would not be appropriate for me to directly share the gospel at work, I've been praying for other ways to relight the fire that I once had.  Last week, I was blessed with multiple opportunities to very easily and naturally let the kids know that I'm a Mormon.  For example, one girl mentioned that she saw me on her street and asked what I was doing and I replied, "I was passing out flyers for a canned food drive at my church."  The door opened right up for her to ask what church I went to, to which I could give my response.  I may not be able to tell them a whole lot more than that at work, nor am I allowed to have communication with them outside of work, but just having them know what my religion is will hopefully leave a good impression on them and a seed can be planted for the future.

Direction 5:  Service.  Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go down to Sacramento and help participate in the Mormon Helping Hands statewide day of service.  All the congregations throughout the state of California volunteered thousands of man hours volunteering in various community service projects.  We held a canned food drive here along with various park clean-ups and school clean-ups.  In Sacramento, over 2000 people spent several hours cleaning up a downtown high school.  We all donned the signature yellow Helping Hands jerseys and did everything from cutting ivy out of the dugout to painting the curbs.  Everywhere you looked, there were crowds of people cleaning or fixing something.  Dead branches were being cut down and hauled out, windows were washed, weeds were pulled, flowers and trees were planted, gum was scraped off every sidewalk and I LOVED it!  It was just what I needed, something productive to keep me busy!  :)  When they handed me the yellow jersey, I felt so honored to be a part of it.  As I put it on, I realized that this was the first time since my mission that I've been allowed to wear the name of the Church on my clothing, and it felt good.  We were doing something for a good cause and getting our name out there in a positive light.

I think that's enough directions for now.  I tried to mainly focus on the positive, mostly to remind myself that even in the hardest of times, there is plenty of good to be found.

Maybe the length of this post proves I should blog more often...  :)

Bucket List

I once had a teacher ask me to write my own obituary.  My natural reaction was, "That's weird."  Then I thought about it more and found it to be really motivating.  Where did I want my life to go?  What kind of impact did I want to have on others?  How did I want them to remember me?

Those simple questions inspired me to write a bucket list.  I've entitled my list "100 Things to Do Before I Die."  There are currently 61 things on it.  The rest are what I like to call "goals of the subconscious mind."  You know all those times when you do something really neat and you say, "I've always wanted to do this!" but really it hadn't consciously crossed your mind before?  Yep, well, I decided that I can still put those on my Bucket List even after and then write about them...thus allowing myself to continue filling the last 39 spaces...and more if I want.

I have all sorts of things on my Bucket List!  Everything from the very serious (receive my endowments) to the very superfluous (milk a cow, get in a food fight).  I've got goals for places I want to go (Greece, Disneyworld, etc), things I want to see (a play on Broadway, the 7 wonders of the new world), and people I want to meet (Mia Hamm).  I have selfish goals (be pictured in the Ensign) and selfless ones (donate $2000 to a charity, be a foster mom).  There are things I want to experience (zero gravity, the Olympics live), do (be a street musician for a day, write a book),  and learn (pottery, swing dancing).  Someone once asked me what my most important goal is on my Bucket List.  Well, I can't disclose my #1 goal until I die :) but I can share some other high priorities.  I'd love to be a motivational speaker for something and pay for somebody's mission.  They have nothing to do with eating ice cream atop the Eiffel Tower or seeing a sumo wrestling match in Japan, but of all my 61 goals written down (on a powerpoint, no less...yes, I'm a nerd :) ), those are very important to me. 

I saw these guys on the Today Show the other day and loved it!  They wrote a book about their experiences and it's called What Do You Want to De Before You Die?  Check out this video: 

So, what do YOU want to do before you die?