Grades, Graduation, & Graffiti

I had a nightmare last night.  I was checking my grades and one of my professors changed my 4.0 to a 3.0.  I woke in a panic and immediately checked to assure myself it was only a dream. 


And then the bad news... I was double checking (alright maybe quadruple to the fifth power checking) that I had everything I needed to graduate this May and I noticed you can only graduate if you have 9 or fewer credits remaining; otherwise you have to wait until next May to participate in the ceremony.  I am registered for 18 credit hours for the winter semester which will leave me 13 for my Associates degree which I plan to complete in the Spring/Summer semester.  So now I have a dilemma.  Do I take four more credit hours so I can go through the graduation ceremony? Do I stick with my plan to do 13 credit hours this summer and just skip doing the ceremony? Do I wait it out until next May and retake a few classes for better grades?  Ugh.

I've been working on PowerPoint presentations for my future classroom.  Right now I'm focused on different ways to make spelling fun. Unfortunately Google Docs doesn't keep my format so I had to convert it to pdf The pdf version is missing a page.  I'll share the pdf version here and if you would like a copy of the original PowerPoint I'm more than happy to send it to you.

graffiti spelling 

Clock hours? and Apple Stamps Lesson Plan

One of the many many requirements to enter the Special Education program at Western Michigan University is "thirty clock hours of experience with person(s) with a disability". I'm the type of person that, when given a vague instruction, goes a little crazy with my ideas. I created a schedule, an evaluation paper, and a documentation sheet before I figured out I just need a professional to sign off that I completed the hours.

Thankfully my children's special education teacher agreed to take me on and she will never know just how much paperwork I planned to dump on her!

Wednesday was my second day of getting experience in a special education classroom.  It was incredible. I got to practice my very rusty sign-language "skills".  The student I worked with is a total charmer. He got a kick out of helping me with signs and he did so with grace and humor.  I think he will make an excellent teacher someday.  For the last hour of my time; we set up the Christmas tree.  We cut bells out of felt and decorated them with glitter, twisted pipe cleaners into reindeer and candy canes, and strung bells on a length of plastic.  It is a bit haphazard but still among the most beautiful Christmas trees I've ever seen.

My time spent in this classroom has just made me hunger for a class of my own all the more.

Since this has been a week a firsts for me it seems appropriate to share my very first lesson plan.


Apple Stamps Lesson Plan

Christmas Lesson Plan

I have less than two weeks left of this semester of college.  Completing my Art for the Elementary Teacher class is going to be a bittersweet experience. I will be leaving with so many new skills and ideas for my future classroom that I can't wait to use but I'll also be moving on from an amazing instructor and classmates I've befriended. The last lesson plan for this course is anything Christmas (our instructor is deliberately vague and pushes us to think outside the box in developing projects).

A Christmas Carol Lesson Plan

Merry Christmas!

Allow myself to introduce.... myself.

I am a thirty three year old mother of four who returned (FINALLY) to college this fall to pursue my dream of becoming an educator. I am living proof that being ditzy doesn't preclude being intelligent.I am a Beachbody coach who lost 40 lbs doing P90X and promptly gained 10 lbs back during Thanksgiving weekend. I am obsessed with reading (YA, Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi, Children's books, Mysteries, and Harry Potter Fan-Fiction), pinning ideas for my future classroom on Pintrest, and developing lesson plans.

Following Directions Lesson Plan


 I am currently taking classes at a community college and I expect to graduate with an Associates Degree in General Studies in May.  From there I plan to transfer to Western Michigan University. I am writing this blog to chronicle my experiences returning to school and, eventually, my experiences as an educator.