Friday, February 27, 2009

Some Cards I've Made Recently

I like to find any excuse that I can make a card. These are two of my most recent I decided to share. The first one is a baby shower invitation that I made to send out for my friend Katherine.


I made these thank-you cards for the teachers I worked with at Lone Peak.


-Ashley


Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Product

"I'll buy almost anything if it's shiny and made by Apple."
"I like how the email automatically says, 'Sent from a MacBook Wheel,' that way people know you have one."
I hope you like this video as much as I do.
- Scott

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Monday, February 16, 2009

Grocery Shopping

I was at the grocery store the other day, and I didn't have much time. I had almost everything I needed in my cart when I stopped to look at the drink section. While my back was turned, someone decided to take off with MY cart! I looked up and down the aisle to no avail. It was gone, and in it's place was another cart, full of boring, useless groceries. I didn't know if it would be quicker to go "shopping" again for everything I needed, but I decided to wait for a few minutes, hoping the culprit would come back to return the stolen goods. He never showed.

I went on a hunt, looking for my grocery cart. I'm sure the other shoppers must have thought I was crazy, as I was both discreetly and not-so-discreetly spying on what groceries they had in their own carts. "Hey Mister, stocking up on the Twinkies, I see??? Ma'am, one of you eggs is cracked. Do you really need THAT much toilet paper??"

I couldn't find it. The suspect must have purchased my groceries and gone home, or so I thought. I gave up and decided to get a cart to do my shopping over again, this time in reverse. As I was on my way to where I left off, I couldn't help but look at what other people were packing around in their carts. And there it was...not my cart, but the abandoned one. As he was approaching me, I couldn't contain my voice, and found myself shouting and pointing, "HEY, YOU STOLE MY CART! WHERE IS IT?!" He cowardly looked away, and said he left it by the checkout stand. I proceeded to follow him to the "checkout stand," which turned out not to be the front of the store, but up the middle of the far aisle on the end of the store, abandoned next to the kitty litter and feminine products, neither of which he was in the market for. He realized he made a mistake, wasn't man enough to fess up, and tried to bury the evidence.

If you play with fire, sooner or later you'll get burned. You may have gotten away with grocery cart petty crimes before, but not today. :)
Scott

Friday, February 13, 2009

Friday the 13th...

Teaching has its ups and downs. Sometimes I love it because the students are so fun, and participating. Other days the students just don't want to listen to me and it makes me feel bad. I think something was in the air today at school. Maybe the fact of it being Friday the 13th kind of stirred them up a bit. I'm not sure. The students were distracted by something that's for sure. I'm very glad that it is a long weekend! Sometimes I just have to remind myself that I really do want to be a teacher...

Monday, February 9, 2009

Exercise

My first blog post . . . Ashley's just too good at keeping everyone updated, so I never have a chance to write :) The intramural basketball team I'm on is now 2-0. We won our last game shooting free-throws with 0.6 seconds left in the game. It was tied before that, and our unfortunate opponents foolishly fouled our player on a 3-point shot. He easily sunk all 3 baskets, and we won 39-36.

I went running again tonight, and it's been a while since I've been running regularly. I was still able to run a 4-mile stretch, but my goal is to work back up to marathon stamina by the end of the summer.

That's all for now.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Yes I'm still Mrs. Stevenson even though I have a raspy, manly voice...

I lost my voice by the end of each of the class periods I taught today. It was not much fun. At the beginning of the class I apologized for my manly, rough voice. They were nice to me and quieted down without me having to talk too loud. It's funny looking back now because I sounded ridiculous---well I still do...

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Can a teacher teach with no voice?

Today my voice has been going in and out today...It's a good thing that I had a guest speaker for my classes today! I hope my voice is not completely gone tomorrow. Can you teach a lesson through pantomime? I might be signing as a last result...It's too bad I didn't get a very good grade in sign language. Wish me luck tomorrow!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

It's no fun being sick while teaching...

I got sick yesterday and I had to teach three periods today. My ears are plugged up so I could not tell while teaching how loud I was talking. I feel like I was yelling all day. My throat hurt so bad by the end of the day from talking so much. Luckily it was a late start day so classes were only 50 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow goes better. We did do a textiles lab today where I burned fabrics for the class--they liked that, except it stunk really bad. It's no fun being stick while teaching...

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Days 11-14 of Student Teaching

A lot has happened this week so I decided to combine it all into one post so I don't have to write four more.

Day 11 Tuesday: When I got to school we found out that there had been a fire over the weekend. Luckily the fire department came and put it out. They had to break the glass on the doors to get in. It was in the art room and that whole hallway smelled like smoke. It was lucky that the art room was all that was damaged.

In the Adult Roles class since it was my first day, the teacher taught the first period and I taught the third period. It was a lesson about Love and Infatuation. The students wrote on a paper heart their definitions of love which I was very impressed with. High Schoolers think I lot deeper on the topic of love then I thought. We talked about the different kinds of love also and I showed movie clips of the different kinds. They really liked the movie clips. All in all it was fun.

Day 12 Wednesday: Today I taught in the Fashion Strategies class. I was doing a lesson on embellishing and recycling clothing. I talked about all of the different ways you can change clothes and then I showed some examples. I added sequins to jean pockets, ribbon to jeans, buttons to a shirt, etc. I think they liked getting a few ideas. The rest of the period I had them working on embellishing their own clothing. When they were up getting their supplies it was the most chaotic time and my supervisor from BYU walked in the door. I was already done with my lesson part so I explained to her that they were just working on a project. She just watched as I interacted with the students. On her comments she said that the students respond well to me. I took that as a compliment and I feel good that the students get along with me. I just wished she would have come during my lesson.

Day 13 Thursday: This was the day that I was worried about. The day that I would teach the topic of STD's to High School students in the Adult Roles class. At the beginning of class I had them do their quiz, quote, etc. Then I had a plan on how to introduce STD's. While they were taking their quiz, I put Glo-germ powder on my hand. I got up in front of the class and said, one of the most important things in dating is to be able to introduce yourself to others. It is also very important when you meet the parents to give a firm handshake. Then I went around and introduced myself to 3 students and told them to introduce themselves to eachother. Little did they know but they were spreading the Glo-germ powder along. After a few minutes I said you didn't know this but I had an STD on my hands and I just spread it to all of you. They all were like gross, disgusting. I said I want to see who was infected by this STD. I brought up a black light and they all came up and saw the powder under the light that had gotten on their hands. There was one student before class that I told not to shake anyone's hand so she was the only one not infected. I said the only person that wasn't infected in class was ___________. This is because this student practiced abstinence. That is the only way you can avoid STD's. Anyways...they liked that object lesson and then I just continued on with the lesson. I'm proud of myself because my face didn't even turn red once.

Day 14 Friday: I taught in Fashion Strategies. They continued on their embellishing project and we talked about vocabulary, etc. There was a lockdown drill which was kind of scary to me. I hope I don't have to be in a real lockdown---that would scare me. I'm always glad on Fridays because it means I have a few days to have a break before starting again the next week.

It was an overall good week. Teaching is becoming more enjoyable. It is rewarding at times and very tough at times. I guess it's kind of like being a parent--sometimes your kids are good, sometimes bad.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Baby Keller is Here!!!!

After a long time of waiting....Amber (my sister) had her baby around 1:30 this morning!!! His name is Keller Davis Peck. He weighs 9 lbs. 12 oz and is 21 inches long. We went to see him today and we're excited to have another nephew! Happy Birthday Keller! Here are some pictures:



9th Day of Student Teaching

On Friday when I taught I decided I needed to change my lesson a bit to be able to catch the student's attention. I was supposed to teach about the fashion cycle and fashion details. I decided that I was going to bring in samples of clothing to fit into each category I was talking about. I packed up a box of mine and Scott's clothes for examples. I also decided I needed to talk about things that they would relate to. I also brought some candy just in case I needed some extra motivation. Anyways... I got to class and I set everything up. I talked to all of the students trying to start up conversation. When I was starting they were talking and I didn't have their attention. I decided I needed to say something and lay down my expectations. I said, "I need your attention up here. There are times when it's my turn to talk and then when it's your turn to talk. Right now it is my time, soon it will be yours. I'm your teacher right now and I expect to receive the respect that you would give to any other teacher." They quieted right down and were very pleasant the rest of the period. They seemed to enjoy my class and participated. I didn't have any troubles that day. It just goes to show that when you notice things aren't working, you make a change and things will get better. I'm learning a lot student teaching and for the first time I really felt like a teacher and it was fun!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

7th Day of Student Teaching

I was nervous all day today to teach for the first time in 4th period. I had everything planned really well and knew exactly what I was going to do. I even got a tv to show a video clip from The Devil Wears Prada. I was so excited about my lesson. Anyways, I gave my lesson and I just got stares. I had a lot of chances for class involvment but I guess by 4th period High School kids are a little out of it. I need to figure out how to get more participation and interaction. Maybe it was because it was the first day and they are not used to me yet. My lesson went well but I enjoy it more when I don't have to answer my own questions:) Better luck next time! I'm very tired and still have lesson plans to work on...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

American Idol Time!


I am so excited for American Idol! This is the time I look forward to every year. I love picking a favorite and following them the whole way through. Last year I chose David Cook from the beginning and he won, so I'm excited to predict this year! I know Scott is excited too that it will be on our TV each week... It started tonight and there were some good people, and of course some bad people, but no predictions yet. Amber beat me with writing about American Idol...

6th day of Student Teaching

Sorry, I haven't written about the other days of student teaching...I skipped a few. There wasn't anything particular interesting about those days so I didn't include it.

I've been loving student teaching this week with no snow and the 30 minute commute. I am hoping that snow holds off for a bit. This morning when I was driving when I got off the exit and onto the side roads I realized that my headlights were out, and I didn't have any lights. It was very hard to see. I had to drive partway with my brights on because they actually worked. In the two classes I was observing today we had a guest speaker from UEN. He talked about internet scams, phishing, online networking, predators, etc. He showed a few videos of teenagers talking to people online that weren't who they really were and showed what happened when they met in real life. The students were really creeped out which wasn't the purpose but they needed to learn to be safe on the internet. It creeped me out too and I can see why growing up my parents didn't let us have free reign of the internet and had rules. Thanks Mom and Dad!

When I got home I had Scott check out my headlights and they worked for him! We tried a few times to make sure they were working right and they are. I guess that's good that we don't have to do anything to fix them. It's annoying though when you see a problem and then it's fine for everyone else. I know I wasn't crazy!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

2nd Day of Student Teaching

Today was my second day of student teaching. I went to sleep last night at 8:30 because I was so exhausted from the first day of student teaching. I got up again at 5:00 AM--it's very hard getting up. I get ready while Scott is still sleeping and then wake him up when I leave. It's sad that we don't get up at the same time and go to campus together now... The roads were better today so it only took 40 minutes... instead of an hour. I got to the school and there was going to be a substitute teacher in the classes I was observing today. It got to be time for school to start and the substitute wasn't there. Someone from the office came and opened the door. She asked if I could get things started. I got up in front of the class and said, "Hi, I'm Mrs. Stevenson, I'm going to be your student teacher. You have a sub today but she isn't here yet so we are going to start." I called roll and got them started on their assignment. I didn't do much with them but it was still scary. For the first time I kind of felt like a teacher. It was an exciting feeling. Anyways...the sub came and we went on the rest of the day. I came home and I was exhausted...still am. I'm not as tired as yesterday though. It was a good day. Teachers have a hard job, I'm appreciating my teachers a lot more now.