100th Post: 2 Funny Pictures

So I just realized this is my 100th post on this blog! Go me! My goal for the past while is to update my blog at least every week, but that hasn't really happened. Maybe now that I've reached a nice round number, I can start implementing that goal. Hehe.

Danny is taking Evolutionary Biology right now, and I'm taking an online Geology class. So some of our material actually overlaps, like when we talk about...Evolution. Here are my best memories of class-related images I saw this week:


Here is Nessie, our Underwater Ally.



...and here is a picture from a slide from Danny's class titled "Natural Selection". Hehehe.

Are you learning anything in this class?

In my Classroom Management class, my professor always gives us a quiz each week. At the end of class, we are supposed to write a reflection about something we've learned that week in class. While we're taking the quiz, she passes out the quizzes from last week, with feedback about things we've learned. On my quiz for this week, she asked me the question, "Are you learning anything in this class?"

The next reflection I wrote for her was two pages, front and back. The question made me think a LOT. Am I really learning anything? If so, what? Is it what I should be learning? Why or why not, and how can I change that? Or should I? Or is it even possible?

I feel like I've learned a lot this semester. It is my first year teaching. I go to work every day and practice the principles that I learn in class. I learn from application. I learn from experience. I learn from realities like time, energy, amount of sleep, etc. Do I learn anything from my classes?

It would be an exaggeration to say that I haven't learned anything, but that means I must have learned something. I can't figure out what that something is. I have no idea what I've been doing the past semester. It feels like I'm stuck in the same class for hours and hours - reading about how to write lesson plans, how to manage a class, how to work with students with IEP's...how can I judge whether or not I learn from reading/discussing these topics, or from my being-a-teacher-in-a-middle-school-classroom experience?

I don't know. I certainly couldn't measure for you what I've actually "learned" in Classroom Management or Foundations of Bilingual Education or large chunks of French Teaching Methodology.

Maybe this is because my subject is so spherical, and true learning is not rote memorization - which can be easily measured. How do you measure learning? How do you determine its source?

I often think about how horrible it is that I'm not learning very much in college. Is that really true? And if so, is it my fault?

I'm thinking...mostly it's not.

Danny is back in town!

Danny is back in Provo! To be honest, it's completely strange that he's here. Provo is not a place where I'm used to seeing him. He got all checked in to Liberty Square. It's going to be a good semester, I think.

Everything has to do with timing.

Maybe BYU Church Leaders are SUPPOSED to be freaks about dating

I went swimming in the pool at the Avenues, and met three very cool girls. One was from the Elms, and the other two were from other apartments in my complex. We got to talking about lots of things, and the topic of strange attitudes towards dating came up.

We swapped bishopric horror stories, like the girl whose bishop went through the male section of the ward director one by one, finding out which boys she would date if they would ever ask. Or the boy who had a deadline for getting a steady girlfriend. "He wanted to give me a deadline, too, but I told him no way." Or the numbers thing. "I will not be happy if they bring up engagement numbers in PEC meeting this Sunday...'Our numbers are down, guys!' It's not a competition!"

So, while some people would have been horrified by these types of things, it actually came as a gigantic relief. After all, there are people who need encouragement to date, and this is the time period of life where these issues start to become of number one importance. It also helped me realize that I'm not alone in thinking that my bishop is totally psycho.

One of the girls said something that caused me to re-evaluate my previous judgment of my bishop's insanity. Something along the lines of, "I think that our Stake must get marriage-crazy leaders on purpose."

I definitely want to give him a second chance, and it's not like my thinking he's a little bit strange would affect my ability/desire to sustain him as my ecclesiastical leader.

Sigh. I guess people just like to complain about dating wherever they are when they're single.

Utah is not a Four-letter Word

I have been dreading tomorrow for several weeks. It is the day that my father and I will start our road trip to Provo, Utah, where I go to school (Brigham Young University). There isn't one reason that this situation is so dreaded - but rather a combination of memories of Utah suck-ness, ever growing affection towards my home state and the general New England region, but what is probably most significant - the people.

In an effort to cheer me up, Trevor told me that, "Hey, Utah's not a four-letter word."

[Pause]

[Laughter]

"$#*!, I guess it is."

Other four-letter words having to do with Utah include:
dumb
boys
ring
date
love
work
(honor) code
heck
fech (okaaay, since this isn't a reeeeal word, it doesn't matter I forgot the "t")
ncmo

But do not include:
mail
arab
hike

uhhhhm...uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmm....

If you can think of anything else, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!!!

Currently, I cannot imagine a force powerful enough to convince me to remove my membership from facebook's "In Utah, but not Of Utah" group.