So, I'm bad at updates :(

Sooo.. it has been a SUPER long time since I have updated my blog and I am very sorry to all who may be tring to follow my adventure here in Florida!

So here is a recap of the past 2- 3 weeks!

Spring Break was probable the best spring break I have ever had! We went to Daytona Beach and got to see a rocket launch from the beach. It was quite a few hundred miles away, but we still got to see the rocket launch across the sky and disappear into outer space. That was at 6:15am so we stayed up and watched the sun rise over the ocean. That morning was perfect!

On Saturday night of Spring Break, we went to the Rainforest Cafe and celebrated Steph's birthday! It was a blast. The next morning we went to the happiest place on Earth.. Disney World! We were on Disney property from 8:30am until around 10:00pm or after. It was a blast!

So then after an amazing break from work we went back to school. On that Friday I got observed and got a perfect score! I did a taste test experiment with my kids where I took clear koolaid and used food coloring to dye it different colors. I then asked them what each color tasted like. The kids told me that each color tasted different but they actually were all the same thing. When I told them what I had done they thought it was so cool that their senses could play a trick on them. It was a lot of fun to teach!

Last weekend, about 5 of us went up to North Carolina for a job fair. That was deifnitely a wake up call! There were over 500 people there for ONE county. I can honestly say that I am even more worried about finding a job now after going to that fair. There are so many Early Childhood majors out there and possibly not as many jobs. It is a little scary and makes me slightly nervous and concerned for my future. But God knows where I will end up and I rely on His path for my life.

Up until this, I have felt like I wasn't making that much of a cennection with my kids. This week, it's like a switch has been flipped and they are constantly talking to me and surrounding me at recess. I feel like I've finally made a stronger connection, it's just too bad it has to come at the very end of my epxperience down here :( On Thursday, Steph and I were able to do some observations of other schools in the area to see how different the rest of the county is from Celebration. Everyone said that Celebration was a bubble and wow were they right! The other schools in the county were definitely a lot rougher and more diverse than Celebration. It was definitely an eye opener!

So we have one week left and I'm not exactly sure how to feel. I am VERY VERY excited to come home and see all of you whom I love and miss so much, but at the same time I will miss certain thigns down here. I'm sure there will be some bitter-sweet feelings. While this experience has been a bit of a rollercoaster, I am gald that I have had this opportunity. I have learned a great deal about teaching. A great deal about other people and an evern greater deal about myself.

Live life with no regrets.

Love you all and see you very soon.

Google and Animals!!!

So it's been a while since my last post.. Sorry! Busy busy busy as usual. I can't believe that I'm done with my 3rd week of teaching down here! Three weeks down, three more to go! Today we had a teacher work day which was nice to get a little work done since we're now on SPRING BREAK! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to have a break!!

So let's recap a little from the past week or so.. Last Friday was pretty exciting. I guess Google is looking for one town in America to try out their super high speed internet and there are all these towns trying to convince Google that their town shoul dbe picked. Well, Celebration is one of those towns and on Friday the entire lower division (K-5) wore one of the Google colors (red, green, yellow or blue) and made a video to send to Google. It was pretty much mass chaos with all six grades but it was fun to be a part of the hype! The person who was in charge of the video making to send to Google was actually the father of one of my students which was pretty cool :)

So this week we had our big trip to the Zoo on Thursday! It could not have been a more perfect day! It was sunny and in the 80's and the kids were having a great time! On Tuesday they presented animal habitat diaramas about a specific animal that would be at the Zoo and once we got to the Zoo, it was really exciting for them to see the animal they had researched up close!

The very fisrt thing we did when we got to the Zoo was feed the Giraffes! We recieved a whole big bag of Giraffe crackers and were able to walk right up to the head/mouth of the Giraffe and feed them! It was really a cool experience. The kids loved being so close the animal and I even got to feed them too!

So, the entire time I've been down here I've been kind of bummed that I haven't seen any cool Florida animals walk right in front of me. The other day though, I went to downtown celebration to just relax a little by the pond and guess what I saw??? A baby alligator! It was just tiny! I was so excited I took a picture of it on my phone, and even thought you can't really tell what it is, it was still exciting for me to be that close to a real live gator!

I hope every one is doing well and you all have a wonderful and blessed Easter. We are leaving right after church on Sunday to go to Daytona Beach for a few days, so I'm sure I will have more to blog about here very soon!

Love you all and miss you every day!

Science lesson #2 = AWESOME!

So today I taught my second science lesson (yestarday was just a mini lesson, today was the real deal) and I was actually pretty nervous. I know I can teach and I know I love teaching, but being in front of a new group of kids and not knowing them really well yet is a little nerve-wracking :/ My teacher was also observing me and filling out an evaluation which also didn't relieve any stress but when it came time, the lesson rocked! The kids were engaged and volunteering left and right, I was really into it and asking them question and my teacher loved it! She gave me a perfect score!! I couldn't believe it! That made me feel so good, because I know how I did in Ohio but I wasn't sure how well I would do in a different state with completely different standards and methods of teaching. I am so glad the lesson went well, though so I know that if I do end up teaching out of Ohio I can still be an excellent teacher.
The rest of the day, after my science lesson (first thing in the morning) went by pretty fast. The days just keep going and before I know it, this week is going to be gone. We have a workshop day on Thursday so I won' be teaching, then next week we only have class on Mon-Wed because Thursday is our Zoo field trip and Friday is a teacher workday and then it's Spring Break and my Florida time will be half over! That's crazy!
The weather was beautiful today! For the first time since I've been down here I was warm! I drove with my windows down and music up.. ahhh it was great! I can't wait to get a tan over break :)
More updates soon!
Love and miss you all every day!

1st lesson in Celebration!

So it's been a little bit sicne my last update! Sorry about that, they keep us pretty busy down here! So this weekend went by really fast! Steph and I had an adventure on Sunday finding a church that was about 45 mins away from Celebration. The service was great, just what we needed to hear and everyone was so friendly and welcoming. It helps when you're so far from home to have nice people aroung you. After church, Steph and I tried to find a library to work at so we could have access to printers and have a little bit of a quiet environment to work in... well after about 2 hours of driving in the POURING rain, we finally found it! We got most of our work done and headed back to Celebration. Why do weekends always go so fast?

Today was a good day at school. I taught my first Science (mini) lesson. The kids had library today which cut Science time in half, so I only had about 20 minutes for my lesson. I read the kids a book about animal shelters and had a discussion about different animals. The kids were all very engaged and I am also learning a lot about the Florida wildlife as well! I felt that my lesson went well and I am glad I was able to ease into teaching. We'll see how tomorrow's Science lesson goes!

The kids do seem to be opening up a bit more to me each day. Many of them ask me questions about Ohio and things we have there ("Miss Pore, do you have firetrucks in Ohio?" haha.. yes we have fires in Ohio too.) One boy came up to me and showed me a part in a book he was reading that talked about Cleveland. He was so excited to show me!

Today after school, my teacher and Steph and I went a workshop on Singapore Math. It was a bunch of different strategies to share with kids about adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with larger numbers. It was very interesting and definitely something I'll be able to add to a resume. Awesome!

So the rest of this week I am teaching science then next week we only have three days and I'll be teaching science and math (not my favorite to teach :( ). One of the other days is a teacher work day before Spring Break and one of the days is a field trip to the ZOO!!! Ahh I'm excited! So I will definitely be updating about that fun trip!

Love you all and miss you every day!

This is the bulletin board that greeted me on my first day of school at Celebration! It made me feel very welcome there.

Lizzards! Oh my!

So today was the end of my fourth day at the Celebration school. I can't believe that it is already Thursday! So the past few days were really good at school. Everyone at school is so friendly and welcoming and they all ask me how it's going and how I'm doing. I've also been learning a lot about the Florida Education system and how similar and different it is from what we do in Ohio.

It was so funny on Tuesday, my teacher and I took our class to a park across the street from the school for recess and on our way back I told the kids that I had never seen a lizzard before (apparently they are all over the place down here) so they all got excited and started scavenging for one on our way back to the school. One boy actually found and caught one and showed it to me! The kids hardcore freaked out becuase it was biting the boy, but he seemed to be fine with it. My teacher told him to put it back down! The kids were so amazed that we don't have lizzards up in Ohio. I was also informed that there have been sightings of wild boars around Celebration and that they can be dangerous.. so my next animal experience may be a wild boar!

The kids seem to be warming up to me as I am in and around the classroom. They are actually writing a story about me and it is called, "Miss Pore is Stuck to the Floor". They are all coming up with how I got stuck to the floor and then how I will get unstuck from the floor. They are all having a lot of fun with it. My teacher had her last year's class make a book called "Mr. Jansing is Dancing" and they had to figure out how to stop her from dancing all the time. I'm looking forward to reading about how I get unstuck from the floor!

The thing that is really interesting to me being in a culture that is different from what I have known and am used to is that kids are kids nomatter where you go. I have many different races and ethnicities and religions represented in my class and yet, they are just like the kids I have always worked with before. I have recieved hugs ALREADY from these kids who barely know me and are so different from me. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to work with different types of students and gain even more experience in a diverse setting.

I start teaching Science on Monday! Ahhh! Hopefully not knowing the standards and the culture too well, my teaching won't be affected too much!
More updates later!
I miss you all very much!

First Day at Celebration School!

Soooo today was the first day of teaching at the Celebration School and it was really good! Everyone we met was very very friendly and welcoming! The school campus is beautiful! Everything is set outside so there are no hallways, just open areas. My teacher and the class are wonderful! The kids had made me a whole bulletin board full of "Welcome to Florida" cards and greetings. We had a question and answer time where the kids had written down a few questions (many of them were 'what's your favorite color' and 'how old are you') so I had a chance to share a little about myself with the kids. I had also taken down buckeyes to give to each child and when I gave them out the kids were amazed and asking a bunch of quesions about them! So the buckeyes were a great success! I hope that I get to know the kids very quickly and that everything goes well. I'm a little nervous to work with Florida standards seeing as how all I know is Ohio :/ But it's all about the new experience right? Right.
All of the people we met today were so friendly and welcoming! Steph and I met our supervisor and she seems very nice and very willing to work with us.
Even though the weather here is amazing, my allergies are KILLING me. I honestly feel like my head is going to explode! But hopefully with all the allergy meds I'm taking I will start feeling better soon!
More updates soon :)

Hello Florida!

So Steph and I made it to Florida safe and sound. We arrived in Celebration a little after 5:30pm yestarday (Saturday) and were greeted here by our host family with goodie baskets in our favorite colors (mine being green, of course!) The house is gorgeous and so is the area around down here in Celebration! The family is so nice and welcoming. The two little ones are precious and full of energy!
These past few days have been such a blur of new faces and new things to see. We went to church this morning and then took a tour of Celebration. After that, Steph and I and the two other girls that we are living with went to Target to pick up a few things that we forgot to pack. After we were done shopping, we all (us four girls, our host family, two other interns, Mr. Hendershott, a past AU intern that came south, and a few other host families) went to Joe's Crab Shack and had dinner. We just got home and are getting our PJs on and then making chocolate covered strawberries for tomorrow's get together dinner.
Teaching starts tomorrow and I am exhausted. Hopefully, I'll find some time this week to catch up on some rest.. we shall seeee :)
More to come later about school and the new kiddos!