"Are you smarter than an 8th grader?"...I'm not!

In my MSED 251 class we were asked to take a short multiple choice quiz. This quiz was the equivalent to one that an eighth grade teacher would give to their students. At the very end of the quiz once you have submitted it, you are given the percentage right you got as well as the option to go through and look to see what questions you answered right, and what the correct answers to the questions you got wrong were. During the quiz there were many questions that contained material I know I have learned before, but just could not recall the information enough to be sure on my answers. Once I finished the quiz I didn't feel like I had done too bad...until I saw the percent I had gotten right. 50%...50%! I haven't scored that low on anything ever in my life! I was shocked, pretty disappointed in myself, but hopeful that it meant I had a lot of room for learning, or in some cases re-learning material. Walking out of class that day after seeing how poorly I did on that quiz really made me worry about what that meant about how my performance in that class was going to be this semester. It made me worry that maybe this was going to be a more challenging course than I had originally thought. I knew this was going to be a more tricking and difficult class this semester, but am I out of my league so to speak? I am hoping that this is not the case and that I have a MUCH more successful outcome for the class. I am choosing to look at this experience as a positive one. One that means I can only go up from here. Yes 50% is bad, but now I know what my weaknesses in the subject are, and where I need to spend extra time studying. I am excited for this course and all it has to bring the rest of this semester.

Celebrate 1 (kayak)

"Celebrates" are not hard for me to recall or remember. Actually, it was very hard for me to pick which one I wanted to use as my first Celebrate. After narrowing it down I decided I wanted to use my "kayaking Celebrate" as my first one. There was this beautiful day in July a few summers ago, it was on a Sunday; I know it was on a Sunday because that is the only day I have off in the summer. Anyways, on this gorgeous Sunday in July the weather was impecable. It was sunny but not overbearingly humid and there wasn't a single cloud in the rich blue sky. My boyfriend and I both decided it would be a perfect day to take the kayaks down to the river and do the 5 mile route. As I carried my kayak into down the enterance slope and into the river I noticed this blue heron siting on a near by tree looking at me. I didn't really think much of it until we started paddling. Once I started to approach the area next to the branch the blue heron was sitting on, he flew away. I just assumed I had frightened him and he was gone. Well as I went further down the river and around a bend I saw the heron again, sitting on another branch. I watched him the whole time up until I got close to him. Yet again, once I got close to him he looked at me, and then flew away. I was confused as to why he kept waiting for me to get to him before flying away and wondered if I'd see him again. Sure enough a little while down the river there he was, looking behind himself as if he was waiting for me. This time I pulled back behind my boyfriend waiting to see if he would fly away when my boyfriend got close to him. To my surprise he didn't. He stayed there looking at me waiting. Once I got close to him he continued to look at me and then once again flew away. I didn't understand why when I got close to him he would fly away, but when my boyfriend was near him, he just stayed there, looking at me. This continued until I got to the end of the route. I felt so distracted by this heron that I really can't recall much of the rest of the route, my entire focus was on this bird. When I was getting out of my kayak the heron watched me pick up my kayak, I looked at him, he looked at me and just as I turned to walk away, he also flew away. It seemed like the perfect way to part after playing catch up all afternoon.

Getting to know me

Well, for starters I wanted those reading my blog to get to know me a little bit. I am 21 and in my third year of school at Northern Michigan University  studying Elementary Education with a math major, integrated science minor. I absolutely love children...which I guess makes sense since I am going to school to be an elementary teacher. I chose to attend NMU because I love how Marquette supplies it's residents with the best of both worlds; you can be in the city, or drive a few miles out of town and all of a sudden you are in the middle of no where. To me that is just pure bliss. I am an outdoorsy person, so any chance I get to be outside I take it. I am a ski instructor for children over Christmas break and in the summer I am an assistant manager at a orchard in my town. Speaking of my town, I live in Torch Lake, MI. It is a small but beautiful town about an hour south of Traverse City. I am very lucky. My front yard is Torch Lake (voted the third most beautiful lake in the world) and just through my backyard and across the street is Lake Michigan. I am surrounded by beauty whether I am at home or up here and I love every minute of it. As much as I love the outdoors and seeing new areas and all the beauty that encompasses them, I do like to be inside sometimes also. I love watching movies..preferably series. I am a huge fan of the "Harry Potter" series as well as the "Lord of the Rings Series." Living in Northern Michigan (lower peninsula), I have experianced cold winters, but nothing like the kind of winters we get up here in the U.P. There are just some days it is too cold to go outside and explore, and those are the days I love to snuggle up on the couch and have a movie day. Cleaning is another thing I really enjoy doing on those days you just don't want to be outside. It sounds weird but I really like cleaning. It kind of calms me down as well as makes me feel much better about the area I am in. I can not stand messes, call me OCD but things need to be clean, neat, and organized in my house. I think that is a pretty good description of me for now. All in all I am just a very enthusiastic person who loves kids, is determined to be a teacher and loves to be outdoors! I hope you enjoyed this first blog and I look forward to posting more for you to read in the future!