look in your heart and you’ll find

Today all of the junior Early Childhood and Elementary education majors went to Harrisburg and held a math fair with students from kindergarten to third grade. I was put in a first grade room with four other girls and had a blast. It was weird being in a school again since I haven’t been in one since last fall. I have had plenty of opportunities to observe and work with the kids in the Early Learning Center on campus, but being in an actual elementary school is so different. The day for the kids was a semi-hectic one since they were only having a half day and a large group of Messiah students had taken over their school, but they were definitely enjoying themselves.

It was so much fun for all of the Messiah students as well. Each of us was in charge of putting together a math activity for the students. We then spent the morning have the children rotate through our activities. My activity involved simple addition in thier heads and then using counters to check thier answer. With the incentive of “making lemonade” and a few hershey kisses, they were all very excited to be doing math. The children would then leave from my activity and travel on to another table where they would find another game and more goodies waiting for them. It was definitely a great morning for all of us.

As I sit here writing this post, I can not sit still and I cannot understand why. Today has been just one of those days where I have gone back and forth from being hyper and energetic to completely drained and then back to completely hyper. Sitting in my Bible class today, I could not sit still and was in the mood of laughing at almost everything (even those things that were not actually funny), which I’m sure was much to the chagrin of those around me. This action is currently continuing as I sit here in the office and I’m sure will continue as I go on to pick up things at the library and go back to my room to work on finishing my massive Children’s Literature paper that is due tomorrow.

Funnily, when I look back to a year ago today, I was in the exact same mood. On October 8th, 2008, I traveled up to Scranton in order to see Jason Mraz, and if any of you know me and my love of Jason you can assume I was pretty excited and needless to say…a little hyper. It is funny that a year later I am in the same exact mood, despite not going to see Jason tonight.
But despite my unexplainable craziness today, I do have things to be excited about…

1. The week is finally coming to an end. As I wrote in one of my past blogs, it has been a very busy past two weeks filled with papers, class presentations, tests, etc. etc. Even though the busyness of life will not end once I hand in my children’s literature paper tomorrow morning, it will be a definite relief to know that the past two weeks are over and all of the work that I had to do is completed.

2. Going along with school work…it is extremely exciting for me to say that I took the dreaded EDUC 301 Phonics test last night and feel pretty confident in how I did. Since I have done a number of my education classes a little out of order, I have always been in a class with junior elementary education majors in the fall and have heard their fears in taking this test, which is a two hour long, 120 question mid-term taken at night filled with a ton of information on phonics generalizations and early reading theories and practices. Knowing that I have never been able to understand phonics led me to have some worries about this test even two years before I would be having to take it myself. However, after all of the preparation that we did in class and then studying on my on for the test, I felt well prepared. So if you are an Education major awaiting this test…do not fear. You will be ready. But it is exciting to finally say, “I have survived the Phonics test!”
3. I am going home tomorrow for IUP homecoming. I have yet to be home since arriving on campus at the end of August and am not planning on going home again until Thanksgiving, so it will be nice to take a break and visit with family and friends. I love IUP homecoming too. Despite some of the cheesy things that we do, it is always fun to go watch the parade and  go to the football game. It is also just an exciting time in Indiana compared to the typical weekend in Indiana. Needless to say, I cannot wait.

So as I go off with the rest of my day…I am excited. There are lots of good things ahead of me and lots of worries behind me. Watch out world! Alyssa and her hyperness is about to leave the office!

Today is the first day of classes at Messiah College and I have successfully made it through two classes including square dance and Bible. It is so hard to believe that summer is already over and that all of campus is back and ready for fall semester. I’ve been here for only two days but it all just seems so normal and as if I have been here forever already. It is great to come back and meet up with friends again, go to chapel as one big community again, and just get reacquainted with the atmosphere of Messiah. So while I dreaded coming back and having to start class and be away from the comforts of home, now that I am here there are no problems. I am glad to be back and get back to my life at Messiah (despite still missing summer).

This summer was absolutely amazing! Looking back at everything that happened this summer I really just want to live it all again (don’t we all wish that at times haha). This summer was largely defined by work and friends. At home I work at a daycare and I absolutely love it! I also spent a lot of time helping out with children’s ministries at my church this summer. I taught the 2 and 3 year old Sunday School class and spent a majority of Sundays helping out with children’s worship during the two services as well. I miss my all of my little kids so much now that I am gone. Being with them is definitely affirming what I am being called to do, work with children. Everyone always says how you should love your job and I truly do. It is funny to me at times, that I am actually working and getting paid for what I am doing since I do love it soooooo much.

Since my friends and I are getting older it is getting harder and harder to get our entire friend group (there are 12 of us) together. There were so many of my friends traveling the world or taking summer classes at their campuses this summer that there were really only a few of us left. Those of us who did stay behind in Indiana had a great time together though. We saw so many movies, had a number of bonfires, went out to eat or get coffee numerous times, and we also went to a Jason Mraz concert (August 11th, Jump the Line passes leading to front center standing spots, the best day ever!) Altogether it was just a great summer! I miss everyone terribly now that summer is over. It was so hard to say bye to everyone especially being the last to leave, but being back at Messiah is always good too.

English has never been my favorite subject. Actually it has always been my least favorite. I don’t like writing, I HATE analyzing books, and I have never truly understood all of the grammar and punctuation rules (which I apologize for if you reading my blog and I make any mistakes and/or my writing style drive you crazy in anyway). All throughout my schooling I never truly got any help with English, which drove my parents crazy. I had an IEP in school and that would always be one of the things discussed but it never really got played out or ended up helping me in the long run. All of my English/writing teachers sort of drove me crazy. Granted there were a number that I enjoyed as people, but as teachers…not really.

Last year however I had the best English Gen Ed experience I could have ever asked for in 20th Century Women’s Literature with Helen Walker. Despite my general hatred for English classes and writing I actually enjoyed her class. We read plays and analyzed them a little bit but the majority of class was all about our own ideas and expressing them in our own ways such as through writing and putting on our own plays. Despite not being a great writer, Helen always showed that she liked my writing and rarely criticized my writing like I had experienced in the past, but she encouraged me to take a good piece of writing and make it better instead.

Last March I also decided to apply for the New Zealand cross cultural for which Helen Walker just happened to be the faculty leader. After my application and interview I knew I hadn’t been accepted and I later found out for sure that I hadn’t been. Even though I was slightly upset, I was truly ok because I knew God had much bigger things planned for me (I’m still not sure what, but I know its coming). I could really tell that Helen felt bad for not having accepted me though. This was especially true at one meeting that I had with her about a paper. She asked me how I was doing and expressed her genuine concern.

It is almost a year later and still she is showing the same care and concern about me. I don’t have class with her this year and I probably wont have class with her again, but I have a feeling whenever I see her she will still remember me and ask me how I’m doing. When I was walking down to work today, we passed each other and had a brief conversation. She asked how I was doing and we talked about how her trip to New Zealand was last month. It was nice to see and talk to her even if it was only for a brief minute. I really appreciate all that she has done for me, which I’m sure is more than she realizes. She actually made me enjoy an English class and she showed me true concern which I would have never expected from a professor that I would only have contact with during one class. Even though I’m still not too keen on English or writing, I have a much better attitude towards it and in a way miss having my English class last spring.

I’ve been in J-term one week and I’m loving it. For those of you who don’t know, J-term at Messiah is where all of the students take just one class everyday for three hours a day during the month of January. If you have read any of my past posts, it becomes pretty clear in some of them how much I love working with little kids. My class for J-term, Creative Expressions, allows me plenty of time to do just that. Our class is all about using creativity in the classroom and encouraging kids to use their creativity in all aspects of learning. For someone who doesn’t typically consider herself to be creative, I am actually loving the class as well as the time I spend trying to be creative. During our 15 days of classes, 8 of those days are being spent in the Early Learning Center on campus. I’ve spent the past two days in the classroom and I am loving it. The kids are so cute and are really a joy to work with. It will be hard to spend almost 8 straight days with them and then not get to truly work with them again.

All of my friends seem to be really jealous of my class as well. Not only do I spend my class time with little kids, but when we are in the actual classroom and having lecture we also spend at least part of that time creating some sort of art project. I’ve brought gak, window clings, paintings, and dyed paper back to the room after class. After their three hours of lecture and the hours worth of reading they still have left to do, they find it amusing that part of my lecture time included making some sort of art project. Now don’t get me wrong I still have a fair amount of reading and writing to do along with a few projects, so its not like I’m not doing any work, but I’m also definitely not complaining either.

Today was my last visit to a suburban school for my teaching profession class and it was my best visit yet. I was in third grade classroom which was literally the most chill classroom I have ever seen. The teacher was amazing. She said she a first year teacher, but there is no way I would have guessed that from her teaching. From the moment I walked into the room I felt surrounded by the completely chill, relaxed, and comfortable atmosphere the classroom had. All of the students quietly did thier own work while she worked with the different reading groups. In the middle of working with one of the groups one of her students threw up all over the front of the classroom. Despite this distraction and the expected commotion of the students, the class was still extremely chill. It was amazing. She had the sick student escorted to the nurses office, sprayed the room with vanilla cookie air freshener (which made the room even more chill because of the amazing smell), directed the kids to the carpet in the back of the room and soon all of the students continued on with thier work. As the morning continued this completly chill atmosphere remained. The students even had to take a math test before I left and there was absolutely no tension in the room. I found myself becoming jealous of these students and wished that she had been my third grade teacher. Considering my completely chill attitude towards life, I can only expect/ wish my classroom has a similar atmosphere when I actually become a teacher. I’m really hoping that I can make that come true.

Today was my first visit to an elementary school for Teaching Profession. I went with two other girls to Northside Elementary in Mechanicsburg. It was so weird actually going into the school for purposes other than re-visiting or picking up my brother. We arrived there at the beginning of their school day and met with the reading specialist who gave us an overview and a tour of the school since the principal was out. Afterwards we got to observe in whatever classroom we would like. My ideal age group to teach would be pre-k or kindergarten, but Mechanicsburg has just started full day kindergarten and created the Kindergarten Academy, a school set aside for all of the kindergarten classes in the district, so I went into a first grade room instead. It was so great to be back with young kids. My little kids from church and Grand Beginnings, the daycare I worked at this summer, are what I really miss most when I’m at Messiah. Being emmersed in college life leaves very little room for interacting with little kids even though opportunities do exist. Despite missing my little kiddos from home I had a great time with the first graders this morning. When I got there they were just beginning to work in centers so instead of just observing I was actually able to work with the kids and help them with their reading and writing assignments. Little kids are so funny. The things that they said and how excited they were that I was there just made me smile. It was just a great way to start my day even if it did mean getting up a little earlier and missing my kiddos back home a little bit more than usual.