Teaching

Surprisingly, I feel like I'm becoming a better teacher. I miss my gospel doctrine calling and LOVED it when I got to teach relief society. I taught my drama class a poem today and it totally flowed naturally. Things come quickly to me and I just feel like be a teacher was a life calling for me.

I wrote this little list for my TELL 430 class based off an article I read for fun. I feel smart. :)

Important Things to Remember When Teaching ELLs:

(according to Karalee Fuller)

1. Repetition is key. Just like you and me, they don’t understand everything the first time. Mix up the ways you teach important concepts to help it stick. (multiple contexts)

2. Just because a student can speak to you does not mean they understand the textbook or certain academic vocabulary. (BICS vs. CALPS)

3. English words are hard. Sometimes a word can be deciphered, but often times not. Would you know what the word interpretation means by just looking at the word?

4. Every ELL needs help outside of the classroom. In order to catch up to their peers they need more academic time. Ex: after school programs that support academic learning

5. Visual support helps ELLs. Pictures are the universal language.

6. Every lesson should be engaging and motivating.

7. Practice, practice, practice.

8. Relate new concepts to things they already know/prior knowledge, whenever possible. (scaffolding)

9. Group work has been seen to help with confidence and learning. The teacher doesn’t have to be the only one teaching.

There is not one “right way” to teach something.

Pool People

I've recently started working at the pool at BYU, lifeguarding. So there are many "types" of people at the pool. Let me just share a few of them with you.

1. The Fanatic Freshmen--99% are freshman boys who are showing off to each other/ the one girl there on the diving boards. They are literally fearless and most often not very smart when it comes to jumping off high objects.

2. The Chatter Boxes--women who come to workout and swim laps, but you most often find them standing at the wall telling stories. I'm sure they have really great stories.

3. The Flirtatious Few--There are a couple-three people here and there that tend to dunk and splash towards their opponent (aka girls) more than actually playing basketball. Rarely is a shot made.

4. The Overachiever Pregnant Lady--I'm pretty sure this lady is about to pop any day now. She comes and swims with her husband occasionally, who tries to surf on kick boards. It is quite a sight to see a VERY pregnant lady do backstroke. I'm sure it throws off your balance.

5. The Consistent Faculty--These are usually men who are there right at 11:58, waiting at the edge of the pool for two minutes until Faculty swim starts at 12:00. They stay right until 1:00 and always go in the same lane.

6. The Lifeguards--Probably the coolest people at the pool. We occasionally plank, drink smoothies, eat popcorn, and become computer zombies on break.

7. The Daring Grandpa--He comes with his daughter and grandkids and jumps on the 5 meter with them. He's still got it!

8. The Kick Boarding Boards--people who kick with kick boards with their bodies completely straight. Arms straight, legs straight, left pinky straight. So much in fact, that they don't move hardly at all no matter how hard they kicked. Some even move backwards.

9. The Non-Swimmer Instructor--The people that are teaching their buddies how to swim, yet they have interesting technique of the their own.

More to come I'm sure...

Planking

[The art of planking is to lay horizontally across any object or the ground with their arms by their sides, aiming to occur in daring situations or a brotherly display of core-strength...Planking is a great pastime for people who get bored easily and have friends willing to take pictures of them looking like retards. Public planking is more adventurous and is harder to pull off especially on things like: cop cars, public toilets, and in the middle of six way highways.] Urban Dictionary

So planking is one of my new past times. It's great fun, especially on dates or at work. I suddenly look at random objects in a different way. Could I balance on that ladder? or Will that bucket hold my weight? Very fun. Planking adds a lot of variety and spontaneity to your life.

Wacky Wednesday

Today was a bit wacky. Here's some of the adventures.

1. On the way to swim practice at 5:45 am this morning I was greeted by a very very happy/giggly couple walking together, arm over shoulder. I have no idea why they were so awake and what in the world they were doing. Strange.

2. I had a cookie for breakfast along with my cheerios.

3. Our warm up involved a 400 yd kick. For those who don't understand lengths in swimming, that is an unnecessary amount of kicking for a warm up. Most of the time we do about a 100 or 200.

4. My math tutor is a bit wacky. He was walking behind me for quite some time before I saw him to say hi while walking around a corner. I hope he wasn't there too long.

5. I actually participated in math today. Very wacky if you know me at all. Math and participating in class scares me.

6. There is a 20 year old girl in my math class who is 6 months pregnant. VERY WACKY. (she was married, but still wacky nonetheless)

7. I had breakfast for lunch thanks to Scott. It was awesomely wacky.

8. I'm wearing my balloon shorts because it was too hot to wear my jeans anymore. I really do feel like I'm wearing a pair of balloons on my lower half.

9. While walking home earlier today I noticed that I could not see a single cloud in the sky. That is how beautiful it was.

10. An old man at the Creamery randomly came up and started talking to me and Scott. I couldn't really understand what he was saying. Maybe his hearing aid had something to do with that. He gave Scott a high five.

[CHAT swim meet in Salt Lake City, UT]

[studying in the park for finals]

Smile

"Smile, cause you are happy, cause you feel like it, cause life is good. Feeling down? Write a list of good things, call a friend, go for a run, draw, write anything and everything down, turn up a song and dance like crazy, yell, jump on your bed, dress up like a rock star, put on crazy amounts of make up on for the heck of it, just smile." [Urban Dictionary]

And I'd like to add...make cookies, scrapbook, go swimming, try a new hairstyle, write a letter, take pictures of random things, eat ice cream, and call your mom.

"I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite." -Elf

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight." -Phyllis Diller

"Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been." -Mark Twain

"Always remember to be happy because you never know who's falling in love with your smile."

"A smile is like tight underwear--it makes your cheeks go up." -Unknown

"Smiling is one of the easiest ways we can serve others." -The Friend

The Highs and Lows of Spring

[a relaxing Sunday afternoon in the park]

Highs:

1. Warmth. I love it. AND its not the kind of "warmth" I'm used to in the midwest where you walk around with your clothes sticking to you or your rearview mirror falls off because the glue melted off the inside window.

2. Flowers. The purple ones are especially appealing or when they are brought by a nice boy or helping grandma plant them.

3. Outside activities are highly enjoyable. Bike rides, hikes, swimming, volleyball, picnics, you name it, I've done it or have plans to do it.

4. I learned that Utah actually turns green. It was a little bit of a shocker.

5. Fun people. Provo is FULL of them, in case you didn't know.

6. Shorts. I love wearing shorts and my legs like them too.

7. Getting tan. It's a very fun thing because ironically I feel healthier, healthier looking that is. I'm sure the ghost look in the winter isn't very appealing.

8. Flip flops. They're in style because of spring.

9. Walks are bearable for once. You don't freeze or have a fear of falling due to cold precipitation.

10. Studying outside is much more fun and bearable than studying inside next to a person chomping on their gum.

11. It's light outside when I go to swim practice. Pretty cool stuff.

12. Utilities bill is lower.

13. Random road trips to Arizona for Memorial Day weekend.

[taken on a hike with Scott up rock canyon]

Lows:

1. ***ahh chooo***ah, ahh choo*** excuse me. The allergy season is here. It's not very fun.

2. Lots of rain. It's not very cool because it doesn't POUR or lightning very often, just spits all day long.

3. The nasty worms that appear ALL over the sidewalk after/during the rain. It's gross and I'm sure I've stepped on a good hundred, at least.

4. Spring semester classes. Boo, I would just like to play all day. Finals week starts tomorrow!

5. My room [loft] gets really hot due to the fact that hot air rises. I worship my fan.

6. Fuzzy slippers are too warm. They are keeping the bottom of my bed company.

7. Missing my family. They are tooo far away. This is the one and only time I have ever wished I grew up in Utah.

8. I'm taking a summer class and there is unwanted anticipation for its arrival.

9. Hard swim workouts that occur often. The ridiculously boring ones are the worst, however.

10. Having some of my friends gone for the summer because they went home.

[on road trip to Flagstaff, Arizona]

Family Photo

On May 9th, 2011 we had our latest family photo together. It was quite a momentous feat to get us all together and smiling, but it worked. As you can see we are one happy family and I love them all very very much! Let me analyze it for you.

Rachael is very happy as can be and beautiful as ever. It is appropriate that she is in the center of the picture.

Devin is the sweetest boy I know and for some reason never went through an awkward stage. Lucky. Maybe it'll catch up to him ;)

Mom is the pride and joy of our family and is gorgeous. Pure happiness from that face.

Dad is a goofball. Enough said.

Sterling doesn't quite know what he likes about his family and thinks we're all weirdos. (which we are)

And I'm just overjoyed to be taking a family picture! (especially with my new camera!)

Fuller Family Funness right there everyone.