Engagement Project (1)

I'm an Elementary Education Major, and as a part of my major I'm required to do a 30 hour service project. I've decided to "double-dip" and use this service project for my class. I've been helping a few fourth grade teachers at Mt. Green Elementary school with their prep work for next year.

May is a very relaxed month for the the fourth grade team at Mt. Green Elementary School. Mrs. Fearn said that the teachers and the students are "done." SAGE testing is finished and the kids are burned out. So, on May 19th and 20th, I went up to Mrs. Fearn's classroom to do help her put in grades, and get going on prep work for the next school year. Mrs. Fearn likes to do a lot of the prep work during the "relaxed time" so she can enjoy most of her summer and not worry as much about school until August.

It's crazy how much teachers work after hours. They do A LOT of prep work which includes, cutting, gluing, designing lesson plans, writing their schedules, writing letters to parents, making their "Welcome to 4th grade!" mailing packets, etc. They do all of this during their "time off" and recently the teachers in Morgan school district no longer get paid to do this. Teachers used to get 10 paid planning days. Due to budget cuts, they no longer receive compensation for those 10 days. Just by spending time with the 4th grade team here, I'm learning a lot about the "realities" of becoming a teacher.

Me grading papers

Grading more papers and creating spreadsheets

Our Little Lydi Bug is not seeming so little anymore. (Sniff) Her 1 year mark is approaching much, much, too quickly. This past month my baby seemed to completely change. She is crawling SO much faster, she pulls herself up to anything and everything, and just yesterday she tried to stand up in the middle of the floor with no support. I miss the tiny baby stage, (especially since we have two new nieces on the Rose side that are just the sweetest!) however, this busy, baby stage is so much fun! Lydia is getting pretty good at performing. She was (and still is) waving bye-bye, "Rocking Out," giving kisses. Her new assortment of tricks are: "What does the puppy say?"she will pant like a dog. It's so cute! She says "cracker" (it sounds more like "tra-ter") for any finger food. She has been saying "mama" and "dada" for a while, but I think just recently she figured out that I'm mama, and Brian is dada. When she is tired she'll crawl towards me and say "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma." When Brian gets home she'll start saying "da-da-da-da-da" while she's playing around on the floor. She loves feeding herself these days, and is starting to eat "real" food better than baby food. She is growing up TOO FAST! I love it and hate it all at the same time.

Here are some pictures of what she is up to these days.

Here she is walking along the chair to the end table.

Her first funny pony tail :)

How she sleeps these days. I love her little diaper bum in the air.

Trying to figure out how to eat with a spoon.

Her favorite thing in the world: Riding the 4-Wheeler! Here she is riding with her Great-Grandpa Scott and cousins.

\











]