I'm back!

Well, it's been quite a while since I've written on this. I've returned from my summer in Orlando, working as a Fairy Godmother in Training at DisneyWorld. If you want to read all about that, just tell me and I'll send you an invite. :)

It's week 2 of school, but it feels like I've been here a full semester already. Moving in was a little difficult with a broken arm and a shoulder that likes to give out, so it made carrying things and unpacking loads of fun, but I've got some good friends, and they helped me out quite a bit. My long cast is now gone and I have a much shorter one, which makes it a lot easier to do things for myself. I'm not quite as helpless as I was a week ago.

The first week of classes felt like a month, if not longer. I had some of the most boring classes you could possibly think of--namely, British Literary History, focusing on the Middle Ages through the 1600s. Reading the entire Beowulf poem and writing a paper on it all in one night is definitely not my idea of fun. But I've made some major decisions and changed my entire schedule. So far I'm liking my new classes a lot more than the old ones, and I think I'll like this major better as well. I've decided to go with Elementary Education, rather than English Teaching. After working with kids this summer, I've decided that I really do love to work with kids, and teaching a bunch of teenagers English just doesn't sound like something I really want to do. But I'm set on the teaching aspect, and I think I'd really enjoy teaching kindergarten/1st grade.

So that's my plan, and I'm not going to change it. This was the last semester I've given myself to make changes to my major, so now it's final. I should be able to graduate on time with the El Ed major too, something that wasn't going to happen with English Teaching. Now let's just hope that I get accepted into the program. I'm not too worried, but you never know. I'm planning to apply in January, so we'll see how things go.

I've decided my favorite class will probably be Human Development, which studies the psychological growth of children. The lecture today was fascinating, and we discussed different types of parenting, how it's effective, what each type of parenting technique accomplishes, etc. We also discussed how a child's ability to learn and comprehend changes with age, and what they are capable of internalizing and learning with each stage. It was really intriguing, and I think I'm going to really like this class. I've always been interested in psychology, particularly developmental psychology, so this class is perfect.

I also had a physical science class today, that's catered towards teaching physical science in elementary school. I found it to be a little dull, but granted, I'm not a huge fan of physical science either. But I did think it was really neat to be studying it in the perspective of teaching it to elementary school kids. We did activities where we had to explain certain concepts to others as if they were a 3rd grade class, and then we had to pretend to be 3rd graders as others explained it to us so that we could try to get some perspective of what they would and wouldn't understand, and how it would be most effective to explain certain principles of physics in a manner they could understand.

I also have two religion classes, D&C and LDS Marriage and Family, a biology course similar to the physical science one where we learn it in the perspective of teaching it in elementary school, as well as a Music and Civilization course. I think I'll really like these classes. I'll definitely enjoy them a lot more than my old ones, that's for sure.

And I think that's about it for now. Tonight I have a meeting with the bishop and I'll get a new calling. That should be.... exciting? :) Till next time!