Teacher Talk

Today I realized something.
Exactly a year ago (well not exactly because a year ago today was a snow day) I started student teaching.

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't extremely nervous beforehand.
Honestly, my anxiety was so bad those first three days that I threw up and almost didn't go in.
But I went.

And I LOVED it.

I fell in love with my first placement -- the school, the staff, the kids...

Now here I am, one year later, in the same school, with the same staff, the same kids, and even in the same room(!) as when I student taught.
I'm halfway through my first year as a teacher and it's everything I'd ever dreamed it'd be and everything I never thought it'd be.

So, to wrap it up (and I like lists) here's 5 things I've learned in my first (half) year teaching and 5 things I still really want to learn.

5 Things I've Learned

1. You WILL make mistakes.
I've yet to have a lesson go completely 100% smoothly.

And you know what?

I've learned THAT'S OKAY.

The kids don't even notice half the time anyway.

2. You will shy away from your lesson plan (if you write one).

Half the time I don't even write lesson plans anymore (Good-bye college!),

But when I do, I don't follow them completely.

I don't even follow the ones in my head.

Sometimes it just comes down to "Do they really need to understand this vocabulary word they'll never use?" or "Do they need to learn the difference between these two concepts that they'll use almost every day for the rest of their lives?"

I pick the second.

3. Sub plans SUCK.

Seriously, I hate writing sub plans.

I feel like I'm TOO detailed. 

But I want them to understand what I want the kids to do, right?

4. You won't always know what to say.

Kids will cry.

Kids will act out.

Kids will hide in themselves and not want to come out.

And sometimes, you won't know what to say.

That's probably okay too.

We are human after all.

5. Time goes quickly.

Seriously?!

I'm halfway through my first year!

5 Things I Want To Learn

1. When do you speak up with ideas and when do you just let tradition keep going?

2. Will I eventually stop feeling like I'm not good enough?

3. Does planning get easier? 

4. Do I get more motivation?

5. How do I become a morning person?!

About Jayme

Hello there!

My name is Jayme. I'm a twenty-something who lives in Iowa, but I am not, never have been, never will be a farmer/farmer's daughter/farmer's wife.

I'm what you may call a work-a-holic. I'm a Kindergarten to 8th grade ELL/Reading teacher by day, a 5-week to 5-year old daycare teacher/office worker by night, and I weekend as a salad bar employee at my local supermarket. 

In my "free time" I'm a wife, a blogger, and a social media expert. I read an impressive amount of books and watch an obnoxious amount of television shows. My musical tastes range from jazz to country to rap to hip-hop. 

My husband, Daniel, and I have been together since I was in the 8th grade. We were off and on through high school, made it through a long-distance college relationship, and got married the month after I graduated. We are about to celebrate our one-year anniversary and I'm absolutely thrilled for the many more to come.

I was born in Dallas and raised in Denver, so I'm a city girl at heart.

I crave the fast-paced life of living in the city, but I struggle with extreme anxiety, so suburban/country life is a little bit better for me.

My dream is to one day live in the South, where I can sit barefoot on my front porch, in a rocking chair, sipping on some sweet tea and eating some cajun chicken. 

NO JOKE.

I'm so jealous that my family lives in Nashville and it's my new goal to convince my husband that we want to live there too.

I'm a Christian woman who returned to the faith February 2, 2013 and became a member at my church this past March. 

I'm married to a fantastic, God-loving man who challenges my faith in so many wonderful ways.

The Lord has changed my life in so many crazy, earth-shattering ways and I love sharing my story with others.

My dream would be to travel Central & South America, spreading the gospel.

That dream comes second to my dream of having a family.

I already have the super hot husband and together we've started the extremely frustrating (but super fun) journey of trying to have a child.

Ideally, we want a boy and a girl, but we will be happy with whatever God provides for us.

After having our own biological children, we want to look into adopting a child and giving them a second chance at life.
In fact, having a child is on my Thirty Before Thirty list. :)

My biggest role model in my life is my grandmother - my mom's mom. She is the strongest woman I've ever met and is always there for me. I wouldn't be where I am without her.

I'm addicted to coffee, Netflix, Jenna Marbles videos, dancing, My Drunk Kitchen, staying up too late, Diet Cherry Pepsi, singing way too loud, chai tea lattes, Taylor Swift, and Young Adult novels.

Life is crazy. So sit back, grab your drink of choice, and enjoy the ride.

January 2015

After talking at length with my good friend Meghan (If you're new, you'll notice most big decisions are discussed with her first), I've finally figured out how I'm going to do my monthly goals, as well as how I'm going to connect them to my "word" of 2015.

BUT, before that...

My December goals were as follows:

1. Finish reading the New Testament with Daniel. -- WE DID IT! We're going to start on the full Bible for 2015.

2. Drink 80 oz. of water daily. -- Yeah, that's a fail.

3. Hit 100 miles on Nike run. -- I DID IT! I have no idea HOW I did it. But I DID it!

4. Get my budget/spending in order and get out of debt. -- Getting out of debt is going to take a lot longer, but I've got my budget figured out and we're taking great steps towards being out of debt. More to come.

5. Complete the 30 day fitness challenges -- I did 2 days. We don't talk about it.

So, back to the present.

I've decided that I want each of my monthly goals to fit into my larger "word" of 2015 -- intentional.

In order to make this happen, I've decided on 5 categories -

Mental Health/Recovery

Physical Health/Weight Loss

Relationships

Faith

Money

Each month time will also tie into one of these categories.

Another thing Meghan and I are doing is a "No _____________ Month" each month and tying it in.

You'll see.

January Goals

mental health & recovery// be open and honest at my initial appointment for therapy. 

I have my first appointment Friday the 2nd and if I want results, I'm going to need to be open and I'm going to need to be honest. 

physical health & weight loss// No fast food. Pretty self explanatory. For the month of January, I will not be eating fast food. Hoping that will jump start my weight loss, which is officially part of my overall physical health because I let it get out of control.

relationships// send my grandma a personalized birthday card in the mail. This is where "time" comes into play. I will take the time to intentionally make my grandmother a card for her birthday, as well as to mail it. I'll also call her on her birthday. My grandma is one of my biggest supporters and it's time I show her how important she is.

faith// challenge myself to learn something during each section of my church's spiritual formation. Daniel and I joined a small group for the next 7 weeks that is going to be going through a "spiritual formation" workbook. I want to challenge myself to go out of my comfort zone if needed and learn something new in each "section" or chapter.

money// connect my investment account to my checking account so I can make deposits. Ideally my goal is to deposit $25 a month back into my investment account. For now, baby steps, let's set this up.

Welcome 2015!

I've already posted my 2014 Year in Review, but what I've been slacking on so far is posting my "New Years Resolutions - 2015". Being that there's only a few short hours left of the year, I should do that.

This year, I've decided to join in with many other people and choose one word to focus on, instead of a bunch of resolutions I'll never stick to past January 2nd. Then I'll just continue making my monthly goals and checking them off 12 times a year.

My word I've chosen is intentional. I want to be intentional in the things I do:
-my teaching
-my faith in Jesus
-my work
-my relationships
-my therapy
-my monthly goals
-my free time
-my blog

There's too many times in my every day life that I just say "eh". 2015 is my year to change that.

I'll start thinking about my January goals so I can recap my December goals and post (hopefully) tomorrow.

Have a fun New Years and be safe! ♡

two thousand fourteen.

There's just about three days left of this entire year and I gotta tell you, they're going to be busy.

I'm working long hours at my daycare to try to pull in some extra money, Daniel starts physical therapy, and Daniel gets an MRI on his back (finally).

So, thanks to all that chaos and confusion that's going to be going on in the next few days, I decided I should do my 2014 Year in Review and my 2015 "Resolutions/Goals" now while I have the time and the sanity (that may be questionable).

January - January is the month where I finally started student teaching. The last three years at Drake University all led up to this moment. I was finally going to get to apply what I had learned and see if I could make it as an actual teacher. The first three days I was so nervous that I threw up before even leaving my apartment, but after that, I fell in love. I knew this was what I was meant to do. 

February - In February, I "celebrated" one whole year of being a Christian. It was February of 2013 that I prayed for Jesus to come into my life and in February I reflected back on that choice and what it had done for my life.

March - Well, in March of this year my dad moved away. For the first time he wasn't just a 2 hour drive away. He's now about 11 or 12 hours away. His job forced him to move from small town Iowa to Nashville, Tennessee. It was kind of a tough transition for everyone and to be honest, we are still getting used to it. My mom and brother joined him later on in July and I've now been there to visit once, so things are getting better and easier.

April - In April I had my first grown up interview for a teaching position. Luckily for me, it was at the same school I fell in love with while student teaching, so I already knew the questions they were going to ask and already had a decent relationship with the principal. I was pretty confident things were going to go well and when I got a call literally 20 minutes after leaving the school, I was psyched!

May - In May I said goodbye to my home of the last 4 years. I got all dressed up in my cap and gown and walked across the stage, diploma (case) in hand. It was surreal. I still sometimes can't convince myself that I graduated college with a Bachelor's Degree. It literally does not seem like I'm old enough to do that. But I did. And I'm pretty proud of myself. (My brothers graduated high school 2 weeks later. What?!)

Yeah, I'm REALLY short compared to them.

June - This was the month I'd been waiting for all years. Really, for 4 years. In June I finally ended my four year engagement by marrying the love of my life. Words cannot describe how much I love this kid and all the things we've learned together in the last six months. 

July - Fourth of July weekend we took our "honeymoon" to Hannibal, Missouri and St. Louis. We toured the Mark Twain caves (I married a history nerd) and then went to Six Flags with his cousin. We also went to the Monumentour with Fall Out Boy and Paramore, which was, fantastic.

After surviving our first roller coaster - the Batman.

August - Technically I started teaching in July (Yeah, school started early) but I spent August still trying to get used to things. I'm still trying to get used to being the new teacher. I am mostly ELL, but I also teach a class of middle school reading which has taken a LOT of adjustments. 

September - I literally have no recollection of the month of September...

October - In October I got a visit from my blogger/best friend in real life Meghan and we went and saw the wonderful(ly attractive) Brantley Gilbert in concert. October is also the month I went and visited my family in Nashville and got to go see Craig Campbell, Charlie Daniels Band, and Rascall Flatts (and more) at the Grand Ole Opry. It was a good month for concerts.

 

November - November 26th I marked two full years of being self-injury free. That's not something I've written about a lot in this blog yet, but it was a big part of my life for approximately 9 years. As of November, I'm two full years into recovery.

December - December was my staff Christmas party where Daniel finally met all the other teachers that I work with on a day to day basis. Luckily, they all got along. We did an Amazing Race around Des Moines and our team won!! December is also the month that my grandpa officially was diagnosed with cancer. We're still trying to figure out what this all means.

Album - 1989. Oh my golly this was a good year for Taylor Swift.

TV Show - Red Band Society, How to Get Away with Murder, and Black-ish.

Movie - A Million Ways to Die in the West. (Unfortunately, I still haven't seen The Fault in Our Stars, Divergent, If I Stay, etc. or I'm sure they'd be on the list!)

Book - Tuesdays with Morrie, Taking Chances

Song - Blank Spaces, All About That Bass, Black Widow, Bang Bang

Games - Trivia Crack & Subway Surfers. I can't stop.

How About The "Worst Of" or "Things I Wish Would Go Away"?

Things I Wish Would Go Away - Everyone's obsession with Miley Cyrus. Is she doing drugs? Is she not? Is she having inappropriate sex? Is she not? Oh no, Hannah Montana is being naughty. Seriously, I'm over it. Whether I was a die hard supporter of Miley or not, how is it any of our business to judge her? She's not 14 anymore. She's an adult. And she wanted to break out of the Hannah Montana thing. I get it. Sure, she went a little overboard. But so have many other child stars. I'm just over seeing her name in the headlines. Unless people wanted to start talking about the good things she's doing.

Things I Don't "Get" - Leggings as pants. Year after year I still don't understand this fad. Sure, they're comfortable. And some of them look okay. But there's some that just look awful.

Things I Started Saying As A Joke, But Now Can't Stop - I literally can't even, YOLO, ratchet, bae, on point, basic

Things I Definitely DIDN'T Start Saying & Hopefully Never Will - thot, fleek

2014 Year in Review

I plan on doing my own year in review post in the near future, but I saw this survey one on Meghan's blog, so I decided to play along.

What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before? I graduated college. I got married. And I started my teaching career

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions?
Will you make more for next year? I didn't flat out fail my resolutions...but I didn't do well. I'm sure I'll make more next year.

Did anyone close to you give birth? A co-worker did. And some old friends of mine. But nobody really "close" to me.

Did anyone close to you die? Yeah.  

What countries did you visit? Just USA.

What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014? Money. Haha.

What date from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory? June 28 <3

What was your biggest achievement of the year? Graduating from Drake.

What was your biggest failure? Gaining back all the weight I had lost.

Did you suffer illness or injury? Not really.  

What was the best thing you bought? Um...I don't know? 

Whose behavior merited celebration? My parents for having to be separated for a few months, moving their entire lives, etc.

Where did most of your money go? Bills. Boo adulthood.  

What did you get really, really, really excited about? My wedding.

What song will always remind you of 2014? Shake it Off

Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder? Happier
Thinner or fatter? Fatter.
Richer or poorer? Moneywise - poorer. But richer in life.

What do you wish you’d done more of? Relaxed.  

What do you wish you’d done less of? Being upset over stupid stuff.  

How will you be spending Christmas?

With family. 

Did you fall in love in 2014?

Every day.  

How many one-night stands? Zero.

Who were your best friends? Meghan, Lauren, Stephanie, Nicole.  

What thing did you do that was meaningful to others? I wrote all my bridesmaids really personal notes with their gifts and they enjoyed them.

What were your favorite TV programs? Grey's, HTGAWM, Red Band Society

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I try very hard not to hate anyone, so I'd say no.  

What was the best book you read in 2014? Asking me to pick a favorite book? HA HA HA. 

What was your greatest musical discovery? I'm just glad I got back into Taylor Swift. lol

What did you want and get? A husband. haha

What did you want but did NOT get? Money and a hot body.

What were your favorite films this year? A Million Ways to Die in the West.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 22 and I didn't really do a lot because I was getting married 2 weeks later so that was more important.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not much I'd say. This was a decent year..

What kept you sane?

Faith, Family & Friends.  

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Chad Michael Murray. I started watching Chosen and let's be real....

What political issue stirred you the most?

Ferguson  

Who do you miss? My family.

Who are the best new persons you met this year? I love (almost) all my new co-workers and my students! 

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014. Growing up is not all it's cracked up to be when you're 5. 

Quote that sums up your year: Enjoy the small moments because you'll look back and they'll be your biggest memories.  

Top 10 Books of 2014

This is probably going to be the hardest post I've ever had to write.
I LOVE to read and do it constantly.
So, picking only 10 books that I've read this year to call my "favorite" is going to be hard.

But, I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for Top Ten Tuesday!

These are going to be in no particular order. That's too much pressure!!

Taking Chances by Molly McAdams.

I read this book in two sittings. It was so wonderful.

Shout out to Meghan for recommending it and letting me borrow her copy!

Don't Go by Lisa Scottoline

Holy moly tears and heartache! This book grabbed me at page one and I didn't want to put it down.

Every time I thought I had something figured out, something different would happen.

Whoooo. What a roller coaster.

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

I'm not usually a biography person, so I was a little hesitant.

But this story is amazing. It's hard to believe someone so young can make such a difference.

This book really opened my eyes to a lot of issues in our world and I can only hope more people like her step up.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I fell in love with The Kite Runner, so I had to read this book. 

I was not disappointed.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

I had seen the movie and absolutely loved it, so I wanted to read the book.

I love books that are about these kinds of topics and the way Ned Vizzini presents this was wonderful.

I Still Believe by Jeremy Camp

Another biography, but it was also excellent. 

I love Jeremy's music, but I had no idea some of the things he's been through in his life.

But throughout it all, he keeps his faith. And that's just so inspirational.

Radical by David Platt

Another Christian book. This one presents to us how many people think they're following Jesus, but they're really only following the church and doing what makes them feel comfortable.

This book opened up a lot of honest conversations between my husband and I about where we are going with our faith.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

How did I miss reading this forever ago when everybody else read it?

This story touched my life.

I had no idea some of the struggles that people with this disease have to deal with.

Powerful.

Real Happy Family by Caeli Wolfson Widger

This book was a crazy whirlwind. 

I think I got it for free on my phone because the author was trying to put it out there because she's new?

Anyway, this book presents a lot of the dangers of drugs, but it's so wonderful.

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

I'm currently reading this, but I'd like to think I'll finish in 2014...

It's so good. Twisted, but wonderful. 

I can't say much more, since I haven't finished. But it's definitely going to be one of my favorites.