Surviving Student Teaching: Rount MushMore

This week has been insane.. I taught all day Monday. Tues and Wed we had a poetry reading in each class and oh boy did those kids NOT practice. There were a lot of low grades on their oral interpretations and I felt like an alligator meanie head by the time they were all done! Gotta earn the grades though.. I learned this week about how much organization and record keeping matter as a teacher. And I mean--MATTER! 145 students, 2 big assignments, and papers flying around like crazy, you've got to know your stuff! Thurs and Fri (minus 1 class period), I taught all day again. Starting Mon I think I'm pretty much the teacher. AHH!!! Fri afternoon my MT wasn't in the room when class started and a student asked where she was. My reply: "Doesn't matter, I'm here and I'm your teacher." Also said to a student who said shut up to someone, "Hey! Don't say that in my classroom!" Yupp.. I think I'm taking over!

Friday--big! I had a brand new experience last night. That experience was called: Deadwood, South Dakota. Want to know what Deadwood is? For all intents and purposes lets just refer to it as one giant casino with cliffs on either side of the street ;) Don't judge--I gambled!! It's something that I wanted to experience, and now I can check it off my bucket list. Whoop! I am happy to say that I won some money, but sad to say I didn't come home with any of it. Over all the evening only took $10 from me (plus a $3 fee at the ATM and $10 to the Colonel for some KFC dinner =). I learned how to play black jack! I'm rather good at it.. good enough not to lose everything anyway. Its really fun! I want to teach my family/friends and just play for kicks and giggles! I also want to watch 21 sometime soon... (the pic is of the Morning Star, the casino I played Blackjack in)
Saturday--this day was even bigger! After waking up too early for my liking (gotta hate when you have to pee during the wee hrs of the morning..), I got ready and headed into town. My friend Chris and I went to Rapid City!! [Side note: I can see how referring to Chris is going to become confusing when my buddy Chris gets home from his mission in 4 days.. I'll have to remedy that..] We shopped at Rushmore Mall. I got 2 beautiful sweaters from the Gap for a total of $20 dollars (bragged to my sister and she said, oh what a steal; yes, we all know how I love to steal: bases, hearts, and gap sweaters.. I thought I was pretty funny;). I was carrying my gap bag (a plastic drawstring one) as we walked through the mall after some Fudruckers (YUM!), and Chris said something mouthy to me, so I wapped him with my bag. Well imagine blowing up a plastic bag and then popping it bc that is what the effect was! My Gap bag POPPED!! My sweaters and receipt flew out causing both Chris and I to bust out laughing earning us plenty of weird stares. Who knew that would happen..! (One of said sweaters, pictured below!)

Biggest, and best thing that happened today--I SAW MOUNT RUSHMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is true. Saw it with my own two eyes, took some pictures, made up a song about it (Rount Mushmore.. We were pretty tired when we made it up), and contemplated buying a Mount Rushmore sheriff's badge with my name on it, but settled for a stop by the restrooms on my way back to the car. Check two things off my bucket list! All in one weekend!
South Dakota--great place to have an adventure even if it pays it's teachers a terribly poor excuse for a salary =)