I should really be working on lessons plans right now. I can guarantee that 90% of my posts will start with that exact statement. Do ‘real life’ teachers had to go through this painful process too? Coming up with pointless rationales and objectives for each little thing they do? Okay, I don’t want to get in trouble here. Rationales and objectives are anything but pointless when you’re dealing with the future generation, but do we honestly have to write them down word for word?

I guess I should introduce myself to the world wide web before I go on ranting about the one thing I’ve been dreaming to be since I was five. You can call me Miss Scott, as I assume that’s what I’ll be hearing the most these next few months. It took me a while to get where I am today. Two years at Seton Hall University and three at Rutgers. I graduated with a Communication degree and threw it away to land at The College of New Jersey to get a master in Education (MAT Program). – I didn’t really throw it away though, my diploma is framed on the wall, hanging above my television so I can remind myself of my worth every time I watch ‘Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader’ (I never am, pathetic, right?). I started my journey at TCNJ this past summer with two classes: Exploring Teaching and Advanced Child Development. This semester I have five course: Internship I (which will become student teaching), Methods in Inclusive Science, Concepts and Methods in Teaching Mathematics in Elementary Grades, Multicultural and Social Studies Methods, and Language Arts and Literacy. I start student teaching 5th grade in Trenton this Wednesday and I couldn’t be more anxious. I can’t grasp if I’m more nervous or excited, but I guess I’ll let you know later this week.

Okay enough of business, and more of… not business? Who knows, I’ve been so overwhelmed with homework these past few weeks; I’m not sure if it’s the graduate school that’s kicking my ass, or the fact that I haven’t been in school full time in about two years. Either way, I’ve been swamped. Not to mention still desperately trying to hold onto my part-time job at The Olive Garden (but that’s another story for another day). I am also in the process of raising a 10 week old kitten, Oscar, who is truly my baby. I’ll probably talk about him a lot. He’s sleeping now- the main reason why I am actually able to type on my laptop without getting my hands pounced on. Needless to say he has devil / angel syndrome, which I pray he grows out of once he grows up and stays strictly angel.

Crap, I got off track again. Okay- back to business, or… well, whatever. Lesson plans will be the death of me. For the past week and a half my partner and I have been working on a lesson about Thanksgiving. Who would have thought doing a lesson on Thanksgiving would have taken so much thought and been so time consuming. The main assignment was to be able to come up with an inclusive lesson plan fit for both my graduate class level students, as well as TCNJ’s CCS students (Career and Community Studies; students with intellectual disabilities who receive a certificate at the end of their program). We finally completed it and did the lesson in front of the classes this past Thursday. It went well, but it's hard to teach inclusively!

Well, sorry to get this short; but I really must be working on some teacher stuff now.