District House

I just had to share this because I think that it is so cool.

So, I've mentioned before that one of the classes that I teach is an Interior Design II class. There are only eight students in the class, so it is really laid back. (Especially right after the class before it which has a zillion students. Seriously. There aren't even enough desks for all of the students.) They have been working on a project all semester called the District House. It's awesome. You see, Alpine School district actually builds two houses every year and then sells them. This year, Westlake is in charge of the construction and design of the house. The wood shop is making cabinets, other classes are providing their contributions, and the Interior Design II class actually gets to design the interior of the home! It is set up so that the students are in groups and are competing with each other to come up with the very best design. Next week, I will assist in picking a winner. Let me say this again: The students who designed the winning project will actually be able to see all of their plans carried out in a real life house! They put together a whole binder full of designs, color swatches, counter/carpet/wood samples, quotes from different companies, and many other details.

I think that it is an incredible learning opportunity for the students to get that hands on experience. Plus, there is something really cool about seeing something that you designed become a reality. (I feel that way every time I see a wedding announcement that I designed after it has been printed. Especially when my clients mail me an announcement - it's an awesome feeling to watch it come out of an envelope. It makes me giddy every time!)

Pretty much... I think that Alpine School District is pretty awesome. Especially this school. It's really new (less than three years old) and has around 2000 students (which is huge for a small town girl like me). One thing that shocked me when I started here was their cell phone/technology policy. The policy essentially states that students can have their cell phones/ipods/laptop computers in class - as long as it is not creating a major distraction. Holy moly - 360 from when I was in school! I am still not sure how I feel about it. It really gets under my skin to see students with headphones in while I am talking (especially when they are sharing headphones with their neighbor and I can see them both tapping out the rhythm on the desk.) But - it actually hasn't been as distracting as I thought that it would be. Which surprises me. Maybe it isn't worth the fight to keep the technology out of the classroom.

So I am curious - how many of you did projects like the District House when you were in school? Also, what was your school policy concerning technology? What do you think that the technology policy should be?

Well... thats it! I believe that my job interview is tomorrow. Wish me luck!

First Day

Hooray! Today was my first day teaching at Westlake High School. I am not going to lie, I was a little bit nervous about everything because I didn't know exactly how everything was going to go... but everything went wonderfully. Like I said before, my friend Emily just had a beautiful baby girl and needed a long term sub while she is on maternity leave. It worked out perfectly for me to be able to take over for her.

I didn't talk about it very much on this blog because I didn't want to tell everyone that I was going to do it, and then have something not work out - but now it is officially official. I am a long-term sub at Westlake High! I will be interviewing later this week for the permanent teaching position. There is nothing guaranteed - so I am not getting my hopes up too much - but it will definitely be to my advantage to be in the classroom already with the students. Today I taught Interior Design 1, Interior Design 2, and Clothing 1. Tomorrow I will be teaching Foods, Clothing 2, Clothing 1 and Financial Literacy. I've never really understood how the AB schedule works, but now that I have been thrown into it... I really like it!  

I love being in the classroom. Seriously, it rocks. The best part is that I have no supervising teacher (like I did in student teaching). I feel completely comfortable and am excited to be able to have control over how I run things. (Obviously I am just a sub right now, but I am still able to teach the lessons with my own personality without having to worry about someone else judging everything that I do.) Also, I really love the subjects that I teach here. They are absolutely perfect for me.

We still don't have internet at our house, so I am blogging this from my classroom. (It's so cool. I am like a real life grown-up!) I still haven't talked to David about his day, but today was his first day at HBM as well. The first two days are training, and then he will dive right in. I had to be to work about an hour earlier than he did - so we woke up and he made my lunch and then went down to scrape my car for me. (He really is the BEST husband.) I was surprised when he came back in the apartment after less than a minute, but he just smiled at me and said, "I forgot that we live in Lehi now and not Logan. I didn't even have to scrape."

*sigh* I could really get used to not having to scrape my car on a daily basis.

I realize that there isn't much of a point to this post - but I will be going home today and will be without the internet for the rest of the day. (Unless I stop at the McDonalds on the way home and sit in their parking lot to use their internet. Which, I must admit, has happened frequently over the past couple of weeks.) I just wanted to share my excitement of a successful day and my relief that nothing terrible happened. I will definitely keep you posted on my many adventures in the classroom.

Merry {belated} Christmas!

Hello again. Have you missed me? We haven't seen each other in a while due to the fact that David and I have been incredibly busy over the past few weeks. David finished up his final semester of college and graduated with his Masters of Accounting. We both finished up our jobs, packed up all of our earthly possessions and moved to Lehi. We actually haven't spent much time at our new apartment due to spending the holidays with family but it is slowly coming together. 

I've had a bit of bloggers block - but I figured that I should blog about Christmas before we really get started into this new year. So here we go...

Our Christmas was wonderful. We started out with my family in Morgan. We stayed there for Monday through Saturday and had all sorts of fun getting ready for Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve my family went to see "Tangled" at the movie theater. I absolutely LOVED it. It was so cute. I don't consider myself a movie owner (as in - I don't purchase many movies for my personal collection because I don't generally like to re-watch movies) but this is definitely one that I would like to own. It's darling.

Here is the whole gang (minus Melissa who was at work and David who was taking the picture).

My beautiful sister Jenna and I. Don't judge me and my red eyes. I definitely cried during the movie.

Here we are! We had such a great time.

We are a little crazy. Also, this is a demonstration of my strange tendency to stand on things so I am taller than everyone else around me. I think it stems from my subconscious self-consciousness of being the oldest but shortest of my whole family. 

 

This is our delicious Christmas Eve Pizza. Yummm...

On Christmas Eve we pulled all the mattresses in by the Christmas Tree and slept there.

This is the only picture that we got from Christmas Morning. This is one of the presents that David gave to me. Isn't it wrapped so pretty? 

This is what Christmas looks like at the Peaden home. With over 20 people in the family the presents tend to pile up. It's a beautiful sight to behold! 

David and I before the great un-wrapping began.

Overall our Christmas was wonderful. We were so blessed to be able to spend so much time with our families and to be able to relax and enjoy the break. We were also grateful to be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. There are so many reminders of his love for us during this season - it's amazing and makes me even more grateful for the blessings that I have.

Thanks for reading and... Merry {belated} Christmas!