UTL640

I'm really doing it, y'all. Today was the first day of my UTeach internship class, known as "640" to all of the students, and it went better than I ever could have hoped. Yes, it is going to be extremely time-consuming, and I will probably have many stressed out moments, but I think I am going to learn so much about the art of teaching and just how to teach English in general, that I can't help but be excited about it. We are required to have 45 hours in the field, and of those 45 hours, 36 are observation hours, and nine of them will be spent teaching lessons. We will have university observers come and observe two of those lessons, and we also have to record ourselves teaching one lesson toward the end of the semester and hand it into our professor so she can watch it, evaluate us, and give us feedback on how we are doing. 

The first part of this three-hour class was spent on explaining all of that fun stuff, and after a ten-minute break, we got our district assignments so that we could start filling out our criminal background cheeks. I am going to be in Round Rock ISD, and though I wasn't supposed to find out the actual school I am going to be in until next week, Round Rock ISD required us to fill out the specific school, and I learned that I am going to be at Westwood High School. I have heard of Westwood High School because, not only is it a great school academically, it is also home to a pretty powerhouse volleyball team. Or at least it was when I was playing high school volleyball. I was not told the name of my cooperating teacher, only that I will "just love her," and I absolutely can't wait to meet her and begin this exciting journey. Once my background check clears (let's cross our fingers!), I can start visiting the school. I am so excited!

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Advertising

After my 640 class ended, I high-tailed it all the way across campus for a 12:30pm History and Development of Advertising class. If you ask me why I am taking an advertising class, blame it on the fact that both of my parents worked in advertising, and my dad is not letting me take just nine hours this semester. Though today was only syllabus and introduction day, I am really excited about this class. I feel as though discussing the persuasive techniques used by advertisers will be valuable to me as an English teacher, because I can use advertisements to teach a lesson that is actually applicable to the real world.

All-in-all, an excellent, albeit sweaty, second day of class! Add in the fact that I ran into two high school friends on campus, and it just can't be beat.

Workout

Now that I got the class thing out of my system, let's back up to before class this morning. I woke up a little bit before 6:30am and biked on over to Gregory for an early morning swim. I hadn't been swimming since last Thursday, and my sore muscles welcomed a relaxing swim. I swam for a little less than an hour before calling it a day and heading back to the Clubhouse to get ready for school.

Breakfast

Breakfast this morning looked a lot like it did yesterday morning - scrambled egg whites and spinach - and it was delicious. It was the perfect fuel for a long school day.

Lunch

My advertising class let out a little bit early, but I decided to stick around campus to decide if I wanted to stay in my 3:30pm class (I didn't), so I ate the lunch that I packed myself. I had already eaten the strawberries and grapes, but I sat down at a table in the Union and ate the star of the show: my chicken wrap. 

My parents sent me back to Austin with some leftover chicken from dinner one night, so I cut a piece of it up and put it inside a FlatOut Flatbread along with some hummus, spinach, and pickles. I wrapped it all up, secured it with a rubber band, and I was so sad when it was gone. I will definitely be utilizing more of these wraps, and I can't wait to experiment with different ingredients to see which ingredients I like best together.

I'll work on the picture quality of them, I promise!

And on the side I opened up a personal bag of Boom Chicka Pop Sea Salt Popcorn. If you guys haven't tried the Boom Chicka Pop popcorn brand, I highly recommend it. I have tried the sea salt and the lightly sweet flavors, and both are excellent (and addicting). The personal bags are absolutely necessary for me, because I have no self control when it comes to popcorn.

And now I am going to maybe do some reading before hitting up the big rivalry football game between Anderson High School and McCallum High School to see how my girls first week of high school is going. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday!