A Midwestern Girl, Living in the Sunshine State: Rewind

Hi, my name is Erin and I have a blog that I have neglected. A quick summary of the last year: I have been non-stop busy. Let's see...the last time I updated, I just finished my second semester in the Early Childhood Studies Program at NIU. Since then I have completed two more VERY busy semesters. Let me give a recap of the last couple semesters.

Fall 2013:
I moved in with a great friend, Tienique. She is actually the girl I went to Miami with in the last post. She was a wonderful roommate. We didn't get to see each other much because this was her last semester before graduating and my last semester of course work. We were busy! But I still loved sharing my home with her and I wish our 6 month lease didn't go by so fast but as life does it came and went.
My cohort and I took a full course load of classes including clinicals in a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade classroom on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I had the amazing opportunity to work in a 2nd grade class. The school was amazing! My teacher was amazing and the students were absolutely wonderful! I fell in love with this age group. They were so intrigued over everything you taught them. I had a blast working there. While I was also a full time student, I was trying to work full time. Basically this equalled me having no life. I don't think I was able to work a complete 40hours a week but I averaged at least 30 each week. This was one of the toughest semesters for me trying to find time for everything.

Spring 2014:
If I thought last semester was busy, I didn't even have a clue of what I was about to get myself into for my final semester before graduating. I was student teaching. The way my program works is that we are split 8 weeks in a preschool setting and 8 weeks in an elementary classroom. In my first 8 weeks, I was placed in 2 different preschool classes AM and PM with two different teachers. It was a very interesting setting but I fell in love with the kids and it was hard to say goodbye..but the drive was awful. I was driving almost an hour and half both ways every day in the midst of a very horrible winter in IL. My next 8 weeks I was a lot closer to home student teaching in a school about 10 minutes from my house. HOW LOVELY! I was in a classroom with 23 3rd graders. These kids were just awesome and full of personality. My teacher threw me in super fast but it gave me more experience and helped me warm up to the kids even faster. I had a blast in both of my student teaching experiences and I miss all the kids I was able to teach for the last 16 weeks.

But that leaves me here...Graduation. After 5.5 years of college I finally saw the light and I graduated. I received my B.S.ed with an emphasis in early childhood education. I graduated summa cum laude in my class with means my overall program gpa was above 3.9/4.0 scale. I am beyond thrilled with myself for finally completing my schooling, even if it took me a bit longer than my peers to finally figure out what I wanted to do.