Camping with the most incredible Parks family!

This weekend was such a blast! Brandon's family invited us to go on a little camping trip. When we got up there Brandons brothers were excited to play so all the guys went to the parking lot while us girls sat around and painted our nails (typical right.) Brandon's little sister is can paint toe nails better than anyone I have ever seen. Who needs a pedicure when she is around! I also showed off my fantastic skills by painting my nails florescent pink. The color which Brandon refered to as "It kinda looks like you have power bait on your finger nails." Hey maybe that's how we will finally catch some fish!

We spent the evening playing some fun family games and eating yummy treats. Brandon was sweet enough to cook me a tasty dough boy (if you are completely confused right now you don't know what you are missing!)

The next morning us girls...and spencer, played phase ten, when everyone else went biking down the canyon. I surprised myself by, one sitting through the entire game, and two WINNING! My strategy of never keeping track of when it was by turn worked. Ha ha and everyone just thought I was being spacey! When the bikers got back we hiked up the river a little bit. It was very treacherous due to the amount of spiders and mostly their webs. I am happy to report there were no casualties.

We fisnished off the trip with a good ol' game of wiffel ball. It was a blast! believe it or not I didn't stink as much as I usually do. Probably due to the fact that I have been watching more cardnial's baseball as of late. I actually hit every time i was up and got a couple outs. This brought me great joy due to the fact that as patient as the parks family is, they are much more competitive then i am.

What a great trip! It was so fun to just be away for a while and soak in the incredible blessing of nature that The Lord has given us.

Watch out Sir Topum Hat!

A couple weeks ago due to the generosity of my amazing father we were able to take a trip on the Heber Creeper. SO MUCH FUN!

We chose to go on the sunset bbq train ride, which was exactly as romantic as it sounds. (p.s. if you have a light stomach for sickly sap please turn back now.) We took some fun pictures and boarded the 1940's locomotive for our trip. The train took us around the back side of Deer Creek Reservoir, then stopped at a little platform where a fun country band and delicious dutch oven dinner were waiting for us. AMAZING! The only down side to this part of the trip was that as much as we loved the reservoir the mosquito love it more. There were defiantly there for the party. Though multiple people freely offered bug repellent, being the stupid stubborn that i am refused to let my dear sweet Brandon get me any. Though he begged and pleaded. Don't you fret, I got what I deserved, 19 bites on one foot alone. Yup, my ankles disappeared for a few days. Stupid, stupid !

The ride back to the station was probably my favorite part. Brandon and I found a little nook between the cars were we could stand and watch the beautiful scenery pass. It was incredible to view the gorgeous creations The Lord has blessed me with while in the arms of another one of the largest blessings that has ever entered my life. WOW, I am so amazingly blessed!

Round Two

Alright, so you may or may not be correct if you are thinking that April gets these random impluses to be a blogger when she is trying to avoid doing what she should be doing. Tonight that could be true, and it could also be true that I am not used to be being by myself all day after work (Brandon is being responsible...what a bum!) I fully realize that most people could care less about my adventures, but I also realize that I LOVE the blogs of my people. So though my life is not as exciting as theirs, and that I am not married (which seems to often be a blogger qualification) I will continue with my random blogging episodes. Thanks for letting me rant. Yours truely,
The impulsive wannabe blogger

Trial run on being a blogger

Last night i was inspired to become a blogger. Thanks to my amazing blog stalking friend... you know who you are and the other amazing people who rock the blogs I have decided to try it out. My last posts were for my class, so they are pretty cheezy. Feel free to read them if you want a full reflection on "differentiation in the elementary school classroom"...I know boring! (well i kinda like it. good thing since it is becoming my life!). Ok I better stop rambling and get to blogging. Who knows how long this will last. This may be my first and last post.

For those of you who are still tuning in a little fyi i am not married, but i am dating this amazing guy, so most of my adventures are with him. This past weekend we went to park city with his family. It was a blast! I adore his family so much and it was great being stuck in a gigantic lodge with them for a weekend. I feel like I got to know all of them even better! I have also decided that if you put two extremely childish grown-ups in a huge lodge then crazy things happen. We had a blast jumping on mattresses, practicing cartwheels and figuring out how many different ways you can slide around on a tile floor (p.s. having someone grab your legs and pull your around is the funnest!) We also discovered that close encounters with trees are bad when sledding and that the further you sled the longer you have to hike back up. We also learned that we are old and out of shape.

I also got to see some of my most favorite people in the entire world this weekend! Once a year my favorite girls get together and we just chat and remember how much we love eachother. Though this year there was definitely a void seeing as how two members of the posse were not able to come (one who has run away to Zion...rude!) but it was so good just being together. Each year when we get together I am reminded how amazing they all are! I am so grateful for the huge influence they have had and continue to have in my life. WOW! I am so blessed!

Well thank you for tuning in on April's first real blog post ever! Who knows if this will ever happen again. p.s. It is too late for proof reading. The end!

Oct. 29

One thing that I am kinda bugged about is that when I was in elementary school I did not witness a lot of differentiation. Sometimes I fear that because strait direct instruction or drill and kill was what I am most familiar with, those methods will be what I fall back on. I recognize the huge importance of differentiation and i will strive to make a conscious effort to do it. I just wish that i could have seen more examples of this amazing teaching practice in my own elementary school experience.

Oct. 22

I am so excited to have all the resources found in the "toolbox" of this book! I was especially impressed with the large variety of resources. I feel that it is extremely important to constantly be changing the style of teaching and assessment in order to reach all types of learners. Looking through these resources I realized how important they are to plan differentiated lessons. Many of the resources are directly related to assessing students readiness, learning profile or interest and some indirectly assess, through they all tell you as the teacher something about the individual student. I am learning more and more that differentiation does not always have to be based on strict assessments or anecdotal notes, but can be based on any type of student response that is provided to the teacher. Our students are telling us what they need all the time, we as teachers need to be open and aware to receive and implement that information!

I wish that I would remember to read this chapter each month for the rest of my teaching career. I felt that it was so realistic and empowering! I loved how it simply summed up the main method that we have been learning in the bullets at the beginning. I hope that I can remember to be aware of the points on that list because I know that is what my students deserve. I also really enjoyed how the rest of the chapter basically told it like it is. Teaching is going to be hard and there are going to be students that you have a hard time with. Integrating differentiation perfectly all the time may not be feasible, but it is worth the effort it takes to try. We, as teachers have the opportunity to and an obligation to give each student what they need, though this may not always be completely possible, it remains our obligation and quest!