I feel like such an adult.. haha i have my own place! that's so weird!
so i'm living in a condo (we're renting it out) and it's two bedroom two bath. It's called the Madrid, and the condos are set up in a european/spanish style, and it's super cute! with flowers and gates everywhere! it even has an "acueduct". Our place is on the third floor and it's pretty nice! the kitchen was newly remodeled, and we have a balcony with HUGE windows into our spacious livingroom. i have to put up pictures
My room is cute too, a little small, but i don't have much stuff (especially right now) so it'll be fine! Right now i'm furnished with a blow up air matress, a bookcase (that i put together ALL by myself.. i was proud) lol a few container things, and a lamp. when dad and paul come next week i should have a bit more stuff, and i'm hoping to buy some furniture tomorrow for cheap so we'll see!
my bathroom is cute as well... it's monkey themed.... i don't have ot grow up all at one time! haha
i think one of the favorite parts about our condo is the location. we are in a little neighborhood with cute little houses and near a REALLY nice neighborhood with huge houses. i am a TWO minute walk to the public library, which i LOVEEEEEEE. same distance to food places (chipotle, pizza, cvs, coffee) and then a 4 minute walk to KC PLaza, which is a new ritzy shopping/restaurant district in kansas city. It's really nice and there's always people around walking/shopping hanging out. in addition, i've got a few friends who live on hte plaza so they're within walking distance!
also within walking distance is a whole foods, which is super exciting! (my family and our health food) haha
i'm also walking/runnning distance to the school where we are taking graduate classes.
so all in all i'm super excited! the weather here has been beautiful! today the high was 78, and i've had my window open all day, there's been a nice breeze.
the only thing i can complain about is that i'm many miles from many loved ones, and my apartment is super dirty cause no one has lived in it for over a year and a half (so says my super friendly neighbor sandy who brought me over enchildas today, just because) haha so i've been trying to wash windows, scrub floors, etc. hopefully when my family comes next week :) they can come help me? hahaha have to put them to work while i'm out working!!!! but no i'm excited to see them and wish that everyone could come visit! and if you're in the midwest u have a place to stay!!!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Last day of teaching summerschooL!?!?
WOW! I Can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of summer school here in Chicago! I can't believe I've been teaching for 4 weeks! That blows my mind!!! Today we gave our children the post-assessment and we found they scored a class average of 88%!!!!! WHICH IS AWESOME!!! All students met their growth goals with the exception of one, who was like 2 points off! NOT bad at all! We were super excited, and very happy with our students improvement!
We also asked our kids to write letters to us and our students so here they are as follows:
Dear Ms. Gerlach's Kids,
She is really energetic. So if you have her for a teacher then take an energy bar or something. But it works, the class goes fast. SO yea, overall she is cool.
Dear Ms. Gerlach's Students,
If Ms. Gerlach is your teacher you BETTER raise you hand b/c she will make you repeat whatever you said.
Dear Students of Ms. Gerlach,
She's very ecstatic and energetic. You better keep up. Make sure you raise your hand too!
Ms. Gerlach is a different kind of teacher that is always happy and cheerful. SHe loves when students raise their hands to answer questions.
We also asked our kids to write letters to us and our students so here they are as follows:
Dear Ms. Gerlach's Kids,
She is really energetic. So if you have her for a teacher then take an energy bar or something. But it works, the class goes fast. SO yea, overall she is cool.
Dear Ms. Gerlach's Students,
If Ms. Gerlach is your teacher you BETTER raise you hand b/c she will make you repeat whatever you said.
Dear Students of Ms. Gerlach,
She's very ecstatic and energetic. You better keep up. Make sure you raise your hand too!
Ms. Gerlach is a different kind of teacher that is always happy and cheerful. SHe loves when students raise their hands to answer questions.
Monday, July 13, 2009
I can't believe i'm over half way done!
So when i got an email from my mom entitled "Are You alive" i decided i must not have blogged/communicated with people in a while ! :) So i do apologize!
So it has been quite a while since i've written! The past was it a week? Has been SOO Busy.. Every week here feels like at least a month or so. It's soo jam-packed, busy, full of information and excitement!
So the first week i taught that super challenging class that like to test me and keep me on my toes :) luckily i survived that week (no it wasn't impossible, i actually enjoyed the challenge!) But this past week and the rest of the summer i have a new class. They are 8 students and are so well behaved it's crazy! I feel ridiculous enforcing silly rules like hand-raising, when they are only answering questions to contribute, and are not disrupting, but i know i need to practice for when i get a more challenging class!
so anyways, my students are great, super engaged in my material (probably b/c i act so excited about it, the funny thing is i really like teaching it! even though history was BY FAR my least favorite subject in hs! It's a challenge, no doubt, for a person who can't even locate important countries on a map sometimes, and knows little to nothing about background history knowledge (embarassing i know!!) but i really research and study hard and can put the information in words my kids can understand and i think they get it and that's so exciting!
this past weekend i got to really explore chicago (finally!) which was nice! we went downotown, looked around, went to milenium park, walked the miliondollar mile ( i think that's what it's called) went to the art institute and all that fun stuff! I can now get around the city by train station and color so that's neat.. almost like i live here! haha
so i ended up having to switch around living situation b/c of leases and such, but NOW i have a great apartment in a great area of town called the plaza, and i'm super excited about it! i'll be living w/ a girl named Tammy, and she's really fun/nice so i'm excited!!!
there's only 2 weeks left of teaching here, then i head back to KC and that's exciting and weird! i can't believe time is flying by so fast, but i'm SUPER Excited to have my own class in KC, and find out what i'm teaching ! we're supposed to know by wednesday, but we'll see, there's been lots of changes in the KC school district board, so who knows!!!
but i have to go lesson plan and such fun, but i miss everyone loads!
So it has been quite a while since i've written! The past was it a week? Has been SOO Busy.. Every week here feels like at least a month or so. It's soo jam-packed, busy, full of information and excitement!
So the first week i taught that super challenging class that like to test me and keep me on my toes :) luckily i survived that week (no it wasn't impossible, i actually enjoyed the challenge!) But this past week and the rest of the summer i have a new class. They are 8 students and are so well behaved it's crazy! I feel ridiculous enforcing silly rules like hand-raising, when they are only answering questions to contribute, and are not disrupting, but i know i need to practice for when i get a more challenging class!
so anyways, my students are great, super engaged in my material (probably b/c i act so excited about it, the funny thing is i really like teaching it! even though history was BY FAR my least favorite subject in hs! It's a challenge, no doubt, for a person who can't even locate important countries on a map sometimes, and knows little to nothing about background history knowledge (embarassing i know!!) but i really research and study hard and can put the information in words my kids can understand and i think they get it and that's so exciting!
this past weekend i got to really explore chicago (finally!) which was nice! we went downotown, looked around, went to milenium park, walked the miliondollar mile ( i think that's what it's called) went to the art institute and all that fun stuff! I can now get around the city by train station and color so that's neat.. almost like i live here! haha
so i ended up having to switch around living situation b/c of leases and such, but NOW i have a great apartment in a great area of town called the plaza, and i'm super excited about it! i'll be living w/ a girl named Tammy, and she's really fun/nice so i'm excited!!!
there's only 2 weeks left of teaching here, then i head back to KC and that's exciting and weird! i can't believe time is flying by so fast, but i'm SUPER Excited to have my own class in KC, and find out what i'm teaching ! we're supposed to know by wednesday, but we'll see, there's been lots of changes in the KC school district board, so who knows!!!
but i have to go lesson plan and such fun, but i miss everyone loads!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
End of semester assesment
today was a great day of academics!!!
We gave our students an assessment that covered material from the beginning of the summer (before we got there) to now (so we taught one week). On the material from the beginning of the summer plus the material that we taught my students averaged a 46%!
without the beginning of the summer, and only with the material we taught, 80%!!! EIGHT PERCENT!!! granted it was more recent, and more fresh to their brains, but STILL.. that's a HUGE jump! more than just the recency effect (i know, i'm a psy major :) )
WOO HOO for a successful first week of teaching!!
We gave our students an assessment that covered material from the beginning of the summer (before we got there) to now (so we taught one week). On the material from the beginning of the summer plus the material that we taught my students averaged a 46%!
without the beginning of the summer, and only with the material we taught, 80%!!! EIGHT PERCENT!!! granted it was more recent, and more fresh to their brains, but STILL.. that's a HUGE jump! more than just the recency effect (i know, i'm a psy major :) )
WOO HOO for a successful first week of teaching!!
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