Wellness Coordinator

Today I received an email from the Resident Hall Director for Fieldcrest Hall. He offered me the job as Wellness Coordinator (WC) for the dorm!

Just a side note, I only went through the RA interview process, making sure to tell them I was ultimately interested in doing WC. These interviews took place 2 weekends ago and I just got the email from him this morning saying he wanted to offer me the job prior to the general application process! I was very relieved and I am very excited to work in Fieldcrest.

What does a Wellness Coordinator do??

The Recreation and Wellness Coordinator will serve as the liaison between Residential Education and the university residence halls, the Student Recreation Center, and Student Health Services. The Recreation and Wellness Coordinator will encourage and promote healthy living through active planning of, participation in, and recruitment for residence hall and Student Recreation Center programs and activities.

What an answer to prayer! I won't have to worry about housing for next year.

Consume me from the inside out

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out
-Hillsong

Action Reseach - the beginning of my journey through the tunnel

Today I had a meeting with a sweet faculty here her at WVU, Joy Saab. She teaches my EDUC 414: Promoting Creative Expressions class. I love her passion for education and she has really encouraged me to study arts integration into early childhood curriculums. Finally something I am really passionate about!

I decided on my action research question:

Do the uses of integrated arts instructional activities affect comprehension detail use in stories used in the kindergarten literacy program at Rivesville Elementary School?

My Action Rearch Project is the final product of my 5 year program. I will design the research, use others research and data, and next semester, carry out my teaching strategies in the kindergarten classroom and document to see if this strategy is successful. I am pretty excited about it regardless of the amount of work.

Here is a picture of an arts integration activity I did with my students in 3rd grade:

They had to replicate one of the collages from the story in the book called: Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest. This one is a replication of Sangay in Venezuela, the most active volcano in the world. They were encouraged to use many different collage techniques and many different textures and materials. This student did a great job!

So I am excited to have a start on this project. I will be presenting the findings in April 2009 to a panel of faculty and staff (and family).

Family Feedback

It has been great to get some good feedback from the family. I am excited about the blog and to let you all know what is going on in my life!

Me and my roommate, Allison, went skiing a couple weekends ago in Maryland at Wisp Resort. We had an awesome time. What a fun way to spend a Sunday! I though I would include a picture:
It is fridged here. I am praying for a snow day or 2 hour delay tomorrow from elementary school. Oh speaking of school! Let me put a picture of my school that I teach at 4 days a week:

Rivesville Elementary and Middle School

Home of the Rivesville Rams!

I am spending this semester in 3rd grade where I have 17 lovely students. (They are all sick or getting over being sick! Fun Fun!) Next semester, my final semester of student teaching, I will be in Kindergarten! :)

Ok, bedtime.

These 6:30 mornings are killing me.

RA Interviews & Lost

So I was really looking forward to blogging today. It's still so new and fun! I received an email from Aunt Edie this morning who was excited about the blog. So I am considering that the go-ahead with this whole blog thing. :)

I spend last night creating this blog and watching 4 episodes of LOST, my new (maybe unhealthy) obsession. I started watching Season One 2 or 3 weeks ago on abc.com and realized it is impossible to watch just one episode. So now, 21 episodes later, I am completely hooked. Favorite characters so far: Charlie and Claire... but they are all so sweet.

So i went to bed a little later than I anticipated because the creators of the show love to leave you hanging at the end of each episode (which is a good thing) so you have to watch another! sheesh.


But the RA interviews were this morning/afternoon. Three group interviews and two individual interviews. I am hoping to get a Graduate RA spot in Fieldcrest Hall. I love that it is small, away from campus, and the people there are awesome! So pray I get the spot. I felt pretty confident at the interviews, so we'll see.

this one goes out to the family...

So.. I was inspired. By a few friends, and a few people who don't know I have even looked at their blogs. Thanks to them, who helped me with the aesthetic appeal of this beautiful page. :) It really bothers me that I cannot figure out how to center this image on the top of the page. (If you know how, I'd appreciate the assistance.)

Anyway.

The real reason for this post. Like I said, I was inspired to blog. I think it may be a fun way to keep up with my family members who I rarely see (but love so much). This includes, but is not limited to, the following people:

Mom & Mike, Aunt Cathy, Aunt Edie, Memere & Pepere, little brother Dan, Dad & Linda, Michelle, Jen and Kim

also for my long distance friends Marisa & Megan who are in the southern part of the US. Love you Texas girls!

so i hope you appreciate the shout out. This blog is for you.
It may not be very interesting and I may use poor grammar and punctuation. Luckly this thing has spell check.

[FYI my next post will be about the pro's and con's of Microsoft Word and its tools such as spell check and grammar check. It's ruining my educated life...]

Some things that may be included in the blog:

• the ups and downs of my professional life as a pre-service teacher
• my life as a college student in West Virginia
• Jesus and ministry
• thoughts on different topics (such as Microsoft Word)
• anything that I feel necessary to share with the cyber world ;)

Some things you will not find in my blog:

• anything about my love life... there are just some things I am against sharing with blogspot
• welp... thats all i can think of..

So enjoy.. sorry that was drawn out. I felt the need to preface. **Beth Willis Crouser, if i forget a comma or semicolon or spell d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y wrong... i apologize ahead of time. thanks.