Student Teaching!

Ever since I was a kid I have wanted to be a teacher. When I was little, about fifth or sixth grade, I wanted to teach daycare. My friends and I even put together a little daycare during the summer for people in our neighborhood. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the summer we put on a play of our own rendition of Rumpelstiltskin. Oh the memories...
When I was in junior high I wanted to teach elementary school because I missed being there. Also elementary school has recess. Then in high school I realized I'd have to teach math if I taught elementary school, and I hate math, so I decided on teaching English. Then, because my junior high English teachers were so influential to me, I decided I wanted to teach junior high too. I had the opportunity to do an internship my senior year of high school at American Fork Junior High every week. I absolutely fell in love. I loved being in the classroom and watching kids learn.
When I graduated from high school, I moved down to Cedar City to attend Southern Utah University. And thus my five year journey began. I loved (most of) my classes. The English ones were great and helped me to think about my beliefs and challenge what I liked to read. The education classes were fun most of the time. I would snapchat my friends during class when my assignments were things like "take this quiz and find out your personality" or "draw a picture that represents this". They always made fun of me and would ask if I was even learning anything.
This semester I've been in "The Block" which is when I take the classes that help me prepare for my student teaching. It's been a bit surreal this semester. I can't believe I'm going to be a practicing teacher starting in January. It's really scary. What if I'm terrible at teaching? What if I really didn't learn squat my 4.5 years of college so far? I feel vastly under-prepared. But I am grateful for the teachers who have gotten me to this point. They have trained me well and I can't wait to start.
So I got my student teaching assignment today. I've been praying it would be up North so I could move back home to be with my friends and family. Lucky for me, my prayers were answered. I will be student teaching at Frontier Middle School in Eagle Mountain! I can't wait! I'm still more nervous than I've ever been, but I'm so glad to know where I'm finally going.
So I'll be seeing you soon Frontier Middle! Until then, this is Jaclyn Landeen, signing off.

This Week's Reviews

This past few weeks I watched a new movie and read two books. So just like the last post, I'll be reviewing and summarizing them.
The movie I watched was If I Stay:

I should have done this a long time ago, post the trailer that is. It's about a girl who gets in an accident. Her body is dying, while her spirit is watching. It flashes back and forth between her in the hospital and her life before the accident, so the audience doesn't get the full story until the very end. It was beautiful. I'll be honest, I bawled the entire time...literally the full two hours tears were streaming down my face. Luckily my roommates weren't home, otherwise they probably would have thought I was crazy because they've never seen me shed a tear, let alone wail whilst my mascara is being smeared across my face from so many tears. If you ever need a good cry, this is your movie. I give it a 4/5 stars.

The first book I read this week was:

 

To be honest I was very disappointed in this book. It's been on my "to read" list on Goodreads for years and I finally got around to it. It was a great idea: a modern version of Rapunzel, Cindy C. Bennett just didn't execute it as good as I think she could have. Rapunzel was kidnapped as a child by Gothel but doesn't figure out her "mother" is crazy until she's 18. She's been locked in a tower for as long as she can remember, her only freedom is her computer. She meets a boy in her town online who ends up rescuing her. I give it a 2/5 stars. The two points are for the idea. I don't actually really recommend it.

The much better book I read this week was:

This is about a girl named Macallan who meets Levi in seventh grade. They soon become best friends. The book travels through until their junior year, where they question whether boys and girls can really be "just friends" or not. Each chapter switches from Macallan's point of view to Levi's, as if looking into their past. In between each chapter is them commentating on their past that we are learning about. It's very clever actually, I really liked it. This book made me mad, happy, and I had to hold back tears. Overall I'd give it a 3.5 or 4/5. Let's just say I'm very glad I read this one after Rapunzel Untangled so that I could be reminded of good books in this world. I have read another book by this author though, Prom and Prejudice if you were interested, and it was cute too. She's a clean author and isn't too cheesy ;).

Well, until next time!

Two Books and a Movie

Seeing as how I used to write about the books I was reading, I figured I'd start that up again. I'll be rating and summarizing books and movies that I've read/watched in the last week.

First up:

I know in my last post I said I was reading this, so I kind of already talked about it, but I finished it this morning. I definitely give it 5/5 stars. Life of Pi is about a boy named Pi who grew up at a zoo that his father owned. They decide to move to Canada when he is sixteen. The boat they are traveling on sinks and he is the sole human survivor. He ends up spending over 200 days on a boat in the ocean with a tiger. The movie doesn't do this book justice. It really made me think about life and how my attitude is day to day. Also about how lucky I am in my life. It also talked about different religions, because he is Hindu, Muslim, and Christian, and made me think about my relationship with God. It does get pretty graphic with some things. I definitely wanted to throw up once or twice, also I teared up a few times. So many emotions in 100 (short) chapters.

Second is the movie I watched last night:

This movie is about a mom and her son. When Frankie, the son, was just a baby, his mother ran away with him from her abusive husband. They have been on the run for nine years. She didn't want Frankie to know what a horrible person his father is, so she has written him letters for nine years posing as his father out at sea for work. They find out that the boat his father is supposedly stationed on is porting in their town. Instead of telling Frankie about her writing the letters, she hires a stranger to pose as his father. Did I mention that Frankie is deaf? Also that the fake father is Gerard Butler? Also that you will fall in love with the family two seconds in? What more could you want in a movie? 4/5 stars, the ending could have been a little better, but I'm just upset because it's very vague in how things end up with Gerard and I like knowing for sure whether the love interests get together or not. The music was beautiful as well. I may or may not have shed a tear or two. When I watched it, my internet went out when I only had twenty minutes left. Needless to say, I was very upset. Good thing I have data on my phone (sorry mom if we go over this month, it was an emergency!). It is currently on Amazon Prime for free, so get out your mode of watching videos and put this one on. It is rated PG-13 for one F-word, so be prepared for that.

Thirdly is another book I finished about a week ago:

 

Sarah Dessen is one of my favorite YA authors, even if her books are cheesy and predictable. This on in particular is about a girl, Sydney, who's brother, Peyton, has been put in jail for paralyzing a boy while driving drunk. She the complete opposite of her brother, but her mom is worried that she'll go down the same path as he did and keeps a close eye on her herself, and by having Peyton's creepy friend close-by. Sydney switches schools when her parent's can't afford the private school any more and finds new friends who help her find out who she is and where she belongs. Also she finds her new romantic interest, Mac. I give it 3/5 stars. It wasn't her best one, but it was a good read. It does have a few swear words, but I don't think it has as many as some of her other books.

So there you have it. If you like to question everything in your life I would suggest Life of Pi. If you want to feel warm inside, listen to great accents, and cry a little I suggest Dear Frankie. If you like YA romances about girl's finding themselves I suggest Saint Anything. If you have anything to recommend to me please do in the comments!

                     

Long Time, No See

Wow, it has been a long time. Not much has changed in my life. I'm still going to school at SUU. This semester I am doing my practicum at Cedar High. For those who do not know, a practicum is where I go observe a class once a week. I absolutely love it! I got to teach semicolons to a few classes the other day and almost had a heart attack because of how nervous I was, but I lived. It was a great experience and I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to student teach next semester. I don't know where I'll be student teaching yet, but I asked to be placed up in Utah County so I can be closer to my friends and family. Cedar is great and all, but I'm ready to move on from here.

You may be wondering what I do with my life besides school. Here's the shortened version:

This summer I turned 22! My amazing friends kidnapped me and made me breakfast at midnight. It was the best birthday ever.

 

For Reals. 

 

I've watched 7 full TV shows in the last year (30 Rock, Lost, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Office, The IT Crowd, Parks and Rec, and Galavant) 

 I've avoided a lot of people (which doesn't really help my love life, but hey, you win some you lose some). Don't scorn me too badly for being antisocial, I have made really good friends within the last year.

 

I'm currently reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It's amazing and I suggest everyone read it. I was worried I wouldn't like it because the movie wasn't my favorite. I thought it was beautiful, but a bit slow and boring. I saw it again and liked it more, but that's not the point. The point is this book is great and you should go read it ASAP.

Most importantly I have learned this:

  

I really struggled this last few years loving myself. But with great support from friends and family I have learned what a great person I am. Now it sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm proud of who I am. Some days I acknowledge that I'm not the best person, but I still acknowledge that that's who I am. Sometimes I'm going to suck, and that's okay. What matters most is that I'm okay with that, which makes me great at the same time.

So that's the rundown. I've kind of missed blogging so maybe I'll take it back up again. Who knows.

Reading Update

A while ago, I said I wanted to see how many books I could read in the year. My goal was 50, I hope to still make it but to be honest, I don't think I will. I just finished number 31 tonight. That gives me about three months to read 19 books. We'll see if it happens with school going on and the unseen activities in the future.

31.

As it says on the cover, it is a Jane Eyre parody. Janie is a chocolate molder and owns a business of selling chocolate with her sister. She's in love with a man who comes in every week. He soon becomes her new neighbor and she soon makes friends with his daughter. She finds out that he is married and tries to suppress her feelings. But when danger turns up, she needs to make a decision about what to do. It is an LDS novel. 3/5 stars. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I'm planning on reading Jane Eyre next so I'll see how close it is to the original story.

32,

This is my third time reading this book, I just love it! It's a "proper romance". It's set in the 18th century, I believe. Marianne lives with her grandmother while her father is away in France. She gets invited to go stay with her mother's old friend at Edenbrooke, by her sister, Cecily. Cecily wants her help in getting the heir of Edenbrooke to fall in love with her. Marianne gets there before Cecily and becomes fast friends with Philip, one of the sons. Some things go wrong that could possibly keep her from finding true love! It's seriously one of my favorite books. I feel like I am Marianne. I think I'd give it a 4 or 4.5/5 stars. I almost cried reading it this time because I forgot how much I loved it.

33. 

This is one of the hardest books I've ever read. I loved the beginning and the end, the middle is the hard part. It's about a man named Ishmael who decides he wants to learn more about whaling and decides to go on a three year voyage to kill whales for money. Little does he know, he gets hired on a boat where the captain is crazy and only wants to kill one whale-Moby Dick. The whale had taken Captain Ahab's leg and Ahab has never forgotten it. But this is no ordinary whale. He's crazy! No one has been able to kill him, they can barely get their harpoon stuck in him. And he attacks people, while other whales usually leave the people alone. The beginning of the story is leading up to this, the middle has some other whale hunting stories, but is mostly lessons on what you use and do when whaling. The last like four chapters are when they actually get to Moby Dick. 3/5 stars. It wasn't horrible, but I probably won't read it again, at least not in the near future. If I did, I'd read the abridged version, but I feel so accomplished at reading the whole thing (okay, I listened to it as well while I got ready in the morning). It's a hard book, but I'm glad I read it, for now I have bragging rights. :)

34.

I read this book for my American Literature class. There are three version and we read the first one. The different versions go more in depth in his escaping slavery, because his first one couldn't. If it had, then it would have given the underground railroad away and people would have been caught for helping slaves. It was a very interesting read. I usually don't like nonfiction, but I really liked this. It wasn't very long, and it really opened my eyes to what slavery was really like. I'm really glad I read it. 4/5 stars. I only docked it because he didn't say how he escaped, even though it was for the best that he didn't. I guess I'll have to go read the later versions.