game time

Quite often one might find a glass of water left on the table or next to the sink from Lisa. Often she's letting it become a littler warmer because it's too cold from the fridge or waiting until she has more room in her belly to drink it. She's doing really well on her New Year's resolution to drink more water, especially since she's been pregnant. I made a resolution a little late- to drink Lisa's water. Whenever I pass one of her water cups I'll either drink most of it or drink all of it. Why not? Free water, I say. Saves me a few seconds of getting a glass down and filling it up or from getting my hand wet as I drink from the faucet. It's a fun game and garners some great reactions from her.

Oh, and did you know I love cold water from the fridge?

sad goodbyes

Last night Lisa and I watched some of the special features from the extended version of Return of the King. The part that really caught my attention and emotions was when they were talking about wrapping up the filming and saying goodbye to everyone. They had been shooting for over 14 months. I'm sure they were sad that they were done filming the movie, but they seemed almost shell-shocked that they would be leaving the people that they had built strong relationships with over those months.

I relate to that. I think most of us can. For me it brought back the feelings of leaving the mission field. 2 years of working hard on a single purpose with many other people, missionaries or members, and then saying goodbye seemed surreal. It didn't seem like it should be happening. I was finally understanding what I was doing, how to speak with the Dutch and Flemish, and was at the peak of my game. Yet, they still sent me home.

Walking down the terminal to the airplane I kept trying to think what it would be like at home, and I couldn't figure it out. It didn't seem like there would be anything. It seemed empty. I'm sure that's what ol' Frodo, Sam, Aragon, and the others were thinking. That's why I sat there almost crying with them last night. 3 and a half years haven't buried those feelings as well as I thought they had. I still miss my European friends and companions. Dominic Monaghan said to the cast and crew of Lord of the Rings, "All of you have made me want to be a better person. That's the greatest compliment I can give." I echo those words.

student teacher

The funny thing is how I didn't like student teachers in high school because they weren't my real teacher. I had built such an intimate close relationship in the first week or two, then BAM! They come in and take control of the class trying to teach. I didn't sign up to be in THEIR class. How dare they? Actually, I can only remember one student teacher I had for a history class and of him only his red-headedness comes to mind. The others I've blocked very successfully from my memory.

And here I am. A student teacher. Currently, I'm at East Hollywood High School in West Valley. It's a charter school that's mainly a tv/video production school. That's awesome because my teaching emphasis is in multimedia (video editing, graphic design, 3D stuff). I'm teaching a video editing class and a stop motion animation class. Awesome, huh?

It almost makes me rethink my life when I remember how I used to view student teachers and realize that NOW I'm one of them. I came in and took over some classes, changing the rhythm that the students got accustomed to in the first weeks they had with the original teacher (who is an awesome teacher/mentor, by the way). However, I'm not going to rethink my life. Student teaching is only for one semester. JUST one semester with no time to work (thanks for supporting the family, Lisa!). JUST one semester of taking over classes and destroying students expectations for the class (good or bad).

So far it's easier and less stressful than an actual semester of classes on campus. It is much more entertaining. For example:
1. A few students daily wearing cloaks, capes, or robes from various medieval/fantasy influences.
2. A student wearing a white mask covering his entire head.
3. A student trying to glare me down in the hallway with her vampire eye contacts and fangs in place.
4. A friendly transvestite.
5. The student names Forrest, Raven, Kiel, and Ramse.
6. Club Friday when I can watch the LARPing club (live action role-playing, search the ol' www for examples) in action.
7. A faculty of about 15 teachers that create the atmosphere similar to that from the movie The School of Rock.