Reel Big Fish on a Real Big Weekend

This week was the first week of classes, for almost everyone except me! I am student teaching in a district that doesn't start school until after Labor Day, so my full schedule doesn't start until this week. I go to school for a full day on Tuesday for teacher meetings, and then Wednesday is the first day of school. Nonetheless, I stayed very busy this past week!

We had our first student teaching seminar on Tuesday. We just went over all the requirements for student teaching, but it still made us all a little intimidated and stressed and nervous about student teaching. There are so many state requirements that we need to meet and assignments for our seminar that we need to complete in addition to gradually taking on more and more responsibility in our classrooms, until we have a three-week take-over at the end of the semester (when we will be fully in charge of our classrooms)!

On Thursday I went to the open house at my school. I met my teacher for the first time, and I like her a lot! She is full of energy, super organized (like me), and I can already tell her students really like her! I also met all but one of my students and their families. It was great to get to meet them, and for them to meet me and my teacher, Mrs. DiSangro, before the first day of school. I think we will all feel more comfortable on the first day of school now!

Since I am not too busy yet, I was also able to help a lot with my extra-curricular activities that I am involved in on campus and love. Friday and Saturday mornings I gave tours (here's a shout-out to all the prospective students I met this weekend!). This year I also decided to get involved in Student Government Association's Programming Committee. Programming is in charge of the large events and theme weeks that take place on campus. So I assisted with this weekend's Welcome Back Week events.

Friday afternoon we had an activities fair on the quad where everyone could sign-up for as many of the clubs and organizations that interest them as they want. Friday night we had a concert in the Sports Complex. I helped with set-up, working the door, and take-down, and of course I got to watch the concert too!

Martin Earley, a Stonehill student and a really great musician, was our opening act.

Reel Big Fish has a really cool sound. They're pretty chill, and even have trumpets! I don't know much of their music, but they did cover Brown Eyed Girl and Take On Me. Since I worked at the concert, I also got to meet them during our meet and greet - I don't have those pictures yet, but maybe I will soon!

My roommate, Carrie, and I at the concert.

On Saturday afternoon, we had Hillapalooza, an event that features performances by Stonehill musicians and sometimes other small bands, and takes place a couple times a year. Since it is still early on, we were able to have Hillapalooza out on the quad. We had two Stonehill students perform, and three other bands. Here is Power Lines, one of those bands:

In addition to the Woodstock theme afternoon of music, we also had a free BBQ and an arts fest - and lots of lounging around on the quad. There were booths selling items, such as fruit and organic soaps, the art club made a chalk mural, there was a booth to make free spin-art sunglasses, and we also sold jewelry for the Bead for Life charity, which were a huge hit! Women with AIDS in Uganda make these bracelets, necklaces, and even some earrings out of recycled paper in order to make money for the care they require:

Finally, on Saturday night, we had a showing of the movie, The Proposal on the quad. It was a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. The rest of the long weekend I spent relaxing and also getting started on looking into post-grad options and getting myself organized and started on student teaching assignments. I'll let you know how school goes after my first week!