Less than 100 Days to Go!

It never fails to surprise me how fast the middle of the semester always comes! The past two weeks have been very busy for everyone at Stonehill with mid-terms. It always seems that papers, projects, and exams get scheduled right before spring break. For me, with all my English courses, this meant that I have had quite a few papers due. I made it through the two busy weeks, and now it is the beginning of spring break. I am home now for a couple days, but on Tuesday I am going with my boyfriend to Los Angeles to visit his sister! I have never been to California before, so I am so excited for my first spring break trip over my last Stonehill spring break! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures so I can share my trip with you when I am back on campus!

To return to the past couple weeks of the semester that have led up to spring break, I have been busy not only with work but busy with some really exciting big events too! Two weeks ago was the first of our senior class events: 100 Days! Throughout the spring semester, we have a countdown to graduation marked by 100 Days, 50 Days, and 25 Days, not to mention the last week full of events leading up to commencement! But I'm not ready to talk about commencement yet, so let me tell you about 100 Days! For the event, we brought the dueling pianos from Jake Ivory's, a piano bar in Boston, to campus. It was a great event! The two pianos mostly played together, and I was really impressed with the great variety of songs that they played. We had everything from traditional Piano Bar music, like Billy Joel's Piano Man, but we also had lots of today's popular songs, such as Lady Gaga! Here's a picture of some seniors singing along with the dueling pianos:

My favorite aspect of the event was to have all of the senior class together! Stonehill is a school where students from every class get to know students from other other class; some of my close friends are also seniors, but some of my close friends are also in other grades as well. We do not just form communities within our classes, but we build a strong community including all Stonehill students. So the kick-off senior event served to unite our class, and set the stage for the rest of our last semester together.

Some friends and I before heading over to the 100 Days event!

Hanging out with my suite-mates at 100 Days!

The other big event of the past couple of weeks was my cousin's wedding! I always love big family events, and I had a great time celebrating with my family. Here are the bride and groom, Liz and Mike, cutting their cake and looking very happy!

Here is a picture of all my cousins on the Charest side of my family, with my cousin Liz, the beautiful bride in the center:

That's it for now because I've got to get going on my packing for California! Happy Spring Break everyone!

Spring is in Full Swing!

Well, you must be thinking, what does she mean by saying "spring is in full swing?" And you are right, it is certainly not yet spring! In fact, it is still very much winter as evidenced by the snow storm and snow day we had in the middle of this week! What I do mean is that the spring semester is now in full swing! Next week I have a second response paper due for Postcolonial London and I am making a presentation in my Senior Capstone seminar, and then the following week I have two papers due! The onslaught of papers for the semester has officially begun!

Something else that is well underway is the construction of a new residence hall nearby my own residence hall! The building will be similar to the one I am living in now. It will be for upper classmen and will also be suite style. The drawings of the building that I have seen look great, and a couple weeks ago the College also had a furniture display so students could help choose the furniture that we will have in the building! It will be a popular place to live next year to be sure! Here are a couple views of the new building:

Not only has the spring semester gotten underway, but I also have some very new experiences and new beginnings headed my way! Last weekend I had two events that suggested to me that it is the time for new beginnings. The first was the Group Activity night for the new applications to the Orientation and Peer Mentor Program. Each year, new applicants to the leadership role take part in partner and group activities that allow Orientation staff to get to know the applicants better. Each year, the Orientation staff asks the seniors who have been involved in the Peer Mentor Program to come help observe the new applicants...because there are always so many! Let me tell you, incoming Class of 2014, there are over 90 friendly, smiling, enthusiastic, and loud current students already excited for the chance to get to know you and welcome you to Stonehill as your PM this summer and fall! We love new friends at Stonehill! I am sad I am not directly involved in the program this year, but it is so nice that as a senior, I still get to help out when I can!

On Saturday morning, I participated in a brand new program offered by Career Services called Senior Saturdays. It was a three hour chunk of time during which 7 seniors, with coffee in hand, marched over to Career Services to work one-on-one and in small groups with Christina Burney, the Associate Director of Career Services. We got helpful information and tips on resumes, cover letters, and networking, and then worked on our resumes, cover letters, and setting up LinkedIn accounts. We did some peer editing and then Christina also helped us one-on-one to edit our work! It was all very helpful and got me going on all these important facets of the job search! I am scheduled for a mock interview in two weeks as well, so I have lots to be doing as my job search for teaching jobs gets underway!

This semester will also be full of exciting events as this is my last semester of college! We recently announced this year's Spring Weekend performers! This year we will be hosting GirlTalk and State Radio! It should be a really good show! Stonehill seniors also have a couple traditional events every spring. The first of which is what we call 100 Days, which is an event that marks when we only have 100 days left at Stonehill! This year, 100 Days will be held on campus and the entertainment is dueling piano players from Jake Ivory's! I am in disbelief that yesterday I bought my ticket for 100 Days!!! Another event that all the seniors are currently gearing up for is Cape Week. For the week after finals and before graduation, a majority of the senior class all rents houses on the Cape, usually in the Dennis area. We have lots of informal gatherings that week as well as a senior formal dinner dance in Falmouth! Finally, this past week I booked a house with my suitemates! We will be staying in Dennisport, just a short walk from the beach! I am already crossing my fingers for good weather for the spring - for Cape Week, Spring Weekend, and graduation! Cross your fingers for us too?!

The Beginning of the End

It is Day 14 of my last semester at Stonehill, and I am in disbelief that I have already been back on campus for that long! Out of all my semesters at Stonehill, the transition back to campus this semester has been easier for me than any other transition back to school. Unfortunately, it's a little too late since it's the last one! But in any case, I seem to have been able to jump right in on all my reading, which I have plenty of with three English classes, one of which is my Senior Capstone! Although, it's a little early for papers, so I will get back to you on how the transition from writing lesson plans to writing papers for college goes!

I have already been doing a lot of work, but I've had some good times with friends too! Last weekend was the Welcome Back Weekend for the spring semester, so we had a comedian in The Hill on Friday night, and then on Saturday there was the Whiteout Ball - which was the annual campus-wide semi-formal dance in the Sports Complex. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to this dance because I had previous plans, but I heard from a lot of friends that it was a great time...complete with balloons!


So what did I do if I didn't go to the dance? Well, at the end of last semester, the girls in my suite planned a night out in Boston for our friend Alexia's 22nd birthday, which we were all so excited for! But unfortunately it ended up coinciding with the dance, nonetheless, we had a really fun girls' night out! Here are a couple pictures of us all dressed up before our big night out!

From left to right we have Alexia's friend from home Maria, and my suite-mates Kari-Ann, Carrie, Alexia, me, and Melissa. Don't we all look classy? :)

As of this Christmas break, I am also dating someone new! He is actually a really close friend from high school, in fact, we have known each other practically forever! We were even in the same third and fourth grade classes! It was quite a surprise to me to come home for Christmas break and to recognize this for the first time. But we are both very happy and have a lot to look forward to over the next several months!

I then spent a hectic week settling into the semester. I had lots of reading for my classes. This semester I am taking: Postcolonial London Literature, The City in American Literature, Fallen Women and Typewriter Girls (which is my senior seminar and looks at the constructs of the female gender in mostly Victorian literature), Mathematical Reasoning for Educators, and Honors Environmental Science. It is quite a course load because every one of these classes are fulfilling my last five requirements for graduation! I'm just so happy I was able to fit all the requirements in nicely...and with some very interesting topics!

This week I also settled into some of the extra activities I do on campus, such as my role with the Student Ambassador/Tour Guide program, Kappa Delta Pi (which is the Education Honor Society), and I have also set up a work study job in the Office of Student Activities, which I have done a lot of work with in my four years at Stonehill and just generally love to be a part of! :)

For now there's more reading calling my name, but I am looking forward to blogging to all of you about all of the exciting, scary, emotional, happy, sad, intimidating, thrilling, and just plain fun things that will be going on during my last semester!

Final Round at the Hill

I am currently in a state of disbelief and denial that I am beginning my final semester at Stonehill. Not only have I absolutely loved my four years at Stonehill and I am not ready for them to be over, I am not sure I am ready for everything "extra" - applying for jobs and preparing for the real world - that comes with the final semester of college. Part of me is looking forward to the next stage in my life; I think that I will like the working world and being able to settle down. I hate packing and moving, so while it is nice to have two homes, I will like being settled in one place again for a while!

My plan right now is to apply this semester for teaching jobs close to home so I can live at home, save money, and dedicate myself to my first classroom! Then after a year, maybe two, I plan to go back to school for my Master's, somewhere in the field of education. I need some more time before I decide what I will want to get my Master's in! As of now, for this semester, my goal is to find a teaching job! I have done some things over this Christmas break to start that process, but a lot of my time this semester will be dedicated to the job search! There's a long way to go, and I won't feel relaxed until I have a job!

This semester I have my final five classes needed for my two majors and general education requirements. I will be taking three English classes, one of which is my senior capstone seminar. Those classes are Postcolonial London, The City in American Literature, and my seminar is The Fallen Women. My other two classes are Honors Principles of Environmental Science and Mathematical Reasoning for Educators. I am looking forward to these classes, and it will be nice to have a change with the science and math classes since I haven't had any of either yet at Stonehill!

As of now, I am all packed...despite the fact that I am, as always, over-packed! It always seems that my things seem to multiply each time I move back to school. I hope when I am unpacking tomorrow I will be able to fit everything in my room!

Right now, I can't wait to get back to campus and catch up with all of my friends! It will be an exciting semester, with lots of senior activities and job searching - I am sure I will taking advantage of everything Stonehill has to offer one last time!

Home for the Holidays

I love Christmas, and I love getting to be home for Christmas! Putting up the Christmas tree, playing Christmas music, seeing Christmas lights everywhere, and baking Christmas cookies are some of my favorite sights, sounds, and smells of the season that I don't think I could live without! But one of the very best things about Christmas, especially after being away from home for a semester, is getting to spend lots of time with family and friends! The house pictured here is just down the street from my own house. Every year they cover their house and front yard with Christmas lights and decorations and they put on a light show with the lights coordinated to Christmas music that passersby can tune their stations to as they drive by! It is a popular sight to visit in my hometown during the Christmas season!

Every year, for ten years now, my friend, Kate, from high school has been hosting an annual Christmas party! At first, in middle school, it was just the girls. But then, once we discovered boys, it became co-ed. Now, I am so glad that we continue the tradition because it is the best way to get ALL of our high school friends together again! I do still see a lot of my hometown friends, and I have been able to spend a lot of time with them all this break. But we are all so busy and have such very different schedules that it is hard to get everyone together often. Some of my friends are working full-time, some are taking college classes still, and one of my friends is even engaged and getting married Labor Day weekend this year!!! (I am still adjusting to this getting older thing!) But for this year's Christmas party most of us all had a great time playing board games and eating all of our favorite junk food snacks! Especially, Kate's famous calzone and my brownies - favorites since high school!

My friend Brandon (aka "Dobes" - my friends have a lot of nicknames!) and I at Kate's Christmas party.

My friends and I also celebrated together on New Year's Eve at my friend Brennan's house. Here I am with girlfriends Tessa and Kate.

Then, when Christmas rolled around, I celebrated with not one, but FOUR Christmases! My immediate family and I celebrated Christmas Eve with some of my dad's side of the family with dinner at our house. Then on Christmas Day, after opening presents from Santa of course, we went to my gramma's house to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. But now that I have had cousins who have gotten married, and we don't get to see my mom's cousins often, we always hold more Christmas gatherings so we get to see all of the family who we didn't get to see on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! I always enjoy these parties because they are more casual than Christmas and we get to play with new Christmas presents!

My family at our house on Christmas Eve.

My sister, Lindsay, and cousins Liz and Emily at my gramma's house on Christmas Day.

The day after Christmas, all the siblings and cousins on my dad's side got together over my aunt's house. It was exciting because we got to see Cameron, my cousin's 7 month old baby, and the newest addition to our family! We ordered Chinese food and did a Yankee Swap (re-gifting encouraged!) I ended up with a great number, and the gift I received was a bottle of wine! We also played Telestrations, a game that my sister received for Christmas from my aunt. It is basically telephone but with pictures.

Cameron is an excellent gift-unwrapper! And of course his puppy, Simon, wanted to help!

Playing Telestrations!

Then just this past weekend, we finally had our fourth Christmas, which had been postponed because of last weekend's snowstorm. We went out to Methuen, MA to my mom's cousin's house to see the second cousins on my mom's side of the family who we don't get to see too often. It was another fun day...although very disappointing because the Patriots lost badly.

I really enjoyed this year's holiday season with my family and friends. It was enjoyable and relaxing. I was reflecting during the holiday that it was just one Christmas ago that I returned from my semester abroad. Last Christmas I was jet-lagged and going through re-entry, and this year I was resting up from a very busy semester of student teaching! Both Christmas breaks were very welcome vacations!

Mr. Stonehill Opening Dance Video!!!!

Here's the video of the opening dance number from Mr. Stonehill 2009!

I owe a HUGE thank you to my friend Nick from high school, who spent a couple hours helping me figure out how to get this video on the blog to all of you! It took many attempts at changing the type, size, and location of this video, but at long last - here it is! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

Final Days of Student Teaching

It is hard to believe that I have spent much of the past four years preparing for my student teaching practicum - and now it has come and gone! I am now prepared to have my own classroom! It is both an exciting and scary thought that soon I will be starting a brand new application process - that of applying for teaching jobs!

Student teaching was a great experience. I learned so much from my cooperating practitioner, and as I assess myself as a teacher, I can see the progress I have made since September. My classroom management techniques have grown, I have learned many ideas for how to set up my own classroom, and I have prepared numerous lessons. I feel so much more confident about starting my own classroom now after student teaching than I did before. I have heard many current teachers say that student teaching is what prepares you best for your own classroom - and although I still do not yet have my own classroom, I would have to agree!

The last week of the semester was more low-key for me since my cooperating practitioner once again took over a majority of the teaching. But in addition to some teaching, I stayed busy observing other teachers and also making two new bulletin boards to leave my students with. Here are my final projects:

The most exciting part of my final week, however, is when my kids surprised me with a small party and going away gift. A mom volunteered to bake a cake for us to have during our small party, and together the class presented me with a gift. During art class, all of the kids decorated a big L.L. Bean bag monogramed with Ms. Charest with their hand prints. Then they filled the bag with gifts they donated to me to begin my own classroom library with. It was the best gift I have ever gotten! I will definitely use it during my first few years of teaching!

Now I am excited to have a long winter break for Christmas! It was a challenging, busy, exciting, nerve-wracking, and exhausting semester, so I am certainly excited to relax with family and friends, re-organize, and re-charge for my final semester at Stonehill! (I'm still not used to saying that by the way :/ ) I'll be blogging again soon about my holiday!