But December isn’t the summary of 2010 by any means. It’s merely the bitter, cold ending to a tumultuous year. Honestly, I don’t feel as though the year started until May. The first few months involved settling into the routine that I embraced when possible: school work, substitute teaching, time with Dan. We managed to go to Shamrock Fest in March, the event that we honor with bringing us together in 2009, but we left early due to the torrential rains that had us completely soaked. But in May, I was running around like a headless chicken on crack.

May included two weddings, a half a week at the beach (during which time I saw one of my favorite ex-pats, Kate), my college reunion, Alisha’s graduation from Washington College, a concert, a celebration of Alisha’s graduation with her family, and working full time at Hershey Entertainment and Resorts. In my Google calendar, I actually have June 4 blocked off for sleeping in an effort to recover from that month. When I look back on my year, May sticks out as the happiest time. It was busy, and I put the miles on, but I saw so many wonderful people and love was everywhere.

June and July fell into place much like the beginning of the year. We managed a quick weekend at the beach, we attended Celtic Fling with my Mom and SW, and we saw Tom Petty with Dan’s parents. The rest of the time was filled with work and school for me. I was forced to cut back my hours because in addition to my two graduate classes, I picked up a psychology course at HACC to meet undergraduate requirements for teaching certification. Toward the end of July, I set a record for most accidents to a car in one weekend. Dan backed into it in his driveway, I got rear-ended on the way to work, and I opened my passenger-side door into a guard rail while trying to get my insurance information out for the rear-ending. Lionel spent a week in early August in the body shop.

August. August is when the world kind of went to shit. The previous blog entries about SW’s accident really only scratch the surface. On August 2, when my Mom came home from work crying hysterically, I vowed to remain as strong as I could. My resolve remained, and I supported her and tried to support him as best I could. I visited SW in rehab at Hershey more than his own daughter did. In October, he moved to a rehab in North Carolina that specifically treats brain injuries. The situation is so incredibly awkward, and the emotions stirred by the constant phone calls are mixed. We miss him, we feel bad for him, and yet how can we remain consistently dedicated to him when we are unable to get information? How can we support him if he never made the move for us to be family? But we try. We miss him. And we still cry.

It’s really been a mixed bag since August. September held a brief reprieve from all things problematic with Dan and I spending a week in an apartment at the beach. If I remember correctly, we only had one fight, and it was because I wanted to do my homework on the sofa. The whole sofa. Yeah, I’m a brat. We relaxed on the beach, which was empty since it was after Labor Day. We enjoyed our time together, and the peacefulness of Dewey Beach with no frat boys. Things picked up after that; I had to leave my job at Hershey because school and subbing were more important.

Now here we are. January. The holidays have passed, and the only thing on the horizon is the beginning of my student teaching.

I’m scared, and I hope this year is better.

Technology has been a part of my life as a student as long as I can remember. Looking back, I realize that I was incredibly lucky to go to an elementary school where we had access to a computer lab. I recall around second grade we used Apple computers to make LEGOs move; I don’t remember what exactly this was called, but it clearly formed a lasting impression. From elementary school onward, we were given experience with word processing; most times, technology was used for special projects and presentations. We gained a lot of experience with PowerPoint. In high school, my classes exposed me to additional software that I might not have experienced otherwise. Yearbook and newspaper provided experience with Adobe PageMaker and Photoshop, which greatly influenced who I became in college.

As a college student, I used the internet more for research. Online databases of scholarly articles such as JSTOR definitely made my life easier. The value of email presented itself as well, since I always emailed my papers to my Mom or a friend to have them proofread. My prior experience with Adobe led me to use it outside of publications by creating stellar handouts for presentations. As I was wrapping up my undergraduate study, more and more teachers were moving toward online submissions for papers and utilizing Blackboard for course materials. One of my favorite English professors sent our drafts and final papers back to us with comments and corrections tracked in Microsoft Word. Thumb drives were also one of the greatest inventions to come out during my college career, and I’ve gone from having one that I held my current papers and projects to several dedicated to different fields.

Since graduation, I’ve become the editor for friends’ papers, and we often use Google Docs to share things. While Google Docs provides access to word processing, spreadsheets and presentations among other document types, it pales in comparison to the innovations Google continues to provide. The advent of Google Wave could change the way people share and discuss documents, but it’s something that may take awhile to catch on.

My teaching experience is limited to substitute teaching, but I have seen technology used in various classroom settings. In some cases, students are using older computers to master the basic computer applications such as Microsoft Office. In another instance, I had the opportunity to substitute for a yearbook class, and these students had access to several state-of-the-art desktop computers as well as a cart of laptops. Many of them had their own high-quality point-and-shoot digital cameras, and they also had access to the school’s higher quality DSLR cameras. This same school district has several laptop carts shared by department. I’ve seen students use laptops for PowerPoint presentations in their social studies and science courses and use educational sites to reinforce skills while their regular teacher is out sick. In some cases, the students use the time with laptops productively; however, I’ve run across numerous students who use the time to access Flash games or dedicate most of their time to finding the perfect song for the background of their presentation. Several of the school districts with whom I’ve substituted use the website StudyIsland.com to reinforce and test student skills; I will be interested to discuss using sites like this when I complete my field experience observations.

Additionally, I’m having some thoughts about attempting the city school again. They held an orientation for substitute teachers this week, and I attended because I didn’t have any subbing work. I feel like, in the present economy, more people are emergency certified to substitute and this increases the number of options for schools and decreases the number of calls for the sub. So I may have to start taking calls at the city school to stay afloat financially, as much as I don’t want to do it. They seemed genuinely grateful that anyone would show up to teach for their school district, and they acknowledged that they do indeed have some bad eggs. They also gave me what I wanted—a written manual outlining different procedures. While it isn’t quite a Bible of How to Act at the Urban School, it does have some helpful information. They also gave us some pointers that I would not necessarily have thought to employ in teaching (i.e., ignore the “bad” children), so maybe if I try to follow their ideas of how things work, I will have a more successful time of it.

Nothing compares to subbing at my favorite suburban schools, though. I did have a day at one this past week, and because it’s almost time for high school finals, the class was doing review packets. The fact that they remained quiet and legitimately did work per the teacher’s instructions enabled me to all but finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in a single day. I sincerely hope that I can work with them more throughout the rest of this school year.

I may post some of my posts from my various classes on here as I move through my semester with SJU. The Psychology of Teaching course seems like it will be really thought-provoking, and we have to write weekly message board posts for it. My fingers are crossed that things continue to go well for me in the education sector.