Pancakes, Justin Beiber and Wildlife

Tuesday was a great day.  I was curling my hair in the bathroom, getting ready for my first day of teaching practicum when Burke brought me this surprise.

What a sweetheart.  He boosted my confidence and I drove off cheerful and confident for Desert Hills Middle School.  I have been doing practicum this semester in Mrs. Lee's 8th Grade Language Arts class.  I go every Tuesday to observe and to ease into my student teaching next semester by teaching a handful of lessons this fall.  I taught a mini-lesson to 3 classes on capitalization.  I realize that a lot of grammatical rules and conventions are boring for most kids to sit through, so after our review of the rules I had them practice with a "Pop Culture Capitalization" worksheet that I had typed up with some of the more teenie-bopper music artists (Rhiana, Justin Bieber), books (Twilight, The Hunger Games), and movies.  After correcting them as a class I had a fun activity where I would play them a minute from a trendy song ("Love Story" by Taylor Swift, "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga, etc) and they would have to write a sentence with the correct capitalization including the artist and name of the song.  They were so excited to have music playing and I had so much fun teaching!

After practicum Burke and I joined our youth for a hike up the "Third Ravine" for their YM/YW combined activity.  Sister Cami Beitler (the sweet gal I work with in the Beehives) is a hike guide out a the Biggest Loser Resort in Ivins and she set a quick pace leading us through the ravine.  We hiked to the top of the ledge and saw a beautiful view of the St. George valley on one side...

...and a vast expanse of desert wasteland on the other.

There was a scary moment where the sudden warning of a rattlesnake's shaking alerted the kids to danger.  Of course, a squirrely kid kept walking as a close as he could, making the rattle get louder, while the girls all squealed at him to knock it off.  I told him to cut that crap out right just as the male "adult" leaders arrived and closed in to get a good look at the venomous creature.  Thanks for the support guys.  It took me forever to herd them out of there all the while reminding them we were 2 miles in and I would not be carrying any poisoned body out of there.  

Besides the beautiful views, the hike included a side cave that the kids had fun exploring as well as plenty of giant rocks to scramble around on like mountain goats on the ascent.  On the last leg we saw an owl perfectly camouflaged with the rock and sand.  Can you see him?

The evening ended with ice cream cones for the lucky girls in our car and a "Corner Gas" episode after homework.  What a good day!