Cool Stuff That's Happened to Me Today

Hello All!

It is Friday evening, around 7:30.

Here is just a little blog about all the awesome stuff that has happened just today and has me smiling from ear to ear.

LIST TIME!

1. Technically this happened yesterday, but Brad liked the CDs I burned him of The Wonder Years and Hit the Lights and we talked about attending a Fall Out Boy concert together. ^-^ Bonding over music.

2. My practicum shift this morning was AWESOME. Normally I work 8:30-10:30, except Wednesday because of my pre-student teaching, but on Fridays I make up that shift by staying until 12:30. Woof, right? It's actually not so bad. Those 4 hours FLY by! Anyway, long story short--my first student reached the next phase of all of his procedures (what a smart cookie!), he kept wanting hugs and when I laughed like his Elmo toy and tickled him I almost died his giggle was so cute. Transitions went really well too. Usually he cries and throws himself on the floor and it takes forever to entice him to the booth. Not today. He cried once the entire morning and it was only because he smashed his hand turning a toy over. My second student was relatively off task, as he is wont to do, but he didn't hit or spit. My third student was super sweet and giggly and I tried to save him from getting hit by another student and he kissed my hand when it came near his face. I got in my car after the shift with my cheeks almost over my eyes I was smiling so big!

3. Speaking of the practicum, Dr. Malott showed up today to check out how things were going. That might not mean much to you, but he is the head of the psychology department at Western, he's written numerous books, and he opened the other autism center in the area. I'm terribly inspired by this man and I'm starstruck every time I see him. (Sidenote: I was in the Wood Hall--the psych building on campus--waiting for a class and he walked by and smiled and nodded at me like he knew who I was and I also passed out).

4. I'm sort of getting my thesis together. Tracy DeMars, my Educational Psychology professor has agreed to be my thesis committee chair and Dr. Dan Morgan, the head of the Special Education and Literary Studies program here at Western has expressed interest in joining the committee. That means I'm two steps away from actually declaring my thesis! Plus I have two super intelligent minds on my side who are both interested in learning from this experience as well as helping me!
Here's what I have no far:

Raising and educating children with autism, aiding them in developing more high functioning social and life skills.

Ø  Imitation

Ø  Punishers/Reinforcers

Ø  Differences between normally functioning children and children with autism in this respect

ü  Temperaments

ü  Educational aid

5. I got my placement in a Kalamazoo Elementary school today for my pre-student teaching. This is very exciting in itself, since I'm one step closer to the field work before graduating, but I also got the grade level I wanted--3rd! More to come on that. My first day in this coming Wednesday!

6. Lastly...as we speak (as I'm typing this) my friend Aaron from Indiana is coming up to meet me. He should be here any minute! This is the first time I will ever be meeting him, since we met on (embarrassing) a Harry Potter roleplaying website seven years ago and have been friends ever since. Don't worry! We've skyped and everything. I even met his mother over skype. He's 18 and pretty cool, even though he's a kid (:
Also--family and loved ones! Don't fret. Rena will be here this weekend with me, as will two of her girlfriends from back home, her brother, and her brother's best friend. So this has been properly figured out and I'm safe!

Well, that's it. Off to my awesome weekend!
Love you all!

Some Recruitment/Pi Phi fun for you

First Round of Recruitment~All About Pi Phi

Second Round~Philanthropy

               

 

Round Three~Sisterhood

Round Four: Preference Party

It's not all little black dresses, pearls, and classy women
It's weird and unique too

           

Trust my fam to creep in the background and photobomb a perfectly good photo

I loves my Little Princess 

                             

"Hard Style"

"You can't photobomb a photo that is only a photo so you can photobomb"
"We can try"

                                

BID NIGHT!

We were saying goodbye, 'cause Little went to England to study abroad

~Big/Little Reveal!~

My new Twin, Ali!

                      

 

My second Little, Brianna~

Pink Party!

 AFTER INITIATION!

Mom/Daughter Day with Pi Beta Phi

Cookie Shine!

I'm Terrible and Awful and I'm Sorry

I haven't posted anything since the beginning of last semester!

My life got both boring and super busy and I didn't even think about this blog. That is until I got a phone call from my mother, telling me that my sort of cousin, Brad, has come to Western and was unsure about some things, so she gave him the URL to my blog. Naturally, I thought, well it will help him out, I wrote on it for two years. But then I realized just how far behind I'd gotten.
To be fair, nothing has really happened that's all that interesting. Life is still a waiting game for now, full of classes and other obligations.
Still: Here's a little bit about what's going down in Samtown.

1. I just reapplied for the Speech Program. I will know by March if I'm in or if I'm changing my major.
2. Mikel and I are no longer together, but we are still best friends. It works better that way, we both agree. Friends is where we're at.
3. I am currently doing my Pre-intership/pre-student teaching. It's pretty cool. I'll be placed (sometime this week) in a local school with a mentor teacher and I will go every Wednesday and assist, observe, and actually lead three lessons! My first day of that is next Wednesday, which I hope to remember to post about!
4. I am also doing an autism practicum, where I work one-on-one with children with autism, helping them develop higher functioning skills as well as social skills. So far it has been awesome. My student has tantrum-ed a little and I changed a poopy diaper today, but other than that we get along great and I'm having a really great time.
5. Brad and I met up for coffee (in case you've already forgotten he's my sort of cousin) and we were at Biggby for 4 hours before we were too hungry not to go our separate ways and grab dinner. I hope I'm helping him out and making him feel more comfortable. He expressed interest in the Greek system, which has me so excited! I'm going out to dinner with Lindsey and her sister tonight and we invited him and he seems excited to come, so I think we're going to get along great and I'll help him integrate into the WMU student culture.
HEY BRAD! When you get to this post: how am I doing? Am I totally scary crazy? Do you feel good about being here at Western? IF NOT I'M NOT DOING MY JOB AND JUST YELL AT ME TO BE BETTER!
6. I told you in September I would tell you how recruitment went. The answer is great! I had an awesome first experience! There were some girls that I didn't really click with, but that's bound to happen. I also got super close with a bunch of my sisters I only kind of knew before then. So, that was really awesome. We also got a bunch of new awesome girls! I took a second little, Brianna, who is actually one of my first little, Shelby's housemates. CRAZY! Jessica (J.Fo) also lives with them and is in Pi Phi asked if I would adopt her as a little, even though she's been in the chapter longer than me. (:
7. Living in the apartment is nice, except for the unreliable bus and the distance from campus. Hey, at this price I can't really complain. Then again, how much am I spending on gas and parking passes in comparison to just paying more rent to live closer. Either way, this place is huge and awesome and there's room for my many things in my room.
8. Working at the Honors College is both a blessing and a curse. I get short shifts, which is awesome because the job isn't terribly exciting and I have lots of other things to do. However, I get paid just over minimum wage and I only work two days a week. That means my paychecks aren't that big. Still, I mostly get paid to do my homework. And over break, I had two three and a half hour shifts where I mostly just read, except for, like, 5-10 minutes of doing work-related things. Still. I like the people I work with well enough and my supervisor is relatively laid back. She doesn't take any bullshit. But I like that about her too.

Another fun fact, before I go. I MAY be authoring another blog on WordPress. I've been told by a few people that I could talk about funny things, or even other random things. Serious things! Imagine me and serious...that's a joke. Okay, anyway
My friend Aaron told me I should do video blogs, but we'll see how this goes first and then maybe I'll transfer the written blog into a series of video blogs.
Either way, the link is below. Anything I think people care to read about or discuss, I'll post something about it there.
http://randomsamblog.wordpress.com/

You may be wondering why I didn't just make a second blog here. The answer is that I am trying new things. I'll see how I like the dashboard on the other one and decide from there which blogsite I like best.

Until next time!