Summer's ending

Oh hey again.
Long time no action here on this blog of mine, but thanks to my friend Kelly, I have decided to update y'all on my life...
I don't even know where to start. Today? Yesterday? January?
I'll just go with what's been on my mind a lot lately...what's going down 6 months from now.
But to do that we have to take a few steps back:
This summer I had the amazing opportunity to work at an international school in Singapore for 5 weeks. I was an intern in the middle school Humanities department and spent my days at school going to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Humanities, Geography, and History classes. I spent the majority of my time with the 6th graders, and though I thought they would be "too young" for me when I started, they quickly became my favorite class to be a part of! Many of the teachers I worked with threw me right into the teaching mix, and I ending up student teaching quite a fair bit!
The school I was at was absolutely amazing. The teachers and students come from all over the world and bring such a curiosity to learn. The challenge then comes not it disciplining students or motivating them to do their work (more often than not you have to tell them to NOT work so hard) but the challenge is how to inspire them to change the world.
Take the example of my 6th grade class. They were working on a unit on poverty and development while I was there and for me it was so real, as I had just come from my trip to Tanzania. For them, however, it appeared as though it was just a story. Some students got it, while others struggled to make the connection.
My 8th grade class was in a similar scenario, with climate change and global warming. It's hard to make the connection that your actions have any consequence on the earth when you've never experienced the other side of the picture.
These kids are excellent students, and they go on to make real changes - you just have to inspire them in a way they can relate to!

Now how does this relate to what I am thinking about today, and have been thinking about for awhile now? Well, my goal is to be a teacher. And that's what I am going to school for - in August I will start a year long course to get my teaching certificate. But where that course will be I have yet to decide. I have applied to both the University of Colorado Boulder and here at Notre Dame where I currently am.

Before this summer I had never even thought about international schools. I always thought my place was in a public school, as I was a public school girl for my education and I believe that public schools need good teachers too (which I hope I am). However, after working at UWCSEA this summer, I fell in love with the international school. Because I have grown up traveling and here I am in Australia, I felt I had a connection with the teachers and students there.

Weighing out the pros and cons of both schools (CU and ND) is a tough decision. ND gives me the chance to get my accreditation to teach in a Catholic school, though I am not sure that is what I am called to do. It does give me that choice though. Colorado gives me the mountains and a school system I know I love. We'll see...the decision is coming soon.

Other than that, my life has been great. We have been back in action for three weeks now and I can feel the assignment piling up. Somehow it seems though that I have managed to not have too heavy a load in my last semester as an undergrad!
I've moved out of the dorms and into an apartment and in a sense I feel like I've grown up a bit. I get along really well with my roommates, which is something I was scared about before I moved in as I had only met them once and life seems to be shaping up all right between work (sort of...more hours would be GREAT), homework, and my social life.

I spent the day at the beach today and will spend tomorrow working on papers.
I think that's about it...
Any questions!?! I know I've skipped nearly three months without any updates...

Later, gator!
Megs