The Interview

On a hot day in July, 1997, I headed down to Livingston, California, where I had an interview for a teaching position. As I walked toward the district office, where the interview was to take place, another candidate for the job joined me. He asked, "Are you here for an interview?" I replied that yes, I was, and then he said, "Are ya nervous?" I shrugged and told him that no, I wasn't nervous. (I had discovered a long time ago that nervousness doesn't do me any good). The man went to the bathroom, or somewhere, I didn't know where, and then I was called in for my interview. To my surprise, I walked in to a panel of interviewers, and this man was among them. I had just assumed he was another candidate for the job, but here he was, sitting on the other side of the table with the rest of the interviewers.

I don't recall much about the interview...except that I was surprised that, since it was an interview for a bilingual job, they only asked me one question in Spanish. I was secretly hoping they'd decide I wasn't fluent enough and give me an English only class. But with only one simple question, it was hard to stumble over words, and they somehow decided I was perfectly qualified to teach bilingual. (Actually, it ended up being a primary language class, where most of the instruction was done in Spanish, but English was one of the subjects taught. It was the best strategy in the world, and the best experience of my professional life). Anyway, I was called back for a second interview, and hired for the position. While I was relieved to have a job, I was terrified to be a first time teacher of bilingual education.

A few months later I found out that Al Silviera (the man who asked me if I was nervous) was a neighbor to Roger Liston, my former high school seminary teacher. Brother Liston told me that Al said he knew he wanted to hire me the minute I said I wasn't nervous. After that, in his opinion, the interview was just a formality. (Boy, was I glad I answered that question right)!

I like to tell that story sometimes when I can tell someone is having a tough time dealing with being nervous. Just remember, no matter who it is who is looking or passing their judgment on your performance, they are just people, like you and me. They may hold your future in their hands, but don't let it scare you. If you master your nerves, you will perform better and give a truer representation of yourself and your abilities.

Quincy Road

During my college years, my parents bought a house at 1012 S. Quincy Rd., kind of out in the country, on a 1/3 acre lot. I lived there after college, during my first year of teaching, while I saved up to move out on my own. The front door opened into an entryway, probably the biggest entryway we'd ever had. There was a wood stove in the entryway, just at the beginning of the living room. The whole living room was to the left of the entryway, and the kitchen was straight ahead. Through the living room, more to the left, there was a bedroom on the left, a bedroom straight ahead, and a bathroom  on the right. The kitchen, (directly across from the entryway, if you remember), was fairly small. There was a small space for a table on the right. On the left there was a "peninsula" counter, the stove and fridge, very minimal counter space. Across from the stove was the sink, and some more cupboards and counter space. Continuing back through the kitchen was a hallway. On the right was a door leading to the garage, which had been turned into a bedroom (probably not to code, ha ha!) Behind that bedroom was where the laundry was. There was another bedroom to the left, across from that door to the garage. This was my parents' room. The next door on the left opened to a half bathroom. On the right wall of the hallway was a big pantry. Further down the hall there was a big family room, which was also an add on. From the family room, there was a door that led to the back yard. Out in the back yard there was a screen room attached to the back of the house, and then there was also a separate building in the back, which was used as a bedroom on several different occasions.

Here are a few random pictures taken inside this house. This first on is Dawn, talking on the phone. The right side of the picture is a column that separates the entry way from the living room. A tiny bit more to the right and you would see the wood stove, and then a little bit after that the front door. The kitchen table is behind that half wall that is behind Dawn.

From this couch where my dad is sitting, he is facing the window wall in the above picture. That door behind him is the bathroom. Facing the bathroom door is a door leading to the bedroom in the next picture, and at the end of that short little hallway is another door to another bedroom.

This bedroom is across the hall from the bathroom, and was my bedroom during the year that I lived there, my first year teaching school. 

Here we have Sam and Mark in the very back of the house, in the family room. 

This is Dawn and Shannon in the garage-made-bedroom.

Student Teaching

As is the norm, I had two placements for student teaching. (Although I had had several different placements in many different grades, called “practicums,” where I would go in and help, kind of like an aide, as educational work experience).

For student teaching, my first placement was at Adam’s Elementary School in Rexburg. I was placed in a Kindergarten classroom with a teacher named Donna Sanford. Kindergarten was half day, so we got to plan a half day and do it twice. While I was there, we worked on getting the kids ready for a patriotic music and dancing program for the parents, and it was really fun to see that come together.

Two things I learned in that classroom really stand out to me. First, we were having snack one day and a little girl asked me to open her little bag of crackers, or whatever it was they were eating. So I reached down and got ready to open it for her, when the teacher said the girl’s name, and then asked, “If you are having trouble opening your wrapper, what can you do?” The girl thought for a minute, and then reached for her scissors and opened her snack. !!! It seems so glaringly obvious, but what a way to help the kids learn problem solving skills. That was my first ever experience with that. To this day I still struggle a little bit with letting kids do things on their own. I tend to involve myself and my help way too much. I try to be mindful of that and back off as much as I can, because I know it is good for them to figure things out and solve their own problems as much as they can. I don’t know why I always want to just swoop in and take care of everything. I need to remember this experience in Kindergarten more often.

The other thing was that I was assigned to teach a lesson on fractions. Uuum, in Kindergarten? So I made up a story about pizza, and sharing a whole pizza with different numbers of friends, and 20 minutes later the kids totally understood whole, half, thirds and fourths. I was blown away. What I learned—never underestimate the power of what kids can learn.

My second placement was in 7^th grade English, taught by Terrie McRae. Her husband happened to be on the bishopric in my ward, so I thought that was pretty cool. This placement was a lot of fun. Maybe it was math. I think I remember teaching both. ? Not sure. Maybe it was math, and I am remembering some English too, because my placement in that class was during the time of their Renaissance Faire. Actually, most of the time it was prepping for it, and then toward the end was the actual faire. So I taught some math, but we also talked a lot about Shakespeare. The kids were doing a play, and rehearsed relentlessly for that. My job for the faire was the Punch and Judy show. I had to make all the paper mache puppets, and get my little group ready to put on the show. We also had to make the puppet theater that they would use.

I did have a great time in that placement, and quite enjoyed the older kids. I don’t  think I had any earth shattering lessons in that placement, but it was a good, good experience.

The Renaissance Faire

Here is the Punch and Judy show that I was in charge of:

My Puppets!

Renaissance Musicians

Tired!

The Play

Something Shakespeare, although I can't remember which.

Lewiston

When I was in college, it was still called Ricks College, and it was still a 2 year school. Most kids went for their two years, and then transferred to BYU or Utah State, or wherever else they wanted to go. My plan was to go to Ricks and then BYU. So off to Ricks I went.

At some point during my first or second year there, I went to visit Emily at BYU. Emily had been my very best friend forever in 8^th grade in Turlock, and then she moved to Bakersfield. So I had the chance to go to BYU for the weekend and visit. And a strange thing happened to me. I don’t have any clue what we did, but I’m sure it was a great visit, as those kinds of things usually are. What I do remember is that just being on the campus made me feel…I don’t know. I didn’t feel that it was a bad school or anything. I just felt this overpowering, very unexpected feeling that I did not want to go to school there. It totally threw a wrench in my perfectly laid out plan. Now what was I going to do? I had no idea, all I knew was that I had zero desire to ever go to BYU. 

Time went by, and one day in one of my classes, the elementary ed faculty at Ricks College visited one of our classes and presented a whole new plan. There was this college in Northern Idaho, Lewis-Clark State College, that was going to work with Ricks College teachers to provide a satellite program in Rexburg for people who wanted to finish a four year degree without having to leave. See, there were a lot of local people going for their teaching degrees who were established residents of Rexburg, with husbands and kids and a whole life. That made it harder for them to just pick up and go to a different school to finish. Hence, this satellite program. Ricks College teachers would take off their Ricks hats at the end of the day, and in the evening they’d put on their LCSC hats and provide Jr. and Sr. level classes to those in the program. The only down side was that the students would have to go up to Lewiston, to LCSC, for 8 weeks during the summer, to meet some heavier duty requirements. 

It sounded good to me! Are you kidding? Rexburg? I would stay in Rexburg forever, I loved it a ton there. This was a chance for me to stay in Rexburg all four years, even though Ricks was only a two year school. So I signed up. 

Summer in Lewiston was pretty…ok. Ha ha! 

All of us who came up from Ricks lived in this dorm on campus, and we would go to classes from 8-5 every day. One of our classes we completed, from start to finish, in one week. The other classes were more like half day classes, and we had two classes a day. It still filled our days up with classes, but the classes lasted longer than a week. At the end of 8 weeks, we had finished up a semester’s worth of work, and that was that. 

While I lived in Lewiston, I threw myself heavily into working out in the gym. I did lots of stair masters and a little bit of weight training. 

I also tried roller blading. I got about half a block and hated it so much that I never roller bladed again.

Another thing I did that summer was I loved to play soccer. I had a lot of fun playing casual soccer with the people in my program. 

One night, a group of us ladies dressed up and went to a play. We saw Oliver Twist. I remember that being a lot of fun. 

I remember that there was a paper mill in Lewiston, and it stunk. I will never be a fan of the smell of paper mill. Ha ha! I also remember that it was there in Lewiston, in one of my classes, where I first saw someone use a scanner. Boy were we awe struck by the amazing technology of it all. I never dreamed I’d have one in my house one day, and end up taking it for granted. 

I also remember that our week long class was taught by the head of the department, and his wife. I’m sure it’s a silly thing to remember, but one day they were addressing the topic of professional dress. That day they were both wearing sweat pants. The irony of that one was talked over amongst ourselves afterwards for quite a long time. It was a good laugh. 

Last one. I remember that there was a river, and over the river was a bridge. On one side of the bridge was Idaho, and on the other side of the bridge was Washington. So one day I walked across the bridge, and thought that it was the coolest thing ever to walk from one state to another. Ha ha!

Here's a picture of the area.

These pictures are just crazy pictures of our awesome group. The first one is me and Liz Bennett--she was my best friend in the program, we had a great time.

This girl's name is Susan.

A guy named Steve being silly. He was probably my second best friend in the program. His sense of humor just meshed so well with mine. He was great. (And married, so it was nothing like that).

Mike and Elena (?) are there in the middle, they were married to each other. I don't remember the others' names.

This is Liz with this other lady, who I remember just completely loving to be around. I wish so bad I could remember her name!

Girls' Night!

Here is our whole group, at the end of the summer. It was a social at the home of the head of the department. (The sweats guy). He and his wife are on the left, he is in a striped shirt and she is right next to him.

LCSC at Ricks

Most of my pictures from Lewis Clark State College are from when we were in Lewiston, but we did spend most of our time studying in Rexburg. 

This is a group of us who were in Mr. Ivers’ class for…I think it was Educational Philosophy or something. My memory fails me. =) I adored Mr. Ivers. I had had him for my final Spanish class in college, and he was the teacher who had us reading novels and writing essays and doing all kinds of “real” Spanish language work. He was another teacher who was just a whole lot of fun, and had a great sense of humor. At one point, I believe during the summer terms, he served on the bishopric of our summer ward.

Here is a big group of us at the end of the whole thing, right before we all graduated with our BA degrees. I’m not sure whose house this was, I’m thinking it was one of the administrators who helped make the Lewis Clark program possible for us. We had a big get together that night. Here is a picture of all of us, and then a picture of—looks like all the single girls. (Most people in the program were married, because they were the ones who were more rooted and less able to pick up and move to a different school.

Let's see how many names I can remember...in the front we have Angela, Eileen, Melinda and Stephanie. Back row is Asa and me. On the left side in the background is Liz Bennett, my favorite LCSC friend of all. 

Mothers Week

Every year at Ricks, they had Mothers Week. It was a week where students could have their moms come, and go to classes and everywhere else with them. My mom came, I think twice, to Mothers Week. What fun we all had!

This is the only picture I have from Mothers Week in 1994 in Pine View. First is my roommate Lori, then my childhood best friend Karie Hadley, who came up for a visit, then me, then Mom. Face masks, of course!

This picture was probably 1997. First is me, with my mom behind me, then April, with her mom behind her. Then Julie is in the black dress, her mom couldn't come. Maggie Slocomb is in red, with her mom behind her, and Ruth Anne Moser, with her mom behind her.