Cold and Snow Won't Stop Me!

So a few weeks back, I was giving my family back in Wisconsin crap that they were getting all this snow while it was not too bad in Cedar Rapids.

Karma came back to Cedar Rapids this past week. It heavily snowed on Saturday (during Scholars Weekend no less) and then again multiple times this week. It even started Valentine's Day off with one to two inches of snow.

Despite the snow and colder temperatures, I've been quite determined to wear a version of red/pink this entire week. I've succeeded and haven't let the cold and snow stop me from pulling out my favorite winter dresses (don't worry I wear boots while I zoom around campus). 

And lots of good stuff has been happening. Classes are just going swimmingly, with tests/papers/homework assignments keeping me plenty busy. Lucky for me, I've got some great classes and many of my friends are in my classes, which makes for a great atmosphere.

Millie and I made more muffins, as expected. This time, we tried a banana crumble recipe. They were DELICIOUS.

On Wednesday night, I got the opportunity to hear Michele Norris (some might know of her when she hosted NPR's All Things Considered). Michele was there to discuss her memoir as well as her project that her memoir lead her to, The Race Card Project. She asks people to write down the first sentence they think of when they think of race. Oh and the sentence can only be six letters long. The project grew from that one idea and really took off. Here's a clip of Michele talking about her book (it's 15 minutes long but Michele is such an articulate and graceful speaker)

It was such a great presentation. She gave me a lot to think about and Coe was so lucky to have her visit campus.

On Thursday, I got to spend time with Chloe and Millie (my two English major buddy old pals) as well as two of our English professors, Amber and Melissa. This semester seems to be the semester where I have made an even deeper connection with faculty members on campus. When I went to talk to Melissa about my thesis, our conversation moved into a variety of other topics, including how my semester was going, graduate school planning, and the future. It was so nice to have that conversation because it really calmed me down and helped me focus on finishing the week strong and gearing up for a productive weekend.

I also had one of my best tutoring sessions on Thursday afternoon at Taylor Elementary. I've begun to work really closely with two students, L & K as I'll call them. A few weeks ago, we finished our first book, The Absent Author by Ron Roy (an excellent book, especially for young readers). I went back to the Cedar Rapids Public Library to grab some new reading material including a few nonfiction books on the 1930s (K & L are learning about the Great Depression in their fourth grade class right now) along with Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (it's a great book about the Dust Bowl and one I fondly remember reading as a fourth grader with Mrs. Lins). This past week, we really dug into the nonfiction book about the 1930s as a whole. As we were reading, the girls and I encountered new words and new ideas. We learned about economy, economists, economic, and how to actually say those words. We talked about the economic cycle and supply and demand, discussed the US timeline from 1929 to 1939 and figured out what the heck Roman numerals were. The entire lesson was conducted on the back side of a library receipt:

Pretty neat, right? Just a hour that reminded me that I am very passionate about teaching children and being a librarian, especially through reading. 

Today, Valentine's Day has been chilly but busy. I've been around campus, gone to class, and even sat in on a Common Hour about the role of media in today's world. The lecture was given by Chuck Peters, a member of the Cedar Rapids community as well as a member on Coe's Board of Trustees. 

Well, French/Statistics/Mary Robinson/Jane Eyre are calling to me! More updates to come!