Something to Think About...

I recently graduated college with a degree in Education.  Since I graduated in the middle of the school year, I have been subbing since the beginning of January.  It has been a wonderful experience so far but hope to have my own classroom by August! 
Today I subbed for a Physical Education teacher in an elementary school.  I taught children in pre- school up to fifth grade.  

Trying to be a true blogger ;) This is what I decided to wear when subbing for P.E. 

Cute Tennis Shoes Eh?

I even got a whistle ;)

Throughout the day, I began to notice a pattern.  I did not realize how so many children despise exercise.  You would have thought we asked them to run for an hour straight by their reactions to "Jog three laps around the gym to warm up."  It really made me sad because exercise and fitness are so important in not only keeping your body healthy but also in helping them to succeed in the classroom.  It was so obvious the only exercise many of them get was the 30 minutes twice a week during P.E. which totally breaks my heart!  I hope one day I can find a way to help promote fitness and exercise in young children and help them to learn to love it instead of feeling as if it were a punishment. 

I hope that I can help children to believe in themselves instead of immediately thinking they will fail or that it is too hard.  I cannot tell you how many times I heard, "I can't do it" before they even tried today!  Confidence is crucial and I hope to instill that confidence in as many children as possible throughout my career as a teacher! :)

My first post!

So I decided to start a blog because I am kind of obsessed with stalking  looking at other blogs so figured it was time to attempt one of my own! Also, Emily

forced me into it! I was always pretty athletic.....I played every sport you could up until high school and then I only played soccer and ran track.  I secretly hated track the entire time but for some reason continued to do it.  I was never a runner- I would run on the treadmill at the gym to workout occasionally but it wasn't until I began training for the St. Jude half marathon that I truly fell in love with running!! 

 

Two of my aunts ran the St. Jude half marathon in December of 2010 and as I watched them cross that finish line I knew I wanted to do it next year.  

Me and Emily celebrating with my Aunts after my first half marathon!

 As I began training, I realized how much I enjoyed running and how amazing I felt after a short or long run!  Exercise is so important in keeping yourself healthy and in shape and in my opinion is a wonderful thing to truly enjoy doing!  I completed my first half marathon on December 3rd, 2011.  It was such an amazing experience.  I finished in 2 hours 11 minutes which isn't amazing but I was proud!  St. Jude is one of the most amazing places on Earth and I felt honored to be a part of the race and to also be a St. Jude Hero in which I raised close to $700.00 for those precious children!  

It was amazing seeing all the people wearing these on race day! 

Pretty sure with everyone's efforts over 3 million dollars was raise! :) 

After I finished I knew I wanted to sign up for more races and eventually plan on running a full marathon.  So far, I am running the Germantown Half Marathon on March 18th and the Dash for Dad Half Marathon on April 28th! I plan on eventually training for a full marathon after I get a few more half marathons under my belt.  I also want to do a triathlon with Emily because she is a little bit obsessed and I want to be as cool as she is! 

 Emily (she got the honor of being in my main picture at the top of the page) is not only an amazing friend but has been training with me from the beginning! I'm sure you will see her mentioned on about 80% of my posts because we are totally BFF and she makes my life seem more interesting! 

Me and Emily about to enjoy a wonderful bike ride through Shelby Farms! 

I'm new to this blogging stuff so we'll see how it goes! My main goal is to document my training/race adventures and maybe post a few things about my life as a new teacher when the opportunity presents itself! 

Until next time....