Life Lately: Teacher Credential Progam Edition

Sup. I'm here for my monthly check-in ;) 

School has been kicking my butt and has left little time for much else! 

So let's talk about it! 

I started back in August, and my semester the schedule is as follows: The first 8 weeks of the semester (M-F) were strictly coursework, learning about methods, theories, strategies, lesson planning, standards, etc. Every Thursday of weeks 4-8, we went to our clinical practice sites and observed classes, shadowed students, interviewed students, interviewed teachers, etc. Sounds complicated. It was. Trying to juggle all of my coursework with assignments, reflections, presentations, TPA Task 1 (which I passed!), personal life crap, baseball, and concerts was rough and caused many breakdowns. But coursework is finally over and I made it out alive with passing grades and into the second half of the semester! 

These next 8 weeks are strictly clinical practice (M-F). I'm in an 8th grade humanities class that covers English Language Arts and Social Studies. I have two sets of weirdly entertaining students and a cooperating teacher who I've learned a lot from! Today is the start of week 3, and at this point I've gradually taken over more and more of the instruction! It feels SO weird being the grown-up in the room who is supposed to know it all. Spoiler alert...I don't. My first official observation is this Thursday so we'll see how effective I am at putting everything I've learned into practice!

That's about all I've got...see ya in a month. 

Seriously though. How terrible is it that I only post monthly these days?! Especially when I have this new awesome blog design courtesy of this lovely lady and I feel like I've wasted her talent. November goal: post more than once! 

SEPTEMBER IS FINALLY OVER

And I couldn't be happier.

I usually love September. But it was lame this year. My birthday is usually something I'm all about. This year is was meh and not what I wished it would be. Regular season baseball is coming to an end and the games are starting to mean a little more. This year the Yanks were eliminated from playoffs, Derek Jeter retired, and my last few Padres games had the worst timing ever. There's a bunch of other stuff that I don't feel like sharing, but just know this month hasn't been a happy feeling month. No lie, I spent more nights crying this month combined than over the course in my entire life. 

School started in August, but we started to get into the meaty stuff like theories of education, reading, techniques, and assignments in September. Right when I was trying to get my season ticket money's worth and squeeze in the last few baseball games of the season. On top of that, I had a minor breakdown over content standards and lesson plans and what resources I'm supposed to use and know about. Normally my notes are orderly, neat, make sense, and on paper...but this year, most of my textbook are on an iPad and I'm still struggling figuring method that works for me.

This is more of a ramble and starting to pick up on this blogging thing again since it's kind of been 40 days since my last post! 

Anyways...the month is over, and we're starting a new one. It's time to move on and focus on what's ahead!

Things to look forward to in October: Countryfest...mostly Sara Evans. Luke Bryan. TPA Task 1 will come and GO! I'll be at my clinical practice site full time instead of just once a week! And with the exception of my bilingual course, I'll be done with my methods courses for the semester. 

The Plan

Back in May of 2013 I graduated college. Good times. 

Except I still went back to school in the Fall to take some education courses that I didn't take as part of my undergrad, but still needed as a pre-requisite for the teaching credential program. Welp, after long hours of homework, observations, and tutoring...I'm done :] To be perfectly honest, this last semester had been the hardest I've ever worked in school, and am totally expecting straight A's as a result. Yeah yeah! The coursework wasn't difficult, just a lot of assignments. Blah. Either way, I'm done!

via

At this point, I've checked off a bachelors degree, taking these education courses, and passing my CBEST off the pre-requisite checklist for the program application. 

via

What's left: Passing the multiple subject CSETS, getting my fingerprints done, getting CPR certified, collecting letters of recommendation, finding out if I have/need to get a TB shot, and if I decide on the middle level program...figuring out what subject I'd like to teach and take that respective CSET. All this needs to be done within the next two and a half months. Yay for pressure! 

I just spent my last free weekend laying in bed watching mindless tv, because as of today...I start working on getting what's left of that checklist completed. I will spend the next month studying for the CSET because I take it mid-January, and am volunteering in a classroom once a week so I can try and earn a sincere letter of recommendation for an experienced teacher. CPR classes are scheduled for the second week of January, and if my budget allows, I should be getting my fingerprints done by the end of this month. Man. I'm stressing myself just thinking about all of it! But it can get done because plenty of people have done it before me! I'm gonna not have a life for another 3-ish months...bur you know what?

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Anyways, not sure what the point of this post is...maybe just kind of an update, and obviously some hills gifs because I'm totally missing that show right now. Is anyone else's schedule just as crazy? Are you working towards anything with a deadline? What do you do to keep from overwhelming yourself? Ahhhhhhhhh.

Happy Monday :]

Dear Me

Last fan Friday, I promised I wouldn't write about attending a baseball game...so I'm switching things up.

I came across an article a couple of weeks ago where 12 stars (Andy Murray, Aaron Rodgers, Abby Wambach, Jeff Gordon, and more) write letters to themselves as young athletes and thought it was an interesting read. As a Yankees fan, I feel the need to be against anything and everything that relates to the Red Sox, but out of all the letters...David Ortiz's was my favorite! I love his focus on education. I decided I would do this for myself!

Below is my letter to 17 year old Marty, in my last months of senior year and personally had a rocking soccer season. I thought I'd be a shoe-in for the softball team and didn't want to bother myself with trying out.

16 year old softball Marty

Dear Marty,

You’re not hot shit. Don’t think you’re too good to try out for the varsity softball team senior year by milking and exaggerating the small cold you have. If you do…you don’t make the team. Work hard from the get go so you don’t have to deal with sports politics to get on the team after not making it…that doesn’t work out either. Make sure to work hard off the field too! Don’t be too disappointed you’re going to Palomar, you meet some of your best friends as a result of playing ball there! Don’t get lazy with school. You spend 4 years at Pmar before transferring to CSUSM, and it takes you 7 years total to get your bachelors. Time is money and you wasted a lot of both by farting around in school. Last but not least…don’t fall into the credit card trap! It takes you a couple of years to dig yourself out of that hole, and it’s not fun!

Keep your head up, everything works out.

-Marisela

P.S. Lighten up on the  Zac Efron stalking. You’ll eventually meet him.  

Nothing is more sincere than a handwritten letter to yourself!

Did you play sports as a kid? What would you say to the young athlete you?

Class Of 2013!

Let’s talk about my first day of college ever. I went to the local community college, Palomar College (UCP!) The year was 2006 on a nice summer/fall Monday morning of September…or was it August? Anyways, my first class was softball practice at 10:00 am. I probably left at 8:45, thinking 1 hour and 15 minutes should plenty time to drive the 25 mile distance, and it was. I remember arriving with 30 minutes to spare but ran into trouble when I pulled into the parking lot…and couldn't find an open spot to save my life. After spending an hour going through all of the lots, I finally found an open space! But now I was at least 30 minutes late to class. I struggled to decide if I should go to class or not and after crying to 2 of my best friends over the phone and talking to my dad, I decided not to go. Yep, I did not go to my first class of my college career. Instead I went to the retired softball coach’s office to talk to him about missing class since I knew him personally and was the reason I had decided to go to Palomar and play ball. He told me the new coach was chill and to just talk to her about what happened and she’ll understand. At that very moment, the new coach had stepped into retired coaches office to talk about her first day and there I was, the chick that didn't go to practice. I had to explain myself and she understood…but I had to pay for it and run sprints the following day.

Fast forward 7 years, I graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelors of Arts in Liberal Studies with a depth of study in Arts & Education on May 18,2013! 

Check out the grad pics:

Jumbo-tron action!

WOOOOOO!

martywiththeparty

with the parentals <3

grandma (mom's mom) and grandpa (dad's dad)

my family.

some besties!

school loves!

life long friends...and a photo bomber

with moniqueqee!

I seriously couldn't have done this without the support of my parents, family, friends, and work. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally did it!

I've still got a few classes, tests, and credential program to get through until I’m fully legit to become a teacher so here’s to the next 3 years!   

100 Things To Do Before You Die.

Like 2 weeks ago I pinned this link titled "100 things to do before you die." It has been on my mind since then, so I figured I would type it out here and cross out what I've done in these 24 years of life of mine...and decided I want to cross off 6 more and have 35 done by my 25th birthday, in September. 

1. Set foot on all continents. 

North America and South America, check! Need Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Africa.  

2. Live in at least 2 different countries with completely cultures.

3. Solve a Rubik's cube.

4. Learn at least one foreign language. 

I live in the U.S. so Spanish is foreign, right?

5. Swim with whale sharks.
Rob @ the Fantasy Factory serves as inspiration for this one. Shark Attack!

6. Get drunk a least once in your life. 

Many times in my life.

7. Bungee jump.

8. Do the Mongol Rally.
The what? I might have to pass on this.

9. Swim with dolphins.

10. Go on a safari.
And check off Africa at the same time!

11. Learn how to surf.
I've been trying to get out to the beach to make this happen but it never works out.

12. Scuba dive. 

13. Fly an airplane.

14. Give a public speech. 

Speech class/class presentations/thank you toasts.

15. Get your body in the ultimate shape at least once in your life. 

Working on it!

16. Run a marathon.
26.2 miles. Ahh!

17. Run a triathlon.
Swimming, biking, AND running?! Bigger AHH!

18. Hot air ballooning.

19. Ride a motorcycle.

20. Sing to an audience. (Karaoke counts)

21. Volunteer 6 months abroad.

22. Have your own business.

23. Fish and eat your own catch.

24. Own a pet.

25. Renew your vows.

26. Watch the top 10 movies of all time. 

27.White water rapids.

28. Try rock climbing.

30. Learn how to make sushi.

31. Go to Disney World.

32. Learn how to sail.

33. Paint and frame your painting.

1/2 way there!

34. Help a stranger in distress.

35. Ride a roller coaster.

Disneyland. 6 Flags. Knotts Berry Farm. Del Mar Fair.

36. Drive the autobahn.

37. Spend Christmas on the beach.

Does the day after Christmas count? It's my tradition to go to the beach on the 26th and chill.

38. Get your B.A. or equivalent.

Wooooooo!

39. Find of job you love or create the job you love.

40. Read the top 5 novels of all time. 

41. Sleep under the stars.

<3

42. Make a fool of yourself.

All. The. Time.

43. Drive across an entire country.
Baseball Road trip!

44. See a solar eclipse.

45. Spend the night in a haunted place.

46. Learn how to play a musical instrument. 

Clarinet in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.

47. Drink beer at the Oktoberfest.
Barf. I hate beer.

48. Sleep in an igloo.

49. Brew your own beer.
Remember how I hate beer?

50. Go to the Superbowl.

51. Go to the Olympics. (Summer or Winter)

52. Write a book. (At least try)

53. Plant a tree.

54. Learn how to dance.

I can bust a move!

55. Ride a camel in the desert.

I rode a camel once at the fair. That was near the beach and far from the desert. But I'm gonna count it.

56. Ride an elephant.

57. Grow a beard at least once in your life.

That might be a little weird.

58. Shave your hair off.

59. Go skinny dipping.

60. Go to your favorite band's concert.

I've seen Drake, Jack's Mannequin, Alicia Keys, Lady Antebellum, and Dierks Bentley, Need John Mayer and JT.  

61. Climb a mountain.

62. Learn how to swim.

Never been good at it though.

63. Party until sunrise.

Good times.

64. Go wild at La Tomatina.
I heard you had to be a dude to do this.

65. Go to the opera.

66. Cross a country using public transportation.

67. Get to know your neighbors. 

No witty remark for this one.

68. Travel around the world.

69. Backpack through another country.

70. Go camping.

It's been years since I've done it! Want to go again, ASAP!

71. Feed a homeless person.

72. Take a class you've always wanted.

73. Own a sports car.

74. Go skiing.
Not very good at that...or snowboarding.

75. Shoot a gun.
BB Gun.

76. Trek Machu Picchu.

77. Visit Angkor Wat.
Which would mean I'd be in Asia, another continent down.

78. See the Iguazu Falls.
Before of after I check out the Carnival in Rio

79. Go kayaking.

Once, with Sara. Funniest moment of my life.

80. Dance at the Carnival in Rio.
I've always wanted to do this!

81. See a glacier.

82. Take a bath in a hot spring.

83. Try to beat a world record.

84. Go to a drive-in movie theater.

85. Ride a gondola in Venice.
What's up Europe?!!

86. See the Eiffel Tower.
Can I get the Lauren Conrad experience like when she went there on The Hills?

87. Fly a kite.

Who hasn't?

88. Solve a jigsaw puzzle.

Again, who hasn't?

89. Be an extra in a movie.

Audience of DWTS/SYTYCD/Jay Leno counts. But I might be auditioning for Anchor Man 2 next week!

90. Dance the macarena.

That was my jam when I was a kid.

91. Eat fried oreos/twinkies/cheesecake.

Thank you Del Mar Fair.

92. Float in the Dead Sea.
I just learned about the crazy tension out in that area with Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. Scary stuff! 

93. Travel at least once by train.

To Anaheim and Santa Barbara.

94. Go on a cruise.
I'm terrified of the deep sea. I might pass on this.

95. See the Northern Lights. (Aurora Borealis)

96. Travel by yourself.

97. Ride a horse.
As a kidlet in Meheeeco.

98. Fall in love.

99. Learn how to juggle. 

Couldn't tell you when or where I learned, but I def can do it.

100. Feel like the happiest person on Earth. 

I was the happiest person on Earth that one time I met Zac Efron.

Is there anything on this list you've done that I haven't? Share your experience/tips! I'd love to hear about it :] What about stuff on this list that you'd like to do? 

Weekend Update: Cornstalks I Tell Ya!

Weeeeeeeeeeekend update :] It was a good one!

Let's start with Thursday. I'm in a theater for wannabe teachers this semester and we spent a majority of the time working on a play that we were supposed to perform for an elementary school. We had to write the play/scripts, master the craft of acting, develop and construct out set, and put on a show for the kiddies. Thursday was performance day. It went really well, I'm pretty sure everyone loved it! It took place at Story Farm, Farmer Jessie was the narrator, Petunia & Penelope pig were BFF's with Sally the sheep and even though Shaggy wanted to play with them super bad, he couldn't get them to notice him. Throw in some costume changes, our interpretation of 1 Dalmatian's performance at the Farmer's Choice Awards, the moral of our story which is "Be Yourself" and viola! you have the best play of our class. At least in my opinion. Keep your eyes peeled for Shaggy the Shy Wolf at a jungle gym near you!

Friday was my friend Caroline's birthday so I went over to her place and had dinner with her and her family. The plan was to go out to downtown SD for a night of dancing and drinking. Unfortunately, my back decided it'd be a fun weekend to hurt. No idea what happened but the muscles are like super tight. This kind of killed my plans to go out because of how much it hurt. I waved goodbye as I headed home and they headed to the club.

Saturday was Caroline's pool party/BBQ so I headed back to her place to hang out. It was a pretty beautiful day but the water was cold :[ butttt that didn't keep me out. Spent most of the time playing with her super adorable 3 year old nephew but I did manage to mingle with the grown-ups. We played some drinking games and corn hole and it eventually turned into a jacuzzi night with all of us haning out. I stayed until 11-ish because it was time to head home and get some sleeeeeep.

[Cool & The Gang with a few missing]

Sunday a group of us headed out to Del Mar for the Brizal Bazaar at the Fairgrounds. One of the CLAMS, Keri, is engaged, so we hit up the madness to do some scouting. Holy moly talk about craziness. There were so many people there, and so many vendors! It was more of picking up fliers and seeing cool stuff rather than actually talking to vendors about details and pricing. After a few hours of that, we all went out to La Jolla for some lunch. Good food, good drinks, and good times had by all :]

Then we all parted ways, but Caroline, Chelsea, and I stayed in the area because we scheduled massages for Lime's birthday at Spa Gregories in Del Mar. Thanks for the hook up Groupon! Oh, btw...my masseusse's name was DRAGON. That was pretty awesome. Hahaha. The massage definitely relieved a majority of the tension that was in my back that carried over from the other day! They've gained a customer in me!

Back to reality. Whomp. 

How was your weekend?  

The Rumble: Padres v. Dodgers

Raise your hand if you've failed at blogging lately... [Marty raises her hand.] I usually try to get 2 posts in a week but holy moly life has been a little crazy lately! 

There are 4 more weeks left of school and it's graduation time! This means that I'm about knee deep in papers, presentations, and exams. Also, baseball season started and I'm obsessed with all the action happening with that. Finally, 2 of the CLAMS have their birthdays this month and the way it works with us it's usually a birthweek/weekend celebration so I have to make sure to get stuff done so I can accomodate the celebrations without forfeiting much school work. Oh, and I finally got back on my health kick, time to drop some weight! Which means waking up and exercising before the sun comes out since that's the only "free" (meh, who cares about sleep) time I have! BLAH. As crazy as things are, I wouldn't have it any other way. Life is good.

You know whose life isn't so good? Zach Greinke of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Dude's collarbone was broken after getting into a fight with Carlos Quentin of the Padres.

In my 24.66 years of baseball fandom and regularly attending games, I have never ever seen a bench clearing fight and I was at the game last week when the brawl and injury happened!

My BFFs and I have season tickets to the Padres and our next game to catch after opening day was Thursday April 11th which was another Dodgers game! Playing against them is always fun because there's a huge rivalry between the teams and the fans.  

We got to our seats Thursday night which are in left center field, closest to the center fielder. My friends and I have this thing we like to do and that's yelling at the (away) teams center fielder that their shoe is untied (even if it's not) to get a peek at their bootaaaaay. Why? 

Alex Rodriguez and I share the same sentiment. 

Baseball pants make butts look good. Real good.

I shouted at Matt Kemp to "tie his shoe" and to my surprise, he obliged! Kind of. He just bent over real quick and touched his toe and popped back up. Better than nothing I guess!

Matt Kemp on the left.

There were some Padres fans heckling Matt real hard. He was getting pretty annoyed with it and doing hand gestures back to the fans and kept looking back at them between pitches. 

Even doing the same thing as Tony Gwynn Jr. below

I was already pretty excited because I've never seen a ballplayer react to hecklers like this...ever and it was sort of making my night.

THEN...this happened:

View of the brawl from my seat.

I. Lost. My. Mind. Lost it. I couldn't believe I was witnessing a bench clearing brawl! As crappy as the situation was, it was SO exciting to see! After like 5 or 10 minutes of "fighting" everyone cleared out and went to their corners, the pitchers walked back to their respective bullpens which is where our seats are. Good thing I was recording on my phone! As they made their way back and through the door up to the bullpen, one (Dodgers) fan was heckling the Padres pitchers and Luke Gregerson took it super personal and was calling out the fan, check it out:

Right before shit gets real between Gregerson and the other fan, ANOTHER FIGHT BREAKS OUT. OMFG! I couldn't keep my cool. I was too excited. I never thought I'd see the day where this happened. Hahaha. After the second "fight" happened the guys were too pumped to go chill out on their bench. They all stood by the fence ready incase another one happened. No such luck.

The internet and sports media was a buzz all that night and the day after over the fight. Apparently Greinke and Quentin have this history and Quentin thought he was hit on purpose. He took a couple of steps towards Greinke and Greinke said something that caused Carlos to charge the mound which started the first brawl. Once they cleared out Jerry Hairston Jr. (a former Padre) heard some of the Padres (who he will not name. Voldemort?) making fun of Greinke's injury and he got pissed and ran to their dugout to call them out on it. Shit went down again and another brawl sort of happened. At the end of it Quentin, Greinke, Hairston Jr. and Kemp were all ejected from the game. Matt Kemp got in Quentin's face in the parking garage talking crap ending it with "We'll see bitch" while being broken up by Clayton Richards and some coppers. We'll see is right. Padres hit up LA Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week and SWEPT them! Whoop whoop. I'm excited for the next Padres/Dodgers series I get to go to at Petco :]

Baseball Is Back!

Oh. Baseball. Welcome back <3

Tuesday was the San Diego Padres home opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers, played hookie from school and headed downtown to the stadium around 11:00 for some tailgate action. It was a fun time…until I got sick. Martywiththeparty partied too hard.

Fireball for breakfast :]

There was a huge folding chair that someone at the tailgate next to us had. Super cool for photo ops!

A few of our friends cruised to the ball game in a limo…prom pictures!

 Marty & The Man Clam

Christina and Eric

Man Clam & Marcus

I had to do quacks.

There's this rule in slow pitch softball where if you drop your drink, you have to do quacks...pretty much shaping your arms into wings, squat, and yell "quack", then rotating 90 degrees and do the same thing, rotating another 90 degrees doing the same thing, and rotating another 90 degrees and doin the same thing one last time until you have gone in a complete circle. I dropped my drink twice and got called out on it by the fellow in the photo below. Ugh.

Garey Grace & I

Once the tailgate was over, Marcus and I headed to the stadium to catch the game. I drunkenly wandered solo for pretty much the first half of the game. All a blur. Which as funny as it is, isn't so funny...it was actually quite dangerous and could have ended badly. No more drinking for me in the foreseeable future!

By the 5th inning I made my way back to my friends and took a seat to catch the remainder of the game. 

View from our seats!

Padres ended up winning that game, 9-3! We barhopped a little around downtown meeting up with friends here and there. First place we stopped was Altitude which is the bar on top of the Marriott which is right across the stadium. They have such a sweet view of the ball park! 

Overall it was a great day, so glad to have my baseball back <3 If I was a good blogger, I would have typed this up the day after, instead of 3...but life is a little crazy. I went to another game last night that I can't wait to write about! I saw my first bench clearing brawl! Ahhhh! Checkcheck the blog on Monday for that :]

Have a great weekend everyone!

30 DAY CHALLENGE: DAY 27&28

GOOD MORNING :] I slept 13 hours last night! Not sure what I’ve done to warrant such exhaustion…but that sleep was definitely needed. It came with some weird dreams, like me forgetting my birthday and friends surprising me by putting posters all over town, and a huge “steal the bacon” [remember that game?!!!] challenge that took place in a lake. Hahaha.

In other news, I can officially say it’s winter! I’m wearing my uggs [they’re technically emu’s…can we think of a different collective name for these kinds of boots?] today for the first time since last winter!

Due to my long siesta yesterday, I didn’t post so today’s is a two-fer!

Day 27 – A photo of someone you could never imagine your life without.

Let’s get real cheeeeeeseball here. My parents are obviously the people I could never imagine my life without. My father was born and raised in Michoacan, Mexico and my mother was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. They both came to the country when they were young. They met at a cantina in Escondido called La Tapatia [which still exists!] and I guess you could say the rest is history!

Without them, I might not love sports as much as I do. Without them I might not have the crazy family that I do, yet still love. Without them I might have not have ever lived in my lovely hometown of Valley Center. Without them I might not be getting my college education. Without them I may not have been born and raised in San Diego.

My parents have always put my brother and I first on their priority list and I owe them so much for that.

Day 28 – Your hopes, dreams, plans for the next 365 days.

-Graduate CSUSM with a Bachelor’s Degree.

-Drop weight!

-Have money saved up for my baseball road trip!

-Move out.

-Decide what I want in a career.

-Get closer to becoming financially secure by managing my money!