Life in the last five months.

January.
I “got my bluff in” on the first day of student teaching at Mooreville Middle School. Student teaching. My first placement was with Mrs. Michelle Johnson in seventh grade mathematics, who was sweeter than pie to me. During the following week, the Mississippi Blizzard of 2011 hit. Okay, not really, but Lee County Schools were out for three days due to snowy and icy roads that just would not melt. Lucky for me, I had just switched to their schedule from Mississippi State’s schedule (who just missed one day). Umm…winning! January also began my 4 month long grandma lifestyle of watching The Weather and History Channels with my dad and going to be at 9:30ish.

We are amateur sledders.

Mrs. Johnson

February.
Caught the flu. Let that snotty, sneezy, achy sickness go as soon as I could. However, I was nearly removed from the internship program for missing an excess of days from it. Now, I’m not much of a complainer, but my university supervisor really was being difficult about the situation. She could have held the “Mallory can either make it to school today or drop out of the program” comment to herself. Now, maybe you’ve met my mother. Maybe you haven’t. She’s sweet as she can be to almost everyone, especially authority figures. She’s never gotten ugly with any of my schooling authorities. She hasn’t had to. But that morning, if there has ever been a need to get ugly about something, it was then. Mama let her Mallory temper go, and by the end of the twenty-minute conversation I was still in the program, and Mrs. McIntosh was more than willing to help me in any way possible. Bless her heart, she got an ear full. (fyi, Mrs. McIntosh and I later became fairly decent friends and she really did help me out a lot to find a job.) That was the highlight of February by far.

March.
I waved goodbye to the seventh graders and headed down the hall to eighth grade science with Mrs. Hussey. Rude awakening. Not really a rude awakening, just a world of difference. Mrs. Hussey is an old-school, you-will-respect-me, get-down-to-business, wonderful teacher. I love her and really learned a lot. We had a wild ride that included but not limited to: a code red school lock-down due to a gun-happy good ol’ Mooreville boy who set up target practice too close to the school, a dogfish shark dissection that involved giving 85 eighth graders scalpels, a surprise birthday party in the teacher’s lounge, weekly fights with the copy machine, and day long tornado drills.
Megan, Ben, Jeremy, Keon, Brittney, Chad, and I spent part of Spring Break in Nashville, Tennessee visiting our good friend Josh Chism at Lipscomb University. He played baseball against our beloved Bulldogs while we were there, and although Mr. Chism put his best cleat forward, the Lipscomb Bison fell to the maroon and white. :)

Lipscomb University Bison

The dogfish shark.

April.
Super Bulldog Weekend. Crimson and White Game. Said goodbye to Mrs. Hussey and the 8^th grade Mooreville Troopers. Oh…and I graduated from college. That’s a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, thank you very much.

Jeremy bought me a shirt.

Mrs. Hussey

Mama, myself, and Memama before graduation.

May.
Oh how I love summer time! The feeling that comes after graduating from college, or really accomplishing anything significant in life, is a really strange one. What do I do now? First prerogative: find a job. I sent resumes, e-mailed, and called every school district within driving distance of Shannon, Mississippi. I interviewed with Shannon Elementary (twice) and Mantachie High School before Coach Rosenthal from Shannon High School called and said, “You need to come by here…today.” I said "Yes sir", went by there, and now you’re looking at the new 9^th grade science teacher at Shannon High School. I will be walking across Cherry Street, every morning starting this fall, to go to work teaching these Red Raiders a little bit about biology. I am thrilled to death!

Until then I’m spending my summer filling tea glasses for my little ol’ elderly couples at Comer’s, gathering red, white, and black decorations for my new classroom, traveling a little bit, honing my lightnin' bug catching skills, and mowing the yard. Again, I love summertime.

Love you all,
Mallory