preparing to be a teacher.

Class of 2009 graduate of Waterford Mott High School

     It doesn't seem that long ago that I graduated high school and now I'm on my fourth semester at BYU-I. My classes are starting to focus more on my major: Elementary Education. I am so happy that I finally have a focus and that I know what I want to do. Although I am still a little nervous about becoming a teacher and being responsible for children’s education, these classes are helping to ease the discomfort. I just started reading this amazing book for a class called, "The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher" by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong. I have only read the first couple of chapters, but I have already learned so much in preparing to become an educator.

     In this same class, being a teacher was compared to being a cheerleader. As a former cheerleader, I absolutely loved this! My favorite part of cheerleading was encouraging not only the football or basketball team, but also my own team members. This is exactly what a teacher does: encourage. They help the students know that they are fully capable of doing whatever they want to do in life and that they  just need the encouragement and motivation to get there. Sometimes I need my very own cheerleader. Luckily my parents have always been my cheerleaders and now Jason has become one. I have also had other friends cheer me on, but these are the few that constantly are there every day by my side. I know that I could not have gotten this far in my life without their help. Having has this experience, I know just how important it is that students have this encouragement.

Cheerleading is like teaching

     This semester has me pretty busy. I will be taking a total of seven classes including an Early Field class where I will be attending a 5^th grade classroom at Madison Middle School to first, observe and later, to contribute to the students learning. Luckily, I have had some experience with this. During my senior year of high school, I was in a Leadership class and one of the requirements was to attend a school and help tutor or work with the kids. I absolutely fell in love with going to my classroom of over 50 kids (it was a combined classroom with two teachers). Many of the students ran up to me to give me a hug as soon as they saw me. One even developed a crush on me and wrote me love notes. Haha. While helping the students with reading, spelling, and other subjects; I felt good knowing that I helped them understand how to do things that they will use throughout their lives. Anyway, because I had such a good experience before, I look forward to doing it again this semester.

     Another class I’m excited for is Preparing for Eternal Marriage, which I am taking with Jason. We haven’t started it yet, but I really look forward to discussing important aspects of marriage in the class and outside of the class with Jason. I think it will help us to better know what is to come this year as we prepare to get married this Summer. Speaking of marriage, so far, things are going pretty great with planning the wedding. My mom and Jason’s mom have been a tremendous help with finding the reception places and getting all the BIG stuff out of the way so we can focus on the "fun things." I found my dress! I ordered it online and it was shipped to me over Winter break. When I tried it on, it fit perfectly! I would post a picture, but I don’t want Jason to see it. Planning is still kind of stressful, but I am getting more and more excited- with a side of nervousness. But that’s normal, right?

balloons and shiny things.

Getting ready to float

     I’ve wanted to start a blog for a while now, but I didn’t want to just start randomly in the middle of my college years; however, I just became engaged to be married and I thought this would be the perfect time considering this is sort of the beginning of my new life. It’s almost as if life up until this point was just training for what's to come. To introduce myself, my name is Danielle Garber (soon to be Danielle Cowles) and I am from White Lake, Michigan. Right now, I am attending Brigham Young University–Idaho and majoring in Elementary Education. My fiancé (wow, that’s weird to say) is Jason and he is from Lake Forest, California. His major is English with a French minor and he's hoping to go to grad school for International Law or International Relations. 

Our trip to Salt Lake City

     Jason and I met at college through friends and roommates in September of 2009. Not much of a story there, but one we didn’t expect to have such a great ending. I’ve always been pretty shy, so our relationship started off slow, but I gradually became more comfortable around Jason and we became “official” on December 30, 2009 (sometimes we say we started dating in October because, technically, we did). Each day, as the semester went on, I fell more and more in love with Jason. Unfortunately, when the winter semester was over, it was time for me to go home for the summer while Jason continued going to school. The summer break for me was from April until September and Jason and I talked and decided to give long-distance a try. This attempt started off very difficultly as Jason left for Europe for a month to study abroad in Ireland, England, Wales, and France. I cried myself to sleep some nights only to be comforted by his sweet postcards that I waited for each day by the mailbox. After a long six months and a visit to the Cowles' home in California just before school started, somehow our relationship and friendship grew greatly and we are now back at school in Idaho.

Away we go

Now to bring you up to date, during our Thanksgiving break, we took a trip to California and during this time Jason had a little surprise in store. On Monday November 22, 2010, Jason and I went on a hot air balloon ride over Del Mar! To tell you the truth, ballooning was one thing I vowed I would never even consider doing, yet Jason makes me feel like I can literally do anything. Anyway, during this time the thought crosses my mind that it’s possible that Jason is going to propose to me today, but I got mad at myself because one of two things could happen. (1) I could ruin the surprise or (2) I could be very disappointed if it doesn’t happen. So I let it go. 

Gorgeous views

     After our amazing, peaceful balloon ride, Jason and I drove to the San Diego temple which I haven’t seen since my brother’s wedding about nine years ago. While we are there, we took a walk and talked about things involving our future; by this time my mind is back on, “Is it going to be tonight?!” I know something is up when Jason starts stating all of the reasons why he loves me. Then, he gets down on one knee and says, “Danie Garber, will you marry me?” Eeep! Obviously I say "Yes!" and give him a huge hug and start sobbing (which didn’t last long, I think my emotions were just really screwed up by this point). 

Moments after the engagement

     Since that moment, I have felt so much more in love than every before. I look at Jason differently and I feel different around him now. I don't really know how to explain it. Oh, by the way, Jase and I had talked about getting married way before this time and I even helped pick out the ring. He just likes to throw me off and say that we were going to get engagedin January. I hope you enjoy reading about our many adventures

He liked it, so he put a ring on it