New Year’s Eve is always a great time to reflect on the past year and make plans for the upcoming year. As I reflected back on the fall semester, I was reminded of all of the hard work my students exhibited~ especially the seniors who, among other things, each wrote four integrated unit plans, created their own classroom web sites, and examined various aspects of elementary curriculum, instruction, and assessment. It was so rewarding to see their success in their pre-student teaching experiences, where they made connections between textbook learning/theory in the college classroom and practice in the early childhood and elementary classroom. I also enjoyed getting to know my students outside of the classroom by advising and attending events such as: Christmas at the Mount, the Halloween Dance, All-College Liturgy, All-College Convocation, and Community Night 2007. At Christmas at the Mount, the students in the Children’s Advocacy Association did an absolutely fabulous job preparing activities for the children in attendance. On a cold Saturday in November at 6:45am, I made a special “Praxis Breakfast� at my home for our students who were nervously on their way to take their final teacher’s exam. It was also great to get to know more sophomores and juniors who came to “Afternoon Tea with the Teacher� every Wednesday in my office. I am looking forward to meeting all of my new students in the spring semester.

As a new faculty member at Mount Aloysius College, I have just been amazed at the high level of collegiality among the faculty and staff at the college. It is such a pleasure and privilege to be working at an institution where everyone works hard together to accomplish common goals. It is nice to know that there are people working around you who genuinely care about you. Additionally, as a parent, I was concerned that my daughter would be nervous going to the Little People’s Place (the NAEYC accredited child development center on campus), and was pleasantly surprised when the director took the extra time to give us a tour and spent time answering all of our questions, which made the transition excellent for my daughter.

The spring semester will be filled with the excitement of the Undergraduate Research Symposium, service learning projects, and of course, graduation. It is sure to be a great 2008 at Mount Aloysius College!