Oh hey...

Remember that blog you started 3 years ago to chronicle your journey through the world of education and you've written ONE post since you became a teacher? I hate students like me.

I made it out alive

So my plan for the regular update of this little baby blog didn't go over so well. I clearly missed the mark on documenting my entire first year of teaching - and WHAT an interesting year it was. There were a rollercoaster of emotions involved and times where I thought I'd never make it, but it was the best 10 months of my life and a learning experience like no other.

When I was originally looking for jobs I was looking for more of a primary level (K-2) to teach. I wanted the babies! But the closer it came to the end of summer (and the more I despised my job in PR) I became absolutely desperate and applied for every single open position in three counties. Out of the countless resumes I sent out, I only landed two interviews - one of which was a pity interview from a friend's principal. The other interview, came in August just weeks before school would start. When I received the e-mail giving me my interview date and time, I looked up the school and saw that it was an hour away.

Seriously? No thank you. I won't even consider that.

Well, that was my first reaction. The more I thought about it and discussed it with a coworker of mine (who was equally as miserable in the PR job and encouraged me to get out!) I decided to just go to the interview. I thought I had no chance and just went because I was afraid I'd always wonder "what if..." I also happened to have a doctors appointment already lined up for that morning so I had already let my work know I'd be out at that time. Well if that wasn't a godwink then I don't know what is!

The school was in an area I'd never been before and I could tell by the drive there that the students I'd possibly be teaching were being raised in a much different environment that I grew up. I went to the interview and met with the principal and assistant principal to interview for a 4th grade teaching position. They were very nice and were very understanding that it was basically my first interview and helped me feel comfortable. After a while it became more of just a conversation with them about ourselves and why I want to get into education. The principal obviously saw my passion and excitement and told me that she knew I'd be great but that someone just needed to give me a chance. I walked away feeling confident, but knew that with my zero experience that I didn't have a shot with this position.

About 4:00 pm that afternoon I received an e-mail stating that I had gotten the job. I PANICKED. I was excited, but absolutely terrified! Less than three weeks later I had my own classroom in a Title I school with a 97% poverty level. The night before school started I had a meltdown (imagine that) to my dad that none of the kids would listen to me and it would be horrible and I just didn't want to show up for work and go back to my old job because that would be easier. Those were actually the thoughts going through my head because I was so scared. I legitimately considered just not going to work at the school the next day and asking my old PR company for my job back. SERIOUSLY.

That first week, actually that first NINE weeks, was a blur. If anyone asks me what I did, what I said, what I taught, or how I knew what to do - heck if I know. Everyday was survival mode and I was lucky if my students didn't kick each other's butts let alone mine. But I did it, and each time I'd talk with my principal she gave me wonderful praise. She constantly told me how much she believed in me and that gave me great encouragement and confidence.

There were so many things that went on in that classroom, and at that school even outside of students, that I could not believe I was exposed to in my first year of teaching, things I never thought existed in the world. But it was probably the best experience I could have had for my first year in this bizarre world of the education system. I had everything in the world thrown at me and I still left everyday with my head held high and loving my career. 

I Took a Summer Vacation From Blogging

My mind seemed to start this teaching thing early and took a summer vacation from blogging. Whoops! I know ALL of my readers (Mike & Martha) are disappointed.

Biggest news: I'm still a straight A student.

Food for Thought

I got through my very first lesson plan, from beginning to end! I never realized how much process was involved to actually create a full lesson plan, but it was a great learning experience and fun to brainstorm different ways of doing plans.

I decided to do my lesson on the Food Guide Pyramid. I thought that there'd be a ton of ways to present this and I found a lot online about it. It was a fun process.

From our lesson plans that were created, everyone in my class had to actually teach the class for 15 minutes and show every step of the plan. I began mine by showing the class a potato, an apple and a package of cookies that I brought in and asked them what food group each belonged to as a review (my students had learned the day before what the food groups were - hypothetically, of course). I then asked them if they knew how much of each they should eat each day and if five of the Chips Ahoy cookies would make a healthy meal.

From that, I presented to them the Food Guide Pyramid (which I am proud to say I drew on my own on a poster board) and told the class why we need it, what it's used for and then went into how many servings of each food group the students should be eating according to their age range.

Once I presented that, I again reviewed the food groups and used this time to give the class examples of how much one serving was. I printed out 10 pictures of types of food, glued each one to construction paper (the color corresponded to the food group color - one of my ELL aids). As I showed the picture to the class, they told me what food group the food belonged in and I told them in real life terms how much they were supposed to eat each day (1 cup of fruit = 1 apple, 1.5 cups of veggies = 2 large carrots, etc..)

After the lesson was over, I broke the class into groups of four. Each group got a piece of construction paper and was told to design their own healthy lunch menu based off of what we had learned. They were to create a name and design for the front of the menu and present the foods inside.

Their follow-up assignment was to create their own Food Guide Pyramid from the children's section of the web site mypyramid.gov and bring it into class for extra credit.

Overall, it was a fun lesson to present! And I got an A! :)

General Knowledge Exam

I passed, I passed. . . on my very first try!

Adventures in Middle School

Piggybacking on Thursday's observation in elementary school, I observed in a sixth-grade class on Friday. I observed in a language arts class and the lesson for the day was a choral poem and then individual work of drawing a picture that represented the poem and answering questions. I had a very enjoyable day and the students at that age are hilarious. It was also nice to see them respect me as much as they did their teacher.

It's definitely a different feel to change classes every 50 minutes, as opposed to the same 18 students all day in elementary school. I can see where the switch throughout the day would be a very nice perk - problem students disappear in less than an hour :) - and lunch is also longer so there's a bit more time to sit down and relax.

It was neat to see how the kids interact with each other and see the middle school drama between boys and girls and friends.

My prize of the day - a middle school dance! Sixth and seventh periods were reserved for the Valentine's Day Dance. We went to it for about 15 minutes and reminisced about our middle school dances - days you couldn't pay me to go back to!

Other than the dance, my highlight of the day came when I was helping one student understand the questions she needed to answer and the boy sitting next to her said to me, "you're going to be a really good teacher." That made my heart melt!

All in all, it was a fun day with lots of experiences and made me realize middle school is something I may keep in the back of my mind after spending time teaching elementary school.

...and I'm sold!

There's no need to talk me into it, elementary school - first grade - is where I want to be! On Thursday I had my first observation for school; I spent an entire day in a first grade classroom and was involved with the students about 95% of the day.

I wanted to get the feel of an ENTIRE day in the classroom and see how things run from before the students get there until after they leave. When I first arrived, students started coming in about 40 minutes before school started - Mrs. D, the teacher I was observing, had to be sure that although school hadn't started yet, each student had an assignment or task in the classroom to stay busy.

Class started with morning procedures and went right into reading Dinorella - the dinosaur version of Cinderella, which they had read the day before. After the book, the class compared the similarities and differences of the two stories. It was fun to see how much these little people actually retain.

Afterwards, another first grade class joined ours and the two classes prepared to read The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. Before they read, they did an activity where they foreshadowed what the book would be about based on it's cover; they also predicted what vocabulary words might be in the story. Finally, they all read the story together.

This was not without conflict- each group of desks (5 desks at each group) received a book to share. One group just could not handle sharing the one book. I decided to let the little girl on the end hold the book and show the pictures to the group and told them it would be passed around every few pages so each group member could hold the book. One little boy was not a fan of this and pouted throughout the story. About halfway through reading, I passed out candy to the students who were on good behavior. This particular student couldn't understand why I wasn't giving him any candy. I finally gave him a piece after everyone else received theirs. After we finished the entire activity I pulled him aside to ask him if he knew why he was the last student to get candy. Of course he said no, and I talked to him about sharing and compromising. My first conflict resolution as a teacher! And this entire scene went on without any other student or the other two teachers knowing - success! Afterwards, I told Mrs. D what happend and she said I did a great job and she was very happy with how I handled it.

After story time, the other class went back to their own room. Mrs. D started a lesson about writing a letter. She used different books that the class had read for examples of letter writing (there are more children's books than I thought there'd be about this!). Their assignment was to write a Valentine's Day letter to their parent, sibling or grandparent. Of course every student wanted to write a letter to Mrs. D because the kiddies just love her. One student asked me how to spell my last name, I guess she was writing a Valentine to give to me :) (which I didn't get because I was only there for one day, sad).

The next task for the day was Centers. This is about 50 minutes of students going to different stations in the classroom by themselves or with partners to practice lessons - most of them in reading and fluency. I was again impressed with the independence of these little people to know where they are supposed to go and start their work as soon as they get to their stations! I walked around and observed while Mrs. D was at one center testing student reading.

Next up, lunch time!!! We had to walk the students - in a straight line, which was SUCH a SERIOUS matter; I forgot about those days - to the lunchroom and then Mrs. D and I finally had a mini break to go sit in the teacher's lounge and relax. When we went to pick the kiddos up from the lunch room, I was in charge because Mrs. D had to run back to her room for a few minutes. I had to line them up, and 'move the giraffe head up on the wall because they were good at lunch' (none of the students could figure out why I couldn't figure out what the heck they meant). We then took the little line of munchkins to their Specials for the day - today was Computers (I think Specials includes, Computer, Art, PE and maybe Music?)

While the students were at Specials, I accompanied Mrs. D to an IEP meeting (Individual Education Plan) for a problem student of hers. This was extremely insightful and such a great experience for my own future IEP kids.

When we picked up the kids at Specials, they got in a lot of trouble for being so bad in line. I thought it was silly but I guess you have to crack down on them to get them to follow all of the other rules and procedures. They immediately went into a math lesson and this was about the first time my brain had stopped racing all day. I sat down and realized I was EXHAUSTED! This only lasted a few minutes though because the students around me needed some assistance with subtraction (simple math, my specialty). After math, the students formed groups to switch different classrooms (apparently this happens on Thursdays). Mrs. D's lesson for the group was recycling. So, we got to sing the Recycling Song!

A can in the bin
And another went in.
Recycle! Recycle!
We all recycled and added a can.
There were two in the bin and another went in.
Recycle! Recycle!

Jealous?

Then the students made art out of glue and soft drink can tabs. Some of the art was actually pretty cool with one kid making a snake (it really looked like a snake) and one making a cross ("It's for Jesus," he said) and others making hearts and basketballs.

Finally it came time for me to pack up and be on my way. When I was leaving the school I was completely exhausted and couldn't wait to lay down on the couch for a nice little slumber.

I really loved being in the classroom with the little kids; they impressed me so much with how much they knew and how independent they were. They were also very quick to respect me as another teacher in the classroom and often looked to me for help during their assignments. It made me realize this is exactly what I want to do and I can't wait to get started with my teaching career!

My Very First Lesson Plan

This is a milestone- my very first lesson plan of my teaching career! It's for my Instructional Strategies class; we have to present a lesson plan and teach it to the class. I've decided I'll teach the Food Guide Pyramid. This is a first grade lesson (from all that I've researched on it) for health education and I think that it can be really interactive. I'm really excited about it, but am still in the planning stages. I'll post about the actual lesson once it's been completely and will hopefully have been succesful at it!

The $1 Spot Will Be My Downfall

It's one of my favorite places in the world - the $1 Spot at Target. I am absolutely obsessed with it. It's conveniently located so as soon as I walk through the doors and grab my basket, I'm sucked in. It excites me much more than it probably should because every time I go, there are tons of new things to look at and wonder if I need (and justify the need to myself, which I am usually able to do). Almost every time I go to Target - which is far too often - I pick up at least one item from this little section of heaven. And usually it's an item for my non-existent students or my non-existent classroom.

Stickers? Sure! I could use these to grade papers with!
Pencils? How cute are these! I will put these in the treasure box I plan to have in my room!
Books? My students can learn to read with these short, easy-to-read picture books!

...the list goes on and on.

While the $1 Spot continues to suck me in, hopefully I'll continue to find fun little goodies for my future classroom.

"Why do I need to know this stuff?!"

Because you will go back to school at 25-years-old, be required to take three state exams and reteach yourself this stuff in order to pass. That's why.

I am currently studying for the General Knowledge Exam that I will take February 20- three short weeks from now. I'm not too concerned about my abilities in the grammar, reading and writing sections, but the math might just do me in.

For the next three weeks I'm devoting myself to my study book in order to pass this test. So far I've gotten through fractions. I have TONS more left to learn (reteach myself) about geometry, algebra, x to the nth degree and everything in between.

I've always been everything but a mathematician. I didn't even remember what the order of operations were! (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. . . still not sure what the E is for.) I will celebrate heavily once I pass the GKE- and will be relieved when I never have to try to determine what the difference between a number and an integer is (which I have determined they are both the same thing, with different definitions so that math books can just mess with your mind).

FCAT Follies

I have a pretty strong disdain for the FCAT. Not because of my own personal experiences, but I feel that it negatively impacts the curriculum. This is one of the many reasons I'd like to teach such a younger grade; it doesn't have as much of a focus on the FCAT as older grades do.

The more I learn about the FCAT, the more I feel it does somewhat of a disservice to students, and teachers. While I agree that there needs to be a strong system put in place to determine which schools need improvement and funding, I just don't think that the FCAT is the way to go about it.

My problem lies in the way the curriculum is skewed in order to accomodate the FCAT. Of course, each student should have as much exposure to the determined subjects of the FCAT as possible in order to pass. However, I don't think it should be so engrained into the curriculum that what we do will be done strictly for FCAT.

I have a lot more to learn about the FCAT and it's processes, but from a beginners standpoint, it just seems like somewhat of a handicap for teachers and students.

Here is an editorial from the Tampa Tribune about this topic- Move away from FCAT to improve schools

First Year Utopia

My ideal situation for my first year of teaching would be getting a first grade class.

However, I'll take what I can get.

Because. . .

Hello World

For the first 18 years of my life, I thought I would be a teacher. There was no question about it. I played school all the time when I was younger; I had the best educated stuffed animals around. I loved to pretend to grade papers and read to my 'students.' So, when I got to college, my best guess was to go into education.

After hearing about a few friends of mine that had troubles with the standardized tests necessary for education and the extra math classes, I decided I should look into something else. The lazy part of me decided I didn't want to deal with standardized tests or even TRY to forge through one more math class. So I picked public relations- "My life will be ooooh-soooo-fabulous in the wonderful world of PR!"

WRONG.

After three years of hating my job and the industry I am in (and countless job searches to find something else), I decided to really go after the one thing I always had my heart set on. Education. I'd thought about it my last two years of college- wished I had the chance to change my major but it was too late at that point, wished I had the money to go back to school after college, and the list goes on and on.

I am lucky enough to have a wonderful support system who pushed me in the right direction and is able to support my dreams of becoming a teacher. So with their help, I'm on my way.

In November, I started an eight month program at the local community college so that I will be teaching in August. I've gotten through one set of courses and have 3 more sets to go.

I know that this is the right path for me because of my excitement everytime I step into my classes, everytime I do my homework, everytime I think about my future.

So here are the anecdotes of my journey.