I Survived!

The first day that is at least. 

It went better than I expected which is a good thing I guess. I really hope that the kids will be as well behaved tomorrow as they were today. They were very receptive to the change and most of the kids seemed pretty excited about it. We started class today by watching a clip from the first Toy Story movie. It is at the beginning of the movie when Woody is leading the meeting with all of the toys about Andy's birthday party and the move. I thought that the kids could relate to a lot of the emotions that the toys were feeling in their current situation with Language Arts. It led right into the journal entry that the students completed that was pretty open ended; they were to write about their experience in Language Arts this year and anything associated with it. I was floored by some of the responses. 

The hardest thing that we have had to deal with right now is getting the kids all on the same page and tying up all of the loose ends that were left by the teacher who resigned. I really wish that I would have taken a before picture of the classroom before I started working in it. You all would be astonished at how she left it. That is why I spent almost 4 hours there yesterday and then did not leave until about 6:30pm this evening. Hopefully that tonight will be my last really late night at the school, but I doubt it. 

I promise to get pictures of the room this week sometime, I cannot wait for you all to see it!  

and so it begins...

As of about noon today, the 6th grade position for the rest of the school year is officially mine. This afternoon I went to meet with my "mentor" teacher and also take a look in the room. That thing was a mess. I am already planning on spending tomorrow evening in there to get it organized. Both Mrs. Z and I think that getting the room back in order and making it welcoming will really help to change the minds of the students about the class since they have had such a crummy year. I promise to share pictures when I get it all finished. 

While I was there I met with both the principal and vice principal too. They shared the letter that they mailed to the parents of my students about the situation, and the vice principal said they made it sound like I was going to be filling the position permanently, hopefully that is a sign. Fingers crossed for sure! They set me up with the district on the computer, Gradespeed, and attendance. I actually have my own log in for all of it.

We decided today that we are going to have to approach Monday like it was the first day of school and let them know how we are going to do everything and teach them the procedures and such. I think the key though is getting the parents involved because I know many of them are currently very unhappy because of what happened with the teacher who just resigned. What do you do to get the parents involved in your classroom? I am thinking of sending a weekly e-mail to them that will let them know what is going on in the classroom as well as sharing due dates and upcoming tests with them. 

I am getting more and more excited about this opportunity, but have a feeling that I am going to come home on Monday and might just need to cry. 

Happy Almost Friday!

News

It has been quite a week since I have gotten back from Spring Break!

All of you that are in Texas are well aware of all of the budget mess that is going on with the state. For a girl getting ready to graduate it is pretty scary. On Tuesday, the principal at the school where I am Student Teaching, caught me in the hallway and told me that he needed to talk to me. Of course I was scared and all the usual thought were running through my head...

What did I do wrong?

What is he going to get mad at me for?

etc.

Well, come to find out, I had nothing to be worried about. He simply came to tell me that he was about 80% sure there was going to be an opening on the campus. He told me this before it had been posted and it is still not posted today. I thought that was a good sign for him to come and tell me that. 

Now, let's fast forward to today, Wednesday. I had my supervising teacher from my university come today for my 2nd observation. First off, she calls me at about 9:45am and she is supposed to be there at 10am to tell me that she is just now leaving Kerrville. Well, that made things interesting because I had to start my lesson without her. It turned out okay because I got a perfect 117 of 117 possible points on my evaluation...can you say excited! Part of the procedure is that I have to take a copy of the observation to the principal which I was excited to do. When I got there, the conversation got pretty interesting. First off he was very impressed with the observation and then he asked me a couple of interview type questions which he does every time we talk. I am very grateful for that because it is great practice for the future. So then the conversation got interesting. He told me that the MS principal had called asking if I could long term sub for one of the 6th grade ELA teachers who is resigning effective Friday. Initially, I thought no way, I love my 4th graders too much, but then thought about it a little more. The principal thought that it would be a great opportunity for me and it would be more experience that I could add to my resume. 

After a lot of thinking and some praying, I have decided to take the challenge on. The catch though is that I still have 5 weeks of student teaching left to do. The current librarian at the MS used to be the Pre AP 8th grade ELA teacher and was amazing. She was by far my favorite teacher that I had in middle school and she is going to serve as my mentor teacher. She is going to let me observe next week while she gets the class trained again and then I will take over the following week with her still around. After that I am going to be all on my own as if it was my own classroom and I will finish the year out with the kids. I wont get paid for it until May 5th, but that is okay. I am nervous but excited all at the same time. The best part though is that I am only going to have 3 class, 2 Pre AP 6th grade ELAs and then 1 regular ed class. Only having 2 preps is going to be way better than the 4 that I currently have in 4th grade. We are on a 7 period schedule but we are double blocked for English so that is why I will only have 3 classes. The best news though that this job is going to need to be filled for net school year. The FMS principal told me today that if I rock it, there is a pretty good chance it will be mine along with coaching middle school girls athletics. She is calling the superintendednt tomorrow morning to run it by him and make sure it is okay and then it will be official that I will be moving. 

The sucky part of all of this is having to say good-bye to my 4th graders which I am uber sad about. Any suggestions for making it easier for all of us?

Also, know of any good MS resources or blogs that I can use or look at?

Excited to share my new adventure with you all!

Giveaway Time

Have you seen the great giveaway that Mrs. Claborn is hosting over on her blog, A Burst of First?

She is working with her teammate Miss Griffin from Fantastic First to giveaway a $25 gift certificate to Scrapin' Doodles. Oh how I would love to win this so I can make some fun new things for my 4th grade friends. 

If you haven't entered yet, be sure and do so!

Spring Break...Where Are You?

Oh my goodness, my fourth grade friends were crazy today! I love them to death, but they were bursting with energy today. It is beyond time for them to be on Spring Break, I really think the week is going to do them good. It seems that my friends are having a really hard time with blurting this week. What do you do with your students when they are blurting or talking out of turn? I really would love some new ideas to try with them.

One Down...500 to go!

Not quite 500, but that is what it seems like. I have officially submitted my first application for a job and have 2 more to fill out tomorrow during conference. I finally got my resume and cover letter just the way that I wanted them, and I hope that the principals and HR people will love them as much as I do. 

This evening for our student teaching seminar, we had the Head of HR from the school district in Kerrville come and talk to us. He brought his Dean of Curriculum at the HS and also a first year teacher from the HS with him. The Dean was actually my assistant principal in middle school, talk about a small world. I can now add her to my list of contacts that I have within districts. She told my supervising teacher that I needed to take the 4th-8th generalist test too in addition to my EC-6th certification which I already passed. I am not too sure how I feel about the possibility of teaching middle school, but with the school budget crisis here in Texas I want to make myself as marketable as possible. 

Speaking of applications, what should I expect when I start my interviews? What would you say is the #1 thing that administrators are looking for in a teacher? My personal opinion is that they have to know that you are passionate about kids and education. They cannot teach you that, but they can teach you the curriculum. Hopefully I will get an interview out of this application that I filled out tonight! 

Happy Friday eve! I just love Fridays, they are for sure the best day of the week!

what we've been up to

Well today, my 4th grade friends took their writing TAKS test. I am so glad that it is now over with. Since I am not a certified teacher yet, I could not even be in the room so I spent the day in first grade. I love first grade, but after being with the older kids for the past month, it was totally different. I had to remember that they need to hear the directions 10,000 times and that you have to hold their hand a lot. The teacher that I was paired with for today, even let me teach the grammar lesson. We were learning about adjectives, so I decided to have students partner up and make an adjective flower for the adjective garden. We put our nouns in the middle, and then put adjectives describing our noun on the petals. I wish I had gotten a picture of the entire garden, but I did get one of my flower that I made as an example. 

With my 4th graders yesterday, we did a day of language fun. Mrs. I and I created a packet of fun review pages and we also talked some about idioms. I had them choose a few to illustrate for their Idiom book. Here are a few examples including mine. 

Tomorrow starts my 6 weeks of full teaching. I am a little nervous, but so excited all at the same time. I hope that the students like the changes that I have made. I am most excited about my plans for Social Studies. I promise to share as it comes up.