Busy Busy Busy

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I am sorry!  I have been busy with numerous events that I will catch you up on. 

Shortly after graduation I was able to start subbing!  It was great to get back into the classroom, and to see some of my kids again! 

My initial license!  It's all real :)

One of the many pictures I have received while subbing!

I went back to my first student teaching placement and went on a field trip with them last week.  We went to the local theater and saw the Golden Dragon Acrobats.  It was an awesome field trip, and a really neat show.  If you ever have a chance to see it I would go.  There were many stunts that had me on the edge of my seat.  The video below shows the last cool stunt they did.  You don't get to see the build up of the chairs, but everything else is pretty awesome!

Tomorrow I get to go one another field trip with these kiddos to the science center!  I can't wait to see how much fun we have tomorrow!

The other two things that have been keeping me busy besides subbing and field trips is work and school.  Yes you heard right...school!  I just finished, but I am taking classes this summer to help me finish my K-8 Reading Endorsement.  So back to the grind with school work and regular work.  At least my regular work of watching slow pitch softball and sand volleyball is fun! 

So not only have I been busy with all of this, but I also had my very first interview today!  I have been getting stuff ready for that, and preparing for interview questions.  For it being my first interview I feel pretty good about it.  There were a couple questions I could of answered better, and another I wish I would of added a little bit more but overall I feel pretty good.  It was definitely nothing to be so nervous about.  By the time I left my armpits needed a little lot of airing out.  I believe I was sweating in places I didn't even know could sweat!  Yes...I was that nervous. 

And to keep me staying busy, sisterbear is coming back for the holiday weekend!  I can't wait to see her and spend all sorts of time together this weekend!  Hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend!

I made it!

So this is a little late, but I finally made it!  Last Friday was my last day of student teaching, and then on Saturday I walked across that stage and collected my diploma cover...that will probably remain empty till sometime in June when I receive my actual diploma!  It has been a crazy week with everything coming to an end, and essentially starting a new chapter in my life.  This chapter is not already started for me as I have no idea what I will be doing or where I will end up.  Even though there are many unknowns I am beyond excited to see where it takes me! 

My fam[ily]

My sister and I kissing the panther!

My parents are proud to have two UNI alumni!

Last Friday, I wrapped up my last day with my 70+ students.  The kids were sad to see me go, and a lot of them wished me luck and congratulations on my graduation.  Little do these kids know that I will be back to sub for them this week and next week.  All my students wrote about what it takes to be an important teacher.  Below you will find pictures of some of the students pages along with some other gifts I received that day. 

A letter from one of my students letting me know he was going to talk the principal into letting me work there

One of my students gave me their pet rock as a gift

This made me laugh...they love apples, there 20 and up :)

A picture of me all graduated!

Add caption

I must look like a doughnut to him :)

A few of the students referred to me as being the Mama Cub

Love this picture!

My shirt says "1# teacher in the world"

When I look back on my student teaching I think I won the lottery when it comes to cooperating teachers and where I was placed.  My teachers were beyond amazing to work with.  They were constantly giving me tips and pointers along the way to help me succeed.  They were each genuinely nice, and really wanted to help me along my path to my next chapter!  I don't know too many people that could say they enjoyed their student teaching placements as much as I have.  I am even going back to my first placement today to visit my students, and will be visiting my last placement quite frequently to sub but also on the last day of school because they have invited me.  I have and will continue to miss both of my teachers!  If I can be half the teachers they are now I will be extremely happy.  Hopefully, in my little world at least, I can be working side by side with one of them someday!  Of course my dream would be to be able to work with both of them...you never know what can happen! 

Almost Done and Some Randoms

So I have just finished my teaching in my final placement!  I have a professional development day tomorrow, and then observing in classrooms for four and a half days!  I am so excited to get into some of the classes I have picked out, and get some awesome ideas and strategies!  I have enjoyed this placement so much.  It was a different one compared to my first placement, but I have learned so much.  I am not looking forward to leaving, but I know I will be back as I will start subbing in the middle of May!  I am ready for my next chapter in my life, which will hopefully include a new job!

On a side note sisterbear will be back in a week for my graduation.  I am so excited to see her!  The last time I saw her was at Christmas time.  I am in need of some sister time, and will get to see her twice in May, once in June, and for a whole week in July! 

I have also added a few pages on my blog.  I have added a page listing all of the blogs I follow.  You should check them out!  The other page I added has a list of books that I have read already this year.  I used to hate reading so for me to have read six books in four months is a big deal...especially finishing two books in a week!  I have just started the 50 Shades of Grey series.  I will update you on how they are, and if they are worth the craze :)

Ron Clark

I first heard of Ron Clark during one of my classes my junior year of college.  We watched The Ron Clark Story.  I would recommend any teacher, or even anyone for that matter, to check this movie out!  It is an inspiring movie, has a really great message, and it's on Netflix!  So after watching the movie in class I found out that Ron Clark himself has written a few books.  I finally got around to reading The End of Molasses Classes, which has 101 solutions for parents and teachers to help get kids unstuck.  Basically the book is full of ideas and tips from Ron Clark that they have used at The Ron Clark Academy, or whenever he is teaching.  There are so many cool and amazing ideas, but I was sitting there thinking how would I pull that off where I live, or there is no way kids would do that.  Well Ron goes ahead, and gives you starting steps to pull it off, or ways to do the activity in your classroom if your administration isn't up for the idea and doesn't want to implement it school wide.  Ron also has another book (which I haven't read yet) called The Essential 55, where he talks about 55 guidelines for students.  The guidelines range anywhere from how to say thank you to interview tips.  The Essential 55 came out before The End of Molasses Classes, so I will be reading a little out of order.  I definitely recommend the movie and both of the books.  Basically what I'm trying to say is that the books, and Ron Clark's story is something every teacher needs to read and know about! 

While reading The End of Molasses Classes, I decided that I want to visit The Ron Clark Academy.  You can visit the academy to get ideas and for professional development.  The coolest part, is that you get to become slide certified when you visit.  I'm not going to tell you what that means...guess you will just have to read the book or visit the website to find out!  Once I start working again after student teaching I will start saving my money so I can visit The Ron Clark Academy!  I hope everyone checks out the movie, and the books they truly can make a difference in your teaching and give you that extra passion to be the best teacher ever!

Slap-A-Word....or whatever you want to slap :)

I have been working with decoding words, and recognizing harder sight words with my students.  The placement I am in now I am working with kids who need a little extra help.  The curriculum we use is usually pretty scripted, and you have to find your own way of making it yours.  My teacher does a good job getting them to use different voices and be interactive.  The voices didn't go over too well with me, suddenly they were too cool for this.  So I tried to think of games that I could get the kids involved in that will help them decode and recognize sight words.  So I went through my Pinterest boards to see if I had pinned any good ideas.  Got to love Pinterest!  I had pinned a game I could play with my students, called Slap-A-Word.  I can't take all the credit as the idea was posted on Pinterest from Chalk Talk.

I typed up sight words they are working with through the book we use for reading, as well as their challenge words that work with certain vowel patterns, prefixes and suffixes, and compound words.  Then I took a trip to the Dollar Tree to see if I could find some awesome fly swatters.  My cooperating teacher I am working with mentioned she saw huge ones at the Dollar Tree during Easter weekend when she was up north.  I walked in and the first thing I saw were these huge fly swatters.  I picked up three of them, and was back the next day to pick up one more.  They only had three left, and the lady said they wanted to get rid of them.  I told her I would gladly take the rest of them.

I am going to start working on basic multiplication facts with two of my students to build confidence in them, by doing a game similar to this one.  You could also do letters when working with recognizing letters, do it with sounds, or vocabulary.  The ideas are endless with what you can do with these huge fly swatters.  But be warned kids can get super excited, and kind of loud at times.  I loved listening to the kids laugh and get excited during our game.  One kid even got so excited that a fly swatter broke.  He felt really bad, but I told him that is what duck tape is for. 

Below is a picture of my students playing as well as a video.  You can see that they are pretty big fly swatters.  They absolutely loved playing this game. Make sure you have your volume up when watching the video so you can hear the kids excitement!

I Love Being Reminded

My cooperating teacher took an IEP day today to work on IEPs, and she also had an IEP meeting this morning.  I start my full time teaching next week, even though I have pretty much already started it.  So today was technically my first real full day!  I love the feeling of being the "teacher".  I am reminded why I decided to choose this profession.  Seeing the light go off in students' minds, seeing them make connections between problems, and being able to have fun with them.  Some of our kids were a little crazy, and I wanted to pull my hair out of my head at one point this afternoon because they were so off task I felt like I was talking to a wall.  Got to love spring and nice weather!  But when I get letters like the one below it makes up for all the times I want to pull my hair out, and for the future times I want to! 

One Lovely Blog Award/Reading

I have been awarded the One Lovely Blog Award!

 

My Pink Scribbles gave the award to me!  I have known her for the last couple of years, and I enjoy reading her blog as I am able to keep up with her even though I don't get to see her anymore.  

I am very excited I got this award, and glad people enjoy reading my blog!  I started my blog to track my experiences through my student teaching and into my first job, hopefully.  Since I have started I have decided that I want become more like some of the blogs I read where they share their tips and secrets for teaching.  Thanks to all who follow and to the ones that check in as well.

Now I get to pick 15 more blogs to honor!  Make sure to check them out as they are amazing blogs!

1. My Life In Blogs

2. Second Grade Silliness

3. A Cupcake For The Teacher

4. Classroom Magic

5. Tales of A Teacherista

6. Teaching In Room 6

7. The Picture Book Teachers Edition

8. The Teacher Wife

9. School Counselor Blog

10. Clutter Free Classroom

11. Color Me Kinder

12. First Grade Fever

13. Upcycled Education

14. Pinter's Potpourri

15. What The Teacher Wants

The rules for those selected....

1. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.

2. Pass the award onto 15 other lovely bloggers.

3. Follow the person that sent it to you. 

I also wanted to share this article with you from the Huffington Post that caught my eye.

American High School Students Are Reading Books At 5th Grade Appropriate Levels

I immediately clicked on it to see what it had to say.  I have to say I was a little confused by the article.  The books on the list are popular books such as The Hunger Games, To Kill A Mokingbird, and so on.  I feel a lot of the books on the list may have lower reading levels, but the ideas and concepts in the books are ones that should and can be discussed with an older grade level such as high school students.  It's just a little food for thought, and I am interested in what other people think of the article and the books on the list.  

Once again thanks to those who follow my blog and for My Pink Scribbles for giving me the award!