Manic Mondays

It's my second week back at school and my first Monday. I thought I would dread waking up this morning, yet I only hit my snooze button four times. :)

My first five weeks is supposed to be all observing but since I interned in Jessica's class last semester I have really gotten to know how everything runs. SO, Jessica is throwing me in the shark tank early. This week we are going to plan all of next weeks reading lessons together, and next week I am going to be teaching reading every day!! I am super nervous but actually really excited to get started early. The more practice the better I figure and I can always learn from my mistakes. Next week I will be planning the lessons myself..YIKES. After that we will slowly add in each subject. Wish me luck!

Here's a little tear jerker for all you cry babies like me. We have this student in our class named E. He is on a behavioral managment plan and has been tested for special ed but nothing seems to come out of it. We have put together multiple ways of trying to manage his behavior. Right now we use a post it note on his desk. When he is off task he gets a black check and (he just added this himself) when he is on task he can get a negative check with a blue pen. His rewards or his punishments depend on how many checks he has at the end of the day. Well, as most of you know this is of course the student I am most drawn to. I want to help him so badly and I hope each day I will have a break through. I started in this class last August and one of these breakthroughs has yet to happen. So my story for today is that he is starting something new where each Monday he goes to a different classroom where the social worker is. Jessica asked me to walk him there so as we are walking he is being great, we are chatting and he is in high spirits. When we get to the room he stops in his tracks and will not go in the room. Apparently, one of the other boys in the classroom is a boy that is a year older than him. This student picked on E when he was in kindergarten and "hurt" him. I am not sure exactly what that entails but I do know that the look on his face broke my heart. If it was my choice I would have turned him around and taken him to Chuck-E-Cheese or something. That was obviously not one of my choices so instead the social worker came out to talk to him. E explained his problem, so she had the other student come out to talk to him. E ran halfway down the hall way, so I told him I would give him three negative checks if he was willing to cooperate. The student admitted to "hating" E in first grade but he assured her he was a better person now. E would not go back into the classroom until this boy was on the opposite side. I had to leave him there in that awful classroom all by himself, it literally broke my heart in two. After lunch E was not the same, he completely turned us off and wanted nothing to do with us :(..there's always tomorrow.

It's eight and I am finally home on the couch..time to catch up on Californiacation..go to bed and do it all over again tomorrow. I wouldn't have it any other way

My First Week

The first day of student teaching was similar to my first days of school when I was younger. I could barely sleep and I woke up extra early so I would be on time and I could try on multiple outfits before deciding on the first one I tried on in the first place.

My mentor teacher Jessica thought of this cute idea for me to re introduce myself to the kids. I haven't been in the class since the beginning of December and she recently had some new students join our class. At the beginning of the year each student had to bring in a personality bag. The bag should have ten things that describe something about you, so she thought this would be a great way to let the kids get to know me a little better.

In my bag:

1. A pink hair tie because pink is my favorite color.
2. Diet coke bottle because I can't go a day without one.
3. Starbuck's gift card because I get my iced coffee every morning on my way to school.
4. My Angel's hat because I grew up in California and the Angels are my favorite baseball team.
5. My Cardinal's jersey because I love going to football games with my dad and brothers on Sundays.
6. An Alphabet poster that I got for Christmas because I want to be a teacher.
7. "Westside Stories from Wayside School" because that was one of my favorite books when I was in 3rd grade.
8. A picture of my nephew Jack because he is my whole world and family is the most important thing in my life.
9. My ASU hat because I am going to ASU to become a teacher.
10. My I-phone because I can't go a day without music or talking to my mom.

They loved it and had so many questions to ask me afterwards.

• Do you have a husband?
• Do you have a baby?
• How old are you?
• Did you get your good looks from your mom or your dad?
• Did you get your brains from your mom or your dad?

We had to cut them off because we had to go to lunch but it was nice to let them know a little bit more about me. 

My first week went better than I could have hoped. Jessica team teaches with three other third grade teachers and I love them all also which is great because I will be working with them on all of the weekly lesson plans for the next four months. 

I can't use student's names due to certain laws that protect them so I will just use initials to share some of my favorite parts of the first week. 

Tuesdays highlight: I soon realized that Justin Bieber is similar to the JTT of my time. All of the girls are wearing his shirts and have their binders covered with him. So, I see K looking really upset at the desk he is at ( they switch classes for different subjects because this district does ability grouping). I ask him what is wrong and he looks over at the binder on the desk he is sitting at and winces. "Worst day ever." I could not help but laugh because he was so adorable. Of course this started a conversation up. The girl sitting across from him was completely willing to trade him seats and sit with the binder while another girl yells out that she doesn't like Justin only his music. At this J (a boy sitting next to her) responds with when I first heard that baby baby baby (he sings it) song I thought it was a girl, I told my mom there's no way this is a boy this has to be Katy Perry! These kinds of moments light my day up because it is extraordinary how much personality all of these kids have. 

Wednesday highlight: On Wednesday I was able to experience my first staff meeting. It was really interesting to see this part of the job. When I had interned in the past it was usually just one day a week and the same day each week so I didn't get to see a variety of how the school runs or the interaction between all of the teachers. The principal is amazing I love her already and she ran the meeting. Of course towards the end of the meeting I was introduced to all of the teachers, and I had to stand up and wave this was only slightly mortifying. :)

Thursday highlight: Every day has something amazing happen in the classroom, more like a million amazing things. Yet my favorite part of Thursday was Jessica inviting me to happy hour at Uncle Bears with two of the other third grade teachers. They are all really close which is something I hope to have with the teachers I work with wherever I end up. It was fun to see them outside of school in more of laid back atmosphere. I am looking forward to may more of these kind of evenings <3

Friday highlight: This is so hard to choose because for one I loved being able to wear jeans and the school colors. (black and gold) I wore a black top and gold jewelry, however the students pointed it out that I did not have to wear gold jewelry because I already had gold hair :) I also went to four different classrooms and grades to observe and see some of the things I liked and didn't like. I always thought I wanted to teach fourth grade, if not that then I wanted to at least teach 3rd-6th. I never in a million years wanted to go younger. However, after going into the kindergarten class and seeing those kids I absolutely fell in love. It is crazy amazing how much they are learning in kindergarten these days and the kids are all about learning! They are like little sponges wanting to soak everything up! It also doesn't hurt that they love love love their teacher. I am so much more interested in the younger grades now but I think it's good because now I would be fine with any age level I think. Those little stinkers stole my heart though. Later in the day my heart was stolen again by two girls in my own class. During journal writing they have to choose a prompt from choices that are already printed out for them. I had two girls ask me if they could use me to journal on the prompt "Write about someone that has been nice to you". Little things that like that make me so happy I could cry.

There hasn't been one day that has gone by that wasn't hard and didn't have it's challenges. Yet these were always countered with the little thing moments that make being a teacher worth while! I'm sure I can look forward to many more weeks like this and hopefully years to come. After this week I can say I am completely content with my career path choice and I can't wait to continue my life in this direction.

The Journey begins

So, I am going to give blogging a shot. I am embarking on my last journey through college this semester and a few of my peers decided to make blogs to share our experiences with each other and family. My first week of student teaching started on Tuesday January 18th in San Tan Valley Arizona. I am teaching in a third grade class with one of the most amazing teachers I have ever had the pleasure of observing. I chose to student teach with her because she is the type of teacher I aspire to be one day. There is something in a teacher that I think you can see right away, the love for the kids. This is the reason I chose to go into education in the first place, you may have guessed that it was not for the money. :) I love kids of all ages and seeing them grow and learn is one of the most rewarding things I have ever been able to be a part of. I am so excited for the next four months and I can't wait to see what this class has in store for me. 

So, I will be sharing all of my memories, stories, amazing lesson ideas I find and anything else I think you might enjoy <3

Good luck to all of my favorite future teachers, I can not wait to hear all of your adventures as well.