and partner teacher said "I was right"...

Yes, yes he was.  In some ways.  To say this summer was not what I expected or planned for it to be would be a mild understatement.  I had given up on being anything but a day to day sub....I figured maybe something long term would come up after Christmas.

Wrong. Wrong again.  Schools around here started this week.  I had heard of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Academy which was opening nearby a few weeks back and had applied for one of their teaching positions; did not hear anything.  I figured I would give them one more call, just in case :)

In nothing other than God's standard way of humbling me and reminding me that He has control and knows what is coming, they needed a shot term substitute with a special education degree :)  OOO That's me!!!!

So two days later I'm sitting in the director's office and she's saying to me "If you tell me you want this job, it's yours and we'll start paperwork today and get you in here next week.  The teacher you are in for is due on September 13th, so we need you here ASAP."  Yes, yes I want this job :)

And so, beginning next week I will be going to an Autism Academy and working in a classroom of 9th - 12th grade students.  The morning is filled with 5 students and the afternoon I will have 10.  To say I am excited is again an understatement.  I am so thankful that God had a place for me here.  I have spent much of my summer frustrated with the timing of everything.....and then I found out why this week.

My first student teaching placement was a 9th - 12th grade Emotional Support classroom....I loved it.  I am so excited to go back to school next week.

If any of you have suggestions for teaching in a high school autistic support room, I'd love to hear them!

Happy Thursday :)

Would you mind sharing your story?

Dear Bloggy World Friends/Teacher Mates,

Will you share your "how I got my first classroom" story?  How long did you substitute teach for? Did you get a masters degree before or after you started?  Did you ever think about giving up and working at WalMart?  How did you finally get that interview that ended with you signing a contract and being handed a set of room keys?

Share away!! I'm in the mood to hear some wonderful stories!
-M

another august...

One year ago I was in the same position....ask my mama.  She was getting daily phone calls, most involved me in tears saying "Mom all I want is to be a teacher and I can't get a job."  She would gently encourage, faithfully each phone call, and told me to keep trying.  "Subbing isn't a failure and it's always an option" she would say.

I had this grand idea that I would get a job when I finished college.  The reality of the present education system (at least in my certification state) quickly set in when all I heard of were furloughs and cut-backs not hiring bubbles!

I kept applying and a neighbor told me about the AmeriCorps SMILES program.  A few of my local districts were looking for people to fill those spots.  So I started down that route.  Through one of these interviews, I walked out with the possibilities of a short term and my long term 5th grade subbing.

What I realized today as I was kindly reminded that it's August 1st, was that interview didn't happen until August 10th last year.  There are still possibilities...ones I may not even know of right now.

My agenda for today: Update online portfolio.
My agenda for tomorrow: Take application packets to schools I want to sub with here. Look at new house a second time; make offer. Go to the local fair with our new friends.

I would be lying if I said I didn't hope deeply this summer would have been different.  I wanted to be planning for a classroom so often!  I think I'm living vicariously through my partner teacher....thankfully he still keeps in touch and fills me in on all he is doing to ready his classroom for this coming year.  I think in a slightly odd way it's given me a bit of energy to keep trying and not give up yet.  I want that...maybe next summer?

If you're readying your classroom or if you're putting it off because who really does want to unpack everything....best of luck :)  I pray you have a smooth start to your year and you feel "first year jitters" and "first year passion" like you haven't for a while :)

Happy teaching :-D

-M

professional portfolio...

Prior to the end of the school year, my partner teacher began to help me organize and create a usable portfolio.  Then we moved...well, kind of moved!  Read about that story here... So, today I started back at it.  Attempting to remember his advice, I created four piles for the four domains.  Three hours later, I  think I have my things sorted and ready to be made pretty.  I realized my life from fifth grade is still in various boxes in my nut hut attic.  I will have to add that chapter of things when I go back to pack it up.  But for now, it's started and that's better than where it was yesterday!

Any suggestions or helpful hints for developing this portfolio thing?!

the first week of summer...

I tearfully and successfully packed up room 30....big thank you to partner teacher who at multiple times kept saying "you have to keep going."  I waited to do most of the work until after the students left on Thursday.  I didn't want an empty bare room for my last few days with them.  I made multiple trips to my car packing all my beloved teaching stuff in it.  I fell up the stairs once :-D always a good way to start the last day of in-service.

During Friday's in-service meeting, the superintendent said "I can't believe the school year is over! It feels like we were just in the library having our first in-service of the year."  It struck me as a blessing.....I was there for that first day also.  I spent most of my school year in this building working along side this fantastic staff.  Thankfully I didn't start to cry at this point!

And then, the elementary principal said something about "You don't know where you are going to be a year from now."  Boy is she right.  Boy I had no idea how right she was going to be...

Partner teacher helped me with the last load, shut my car door and and told me not to cry too much on the way home....hahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA how about the whole ride?!

That was Friday.  Saturday was a mopying day, Sunday was a "get ready for new job" day.

Monday........three days after I said goodbye to my fifth graders; goodbye to teaching every day for sure....I started a job as a day camp counselor.  I won't lie....I didn't really want a summer job.  That's a different blogging topic.  When Monday rolled around I was more positive about it.

I enjoyed the first day of camp...things went relatively well.  The summer kids do not enjoy structure.

I came home and my world stopped.  Husband man got a new job.  We're moving....we have less than 2 weeks now.  We'll be moving closer to my family, which will be nice, but farther from his.  It will be too far to teach at the school I spent almost every day at this past year.  It means I start all over.  Praying desperately for my own classroom and always knowing in the back of my mind I'll be subbing.

My first week of summer was spent working 40 hours at camp, crying both to and from camp, trying to be excited, dreading the last day we spend in our nut hut, and just wondering why now? This newbie teacher doesn't like change....and the last two weeks have been nothing but change.

We're in the process of finding a new home; we have a rental for when we go initially.  Baby pup is going to have to wear a barking collar while we're there so she doesn't disturb the neighbors.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a job this year.....

end of the year photos...

As promised well over a month ago, here are some photos from the end of my 5th grade school year :)

For Mother's Day, partner teacher and I helped our kids plant marigolds.
He had a box of circular paint swatches which he wanted to use up.
This was our solution for a "To: Mom From: Student" tag....

Floor to ceiling food groups :)
This was fully partner teacher's idea and execution!
His kids did an excellent job!! He doesn't blog (yet) but I thought the
idea was fantastic and wanted to share it for him.

Our culminating Social Studies project was a "State Report Box"
The kids did a great job on these as well!

Collecting and recording homework was something I never found an
excellent way to complete.  This was my middle attempt and I did like it.

We had a lot of things that were due each Friday; so
arranging our homework board like this worked well for my kids and I.

These three are so I don't forget what a fantastic
 room I had the blessing of teaching in.  This is the
arrangement the students went back to for the end of the year.

Each 9 weeks, the students are encouraged to read
4 Accelerated Reader books within their AR Level.
I used this pocket chart to help them track their progress!

My literature circles came and went, but I had an empty
bulletin board so I posted some strategies :)

Partner teacher and I agree....this was one of my saving graces.
I would become so discouraged some days.  He'd laugh and tell me to
look at the positive things that happen each day; not the negative.
That is not something I do naturally.  When I come to the end of a semi-rough day
and I'm tired...the last thing I'm capable of doing is finding the positive :)
So I had my kids find them for me!  I think I posted an initial picture of the
"Positives Door".....this is how we ended.  It was full of positive things.
When I felt unaccomplished, ineffective, or flat out like giving up....I'd read our door.
I saw our days through the eyes of my students.....they saw much more positive than negative!

*Pause*

This life is such a crazy concept, isn't it?  There are so many pointless "to do" items that I write on post its (partner teacher can verify my obsession with post its) hoping to accomplish throughout the week or day.  I am not a very good "stop and smell the roses" person...at least not naturally.  Once in a while it occurs to me that I should do so. It just did.  In the midst of finalizing my last two weeks of lesson plans, grading the mass amount of papers, cleaning an attic so I can bring my school room home, and entertaining a dog who is 2 days from removing the cone on her head......it occurred to me that three years ago I was in a very different place....

Will you roll back a few years with me?  If you don't want to...just stop reading and wait for the next blog post.  This one will have very little to do with teaching....but a whole lot about loving.

May 10 - June 6, 2009
Location: Peitionville, Haiti (outside of Port Au, Prince)
God's Littlest Angels Haitian Baby Ministry

I loved eight babies.  For four weeks.  I held them.  I talked to them.  I changed them.  I took them on walks.  I cuddled with them.  I cried with them and for them.  I colored with them.  I watched them.  I saw them take their first steps.  I put lotion on their dry little feet.  Oh, did I love them.  

There we are.  Eight babies and I :)  Do you see why they captured my heart?  They still have it...and probably always will.  They were my first brown babies!  Nothing ever changes that.

My loving parents put their 19 year old white female on an airplane and left her follow a calling that God had placed on her heart a few years prior.  They were nervous, and rightly so, but they trusted in our amazing God....knowing He created me with a passion for babies. Four weeks later, I came home with a very broken heart.  One that still has a missing piece.  Or rather, eight little ones :)

Once in a while, this life gets so crazy....I forget about my time in Haiti.  Every once in a while, on my horrible days, when I don't understand this world, my mind drifts back and my heart remembers pieces of my time that are frozen in photo memories.  Do you want to see some of my favorite moments?

                            

 There is not a country more poor or beautiful.  There are not babies more precious than the ones I have held.  There are many many problems in Haiti...MANY.  But beyond the problems, there is a simplicity, a joyfullness, and kindness that does not exist in the United States.  You won't understand it until you go and experience it.

These moments...this experience...I know has made me a better teacher.  I learned how to love (freely and completely) children I would not be allowed to keep.  I was not allowed to bring these babies home with me; I am not allowed to keep my fifth grade ducklings (some of them laugh when I call them that; others roll their eyes!) who I have come to cherish just as much as I cherish my brown babies.

In the midst of this crazy busy, planning filled life I live....I am beyond thankful for the time I had in Haiti.  I am beyond thankful for the time I had in fifth grade.  I have 26 growing babies...scattered in eight different countries :)  What a lucky lady I am :)

2 weeks to go?

Really?! REALLY?!  That's all there is!  Two four day weeks and we're onto summer vacation...or for me...summer employment :)  So what I have come to realize in the last month is that...

...I am a horrid blogger when life gets busy!
...I still put sleep ahead of almost everything (blogging, laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc.)
...the last month of school is a full blown roller coaster ride of emotions
...the last month of school is the least "follow a schedule" month EVER
...the last month of school gets to be very warm in our non-AC building :)

I am a morning person through and through!  Passionate about seeing the sunrise :)  I used to be able to watch it come up from inside my classroom...those days are gone; not because I arrive later but because it keeps coming up earlier and earlier!  I now enjoy the rise during my commute!

I enjoy using the hour and a half I have before students arrive (and an hour+ before most other teachers arrive) to ready the room, organize my desk (which somehow, EVERY DAY faithfully ends up with massive piles and messes!), put yesterday away :)  Partner teacher comes in somewhere around my "I've been here for over an hour" mark and laughs because rarely are my desks in straight rows, my tables perfectly cleaned off, or my hair completely dry!  I should have pushed my students harder at the beginning to clean up their space and straighten their desks.  Like I said, I'm a morning person.  Come dismissal time....my fight is minimal and "straighten your desks" isn't on the top of my priority list!

Anyways, all of that to say....I have so cool photos coming...probably after 2 weeks :(  I'm staying afloat and I feel as though photo uploading would cause me to sink!

Photos will include Civil War Posters, Field Trip, Dance, Geo Scenes, and maybe a few of my favorites :) Also coming...how I set up my lit circles, why they didn't work, and how I fixed it half way through!

Until then....Happy Teaching!! Soak up every moment of your last two weeks...all too soon you'll send them on and you'll get a new bunch!! Enjoy the bunch you have right now!!!

...testing

No, not the state kind :) I recently got an iPad and wanted to try out the blogger app. Just seeing what this will look like on a computer tomorrow!

Happy Teaching!

...little seeds

Showcase night was a brand new experience for me.  All of the teachers (and students!) are crazy tape donut creators the afternoon prior.  Masking tape is ordered in bulk, and projects are hung throughout all the halls.  It looks SO cool to walk into the building and be surrounded by students' work!  This year partner teacher and I (though it was 99.9% partner teacher's idea) created a gigantic tree which we titled "Little seeds grow into mighty trees!".  Our kids brought in their baby picture (which by the way, I have the CUTEST group of babies growing up in my room!) and we used their fifth grade photo to show how they've grown.  We took the book "Oh, the Places You Will Go!" by Dr. Seuss and had each student write part of the story.  All of this was plastered on the large tree.....do you want to see a picture?  I knew you would! :) Enjoy!!!

And yes, the leaves do go up onto the ceiling! :)

Happy Teaching!