Learning How to be a Better Teacher

Even though I have completed my Master's degree, and was recently re-certified with my Advanced Professional Certificate, I am still taking classes. Well one class anyway.

A few of my old teammates and I all signed up for this class together so we could better keep in touch over the summer and beginning of the school year. Since all 4 of us will be teaching at different schools this year, that was my primary reason for singing up.

I am currently in the middle of "Studying Skillful Teaching' which is helping me re-examine my teaching practices, planning, and beliefs. I had heard it was a horrendous class ans was super hard, but I am actually enjoying it. Our instructor is great, and that truly makes the difference of 'participating because I have to' and 'wanting to go, learn, and participate'.


Also, this was my test run for leaving Kate with my mom while I went to work. I dropped her off around 7 and was on my way by 7:30.  It was hard leaving her the first day and I thought she was in the car with me (but was so quiet she must have fallen asleep) on the second day. She also drank all the milk I left for her and needed the emergency formula on the second day. Overall she was happy, ate and napped well, and I actually liked getting out of the house and doing something work related for a few hours. I'm still going to enjoy my summer with Kate, but maybe going back to work won't be so bad after all.

beach baby

It's Official!

Yesterday was the final day of my last course for my Master's!
The portfolio is done, the transcript request has been faxed, and the request for salary advancement goes in the mail today. The past two years have flown by, and while it was annoying I am happy that I worked hard and accomplished it.

Now that it's over, what should become of the stack of books from my courses?

This doesn't even include the stack of DVDs I was sent along with the books for each course. And yes, I was sent duplicate books for my very first class.
I think I may hold onto some for future reference, or pass some along to my student teacher.

One thing I know for sure:

It feels good to be DONE!

9 down, 1 to go!

Just got my final grade for my class, meaning I'm almost done!

One more class, starting in January and I'll be finished in February.

Ahh.. I can almost taste freedom!

Busy Bee

So some of my students officially started today, and it actually went well for a first day. Last week I went on home visits to meet the students and their parents. There are 20 students in my class, 1 is still in Guatemala and isn't coming back until the 20th, 1 had babysitter issues and we didn't even know if she would still be enrolled until Friday afternoon, and she missed the bus today, 1 has Deaf parents and is having a hard time following rules and directions (like 'sit down like everyone else'), 1 has spina bifida- he has braces on his legs and needs his catheter changed every 3 hrs, and 1 came today but is being transferred to another school. This year should be interesting.

Needles to say I have been busy these past 2 weeks. Which is why I haven't gone to the gym and have gained back 1 lb... sad...

But to make my busy schedule even busier- I have signed up to help in the children's ministry every other week, starting on Sunday, and my grad classes have started back up this week. BTW I have the same professor as last class and she used their instead of there today... should I send her a message or would that be wrong?

Any way, just a little update on my busy life. Oh how I miss Summer Vacation!

Grading Absurdness

I'm kind of annoyed right now. I'm taking a Developing reader course right now, where I needed access to 3 fourth, fifth or sixth graders and their textbooks. It's summer, first of all, and my school only goes to second grade so I wouldn't have access to the right age from summer school. So after some advice, I have created 3 kids and 'assessed' them on their ability to read and their interests etc. So far, so good- I have been getting 4/4 on my papers... that is with the exception of this past paper, where I got 3.75! Why, you might ask? Did I not answer the question correctly? Was I incoherent? Did the professor finally see that I wasn't actually working with real kids?

NO

This is the comment she left me, misspellings and all:

You theme of historical events meets the criteria for this week’s assignment. However, what I had in mind was more of taking a content theme- ie- the Deptression, The Civil War, Weather) and using both texts, online sources and literature to enhance the concept. While biographies and historical fiction can teach about a time frame, how does this meet your social studies curriculum for this year?
Grade:A-

So I met the criteria, but since I wasn't able to read her mind and specify a time period I don't get full credit. Oh, and this plan will not meet my social studies curriculum for this year because I TEACH PRESCHOOL NOT 4TH GRADE!!!

Sorry, just wanted to get that out.

Ohhhh, We're Half Way There..

I just finished the work on Educational Research Class. This means I am more than half-way done with my degree! I am working on my MEd in Elementary Reading and Literacy through Walden University. It is a fairly easy program, as I only take one class at a time. It is all done online and there is virtually no group work. I really didn't have an interest in pursuing a degree in reading, as I have no plans to become a reading specialist or anything, but I did need to select a Master's program so I could move up a pay scale. What bothers me now that I'm more than half way finished with this degree is I received an e-mail from Walden detailing a new Master's program in Early Childhood Education! What?! That was my undergrad major, and I definitely would have signed up for that had it been available. I feel like that program would have been more beneficial and relevant to my teaching. But it also could have just been a repeat of my 4 years in college, and I might not have learned anything.

So in what I am doing through the Reading program is writing lesson plans for primary and elementary grades, developing a mission for teaching, and delving in to the world of educational research. This last course I thought I would have a heart attack. What do you mean I need to develop a research question and have to find 7 primary resources, analyze them, and tie them together to answer my research question? In the end, it was actually pretty stress-free. I came up with my research question pretty quickly, found many sources, and received very good feedback from my professor. The best part, though, is receiving a 0% similarity report on my rationale. OK, it was only 3 paragraphs stating why my paper met the standard, but I have never seen a 0%! If you are taking online classes, you may be familiar with Turnitin.com. It is site where you upload your paper, and they check for plagiarism. It also check to see if there is similar wording in the paper, which generally happens because everyone in your course is submitting basically the same thing. I usually get 8-15% which is 'green' and means I did a really good job of paraphrasing in my own words. But here is is, my first 0%


Anyway, I am so excited to only have 4 more classes to go. I should be done by May next year.

6 down, 4 to go!