It's been awhile!

Oh my, so much has been going on.

First of all: finals of doom. I studied for a week solid to ace my finals. The studying paid off. I did extremely well on 2 of my finals, and mediocre on another (which is fine, because I didn't really need the points). I have my last final on Tuesday (math concepts -eeek!), and then I'm done and will start getting ready for my student teaching adventure!

Second: down time. Seriously, I was dog tired from everything... the holidays, the studying, the paper writing, the traveling back and forth to school everyday, etc. So I decided to take the majority of last week to stay at home, clean the house, and lounge around in my pajamas. It was glorious. I really must do it again someday.

Third:  friends. We've been getting together an awful lot. Another glorious thing in my life that I must do more of.

Anyways, over the break, I don't imagine I'll be writing much. I wont have a lot to say and it honestly depresses me a little bit when I look at classroom ideas. I hate getting all of these awesome ideas that I just have to save up. It really gets me down. But once January 7th hits, I'm going to do my best to blog once or twice a week during student teaching.

...student teaching... not sure if I'm terrified or excited, haha!

Check out this awesome t-shirt I found for inspiration! I think I might actually get it!

Motivation Black Hole

Ok, I've lost my motivation. Seriously. It's gone. I'm supposed to be completing a third of my Normal Language Review today. Guess how many questions I finished before I got onto Pinterest?

4.

Then, I got on Pinterest, and wasn't even motivated enough to pin anything. Seriously? Something is wrong with me! All I want to do is sit around on the couch and play video games. What.the.heck.

Anyways, today will be the day to get back on track! Wish me luck! I have another Sight the Site planned for Monday or Tuesday, so be on the lookout for that. :)

Happy belated Turkey Day everyone!

Relevance?

Ok, so here's the deal with this blog. Right now, it's mostly me getting my thoughts out without any kind of specific purpose. Once I start student teaching, this blog will be much MUCH more relevant to teaching. I will post my experiences, what is working and what is not working for me in the classroom, reflections, and as many freebies as I can snag from my classroom. I will probably update only twice a week when I am student teaching, and even that may be a stretch. We'll just have to see.

So, if you're reading my blog before student teaching, thank you! I will try to make it as interesting and relevant as possible, featuring good teaching websites and posting as many of my worksheet/organizer creations as I possibly can. Tomorrow I will post the teacher brochure, so that is something you can all look forward to having! Here is a sneak peak of that:

 

Tomorrow, you'll get the actual template and my recommendations for it. 

In other news, I have been looking into a lot of classroom themes. It does seem overwhelming to try to do a theme, doesn't it? I was thinking about doing a goldfish theme the other day, but then I realized that I may have troubles getting my hands on so much goldfish stuff for the classroom (jungle, forest, campfire, western, and owl themes are what seems popular right now). So I decided, which is subject to change, that I will stick with a color theme of orange, light blue, and white. I think that should be easy enough to do. It just scares me a little because of the amount of commitment needed to stay true to it all year. Oh well! 

Has anyone else thought up a fun theme for their classroom someday?

Happy Friday! 26 more days!

Happy [Freebie] Friday!!


I can't believe that in only one and a half months (roughly), I'll be student teaching. My journey thus far has been so long and often very very difficult. That's a story for another time, but for the first time in my life I actually feel kind of proud of myself for what I have accomplished, having overcome so much. It's not easy for me to say that. I have the worst self-esteem on the planet, so this is a huge leap for me.

Anyways, there's that. And here's this!

This is the brochure I promised everyone. Marty told me the color scheme is completely hideous, which is fine - I want you guys to personalize it as much as possible! So change the colors, the text, move things around if you want - make it your own if you decide to use it! If you need help formatting or anything like that, shoot me an email and let me know - I'm always happy to help you guys!! Here is what mine looks like, if you are interested:

In regards to what it is good for, I recommend using it in addition to your resume. I can't say for sure it will get you hired and I can't say for sure all principles will like it. But I know that many teachers are using brochures in conjuncture with their resume and are getting hired for it. My APS teacher I tutored for, the one who told me about this idea and sent me her brochure for inspiration,  told me that the only reason she got her Kindergarten teaching job was because she had a brochure attached to her resume. It really made her stand out from the crowd and helped them to remember her when making their decisions. I can only hope we have the same luck. We are all awesome and deserve the best jobs!

 That's all for now. I have to go apply for graduation. Wish me luck!

Panic!

Does anyone else have a tendency to panic about things? It's gotten better this semester, I suspect because a couple of my friends (coughLisacoughcough) are rubbing off on me bit, which is a good thing. I can think much more clearly when I'm not panicking about every single little thing. However, there are two particular things that are stuck in my head that I continue to worry about, regardless of what I do:


1. Student teaching. Holy cow, y'all. I'm going to be student teaching next semester! Usually, it's not on my mind. Occasionally, I catch a glimpse of the calendar and realize how close it is. Then I start to freak out just a bit. I'm so nervous about being a good teacher. I keep telling myself that it's going to be okay (which I know it will be), but weird scenarios keep popping into my head. For example, what if I'm the worst classroom manager in existence and can't get the kids to learn from me? Things like that. Irrational, probably? Impossible, no.

2. Finding a job. I know this wont be for another six months or so, but with the economy the way things are and more educational budget cuts on the way, I'm very nervous that I will not be able to land a job. This will be a huge problem for me thanks to all of my student loans, not to mention car payments and rent. Oh, and food. I have a really strong resume, so hopefully I'll be able to find something. Honestly, I think it's completely natural for seniors to become concerned about this as graduation approaches. We really are leaving the "safety net" that college became for us and having to actually grow up and take real responsibility in our careers. Big step forward into adult hood, one that I'm completely ready to take, presuming I can find an opening in my career.


So, those are my big fears right now. On the plus side, I only have 28 more days of this semester and I apply for graduation Friday.  Despite all of my concerns, I am so ready for it. How about you?

Presentation Reflection

I just finished presenting my booktalk in Diagnostic Reading. It went okay, but I always feel like I ramble a bit when I give presentations to adults. Heck, I probably ramble when I teach students as well, but at least I feel less judged when that happens!

One thing I have noticed is that it does help me a bit to have an outline, or some kind of cuing system, to keep me on track. It doesn't always work, and some times I get dry mouth and start with the "like"s and "um"s, but it does do some good during presentations. Lesson plans are no different, at least for now. For example, I was teach a lesson plan that I developed to the kid I "tutor". It went well overall, except I never quite know what to do with myself in the moments of silence (something that, I'm sure, will not happen often in a classroom - so I don't have much to worry about there). Well, I was so excited to do the lesson that I forgot to look over my lesson plan while I was doing it. Guess what happened? I completely forgot an activity. How does that even happen? I spend hours planning these lessons, reviewing them, even a small amount (very small amount) practicing them, and I still forget some activities! I deduced that this was because I did not have my lesson plan to guide me, potentially causing this blunder.

However, I have another theory as to why this happens when I teach. It could be because I'm so excited and have so much I want to teach students, I tend to get ahead of myself and lose track of what I'm supposed to be doing. Instead, I do what I want to be doing, which is not always the best idea, at least not if I want to complete a lesson in a timely fashion. I've got to figure out a better way to keep myself on track for when I get placed in the classrooms and actually teach a room full of students. If I don't, I'm never going to get anything done! I know it's not really practical to think that I'll always stay on track, given the school atmosphere, numerous interruptions (from students and the rest of the school), teachable moments, etc. But there has to be something that can help me as a teacher stay focused. I'll do some research and get back to everyone on that.

In the meantime I could sure use some tips. What helps keep you on track when you teach? I'm all ears, seriously.

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I'm going to try out something. I have a list of blogs on the right hand bar that are super awesome and helpful and I encourage everyone to read them. Sometimes I also stumble onto websites that are truly helpful for me, but I don't want this blog to be overrun with links on the side bar. So, I am going to feature the really awesome websites on here and call it, "Sight the Site" - get it? Because I want you to look at the site?  Clever, right?

Well, I thought it was funny! :)  

Sight the Site: "Getting Organized"
A fabulous site I found via Pinterest to help teachers get organized before and during school. This is definitely a tool I will utilize once I get my classroom. I may even create a binder specially for this information.

Hi. My name is Julie and I'm a Pinterest addict.

Okay, so I'm addicted to Pinterest. Seriously, I can spend hours pinning things onto my teaching boards there. There are a few problems with this:

1. Pinterest frequently goes down. I have been trying to look at numerous lesson plan books, classroom management tips, poster ideas, etc. and I've gotten the 500 error at least 9 times out of 10 in the last hour. Pinterest, I beg you, get a larger server.

2. I see so many awesome ideas and get super excited to try them out in my own classroom. This excitement quickly melts into sadness and frustration when I realize that it's going to be at least another 9 months before I get my own classroom, and that's if I get lucky enough to land a job.

3. I get other awesome ideas for style choices, crafts, etc. The problem is that I either never start them, or I get half way through the craft and move along to something else before I finish. Do you know how much money I spent on supplies for my yarn wreaths? Do you also know that the wreath is sitting, half wrapped, in my "craft" basket? Did you know that I had to make a craft basket just to store all the stuff I bought, only to let it sit there and not get crafted?

So, someone please run an intervention for me so I can stop getting angry at the 500 errors, depressed at not having a classroom, and buying tons of stuff!

Can't Stay Away

Ok, so I know no one is reading this. Let's be realistic, I'm not teaching yet and don't have very many awesome things to say. But that's ok! You know why? Because I can really work to make this blog awesome before I gain readers so that when I finally do have readers, it won't be terrible. It's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

In all seriousness, it doesn't matter how many readers I get. A big part of student teaching (and teaching in general) is being a reflective teacher. I think this blog will really help me to reflect and evaluate my own teaching and the methods I use, therefore helping me to become efficient and better at what I do. Yay for personal growth!

Anyways, I have added some links to the sidebar. Look at them, now look back at me. Now back to them, now to me. I'm on a horse (did I just warp into the Old Spice commercial? I think I did. My attention span is suffering greatly today).

The two "Shop and Sell" links are to online stores for teachers. Let's face it, there are always going to be people out there who are more crafty or more creative than you are in some (or all, in my case) subjects. Why not buy some of their awesome ideas? I say if I can afford it and it really is better than my own ideas (or I forget to plan, cough cough), why not? I know I can't use these lessons when I student teach and I'm ok with that, but they may come in handy in a pinch once I get my own classroom.

The second set of links are to some of the blogs I have found recently. They are all blogs of teachers (or former teachers) who want to share their experiences from their classrooms. I find these blogs helpful and beneficial. They are all positive and really geared towards developing as a teacher rather than complaints. Many of them even have freebies and all are filled with awesome ideas for lessons, centers, management, etc. So check them out, I hope you love them as much as I do!

I debated giving out some graphic organizers today, but I think I'm going to wait. I swear, I'm like a two year old. I want what I want and I want it NOW! And what I want is to share all of my ideas. But, patience is a virtue and something I must learn. Besides that, I really should be working on homework right now. I have a presentation to give tomorrow that must be 5 minutes (under/over = poor planning, apparently), and it's over something I haven't looked at in about two months. Sigh.

33 days to go

With 33 days left to go in my second-to-last undergraduate semester (whoop whoop!), I decided I would start preparing for my student teaching experience in my free time. Yes, I do "work" in my free time. Lisa, I give you permission to laugh at me!

You know what they say, though: "what you do when you are procrastinating is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life." Ain't that the truth.

So, to celebrate the semester slowly winding down and the beginning of my (hopefully) long career as an educator, I present you all with this blog. I'll try to update it as much as possible with what is going on and provide you with lots of cool things to utilize yourselves.

Speaking of celebrations, I have a gift for you this week in honor of starting my blog (and to rope you all in to reading it - ulterior motives?). It's a template of the Student Teacher Mini Biography I made last week. I really believe that if we walk in to our initial meeting with our coordinating teacher and hand her this sheet, we will come across as prepared, well organized, and just awesome in general. So take it, edit it as you see fit, use it or don't, it's my present to you! For it to work properly, you need to have or download Kristin ITC font.