Open them windows!

And that is just what we did! I love having windows in my classroom!

Anyways....for the past two days I have been in the classroom by myself teaching..my DT has been testing the kids in the library since I cant administer the test (cause Im not a certified teacher) but the test is on the computer....but thats another matter.

So my biggest issue today was stealing. I bought 3 boxes of snacks (those little debbie snack thingys...brownies, some kind of stuffed cookie thing, and rice krispie treats) well I brought them in on Friday and filled the basket so the kids could buy them with their reward money. Well I didnt do rewards on friday cause we didnt have time so I never gave any out. Well I wasnt in the classroom on Monday cause I was at a workshop with my DT. Tuesday I did rewards but only gave out 2 of the snack thingys. Well come Wednesday I look at the basket and i realize that there are only about 5 or 6 snack thingys left....I asked my DT if she gave them out and she said no....so sine half my class was testing in the media center I decided to do some investigating...luckily I have a few honest kids in my class and they ratted out some other kids. Turns out 3 students decided to steal the snacks when we were doing other things and I wasnt looking. I decided to go through their backpacks and found empty wrappers in their bags...can you say GUILTY. My DT dealt with them. She ended up taking 1 kid to the assistant Principal. So in the end I was really hurt by them stealing stuff like that. Especially one specific student...she is my gifted kid...really smart....but isnt hanging out with the right crowd apparently....


So besides all that like I said I have been teaching by myself for 2 days. and both of those days my principal decides she wants to visit my classroom. On Tuesday she sat and watched me teach for about 15-20 minutes and today (wednesday) she kept walking by my classroom probably every 10 minutes..it was REALLY annoying cause where I sit when Im using the ELMO I sit really close to the door and I could see her every time she walked by.

Well my next observation is next Thursday and Im teaching math...YIKES! Some of you know that math is my WORST subject, but I will keep repeating to myself what my 5th grade math teacher told me one day: "Sarah, its not that you hate math...its that your afraid of it!" Thanks Mr. T :) So hopefully I wont be afraid of teaching multiplication. For those of you that had Mrs. Pierce at RES you will remember those rocket ships that showed where we were on multiplication tables...well if you remember you'll probably remember I was stuck at my 3's time tables for about 2 weeks...talk about embarrassing!! I was REALLY bad a multiplication (Im awesome at in now! I can raddle off any multiplication fact in about 2 seconds).

I will let everyone know how it goes!


Is it Friday yet?

What do you wanna be when you grow up?

That was what one of my babies asked me on Friday. I just smiled at her and told her I wanted to be a teacher. Its funny how she reminded me that it really is what I wanna be and that I cant wait to get that first job offer and start teaching in my very own classroom. Although I LOVE teaching in my DT's room.

I went in on Friday to help my DT grade papers cause Friday is our big test day (we give the kids like 3 tests on Fridays and with 44 kids total its ALOT of grading for one person) So I went in after my seminars at UNF to help her. Well she showed me the grades for the kids reading tests and I almost cried! THEY DID HORRIBLE!!! What made me almost cry was that I was the one that taught reading the entire week! But I figured that there was something wrong cause even my gifted students did bad! Not one kid got higher than a C. The unit was supposed to be on sequencing (ya know...putting a story in order) anyways, the test had NOTHING to do with sequencing. (We dont make the tests, they take them from a workbook that comes along with their reading book.) So my DT said not to worry cause it may have been the test and not me.

I have my first observation on Tuesday and my DT and I are trying to get stuff ready for when my supervisor comes in (i.e. the observations my DT does, my PDP, part of my portfolio., etc.), so it looks like we have actually done something in the past 4 weeks. I have TONS of lesson plans written some Im kinda hoping he'll say that I dont have to do the long form for lesson plans anymore cause they are a pain!!!

I have an early release day on Wednesday which means training in the afternoon...oh joy. I had WOW Wednesday training this past Wednesday...and it was SOOOOO boring! I was falling asleep! It was on how to administer this new reading test on a computer...too bad after the entire training she mentions that only certified teachers can administer it....which isnt me! I was pissed. Oh well.

I'll try to post on Tuesday to let you know how my first formal observation goes :) Wish me luck!!!


-Ms. Brooks

Into the swing of things

I didn't even realize until about an hour ago that I haven't posted in almost a week! Life as been crazy lately. I have been SOOOOOOO busy. I have recently started teaching everyday and have taught the entire for almost the entire week. This week I have been teaching my babies about the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing). Its been fun cause they are so excited about me reading their stories when they are done. Lots of parent-teacher conferences recently.

I'm teaching my first formal lesson next Tuesday. Im gonna a stem lesson for science. Its actually kinda cool cause I'm excited about teaching my very first official POE! POE stands for Predict, Observe, Explain. Its used for science experiments. I tell the kids what I am gonna do and then they predict what they think is gonna happen. Then they observe the experiment and write down their observations then I go back and explain what happened and they write that down. Its pretty cool...Im gonna take pics of the actual experiment so you can see what we did! Im really excited about this!!!!

So to go back to my last post I mentioned that I was told I am now officially a teacher by my fellow teachers. This was because I made a kid cry for the first time. I FELT SOOOOO BAD!!! I later gave him a hug and asked him if he was mad at me and he said no.

I've been crazy busy writing lesson plans for the past two weeks and also grading stuff. Apparently I was being too nice when I am grading and was told to be harsher.

Look for the post on how my formal observation goes!! Wish me luck and send me good teacher thoughts on Tuesday!

-Ms. Brooks

Week 3

Well its the end of week 3 and I am exhausted! Funny thing is that it was only a 4 days week (well actually 3 1/2 days cause wednesday was early release). I have taken over more of the responsibilities. Which also means more things for me to grade..yuck! My kids took 5 tests today....craziness.

I have alot to do in the next couple of days. My formal observation is on the 22nd and Im teaching science...that should be interesting. I proctoring the benchmark test on monday. I have wow wednesday this week (no idea what it is).

I had a BIG reality check today. This is the first time in about 4 or 5 years that I have been without a job and I just realized it today when I checked my bank account and then realized that I wouldnt be getting a paycheck. I am getting financial aid from school, but am being verified so I wont be seeing that money till October (hopefully).

Anyways, I have a lot more of stuff to write but I am just too tired to update anymore. So as for now I will continue this sometime over the weekend.

Stay tuned for the story on how I officially became a "real" teacher today!


:),
Ms. Brooks

FCAT

The title says it all. I took the FCAT when I was in middle school and I was in the first graduating high school class that had to pass the FCAT to graduate (previous years only had to take the HSCT to graduate). Anyways..I've been grading FCAT stuff for almost 3 days..and I hate it. Tomorrow is early release (yay) and I have some kind of training at Tree Hill (whatever that is). I also have 3 scheduled parent/teacher conferences this week and I doubt 2 of them are even gonna happen. I taught again today (woo me)

The tiredness really caught up to me today. I was up till atleast midnight watching the game and then couldnt fall asleep. Im hoping this doesnt mean Im getting sick. ( I know my mom is gonna read this so....) Yes mom I am taking all my vitamins (all 4 of them) and attempting to get lots a rest. As well as using hand sanitier and washing my hands consitently. But as we all know I ALWAYS GET SICK!

Alright I need to get back to doing FCAT grading (on the writing prompts..yuck) I have included a picture of my kids!! The kids in the classroom picture are my A.M. kids (my co-teachers homeroom) and the picture of the kids on the playground are my P.M. kids (my homeroom class)

First full week!

WOW! This was my first official full week at my internship, and WOW is all I have to say. I am SO tired! It didn't really hit me until this morning. Today was an pretty good day...the kids werent too horrible.

Today was the first day that my DT and I stayed late. I dont think we left till a little before 6ish. But we got TONS of grading done and entered grades into the computer. And even though we stayed almost 2.5 hours past when we normally leave we still didnt finish grading everything! I took home 22 reading response journals to grade (thats only 1 class....my DT took the other half of the class home) and I also have 22 papers to grade (once again my DT took the other half home). I also have to start writing lesson plans and I need to find some kind of morning work for them to do this coming week (she wants stuff on sentence structure).

Well thats really about it. We have 2 OFFICIAL cases of swine flu at my school (both in the same 3rd grade class) we had a faculty meeting this morning about it...we had the kids wipe down their desks with clorox wipes and then everytime I saw a kid sneeze, cough, pick their nose, or stick their fingers in their mouth, I pointed to the sink and told them to go wash their hands....I must have said "go wash your hands" like 10,000 times today. My DT even told me that she probably heard me say that like 90 times!!! But I DONT WANT SWINE FLU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then I told her she said the same thing probably as much as I did. And we both used hand sanitizer like 50 times that day. :)

Alright I am SOOO tired and I have tons of stuff to do.....

smiles,
Ms. Brooks

cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle...GO WASH YOUR HANDS!

OMG!!!! So it looks like we might have a case of the swine flu at my school! Which for those of you that are familiar with my immune system you know that I have a really bad one! Every time I heard a kid cough or sneeze I made them go wash their hands and I busted out the hand sanitizer out of my bag.

On another note; I had a kid today LICK (yes lick) the air freshener today. Its the kid thats cone shaped (they are like $0.99 at the store) and solid. Well he licked it (with his tongue) I was sooo grossed out and my DT got SO pissed at him!

We have open house tomorrow night...goody. My supervisor showed up today and set dates for my first 2 observations. Nothing else exciting today. It rained ALL day and it made the kids crazy.


:),
Ms. Brooks

All by myself......

Today was the FIRST day that I was basically by myself. My DT had to leave early today (and by early I mean around 1130). Well she of course had to get a sub (he was kinda annoying me). She left me with her lesson plans for the day and I taught my first lesson today!!! It was good cause it was with our homeroom class (the good class!) and she did the lesson earlier in the day with my co-teachers class, so I was able to watch her teach the lesson and did exactly what she did (with a few modifications for my ESE kids). The kids were really good for me! So all in all I'd have to say my first lesson was a success. Just don't tell my supervisor that I taught a lesson today. I'm not supposed to be teaching until next week and if I do I have to type up a lesson plan!

The principal and some lady from the school board came in to the classroom today and I was soooo nervous..not really sure why but I guess it was because its the principal.

Open house is this Thursday and we realized today as we were putting together the ABC's of 3rd grade handbooks for the parents, that we forgot to put in under the "I" the intern part. OPPS! So Im gonna write my very own welcome letter to all the parents about who I am and what I am going to be doing for the next 15 weeks (oye....15 weeks...)

Well today has been a VERY long day....interning from 745-330 then went to the clinic from 330-630..I AM TIRED!!!!! But I love my KBP people and I will help them out as much as I can!


-Ms. Brooks :)