My Life as a Teacher Right Now
This is my favorite time of year. That time right before school starts when I get to climb into my classroom and live there for one glorious week without students. I staple, hole punch, laminate/cut/repeat, put things together, curriculum design and redesign, look at student pictures in the yearbook, chat up everyone at school, and just generally love my job to pieces. And on Tuesday, my second favorite time will begin when the kids arrive!
My poor student teacher is following me around. She seems wonderful, so I'm very excited about working together and sharing my craft with her. I do feel a little odd when I have to spend quality time with my computer and she is just watching me. Sharing files was so different when I student taught, and that was just 8 years ago. Time flies.
This time of year is when I basically turn my life upside down.
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It's this time of year that I have a list on every pad of paper I own, but can not, for the life of me, find the one that I'm looking for. I cannot tell you how many times I've said to myself "I should blog about that tonight!", and gotten home and had no idea what I should blog about. I'm a mess.
*sigh* I love it so much.
I'm not ready to reveal my final learning space for my students, so you will just have to wait. I'm just not ready to offer it up to the internet and say it is done. What if there is a pencil or something out of place? How embarrassing.
In the News
Here's a quick news update. I should find a fancy name for it. Ideas are welcomed. All of them include my commentary below. What I say about it is not a reflection of the article, just FYI. It's just my reasoning behind posting it here. Some of these are school news and some are...not so much. But somehow I related them to school so here you go.
As Back-To-School Shopping Begins, Consumers May Turn Frugal
This is a short article that basically this says, dude, we're really cheap right now so we're shopping on the tax free holidays. Or we're saving money for bigger and better things which does not include that Lisa Frank folder. What's that? They don't sell those anymore? But to be fair, retail stores, nobody wants to spend $2 on a folder - ever - when we know it cost you $.001 to make it.
Um, what?
I just thought this was interesting. If I make my classroom smell like chocolate, will my students start reading more? I would like to see that study, please. Also, don't just put a chocolate plug-in in the wall. Nobody wants a chocolate tease. There should be actual chocolate present at time of purchase.
Autism absolutely fascinates me and I love reading about it and teaching kiddos who have it. This article focuses on a study that shows a link between some people with autism and a mutated brain tumor or cancer gene. The part of this article that caught my attention the most: "But researchers say the findings are intriguing, given that there are no animals that naturally get autism, no way of analyzing what might cause autism in developing brains and no cure." Soooo why do only humans get it? I wish we had answers to everything.
School Standards’ Debut Is Rocky, and Critics Pounce
Oh, Common Core. You're always in the news.
Schools are trying to limit how much input parents have on which teacher their child gets for the next school year. Does your school have this problem?
Seeking Better Teachers, City Evaluates Local Colleges That Train Them
Ohhhh I love to see this. We should start a conversation on this. Do you think your college prepared you well for what you do as a teacher and educator?
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteWe're getting ready to head back soon, too. As I read through your description of life at the beginning of the year, I found that I could relate with all of them. I don't start for another week, but I already cannot sleep. At all. I have been dreaming about Edmodo. Weird? Yes.
You need to get an Evernote account. Truly, it has been the only thing that helps me keep all of my lists, blog ideas, to-dos, and ideas in one place. Even if you don't really organize it a whole lot, you can search and locate it. It has made back-to -school shopping really easy!
With regard to my teacher prep, I did an elementary and special education program. It was a double major with some extra coursework. I still believe that it was the smartest decision that I ever made. I do not feel like my elementary program adequately prepared me, but the additional sped coursework certainly did. I learned everything I know about progress monitoring, assessment, and differentiation in my sped classes. Interesting that it wasn't a component of my elementary program, right?
Do you think that it's possible for a teacher ed program to truly prepare someone for this job? I feel like each job in each building in each district is so different that it would be difficult to truly prepare someone for the unique challenges that they will face.
Great post!
❁ Kate
Purely Paperless