Category Archives: teaching

Nov18

Almost to Thanksgiving!

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Almost to Thanksgiving!

Well, it’s been a wild ride this school year.

I am sick (again) today, but bad enough that I am staying home. Left work early yesterday, too. So that does give me temporary free time to write a post.

It’s been beautiful weather here lately. We have so many amazing butterflies in our backyard. They love the flowers that are back there, and I never am back there without at least 15 butterflies to watch. It’s actually “cold” outside- in the 60s. haha. We will be visiting our families back in Utah this time next week, and it’s already snowed there. So far, the 10 day forecast doesn’t go over 50 degrees there! EEK! I think I might just die!  I definitely fit in with the warmer Texas weather. Other than that though, it will be wonderful to visit the family and not be responsible for all the cooking for a week. 🙂

There have been some interesting challenges in my life lately. I really have been enjoying teaching much more this year than I did last year. These kids are much more willing to work and be on top of everything from last year, and I am understanding the system that we are using so much better. But of course, every class has it’s quirks and trying to work around that can be interesting. The challenges this year are very different than the ones I faced last year. But I don’t think I would EVER go back to my first year of teaching!

The only true negative is my health. I am starting to slip back to the bad again, and I am just fighting to keep being happy and healthy. Still investigating ways to prevent the downward kamikaze spiral that seems to happen with my depressive moments!

Oct21

This dude is getting on my nerves…

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This dude is getting on my nerves…

So, checking out CNN.com today, and this article caught my eye.

Here are some caveats of this article:

“‘Schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st-century classroom.’ [Secretary Duncan] will call for a ‘revolutionary’ change in teacher preparation programs.”

“‘Schools of education have been renowned for being cash cows for universities,’ Duncan will say, according to his released remarks. ‘The large enrollment in education schools and their relatively low overhead have made them profit centers.’ [He] will say that universities divert the profits from education schools to other departments while doing little to invest in educational research and clinical training.”

Grrrrrr. Needless to say, I was pretty unhappy with reading this. Perhaps Mr. Duncan could check out BYU’s program, because there was a TON of researching and clinical training involved.

I had to read articles, write responses for them, take a technology test (using Word, Internet/Email, powerpoint, and Excel) and get a 10-15 minute video + accompanying lesson plan just to get an interview to get into the English Education program!  Once in the program, there were several classes that required us to spend a lot of time in classrooms and working with kids even before we did our 3-4 months of student teaching, just to see if we were really suited. And I know of several people who didn’t make it to student teaching.

And now teaching in Texas, there are constant observations for all teachers, and every week there’s talk about aligning the curriculum to the Texas state standards and tracking of students that are struggling…and teacher and student ownership and accountability. The testing these kids do are through the roof- I couldn’t believe how they begin preparing kids for state tests (TAKS) in SECOND grade. These kids are obsessed and worried about state testing, and not how to apply their learning to the real world.

What more is supposed to happen? Life isn’t all measured out in multiple choice tests…

Sep13

On to week 4!

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On to week 4!

Well, I’ve made it through 3 full weeks of school. The house is a mess, but I’ve been keeping up with the school part of things, so life is good, right?

Really, the house isn’t that bad. It’s more or less that we just haven’t had time to look through all the boxes and put things away properly, so it makes everything look more cluttered. Which I can barely tolerate, meaning Jared is on the verge of a breakdown for not having time to keep things pretty and organized. (Love you, babe.)

In my spare time, I have been working on my project for Aunt Linda for way back when with the whole “Pay it foward” thing. I’m pretty proud of myself. I’ll post pictures once I know she’s gotten it. I am close to being done, but it’s taken a lot of man hours and planning. 🙂

My students are a lot of fun. Naturally, you can’t get away without having a couple of them be complete pills, but in general class has gone really well. I love the fact that my students look forward to “Poetry Circle” and get sad when we don’t get it or get to sit on the floor. This class is so different from my kids last year–I think part of it is that I am more sure of myself and what I am doing, but part of it is that many of these kids are really just more involved with good things in their lives.  They are a lot of fun, and when I am in class, I can remember exactly why I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.

So, between frantically trying to keep up with my students and planning the class and unpacking the home, I haven’t gotten a lot of downtime. Unless you consider “Downtime” the moment right after I get home from work and take care of the dog,  I collapse on to the couch or bed for a bit in a comatose state. 🙂

The best thing of all is that it’s finally raining here. We’ve been in a pretty nasty drought the past two years in the area, and in this weekend alone, I think we got around a foot of rain. MUCH needed rain. It’s so lovely to be able to look into the back yard and see all the wildlife; crazy dancing squirrels, doves, pigeons, hummingbirds, blue jays, cardinals, and even some really neat tropical looking birds with a black back and NEON orange belly. The closest thing I can find to it is this picture of a Baltimore Oriole.

Baltimore Oriole

So, life is pretty good right now. It would be even better if I had about 5 extra hours per day so I could do everything I need to and then get the sleep I need on top of it, but alas, it is not to be.

By the way, some books to read if you have time (I do silent reading time with my kids almost every day, and I try to read along with them, so that’s where that time comes in):

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (sequel)

Uglies, Scott Westerfield

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

I love these books!

Aug24

My SECOND first day!

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My SECOND first day!

I just have to agree with EVERYONE out there that says the first year is the hardest.

Today was my SECOND first day of school ever! And this time around, I wasn’t nearly as nervous or falling over myself; I knew the basic expectations and how to work on the timing of everything… and it was amazingly wonderful. I was just so relieved to make it through the day.

I also had lots of my “former” students come by and say hi and tell me about about their summers! That was just INCREDIBLY neat. I just had to smile so big that they didn’t avert their eyes and pretend they had NO IDEA who that crazy lady was!

My students this year seem great so far. A couple of them got a little ancy with the routine stuff that I had to talk to them about, but I was really pleased with how well they did. I still have really reasonable class sizes too, which is wonderful. I had one class of 15 by the end of last year, so this year my class of 23 (and counting) seems much bigger. I guess I really shouldn’t let it surprise me though, I had a class of 29, 33, and 36 when I was student teaching sophomores, but that just didn’t seem as overwhelmingly huge at the time. Still big, but I guess I found them a bit more manageable. Still, most of the 7th graders were incredibly cute and sweet; still mostly 6th graders mentality, and not sick of school yet.

My hope is I can keep that “sick of school” mentality as far as possible from my classes! I feel much better about this year and how I have taught most of these lessons at least once before.

So, all in all, other than the fact I was silly enough to wear HIGH HEELS ALL DAY, it went really smoothly.

Came home, put my feet up high to try and keep the swelling down, talked to my family about my experience today, and rested. Then, Jared came home a little later than expected and bought me A FLIPPING AWESOME FUTON/COUCH and two of these sweet lamps from the World Market store. It’s going to go with our “Asian” theme we have going in that other room so well.

I am so lucky!

Aug23

School starts again…

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School starts again…

I have to be honest; I have spent days trying to write this post publicly, but have found that the best way to communicate my thoughts in this time is up in my bedroom, quietly writing in my notebook. I have had a lot swishing around in my head; questions, worries, and excitement, but it takes a lot of work to lay them out and explain them to people who don’t live in my head with me! 🙂

Some highlights: At least this round I am much more prepared, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.

Just minutes ago Jared gave me a blessing. I get so anxious and uptight and I make myself sick by letting me get all tied up in knots. But in this blessing, he mentioned that the challenges would be there, but not as many as last year. And that I would be able to use my previous experiences to help get through challenges. At the same time, the new challenges won’t be as many as last year, so he said. I pray that is correct. I don’t want to be labeled as completely MAD when I am only 23.

Fascinatingly enough, the blessing mentioned how positive I have been with interacting with my family and that it has going really well, especially to my brothers. I’ll be honest, most of the time I don’t even know if they care about me calling them. I feel like they equate my call to Mom and Dad calling in to check on them. Mainly I just want to hear about their lives. I am not there to check up on them when they know how to behave and work on their own. I just want to know about what’s going on for every in the family, how they are feeling, stressors that they are facing, etc.

Ironically, whenever anybody asks me how I am doing, I say “fine.” Almost all the time when I say “I am fine, thank you.” It is a signal “I am not feeling great; there’s something going on, but I am not comfortable enough to tell you about it.” Ouch.  Lots of reasons for that response though.

My biggest goal this year is to maintain the fun in learning while still actually learning.

I am SO anxious for tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what I have to work with this year. 🙂

More updates later, I guess…