First Week of School

Monday:

 I feel like my mind is already overflowing from all the information that I have received and it's only from just one class. I finally found out today what school I will be going to and who my mentor teacher will be. One great thing about my school is from 7:30 am. to 1:55 pm. This is great because we have to be at the school as long as our mentor teacher is there, so when she stays after for planning it won't be as late as other schools. Most elementary schools that I know of go from about 9-4, so if the teacher stays after it would be much later when I get home. Also I'm sure if I mentioned this, but at orientation our cohort teacher said we would go to the school this week and that is not happening anymore and I don't have to drive to the college either. 

Tuesday:

I have two classes on this day and my first class doesn't start until 2 and my last class ends around 8, though my teacher for my last class said that we will always get out early. Which is really great for me. Both the teachers seems really nice and chill. The only complaint I have about this day is class is it's so late that it's absolutely dreadful trying to find a parking spot. I went up early knowing this was going to be a problem and I'm lucky I found someone leaving. I'm going to have to try and leave much earlier to find a spot hopefully and if I have to wait an hour before class starts then that's fine by me. I will just eat my lunch when I get there and take my tablet to read and work on stuff because I can't deal with that parking every week. 

Wednesday:
I left very early this morning to make sure that I got a parking spot, so I left around 10:30 and arrived to school at 11 ish and class didn't start until 1. I was able to find a parking spot, though there wasn't that many. I made sure to bring my tablet and i pod to have something to do and I also went and picked up my other textbooks too. I'll probably leave around 11 next week. Anyways.... class was good. The teacher ran a little late, but she seemed nice and I liked her. We were there the whole time for class, but the drive home wasn't bad like I was predicting it to be since I got out about 4.

Thursday:
AHHH!!!! So today me and the other girl that have the same mentor teacher as me, went and visited the school and went inside. We got to meet our mentor teacher and she walked us around the school. The principal came up and introduced himself to us. It was just a great time. We also got to talk to some of the kids and they were great. Secondly I saw and talked to a kid that used to go to my day care, so that was really great. The mentor teacher was very friendly and I can't wait to go back again on Thursday next week.

Friday:
Got home from Friday's class and I felt like there was nobody on campus. Class didn't start until 10 and I had no problems driving or getting a parking spot. Though when it came time to leave, trying to get out of the garage was horrible. Today's class was good. It only goes to 11:50, so I wasn't there for very long and now I have the rest of the day for myself and to get things ready for the upcoming weeks because I will be starting student teaching this coming Thursday.

Note:
My university must be trying to go green because none of the professors gave us syllabuses and instead said that we needed to print them out our selves if we wanted them. I'm paying how much for school and now I have to print out the syllabus myself. I don't think so.

Update on Teacher Look

My order from Kohls came in a few days ago and the pants were okay. I had order five and two had to go back right away because one did not fit correctly and the other I didn't like. The three others were alright, though I wasn't overly thrilled or excited about them. Then a day after that my order from JCPenney was ready at the store, so I headed over to the mall. I only order two pairs from there and I loved them. I'm very happy about the pants. They felt and fit great, so I'm keeping both of those and returning the other three pants to Kohls.

I think only having two pairs of pants will be fine and besides I do have one other pair of pants that I could wear. I'm only going once a week to my placement.

College Organization: Tip 2

To Do List Binder

Like I have said before, Spring semester is shortly approaching and I like to get myself organized before the first day of class, so when that day does come I'm already ahead of the semester.

I know most people have a planner for college, but that just doesn't work for me when it comes to college. I have a To Do binder; which I use to write down when assignments are due, check off the assignments I have done, and keep track of my grades.

• What you will need: 1/2 binder, To Do List, Grade Sheets, and dividers. (Click To Do List and Grade Sheet to print copies of the papers)
• On the cover front sleeve of the binder I have the To Do List. I write down everything that I need to know like upcoming exams, papers, assignments, etc. I write them down in order of when they will be due.

• On the inside right sleeve pocket of the binder is where I keep the grade sheets. I have a grade sheet for each class.

• On the rings of the binder I have my course schedule from each class, which are separated by dividers. I don't label my divider, so that I can use them again. 
• Also I have the schedules in order from Monday to Friday and based on the time of the class.

• Then on the last pocket in the back I keep extra To Do lists for when I run out of space on the other. 

And that's it. I try and write down two weeks ahead of time what will be due. Also sorry the binder is bare. I can upload new pictures when spring semester begins. 

Orientation

I can't believe that school is already here.....again.

Orientation seemed a little pointless in my mind. It was nothing special. I still don't know for sure where I will be placed, but their are four schools that my cohort could be in, so I'm going to look up those schools. The orientation was for two hours and I can't really think of anything that we did. The head department lady for ECED talked for the most part about...basic stuff.

Then we had a lawyer talk about social media safety for a while, then after that our cohort teachers talked to us and we signed some papers. And that was about it. Oh well afterwards I went and got my textbooks since I have to get them at the store because of my grant. Which they ended up not having two of my books, so hopefully by Monday they have them and I can grab them after class then. Though I will be going to school four other days, so I can keep looking until they have them.

Oh...My cohort teacher did say that she is hoping that by next Thursday that we will get to meet our mentor teachers. Which is exciting ard nerve racking at the same time. I do know that I will be with pre-k and I work at a daycare with that age group, so that does help my nerves a bit.

                                                        Rant:

One last item I wanted to talk about was how teachers need to be careful with what we post on social media or else it could jeopardize being in the education program and in the future when applying for a job. I understand about posting things about the school or the children, but I'm talking more so about the drinking. First let me say that I myself don't drink, though how does a teacher posting something on her personal Facebook like drinking affect her ability of being a teacher? How does that make her incapable of teaching? 

Teachers who were applying to jobs before social media was around were probably drinking and stuff back then, so what is the difference now? I just feel like we are put on such a high pedestal and have a magnifying glass above watching us. What about parents who post drinking pictures online? Aren't they suppose to be role models to their children? What happens to them? Or what about celebrity role models who do bad things? 

Looking like a Teacher

On Friday I went shopping to buy clothes that I can wear when I'm student teaching because I only ever wear jeans, so I needed some other pants to wear. Also I mostly only have t-shirts, so while I was shopping I bought some tops that I can wear with my new pants. This shopping trip to turned out to be a bust. I don't want to buy too expensive pants, but I also want something comfortable to wear all day.

I mostly shop at Kohls and also had a 30% discount that I could use, though I didn't find pants at the right price or of course they didn't have my size. My other problem is that I still shop in the juniors, which don't have that big of a selection.

The other day I did some online shopping at Kohls and JCPenney, so I'm excited for when my clothes come in. Hopefully I like some of the clothes that I got. If not, then i don;t know what I'm going to do. The pants at JCPenney were only $18 per pair, while at Kohls it was $30 per pair.

Here are some of the items I picked from JCPenney:

I couldn't copy the pictures from Kohls, but I will let you know about them when they come in. 

College Organization: Tip 1

Drawer Organizer Schedule/Storage

I like to be organized for anything and everything that I do. It's important to be organized for college, though it's not going to help you pass your classes unless you stay on top of your assignments too.

Spring semester will be starting soon and I like to be organized before it begins.

• I would buy an organization drawer from Walmart/Target or from wherever. I recommend buying one with at-least five drawers, so you have a drawer for each class. 
• Next I like to print out covers for each drawer labeling what class that drawer is for. (I turned the paper to landscape in Word for more coverage and used size 100 font.)
• On each cover I put: what class it was, what day the class was, and what time the class was from. 
• I put the classes in order based on their day and time on the drawers. I slipped the cover on the inside and secured it with a little piece of tape on top. 
• Then inside each drawer I would put whatever I need for that class; binder, folder, notebook, textbook, etc.

 

About Me

Hello......here is a little bit of information about myself.

• Age: 22 years old 
• Birthday: September 17, 1992
• Major: Early Childhood Education
• Job: Daycare Center for 5 years, but then quit at Semester 7
• Education: Local Community College then transferred to a Four Year College

Those are a few basic things. Some other information is:

• Commute to College (about hour-ish drive)
• Not a very confidante person
• Love to read romance/chick lit books
• Like to be organized
• Proud of my Pinterest boards
• I'm shy when I first meet people
• Still live at home with parents
• Have to plan ahead
• Italian and a little Irish 
• Could eat pasta or pizza everyday

Teachers Share Our Best Tips for Student Teachers

Teachers Share Our Best Tips for Student Teachers | Scholastic.com

I thought I would share something that I found. It's good to learn as many tips that I can before I start student teaching, so that I'm little bit prepared for the day.

-One thing that I will definitely will be doing is taking as many pictures as I can, it's just too bad that I only have my cell phone camera because it doesn't take that great of pictures. I will also try and share some of the pictures that I take.

Plans for Blog

After my first post I spent quite a bit of time getting to know Blogger and fixing up my blog. I think I have it the way I want it to be set up for now.

Plans:

• I plan to post a blog every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 
• It will not always just be about student teaching itself, but dealing with student teaching will still taking classes at the same time. 
• I already have some blogs ready that I'm going to post about getting ready for college/student teaching.
• I will also try and post a little something about myself. 
• Also I don't really have a schedule on the times that I will post. It most likely  will be random because of my school schedule. 

Alright.. that's everything I have so far. Look for on Friday a blog about myself.

Getting Started....

ok....I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I'm about to start student teaching and I wanted to share my experiences throughout it all. On the 23 I will have my orientation about the Early Childhood Education Program, so hopefully after that I will have more of an idea what is going on.

What I know:

• I will be student teaching once a week on Thursdays.
• I have an idea as to what county I will be in.

Yeah.... That's about it. 

I will post something afterwards about what went on at the orientation, but during the time before that I'm going to work on getting used to this blog and how to post and what not. 

Come along with me during the ups and downs of my student teaching. Hopefully I don't fall down too many times along the way. 

PS. Check out my Pinterest. I have and will be continuing pinning items that I find and like.