Applying for Teacher Fair Interviews

So, I am next sure if I have expressed how much trouble this semester has been already or not, but I am going to be talking about that in my post.

The other day everybody from my cohort was freaking out because we needed to apply to interviews for the teacher fair that is taking place on March 20 and the day we were applying was the last day to apply. 

The college had sent out an email about it about the beginning of the semester and that was it. I feel like they could have sent out a reminder a week before about the deadline. We are all just so busy this semester with taking over the classroom and with had lots of snow delays and closings. 

Anyways, the last day to apply happened to be a closing for the county, so we spent the time fixing our resumes and trying to figure out how to apply fro the interviews. I just feel like they are not helping and making us figure out everything on our own. Though, yes we should have written down the deadline day to remember, but still.

I applied to five counties, though only one of them I am really interested in. They say to apply to different counties just to have experience. 

Student Teaching: Pre-Primary: Week 4

On Monday we were closed for President's day and then on Tuesday we were closed because of the weather. Then on Wednesday and Thursday we had two hour delays. ON both of those days we celebrated the 100th day of school. It was suppose to be on Tuesday, but it got pushed to Wednesday and Thursday since we did not get to do everything we wanted on Wednesday. 

On Friday we had another 2 hour delay, so I got to teach math and it went really well. I had the students go "fishing" for addition and they really loved it. I even had one of the students ask me if we could go fishing again. 

I stayed after school for a good while, to plan some things out for the next week. 

Praxis 2: Early Childhood Education

I have been waiting until I got my score report back on the last Praxis 2 that I took before talking about it. It had a written component, so I had to wait almost a month. And I am pleased to say that I passed both of the Praxis 2. 

I had to take two Praxis 2 tests. Praxis 2 Early Childhood Content Knowledge and Praxis 2 PLT Early Childhood. 

I took the Content Knowledge one first and was super nervous. I get extremely nervous when I take tests and this was worse because it was very important that I passed this. Some of the other girls in the cohort already had taken it and said it was easy, but I stilled studied because I feel more comfortable and better prepared. I had taken two practice tests that I had found online and did really great on them. 

While taking the test, I got worried because I felt like I didn't know the answers and that I was not going to pass. Once I answered all of the questions, I had about 40 mins left and went back over and checked all my answers. I stilled had 15 mins left once I went back over and just said I was done. 

When my score showed, I was so relieved to see that I had a passing score. I really wanted a higher score then I received, but overall I was pleased that I passed well over the required score. 

I took the PLT 9 nines days after. I knew I really needed to study this one because it was about the theorists and theories. Which I knew nothing about. I had heard some of the names, but that was about it. Girls in the cohort took this before and said that it was not what they expected. 

On the praxis cite there is a study guide and I made note cards about everything that was on it. I only had one practice test and I took that two days before the test. After completing the PLT, I felt really good and that I felt like I passed. I checked my scores about a month later and I did. 

I am just SO happy that I don't have to take them again and spend more money on that!

Student Teaching: Pre-Primary: Week 3

This week was better. I had planned ahead on what I wanted to do during math. The students have been doing very well with addition and that makes me very proud. Oh. I forgot to take a picture of something I created for math that the students loved. 

We had a Valentine's party on Thursday since the school was closed Friday for Professional Development Day. The Valentine's Party was really great and the kids were all so sweet thanking each other for the valentines. We had ice cream sundaes and they all really enjoyed them. Throughout the day, they kept asking me when the party was. Three parents showed up to help.

On Friday, we graded some MUST test, which was bad because we did not know what we were doing. We did that for about two hours and then learned about the SLOs for a half an hour. Then we went back to the classroom and prepared for the 100th day of school for on Tuesday. 

I am kind of worried about getting everything in that I need to for this semester, so I really need to talk to my mentor about everything one day this week. 

College Organization: Tip 11

Different Textbook Editions

I'm sure everyone has noticed that there are different editions to textbooks, but have you ever wonder what the big difference is about them besides the older editions are much cheaper. Before you go and buy or rent you textbooks you might want and check to see if the books are available in a lower edition. 

Sorry the pictures are not the best quality. 

Now, Let's look at two textbooks that I have. 

The Real World: An Introductory to Sociology

By: Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein

I have the First and Second editions of the books. The first is on the left and the second is on the right. 

Opening the textbooks and this is what you see. All the same stuff expect for two of the pictures being different in the books on the left pages. 

Now, lets take a look at the table of contents!

The one picture is a little blurry, but you can see the chapters are the same. You will notice that the pages are different because of the introduction in the one textbook. 

Here is a paragraph from the textbooks and again you can see that it is the same stuff. 

Student Teaching: Pre-Primary: Week 2

On Wednesday after school, my mentor made the comment about how she notices that I always seem to have a look on my face. She asked me if I was nervous or something and I said yes. Then she said that I needed to smile more. This really put me down because I have been observed many times and I was just observed Monday by my Supervisor and she said nothing about that. She and my old Cohort professor had both said that I make this little faces when interacting with the kids, but they didn't say it was bad. They both said they liked it. My other mentor never mentioned anything and I taught many lessons in that class. 

The worst part is that she didn't say anything about if my lessons were good or not and I thought my lessons had gone very well. Besides the fact that she pointed out that I forgot to do closures again, but that is so minor and I have noticed her not having closures before as well. 

I just really need a day off to get everything together. I feel like she is not very organized and it makes me not be as organized as I am usually. 

Thursday ended up being an okay day and she did say anything more about my face. I tried smiling more in general throughout the whole day. Towards the end of the day we had a situation with the art teacher. The art teacher comes to the classroom and at the end of the class we came back into the classroom. The kids were cleaning up the tables with Clorox wipes and my mentor got very upset. I felt really awkward and my mentor was very upset because one of the other teachers had told her just the day before not use them. 

Also I liked the art teacher. She seems nice and I have heard the teachers during planning talk about how they aren't doing anything creative and that she could do better. So they already don't like her and now this does not help. 

After the students had left we were planning and she got an email from the art teacher saying she did not know about that and my mentor got mad. She ended up leaving to go talk to her and while she was walking out, she said I could leave since it already got so late. 

When I came in Friday, she said that the art teacher had already left, so she did not get to talk to her. She also avoided her when she could. On Monday we are going to have art, so that shall be interesting. 

All in all, I felt overwhelmed this week. I felt like I did so well last semester when teaching my lessons and this time I feel like my mentor does not like them or expects more. 

Goals for next week:
Plan a week/time for my cycle of learning. 

Documentaries: The Cartel

Warning: May Contain Spoilers

ABOUT THE CARTEL | Teachers punished for speaking out. Principals fired for trying to do the right thing. Union leaders defending the indefensible. Bureaucrats blocking new charter schools. These are just some of the people we meet in The Cartel. The film also introduces us to teens who can't read, parents desperate for change, and teachers struggling to launch stable alternative schools for inner city kids who want to learn. We witness the tears of a little girl denied a coveted charter school spot, and we share the triumph of a Camden homeschool's first graduating class.

Together, these people and their stories offer an unforgettable look at how a widespread national crisis manifests itself in the educational failures and frustrations of individual communities. They also underscore what happens when our schools don't do their job. "These are real children whose lives are being destroyed," director Bob Bowdon explains.

The Cartel shows us our educational system like we've never seen it before. Behind every dropout factory, we discover, lurks a powerful, entrenched, and self-serving cartel. But The Cartel doesn't just describe the problem. Balancing local storylines against interviews with education experts such as Clint Bolick (former president of Alliance for School Choice), Gerard Robinson (president of Black Alliance for Educational Options), and Chester Finn (president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute), The Cartel explores what dedicated parents, committed teachers, clear-eyed officials, and tireless reformers are doing to make our schools better for our kids.

This movie will force the scales to fall from the eyes of policymakers, education officials, reformers, intellectuals, teachers, and taxpayers. Putting a human face on the harm done by the educational cartel, The Cartel takes us beyond the statistics, generalizations, and abstractions that typically frame our debates about education—and draws an unequivocal bottom line: If we care about our children's futures, we must insist upon far-reaching and immediate reform. And we must do it now.

Cited From: http://www.thecartelmovie.com/cgi-local/content.cgi?g=20


You can watch this movie for free on Hulu. 

Student Teaching: Pre- Primary: Week 1

On Tuesday, the county was closed, so I did not go to the school. I felt bad because the girls in the other county had to go in, though it was a professional development day and they had a two hour delay. 

Wednesday was my first day meeting the students in my pre-primary mentor's classroom. I kind of miss the students in my primary mentor'c classroom. It won't be long when I am back in her classroom anyways. I mostly observed and tried to learn the students' names. My supervisor also stopped by on this day to talk for a few seconds and there was not much to discuss since we do not know much about the semester. 

I was so nervous about going in on Wednesday since it had been a while since I worked with my pre-primary mentor, but everything went well. This classroom is very different my primary mentor's classroom and my pre-primary mentor's classroom from last year. I talked to my mentor for just a bit at the dn of the day,but she had planning and I had to go to college from class. I was in class from 5-7 and I did not learn much. 

Thursday and Friday went well. On Friday I did the opening and it went well. I've come to realize that the teachers in the grade don't get along as well as I thought they did. My mentor told me quite a bit about some stuff on Friday. She has a pretty difficult class this year and she is just stressed. The thing was that she was not suppose to have all of those students and the one teacher has no students with IEPs or ELLs, so it's just not fair to have so many of those students and another has none. 

Though those students have come along way since the beginning of the year from the stories my mentor told me. Expect on Friday two of the students had trouble at lunch and I got to see more of what they are really like. Before they seemed pretty good and weren't having any problems.