My 4 Days @ North

Today was my 4th day at North.  Throughout my four days I have:

• Observed 19 various classes (Stats, Robotics, Alg. I, Alg. Lab, Alg. II, H. Alg. II, Pre-Cal, Geometry, ELD, ELL, Art, PE, Theater, Social Studies)
• Observed 12 different teachers, +plus my cooperating teacher (13)
• Sat in an All Staff Meeting
• Participated in a Personal Development Training w/ North's math teachers
• Helped some students on warm-ups & class activities
• Remembered some students and said, "Hi!" in the halls
• Ate lunch in Room 123
• Locked myself out of the school
• Was told by two girls "You're pretty"
• Was asked, "Are you a new student?"

It has been quite the experience! I am feeling confident about teaching a lesson in Geometry because my cooperating teacher is very supportive and we get along well.  She also is a good communicator about what she needs and open to sharing her ideas.  The next time I am at North will be next Thursday & Friday.  Thursday is a grading day so I will go in around 8ish to help her grade papers. Friday is a State-wide inservice day, and I am expected to participate in a workshop as part of my practicum experience.  I have a workshop in mind... Ideally I would love to go to a math workshop, but time & money says otherwise. Check out some photos I took from today...

Theatre class in the Auditorium

ELL class

Buses arriving to North at the end of the day

mondays...

spheres!

Today was quite the day.  I was running a tad bit late because I stopped to get coffee and I went on the main street where students get dropped off. BAD IDEA. It took longer than I anticipated... Today I observed H Algebra II, Algebra I, Algebra II, & Drawing.  I also somehow wandered outside and got locked outside, but I was able to get in from the intercom button. phew!!!


I stayed until 4pm for the Staff Meeting.  They talked about "engaging all  students through literacy," which is interesting because I never thought of how much it is being emphasized in education!!! I think I have heard and seen it just about everywhere now, and sadly we did not touch upon how important or widespread it is in the Salem-Keizer School District.  Anyhoo... After the larger staff meeting, where I got introduced, we broke up into content areas.  


It is interesting to see how the teachers' roles when reversed to a students' role how they act.  There is a saying that, "Teachers make the worst students."

UP^date

ORELA = ORegon Educator Licensure Assessments


Basically the organization that can charge a lot of money to make me take tests to say that "I'm qualified to be a teacher!"  I've spent 605$ on tests. I still have 2 that I haven't paid for yet for my ESOL endorsement to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages.  That is another 180$. 


Why do I mention all this?? This morning I went up to University of Portland with a classmate/friend to take the ORELA Multiple Subjects exam so that we will be highly qualified to teach Middle School students.  It was nice to be in Portland even though I was passing by... We stopped at New Seasons to get some food before driving back down to Salem. I miss NEW SEASONS!!!

The friendliest store in town...

Volley.Ball

Waldo Middle School on the Left

Waldo vs. Parrish

On Thursday, I stopped by at Waldo to support the girls volleyball team! They were amazing!!!  It was fun to be back at the school and support the various sports teams.  There was a lot going on that day. There was JV Volleyball in the other gym, and JV football on the field.  There were students and parents all over the school. It was a different environment compared to the usual grind of the school day.  It was nice to interact and see students outside of the classroom.