Pi

3.14159...

Happy Pi Day.

I brought three small pies to school today, and gave it out to students after school. It was quite a hit! No pie leftover!!

Teaching will always have its challenges, and I am up for the challenge. Bring it on. :) I have noticed a change this week in my classrooms. It is a nice change to be able to teach and get the students listening. Feels damn good. Of course it is not perfect, and there were moments I would change what I did so that i can improve my teaching... But overall I think it has improved from when I first started!!! :)

Tomorrow is another day... ;)

First 6 Weeks

Can you believe it?  Six weeks have already passed by since I started going to the Middle School full-time! Today was a half grading day at the school, and no students were there.  It was a slower paced day. Too slow! I was very tired, and did not have much to do without any Internet access. I was able to make some docs that I will use next week, but then there was a slight change that I need to fix for the next few weeks to get my students better prepared for testing.  Overall the grades have a few A's, majority in the B's and C's, some D's and F's.  The one's who have D's and F's have irregular attendance and low test scores. Sadly, since they miss school they miss the information. So what can I do to get them caught up? Practice problems? Have them stay after school? Spring conferences with the students will be in about a week and a half. It leads us right into Spring Break.  Time to make phone calls.

On another note. Lincoln County School District (it is located on the Oregon Coast) is hiring teachers!  The Human Resources Manager and an Assistant Principal came to give an Information Session and interview us!  I was caught a little off-guard about the interview, but I gave it my best.  I know there are things I could improve on.  They held the interviews yesterday at Willamette, and there were about 20 people that attended.  I interviewed with the HR Manager and she asked if I was attending the Oregon Educator Fair in April, and I said yes. She mentioned a person's name to talk to at the fair when I go. I saw on EdZapp that they opened the positions.  I just need to polish my EdZapp a bit more before applying!  Did I mention that I am now thinking about getting endorsed in Language Arts now? After I passed my ESOL Exams, it made me think about becoming endorsed in LA.  I am going to look into it before signing up for the 95$ test!  A lot to think about....

Trying something New...

There was a substitute teacher yesterday, and I took the reign on the lesson and teaching it on my own. It was different because I usually watch my cooperating teacher teach the Math classes before me and take notes on how he teaches.  Things that went well were student participation and engagement.  Things that I would change would be a closure activity or something to keep all students at a table helping others.  Overall yesterday and today was better than it has been. I have been reading a book that my cooperating teacher lent me to read on Classroom Management when it was a Snow Day last Thursday.  [://www.consciousteaching.com/book-conscious-classroom-management/] Being a teacher is a lot of hard work, and it takes heart too.


On another note, I PASSED my ESOL tests!!!  I took it last month, and I received my results yesterday! This is the last test I have for the Endorsements that I was working on. Now I am debating to take the Language Arts NES Exam to be endorsed in Language Arts.  Also, I am thinking about getting the Reading Endorsement!  That is the great thing about being an educator... it means being a life long learner. :) Also, I applied to my first teaching job last week.  The partner university of Willamette, Tokyo International University, is hiring 10 Willamette MAT teachers to teach English in Japan.  I applied, and I won't know if I get an interview until the first week of April.  It's time to apply to jobs, and get this career started.

SNOW Day...?

I guess there was enough snow and ice on the ground in certain parts of Salem to call for a snow day at 430am. The car was frozen when I went outside around 9am....

I got a decent start on my Work Sample, and now time to plan some lessons!! Also, i have to write a paper. Oh, the life of a full-time grad. student! :) never ending work...