Last one of Student Teaching...Adios y bienvenidos el VERANO!!

Today is the last day of student teaching. It is surreal that it is the end of my college career today. Officially I will graduate this Saturday, CINCO DE MAYO!!, and be completed with my post-secondary education. I have learned a great amount of material from my cooperating teachers these last 12 weeks. I have improved greatly with my own goals and look forward to beginning my future career in Nebraska.

Throughout these last four years I have done so much. I have travelled the world, succeeded in living on my own, maintained over a B average, and completed all the requirements to become a Spanish teacher and my history minor. When students ask why I would want to do student teaching and why not just go into the profession, I answer with no I am so glad that I have been able to practice. That is what this job is about. Practice makes it better. I feel bad for my first block students, because I feel that those classes never went great. They were ok, but by the time that I did it 3 more times it was much better. My future goal is to get better at beginning all my classes and making them fluid throughout the times teaching it.

I have been overwhelmed with all the things that are coming to head in the near future, but now I know I can do it. I have come to realize with the help of the words of someone that my confidence has been lacking. I know it and received words of advice to help me through it and to keep going. Having those people around that support me and give me strength to keep going is what I am grateful for. I do not know what I would do without these people. My sig. other has helped me out significantly and I don’t know what I would do without him.

I wish all my fellow student teachers good luck in their future endeavors. Go get them. Don’t give up and keep pushing yourself to do your best. Go DWU baseball (conference tourney today). Cinco de Mayo here I come.

El fin,

Chau Chau

Crisis...see the light

Alrighty, it has been a bit of time since I have written and I do have quite a lot to talk about. I have recently accepted a position as a Middle School Spanish Teacher in Columbus, Nebraska. I will begin training August 3^rd. This summer is approaching fast, which means that my student teaching is nearing a close. I have learned quite a lot through these last 12 weeks. I have improved on every aspect of teaching and some I have accomplished.

So the last 4 weeks here at the high school have gone very well. I am teaching Spanish 2 and I taught one class of Spanish 3. I have learned everything that these students have learned, but let me tell you it has been a long time. I am reviewing the materials and learning right along with the students. I have enjoyed this level of students a lot and would like to teach at this level also. I have my last observation this Thursday and believe that it will go well.

Last week my CT’s daughter had pink eye and had to stay home 2 days (got it in one and then the other eye) and therefore I was all alone to teach to all the classes. Classes went well and were successful, a big accomplishment for myself. Last Friday we also had a lockdown drill and learned our procedures for our disaster drills. Overall it was a great week and very eye-opening for me.

The only downfall started Friday night. I had a quarter-life crisis and was all out of sorts. The end of school, graduation, the reality of a real job, the reality of paying back my school loans, moving at the end of the summer, and the reality of failure all came down on me that night. I was a mess to say the least and needed to talk it over with someone. I have been successful at my student teaching, but have not done several things: severe discipline issues, setting up the classroom rules and routines, failed at something. I am just worried that I am up on a pedestal for being successful and that one day I will fail and it will be bad.

It has been 2 years since my best friend and I have no longer been friends and do not talk anymore. I am still not for sure on how our friendship fell apart and how we could not fix it. It took me almost 1.5 years to get over this and realize that there was nothing more I could do about it. But in times when I feel really down and want to talk to somebody about crisis things I want a best friend. Ever since that fall out I have not had a best friend. I have a lot of friends, but none that I can tell absolutely anything too and can trust that they will have my back through everything. So I talked it out with my boyfriend, but I don’t like burdening him all the time and just want to talk to other people. All people need at least one best friend. J So I think now is the time for my puppy (pug!! Hint hint). After a lot of tears, Kleenexes, and a long talk with the bf I felt a lot better and realize that I need to organize my events so that they do not collide at one time. Stress building up and collapsing all at once sucks J.

This past weekend my boyfriend’s mom visited and we watched baseball all weekend. It was very windy on Saturday and quite chilly. Now yesterday was nicer out; there was still a breeze, but it must have been warm enough because my face is quite sunburned. Yesterday was a great day. My pololo (boyfriend) pitched for the last inning on Saturday’s 1^st game (2 strikeouts) and then yesterday he pitched a complete game with 17 strikeouts. There were 22 outs in this 7 inning game, because one batter struck out and stole 1^st base (3^rd strike was dropped). Ethan made all but 5 of the outs in the game and did a phenomenal job pitching yesterday. He said he just found his rhythm yesterday and was on a role. His arm is quite sore and he will pitch on Sunday. It is senior night this Thursday (only 2 seniors) and I will be there to watch him get an award. There will be a great surprise for him on Thursday!

I have 1.5 weeks left here and a ½ marathon this weekend. My other knee hurt real bad last night that I could not walk with it bent and needed to sleep with a wrap on it. I am nervous for this weekend and hope that I can be successful. I just need to trust in myself and know that I can succeed. I need to get over this half empty mentality and get my confidence back to where it used to be.

Upcoming events:

½ marathon

Graduation

Summer job

Moving

Chau Chau

Is this real life?

Well it has been a week since I last wrote and I will try to fill you all in on what has been going on.

I started at the high school 3/26/12 and it was quite a change. I was used to planning so much every about every little thing in order to keep those middle schoolers on track, but at the high school it was a big change. I went from having 85 minute planning every other day to 3 hours every other day and 90 minutes on the alternating day. It was quite a switch and I felt like I didn't know what to do with myself. I had a lot of planning time throughout the day where I was able to type up my lesson plans (getting better) and also plan what to do. By the end of the day I was ready to go home at 4:00pm!

Now in all of our teaching classes we are told it is not an 8-4 job, but here I have so much time built in to my day to plan and do anything needed that I am done at 445 at the latest. Also the students are a little less rowdy (still, but less) and are more whipped into shape. I mean it is the high school now and the end of the year, so these kids know what they are doing. Again my teacher is great. She has so much energy and she has a great rapport with the students. It feels almost easier in this classroom to go with the flow of the students, to accept few disruptions in order to engage the students. Overall thus far my experience has been great. I will be getting observed for the second time this Thursday and hope that it goes well. Today was a long break after a holiday weekend and my kids were a bit rowdy, but I made it through. I am getting used to these kids and I hope they are to me also.

Now last weekend I went down to Nebraska to watch some DWU baseball and the man pitch. They had an up and down weekend and came out at .500. The main reason of traveling to Nebraska was for what would happen 4/2. I was asked to come down for an interview for a Middle School Spanish Teacher position. Later on the car ride home I received a phone call with a job offer. I took the whole week and the Easter weekend to think of the offer and to contemplate others that I had been looking into. After going home this Easter weekend and talking with my family, loved ones, and former teachers/colleagues I made a final decision and returned the phone call yesterday morning. I accepted the job position and am currently waiting for a contract and all that it entails. I have had quite a great spring: 2 great CTs for my Student Teaching, being told I was a fluent Spanish speaker by a Native speaker, receiving my desired summer job title (will help me prepare for my real teaching experience) and a job offer that I accepted, oh and finally being told that my man will be traveling with me wherever I decide to go.

I am trying not to move to fast right now for my student teaching is almost complete (3 short weeks left). I am trying to train for a half marathon and holy it has been a MARATHON training. With school and homework it is weird to have it represent what the real world will be like and how I need to learn to manage that. My marathon is in 3 weeks at the end of the month, I will be ending Student Teaching shortly after and then graduating from college. Wow this is all so surreal to me. I am lucky that I have such a great support system from everyone around me: former childhood friends/classmates, teachers, coworkers, family members, significant others, friends and many more. I am just grateful for everything and do not take any of this for granted.

 I just cannot imagine what other type of position I would even desire taking if it weren't for teaching. This is my calling and I hope I can have something to show for it by the time I am seasoned.

Thank you to all those who read this and all those who support me.

Oops...so sorry for the long delay

So, man oh man it has been a long time since I have been on here and I have SOOOO much to write about. I apologize that it has been about a month, but wow o wow I have been busy. The last time that I wrote was around the time that we had a break from school for a snow day.

We had another snow day a day or two later as it snowed like cats and dogs. This snow day resulted in no school for the local technical institute, the local university and all the public/private schools also. During this snow day I did laundry and then had an awesome time sledding. With a few baseball guys and a couple chicas we went out to the baseball fields and went sledding behind a pick-up. We first had to jump the curb and make it through the snow and not get stuck. The parking lot was covered in ice and then topped off with snow. It was a blast going around on some blow up tubes and a little saucer like tube. This day was amazing and later would be very, very interesting .

At the end of this particular day I could not find my wallet. I would be going back to Aberdeen the following day and needed to find my wallet. Now I do not know why, but I had it in my pants pocket and it was now nowhere to be found. Not in my car, not in any clothes, not anywhere around. So my roommate and I decided to go on an adventure and to check out the parking lot again. It was pitch black out and there were just one or two lights in the parking lot which ceased to be snow-covered. With my little neon we had to jump a curve and keep that little javie trucking because it would have gotten stuck if we didn’t floor it. We searched and searched, I had my brights on and everything and out of the blue I was walking around in a circle with the flashlight from my phone and something caught my eye. Near a spot that I fell out of the sled is where I spotted my WALLET. Success. My roommate and I are now going to be detectives, because we are so good.

The middle school experience was great. I learned so much from my teacher and from each of my students. There were students that pushed my buttons, but with determination and perseverance I pushed through it and made it a success. I composed two projects for the students: food diary and a food skit in place of a written exam.  The food diary was not an ICU assignment, but when the grades were entered students completed this assignment because it was affecting their grade. The final assignment that I did with the students was a food skit/fiesta day.

This project was in place of the written end of the chapter exam and excited the students.  I arranged groups of students and made it available to all students even those on IEPs. There was sufficient work time allowed at the end of two class periods and then they were to present the assignment in front of class on our fiesta day. The schedule consisted of the students following commands and practicing Spanish by making the food for our fiesta: salsa, refrescos, quesadillas, setting the table, and creating a chant to do at the end of each presentation. Students were divided up into even groups and completed each task.

Following the stations students were given a final 5 minutes to work with their group members to finalize anything for their skits. After the 5 minutes students presented to the class each skit and we would next move onto the fiesta part of our class. The students were given instructions at each stage throughout the day and there were no disruptions in the two days. The final thing that I did with each class was teach them a dance that I learned while studying abroad. This dance was enjoyed by each student even if they didn’t seem to be having fun. It was so encouraging to see a lesson work perfectly and not a thing went wrong with 160+ students. I had 4 that did not complete the project on the due date (2 were absent) and one group was not ready, but everyone else did it. I even had two groups record their skits and they were quite comical.

So all in all I had a very successful time at the middle school and have just started at the high school. Here we go!

Improvements:

Breaking the plane
Knowledge of Spanish Content

Chau Chau
Kim

Snow Day Wednesday

5:00 am the phone buzzes…NO SCHOOL TODAY. 6:00 am the phone buzzes twice and then the phone rings…Northern State is closed today. So I was free to sleep in as late as I wanted and to do whatever I wanted on the single extra day out of this year. I realized I didn’t even turn my alarm on (oops) and later woke up at 8 and then again at 9. It was very pleasant to sleep with no worries of being late and it wasn’t even the weekend yet.

When I finally decided to get up I made the trek to Walmart (my car did a complete circle on its own) and get a few groceries. I baked muffins and redboxed three movies. I watched the first movie, Courageous, and did my three loads of laundry at the same time. This movie was very inspirational. I watched it with great anticipation from the reviews from friends and colleagues. I learned a lot from watching this video. It’s not about what happens when there are no challenges around you and life seems easy, but it is what happens when you are faced with a challenge and if you seek the Lord for guidance. He is with you at all times whether you know it or not. He rewards those who honor him and is not bias of skin color or age. My favorite part of the movie, being a Spanish teacher, was when the construction worker, Javier, joined the two policemen on a pick up. They put another gang member in the car with him and he started speaking Spanish and to the other man it sounded threatening. The catch was (the best part) he was actually talking about food at lunchtime (gibberish).

I joined a few friends and baseball players and went to the ball field parking lot to go sledding. We had a rope behind the pickup and held on to the fungo bat as we were pulled around on the sled. We had two other tools that we used to enjoy ourselves, two tubes. It had rained quite a bit the night before and therefore it was perfect with the ice to use tubes. I had a great time being whipped around the parking lot, watching other attempt at the task, and watching one of the guys do a barrel roll no less than four times. I know he will be sore tomorrow. But I thought that it was a great way to spend the single extra day of the year when school was called off and we finally had some kind of winter.

Today is back to school and it is our short day as well. Those students who are in our longer days missed two days due to snow days and I am not sure how we will catch them up. I think that we will just review the previous grammar lesson and move on to the next. We do not have time to be behind and I only have three weeks left (actually a total of 2 with the days off we have). I am preparing my lesson plans and there is no other day that could be sacrificed for a snow day. Even though I would love to sleep in, I want to teach my lesson to the students and see how effective I am as a student teacher and how I can improve as a future educator.

This weekend I will be travelling back to good ole Aberdeen and work at the old job for Saturday and Sunday. They need extra help and I am willing to help. I am supposed to be starting on my own next week and I am ready, but still nervous. I am now in control of what they learn and how they learn it and I have to teach for those 85 minutes. I am up for the challenge and believe that the four classes that I already teach have offered a lot of experience. All my students have been quiet up until now, so now I have to learn how to adjust to those rowdy classes and manage them well.

Improvements:

Withitness

Keeping the attention of the students (at the end of the day it is a struggle)

Good things:

Punctual

Understanding

Positive Reinforcements

Ripple Effect—cut it off before anything else occurs

Rain Rain Go Away

It is the end of February and what do we have here in South Dakota?? We have rain. Humongous rain drops and it will all most likely freeze tomorrow. As most of the other schools in south dakota are either closed or starting late, I am afraid that we will be missing out on that boat. We are not getting any of the 10-18 inches that other people are getting, just rain. Today was a long day even when it was our shortest. I stayed with Ethan last night and caught up on how he has been doing. His team has away games last weekend and could not pull out a win. They have the potential and have the guys to do it, just need to put it all together and use it.

Yesterday I taught my three classes, and boy did I feel for those kids. The lesson wasn't eventful, but more of a real lesson and it just seemed odd not having an activity.Today was ok, but NO Technology was working. It was our  day to have things fail on us first of all Michelle got the clickers from the high school, spent time there this morning getting it figured out (didn't get desired answers), the installed program didn't work after being reinstalled, and finally the overhead projector's light bulb burned out. Last week our LCD lightbulb burned out and now this. I also couldn't get the projector to turn on, what a fun day. The students were well-behaved for the most part today and even with the mix ups we got things figured out today.

So I kind of want a snow day tomorrow, but we really have no time to spare for our class and i need to keep learning. I am almost done with my third lesson plan formation and will be moving on to the others along with its sub plans. I will be going to the teacher job fair in Sioux Falls. I am excited for it, but not sure what will happen there in regards to a job. I have an interview for Upward Bound tomorrow through skype )cross my fingers it works).

Today was a run day and I have to be pretty proud of myself today. I need to do laundry, finish my lesson plans, get my goals done and just keep working on my lps. I am starting to realize that this is hard, its like your real life and

My grandmother (mom's side_ passed away on Sunday and god bless all of her grandkids, kids and family.

I am off to bed, because I am so tired.  i hope to inform you all of so much more information tomorrow. Until then. Chau Chau

School's Out for the SNOWFALL

Well I didn't end up teaching all classes yesterday. This first block I went over to the high school and got my school computer. (finally) I returned to the Middle School and went to our tech people to get it on the network. Later I returned to class and watched the last half of the lesson being presented. I taught G2 and G3 yesterday, but not G4. Yesterday began with a lot of snow and it was very wet outside. By 1:00 students knew that we were getting out early and became a little rowdy. We had our SRB class and then I would have last hour for 9 minutes. We do not let the students get behind, so I had to go through the new vocabulary, but they would not get the repetition like the other classes so they would be on their own. Stayed until almost 4 but it felt weird cause it seemed like I was out so early.

Today, Friday, went better. It was  black day and I taught the last class today. This is my quietest class and I would say the most intimidating class. No one said a word in the class for the first ten minutes or so. SOOOO awkward. I tried to get them involved as much as I could and did end up succeeding at the end of class. When I got them all to say the last answer with me I was so happy and grinning from ear to ear. Even got some people to talk to me in class that hadn't before. One boy was falling asleep literally, saw him doing the head nod (had to go wake him up--not to embarrass him in front of peers), two other boys not paying attention and used my I messages!! Woot Woot point for me!

Our classes today learned the difference between two verbs that mean the same thing. It's a hard concept, but these kids are so smart. We read a story (full page in Spanish-single spaced) and kids were surprised that they could read the whole thing. After reading the story they illustrated the scenes so we knew that they understood it. It was a good day and things went well. School computer is giving me problems, but that is the least of my worries.

Off to Sufu tomorrow just for me. Have a dinner party tomorrow night and then off to bed. Run 6 miles sunday and lesson planning. I got 2 done--just need to polish them up and on to the next 4. Its the end of two weeks student teaching and I only have a month left!

Positives:

Energy
Positivity
Working on I messages
Trying to incorporate constructive criticism notes into lessons

Improving:

Patience
Pacing in class--feel like I go through it all too fast
A way to self-ventilate (it is so hot standing in the front of the room all day, teaching, participating in activities--mexican hat dance, and more)

Week 3 here I come.
Hablamos más tarde
Chau Chau