Tutoring

As luck would have it, after obsessive daily online searching for part-time work, I think I may have found something!  I went on an interview today for an open house for a tutoring position.  Not knowing much about the tutoring agency but knowing that they do early intervention, I was very excited to go and learn more about them.  First, it’s local, about 10-15 minutes away.  Second, I would be tutoring students from public schools k-6.  I enjoy pre-kindergarten, but it has been annoying that I haven’t been seen as anything other than a pre-kindergarten teacher to employees, and I love teaching upper grades too.  Third, I will be able to tutor students in high needs areas, where it is needed the most.  At first, I was taken aback when they said that I would be driving to destinations such as Wyandanch, Hempstead, and Brentwood.  Then I thought to myself, I went to college in Hempstead, I was a participant-observer in Wyandanch, and I had such a wonderful experience at both places.  The idea of going into peoples homes in any area can be shaky so hopefully people will agree to meet in community areas like local schools and libraries, that would be ideal, and if not, I will be helping students and I am thrilled!  Before I left, they told me that I definitely have the job, which clearly made me ecstatic.  They also shared with me that once I get my early childhood special education degree that I should do early intervention with their agency — which was what I hoped would happen, so hopefully things will work out.  I will be hearing from them after the school year starts, probably in October, and I can’t wait!

A year later…

It’s been a while since I updated this blog and a lot has happened in a year.  First, I completed my Master’s degree.  I started in July 2009 and finished July 2010, needless to say, I was very busy!  I was a lead teacher in the Farmingdale Public Schools for a one-year position, which was a wonderful experience.  I spent the entire school year searching for a teaching position for this coming school year.  I went on interviews in Manhattan, Brooklyn, upstate New York, Maryland… even places that were below my teaching expertise and even daycare centers.  I feel fortunate that I do have a job for this coming school year.  I decided it would be a good investment to continue my education and take 3 classes in special education.  This will allow me to get a degree in Early Childhood Special Education effective February 1, 2010.  I’m hoping that by having that degree, my luck of finding a more permanent job will change.

Master’s Degree in Literacy

I decided to start my master’s degree this summer and I have already completed a course, Literature in the Lives of Young Children.  Of course, I loved it!  And I was proud to find my grade posted as an A – it’s always rewarding to see your hard work reflected well.  I am already taking my second course and have 2 days left (as well as 3 more papers to write – the joy of taking summer classes!)

For the fall, I was fortunate enough to get a temporary one-year position as a lead teacher for a universal pre-k program.

Jumpstart’s Read for The Record

Last year I had such a wonderful experience participating in Jumpstart, and I have already signed up to participate this year on October 8, 2009!

To find out how you can get involved click here.  This years book is Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar – one of my all time favorites.  I distinctly remember being read this book in primary school and I remember how captivated I was by the pictures and the size of the pages: how they went from small to big as the caterpillar ate and ate and ate.

Life post undergrad

Last month I completed student teaching and just today I received my 2 teaching certificates from NYS Education Department.  It was exciting to finally get them in the mail!  It’s been a crazy month searching for jobs but I am optimistic that something will turn up.  I am seeking employment as a classroom teacher (certified to teach birth-grade 6) on Long Island or the New York City area.

In less than a month I start my Master’s degree in Literacy (birth-grade 6); however, I will be obtainging an extension to my initial certificate in special education — I’m going to find out my options at the end of the month, but I want to get something in early childhood special education.

First Grade

I have been student teaching in my last placement, a first grade classroom.  I just completed an author study on Robert Munsch which was very exciting.  I introduced this author by doing a Reader’s Theater “Invitiation to Munsch.”  Then the students each received their own invitiation to the author study as a motivation, and they loved it.  The principal was invited as well.

Each day for 2 weeks the students listened to a story by Robert Munsch and were then given an option of what follow-up activity they would like to do.  To go along with the theme “Munsch” (Munch), students were given a menu, as if they were at a restaurant and picked what they’d like to do.

At the conclusion of the author study, the majority of the students’ favorite picture books was: A Promise is a Promise and Green, Yellow, and Purple. The only day students were not given an option was when we read the story Green Yellow and Purple. On that day, students were asked to be scientists.  We wore latex-free gloves and put “super-indelible-never-come-off-till-your-dead-and-maybe-even-later coloring markers” onto a 4″ by 4″ cut out of a plain white t-shirt.  They were told to choose 5 colors and create a design.  Then, we used a special liquid solution.  Students each put 10 drops in the center of the design.  Instantly, their design turned into a tie-dyed shirt!  When students saw some marker on their table, they tried to use water and soap to get it off — but it did not work, just like in the book (it wouldn’t come off her skin — good thing we wore gloves!).  But, when the students used the special liquid solution, it magically came off.  How could this be!?

Students LOVED this experiment and we later made a class quilt, putting together their 4″ by 4″ squares.  It will be displayed in 2 weeks at the school’s literacy festival.

Graduate School

I got accepted to all three of the graduate schools I applied to: Teacher’s College Columbia University, Hofstra University, and CW Post Long Island University!!!

kindergarten

A lot has happened since my last posts.  I’ve been student teaching in a wonderful kindergarten classroom that I’m very proud to be a part of.  I was nervous leaving fourth grade because I loved it so much that I feared I wouldn’t like kindergarten but — surprisingly I love teaching kindergarten.  So this May I will be graduating with experience in every grade I’m certified in, except for sixth grade (but I have a lot of experience working with sixth graders when proctoring tests for The Princeton Review, my part time job).

I’m currently in charge of a mini social studies unit on community entitled “My Neighborhood” and a mini math unit on Time.  At first when I was told I was going to be teaching five year olds how to tell time I was in shock!  I remember learning it in first grade and being so confused that I didn’t really grasp the concept until second grade because everyone is so used to digital clocks.  So when I taught the students this past Thursday, I was, and am still, glowing with delight that they really got the concept of how to read an analog clock.  I wish I had taken pictures, but when you are teaching in the moment it’s hard to do.  I feel so proud of all 20 kindergarten students, and myself.  On Friday their morning work was putting together a clock on their own and every single student got it right and the time  that the clock was pointing to.

In social studies, I created the first lesson about homes.  We read a cute spin-off of The Three Little Pigs called, The Three Pigs and the students loved it!  They were engaged during the entire sitting.  Then, instead of having them sit back at their desks and do a hand out or something along those lines, I created different centers that they went to that correlated to homes and the story we had just read.  At one, the students were asked to be construction workers and they had to work together as a group to create one house made of sticks.  This was a difficult task to do but they put their name on their construction hats and went to work and some came out looking quite good.  In another center students built a house with wooden blocks for their brick home.  This was a much easier task and students built inventive architectual designs.  At another center students played a board game I created.  Students rolled the dice and prayed they didn’t land on the big bad wolf or they would have to go all the way back to start.  The first to the houses wins!  But if the big bad wolf wins the game all the little pig’s houses blow down.  And lastly, at another center students were given cards that they had to match in a memory game.

On Friday I created I taught a second lesson in my community unit.  I had brought in a picture book the students had already read (although I did not know), so we skimmed the pictures and talked about what a neighborhood is.  Then, I read My Map Book which is a very cute story and students got to see what different kinds of maps look like.  One student in the class is obsessed with creating maps and wants to be a map maker when he grows up.

Monday I have my first supervised lesson in kindergarten on measurement.  Wish me luck!

ASCD Website

Hofstra Student Chapter of ASCD website

As executive board member, you can check out some of the newsletters that I have created at the website.

Vanderbilt Elementary – kindergarten

I just started student teaching kindergarten this week… and I LOVE it!

I’m looking forward to posting about the lessons I teach and work on with the students.