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.

Vanderbilt Elementary – Grade 4

I spent my January winter session student teaching fourth grade.  I was very excited to be given the responsibility to teach the students an entire unit in science on Electricity and Magnetism.  Using the state standards and the school districts objectives for each lesson I tied in science with other subjects including: math (graphing), language arts, social studies  (compass rose, history of magnets), art, and technology.

"Watt" in the world are atoms?

I was also given the opportunity to teach using my own ideas on several occasions.  I had such a wonderful time in the fourth grade and am going to miss the class dearly.

I was given many great opportunities in this classroom including offering extra help to students Monday and Tuesday mornings to prepare for both the NYS ELA and math exam.  In addition, I was able to bring in hands-on activities to prepare students for the math exam including measurement.  Students were given the opportunity to create their own origami frogs.  They then measured the distance their frog jumped using a ruler.  Also, students learned how to convert measurements and were able to create a “Gallon man” or “Gallon woman.”  These hands-on visuals helped students learn concepts in a fun, creative way.

Also, while I spent my time in this classroom, students were working on a unit on Native Americans.  Students were assigned groups and a tribe.  They were given approximately 45 minutes each day to gather information and were then asked to teach to the class in a creative way.  Students came dressed as Native Americans, put on skits, read stories they created, played games, etc.  I was involved in this unit as well and was able to teach the students about wampum belts.  It also happened to be one of my supervised lessons.  Click the picture below to learn more about the lesson.

Wampum Belt Bulletin Board

*updated February 7th 2009

A tragic post

Sadly, my former boss Dr. Juan Aleman died on Christmas Eve.  I worked for him for four years and cried every summer season when I left because I loved working for him so much.  Because I wanted to be a teacher, I had to move on from this job and pursue other things, but I visited him often since my departure a little less than a year ago.

I got an e-mail today from the girl who took my position after me, and I’m honestly heartbroken.  This man, who is one of the brightest people I’ve ever met, and the smartest doctor I have ever encountered, is no longer with us.  My prayers go out to his family: his beloved mother, his wife, his children, and grandchildren; all of whom he spoke of often and with nothing but the utmost love and pride.

Preparing for the future

Tomorrow I am going to be visiting my fifth graders at MLK.  I miss so many of them and some apparently miss me too because they have been sending me e-mails daily.  It’s going to be my last time I’ll be able to see them because after this is their winter break and then I go in to student teaching full time.  It’s sad going from place to place and saying goodbye.

However, I’m really excited about student teaching.  The school district is just as close as my own!  It’s a very large school district and they have a lot of great services.  I’m going to be in an inclusion classroom where a lot is going on.  There are one-to-one aids for students with autism, several students have learning disabilities, a lot of students get pulled out for reading and math services, and many students are mainstream.  It’s going to be exciting working in such a diverse learning environment.

Also, I started working on putting my portfolio together for interviews.  It seems silly but I feel like it’s really important how everything is arranged that I’ve even started color coding the pages by grade level.  I’m not sure if this is even appropriate but I figure the portfolio is supposed to represent you and your work.  Since I like to be creative and I am very organized, hopefully that reflects this and isn’t seen as unprofessional because even my lesson plans aren’t on standard white paper.

Student Teaching: Can you believe it?

Yesterday I attended a seminar held by the organization I am a part of, ASCD, on how to create a portfolio and land a job.  I felt it was really informative because the person presenting was a recent graduate (2007) and is teaching in her very own classroom, making it seem possible that we can actually get a job.  It was nice to see how other people put together their portfolio, and although I started mine, I am looking forward to student teaching so I can add more to it.

Speaking of which, I will be student teaching in the Half Hollow Hills school district, right next door.  On Wednesday I went to their district office and met the assistant superintendent, Kelly Fallon, who was so nice and very approachable.  It was a group “interview” where we all introduced ourselves.  We were told to say our name and if this was a career switch for us, and why we want to be a teacher.  I was one of the few who was not an alumni or current employee, and oddly enough not a career switch — I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.  We were even offered to participate in their professional development program which I am really excited about.

I then spoke with Arlene, who put the whole event together.  She was very nice and told me Vanderbilt Elementary requested a Hofstra student (so luckily my university left a good name, even in this school district that has excellent ratings).  I was told to call Vanderbilt on Monday, but I was too excited, so I waited until the next day and called on Friday.  The receptionist was so nice it made me even more excited to be accepted there.  They seem very accommodating and it looks like I am going to be student teaching kindergarten, first grade,  and fourth grade (not in that order).  I should find out who my cooperating teachers are on Monday, and I am thrilled.