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.  Although, I am still on the look-out for a more permanent position, and was even given permission from my boss that if I get a full-time position I can take it.  Sadly, right now isn’t the time to be looking for a job, especially with the hold in NYC.  However, I am optimistic that by the end of this year, I will have my master’s degree and will be able to teach more subject areas so that will help me in my search for a job, and then I can say that I have experience.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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!

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.

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.

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

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.