Special Ed, Resource room and Kindy's...Oh MY!

This was what my week was like:
Subbed 4th grade for half a day for my mentor teacher. It was very easy to me since I knew her routine, her rules, her expectations. The students attempted to snowball me once, but when I used a term I knew my master teacher uses, they KNEW they couldn't get-a-way with nothin'!

Subbed full day for a Lifeskills class. This I was nervous about since I have no special ed credentials. Fortunately for me, the teacher left great lesson plans and I had two paras in there. I had one tough student who we ended up having to call the parent, only to find that he hadn't been on his meds for two days. This made me feel better, since I was feeling terrible that I didn't know how to control his behaivior. I even got desperate and offered candy! In the end I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed teaching them and at how responsive they were to me.

Subbed a full day in the resource room for students who I pulled out of class to work on writing and reading. The morning was with one student at a time and who all had autism. This was challenging but I was able to get them to look at the book and sometimes say a word with me.
In the afternoon I had small groups. I did, however, make one major faux pa: When entering the classroom, I announced that I was subbing for Mrs. - - -  and that I was here for - - -. When I collected the student and we were in the hall, the student was clearly upset with me. When I asked why, the student commented that the class makes fun knowing that this student is being asked to leave for help with reading. I felt terrible that I hadn't been more sensitive. For the remainder of the day, I did not announce who I was in for, just collected the student.
Again, I was shocked at how much I enjoyed subbing for the resource room.

My week ended with subbing for an all day kindergarten class. I loved it!!! Kindy's are definitely my area. I like the quick pace of moving quickly from one subject to another (they don't have  along attention span you know!) and I love to sing songs and dance around and color!! They were all really good, even the three that I was warned about. At the end of the day, I rewarded all of them by placing a glitter star sticker on their hand, saying that they were all shining stars that day.
It's amazing to me how this age, all in the world is perfect when you have a sticker on your hand.

But, I will admit, that when I walked into each classroom, each day the same thoughts went through my head, "What am I doing? What have I gotten myself into? How can I possible teach like this teacher?" Yet, once I sat with the assigned, and perfectly organized, lesson plans, and once those students have entered the room, the day has run quite smoothly. I am amazed that I love this subbing thing!

Rest Among the Trees Wangari

Yesterday, someone who I have never met but has impacted my life, passed away. Wangari Maathai, who wrote "Trees of Peace" was someone I constantly used as an example to many children. I have read this children's picture book to my own children, my Girl Scout girls, and the 4th grade class I interned in last year. Every time I read the book, my eyes tear up because I am amazed how one woman could change a village, a country, a continent, the world.

When I had heard on NPR about her passing, I immediately emailed my troop telling them about it. I had one little gal email me back, asking if we could use some of our cookie money to purchase and plant a tree... somewhere. It made me feel good that this little gal understood!

Today, I was the sub for the school I had interned in and in the class there were some of my old students from the year before. One of the boys saw me and exclaimed, "Mrs. White! Remember that book you read to us about the lady with the trees and then how we planted seeds in cups? Well, she died! My mom told me! Ain't that sad? She was a good person, wasn't she Mrs. White?"
This was maybe not the same reaction as my scout girl had, but I was happy that this boy remembered her and the work that she did.

Click here: for a previous post I had made last year about Wangari's book.


Click here: for the NPR article:

Sub Bag

So, I have created a "sub bag". This bag holds things that I hope I never have to use but am prepared to use. It basically is a bag that is filled with items I can use in the classroom, in case the teacher who is out, does not leave me any plans.

I actually have 3 bags. One is for K-1, one for 2-3, and the last for 4-5. In each bag is at least 2 books that I could read to the class. Books that have been my favorites for years and ones that I could easily attach a writing lesson to. I have games, like Soduko, and a few other math related games. I have lots of classroom management ideas that are printed out, laminated and stuffed in each bag. Such things as writing a riddle on the board for them to figure out, a paper airplane competition where they get to fly their airplane across the room if the day ends on a high note. I have even thought of telling the kids I would show them a magic trick and how to do it at the end of the day if they behave. Will I ever use all these bells and whistles? Who knows! But I keep reading blogs and talking with fellow substitute teachers about the horrors of being a sub. I just want to be prepared.

Oh, and I also have a whistle (just in case things get REALLY out of hand), some snacks for me (for when I'm not able to make it to the lunchroom because I am frantically trying to figure out what to teach in the next half of the day), Tylenol (for that headache), cough drops (for all the talking or voice raising I need to do), water, a notebook to make notes about what I like in the teacher's room to use in the future for my own classroom, and my business cards.

I'll keep you updated on if I ever need to use the sub bag!

Technology!

I had to post this. Saw this cute YouTube video on the ABC Nightly News with Dianne Sawyer. It's an elderly couple trying to figure out their new computer. All they want to do is take a picture of themselves, but instead it was recording, unbeknownst to them!

Getting Organized

So, as I sit and wait for the phone to ring and read blogs, I begin to think about how to get my name out on the "teacher preferred" sub lists. Who knew that marketing myself for a sub job would be so intense. With the economy and more and more teachers getting laid off, the sub lists continue to grow. In one district I was lucky to get on because I know a lot of teachers that my own children had. The other district I am on because I interned in their district. Lucky stuff since both districts have a waiting list of over 200 teachers just for the sub list!

Now I need to market myself. It began with sending casual emails to my own children's teachers and to the teachers I met at the school I interned for. Just a "quick note to inform you I am on the district sub list. Plus, please keep me in mind if you need an extra hand in your classroom. I am more than happy to volunteer! Hope your year is off to a great start!" is what they all began as.

Now I have made business cards to hand out when I visit. A bright colored design with all my contact info so that they can contact me anytime of day! I also had magnets (of my business card) and stationary made! My thought process is that when I leave, I'll stick a magnet on their file cabinet and leave them a personal "thank-you" note.

Again I sit and wait!

Feeling Like a Teenager Again....

I haven't written since March when I was an intern for a 4th grade class. I made it through that and am now looking for a job????

Actually, no. I had made the decision last spring that I needed to re-group myself and my family. Having gone back to college in my 40s and taking on an overload of classes for a little under 5 years, I was burnt! I needed a tiny break. This plus my own children were making huge leaps in their own schooling (one entering middle school and the other mid-high) that I was feeling I wanted to be available to them. So... subbing sounded like a great option for me. Not to mention there are no jobs to apply to!

But now I feel like a teenager.. waiting for the phone to ring.. do they want me today.. will it ring today with a sub job? I'm torn about this. Part of me feels that I am not doing a great job keeping up my new teacher skills that I paid so much for. Yet, at the same time, I am enjoying the quiet house and my family is enjoying homemade meals that have made a comeback.

So, I sit and wait and wonder while I read blogs from teachers and smell the pie I have cooking in the oven.

ONO MA WHAT???

It's ONOMATOPOEIA!!
No it's not a new lyric for The Lion King. It's a word that my Master Teacher presented me with right before class, asking me to teach it to the students. My first hurdle? I couldn't pronounce it! I kept fumbling over the pronunciation and eventually had to ask my students to help me. While they saw it as one big joke, I thought how terrible is it that the word I am to teach, I can't even pronounce!
The lesson continued just fine... I at least knew the definition: words that mimic the sounds they name. I was also able to provide some examples: meow, woof, shhhh, tick-tock, crunch (if you were eating a bag of chips), or clank (silverware hitting the plate).
I pointed out that even teachers can learn something new everyday!

Everyone Sees a Problem Differently

This is the main thing that I learned during this quarter; that everyone has a different way of thinking and seeing math. Of course, we hope that our students aren't like Lou Abbott of Abbott and Costello from the video above, but it is important to realize that we all approach a math problem differently.

What I enjoyed mostly from the class was the way to teach math using manipulatives, art, and other disciplines to reach a student. A teacher has to realize that there are linear thinkers and that there are creative thinkers and no matter where a student falls, math can be taught to reach all of them. It takes but only a minute during this age of technology to look up a hands on way to teach math. But most importantly, you have to reach a student and that may be by teaching a concept in a few different ways. That is what this class did. We created posters, we used technology, we cut paper and colored, we made spit balls, we solved riddles.... and during all this we learned math and how it relates to our everyday lives.

I loved the class and can't wait to use some of these strategies within my own classroom.

Can You Smell the Excitement?

I am down to only two weeks left in attending college classes (besides a few days in the spring) and I am giddy with excitement! I have spent the last 5 years attending college and needless to say, I feel great that I don't have to write anymore 5-10 page papers!! It has been a challenging road for a woman in her 40's who is also a mother, wife, homemaker, Girl Scout leader, and continuing volunteer for the community and I really don't mind giving myself a pat on the back!!

In the meantime, I will continue student teaching, all the while keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to land a job. I not only want to make a difference as a teacher, but I want to relieve some of the stress from my husband who has supported me emotionally, spiritually and financially through this five year process of helping me reach my dream.

I am so excited to begin full time student teaching... I have reached the point where I am constantly thinking about those students as if they were my own children. Staying up at night worrying about how to make them understand fractions, or how to get "J" to love reading, or how to make "D" understand that the social issues on the playground are terrible but that life really does get better.

It's a new chapter in the book and I can only hope that it all ends well....

Wolfram!

When a gal in my cohort was catching me up on what I had missed in class she started to tell me about Wolfram, to which I replied, "Oh, yes, I am familiar with it. I have the app on my iPhone" She responded, "Cassandra, you've been keeping this a secret form me?!"
It's not that I was keeping it a secret from her as much as from my children! You see Wolfram is a computational knowledge engine and in my words, "a mother's best secret!" You see I have a teenager and a tween, both who think they are smarter than me and when it comes to school work, sometimes they are right! I hate to admit this.. a future teacher.. but they are studying so many new things that I studied years ago that I need that little friendly refresher course and I can get it from Wolfram!
Yo can ask anything from weather to culture to money and finance to socioeconomic data to math! Yes, math! The best part for a parent? IT shows you how to "show your work" on a math problem. So when my teen comes home and needs help with her high school math I can look up how to do on Wolfram and show her.
As a parent, this is a great tool. As an adult I have pulled out my app to answer disagreements on certain facts at a party. As a future educator? I hate the thing! Only because, how will I know my students haven't discovered this app and are using it at home, therefore not learning the math? It's times like this in the technology age that teachers need to get creative. I don't mean creative as in introducing Glogster, but creative in how to teach math and other subjects so that we know our students are learning it. The struggle is introducing certain technologies to keep the students interested but not to introduce how to cheat. It's a whole new issue to ponder.