Expect The Unexpected

     One aspect of being a great teacher is to expect the unexpected.  On Friday, I was not prepared to expect the unexpected.  Friday was the day that all Student Teachers were supposed to have placements in elementary schools and meet their Supervisors. I was informed that I did not have a placement yet, which came as a surprise to me.  I did not expect to be one of the few left who did not have a placement.  This weekend, I mulled over it way too much.  My mind was so clouded with fear and doubt, about not receiving a placement, that it was hard for me to concentrate on my GACE test.  I waited to hear news all weekend, but there still has not been any changes.  As my fellow Student Teachers began their first day of field experience, this morning, I was sitting and waiting for someone to call or email me with an update.  I went, in person, to the Placement Office to find out more details about my situation.  The director reassured me that I will have a placement very soon but that it might take another week before it can be confirmed.  I am really anxious to know where I will be!  I am excited to find out my school and grade level because I have a lot of materials and activities planned!  Henceforth, I can officially say I will always expect the unexpected! 

Parent Letter

Here is a copy of the parent letter I will be sending home on the first day of my Student Teaching Experience!  I tried to make this letter professional and the student letter more personal.  I hope this example helps those who are having trouble creating their own student teaching introductory letter! :)

Introduction Letter

   I have made two different introductory letters for my Student Teaching experience.  One professional letter (for the parents) and one fun letter (for the students).  I wanted to create something personal and fun for the students to get to know me a little bit better.  Here is the letter I created:

  I hope that the students will like it! :)

Waiting

     Each day I have been checking my email to find out where I am being placed for the fall.  I am really anxious to know because I would like to gather materials to make my experience SUPER!  As of right now, I am currently searching blogs, TPT, Teacher's Notebook, and Pinterest to find materials and ideas for grades 3-5.  I have found bulletin boards and activities that are related to seasonal themes for each month.  Now, I am looking for books that are age appropriate for the holidays and seasonal themes. 

The Books I have found so far are for AUGUST:

               ~Hiroshima No Pika  (Gr 3-5) (WWII)

               ~Abel’s Island

               ~The Twenty-One Balloons

               ~The First Four Years

               Amelia Earhart Book:

                                    ~A Picture Book of Amelia Earhart    (Gd3)

                                    ~Amelia Earhart Free in the Skies (Gd 3-5)

               Women’s Suffrage book:

                                    ~If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights  (Gr3-4)

~The Day the Women Got the Vote: A Photo History of the Women’s Rights Movement (Gr4)
~You Want The Women To Vote, Lizzie Stanton? (Gr:5)
~Women's Right To Vote, Second Series, Cornerstones of Freedom. (Gr:5)

              MLK I have a Dream Book:
                                    ~Martin's Big Words, The Life of Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. (Gr:4)

                                    ~Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Fight for Freedom (Gr3-4)

                                    ~Martin Luther King, Jr.: Young Man with a Dream (Gr3-5)

            ~Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech in Translation: What it     Really Means  

  Lewis and Clark Expedition book:

                        ~The Lewis and Clark Expedition (Gr3)

                        ~A Picture Book of Lewis and Clark (Gr 3-5)

I would like to find books about the following topics for.........

SEPTEMBER:

           Labor Day

           Grandparents Day

           Jewish New Year/Citizenship Day

           Fall Equinox

           Yom Kippur

           Ruby Bridges:
                 ~Ruby's Wish (Gr3)

           9/11

           Star-Spangled Banner

           Hispanic Heratige

           Mayflower

           Rosh Hashanah

           International Day of Peace 
OCTOBER:

           Columbus Day

           Louisiana Purchase

           Pablo Picasso

           Stock Market

           Haloween

           Day of the Dead 

 NOVEMBER:

          Daylight Savings Time

          Presidential Election:
                  ~So You Want to be President? (Gr3)

          Veteran’s Day

          Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

          Thanksgiving:
                  ~Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims (Gr4)

          Mark Twain 

DECEMBER:

          Winter Solstice

          Bill of Rights:
                  ~Shh! We're Writing the Constitution (Gr4)

          Cultural Celebrations: Christmas, Boxing Day, 

          New Year:   New years eve,  Chinese new year, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, and Songkran.

          Rosa Parks:
                  ~Rosa (Gr4)
                  ~Rosa Parks, My Story
                  ~Take a Stand, Rosa Parks! Before I Made History

                **After I find the books that align with these topics I will edit this post and list them.**  
I have also found a great website that gives a book list for books that align with Georgia's State and Common Core Standards.  You can download the lists for any grade level at   http://listbuilder.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StandardsBrowseView?gc=GA                 

        The first day of my placement, I would like to take the textbooks and become familiar with the topics and skills to be covered this fall. I would like to learn these topics so that I can create my own unique activities for them.  I also intend on keeping a notebook for each month of my placement and creating a filing system to keep worksheets and ideas I collect.  In my notebooks I hope to keep a daily journal to reflect on how things went during the day.  I have so many ideas that I am excited to use!  I am ready to begin my student teaching and learning experience!  I REALLY want to find out my placement!

FREE Stuff!

    This weekend is tax free weekend in Georgia.  As I was searching for tax free deals on the Internet, I ran across a few blogs that mentioned giving away free stuff!  For Saturday, August 11th, THIS blog will be teaming up with other bloggers to give away free back to school products! (Mrs.Smith's blog Too! She has a long list of participating bloggers!)  The TeachersNotebook site is also giving away free materials from Saturday, August 11th, to Monday, August 13th.  And Teachers Pay Teachers is also having a Back2School sale from August 12th to August 13th.  Things will be up to 28% off and the Promo code for TPT is BTS12.  Explore the Teacher's Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers sites fully in order to find a wide variety of FREE materials.  ~Happy Bargain Hunting!

Choosing to Teach

 My life has consisted of several small “ah-ha” moments that nudged me in the teaching direction.  When I was little, there were three things I always liked to pretend to be: a veterinarian, a nurse, and a teacher.  I knew I could only pick one, and I loved animals very much, so I chose to set my sights on becoming a veterinarian.  This dream changed in high school when I observed at a vet clinic and witnessed a dog being put to sleep.  At that moment, I realized I could not be a veterinarian because I could not kill any animal with my own hands.  

My parents suggested I try to focus on becoming a nurse and I agreed with them.  Thus, I enrolled in the technical classes at my high school that focused on my new goal.  I completed all of the health occupational classes and gained a Certified Nursing Assistant license to prepare me for my college experiences.  After two and a half years of focusing on a nursing degree, I began to question why I was actually trying to become a nurse.  I told myself it was because I wanted to help others and save lives, but in the back of my mind, I knew there was something missing.  When I realized this, I began to search Kennesaw’s degree programs to find the thing I really wanted to do with my life. 

When I came across the Bachelors program for Art Education, I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life.  I immediately changed my major online to Art Education.  The next semester, I enrolled in the beginning level education classes. For my first observation day, I went to a high school art class to observe and loved it!  The students were interesting, the classes were interactive, and the atmosphere made me feel like this was the place where I truly belonged.  I was happy to go to my educational classes because I felt confident about my future.  But as the semester progressed, I began to feel uneasy about my choice.  I began observing all three of the high school’s art classrooms, focused separately on drawing, painting, and sculpting, and the confidence I had in my decision just plummeted.   Day by day, the students were becoming more unruly and disrespectful while the teachers slowly stopped caring.  Students were throwing things, making fun of the teacher, making fun of art history, sculpting inappropriate things, and even being rude to me.  When I went home at the end of the semester, to finally contemplate my choice, I realized the reason I felt so insecure about my decision was because it was not a happy environment for me anymore. 

I reflected back on my high school days and remembered that even I was like that sometimes in high school.  On this moment of reflection, I thought to myself, “What about teaching younger students?  I bet they would not act that way.  Art classes with them would be fun.”  Immediately a light bulb went off in my head.  I thought, “Hmmmm.  I have never thought about teaching elementary school before. I admired my teachers and how exciting my days were in elementary school.  Maybe I should look into this?”  The next day, I went to see one of the advisers for the Early Childhood Education department.  The adviser I randomly found to talk to about my situation was Dr. Doug Bell.  He began by comforting me about my insecurities of graduating late and changing my major once again.  This is when I realized I was too worried about how others saw me and not worried enough about my own wants/needs and what I truly wanted for my own future. 

As we chatted, I sat and visualized how this wonderful new program would open a door of opportunity and happiness for me.  When we were finished talking, I was hooked on the decision to officially change my major to ECE.  I knew that I would be able to help students learn, give them guidance in life, create a fun environment, and even use my art/creativity skills to create interactive and interesting lessons.  

When I first entered the teaching program, one of my dreams was to teach acceptance and tolerance to children.  I aspired to create an environment where students feel okay to be themselves and are free from judgement.  I also wanted to teach understanding and kindness to students.  I believed that every child needs to learn that everyone is different and gain an understanding of this.  I also aspired to teach students how to be respectful to one another by treating each other fairly. I aspired to make learning fun and to incorporate as many art and hands on activities as possible.  I dreamed of being one of those teachers that their students remember forever because of the positive impact that is made on them. 

My dreams and aspirations have grown stronger since my up and down experiences in the program.  I want to be able to teach acceptance and tolerance to my students through various experiences that fully develop their understandings of these issues.   I want to be sure every student in my class knows they are accepted for who they are.   I aspire to teach respect, kindness, and acceptance every day in the classroom.  I hope the little chances for learning about these issues will stay with them as they get older and shape them into more open-minded adults.  A new dream of mine is to efficiently teach my future students all of the core subjects with ties to social justice in order to create more well rounded individuals.  I purposely chose to enroll in the TOSS social justice program this past spring in order to learn more about the prevalent social issues that effect our society and the lives of younger students.  I learned about these issues, not only to teach about them, but to also successfully identify and help prevent them in my future student’s lives. 

New Books!

     I have found two new books that I think will be beneficial to my student teaching experience for fall.  They are: 101 Ways To Put Pizazz Into Your Teaching and Teach to Reach.  Today, I received "101 Ways" in the mail and read it front to back.  In my opinion, it gives a lot of simple and practical ideas for making teaching and learning fun.  It provides ideas for each subject, classroom management, bulletin boards, lesson plans, seating charts, paperwork management, time savers (my favorite), speakers, self-esteem builders, multicultural activities, and FUNd raisers.  I like all of the activities and think it is a great idea to have this book on hand in case you may need to add any last minute activities.  I hope that the great ideas in this book will help me create "zesty" lessons for my students this fall!

                                                                                                   ~Only 13 days until
                                                                                               student teaching begins!~