Before It Begins

This summer went great! I had a fun time meeting new counselors, making new friends and of course building relationships with our campers. The kids were great this year and so much fun. I was excited to go to work every day and if i was ever feeling down seeing the kids always made me happy. I was able to become close with a lot of the kids and I hope I get to see them around Rochester since I will be home this year. Unless something crazy happens this year i am defiantly going back to RARA for a fifth summer. It is honestly the best job in the world.

This past Friday I went to Webster to help Mrs. Knapp set up the classroom. I was able to talk to her about anything and everything that popped up in either one of our heads. She is so helpful and so nice. It is going to be an amazing year. She reminds me a lot of my mom, which they must be around the same age because she has daughters around my age, which I met one of them, Kelsey, because she came and helped set up too. The classroom looks very inviting and defiantly a place I feel comfortable in. We have 29 students, which is 6 more students than Mrs. Knapp had last year, so just about every seat in her classroom will be filled. It is a little intimidating to have that many students in a room, but then I remember I've dealt with groups of 30 and 45 kids during the summer this year. I found out that Mrs. Knapp likes to use music in her classroom, which got me really excited because I have always wondered how I can incorporate music into my classroom. Music really gives me an energy boost and can bring my mood up if I'm feeling a little off. I just can't believe how helpful Mrs. Knapp has already been this year and the school year hasn't even begun! I feel so comfortable and ready to dive into the school year.

Yesterday I went to the internship meeting in Detroit. I'm not going to lie, the drive was pretty stressful and the sad part is, there wasn't even that much traffic. There were just a lot of signs, lanes popping up from out of no where and streets are not labeled very well. It was nice to see some of the people from my past classes at the meeting. I found out that I actually know everyone in my school already. Our field instructor is new, but she is very nice and has been through the MSU program, so she understands what we are going through. The meeting was basically an overview of the meeting I went to on St. Patrick's Day, but I did learn a few new things, such as I have to join a group or committee in my school or create a new one. I also was able to see who my instructors are for my classes and they seem very nice. I also found out what books are required for the classes and I have already ordered them : ) I feel like those meetings should stress me out, but I actually feel more excited and more confident that I am ready to start when I leave them. I guess that's a good sign?

A little off topic, but while I am home I've decided that I want to start getting used to having a routine and understanding what it would be like if I were living on my own and what my life would be like. By this I mean that I want to make dinner sometimes when I come home, even though I'll be tired it's something I'll have to learn to do if I get a job somewhere. Other things I want to do is go grocery shopping, get a workout schedule/routine going or helping out with housework/chores. I want to get a better feeling of what it would be like to have an actual teacher job and what my entire life would feel like. I may sound a bit too ambitious right now because I have not even started classes or teaching yet, but it's something I want to try. As a side note, I also what to learn from my grandma how she makes her delicious cakes, but I'll save that for breaks and weekends.

I am excited to get the year started and feel pretty prepared to get going. I'm hoping to start the year on the right foot and I cannot wait to meet the students that I will be working with all year. I hope I will learn all about them and their experiences and in the end build a strong relationship with them. I want to impact every single student's life one way or another and I hope to make that impression on the first day of school.

Mentor Teacher

Alright, so you may have noticed I changed the name of my blog. I still don't like it, but I knew it needed a change. I am still trying to figure out a name that is a little more creative that relates to teaching. Suggestions will be taken. But anyways.... I met with my mentor teacher last week and she is awesome! I have a great feeling about my teacher, the school and the classroom I am going to be in. She is a wonderful lady who is very organized and has had a lot of experience with Michigan State interns, so she already knows what to expect. The techniques and structure she uses in her classroom are things I want to have in my own classroom, so it will be awesome to see that implemented in a classroom. She uses reading and writing workshop, which I am very excited to see used in the classroom and she has an ELMO and a Smartboard, but it's called something else, but it's basically a Smartboard. She was telling me how they use Everyday Math and that they do social studies and science, but she typically rotates the subjects, so one week there is science and another it might be social studies. We talked about word study and that the students do a hands on activities during science and social studies to make it more exciting. She doesn't believe in doing centers that involve doing tough work because she knows the students will half-ass it (I'm so happy about this!). She says the centers she does is games or fun activities and she moves the centers around so the students are not constantly wandering around. The one thing I found the most interesting and exciting was the school's and my teacher's philosophy on teaching the students to be modeled citizens and teaching them rules. My teacher talked about how she assumes that the students come into the school or the classroom not knowing how to do things such as being respectful, pushing in your chair when you get up, lining up to leave the classroom correctly etc... The school teaches the students how they need to act in the lunchroom, in the hallways and on the playground. She says that they will review this after report cards are handed out just to remind the students. My teacher says she does the same type of things in her classroom, but she says they talk about what it means to be respectful and how to be respectful instead of just saying all the time 'be respectful'. I think if Reo took this mentality and philosophy the school would be more successful, the students would not act out as much and they school would be a better learning community. I am very excited to see how Webster does this and I will be taking detailed notes on how this works out because I think this technique could be useful in an urban setting, which is Webster is an urban school, but from what I observed last week there are many more Caucasian students than in Reo. My teacher also gave me a book to look over this summer on comprehension because this is what she is going to be use in her classroom. She also gave me a blog to follow (All about Comprehension), which is written by the author of the book she gave me that I will also be keeping up with. I am following her through this blog. I am even more excited to be a part of this classroom then before and am going to be reading books, articles, blogs and whatever I can get my hands on to prepare for this internship. I can't wait!

Graduation and Beyond...

So I know I have not written in this blog in awhile, but a lot of exciting things have been happening with my future teaching career. I'm thinking about changing the name to my blog to something more general about teaching because I don't want the main focus to just be on technology, but on everything going on in my teaching. That doesn't mean that I won't be talking about technology in the classroom. I just want to broaden the topic a bit. I will have to think about a creative title sometime. Anyways, so this past weekend I officially graduated from Michigan State University with honors and with a bachelor's degree in elementary education with teaching minors in math and geography. I was a little nervous beforehand about graduating and starting a new chapter in my life,b but recently I have been talking with my CT for next year, which has made me really excited! I am in Hazel Park at Webster elementary and I will be teaching 2nd grade, which is a year younger than what I have previously experienced. My teacher said that most of the students live in rented homes and they are low income, but I am already used to this because of my experience at Reo Elementary this year, so I already understand the circumstances. I am meeting with her next week Thursday so I can become introduced to the school and ask her any questions that I have. She sounds really nice and helpful and said she would give me some things to look over this summer and would give me class lists and schedules as soon as she receives them so I am acquainted with everything before the first day of school. She seems very on top of this and I would assume she has had an MSU intern before because of how helpful she seems already. I'm ready to dive into a new part of my life and to help this school out as best as I can. I can't wait to get started and am going to prepare all summer for this internship in hopes that I make a great impression on the school and change some students' lives for the better.