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First Year Teaching Reflections - Part 2

Once I accepted my position, I began to have second thoughts.  During my program of study, I was assigned two mentor teachers.  One with which I have developed a very close relationship and one who (this is my perception) I never clicked with.  This mentor teacher, I felt was always comparing me to her past student teachers.  So I contacted them both right away, the first told me that the feeling that I got when I was in my interview was important and gave me a few questions to ask about the charter school.  She also told me that she had friends that were in charter schools who were incredibly happy and that it varies from school to school.  The other teacher told me that it was a job and that I should be grateful for it. I began to get very nervous about the fact that I accepted the job.  It seemed like I was making the right decision, but was I? Was I settling because I couldn't find a job in the district I wanted? The pay was less than the distric...
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First Year of Teaching Reflections

My first year as a teacher had so very many ups and downs, both personally and professionally.  I thought as part of my reflection process this summer, I would  look back at this past year in both capacities in addition to my attempt to write about the different books I am reading. Last summer, the job search was so stressful.  I have my bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies and had earned my teaching credential in Early Childhood Education.  I also had added the Reading Endorsement to my license in hopes that it would make me more marketable.  Especially due to the high need for literacy specialists.  However, as the summer progressed I had not received any calls back.  I was becoming an anxious mess and was applying for jobs almost every day. I want to clarify, at that point, I was only willing to apply for public school jobs.  I am passionate about public education and the pay was a major incentive.  I was in my first year of marriage a...
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Hello?!?!?!

Well, it has been ages since I was on here.  Its so hard to believe how much has changed since my last few posts.  Before I get into my life over the last bit, I guess I want to talk about my vision for this.  Over the past year and a half or so my life has changed tremendously.  I am still incredibly passionate about education and about advocacy within education and that will still tremendously feature here.   I've also established that my passion is reading.  I want to feature more about the books that I am reading and posting reviews of them.  This will be the books that I read for pleasure, my books for professional development and my books that I am reading in the classroom.   Finally, I want to spend a bit of time on other things.  For example, what I'm watching on TV, what I'm wearing and possibly other great things for you.   As of right now I get no benefit from blogging, there are no affiliate links.   If that were...
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Reading...

I know that I've been missing in action for awhile now.  This semester has been challenging.  Amazing but challenging.  I'll post more about that soon.  But.. I was thinking ahead to summer and was wondering if anyone has signed up for the reading challenge at  https://www.goodreads.com/ .  I've signed up for this challenge each year but I've always set my goal higher than I can ever achieve.  This year, I'm late to sign up but am doing so now in anticipation of summer break and the reading I will be doing.  It is a great motivation to get myself to keep reading and ensure that I am taking time to read the things that I enjoy.  On that note...does anyone have book recommendations for summer?  These can be either professional books or just fun books that you have enjoyed recently. Thanks for reading, Christine
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My first semester of student teaching

I don't have the right words to express how amazing the experience was that I had as pre-service practicum student.  I was placed in a Kindergarten classroom in an urban school.  This school is an International Baccalaureate school.  They are working to do some amazing things and my mentor teacher was probably the best match that I could have ever been given.  God definitely blessed me when I was given this mentor teacher. My mentor teacher is probably the most positive person I have ever met.  Which was really nice because I try to stay positive and happy but I know that there are times when I'm not.  From the first moment when I met her I knew that she was going to be very encouraging towards me.  This was so true same for my supervisor.  My first lessons with the students focused on teaching them social emotional skills and I taught them about being a "bucket filler" and "speaking giraffe."  I learned a lot about speaking giraffe myself....
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I survived the semester!!!!

I just wanted to check in quickly tonight and say that I'm alive and I survived my first semester of pre service teaching and this semester.  I have about a million things that I want to blog about that have happened and I hope to do a good amount of blogging while I'm off on break.  Student teaching was an amazing experience with the most amazing mentor teacher that I could ask for.  And I got married this semester!!!!!! So much to talk about.  I hope everything is good with everyone who may be reading and I will post again soon! 
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International Baccalaureate Schools

This fall, I will be doing the first half (semester) of my student teaching experience at an International Baccalaureate school.  I was wondering if anyone out there knows anything about the International Baccalaureate early years programme or if anyone teaches at an International Baccalaureate School.  I want to know as much as I can about it.  I am researching the topic but I always feel that first hand experience is best. Looking forward to hearing about your experience.  :) Thanks Everyone, ~ Christine
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