ECE with Ms. Christine

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....

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! 

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

Well, this morning I woke up to find that my grades for the summer semester had posted.   I was incredibly surprised and pleased to see a 4.0 for the semester.  It just goes to show what hard work and determination can do.  This is such a change considering I barely completed my undergraduate degree.    This just goes to show to me that once a person finds their calling and their passion there is no stopping them.   I'm just so very happy to finally have found mine.   

This past week was the end of the summer semester.  I am on pins and needles waiting for my grades to post.  I am pretty sure that I did very well in my Reading Endorsement Course.  In this course I was able to develop a plan and tutor a student for six weeks.  It was a short period of time but it was still a great learning experience.  I also took Emergent Literacy.  This course was incredibly difficult.  The professor was nice, but the course was set up in such a way that it challenged me more than any other course that I have taken thus far in my course work. More importantly this weekend was an incredibly amazing weekend.  My best friend in the education program got married on Saturday.  AND while we were at her reception, I got news that my best friend of the past 5 years was in labor.  She is like a sister to me and I was so excited to know that my niece was about to be born.  She recently moved out of the state (back closer ...

Ever since I was a little girl books and reading have been an important part of my life.  And they have become an important part of my classroom routine.  In my prekindergarten classroom the kids knew that the day that the big red box arrived was going to be the most exciting day that week.  I tended to ignore a good portion of my lesson plan and go through the scholastic book order with them.  Sometimes I had parents that ordered books for their children, but mostly it was books that I ordered for the classroom.  I have spent a lot of money on books and I don't regret a penny of it.  Those kids loved to read and loved going through that book box.  I created a culture that valued literacy.  I can only hope that this is something that they carry with them.   Like I said, books have always been very important to me.  As a child, I read at an early age and I preferred to buy books at toys r us rather than toys.  I know that I was out o...

So yesterday was the last day of the first six week session of the summer semester.  Monday starts the next 6 weeks.  So what am I doing on my frday off?????? Trying to get organized of course.   I feel like it's a never ending battle with me.  I'm always trying to get myself organized and find better ways of doing it.    I'll update you all in the last semester in my next few posts.  But in the meantime.  Does anyone have any helpful hints on keeping myself better organized??? It's a big goal for myself.   

Hi All!!! I forgot to mention that I have an instagram for this blog as well.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would follow me.  I am @ECE_with_ms._christine  I just started this instagram recently, but I'm starting to get in the habit of posting more.  I like looking at other people's instagrams and seeing what they are posting but I am working hard to get mine more active.

This past weekend was the Pinky Promise Conference.  It was one of the most spiritually fulfilling weekends I have had in a long time.  I left feeling fulfilled and a felt a new resurgence of my faith.  Which is something I needed.   The weekend also provided it's challenges as well but I'm just trying to push past those.  I left the weekend feeling a new touch of God on my life like never before.  It was just what I needed as I entered the last week of this semester.  I bought a lot of new reading material that I hope that I will be able to get to soon. It will join some of my new professional development books as well as some textbooks I want to reread.   This blog is my journey in ECE as well as my personal life.  I can't wait to get to know all my readers.  Some pictures from the weekend follow.   Thanks for reading!!! ~Christine

Hi all,  I'm Christine and I'm currently pursuing my master's degree in early childhood education.  The fun part, I'm also a pre-service teacher about to start my practicum experience this fall.   My Bachelor's Degree is in Liberal Studies from Cleveland State University, which basically says that I changed my major enough times that they were willing to award me a degree so that I could start my Master's in my true calling education.   I have been a pre-kindergarten teacher for a little over four years and I recently resigned my position because I knew that I would be starting my practicum this fall.  Those four years were some of the best of my life.  Those little ones kept me on my toes and taught me more about myself that I can even begin to explain.   I'm engaged to an amazing man, but we don't have a wedding date set.  I'm not even really planning my wedding yet.  I'm really more thinking we'll get married in Vegas or by the Jus...