ECE with Ms. Christine

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...

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...

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...