How Lucky I Am

I was reading a fellow Drake blogger's post just a few minutes ago. I believe he is currently doing Teach America or something similar to that. I know that I am very fortunate to have a job at Waukee, which is worlds away from my student teaching experience in Des Moines, where I have students who care and parents who care about what their students are learning. I am even more fortunate that my kids come to school everyday with the supplies they need, and are for the most part compliant with directions and things asked of them. So far, the worst thing I've had to deal with is the fact that students consistently "forget" things in their lockers or choose not to listen to instructions in class, and therefore ask me repeatedly what they are supposed to do. I have all the resources I need, and if I don't have something I think I need, I can talk to the office and they will get it for me. What a wonderful way for a teacher to start out!

School has been great! I'm slowly getting into a routine, and figuring out where I need to be during my planning times so I can actually get things done since other teachers and classes are in my room at all hours of the day. I "graded" my first batch of papers today. They aren't even for a real grade, they are "baseline" writing samples so we can see where the students start and where they are at the end of the year. I must say, for the most part I'm pretty happy with them. Perhaps it is because I'm grading based on the 6+1 traits of writing, and those are pretty broad categories. But, that's good because it helps me grade based on what that student can do, differentiation, rather than what I think the paper should look like, and I'm not focusing so much on spelling and grammar, which is what I tend to do a lot.

I do have some very needy students in some of my classes, so I'm going to have to figure out how to scaffold and build their knowledge from the ground up, so that all can succeed. It will be a bit challenging, but I believe that it will all work out, and I have some awesome teachers around me to support me in figuring out what to teach and how to teach it.

Staff meeting tomorrow and school pictures on Thursday. I'm not going to lie, I'm excited about the "long" weekend.

First Week of School!

Ok, so technically it was only 3 days of school, but it still felt like a week. Not that it was a bad week, just kind of exhausting. I had a lot of fun and I get the feeling that the majority of the students really like me. We'll see how they feel about me when I start giving them homework ;). Overall, though, it was really fun and I had a good time. However, I can see myself being there every night till at least 4 or so. We'll just have to see how everything works out.

I'm really excited that people are starting to come back. Drake starts Monday, so all of my Pharmacy friends have to be back!

My little sister has already had a full week of college. She's already thinking about changing the focus of her major because she's not sure she can get into Veterinary school. I told her to just wait and talk to a lot of other people before she makes that decision. I guess she's having a good time though!

The sun finally came back out today, which is really exciting!

First Days of School

Yesterday was the first day of school! It actually went pretty well. I didn't really have any glitches with schedules or anything like that. Some students are still having trouble with their lockers, so that's making some of them late, but that's really ok. I have really good kids in my classes and so far it's been a lot of fun. Each class definitely has a different personality though. My morning class is very very quiet, while my last class of the day is very talkative. My lunch class is in between. I think some of them are still getting used to me. It's been a lot of fun so far!

I still feel like I need another week or so to just sit down and go through all of the files that the last teacher left me. I have so much stuff and it's in an order that doesn't really make sense to me, and I can't really find anything, so it's been kind of a mess. I hope I can use my planning time in the next few weeks to sift through all of that, otherwise I'm going to be spending even more time after school than I already am! I'll get it figured out.

I am amazed at how nice and helpful all of the staff at Waukee are. Anytime I need anything, I just have to ask the person that's right beside me and I will get help! It's wonderful! I'm slowly learning the ins and outs of things.

I'm really looking forward to this school year! I think we're going to have a lot of fun and hopefully I'll be able to teach them something :)

First Week!

Well, I made it through my first official week of work. It actually wasn't too bad. Fortunately, my part of the building is air-conditioned, so it wasn't so bad to move desks around and get things put how I want them. I was very fortunate to be able to move 8 desks out of my room, so I have more space to put children! We have open house on Monday, so that should be interesting. I'm very interested in getting the plans for the first few weeks of school so that I know what I'm doing. I feel a little lost at the moment. I know it will all work out, it's just a little overwhelming at the moment.

I'm ready for the kids to get to school. I'll have a little more to do this week since I have class lists and my computer and am going to go get more posters today for my walls.

Nothing else real exciting. Drake people are supposed to be coming back this week too, so that'll be fun. One of my friends is leaving today for her job in Colorado Springs. That's exciting for her, but it's kind of far away. It'll be good. Then we can visit her!

I guess I should go attempt to get stuff done around my apartment. I just really have no motivation to do so.

Moved In!

I think I am officially moved into my classroom. I have my desks set up and some posters up and everything! Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I don't have that much stuff, so it doesn't take that long to get things done. I did finally get my class list today, and my biggest class is only 19!!!! That's way exciting! Tomorrow is "Data Day," whatever that is. I think I'm going to go buy some more posters this weekend from The Learning Post, then I'll have a few more things on my walls.

Nothing else real exciting. I went to see Becoming Jane last night. It was actually a pretty good movie. I didn't know a whole lot about Jane Austen's life, I just knew I don't really like her book, Emma, though I've never read any of her other books. I may have to. It was a nice break from school stuff.

One more day and then the weekend. I'm not sure what the weekend is going to bring, but at least I won't be moving desks around and cleaning!

Officially an Iowan

I am officially an Iowa resident! I went and got my driver's license changed, and I got my new tags and title. It was actually a very easy process, and I didn't even know all of the paperwork that I thought I would! Transferring the car to my name was surprisingly easy. It was probably the fastest I've ever gotten anything done at the DMV, and everyone was really helpful and nice. I even got my new tags today and was able to put them on my car! It's kind of a weird feeling.

Tomorrow is the first day of inservice stuff for new teachers. I think we're going to try to get into the building to at least see my room, and apparently my end's air-conditioning is working, so that's a big plus! It sounds like we have a lot of cleaning to do before school starts, but I know everything will work out in the end. I got to meet a lot of people tonight at the school picnic, so that was nice. Not that I'll remember everyone's name, but it's a good start.

I'm excited to finally have something to fill my days. And I'm excited that people are going to start coming back so I have something to do and people to hang out with!

Apartment Pictures!

Here are some pictures of my apartment!

This is my porch.


This is my living room.
This is my kitchen.

My bedroom.
My closet.

My bedroom again.

My bathroom.
My office.

One of these days I will figure out how to put captions by my pictures without causing a huge headache for myself. Until then, please use your powers of deduction to figure out which caption goes with which picture!

I went to the Iowa State Fair last night. I will say, it was much different than my previous trips to the fair. At home, it was always a day long event, in which we went in the morning and had to go through every building before we could even think about riding the rides at night. And we got to play one game - the duck game, in which we were guaranteed to win at least a little stuffed animal prize... I really want to go during the day sometime, but I don't see that happening because I have to go try to get my Iowa driver's license and my tags on Monday, and if I can't do it then, I'm going to have to take a personal day to get it all taken care of because I am a teacher and work 8 to 4, which is conveniently the hours of the DMV...

Finally!

I finally have my internet up and running. It's taken 2 extra days and many hours on the phone with the tech support people, but today, magically, my computer recognizes the modem and the internet works, not just the DSL connection!!!! Needless to say, I've been attempting to get a lot of other things taken care of on the internet (emails to people, letting people know of new address and phone number, paying bills, etc.) that I haven't been able to do for over a week!

I moved in to my new apartment last weekend. It actually didn't turn out to be too much of a hassle. My parents and my sister came up and moved me in. We actually ended up moving a lot of in over the porch so we didn't have to carry so much up the stairs. It worked pretty well. I decided when I move out I'm just going to knock the back of the porch off and make a ramp, and take things out that way!! ;)

I pretty much got everything unpacked and put where I want it. I need to buy curtains so my rooms don't get so hot in the afternoon, and bookcases for my books, but other than that...

Monday I had orientation for new teachers. It was ok. We had a lot of paperwork to fill out. One thing, when you graduate, make sure your parents go over all of the tax paperwork and whatnot you'll have to fill out when you get a real job so you know what to put in the little boxes. I thought I knew, but then all of that stuff got in front of me and it was just a little overwhelming!

Monday afternoon I spent my time calling and changing my address and phone number for loan people and electricity and getting new car insurance and all sorts of other fun stuff. It's really not that exciting being an adult and having to take care of all of that.

I had a workshop on co-teaching yesterday and today. It was pretty useful, I hope it helps me when I finally meet my co-teacher and am able to get into my classroom!!!! My building's under construction right now, so it's been a little crazy.

All of this moving and changing stuff has been a little nuts, but it's all a learning experience!!!

I'll have pictures of my apartment in the next few days!!!

Back in Iowa!

I had quite a time driving back to Iowa, due to construction and the fact that I hate driving at night, but I did make it to everywhere I needed to be. The ISEA Summer Conference was really fun. We had Governor Culver, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Senator Obama's wife as speakers. We went to the water park in Storm Lake today because my roommate got free tickets. It was pretty fun. I finally made it to Des Moines and got my apartment keys. I get to move in tomorrow!!!!! That's about all that's exciting. School stuff starts next week!