Hello Summer

School is over for the year which is bitter sweet.  I am happy to have a little bit of free time, but after being so busy for so long I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do with myself.  I haven't had this much free time since before I started college!  I'm going to miss my students so much.  Of course, I can't even walk my dog without seeing a few of them, so perhaps I won't miss them as much as I think I will :)

The interview that I had went well.  I haven't heard anything back yet, so we will see what happens.  I am just trying to stay positive and have continued to prepare just in case I get a second interview.  My fingers are crossed because this would be my ideal job.  I feel like I was well-prepared for the interview and I used my portfolio quite a bit to show them examples of what I have done in the past.  They asked me all questions that I was expecting such as:

• Tell us a little about yourself.
• How would you incorporate technology into your lessons?
• How would you teach the writing process?
• How would you prepare students for the NJASK?
• Do you have any questions for us?

That's all I can remember right now.  It was a very short interview and was actually somewhat of a blur so those might have even been all of the questions.  

I am continuing to search for jobs every day and have applied for several more so now all I have to do is wait.  I don't really know what is going to happen if September rolls around and I still don't have a full time position, because after August we can say goodbye to our health benefits through school, which is a pretty big bummer.  I suppose it will all work out, but it's not always easy to convince myself of this.

Finally!

At the moment I am trying to convince myself that I am not excited.  I finally have an interview for a teaching position on Wednesday.  I'm not letting myself get too excited though because I don't know too much about the position.  All I know is the district and that it is an elementary teaching job.  It could possibly be a maternity position or something of the sort.  I am also not allowing myself to get too excited because while I am as prepared as I possibly can be I do not know who I am up against and they may be better than me.  This certainly isn't a guarantee, but I am ready to finally have a chance to prove myself.  

Headaches

I have to leave for work in about 5 minutes, but I just wanted to vent for a moment about teachers that attempt to use sarcasm as a way of getting through to students.  Don't get me wrong,  I can be sarcastic and joke with my students often, however, there is a huge difference when I do it with a smile on my face.  It drives me crazy when teachers think that they can get through to a student by being mean to them.  I have been reading Teaching with Love and Logic and while I'm not a huge fan of the book I really like the concept.  There is no room for sarcasm in a classroom and there is NO reason a student should be made to feel stupid.  If I have to leave a classroom with a headache every day I can't imagine the students feel much better.

The funny thing about it is that all I need to do is give them a look and they usually stop what they are doing.  They don't need a 20 minute lecture about how rude, disrespectful, inconsiderate, obnoxious, etc. they are.  Just because they're young and still in school doesn't mean they aren't people.  I constantly try to put myself in their position.  As an adult, would I want someone coming up to me and telling me all of these things...absolutely not!  No one wants to be belittled.  I've always been very empathetic, and I honestly believe that this is one of my better qualities.  Classroom management doesn't have to leave everyone exhausted, frustrated, and completely miserable at the end of the day.  Smiles, kind words, a positive attitude, and respect go a long way and are much easier than yelling and insulting.

How old do you think I am?!

I had a funny conversation with one of my eighth grade students today.  It all started when we were talking about cell phones.  I made a comment about not having a cell phone until I could pay for the bill myself, which didn't happen until I was a sophomore in high school.  After that the conversation went something like this:

Student: You were in high school when you got your first cell phone?!

Me:  Yea, you guys should consider yourselves lucky to have them now.

Student:  Was it a nice sleek Blackberry?

Me: (chuckling) No!  It was a big huge flip phone and you had to pull out the antenna to get service!

Student:  What?!  Did you at least have texting?

Me:  No one had texting.

Student:  Did you at least have facebook?

Me:  Not until I was in college.

Student:  So what did you do?  Did you just sit in your room and cry?

Me:  Why would I do that?

Student:  Well you didn't have anything else to do.

I just smiled and said that I had plenty of things to do.  He seemed to be satisfied with this answer and turned around to read his book.  About 5 minutes later he turned back around...

Student:  Did you have to wear a big poofy dress to school when you were younger?

Me:  I wasn't born in the 1800's!!!

I just love these little stories.  They're what keep me smiling.  I should probably consider starting a new version of Kids Say the Darndest Things.  I will make a school edition of it and it will be hilarious!

A squirrel!

I have a squirrel in my pocket!

I kid you not, a real, live, fluffy, baby squirrel.  He's absolutely adorable!  He drinks from a bottle, cuddles as close as he can to me, and of course, falls asleep right in my sweatshirt pocket like a little kangaroo.

This all came about yesterday when my mom took the dog out.  The little squirrel just walked right up to her and followed her. She brought the dog back inside and my brother went out with some gloves on hoping to get closer to this cute little baby, and what do you know...it hopped right up into his hands.  We aren't exactly sure what happened to its squirrel mommy or if it had any siblings (there was a hawk flying near by *tear*), but here we are with a sweet little baby squirrel.

Where do I come in you ask?  How did I end up with this squirrel?  Well, that's just what I do!  My mom called me at work and I went to pick it up from their house when I got out.  I constantly find myself nursing little animals back to health.  First it was my guinea pigs, then two ducks, then my kitten, then two more kittens, then five kittens!  I can't just leave them to fend for themselves.  It makes me sad to think of them struggling to be warm, or find food, and wondering where their mommy could be.

Why am I telling this story? One, it's adorable! Two, not many people have a story like that to tell.  And three, it gave me a fantastic idea for an answer to an interview question that I would like to share!

I printed a list of 100 commonly asked teacher interview questions and I was struggling to answer the question "What do you find most scary about teaching?"

While most of the questions were easy for me to come up with something this one had me stumped.  What was I afraid of?  Well for one, having to pee and not being able to go because I'm in the middle of teaching and there's no other adult in the room with me!  I'm pretty sure that's not a response I would like to give a room full of administrators that I will potentially be working with...

So what was I afraid of?  I know there had to be something, because I'm clearly not the world's most courageous person.

As I was watching the little squirrel drink from the bottle I was thinking:  What else can I do for him?  What else does he need?  What if he doesn't make it?

And it dawned on me...that's my biggest fear about teaching.  I won't be able to save every student.  While I can do my best to teach them, and help them, and give them as many opportunities as I can, I can't save everyone.

Ever since I was young I always had to save everything.  I remember being around 8 and crushing up worms with a stick to give to a little baby bird my neighbor had found.  Whenever my mom would let me pick out flowers at the store I would always get the ones that were half shriveled with no buds on them.  I knew no one else would ever want them, and it broke my heart to think of them sitting there all sad with no one to love them (perhaps I watched too many Disney movies as a child).

My students are going to be no different.  I am going to have students that come from broken homes, students go through deaths in their family, students without any friends, students that are abused, students that struggle with disabilities, and the list goes on and on and on.  It hurts me to watch other people struggle, and while I can do all that I can to help the situation there's no way I can fix everything for these kids.  I can't put them in my pocket, bring them home, and shelter them from the world.  All I can do is give them the tools, knowledge, and love to deal with anything that comes their way.

As I think back on all of the animals and plants I have been able to save I know that there will be many happy outcomes in teaching as well.  I will experience the joys of knowing I made a student smile or helped get him out of a bad living situation.  But the simple fact is I can not save every student.  My students will cry, and be upset, and experience the pain that this world has to offer them.  This is the one thing that really scares me about becoming a teacher.

A dime a dozen?

I was sitting at my computer this morning at a loss for what to google next.  I had already checked out all the new jobs posted on every imaginable website, and I can't just sit here waiting for a job to come to me!  I decided to type in "how to get a teaching interview".  Many websites came out of that search and the funny thing was they all said the exact same thing...

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

How unfortunate is that?  While it does make sense that an administrator is more likely to check into someone that came recommended by a colleague or friend I find it bothersome that amazing teachers are being passed over because they don't have a connection with someone in a hiring district.  I have no solution for this or even an idea to help I'm just simply stating a fact.

I just wish that every teacher  behind every resume could get the chance to prove themselves.  My resume does not define me.  What defines me is what I can do in front of a classroom full of students.  I think most teachers feel this way, and to be honest, if someone truly is a better teacher than me they deserve the job...but how do you know who deserves it if you're looking at a mountain of resumes that all say different versions of the same basic things?

One of the articles I came across said a common misconception by people is that teaching jobs are a dime a dozen...something to fall back on when all other plans fail.  I laughed out loud slightly when I read this.  I think back to my first education class in college.  My professor was an adorable older man with the whitest hair I've ever seen.  He stood in front of the class on the first day and said, "Why are you all here?  Why do you want this?".  The answers as he went around surprised me.   Summers off, good benefits, I didn't really know what else to do,  my parents are both teachers so I figured why not?  People like the ones in my class are the reason people think teaching is easy.  Let me just say, not all of the answers were awful, and I'm sure that some of the people in that class went on to be amazing teachers.

Basically, what I determined from that google search was nothing new.  I keep trying to be productive with my job search, but I don't really know what more I can do.  I've exhausted all of the job listing websites, I've read hundreds of resume and interview articles, I've spent hours writing essays and filling out applications...I suppose all I can do is wait for a response, keep at it, and read more to better myself as a teacher when I finally do get a job!

I just ordered several books and I'm very excited to start reading them!

I'm about halfway through

I just started

And I'm waiting for 

I'm sure I'll be posting my thoughts on these books soon.

The Beginning

I woke up this morning extremely motivated to get a lot done today.  I finally have the opportunity to spend a morning at home doing what I want to do.  I was going to go shopping for some new spring clothes, clean the house, and perhaps go to the store and buy some food.  Instead, here I am, sitting at my computer starting a blog.  It seemed like a good idea, and I'm pretty sure my dirty dishes will still be there when I'm done (unfortunately).

Now, this blog isn't going to be all that personal.  That is probably the last time I will mention that my sink is full of dirty dishes, and Tyler has to bring ramen noodles to work for lunch because we have no food.  I want to talk about my teaching experience (or lack there of for now).  This journey into the world of teaching has been frustrating, difficult, exhausting, exciting, fun, and basically just a roller coaster of different emotions.

I graduated college last May with my degree in Elementary Education.  I was convinced by June I would have a secured job for the following September.  June went by, then July, then August...September came and I began changing my job search to maternity positions, leave of absences, aide positions, anything that would get me into a school and out of my retail job.  Finally October rolled around and I hadn't had so much as an interview.  Endless hours sitting on my computer with a pain in my shoulder from not looking up had resulted in nothing; no job, no interview, no hope, and a complete lack of motivation.  I started doubting myself and my abilities, but soon realized they never even met me, no school even saw what I was capable of.  I was another resume in one of their many stacks.  There was no reason to doubt myself, because I knew I was a great teacher.

A few days later, I finally got a call for an interview.  I was ecstatic!   It was a part time aide position in the town that I lived in.  I could walk to the school if I wanted.  I prepared myself, went in confident, and got the job!  I was very excited, then not so excited when I realized I would still need to keep my retail job.  So here I am 6 months later working two jobs.  I finish up at the school, come home and eat lunch, then go on to job number  two until 10:00 at night.  It's a busy life, which is why I'm so excited to finally be on spring break and have the opportunity to get things done.

Now, as the school year starts to come to an end I find myself constantly on the computer searching for teaching jobs once again.  I have already put in many hours filling out applications, writing essays, and praying hard.  My thoughts are taken over by my constant daydreaming of having my own classroom and being able to teach.  I want to share with everyone my funny stories, exciting times, and my frustrations along my journey in providing students with their education....the most valuable gift they will ever receive.

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty" -Albert Einstein