Power of Teaching

Last night, my mentor teacher, Cynthia, came over for dinner. I don't get to work with her anymore, since I am out of the induction program. We had an awesome time chatting and catching up. She knows me too well and knows that I am up for trying just about anything in my teaching practice. So...she showed me these You tube videos. The teacher created this classroom management program based on engagement and response. I laughed a lot when I watched it, and then, of course, I HAD to try it today. My class now does Claasss? Yesss? and Teach-Ok. You'll know what they are if you watch the video. It is amazing how great it works. I was skeptical, but the kids love it. I know this is teacher talk, but today was my first fun day of work, in a long time. I give the credit to the power of teaching. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBeWEgvGm2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhvaDFwmfBY

Speaking of engagement: my lovely roommate got engaged this weekend!

Being a teacher...

Christy, my friend Ashley and I went out to PF Changs last night. Christy and I decided I need to write on my blog more often.



This year of teaching has been my hardest, by far. I have an extremely emotionally disturbed student, who has just about used all the energy and will power I have left. We are in the process of moving him into a special ed class. I have another student who is so incredibly spoiled, it is impossible to give him a punishment that works, mostly because he doesn't care. His parents didn't show up for a parent conference yesterday, because they decided they didn't want to. I proceeded to leave a 3 minute message about how their son would miss every recess until they showed up for a conference. If that didn't work, my next step was suspension. His current behavior cannot continue. SO frustrating. I'm at the end of my rope. The majority of my parents are great and supportive. This is the first time I have ever had to leave a message like that. So frustrating. How can people not take responsibility for their own children? I understand we are not perfect, but we can only do so much. So, from this experience, I have composed a list of things I love and don't love about teaching.



Things I love:

1) The kids--they are amazing
2) The opportunities I have for witnessing
3) Watching a student finally understand a concept
4) Getting fun letters and drawings
5) Having students tell me how much they love me...direct quote "Ms. A, you're the best teacher ever. And that's for real."
6)Learning from my students
7) Learning how to teach the "Why do we do this?"
8) Field trips
9) Co-workers
10) Collaborating and helping other teachers out



Things I don't love as much:
1) Some parents
2)the limitations of curriculum
3)No child left behind
4)All of the 239487 meetings I go to a week (ok, exageration, but it's true)
5)Limits on how much you can invest into a child's life
6)The special education process
7)budget cuts

Ok, so that sounded like whining, but it isn't really. Good for you if you're still reading. :)

Power of Teaching

Last night, my mentor teacher, Cynthia, came over for dinner. I don't get to work with her anymore, since I am out of the induction program. We had an awesome time chatting and catching up. She knows me too well and knows that I am up for trying just about anything in my teaching practice. So...she showed me these You tube videos. The teacher created this classroom management program based on engagement and response. I laughed a lot when I watched it, and then, of course, I HAD to try it today. My class now does Claasss? Yesss? and Teach-Ok. You'll know what they are if you watch the video. It is amazing how great it works. I was skeptical, but the kids love it. I know this is teacher talk, but today was my first fun day of work, in a long time. I give the credit to the power of teaching. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBeWEgvGm2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhvaDFwmfBY

Speaking of engagement: my lovely roommate got engaged this weekend!

Visiting my SLO/OC? family and LOTS of scrapbooking

This past Thursday, I flew down to Orange County to visit my favorite family (besides my own, of course). It had been WAY too long since I had seen them. My boys were so much bigger! Enjoy some pictures from my short visit. :) Love you guys!

On Friday, Katie, Christy, Jen Clark and Katie's cousin Sophia, all went out to Ontario to stay in a hotel all weekend and scrapbook. We scrapbooked all night Saturday, most of the day saturday (until 2:30 am) and until 1 pm on Sunday. It was hardcore and SO fun. I finished about 36 pages. I worked on my Santa Cruz album and a lot of my "life book." I started putting all my pictures from my younger years in an album too! It was such a fun weekend. I am still recovering, and went to bed at 6 pm on Tuesday night!! My mom and gma also came out to visit and we had lunch. It was fun to see them and they brought me my new Wii Fit! More on that later, my body is too sore to type. :)

AVP--pro beach volleyball tournament!

This past Sunday, me, Staci, Laura and Ben headed up to San Francisco to catch the AVP pro volleyball tournament. It was awesome! We were there for the semis and finals. We got to see ALL of the olympic teams play. We all got burned to a crisp, but enjoyed ourselves anyways. I hope watching all that volleyball helped me get ready for the beach volleyball tournament I'm playing in, in November!!

A new season of TV

Since when did I start watching so much tv?!?! Correction...since when did I start watching so many tv shows online? Basically since tv shows started appearing online. This is what I am watching nowadays or will be watching....Most of the time I am not home to watch, so I catch up on the weekends. What are you watching? Anything good?

Mondays:
Gossip Girl (new found fun!)
How I Met Your Mother (legen..wait for it...dary!)


Tuesday:
The new 90210(not convinced yet...but enjoyed the premiere)
The Secret Life of an American Teenager (Same producer as 7th heaven)

Wednesday:


Private Practice (Grey's Anatomy spin off)










Thursday:
Grey's Anatomy
The Office (Jim, propose already!)




Friday:
Numbers

Birthday Extravagaza!

Last weekend, I went to 3 birthday parties in 3 days. Crazy, I know. Why does everyone's birthday have to be in the same week?!? On Friday the 5th, my roommate, Graciela, had her family over and her mom made Argentinian empanadas. mmmmmmmmm. The next morning I went to Monterey for saturday class. After waisting 6 hours of my life, I headed straight to Watsonville. One of my students, Pamela, was having a birthday party. This is the second year she has been in my class, and I have grown to love her and her family. The party was a ton of fun. A couple of other students were there, too. After lots of Mexican food and jumping in the bounch house, I headed over to my friend Staci's for her birthday party. It was such a crazy few days, but it was SO much fun.

Tahoe!!!

This weekend, my wonderful friend Laura had a birthday. To celebrate, she invited us all up to a cabin in Tahoe! It was an awesome getaway. Everyone enjoyed sleeping in, playing TONS of speed scrabble and Rummikub, watching movies, reading, biking, kayaking, rafting and eating great food. On Saturday, Julie, Mel, Alyssa and I went to the west shore for kayaking. It was SO windy we barely moved, but it was very entertaining. On Sunday night, we went to a casino and I wont $10. Good times. I am so blessed with amazing friends. :) Happy 21st birthday Laura! ;)

The Classroom

This post is mostly for my mom and grandma...who want to see my classroom.Theres also another post below this. Sorry some of the pictures are blury!! Welcome to room 24....

Trip to Visalia

Last week, I took a short, 24 hour trip out to Visalia to visit my college friend Melanie, her husband Peter and their little one Joshua. Last time I saw Joshua, he was 1 month old. Now he's 8 months old!!! It was hot, about 105, both days. Needless to say, we stayed inside, a lot. I had SO much fun catching up with Melanie. I miss her dearly. The last day I was there, we had lots of fun plans, but Joshua had a fever, so we just stayed inside...and visited more. On my way out I got to have dinner with Julie's parents and saw Kenton for lunch while I was there as well. It was so nice to get away, even for only a short time. I came back super refreshed. Here's a couple of pics I got of Joshua! Enjoy.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of our 2008-2009 school year.
Here's the stats for those who don't know.
4th and 5th Grade Combination Class
30 students: 16 5th graders, 14 4th graders
Only 28 desks..haha.

The Principal also let me know yesterday, that I would have a student from last year, who has some emotional disorders. That stressed me out a little, but went ok today. I have a lot of students who used to be my 2nd graders, and a lot who were my 4th graders last year, that makes things easy. Since I am a combo class, a lot of the students are on the higher end, and are very well behaved. I enjoyed the day today, and hope my class doesn't change much!

More Posts to come....Trip to Visalia and pictures of the classroom!

Fun with old friends and Strawberries!!!

This weekend, two of my friends from college, Michelle(Meesh) and Kristina came down to visit. I hadn't seen Meesh in a year and Kristina and Meesh hadn't seen each other in 2 years. It was a fantastic reunion. We had SO much fun. On Saturday, Meesh, Laura, Julie, Allen and I went to the Strawberry festival in Watsonville. It was fun, but SO stinkin hot. Last year was a lot more fun. Then Meesh and I headed out to Monterey where we hung out with Kristina's family. Then, the girls came back to my house and we watched a movie and stayed up until 2 am ish..just talking and catching up. I so needed this. It was such great fun. I miss you both already!!!

P.S. I am super excited to report that I've lost 11 pounds...and couting. :) I started weight watchers about 5 weeks ago, for those who don't know. :)

Diamondbacks vs. Giants

As soon as I got back, I was back to my busy schedule. On Saturday, our young adults group headed to SF to watch the Giants lose to the Diamondbacks. It was tons of fun. This is crazy, 2 posts in one day. There's pictures from my SD trip below these pictures.