The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people. ~K. Patricia Cross
I hope that your reading of last week's blog entries were inspiring to you as they were for me!! I used some of your comments in a power point I was doing on motivating the unmotivated and I think it worked pretty well to illustrate the points I was making. Well done!!
9 comments:
Hi Everyone!!!!
I am so sorry I did not contribute last week! It was a very busy week with the conference one weekend and then other stuff the next. Nick even called and reminded me and I still forgot. Go me!!! So a lot has happened with me. If you look at my planner it looks like it is going to bust open and start yelling at me for everything that I have/had to do. My time management skills were definitely put to the test. Going way back...on the 18th our preschool and a special needs preschool met at the park. That was so interesting to me because the way those teachers treated those students amazed me. Our high schoolers set up great activities for them to do and the special needs preschool teachers just expected that the special needs student wasnt able to do it if they hesitated for only a second. It showed me that teachers need to believe in their students for them to succeed whether they are special needs or not. Last week I had a staff meeting that discussed what we think as teachers makes a great principal. Our principal is leaving so they wanted to know what characteristics we look for. That was exciting and I learned a lot just listening to what the other teachers had to say. A couple times I leaned over to Jennifer and gave her an idea and she would agree then raise her hand. So that was interesting! AIMS was another thing last week that was new to me. Of course I took it in high school but being on the other end of it and seeing how students respond to the test was the best part. Some students were nervous and some people didnt care. So those were a couple of the wonderful things that I dealt with the past week or so. I cannot believe were halfway through the semester! I am feeling it! I have been so exhausted! This break was great for me. I was able to revitalize I guess you can say and now Im all rested and ready to take these next couple busy weeks on full speed! Tomorrow the accredidation team comes to our school. We have to be very professional and I am a little nervous because I think they might be visiting the classroom when I am teaching. No pressure or anything right? haha It should be a great experience for me though. Tomorrow we are also doing a lemonade stand for the first time with our preschoolers. We have been teaching them how to give people cookies and poor lemonade, how to handle money, and how greet the customers. It should be great! I am very excited!
So the thing that I wanted to save til the end is that yesterday I had my first interview for teaching! It was such an amazing experience!!!!!! Jennifer was kind of enough to let me miss school yesterday to stay in Phoenix and go to the Peoria District Career Fair.(Thats the district I attended school in) I was kind of nervous because I wasnt sure how this fair was going to work. I have been told that they are ran in all different ways. So when I got there they gave me an interview time and I had to wait for that time to come. So I stayed and talked to a couple people at different tables that were set up. I went to the CTE table and talked to a man that I had actually emailed last week. He was very excited to meet me and quickly checked to make sure that he was the one that would be interviewing me. So I waited a little longer and talked to a few people that I knew there. It was crazy to see people that I graduated with applying to teach just like I was. So it was finally time for the interview and I did get to interview with John Mulcahy who is the director of CTE, or something like that... :) He had a lot of faith in me that the interview was going to go well so that made me relaxed. He told me that I did great and that this interview was to get my name in the system. He said based on my score (which was good) I would be in the system as a great applicant and if a principal ever needed a FACS teacher they would look and see that I already had a great interview. So now there is not much I can do for that district but sit and wait to see if a position opens up. John was very nice and answered every question I had for him. He told me that he does not know of anything opening up this year but that you never know what will happen and that he knows of a couple teachers retiring within the next few years. So that was my experience yesterday. It was an experience that helped me in so many ways. I now feel prepared for many interviews to come! It also made me nervous because it made me realize that there might not be any openings for this next year. Im nervous! We can only keep hoping and crossing our fingers that something will open up! Thats all for now. I will write more later when I think of more to write. :) Hope everyone has a great week!
ITS MY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!!! hahahaha
~Lauren
lauren! that is so exciting about the job opportunities/ interview! im so excited for you! ill cross my fingers for you that jobs open up in peoria for you!
so i just took over another class this week which means i am now teaching all 4 beginning classes. next week i will take over my final class (advanced). it is so weird to think that we are already at the point of full takeover.
this week has been busy, but great. my students just started their fundraiser for FCCLA (for smile train). they decided to do a coin collection for each advisory (homeroom) class. i was pleasantly surprised at some of the students who volunteered to help with this, as they were students who seemed disinterested all along, so it was so wonderful to see them excited about this.
we are currently doing lots of prep for the competition in april, and although its great working with such motivated students, it is somewhat difficult because both mary and i are still learning about the organization and the competition details. so it is def a learning process for everyone!
we just finished a unit on what not to do while pregnant (alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc.) and it was so wonderful as their teacher to see their reactions. i showed a video about what happens when you use these substances during pregnancy, including interviews with some mothers who didnt see it as an issue, and the majority of my students were very upset by what they saw, and they really got passionate about the subject, which was amazing to watch.
i am constantly learning and growing as a teacher and person, and i learn something new everyday from these students, and i am loving that aspect!
on a personal note, i just received 2 interviews from grad school, which i am so excited about!
hope you're all having great weeks back! cant wait to catch up more next week at our little meeting! ps did we decide where we want to go??
That is very exciting news for you two! I am sure that everything will work out. I am really nervous about trying to find a job in IL it is crazy how no one is hiring because of the Economy! I blame Bush haha! I am sure that something will work out for us all even if it means that Lauren has to stay in Tucson!
I really think that becoming an excellent teacher is possible for any teacher if they put forth the effort and show it to their students. On the other hand I do not think that there is such a thing as a perfect teacher though because every teacher has his/her good days and bad days. In a "perfect" teaching enviornment I think that all the students would listen to the teacher, behave, absorb all the information the teacher throws at them, and gets 100s on every test/assignment. How boring would that be though? I am finding myself enjoying being challenged by students. It amazes me what some students can come up with.
Hope that you all have a great week!
Also I forgot that I found a website that has Culinary lesson plans. They are towards the bottom of the page after the AG stuff. http://www.khake.com/page81.html
I was about to email you guys about next week's meeting when I saw this post. Breanna is letting me make the arrangements because she will not be able to come. I'd like to meet somewhere closer to campus this time. I'm open for suggestions, but here's a few for openers. How about the Blue Willow or Rincon Market?
I have not been to either one of those so I am up for either one.
I am up for either one! I have been to Blue Willow and love that place but its kind of expensive. I have never been to Rincon.
im down for either! i've been to both, and they're both great.
Although the quote mentions excellent teachers I would have to say that there are just passionate teachers who have a great depth of knowledge and challenge students to think outside the box. I then guess if I had to make a definition this would be mine. Instead of excellent I think I would say exceptionally amazing teacher. I’m still working on the depth of knowledge part. =)
Lately I have had lots of students in my room it has been quite fun and entertaining and I have enjoyed every moment of it. Tuesday of this week I had 20 students in my room. Some were making up tests, other doing work for my class, some just there to chat and eat lunch, others were working on assignments for other classes. Although it was a lot of people in a lunch I’m starting to want every lunch to be like this. Even though I don’t always get to sit and eat my lunch I like walking around, answering questions and just talking in students. The more interactions you have with students via, talking, assignments, etc. the better you get to know them. Today I had 2 students in at lunch just to work on their collages and talk. These two students grades have already gone from F’s to C’s in a matter of days because they had most of the work done but just never turned it in.
I’m seen some major improvements in student behavior in all my classes. Even with the student’s who didn’t seem very interested in change of a new teaching way, most of them are coming along and actually realize that I spent a lot of time planning and trying to make lessons fun and engaging most of the time.
On another note Lauren if you’re staying in Tucson you’re competing against me. Ha ha. I’m just teasing you. I’m still not 100% sure what I’m doing after May. All I know is the economy is bad and many schools that wanted to hire are not going to anymore it’s sad and hard to take in all at the same time.
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