Year 2 Update!!

Update on Year 2!

    Can you believe it - it's already November! Time has flown by so quickly, both during the summer and the first few months of the school year! Starting the year was the most difficult part for me, mainly because I didn't have a proper system in place from the get-go last year. However, I now know exactly what needs to be done to ensure that the first two weeks run smoothly. By the time August rolls around, I'll have a better plan in place from day one!

   This year has been much better for me than the previous one. I have gained some experience, and my biggest achievement is not needing my cheat sheets anymore. I feel more confident this year, although we are teaching an entirely new unit, which includes probability standards, a topic that I find challenging. I have had to work extra hard to relearn and refresh my knowledge, but thankfully my amazing team is always willing to help. Initially, I felt embarrassed about my lack of knowledge, but they assured me that it's normal to face something new while teaching.

    Overall, I am so glad that I was able to stick it out through the first year because it genuinely was the hardest part of this whole experience. The best advice I could go back and give myself is to just breathe. I can make it through anything I put my mind to!

End of The Year Craze

 

The End of The Year Craze!

Back in August, if you had told me that by the end of the year, I would be the teacher that I am now I don't know that I would believe you. I am confident, I am comfortable, and I am tired! I have learned so much since August about myself and about this job that I am putting into my life as my career. Sometimes throughout the year it really felt like trial by fire, but now I know that next year I will have the tools under my belt to make progressive changes and keep learning better ways to teach. 

I have already started to look ahead to next year. I decided back towards the beginning of this year that I wanted to keep a running record of everything that we did this year, how I felt about it, and how I could improve on it next year. If you know me, I LOVE BINDERS! That is where my ideas took place! I created two binders to represent my two preps (Pre-Algebra and Algebra). For each lesson,  I would print out the answer key and put it into my binder. I used sticky notes to write out my thoughts on each lesson and how I would improve it the next year. Some of the time the improvements that I wanted really came from the fact that I needed to spend more time laying out the lessons and mapping their CFA's in a different order. Lesson planning was for sure a learning curve for me this year! Some of the notes were about the fact that I needed to slow down and explain concepts that the students should have already known but didn't. 

For example, next year when we hit the back-to-school remediation I now know that we need to spend a day or so just going over a review on graphing. By the 8th grade, they should have graphing down but that is not always the case with some students. I still have students who struggle to remember (X, Y) and that the X value is graphed first, and so on. Each student is different and part of my plan for next year is remembering to take those different learning experiences into account to ensure that I am doing my best job. 

I am excited to continue to work on all of this during the summer when I have the time to sit down and look at everything. I plan to map out at least the first two months or so before August rolls around! 

We have 12 school days left as of right now and until then I plan to soak it all up as I finish out my very first year! 💙👩🏻‍🏫

My First Teacher Spring Break!

 

My First Teacher Spring Break! 

I can't believe I am almost in the final stretch of my first year! One unit and a state test left of our school year! Last year as a Para, the space after spring break went extremely fast! I wonder how this year will shape up considering it is my first full year as a teacher! I can tell you though, that January to spring break was the longest time of my life. I love my kids, and I love my job, but WOW it is a lot! 

I am thankful we get a whole week off with nothing to worry about. Since I don't have kids yet, outside of my job there isn't much I have a responsibility towards. I come home and take care of my animals and no worries! This week has already been so incredible for catching up on both housework and sleep. My 3-year anniversary is also during spring break! We plan to go to the movies and do our engagement pictures. 

We did our engagement pictures the day after we had actually planned because of the weather. It was amazing! We got our sneak peek pictures a few hours after we left the photo shoot. I LOVE them! Brixiecreative does an incredible job doing pictures! I can not recommend her enough! I want to go get some of the pictures printed out already so that we can put them around the house! 

Coming back to school was bittersweet. I love my job and my students but we were in agreeance that we missed sleeping in and our animals! I did love hearing all of the stories that my students were sharing about where they went and what they did over the break. Many stories were about going to visit family, going on adventures, and some (more like myself) about catching up on much-needed sleep. 

Well, here's to the longest stretch of the year! I know there are already countdowns to summer happening in the classrooms (and possibly in the teacher's lounge)! It is really crazy to think that I am almost done with my first real year of teaching! 

I have to throw in one of our pictures from the engagement shoot!

 New Year New...Classroom?

    I survived my first semester! There were a lot of memorable and not-so-amazing days for sure.  I have learned so much over the past few months and I feel so much more confident this semester. Lesson planning makes much more sense now and I can anticipate situations better. The biggest thing I have continued to learn over the last semester is mastering the authority in my classroom. The kids at this age are learning who they are as people; sometimes (most of the time) it means pushing boundaries. Which, in turn, means that I have to be able to handle classroom management in any situation. 

I have come back from our break refreshed and ready to begin this new semester. Over the break, I listened to a podcast called Teachers off duty, which in the episode I listened to talked about teachers' "new year resolutions". One of the teachers said that she would do a self and class reflection. I thought that this was a great idea! She said that in her class she would have her students fill out a form that they could reflect on as well. They would tell her what they liked and didn't like about the previous semester and what they looked forward to. This is something I would definitely implement next year. 

Coming back from break, I decided that I would up my classroom management this semester. Now that I am more comfortable in my role as an educator I know what will and will not be tolerated. On the first day back I took the time to walk each class through new expectations and revisit old expectations and policies. I reminded them of the homework policy and made it clear how my expectations were higher this semester. Time will tell how it will play out but I will be holding myself accountable and sticking to my word. So far, I have only had a few students try to push it but I have held strong! 

I can not wait to see what this semester has in store! After this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, we are on the home stretch until spring break! 

*I also wanted to share the only picture I managed to capture of my wonderful fiance and I on Christmas this year!