i did it.

mood: satisfied


Yep, that's right. I survived teaching my first lesson. Today I taught the "Tens to 100" lesson during Math. I didn't look at my watch until 10:55am, when I realized, "crap, I'm teaching in five minutes." Haha. It wasn't too bad since the kids are really great and I was pretty comfortable.

So it was about two minutes into the lesson and in walks the principal. He does this everyday, but at different times, but I'm thinking "of course he walks in while I'm teaching my first lesson, great!" :/. [Better than him walking in while I'm doing nothing though, I suppose.].

Anyway, we got through the lesson pretty fast and I only blanked out once for like two seconds when I was writing on the board. It really is harder than you think to write something up on the board while you're figuring it out in your head. But yeah, I figured it out and we got through it. The students even finished their independent practice pretty quickly and they did it correctly!

After Math is lunch, so after the lesson we were getting ready to go and my master teacher told me I did a great job and that the lesson went smoothly, so I was relieved. She also gave me a paper with some notes which I still have to read. One student gave me a thumbs up and then started clapping so Mrs. Tyler said, "yeah, let's give her a round of applause -- that was her first time teaching, didn't she do a good job?" The students said "yes" and they all started applauding, it was pretty funny.


Overall, good first experience. Tomorrow I won't be as nervous!
Okay, time to take a nap before I do some homework. Hope everyone has a great day, be back tomorrow! :)

"There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you do not do them."
- Charles D. Gill

iced caramel macchiato.

mood: relaxed
music: robin thicke - against the world


mmmm, yummy.

So I came home about half an hour ago after I dropped some Starbucks off to Richie since he's studying. I just happened to get to his house right around midnight, when it turned to our 6 months. It's funny because I didn't plan to be there at that time, it just happened. After I left, "Knocks Me Off My Feet" was playing on the radio and I thought to myself, "aww it's a sign," haha. Crazy to think that it's only officially been 6 months, because it feels like forever [well maybe not forever, but a long time].

Well anyway, this post is just to say that I love you Richard Espino... and I'm looking forward to many, many, many more months to come :).

"These days it's hard to find someone to love
once you find them you don't wanna give up

it's just the two of us getting into love
it takes two of us to change the world
I got you, you got me
it's just me & you against the world..."

so sweet.

mood: happy
music: raphael saadiq - love that girl


Today was an incredibly tiring day, but a good one nonetheless. I'm getting comfortable with doing the morning routine, especially since my kids are so cooperative. Keeping my hopes high for next week when I begin teaching a lesson each day *crosses fingers*. I have Tuesday to work out my nerves and get a feel for it and then Wednesday my supervisor comes in to observe.

Anyway, I'm feeling good since I got a lot done this week. As of now, I am on top of all of my work! I read my assigned chapters, turned in my focused observations, and got my block plans checked for seminar. Finished my lesson plans for next week and got them approved by my master teacher. Finally turned in my sub packets and got my fingerprinting done. Good productive week.

Next week though, UCR classes start -- so hello to more Education classes (aka more work and more reading, as if there wasn't enough).

I will survive this year and not regret doing the combined Master's/credential program. I will.


But for now, I am going to relax and spend time with Richie, finally!
Be back next week, peace! :)

"They say a person needs just three things
to be truly happy in this world:
someone to love, something to do,
and something to hope for."
- Tom Bodett

and so it begins.

mood: entertained

I'm currently watching "Knocked Up" for the ten billionth time. Ah, I love this movie. :).


So, today Karen and I started the morning routine in our teachers' classrooms. We both walked over to the playground, picked up our kids, wished each other luck [Haha, :)] and then headed to our classrooms.

I took roll and did the lunch count easily, but the hard part was submitting the information online since there are so many different things to click on. Mrs. T helped me with it though, so it was alright. I was supposed to do the flag salute after, but it totally slipped my mind since we haven't been doing it regularly anyway. So, next I had to check three different homework assignments. I stamped their "Dragon Gets By" homework, checked to make sure they read their assigned reading books and had their parent sign the form, then we all checked the Math homework together.

The Math worksheet was confusing since there were two different columns and they weren't all numbered, but we got through it. I almost forgot to pass the new homework back out, but luckily Mrs. T reminded me. After that, we put everything away and did the flag salute. The whole morning wasn't too bad, we got through it, and now I know what I won't forget tomorrow! [Hopefully!]

Later on during the day, we had a few students who had problems with the Math lesson. The assignment was to make certain problems up after they were given an answer. For example: Write one addition problem and one subtraction problem to get 11.

This was confusing for one girl who has no number sense. I was trying to help her write a number sentence and we came up with 10 + ____ = 10, but she couldn't come up with what was supposed to go into the blank. I tried different strategies to help her and eventually she got the correct answer, but I'm not sure that she understood enough for the idea to stick in her mind. Hopefully we can make more progress tomorrow.


It's really hot right now, so I shall end this post here and go do some reading for seminar. Be back tomorrow!

"It's always the little decisions that have the biggest impact.
Do it because you love it. Then it's not a job."
- Mark Cuban

updates.

mood: lazy


Thursday was Back to School Night. The principal introduced the teachers as well as the student teachers during the meeting, then we all went into our classrooms to finish setting up. The parents came in, signed in, and signed up for parent conferences. Then, my master teacher went over general things with the parents [Classroom rules, grading scale, daily schedule, etc.]. There was a pretty good turnout, 9 out of the 13 students' parents showed up. The night went by quickly, but I was tired from seminar and PACT earlier in the day. Anyway, went home and knocked out after that.

Friday, went to M.B. for the whole day. Did more observation and helped the kids with their work. The kids are so cute; they want to hug you all the time, haha. After school, had our weekly grade-level planning meeting. After that, we met individually with our supervisors to discuss our student teaching and the dates that they planned when we would teach our big units.

Starting Tuesday, I begin taking responsibility for the morning routine. Then, next week, I start teaching a lesson each day that I come in [Ahhhh!!]. Our big assignments for PACT when we teach units over 5 days are in October, December and January [one for Language Arts, one for Math, and one for Science]. Okay, time to go watch "Ocean's 13," bye!

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts;
but if he will be content to begin with doubts
he shall end in certainties."
- Sir Francis Bacon

just live your life.

mood: optimistic
music: t.i. & rihanna - live your life


My master teacher had me work with a small group during Math today. The students were having trouble understanding related facts, so I worked with them using manipulatives and white-boards. I made up problems and had them write on the white-boards and say each step out loud so that they were aware of what they were doing. We kept solving problems until they were ready to go back to their seats and catch up with the rest of the class on the Math worksheet.

They all eventually understood the concept, but one of the girls really improved and it made me really happy to see that. However, she needs to physically see the problem or have someone in front of her for her to actually focus on the work, so we'll need to figure out how to help her more.

Anyway, it was a good day at M.B. today, despite the testing left over from yesterday :/. Looking forward to the weeks to come!

I came home and received some presents in the mail: some free tampons and pads from CVS [Haha, random!] and my Social Security replacement card that I was waiting on. So I guess this means I have to get off my butt and finally fill out the entire substitute packet. Then I have to pay some bills, head to the post office and do some homework before tonight.

"You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when.
You can only decide how you're going to live. Now."

- Joan Baez

catch up.

I haven't updated in almost a week? What the heck? The days just pass by so fast, I guess.

So since the last post, I went to my school again on Friday which was a minimum day [Fridays are always minimum days], but the day wasn't over at 1pm. After school, we had a faculty meeting since the board of education came to congratulate the staff on a job well done last year. After that, we had grade level planning for the following week. We finally left to go home around 3:30pm.

On Saturday, went to the Regine Velasquez and Lani Misalucha concert with mi familia. Those two women are amazing singers, but the concert was pretty much two hours of both of them showing off. [Still love you Regine! :)] Sunday we went to the cathedral in L.A. for a big celebration of Mother Mary's birthday which was followed by a dinner reception [9 courses! yum].

Took a break all day Monday [yay!] but I couldn't sleep until around 1am, I don't know why! Today we started our regular schedule of two mornings and all day Friday at Mission Bell. The kids were just doing testing all day so I was pretty much just sitting and observing today. I was exhausted since I barely slept, so that wasn't fun, but luckily I had a chance to get out of the classroom to interview the principal, office staff and librarian for one of our assignments. I came home, knocked out for a while and woke up to the gross heat. :/ Not fun. But I got a lot of work done today, so I'm happy.

I'm excited for tomorrow: morning at M.B., then time with Richie before we head to the surprise dinner, yay! :)

nonstop paperwork.

Today was our first day of seminar and PACT [Performance Assessment for California Teachers]. We got tons more paperwork and went over more of the requirements for this quarter. Thank god I've already started a calendar to map out all of my due dates or else I'd be really overwhelmed.

At the beginning of seminar, our supervisor had us answer three questions about our first day of school at our elementary school, which was yesterday. Although I don't remember it word for word, this is pretty much what I wrote:


1. The thing that surprised me the most was that a lot of the students didn't know their last name. When asked to write their first and last name at the top of their papers, I noticed that many of them had to keep checking their name tag so that they could copy it. [Later, my master teacher told me that learning how to write their first and last name is a standard in Kindergarten. I guess these kids forgot everything over the summer. Makes me wonder if year-round might be better.. hmm].

2. The thing that I expected to happen but didn't was that the students would be rowdy. Overall, the students were good stayed on task. [My master teacher told me that the first day/week is very telling of how the rest of the year will go. Even though there were a couple kids that we were told to keep an eye on, the class was pretty well-behaved so hopefully that's a good sign].


3. The most important thing that I learned was to keep transitions smooth and connect everything. [Mrs. T was constantly referring to things that she taught in Language Arts while she was teaching Science and it's good to point that out and reiterate to students].


Okay, time to go organize my life, haha. Bye for now!

one down.

Today was the first day of school for my elementary kids! It was interesting observing things that I will eventually have to do [pick the kids up in the morning, drop them off for recess, etc]. Right now we only have 13 students and most of them are pretty quiet. Of course there are the ones that can't stop fidgeting and those that never raise their hand, but overall it's not too bad. The kids seem pretty sweet and for the most part stay on task.

The whole day went pretty smoothly, and I'm hoping that when I start taking over and teaching lessons it will go the same. :/ [I'm trying to stay positive here, haha].

Alright, time to start filling out my sub packets and get my stuff together for my first day of seminar and PACT tomorrow, yay!

celebrate.

"i just want to celebrate another day of living
i just want to celebrate another day of life..."

mood: excited


Alright, I haven't posted in a while so let me update. I've been having faculty meetings and staff development at my school and it's pretty fun, but I'm ready to start the school year! Tomorrow is the first day of school... eeeek! It's gonna be interesting.

So last Thursday, we had a class meeting for one of our Education courses that deals with technology. During the meeting, our professor started talking about myspace, facebook, etc. Then she said: "This is the time to start cleaning up your image.... or create aliases."

I thought it was funny.. but at the same time true, cause we don't want our students or our students' parents to see/read things that they might not think is appropriate so bye bye went my facebook [It's alright, I only went on it to play Word Challenge].

There's more that I wanted to say, but my mind went blank and I'm trying to watch "Lucky You" on tv as I write this. Okay, I'm too lazy to try to think about it right now so I'll be back tomorrow! :)