reminisce

sometimes i think about my middle school and high school experience and wonder if i would trade places with my students, living through it again. as much of an emotional roller coaster it was, hanging out with my friends, talking to my girlfriends about our crushes, and kicking butt in academics was pretty fun =)

slowly but surely

three steps forward, two steps back. on the bright side, i'm making progress and have a great deal of support from my mentor, team leaders, and all the other teachers. academic support, emotional support, encouragement, empathy, blessings, and laughs; i really am fortunate to be surrounded by such people.

first time in a long time that i dwelt in the good book of God's Word. rereading Deuteronomy, i realized that i'm truly a desert season of my life right now. the promised land was good and fruitful, God constantly assuring them that it belongs to Israel. yet when i think about it, it wasn't vacant and easy for the picking. there were other people who lived there who needed to pack their bags and Israel was to actively take possession of it even though God was giving it to them. never really thought deeply on that part. it is a good land, but for us to enjoy the land, we must take ownership and work to enjoy the fruit and goodness. i know that this path is not easy but it will be worth it. i claim it for Jesus.

on a lighter note, when i tried to order an amaretto sour by a friend's recommendation at the bar today, bartender looked at me with puzzlement and simply said, "a sissy drink." hahaha better to stick with the rum and coke- most excellent indeed.

.lost and found.

it's been so long that i forgot.
forgot who my God is, forgot what love is, forgot the reason i live.




You are the only true and living God who passionately loves and offers life everlasting.
how could i forget such a wonderful savior?

i left it in the corner, you see.
in the back behind all the boxes and furniture where your eyes would miss it.
the clutter began to pile and soon enough,
everything was out of place and i lost track of what i had.

i cleaned my room today.
it looks a lot better after two hours.
i'm not done yet but i found it behind all the clutter.
i forgot that i even had it.

i'll need to clean and organize everyday so this stops repeating.
it's so easy for my room to get out of control.  

but you know what?
if i remember everyday how beautiful my room can be,
and if i put what's important front and center,
it won't be so hard, you see,

because i found the gift of amazing grace again.

"...but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made."

constantly thinking about the flipcharts, handouts, and lessons to be made, i've lost my ability to focus and allowed circumstances to dictate my mood and actions. but does it truly matter in the end? if i may borrow the lyrical rhymes of linkin park, "in the end, it doesn't even matter." the ultimate goal and purpose in life is to love and be loved by God. to enjoy God in life and in community. God is ever so gentle when He humbles and provides more than enough for our needs. 

EUREKA!

I FIGURED OUT HOW I CAN HELP MY STUDENTS INTERPRET DATA USING MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY!

98% my students bombed one of the homework assignments and there is no time to reteach and do a think-aloud in class. we have to cover box and whisker plots before the formative assessment this wednesday but how can i leave my students hanging without reaching the level of understanding to successfully complete this?

ladies and gentlemen, i've been inspired by the beauty of cartoons. i will create a cartoon thinking aloud and explaining how to answer the worksheet. i'm going to make one for box and whisker plots because there is little time to go over that in depth as well.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

yo estudie espanol tambien!

that's it. time to change it up. introducing the Jesus factor. 

more to come.

on a fun note, today i caught some students in a Spanish class off guard by covering for about 5 minutes. broke out the espanol and the confusion on some of the kids' faces? priceless. they said, "but aren't you the math teacher?! how do you know spanish?!"

recipe for disaster

how to flirt with insanity as a first-year teacher:

• revert back to old habits 
• reinventing the wheel
• spending 8+ hours on labor day lesson planning
• taking papers home to grade
• creating flipcharts late into the night
• not getting enough sleep
• lecturing for 40 minutes out of a 45 minute class
• trying to get everything exactly the way you want it to 
• sacrifice "me" time and the opportunity to wind down after a long day
• forget to eat breakfast or lunch during the school day
• make copies the morning you need the student worksheets

those susceptible to this dangerous state include the following:

• perfectionist 
• control freak
• low tolerance to stress
• inability to function with little hours of sleep
• enrollment in a intense graduate program

fear not folks. this is a treatable condition if caught early with appropriate measures taken immediately. 

for example, yesterday i took care of grading quizzes in school, updated my grade book and attendance right after the bell rang, ran off copies for friday's classes, and bought myself junk food to make myself happy. used the support system at my school and at the university to debrief and greatly needed encouragement and advice. an arizona iced tea, an ice cream sandwich, and a purple bag of Doritos later, i happily indulged in these during my graduate class while eating the fried rice my momma so wonderfully packed for me. a full stomach and the knowledge of no school the next day left me in a very happy place. took a bath, talked with a friend, and chatted a bit with parents. to top it off, a check came in the mail for me for the scholarship that i am receiving for grad school. woot woot!

had a full night's rest with square meals today, along with going out to Michael's and Target, and now calmly lesson planning at a leisurely pace. funny how all the good ideas and visions i had for my classroom flew right out of my head as soon as the school year started. the overwhelming factor tends to aggravate my tendency to forget things. call me a goldfish for my short-term memory [sigh]. 

over all, this control freak forgot that God is in control. humble reminder to self that He is control of my life and my classroom when I let go and let God. 

attempting to jump ahead was disastrous. 

one day at a time. 

weekend update!

mini summaries of the past couple of days =)

friday
TGIF. never been so happy in my life that it was friday. learned that teachers look forward to the weekend as much as students do. relaxed afterwards with some of the teachers at school and then headed off to spa world con la familia!

saturday
my first out-of-school student encounter. i was enjoying some frozen yogurt with the lovely hanna lee in rockville, sitting and chatting by the front window, when i saw some kids running around who happened to stop right in front of yogiberry. lo and behold, it's a student i recognize from school! we make eye contact and as soon as the information registers in both our minds, the student's face morphs into a look of shock and bewilderment, as if it suddenly hit him, "teachers have social lives?!?!"

i have excruciating amounts of reading for my graduate classes. farewell to any semblance of a social life. looking forward to meeting you again next summer.

sunday
glorious and copious amounts of sleep for the weekend. i've been told that it's impossible to make up the sleep debt but my body begs to disagree. been sleeping way too much but i definitely feel rested.

monday 
visited halmuni con la familia and then had breakfast together. finally getting down to lesson planning and grading. i have no idea how teachers do this. i'm only teaching two classes and am finding this quite the challenge. five classes, one planning period, team meetings, and taking care of yourself? kudos to our educators!

hitting my stride

today was a very good day, if only you could see the smile on my face today. i was done early, had some time to wind down before my graduate reading class, and watched some disney channel! i haven't had time to just reboot and relax for the past two weeks, and i am happy to say that i did not touch anything school related since i left the school.

geometry was great. only managed get through half my flipchart, so there's tomorrow lesson plan! need to get some calling sticks to exhibit equity in the classroom. i plan to piggyback off what one of the teachers at orientation does; on one side, write the student's name, and on the other side write down what they want to be when they grow up. this teacher puts it in a cup with a cool quote/saying and i'm thinking that one of my UMD cups might be nice. it'll be great for me to read through my student information forms and their inventories this weekend so that i really respond to their likes and needs.

my university supervisor came in to observe me today, which was an interesting lesson. all credit goes to my RT on the students collecting their own data (goldfish crackers and M&Ms) to make the lesson more meaningful and engaging them in the activity (we're in Unit 1: Data Analysis). i created a worksheet that looks official, just like one of the worksheets Math 7 students would work on for stem and leaf plots as well as box and whisker plots, but this one happens to have their information on it. cool beans.

i am learning that with my sixth graders, this week is all about setting classroom routines. once the students know what is expected of them, this preparation gives them the opportunity to succeed in future tasks and lessons =) my munchkins come into my classroom right after lunch, and i had to send them all out of the classroom to practice entering it the way i expect them too. i'll get my opening procedures down soon. first week is an adjustment period for everyone, including veteran teachers.

mini highlights:

• i got lots of compliments on the dress that i wore today to school from both students and teachers! woot woot!
• visited my martial arts studio to see familiar faces and catch up with everyone; my students are getting so tall and advancing in their belt rankings!
• found out that my friend at a local middle school who is teaching algebra has one of the students that i taught at the dojang (korean for martial arts studio)! i giggled inside. 

no concept of time

Sweet baby Jesus! Has it already been a week since I've last posted? Let's just say that planned agenda from my last post was an epic fail. ended up snapping at my dad as soon as i got home and went promptly to bed. by God's mercy, i slept a healing sleep of eleven whole hours to begin my slow recuperation to the living. and the words to sum up pre-service week for me?

i. survived. the. week. 

First Day of School

Objectives: 

• To discuss and understand classroom expectations and routines. 
• To go over the syllabus

Agenda:

• Fill out student information form
• Warm-up: T-shirt activity
• Go over classroom procedures and expectations, syllabus

Reflection:

• Honors Geometry with eighth graders
• small class of angels who all know what to do and do it!
• was able to get through the agenda and meet objectives
• Next time: would not spend as much on going over the general rules because they already know!

• Math 7 with sixth graders
• it was a hot mess. large class of munchkins who just came in from lunch, sat where ever there was an open seat even though there were two seating charts in the room. they had never ending questions and in the middle of the shortened period, i had to get all the students up and point out each assigned desk for the students. 
• managed to give out the syllabus and student inventory before the bell rang
• Next time: Will give students almost the whole time for T-shirt activity and not attempt to go over the syllabus on the first day. overload of information will result in no absorption of said information. 
• Good advice from my resource teacher (RT): Introduce expectations and classroom routines as you encounter it in the classroom, i.e. how to pass in papers. 
• Have students line up outside the classroom where you greet them. Ask them if they remember their assigned seat, tell them explicitly that you expect them to enter quietly and wait for instructions
• You see, sixth graders are like kindergärtners, they can't handle more than three directions at any time. Be clear and walk through what you want from them with them until they get into the routine.

Day 2: Reflections

Today was a beautiful day. Finished going through classroom routines that are particular to my class in both of my classes and managed to almost complete the geometry lesson on the basic building blocks of geometry (undefined terms and more!). Got my geometry students to go up to the board to unveil and read the many new definitions aloud to their classmates. Seems as though the beginning of the unit will be more lecture-esque because i have to pound in the vocabulary words  Took a long time but i have the flipchart (similar to a powerpoint presentation on the interactive Promethean board) prepared for tomorrow, a slight variation off my friend's. 

Implemented advice from my RT and the dynamics were completely different. i was in control and the students were respectful, listened to directions, and i did not entertain their questions whenever they pleased. classroom management is key, ladies and gentlemen. without it, learning cannot take place and it is impossible to teach content meaningfully for the students. Gave both classes an overview of Unit 1 so that the students have an idea of what they'll be learning and a rough outline of when their assessments (quizzes, selected hw, unit tests, etc) will take place. 

• Next time, don't forget to take attendance. 

deliriously tired

dear friends,

this sapling is deliriously tired. this week confirms what i've always known about myself; i become a zombie when i clock in less than 6 hours of sleep. i was constantly closing my eyes during meetings today while exhaustion slowly enveloped me. everyone noticed. my professional development teacher at the school, my resource teacher, a fellow new teacher, and my old science teacher now colleague were just a few people who asked me about it. no joke, i was so tired that i felt frazzled and ready to cry, but i had no reason to aside from self-inflicted sleep deprivation. everyone was very understanding and pulled me aside to make sure that i take it easy (the kids aren't at school yet!) and don't burn myself out. it was very comforting and i really appreciate them looking out for me =) i now have a shoulder to lean/cry on, literally, a wall i can bang on when i go crazy (my next door classroom neighbor), and a great group of teachers looking out for me.

what can I say? God's love is so good. 

tonight's agenda:

• begin looking at some of the files my friend gave to me 
• begin thinking about and compiling what i need for the first day of school
• go to bed early 

calm before the storm

school has yet to start and i'm already exhausted from orientation. oh dear. this upcoming week will be pre-service week, intensely packed with setting up my classroom, faculty meetings, and severe lesson planning while attempting to wrap my head around all the information i need to absorb. haven't been this busy since high school so i will simply have to brace myself and roll with the punches. bring it on!

i've been going into school for the past couple of weeks when i could to acclimate and get to know the people i will be working with. this past friday was very productive with my posters finished and laminated, all ready to get hung up. will need to post pictures!

at church, we started a a makeover for the children's room and it's coming along beautifully! the room's almost ready for primer and then we'll be painting a calm cornflower blue. some of the kids were so eager to help that they would get frustrated when they had nothing to do, what enthusiasm! i'm super excited to help give our children a nice room where they'll have Sunday School, i can already tell that it's going to look fantastic.

the best school homecoming

has three days already past? wow! this week has been orientation for new educators at one of the local high schools where i have been flooded with procedures, curriculum, classroom strategies, different ideas, and paperwork that needs to be taken care of. the sheer volume of information crammed into a few days is overwhelming, no wonder why new teachers feel that they're over their heads! fortunately, i have been doing my homework over the length of this summer by reading some helpful teacher guides while learning much from veteran teachers.

the books i read are the first-year teacher's survival guide and math teacher's survival guide, both published by jossey-bass teacher, both of which i would recommend to anyone entering the classroom. they're deeply informative, address a lot of questions concerning classroom management that i did not learn in my education coursework, and have plenty of lists with the nitty-gritty things to keep in mind! i'm currently finishing up the first days of school by harry wong, a favorite among educators and very well known. practical and definitely has helped me mentally prepare for my first days of school.

today for orientation, all new educators reported to their assigned schools, which for me was the very middle school that i attended! the kind of school i wanted to teach at with the kind of students i wanted to serve, and the first school to call in for interviews. God truly hears our heart's desires and i couldn't have asked for any other school to begin teaching in. and to put the icing on the cake, today was the best school homecoming i ever had, and there wasn't even any music or dancing! this speaks volumes, because i attended all the school dances with my friends and really like getting into the rhythm.

i was able to greet teachers and the administration that i've gotten to know last week when i came into the school to get acclimated while pleasantly surprising others who remember my face! i think that the best part was being able to get to know some of the people that i will be working with, having goofy chats and meaningful conversations while getting to know them as individuals. there won't be as many opportunities to do so before school starts because pre-service week is wickedly busy with meetings and sessions to help prepare teachers to begin the school year on the same foot. 

i've been getting so many good ideas from others that i can't sleep at night, trying to figure out how i can borrow these ideas and incorporate them into my classroom. i'm definitely feeling it now and will have to figure out some way to push myself to the point where all i can do is sleep when i hit the pillow. great motivation to working out and getting ready for football season!

rhyme and reason

to record and remember my year as an intern
and to share my life with those who wish to hear
begins my adventures as a sapling
which we'll see before i start rambling =)