So STAAR Testing is finally over (for me anyway because there's no way I'm doing Summer School this year), the school year is winding down, students are restless for summer vacation, I'm restless for summer vacation, but we're all stuck here for another 2 weeks. I'm trying my hardest to keep it together, but it's been a real struggle!
Currently I'm battling the worst case of allergies I've ever had, and yes that is saying something because I am the queen of allergy attacks! I'm medicated, my nose is running, my eyes are watering, and I have to keep my secret stash of tissues hidden because my students keep trying to steal them. Yesterday my nose was so red one of my students asked if it was bleeding. But today I have found the right combination of allergy medicine, nose spray and decongestants to get at least half of my nose working!
When I was a student the end of the year was always a time for hugs and goodbyes. We made tie dye shirts for sports day, we had pizza parties, lots of movies were watched, but that was all in elementary school. I live in the world of the middle school. I have 4 different classes that I see, so there's really no way to get them together for a pizza party. They just finally got concerned about their grades so they're trying to do extra work to avoid summer school so there's no time to watch a movie (not that we would be allowed to do that anyway). We don't even have yearbooks!
But many of my kids have been bringing their own little journals that have become autograph books of sorts. I think its a cool idea, because there's more room to write per person, and if they're friends on social media then you don't really need a photo of them. I decided to pass around my own little journal, because I'm quite the narcissistic and I want to know what people think about me, aaaaaaaand because I'm genuinely curious about what they have to say.
For the most part it's been very sweet. Of course I've been selective about who I pass it out to, but I haven't given them any instructions on what to write. I had one kid do the stereotypical "Here's my signature for when I become famous". Some people just put "Have a great summer" which is so very lame, what is this middle school?!?! (LOL) One kid put that he didn't learn anything in my class, but he passed the STAAR test so I must be doing something right! Several kids shared memories they had in my class. A few kids actually apologized for their behavior in my class which was very mature.
I plan on keeping this little booklet somewhere safe so that way next year (and the years that follow) when I'm dying and trying to decide if my entire life plan of becoming a teacher was a mistake I'll have some little rays of sunshine to look back on and hopefully that will get me through the struggles that will come. Because the struggles will come. This is not an easy profession we have chosen. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it.
I haven't even talked about all the things that I dealt with this year, I think that's going to be my next post, or maybe next three posts because a metric crap ton of crap happened this year. Some of it was hilarious, some of it was maddening, some of it was heartbreaking. But we all survived it, and we're all going to have to survive it again next year, and the next year, until one day we die...
I need a nap...
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Friday, May 5, 2017
High School Appreciation
My high school career was spent at New Caney High School. I know there's no way that I will remember everyone who taught me there, but I will pay homage to all those who made a lasting impression. I had band all four years of high school, so Mr. Aiken and Mr. Wimberly left a lasting impression. There were lots of life lessons learned in the band hall, thank you both for giving me a chance to practice my leadership skills. Also sorry about Atlanta... That wasn't the best idea ever, and I know that it put the two of you in a difficult position.
All of my Freshman teachers were really excellent. I remember them all fondly and I like to think that I got some of my teaching style from them.
Let's start off with Ms. Lemke. She was my English teacher, and she definitely knew how to deal with immature freshmen. I liked her laid back teaching style (also a really sarcastic person), she had the coolest room set up with Christmas lights and colored lamps set up everywhere. I remember we won the Christmas Door Decorating contest that year, or we at least came in second place. It was Santa hanging out on the beach with flamingos (because everything in her room was pink and flamingos). I remember Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, and The Secret Life of Bees. She also cared on a personal level about her students (maybe because I was friends with her daughter). Not sorry for staking all the things on your desk!!!!!!
Ms. Williford was my World Geography teacher. She was an Aggie, Whoop! and every time we were learning about a new country or continent she made sure she had cultural music to play everyday. We would also spend one day learning about the dancing styles from each place we were studying. Great job getting students engaged. I also remember that on your birthday she would have the class sing and you would have to wear the birthday hat (OMG she also had a hat for every random history day!!) and she would take your picture and put it up on the wall!
Coach Storms the elder (there were two of them) was my Geometry teacher. I remember that this was his first year teaching geometry and he wasn't all that familiar with the content. We watched a lot of the book tutorial from Edward Burger, who is still in charge of writing the math textbooks... It was fun trying to learn along with him, and he tried his best to make it engaging.
My Biology teacher was Ms. Stephenson. I also had her again as one of the coaches for Academic Decathlon. She was one of the best science teachers I've had. She made the content fun, we got to do experiments, and discovery labs. I remember this is when we started to do dissections. We did a squid and she brought in her fryer and she made us calamari after we finished with our specimen. Good job Ms. Stephenson, also congrats of being the Dean of Instruction, you deserve it!
Sophomore year I had Ms. Tussie for English. She was really cool, she made songs, we got to act out the plays (Julius Caesar almost actually died because she almost fell of the screwdriver we were fake stabbing her with). Fahrenheit 451 turned into a research project and that was a cool way to dig in to dystopian societies. Also she was the debate coach and I was on the team that year. It was fun getting to work with her after school!
The OCS (Other Coach Storms) was Algebra 2. He was okay, not as funny as his brother, but he was a good teacher. I remember one time he was absent and the office didn't send down a substitute and we didn't want to get in trouble so we all passed out the papers and just sat and talked quietly. If any adults walked by we just pretended to be working. We were nerds.
When I was a Junior the school was starting to split into New Caney and Porter High Schools so it was a bit chaotic. This is also the time that I started taking Dual Credit courses (I was taking college classes in high school). That's the first year I had Mr. Moore. He had my older brother Patrick so he was familiar with the last name. My brother is currently an engineer so needless to say he understood Physics much better than I did. Mr. Moore was an amazing teacher. We didn't just watch movies or just do book work and long complicated math problems, even though it was a Physics class. He made some jokes and that's what made him relateable. He was also an Aggie, Whoop! and when I was in college I even met up with him after a football game. One thing I remember was his end of the year projects. We made a mousetrap powered car, and to get a 100 you had to get it to hit the far side of the gym wall. Our car was 3 inches away... He said that's the closet he's ever seen one come without hitting it. We also did a soldering project that was cool.
My US History teacher was Ms. Crawford. It was a dual credit class and she made it more of a college lecture than a high school course. She really prepared us for what college was going to be like. She was also one of the most technologically proficient people I've ever seen. She had her own wifi in her classroom, she made all these interactive PowerPoint, the class had its own website where we could all post in our study groups, she had it going on.
Ms. Pipes was my College Algebra and Trig "professor". She was also the National Honor Society sponsor so I spent a lot of time with her because I was an officer. She saved us all lots of money because we didn't have to buy the textbook that was over $200, and she spent her own money copying pages of notes for us. She wanted to make education accessible to everyone, and she's awesome for doing that. You rock Ms. Pipes.
My Senior year was hectic because we moved to block scheduling which is the worst idea in human history... I had some good teachers who's names I can't remember, and some bad ones I will not mention.
I think my English teacher was Ms. Sutton, but I'm totally not sure on that. We did a lot of writing in her class and she was very constructive about her critiquing of our assignments. She read one of my papers to the class, and she said that I had a strong voice, the only reason I got a C on the assignment was because I used the word "you" and that's a no-no... She also said I'm too young to be that cynical, if only she could see me now lol!
I'll talk about Mr. Moore again because I had him two years in a row (AP Physics) plus he was also the head coach for Academic Decathlon. Maaaaaaaany a life lesson was learned on the team. We went to State that year and it was a fun trip to San Antonio. He treated us like adults, and helped shape us into the people we are today. He really influenced me into becoming a teacher, and thank you Mr. Moore for all that you've done for education over the years. I hope retirement is treating you well, you've earned it!
All of my Freshman teachers were really excellent. I remember them all fondly and I like to think that I got some of my teaching style from them.
Let's start off with Ms. Lemke. She was my English teacher, and she definitely knew how to deal with immature freshmen. I liked her laid back teaching style (also a really sarcastic person), she had the coolest room set up with Christmas lights and colored lamps set up everywhere. I remember we won the Christmas Door Decorating contest that year, or we at least came in second place. It was Santa hanging out on the beach with flamingos (because everything in her room was pink and flamingos). I remember Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, and The Secret Life of Bees. She also cared on a personal level about her students (maybe because I was friends with her daughter). Not sorry for staking all the things on your desk!!!!!!
Ms. Williford was my World Geography teacher. She was an Aggie, Whoop! and every time we were learning about a new country or continent she made sure she had cultural music to play everyday. We would also spend one day learning about the dancing styles from each place we were studying. Great job getting students engaged. I also remember that on your birthday she would have the class sing and you would have to wear the birthday hat (OMG she also had a hat for every random history day!!) and she would take your picture and put it up on the wall!
Coach Storms the elder (there were two of them) was my Geometry teacher. I remember that this was his first year teaching geometry and he wasn't all that familiar with the content. We watched a lot of the book tutorial from Edward Burger, who is still in charge of writing the math textbooks... It was fun trying to learn along with him, and he tried his best to make it engaging.
My Biology teacher was Ms. Stephenson. I also had her again as one of the coaches for Academic Decathlon. She was one of the best science teachers I've had. She made the content fun, we got to do experiments, and discovery labs. I remember this is when we started to do dissections. We did a squid and she brought in her fryer and she made us calamari after we finished with our specimen. Good job Ms. Stephenson, also congrats of being the Dean of Instruction, you deserve it!
Sophomore year I had Ms. Tussie for English. She was really cool, she made songs, we got to act out the plays (Julius Caesar almost actually died because she almost fell of the screwdriver we were fake stabbing her with). Fahrenheit 451 turned into a research project and that was a cool way to dig in to dystopian societies. Also she was the debate coach and I was on the team that year. It was fun getting to work with her after school!
The OCS (Other Coach Storms) was Algebra 2. He was okay, not as funny as his brother, but he was a good teacher. I remember one time he was absent and the office didn't send down a substitute and we didn't want to get in trouble so we all passed out the papers and just sat and talked quietly. If any adults walked by we just pretended to be working. We were nerds.
When I was a Junior the school was starting to split into New Caney and Porter High Schools so it was a bit chaotic. This is also the time that I started taking Dual Credit courses (I was taking college classes in high school). That's the first year I had Mr. Moore. He had my older brother Patrick so he was familiar with the last name. My brother is currently an engineer so needless to say he understood Physics much better than I did. Mr. Moore was an amazing teacher. We didn't just watch movies or just do book work and long complicated math problems, even though it was a Physics class. He made some jokes and that's what made him relateable. He was also an Aggie, Whoop! and when I was in college I even met up with him after a football game. One thing I remember was his end of the year projects. We made a mousetrap powered car, and to get a 100 you had to get it to hit the far side of the gym wall. Our car was 3 inches away... He said that's the closet he's ever seen one come without hitting it. We also did a soldering project that was cool.
My US History teacher was Ms. Crawford. It was a dual credit class and she made it more of a college lecture than a high school course. She really prepared us for what college was going to be like. She was also one of the most technologically proficient people I've ever seen. She had her own wifi in her classroom, she made all these interactive PowerPoint, the class had its own website where we could all post in our study groups, she had it going on.
Ms. Pipes was my College Algebra and Trig "professor". She was also the National Honor Society sponsor so I spent a lot of time with her because I was an officer. She saved us all lots of money because we didn't have to buy the textbook that was over $200, and she spent her own money copying pages of notes for us. She wanted to make education accessible to everyone, and she's awesome for doing that. You rock Ms. Pipes.
My Senior year was hectic because we moved to block scheduling which is the worst idea in human history... I had some good teachers who's names I can't remember, and some bad ones I will not mention.
I think my English teacher was Ms. Sutton, but I'm totally not sure on that. We did a lot of writing in her class and she was very constructive about her critiquing of our assignments. She read one of my papers to the class, and she said that I had a strong voice, the only reason I got a C on the assignment was because I used the word "you" and that's a no-no... She also said I'm too young to be that cynical, if only she could see me now lol!
I'll talk about Mr. Moore again because I had him two years in a row (AP Physics) plus he was also the head coach for Academic Decathlon. Maaaaaaaany a life lesson was learned on the team. We went to State that year and it was a fun trip to San Antonio. He treated us like adults, and helped shape us into the people we are today. He really influenced me into becoming a teacher, and thank you Mr. Moore for all that you've done for education over the years. I hope retirement is treating you well, you've earned it!
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Middle School Appreciation
So in middle school I had a different teacher for every subject and also one for the electives so like 8ish teachers per year for 3 years. I don't remember them all, and I'm sorry because I know I'm going to be leaving lots of people out of this, but I'm doing my best here okay! My whole time was spent at the newly opened White Oak Middle School. It was fed by 3 elementary schools, so I got to see some of my old friends that I lost when I had to move from Crippen to Kings Manor, plus met some new ones.
6th Grade: Ms. Smith, Ms. Sims, Ms. Williams, Ms. Stansbury
7th Grade: Ms. Palermo, Ms. Mouser, Coach Lyles, Ms. Moss
8th Grade: Ms. Bowman, Mr. Witkov, Coach Greer, Mr. Durand
Electives: Mr. Smith for art, Mr. Mendoza for band, Ms. Bloom for theater
OMG THAT'S EVERYONE!!! I DID REMEMBER THEM ALL!!!! If I don't go into detail about each of your class (which I won't) I just wanted to say thank you now and I still remember you guys so that counts for something!
6th grade! New school, lockers, gym class, all the works. I started off taking art, then I decided to take band where I learned to play clarinet and continued my musical career, so I guess thank you to Mr. Mendoza.
Ms. Smith was my math teacher. I loved her class because it was the first accelerated class that I got to have. She was great at explaining things, and I learned a lot that year because we covered the entire 6th and 7th math curriculum that year. One thing I distinctly remember from that year was learning how to divide fractions and Laycee Stagmier made her mad and she gave us the test before teaching the lesson. I got a 19... Not cool Ms. Smith! Even though she was a great student I got two of my unbreakable teaching rules from her: I will never punish the whole class based on the actions of one student, and I will never take a grade on material that I have not taught yet. I know we were hard to put up with, so I get it. I saw you last weekend at the Academic Pentathlon competition.
Ms./Coach Stansbury was an awesome science teacher. I remember one project where we had to teach the class a lesson. My group had states of matter. We made an overhead slide, we had worksheets printed out, we had examples of each state of matter. it was awesome! Thanks for giving me my first shot at teaching science, I guess I learned a lot about myself that year.
7th Grade! I broke my arm and had to have surgery, that wasn't fun...
My English teacher was Ms. Mouser. I remember we read The Outsiders that year and to start the lesson she had this activity where students with blue eyes were forced to be the lower class and brown eyed people were superior. I thought that was a cool way to show the two sides of the gangs. When I got to college one of the videos I had to watch for an education class was about the women who wrote that study. When we read The Giver we got to make our own societies and that was cool. Thanks for making reading fun!
Ms. Moss was one of the greatest Science teachers I've ever had! She was crazy and had such great projects and experiments to make science come alive. She was also sarcastic and witty. She might have rubbed off on me... Thanks for making science lovable!
Briefly I want to talk about Coach Lyles. I'm pretty sure that was his first year teaching. Lots of quotes from famous football players and coaches. He was definitely a life lesson teacher rather than a Texas History teacher. He was cool, he was also very good looking... I know we made life difficult for him that year. My friend even made him dance with her at the end of school dance. Having been in that situation myself I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaally sorry...
8th Grade wasn't anything special. I did get to have an extra elective class that year since I didn't have to take a PE class so I got to add theater arts where I got to hang out with Ms. Bloom. She was awesome and she had such a passion for drama. I learned many skills about the application of makeup, and I can still make a pretty convincing bruise. I was in One-Act-Play that year and I would like to apologize for saying everything I knew how to jinx us before we performed and we didn't get 1st that year...
Mr. Durand was my science teacher that year and he was awful. He made science the worst possible class. It was all book work and we never did any labs or projects. You sir were wasting everyone's time...
Coach Greer was the best history teacher I think I've ever had. He had fill in the blank notes ready to go each day. He had these interactive powerpoints that had quotes and things that jumped out and scared you, he knew how to get the attention of middle school kids (yes he yelled sex). Way to go!
English was Mr. Witkov. Totally creepy guy, but like Edgar Allen Poe kind of creepy, not stalker creepy. He made English cool. I remember we had to write this horror story in his class and mine was so good that he read it to all of his other classes. Way to work the creep factor!
6th Grade: Ms. Smith, Ms. Sims, Ms. Williams, Ms. Stansbury
7th Grade: Ms. Palermo, Ms. Mouser, Coach Lyles, Ms. Moss
8th Grade: Ms. Bowman, Mr. Witkov, Coach Greer, Mr. Durand
Electives: Mr. Smith for art, Mr. Mendoza for band, Ms. Bloom for theater
OMG THAT'S EVERYONE!!! I DID REMEMBER THEM ALL!!!! If I don't go into detail about each of your class (which I won't) I just wanted to say thank you now and I still remember you guys so that counts for something!
6th grade! New school, lockers, gym class, all the works. I started off taking art, then I decided to take band where I learned to play clarinet and continued my musical career, so I guess thank you to Mr. Mendoza.
Ms. Smith was my math teacher. I loved her class because it was the first accelerated class that I got to have. She was great at explaining things, and I learned a lot that year because we covered the entire 6th and 7th math curriculum that year. One thing I distinctly remember from that year was learning how to divide fractions and Laycee Stagmier made her mad and she gave us the test before teaching the lesson. I got a 19... Not cool Ms. Smith! Even though she was a great student I got two of my unbreakable teaching rules from her: I will never punish the whole class based on the actions of one student, and I will never take a grade on material that I have not taught yet. I know we were hard to put up with, so I get it. I saw you last weekend at the Academic Pentathlon competition.
Ms./Coach Stansbury was an awesome science teacher. I remember one project where we had to teach the class a lesson. My group had states of matter. We made an overhead slide, we had worksheets printed out, we had examples of each state of matter. it was awesome! Thanks for giving me my first shot at teaching science, I guess I learned a lot about myself that year.
7th Grade! I broke my arm and had to have surgery, that wasn't fun...
My English teacher was Ms. Mouser. I remember we read The Outsiders that year and to start the lesson she had this activity where students with blue eyes were forced to be the lower class and brown eyed people were superior. I thought that was a cool way to show the two sides of the gangs. When I got to college one of the videos I had to watch for an education class was about the women who wrote that study. When we read The Giver we got to make our own societies and that was cool. Thanks for making reading fun!
Ms. Moss was one of the greatest Science teachers I've ever had! She was crazy and had such great projects and experiments to make science come alive. She was also sarcastic and witty. She might have rubbed off on me... Thanks for making science lovable!
Briefly I want to talk about Coach Lyles. I'm pretty sure that was his first year teaching. Lots of quotes from famous football players and coaches. He was definitely a life lesson teacher rather than a Texas History teacher. He was cool, he was also very good looking... I know we made life difficult for him that year. My friend even made him dance with her at the end of school dance. Having been in that situation myself I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaally sorry...
8th Grade wasn't anything special. I did get to have an extra elective class that year since I didn't have to take a PE class so I got to add theater arts where I got to hang out with Ms. Bloom. She was awesome and she had such a passion for drama. I learned many skills about the application of makeup, and I can still make a pretty convincing bruise. I was in One-Act-Play that year and I would like to apologize for saying everything I knew how to jinx us before we performed and we didn't get 1st that year...
Mr. Durand was my science teacher that year and he was awful. He made science the worst possible class. It was all book work and we never did any labs or projects. You sir were wasting everyone's time...
Coach Greer was the best history teacher I think I've ever had. He had fill in the blank notes ready to go each day. He had these interactive powerpoints that had quotes and things that jumped out and scared you, he knew how to get the attention of middle school kids (yes he yelled sex). Way to go!
English was Mr. Witkov. Totally creepy guy, but like Edgar Allen Poe kind of creepy, not stalker creepy. He made English cool. I remember we had to write this horror story in his class and mine was so good that he read it to all of his other classes. Way to work the creep factor!
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Elementary Appreciation
To start off my journey of Appreciation and Thanks, we shall start at Crippen Elementary School:
In Kindergarten I was part of the afternoon class, back when it was only a half day program. My mom would drop me off after I missed the bus too many times and the driver quit driving by my house. Before the afternoon class started Ms. Anderson took a group of us outside to play while the other kids were still getting there and eating lunch. Now this might sound like the normal job of a Kindergarten teacher, but Ms. Anderson wasn't my teacher. To be honest I have no idea what her actual job title was, but I still remember some of the conversations we would have in the mornings. I remember that we made frog hotels in the sandbox outside. Thank you for all that you did.
In first grade I had Ms. Newcum. I learned a lot that year, and did some pretty questionable things to my teacher... I was "that kid". Highlights of that year include learning how to spell together: to-get-her, rainbow spelling words, and me planning a Hawaiian themed wedding for her to my uncle (that never happened). Honestly if I had to teach first grade Casey, I would have quit by now. Ms. Newcum you are a saint and thank you for putting up with me and being one of the best examples of how to be patient with a mischievous kid.
In second grade I had Mr. Grevenberg, or Mr. G. His class was out in the portable buildings and that's were I fell and scrapped my leg on the wooden walkway they put up. I remember the school had a Halloween Parade that year and each grade level was assigned a math topic to dress up as. Second grade got dominoes, and Mr. G thought that was lame, so he petitioned the principal and our class was able to change to the Math Army, and we went all out with it. We all dressed up in camo, we had war paint on, some kids brought their jeeps and drove them down the halls. It was awesome! Thank you Mr. G for making math fun.
Before I move on I also want to talk about my GT teacher: Ms. Meier. I only had her for one year, but it was awesome. I remember we did this Iditarod project where we tracked the dog races. There was something else about totem poles but still very cool stuff. Ms. Meier is also one of those teachers who is always willing to give advice to a new teacher like myself. Thank you Ms. Meier for being a help to my past and my present.
For third grade on I was at Kings Manor Elementary. My third grade teacher was Ms. Montgomery, I don't remember much about that year, only that on the last day of school I picked her up because she was tiny. I would like to formally apologize... My bad
Fourth grade is also kind of a blur, I had Ms. Brewster but nothing sticks out.
Fifth grade I had several teachers. Homeroom was Ms. Bradshaw and I remember she was obsessed with the Texans. I think it was her first year teaching, and I remember she got us to do this project and the Texans Kids Training Camp got to come to our school. It was fun. I also remember that there was this girl in our class who wasn't so well off financially and Ms. Bradshaw secretly went out and got her a birthday cake to share with the class at lunch. I know that girl will never be able to say thank you for that, but on her behalf, thanks Ms. Bradshaw.
Ms. Jones was reading and I remember that we did Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and when we finished reading the book we actually tried to make 1,000 cranes to send to some children's cancer hospital. I still know how to make the crane, and I've been trying to teach some of my students how to do it. That was a cool idea Ms. Jones. I also remember when you brought your son's dead hamster because you had to return it to the pet store one day... That wasn't so cool...
My math teacher was Ms. Graham. I mostly remember being mad at you because you went on maternity leave and left us with the mean substitute, but I still like to think you named your daughter after me, even though you spelled it wrong!
My science teacher was Ms. Baker, and she's one of the main reasons that I wanted to become a science teacher. I remember doing all kinds of awesome experiments in her class. We did pendulums, we did chemical changes, I remember we set corn starch of fire with a blow torch! It. Was. Awesome. She's the kind of science teacher that I wanted to be, but I haven't had a chance to prove myself in that field yet. Way to make science come alive Ms. Baker!
I can't finish without talking about Mr. Kanaday (I think) the GT teacher I had for 5th grade. He had us do all these projects that were about China and Egypt and after each unit we got to go on these really cool field trips. Definitely an enrichment opportunity for children who needed to dive deeper!
In Kindergarten I was part of the afternoon class, back when it was only a half day program. My mom would drop me off after I missed the bus too many times and the driver quit driving by my house. Before the afternoon class started Ms. Anderson took a group of us outside to play while the other kids were still getting there and eating lunch. Now this might sound like the normal job of a Kindergarten teacher, but Ms. Anderson wasn't my teacher. To be honest I have no idea what her actual job title was, but I still remember some of the conversations we would have in the mornings. I remember that we made frog hotels in the sandbox outside. Thank you for all that you did.
In first grade I had Ms. Newcum. I learned a lot that year, and did some pretty questionable things to my teacher... I was "that kid". Highlights of that year include learning how to spell together: to-get-her, rainbow spelling words, and me planning a Hawaiian themed wedding for her to my uncle (that never happened). Honestly if I had to teach first grade Casey, I would have quit by now. Ms. Newcum you are a saint and thank you for putting up with me and being one of the best examples of how to be patient with a mischievous kid.
In second grade I had Mr. Grevenberg, or Mr. G. His class was out in the portable buildings and that's were I fell and scrapped my leg on the wooden walkway they put up. I remember the school had a Halloween Parade that year and each grade level was assigned a math topic to dress up as. Second grade got dominoes, and Mr. G thought that was lame, so he petitioned the principal and our class was able to change to the Math Army, and we went all out with it. We all dressed up in camo, we had war paint on, some kids brought their jeeps and drove them down the halls. It was awesome! Thank you Mr. G for making math fun.
Before I move on I also want to talk about my GT teacher: Ms. Meier. I only had her for one year, but it was awesome. I remember we did this Iditarod project where we tracked the dog races. There was something else about totem poles but still very cool stuff. Ms. Meier is also one of those teachers who is always willing to give advice to a new teacher like myself. Thank you Ms. Meier for being a help to my past and my present.
For third grade on I was at Kings Manor Elementary. My third grade teacher was Ms. Montgomery, I don't remember much about that year, only that on the last day of school I picked her up because she was tiny. I would like to formally apologize... My bad
Fourth grade is also kind of a blur, I had Ms. Brewster but nothing sticks out.
Fifth grade I had several teachers. Homeroom was Ms. Bradshaw and I remember she was obsessed with the Texans. I think it was her first year teaching, and I remember she got us to do this project and the Texans Kids Training Camp got to come to our school. It was fun. I also remember that there was this girl in our class who wasn't so well off financially and Ms. Bradshaw secretly went out and got her a birthday cake to share with the class at lunch. I know that girl will never be able to say thank you for that, but on her behalf, thanks Ms. Bradshaw.
Ms. Jones was reading and I remember that we did Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and when we finished reading the book we actually tried to make 1,000 cranes to send to some children's cancer hospital. I still know how to make the crane, and I've been trying to teach some of my students how to do it. That was a cool idea Ms. Jones. I also remember when you brought your son's dead hamster because you had to return it to the pet store one day... That wasn't so cool...
My math teacher was Ms. Graham. I mostly remember being mad at you because you went on maternity leave and left us with the mean substitute, but I still like to think you named your daughter after me, even though you spelled it wrong!
My science teacher was Ms. Baker, and she's one of the main reasons that I wanted to become a science teacher. I remember doing all kinds of awesome experiments in her class. We did pendulums, we did chemical changes, I remember we set corn starch of fire with a blow torch! It. Was. Awesome. She's the kind of science teacher that I wanted to be, but I haven't had a chance to prove myself in that field yet. Way to make science come alive Ms. Baker!
I can't finish without talking about Mr. Kanaday (I think) the GT teacher I had for 5th grade. He had us do all these projects that were about China and Egypt and after each unit we got to go on these really cool field trips. Definitely an enrichment opportunity for children who needed to dive deeper!
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Teacher Appreciation Week
Now I know that Teacher Appreciation Day isn't until next week, but for some reason all the stores, news, and restaurants are having their freebies and discounts today. Plus next week instead of getting to hang out with the kids who care enough to say thank you (which there are a lot more than I expected) I'm going to be stuck doing STAAR testing all week. And let me tell you, that's the worst possible way to say thank you to a teacher TEA!!!!
But I digress...
I always knew it was difficult being a teacher, because every teacher ever had no problem complaining about it, and I do too, so I'm carrying on the tradition lol. But now that I am a teacher I know all the struggles that go on behind the scenes. When things are falling apart in your own life, you still have to slap on a brave face and come to work and be the responsible adult to different packs of students.
In my own personal way, I want to say thank you to all the teachers who have helped guide me to where I am in life today. It's no mistake that I wound up being a teacher, and I know that I wouldn't be here teaching today if it wasn't for all of their hard work and good/bad examples. Yes there will be bad examples, because no one is perfect and I know I've royally screwed over some of my students too so judgement free zone and all that! I've had so many teachers that I know I will forget many of them, but I'm going to try and hit all the ones that I can remember and make sure that I give each person the time the deserve.
I will be breaking up teachers by school, so I'll make a post about all my elementary teachers, then I'll have one for middle school and then high school. I might make an additional post about college professors and some of my colleagues who are in need of appreciation too.
But I digress...
I always knew it was difficult being a teacher, because every teacher ever had no problem complaining about it, and I do too, so I'm carrying on the tradition lol. But now that I am a teacher I know all the struggles that go on behind the scenes. When things are falling apart in your own life, you still have to slap on a brave face and come to work and be the responsible adult to different packs of students.
In my own personal way, I want to say thank you to all the teachers who have helped guide me to where I am in life today. It's no mistake that I wound up being a teacher, and I know that I wouldn't be here teaching today if it wasn't for all of their hard work and good/bad examples. Yes there will be bad examples, because no one is perfect and I know I've royally screwed over some of my students too so judgement free zone and all that! I've had so many teachers that I know I will forget many of them, but I'm going to try and hit all the ones that I can remember and make sure that I give each person the time the deserve.
I will be breaking up teachers by school, so I'll make a post about all my elementary teachers, then I'll have one for middle school and then high school. I might make an additional post about college professors and some of my colleagues who are in need of appreciation too.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Seesaw: The Learning Journal
Long awaited, and here at last! For the past couple of weeks I've been playing around with my classes and using the Seesaw app and website for all of my classes. At first my students were a little hesitant about having to find some free space on their phones to download the app, but eventually they came around to the idea.
Creating an account is super simple and making and joining classes is very easy, and when you finally get everything set up, there's an instructional video showing you how to use the program and features. I normally explain how to use the program in my blog posts, but I think you'll get more out of Seesaw if you play around with it on your own. There's so many different things you can do with it and I haven't been able to explore them all yet, so what I'm going to do for this post is explain the lessons I've used Seesaw for and then talk about how the students reacted to it.
One thing I will say is that you NEED to have students use their school provided email address, that way the students appear in the class as Bobby Robertson, and not as gthug69...
How I had them sign in
After I created an account, built my classes and watched the tutorial video I created my first note.
Side note: I had my class settings to where all posts have to be approved by me, and where students couldn't see each other's work. That meant that if I wanted to upload something, I had to share it with all the students, which was easy enough. One problem that I ran into was that I made this note before I had any students in my class, so as students joined my classes I had to re-share the note with students as they joined the class. On all the future little projects we did it wasn't an issue.
Creating an account is super simple and making and joining classes is very easy, and when you finally get everything set up, there's an instructional video showing you how to use the program and features. I normally explain how to use the program in my blog posts, but I think you'll get more out of Seesaw if you play around with it on your own. There's so many different things you can do with it and I haven't been able to explore them all yet, so what I'm going to do for this post is explain the lessons I've used Seesaw for and then talk about how the students reacted to it.
One thing I will say is that you NEED to have students use their school provided email address, that way the students appear in the class as Bobby Robertson, and not as gthug69...
How I had them sign in
- https://web.seesaw.me/ or download the app
- Log in
- I'm a student
- Email/Google account
- Student Sign in with google or G+
- Allow access
- Enter Join Code
The Assignment
Side note: I had my class settings to where all posts have to be approved by me, and where students couldn't see each other's work. That meant that if I wanted to upload something, I had to share it with all the students, which was easy enough. One problem that I ran into was that I made this note before I had any students in my class, so as students joined my classes I had to re-share the note with students as they joined the class. On all the future little projects we did it wasn't an issue.
Of course there was a little trial and error. Some students didn't have their phones, and the desktop computers we have in the room are slower than Christmas. One solution was to have them share phones but still have their own video uploaded. That worked well for the most part, but some students didn't listen and didn't sign in to Seesaw with their own account so I had to search through other students' folders to find their work. So if you have access to iPads or laptops then BRING THEM!!!
Once all the students got signed in and they got access to the assignment, they started creating their videos. Some of them were really good, but some were a little lack luster. The students need a chance to play around with the program to figure out how it works and how to properly make a video. I had some that were submitted upside down, there were some where students didn't allow access to the microphone and there was no sound, some tried to video and write at the same time and I got really bad close ups of the paper. It just takes trial and error.
After they did their first videos, I graded them and went back and left comments on all the videos and let them know where they went wrong or what they did right. The main feedback I got from the students is that they didn't like having to talk on camera, so the next assignment we did was long division where they didn't have to talk, they just had to upload a video showing all their work. They enjoyed this a lot more.
Next I had them play around with uploaded a photo of their work. Easy enough, no having to make a video, no speaking involved. They loved it, and it didn't take them long at all to realize they could type and draw on their photos also.
What I like about Seesaw:
Once all the students got signed in and they got access to the assignment, they started creating their videos. Some of them were really good, but some were a little lack luster. The students need a chance to play around with the program to figure out how it works and how to properly make a video. I had some that were submitted upside down, there were some where students didn't allow access to the microphone and there was no sound, some tried to video and write at the same time and I got really bad close ups of the paper. It just takes trial and error.
What I like about Seesaw:
- You can control who joins your class, and there is a way for parents to look at their student's work
- You can control what the students can see, and share examples with your classes
- You have the ability to approve or deny comments or submissions of assignments
- Students can submit an assignment in a variety of formats
- All work submitted is stored in an individual folder by student name so you can look back on it later
- You can comment on submissions to let students know how they did
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)