Well, I have a Master’s Degree, at least. I am definitely not a Master teacher yet. Notice I said YET. lol
I am proud: After 1 year of hard work, frustration, jubilation, laughter, tears, 28 Kindergarten students, 10 (other teacher’s) classroom visits, 4 weeks of lead teaching, countless hours of studying, 6 major papers, a spring break trip to Mexico with 7 of my besties, my grandpa and 16 year-old cat passing away, my friends wondering where I disappeared to, missing Blogher but having a blast at Fitbloggin… I made it.
NLU graduation was today. Even though I decided not to spend the 70 bucks for the cap and gown (I am a poor teacher now, you know!!), I spent the morning watching some of my friends walk on the streaming video online. It was great to see Rahm Emanuel (Chicago’s new mayor) talk so highly (and for SO LONG!!) about the program I went through and how tell my 68 other program graduates that we are the future of teaching.
I am proud that I have a first grade position at a school in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood of Chicago and that I am going to be able to bring my fun personality and strong work ethic to my kids.
I am proud that I pulled off a 4.0 grade point average for the first time in my life. I worked hard, asked for help, and met each hard assignment head on. I persevered and did the best that I could— and it PAID OFF!!
My summer is pretty short this year- I will work for a “year round” school for the 2012 school year- the first day for teachers to report is August 1. The first day for the students is August 8th. I aso have professional development this summer for 3 weeks to help with guided reading, math and numeracy skills and a bootcamp for new teachers.
So yeah, short summer.
I am kinda freaking out right now- I haven’t seen my new room yet and I have NO IDEA how I am going to decorate it when I am there. I know it will all work out, but I am a planner and without seeing my new room, I can’t plan for what I need.
I pre-tracked, I ate what I planned (actually less than I planned) and I walked out of the restaurant satisfied but not stuffed.
YES I DID!
What was different tonight than what I originally planned: When I planned today early, I gave myself 24 chips, but when I got to 12 (one serving) I felt like I didn’t need anymore so I stopped. Also, I planned to eat 1/4 cup equivalent of guacamole- when it came out, it was only OK tasting not amazing as I had hoped, so I only are one chip worth. I ended up adding rice and a small amount of beans to the meal as they were really tasty.
All in all, I did very well. I ate my 2 chicken fajitas, drank diet coke and had a fun night with my friends.
Tomorrow starts a full 3 weeks of craziness, so I am going to put three goals up on my page and try to stick to them for the week.
Post my food journals (whatever they may be) everyday before 11:30pm.
The day started off a bit rough- the “kitty” alarm clock went off at 6am, but my iPhone alarm did not so i woke at 8:21am this morning… my meeting started at 8:30am. I raised around the house and (somehow) made it to the meeting at 8:46am. I did forget deodorant and to brush my teeth, but still. I made it.
Since I raced out of the house, I forgot to grab breakfast and my snacks out of the fridge. I remembered that I had put a few “healthy snacks” in the car just in case. SCORE! So I grabbed unsweetened apple sauce and a chewy chocolate chip bar to get me through. It was all carbs/sugar, but still. It was something that was not McDonalds.
They had (not at all healthy) Chinese food for lunch today- and sugar soda. I did the best I could, since I was over-hungry. I should have stuck with the beef and broccoli, but I didn’t. And I think I would have if I would have checked the points values for the items before I grabbed them. But I had no idea what was on the buffet until I arrived in the room.
Long story short, next time I will peruse the food FIRST, go put in points NEXT, then fill my small plate. Next time.
I have a crap-load of stupid homework that is due tomorrow two 2 page papers and one 4 page paper all for the same class. ICK. I started the reading last night and will finish tonight. Wish me luck! One think I won’t do is overeat later tonight. I am satisfied by dinner and know I have a banana and carrots as a snack if I get hungry later.
I muss the blog, but I am stressed, and thinking about blogging, or actually the lack of blogging, stresses me out even more.
Few health updates:
Starting over AGAIN with trying to eat healthy. I have gained about 20lbs in the past 6 months from not taking care of myself and eating from the drive-thru. Going to Mexico for spring break in April so would really like to gain back some muscle. Plan to workout 2-3 times a week and have planned my meals for the week already. In the plan is atleast 2 veggies and 2 fruit servings at each meal.
Also just bought my plane ticket to FitBloggin 2011 and I am super pumped to see a tom of my online friends in real life. Hoping to be fit enough to do the 5K this year. OK, back to the grind!! AJ
I haven’t been here for a while, and while I feel guilty, I don’t feel TOO guilty.
And I feel guilty for not feeling too guilty. You get the picture.
The past few months have been a roller coaster and while I usually hate riding them, I don’t ever want to get off this one.
Grad School is going great. I got all A’s again (another A in MATH!! WOOHOO!) and I am on break until January 14th.
Kindergarten is A.MA.ZING. I can’t tell you have unbelievable it is. While I am so tired I go to bed each night before 7 pm (really), I have so much fun each day that I can’t wait to go back.I wish I could share the kids with you. I have 28 brilliant, talented and hilarious students who amaze me every single day. They are helping me become the best darn teacher I can be. But without parent consent, I can’t tell you anything. Maybe when I am retired I will come back to this poor blog and share my experiences.
On the fitness front… yeah….no.
I am probably the heaviest I have EVER been. Yippee. I haven’t jumped on a scale (yet). I am too scared too. But I do know that my belly is really getting out of hand and I am starting to huff and puff as I go up stairs. Oh and I have an @ss shelf again. Damnit.
I can’t blame anyone else but myself. I have been burning the candle at both ends and have not been eating right, sleeping well or exercising. And as EVERYONE knows, sleep, healthy food and moving are the key components to losing weight.
I know what to do.
I know HOW to do it.
I KNOW I can make healthy choices and move more (other than the 12-17,000 steps a day I take while teaching).
Fitbloggin is in May and I really don’t want to huff and puff my way around the conference. And I want to atleast be able to complete the 5K without having a heart attack.
I think I am going to go back and read some of my old posts when I as actively losing weight and see if I can find some of the menus I used while I was in Weight Watchers. My breakfast and lunch eating is fine – no fast food at school. I either am too tired to make food when I get off work so I pick up a pizza or McDonald’s then sit on my butt all night, or I eat something fatty and salty at home and fall fast asleep at 6:30pm. So to sum up, I am kinda a hot mess at dinner. I bought a few boneless turkey breasts (fresh to minimize salt content, then froze them) so I can cook them up on Sundays and package up atleast 6-7 meals for dinner- my goal is to make 3-4 different meals with the turkey so I won’t be eating turkey {insert dish here} every night- I would get sick of that really quick.
I am also vowing to take better care of myself. I have new teacher syndrome right now- I have caught every cold the kids have had. I am taking vitamins and trying to get as much sleep as possible, but all those new germs are invading me. Even Emergen-C and Cold Calm have only been putting off the inevitable for a few days at a time.
I am currently visiting my grandma for the Christmas and we pretty much just sit and eat while I am here. While I need to relax and rejuvenate, I really need to get up and move. We are expecting 5-7 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow, so we will probably be stuck inside again. Ick.
Anyway, I hope to get a few blog post stubs written up while I am here so I can atleast post once a week with minimal effort once I get back into the swing of school. The posts may look a lot a like (but with different information), but atleast I will be posting something, right?
I WANT to blog here… I really do. But when life, elementary school, grad school, and everything else get in the way, blogging usualy loses.
I hate that blogging usually loses.
I start my third week of teaching tomorrow, and, so far, I am LOVING my job.
I wake up at 5:50 each morning ready to drive my 45 minute reverse commute to school, excited to see “my” kids.
I enjoy every minute I have with them- yes, even the ones that test my patience.
I have been working on transitions- that is managing the 27 kids from the classroom to specials (gym, art, music, library), lunch, recess, and home. I read my first (then second) read-aloud story to the kids. I performed my first lunchroom duty.
I tied shoes, buttoned pants, and comforted the criers.
I taught buh, buh, buh “B”, and helped the kids write their names.
I sang songs.
I laughed with them.
AND I LOVED IT.
I might be exhausted every night when I come home, and I may go to bed at like 8pm most nights (really, 8pm), but I really feel like I have found my calling. my TRUE CALLING.
I talked to my mentor Thursday and mentioned how I loved what I was doing, but I didn’t feel like I was “doing very well.” I keep forgetting things. For example, on Monday last week, I forgot to have the kids get their lunch tickets off the bench. I thought about it the whole night long. Tuesday, I MADE SURE they got their lunch cards but forgot something else that i had remembered the day before!!!!
This is only the second time in my career-life I have done a job that I am not 100 percent proficient in- and I am kinda tense about that.I have so much in my brain, I just forget somethings.
I called my mom on Tuesday night and was telling her about this and she mentioned something I had told her before. One of the founding principles of my coursework is a specific framework. the framework talks about teachers living somewhere within 4 sections: Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient and Distinguished. Unsatisfactory is doing harm to a student. No one should be there. Basic is a normal 1st year teacher: no harm being done, but they are uneven. Proficient is what my mentor is: great at teaching, has a few off days, but overall, wonderful teacher. Distinguished is a place where teachers visit, but they never live. My mentor visits distinguished land alot.
My mom reminded me that we are only in the SECOND WEEK OF SCHOOL, and as long as I was doing no harm to the kids (I’m not, I promise) then I was living in “BasicLand” where ALL new teachers live, and THAT IS A GOOD THING.
So back to talking to my mentor on Thursday. I mentioned my mom’s comments, and my mentor made me cry.
Good tears, I promise.
She told me in 10 years of mentoring, she has only seen 1 other person with the same caliber as me. She thinks I am right where I should be and further, and that I am truly where I should be in life. She thinks I have what it takes to be a great teacher.
<speechless>
It was so good to get feedback like that. I beat myself up more than anyone else could, so I thanked her, then when an bawled it out in the bathroom. Sometimes I just need a good cry.
I am back in Kindergarten tomorrow, and I am pumped. I am teaching a few lessons this week (about 2 hours per week right now) and I am working hard to make my lessons rigorous and FUN!
Meals have been great- I ate out a few times, but have been really working hard to eat in (saving lots of $$!). I have been averaging about 8000 steps each day, with almost 12,000 on Thursday night (parent curriculum night! Late but fun night!). I don’t notice my pants fitting differently, but I know they are not tighter than they were before, so that is good!
OK, it is 8:41pm – I am over my bedtime by like 15 minutes!
Hope to be back sometime in the middle of the week, but if not, I will be back Sunday!
I spent the morning doing errands, trying to make sure I didn’t forget anything. A Rx here. Dry cleaning there. A quick run to Staples for a calendar/planner, chart markers and dry erase markers. A stop at the public library to pick up a text book (free instead of 35 bucks…score!)
On a side note, do you all remember this commercial for school supplies? It always makes me giggle, and I always think about it when I go to the office supply store…
I came home and hit the bed. For some reason, I have been wiped out this week.
I slept for 3 full hours.
No kitty interruptions. I think they understood that I was exhausted.
I woke up as the sun was going down and decided I better look at my grad school home work (gonna be due Friday) and make a weekly game plan (in my Brand. New. Planner!) to get the reading done, along with working on my weekly plan for kindergarten. Oh- and add in all the teacher in-service days, holidays, and other calendar days I could find on the school district calendar.
Pre-planning REALLY helps my anxiety around not getting everything done.
I got all my calendar dates in in about 45 minutes (color-coded and everything), then ran drove to the grocery store to grab some ingredients for the crockpot and other lunch items for the week (coming soon- a new Mindful Meals post).
I threw a chicken meal in the crockpot (recipe here) and started to think about lunch for Tuesday.
I have fun plans for tomorrow- brunch here with 3 great friends, then a short shopping trip to “the real woman”store (AKA Lane Bryant) to get a few clearance deals -teachers have to dress nice, you know!?
Monday I might go with a friend to the outlet mall to check out a couple of other deals.
I am missing BlogHer ’10 right now because I messed up in undergrad and took (what the overtly brilliant but jerky teacher called it) “Math for Dummies” class instead of something that would transfer over to my grad school adventure.
So there I was, at 6:50 this morning, wiping the sleep out of my eyes and wishing I was in NYC eating a continental breakfast and enjoying all the swag I could box up to ship home.
But alas, I was being attacked by a cat who wanted attention (Button, who I am sure you will hear alot about — he is my housemates cat) and the looming feeling that I was going to have a rough day.
A rough 7 1/2 hour day.
Yeah, you heard me, 7 1/2 hours filled with equations and algorithms and other math things I had could not remember from “regular” school.
But this is GRAD SCHOOL, I kept thinking. I should know how to do “math”. I am smart. I am capable of learning new things! I can DO THIS!
I got to school at 8:15 (class started at 9) grabbed an egg white and cheese bagel and a water (I know, I know, not the pilar of healthy…I forgot my lunch at home) and took my sweet time to get to the classroom on the 5th floor.
I was the first one there.
I am always the first one there.
My classmates slowly trickled in, all with looks of exhaustion, frustration or crabbiness on their faces. All but one of us have been together in the same cohort/classes the last 7 weeks. The other person in the class starts teaching n a new school on Monday. She is still working madly to get her classroom in order. I do not envy her.
In the last 7 weeks, we completed 22 semester hours of graduate course work– not including the 4 credit hours for the math class. Dark eye circles abound!
We started griping about the class and how (most of us) hate math, suck at math or just plain don’t “get” math…when the teacher came in.
She looked exactly like my grandma – in a good way.
I thought- CRAAAAAAP, she is gonna teach us old school- the same way I was taught for years– the same way that DIDN’T work for me.
But she didn’t.
At 2pm (yes we had breaks, 10 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes for lunch – I had a small, healthy-ish pasta dish) I looked at my watch and was almost SAD- yeah, I said it, SAD- that we were almost done for the day.
I was understanding concepts and vocabulary I had NEVER understood before.
NEVER.
She was breaking down math into simple concepts that MADE SENSE to me.
I couldn’t believe it. I think at one point my mouth was hanging open in utter amazement that I understood what she was putting in front of me.
I have 2 more 7 1/2 hour Saturday classes, and I am not dreading them.
I have 2 hours worth of homework for just math class alone each night, and I am not dreading that either. I WANT to learn more about math.
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I remembered that I had put a few “healthy snacks” in the car just in case. SCORE! So I grabbed unsweetened apple sauce and a chewy chocolate chip bar to get me through. It was all carbs/sugar, but still. It was something that was not McDonalds.