Hot Dog & Hamburger vs. Burrito & Taco

So this is my unofficial first week of school. I'm spending time at a middle school observing and helping with opening up a classroom for the beginning of the year. There may (probably not) be a post about that later, but that's not what today is about. I'm sharing a story today!

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The teacher I'm with has two classes, AM and PM. She had the kids make name tags to sit at their desks. She was describing the difference between the hot dog and hamburger paper folding methods to her morning class for these name tags. She then mentioned an alternative description that would be more relatable since we live in San Diego. A hot dog fold could also be thought of as a burrito fold. Then she had the kids guess what a hamburger fold could be thought of. I confidently said quesadilla, the rest of the class said taco. Whomp whomp. 

The afternoon class did the same thing. Same spiel. Same description. When it was time for kids to guess what hamburger was...I didn't say anything. But I listened. And a kid in that class said quesadilla. While the rest of the class said taco. I said "yes!" and pointed at the kid who said quesadilla because at least one other person in the class was on the same page as I was. It made my day :]

Happy Thursday peeps.

Why I Resigned...

School.

Shout out to Lebron!

It's August, and I officially start my teaching credential program this month. The hours of school and student teaching conflict with my office schedule. So I decided to take a break from work (until I run out of savings) and totally focus on school. I'm happy, excited, nervous, anxious, and scared to start this program...all at the same time. 

Happy and excited. For so many reasons. I've wanted to teach since I was in 7th grade. (2000) I spent 7 years in college, with a course schedule that looks similar to my high school course list. I owe that to my liberal studies major. With the exception of college softball, some electives, and my personal life...school wasn't that exciting. But I got it done and got one of my first pre-requisites checked off for my program. This time around, when I start school...I'll be taking classes that relate to what I want to do with my life and directly relate to my career. Andddd after 14 years, this program is the last step before becoming a teacher! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Nervous. Because this program is totally different than anything I've done both with my undergrad and work. So even though I've asked tons of questions about this program and what I'll be doing, I still have no clue what's gonna happen. 

Anxious. One of my favorite sayings about anxiety is it's not fear of the future, but wanting to control it. Any one that knows me knows that I like to have every minute of my life planned out. So I was a little anxious when the coordinators of our program interrupted our question and answer session of orientation and said "trust us"which I totally should since this is their 23rd year doing it. So I'm still a little anxious because (as of now) I have not control of anything. Once I figure out the school schedule and get into a groove, I'll be fine...but that moment is not now.

Scared. That whole not having a job thing...scary. Because that means no income. But I've still got bills. I should have done a better job of saving money but I suck at that. Also...this whole money thing kind of means I'll be giving up some stuff. Like season tickets. And going out to lunch/dinner and drinks with friends. Concerts. And maybe a gym membership. And Netflix...after I catch up on some shows. Hahah. It'll all work out. Some how. But I don't know how.

Since I haven't consistently posted, I haven't given many updates. I spent all summer working on prerequisites for this program. Bachelors degree: check. CBEST: check. Multiple Subject CSET: check. CPR certification: check. Fingerprints & Certificate of Clearance: check. Letters of recommendation: check. English CSET: Half check. I found out on Monday that I passes that the 2 (of 4) subtests I took in July! The other 2 are scheduled for September...so I should probably start studying now!

Happy Wednesday peeps :]   

Fall '13 Part 1

My career goal since like 7th grade has been to become a teacher. 

One of the first things on the checklist to becoming a credentialed CA teacher is a Bachelors degree. CHECK! After 7 years ;] 

Now that I've got that...I'm taking 3 education classes at Cal State San Marcos that are prerequisite courses for the teaching credential program at school...holy wow. So much work. Thankfully it's interesting work compared to some of my undergrad courses...but still, so. much. work. One class is technology in the classroom, another is diversity in the classroom, and the last is teaching theory and methods.

It's week 6 and these are my thoughts...

Technology: It's in 2nd place as far as number of assignments. The cool thing about this class is learning about all the different apps and programs and technology tools used in classrooms that I've never heard of. Unfortunately, I can relate to 60 year olds learning how to text. I'm so lost with all this new technology. I've never been a whiz at this kind of stuff...but I didn't think I'd be as clueless as I am! I definitely need to be patient and know that I can't turn a project around in 30 minutes like I'm used to. 

Diversity: Probably the most emotional class I have. We're learning about second language learners, bullying, how different socioeconomic levels affect learning, linguistic diversities, special needs students, etc. Tears have definitely been shed in this classroom...not by me, but others in the classroom. Not sure how I feel about that. Also, I kind of just lied. I had to pull old pictures for a presentation about myself and spent one evening a week and a half ago crying my eyes out thinking of the good ol' times from my childhood. Something super cool about this class is the observation hours. We spend 20 hours tutoring a student. Yesterday was my first night tutoring and it kind of started off awesome. The house where I'm tutoring has two siblings that require separate tutors. The other tutor and I walk in at the same time and introduce ourselves and I say that I'm here for [insert older child's faux pseudonym here] and then the youngest child looks at the older kid and goes "Awww you're so lucky." That same child then tries to cover it up and says "I'm lucky too. I'm actually luckier." Moral of the story is my first impression with 9 year olds rocks. My favorite thing about this class [which makes me a total fatty]...snacks <3 The professor started out the semester with bringing in food and a classmate started a sign up list for the rest of the semester.

Teaching Theory & Methods: 1st place when it comes to school work. This is the class that I lose sleep over just to make sure I've got everything done. There's current even posts, reading logs, reading organizers, reading questions, and my favorite thing...classroom observations and writeups. We're required to do 45 hours of observations between elementary. middle, and high school. That is actually cut down to 25 hours since the 20 tutoring hours from the diversity course are applicable to these 45 :] I started my observations a week and a half ago and I absolutely love it. Which is a total shock because I've been dead set on teaching elementary school since 7th grade and now I'm second guessing that option. I still need to check out elementary and high schools before I totally decide...but I'm just surprised as how much I'm loving middle school. I've had a chance to see U.S. History, Algebra, Language Arts, and P.E. Tomorrow is my last day of middle school observations so I'm a little sad about that. But just a little because elementary school is next week and I'll really get to see how I feel about the little kids!

Blah. I guess my reason for this post was to be able to come back to it in about 6 or so weeks and see how my sentiments have or haven't changed. Sorry for the long and lengthy and post about nothing fun unless you're on the same or similar career path as I am. I'm sure you non teacher folks have checked out before getting to this point. To those that haven't...thanks for reading :]

All the images above were stolen from pinterest, below are some other favorites!

Happy Wednesday peeeeeeeople!