What’s Working For Me!

As we all know, I am a new teacher. I have been looking for a blog/site where I could find out about what to expect, yet I have not been able to. I wanted to read something that really got into raw emotions- the nitty gritty. Necessity is always the mother of invention. That is [...]

Who’s Your Hero? part 2

A while back, I wrote a post about one of my favorite shows from the 80′s, called “The Greatest American Hero”. I didn’t fully develop it the way that I wanted to. In it I talked about the plot of the show being about how aliens gave the star of the show, William Katt, a [...]

Special Education Meeting

Taken directly from L.A.U.S.D. website Special Education Initiative: An informational meeting will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, December 3rd for those considering a career in the field of Special Education in the Beaudry Bldg (333 S. Beaudry Ave, L.A., CA 90007). Topics will include the employment process, special education credentialing opportunities, as well [...]

Today Was Aiiiight!

The day was aiiiight. Of course the students, one in particular, Lito, has been challenging me, I am rising to the challenge. I call their every bluff. If they say that they are going to walk out the classroom, I tell them what the consequences are for doing that. If they choose to do it [...]

Multiple Intelligences Works For My Students

Yesterday I posted about Multiple intelligences by Harvard professor Howard Gardner. I connected this to my lesson. Now I begin the day by letting my students use their artistic intelligence. I let them draw a picture of how they feel. I give them 15 minutes to draw a picture expressing how they feel. Afterwards they [...]

Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner

On my first couple of days at teaching, I introduced my students to multiple intelligences to let them know that there are different ways to learn. I let them know that some of them learn by touching (i.e., manipulatives), while some of them learn by hearing (direct instruction), while still others learn by seeing (visually). [...]

Thank Goodness For Small Favors!

This post is about one of my students, we’ll call him Toolie, you know the one who called me a garden tool (ho) and a female dog (You know what that is, don’t you?). Well, he lives less than a block from the school, so I have been going down there every Friday. Last Friday [...]

Science Experiments

To fulfill the science part of my teaching commitment, I have been on the hunt for science experiments for my students that will be engage them and make them think. Most of all, I want to make it fun for them. I have found about 15 science experiments that I am modifying to fit my [...]

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY!

To all you shopping maniacs out there, Happy Black Friday!

Yesterday Wasn’t Half Bad!

I have to say that all-in-all, yesterday wasn’t a bad day. I am happy about that because even though I was determined to have a great day no matter what, I was still a little worried. First of all, my oven is on the fritz. Even when I have it all the way up to [...]

A Reverse Psychology Motivational Speaker Using Seinfeldian Terms

For this Thanksgiving I had a plan. I was going to have a peaceful Thanksgiving if it killed me damnit! My plan was to unvite some parts of my family for Thanksgiving. Yeah, you read it right. I said unvite instead of invite. That’s a Seinfeldian term from the sitcom by Jerry Seinfeld. Let me [...]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Don’t eat too much!

I Will Survive & Thrive!

At our staff development meeting, the special ed teachers were in our own meeting. It was then that one of my administrators decided that she would hold me up as an example of what not to do. She then compared me to a veteran teacher whose classroom is set up so well, has all of [...]

Feeling Like Peter Parker Again!

***WARNING- There is a lot of bitching, moaning, ranting and raving. A lot!*** I feel that I don’t have a choice about this teaching thing. This is what I was meant to do. However (and that’s a big however), knowing what you’re supposed to do and doing it is a different thing. I am just [...]

GET OUTTA’ MY CLASS!!!

GET OUTTA’ MY CLASS I want to tell one of my students! He doesn’t need to be there. I have this student, we’ll call him Hallel, that just refuses to do his work, finds every excuse to get out of his seat, and has a bit of a sarcastic little tongue on him. He is, [...]

With Wings As An Eagle!

Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” I was a little distraught. I had to pray for strength. As I was praying, God gave me this scripture. [...]

It Was A Good Week, But…

I always have to preface my stories with this- “Although it may not have seemed like it, it was a good week”. I preface my stories that way because there are a lot of things going on in my class. Things can get a little rough. This week with my students was very rough. On [...]

Survival Mode!

From reading the book by Harry & Rosemary Wong, I know there are four stages of teaching: Fantasy Survival Mastery Impact I passed the Fantasy stage a long time ago when I was an assistant. I have been on survival mode for the last week. This stage does not work for me. I need to [...]

I Won’t Complain!

I equate teaching and “thinking” that you can teach to a veteran mother and a newly pregnant woman. From the outside looking in, it doesn’t look that bad. In fact, it may even look easy. However, the veteran teacher and/or mother knows that a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears went into that [...]

Like Moses!

I feel like Moses in regard to my class. I really don’t feel qualified. Why me God? Why me? I’m sure that there are many more teachers that are way more qualified than I who could handle my class. Maybe a man, perhaps? I have so many boys. 9 out of my 11 students are [...]

Walk A Mile In My Shoes!

Last week, I let the children walk a mile in my shoes. As I was trying to teach, on my very first day of teaching (They didn’t know that), I was constantly being interrupted (which I expected). It was then that I told them to go home and think about something that they wanted to [...]

The I.E.P. Deconstructed-Present Levels Of Performance (P.L.O.P.S)

I know that I talk/write so much about the resources that I received in my summer bootcamp, but now that you’ve seen some of the resources, you should be able to understand why. The resources are absolutely fantastic. I learned so much in my boot camp. In fact, I was just on the L.A.U.S.D. website [...]

Damage Control vs. Teaching!

I explained to my students about Damage Control. I told them it’s basically like trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose. I let them know that their misbehavior was unacceptable; that I should be teaching and not doing damage control. So, the next thing that I spoke to them about was [...]

Thank You For Misbehaving!

This is what I told two of my students who were acting up. They looked at me like I was crazy. “What are you talking about? Why are you thanking me for acting up?” they asked. “I’m thanking you because that’s your way of asking for help,” I told them. Thank you for asking for [...]

Too Hard On Myself!

I am going over everything that I did this week. Somethings I definitely could have handled better. Other things I am so satisfied with. I have to stop being so hard on myself. I know that I need to be my own critic without beating myself up. So far this “teaching thing” is a challenge. [...]

Qualities Of A Marine!

These are some of the qualities that we came up with that Marines have. Here they are in no particular order: They have good character. They are strong (mentally). They are disciplined. They finish what they start. They don’t leave anyone behind.They are part of a team and they love it. They are the “best [...]

Opening The Door To Success!

Right now I’m reading How To Be An Effective Teacher: The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong & Rosemary T. Wong. It is a great book. In the book, Harry Wong says to tell the children exactly how you want them to do things. Not only that model it for them. This is [...]

The Few, The Proud, The Marines!

My Principal gave me explicit instructions to foster a sense of family in my class. She said to make them proud of their class. So ideas just started churning in my head. I talked to Viviana, one of my classmates @ B.N.U., who gave me the idea of doing a bubble graph and having them [...]

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco

Pink and Say (1994), written & illustrated by Patricia Polacco is so touching. No, I really mean it. When I first read it, I had no idea what it was going to be about. After I finished I had tears in my eyes. It is so beautiful. This book further reinforced my love of Mrs. [...]

Happy 10th birthday!

Today is David’s 10th birthday. He is so big and handsome. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID! Here’s to many more.

The 4 P’s!

These are my rules that I am using. They are great. I learned them in Teacher Training Academy from a retired teacher. They take care of everything and they all go together. I introduced them to the kids and let them give me their own examples of what they thought they were. Of course I [...]

I’m Exhaling!

Phew!!! Now I can exhale! I made it through my first week. Guess what? I still love it. Warts and all. The first day I was scared. I figured that those kids were going to eat me alive; but I faced it. My class represented my worst classroom management fear. They fight and run out [...]

A Seemingly Long-Toothed Lion Defanged!

I had a very interesting, life changing revelation yesterday when dealing with one of my students. When I was first observing the class, I wondered how, oh how was I going to deal with him. He was like a roaring lion seeking to devour ( 1 Peter 5:8). I was prey to him! He really [...]

The I.E.P. Deconstructed – Modifications vs. Accomodations (5 of 6)

I am a teacher and up until a couple of months ago, I confused the two. This process can be pretty overwhelming and confusing. I can’t even begin to fathom how someone new to Special Ed is taking in all of these terms. Since I have a better grasp on these terms now, I will [...]

My 2nd First Day of School! (Part 2)

Well, I’m back from my very first day of teaching. It was a good day. If you were in the class, you might not have thought so. I have 13 students altogether, but 2 are mainstreamed in the general education classes. One is only there for half a day. He’s pretty rambunctious but he’s a [...]

My 2nd First Day of School!

Today is the day. My first day of teaching. I have so much planned. I don’t know how it’s going to go. I am a little nervous, but ready. I have been building up to this day for a while, so let’s just get it over with dammit! Wish me luck!

How I Became Just Another Piece Of Prosciutto! (And Her Name Is ME!)

What is prosciutto and why is it so bad that I have become just another piece of it? Well, according to Wikipedia, it derives from the Latin perexsuctum, which means “thoroughly dried” (lit., “(having been) very sucked out”). It’s so bad because for a while all of my life seemed to have been “sucked” out [...]

I Need Some Rest!

Boy am I tired! I need some rest. This has been a busy week. First, I had 40 hours of Teacher Training Academy this week. It was nice, but 40 hours of sitting down and instruction was a bit much. Not to mention school @ B.N.U. Now, I have to go to an AmeriCorps meeting. [...]

Thank you to Azusa Pacific University!

I have to say thank you to Azusa Pacific University! It is an excellent school with rigorous academic standards. I learned so much there. I just graduated from there (HD 92) with a degree in Human Development with an emphasis in English. It was a very intense program, but it was sooooo worth it. The [...]

Thursday’s Thirteen

This is thirteen things that I love about holidays at the end of the year, in no particular order. On Halloween, you get to act silly and no one judges you. On Halloween, you get to dress up. On Christmas, you also get to dress up. On Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, you get to be [...]