Dear Raders,
I was exhausted after wrestling with the Demo lesson plan, so I took a nap and woke up around 10 p.m. From that time on out, I alternated between working on the lesson plan, watching T.V., and doing some oh-so-important Facebooking and internet surfing.
Yea, it was like that!
In my previous post, I wrote about how I struggled with this lesson. I also wrote about how I confused the standard I was given with another standard. Well, my demo lesson was @ 10 a.m. down the street from my house. I realized the mistake I’d made around 8:30. What do you think I did?
I rewrote parts of the lesson plan. It took about 40 minutes. Right at that time it was around 9:15. I knew that I had to begin to get ready to leave the house. I put the finishing touches on the lesson plan and made my way to the site.
After getting there, I thought about a few things, so I took out the copies of the lesson plan and looked it over. Sure enough, I found mistakes right away. I took out my highlighter, highlighted them and put them away.
Since I had 10 minutes before the Principal and the rest of the team were ready to see me, I looked over the lesson plan and mentally ran through it in my mind.
I’ll write about the rest tomorrow. Bye for now!
Month: July 2014
Interviewing is Not for the Faint of Heart! Part 2
Dear Readers,
So…the demo lesson. It didn’t exactly go as planned. The first problem was the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) which I do not have a lot of experience with. I was given a very vague standard (Apply grade 7 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g. “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims”).) and could not make sense of it. Maybe someone else with more experience with CCSS would have known what to do with this, but I didn’t.
So, I call in reinforcements- my friend Danika. She has more experience than I do. So, she gave me some ideas, told me how the teachers at her last school used to do it (pair it with a state standard), then I set about writing a lesson plan.
I paired the writing standard with a Social Studies standard about Hammurabi’s Code of Law. Problem: I totally misunderstood the standard. My goal was to use a current event (Young girl in Santa Ana, CA who lost her life chasing a suspect who stole her cell phone) and have the students act as a jury and decide whether or not to convict the suspect (who’s still at large) based on Hammurabi’s Code of Law. They were going to use Hammurabi’s Code of Law as their literary text.
Problem: This did NOT align with the standard. I confused it with another standard where the students have to Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text– CCSS:ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1.
So, my lesson plan was written according to the wrong standard. When I got my critique, I was told to remove everything regarding Hammurabi’s Code of Law and only use the article about the young girl as the piece of literature. Once I removed Hammurabi’s Code of Law, the lesson plan made absolutely no sense. Now, I had to go back to square one. When I say I wrestled with that standard, I seriously wrestled with it. I thought I had it nailed until I had my critique. After that I was so confused. I spoke with Danika’s friend, Tracy, who didn’t understand the suggestions either and she has much experience with the CCSS.
After speaking with someone with experience with the CCSS, I felt better about my confusion. She didn’t understand it either, but I knew the show must go on! I will explain how the lesson went wrong in my next post. Bye for now!
Interviewing is Not For the Faint of Heart!, Part 1
Dear Readers,
Here is a little bit more about what I’ve been through while interviewing these past couple of weeks.
Green Dot Process
The first step: Phone interview
The third step: Panel interview and lesson plan critique
The fourth step: Demo lesson plan
I struggled greatly with the demo lesson plan because I’m not all that familiar with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and didn’t feel as if I had a firm grasp of the given standard.
I’m not sure if this is a new trend in interviewing, but all of my interviews have been panel interviews. The one that I had with Green Dot actually had six candidates with a moderator sitting in the center of the room with about 10-12 administrators (I lost count) around the periphery listening to our responses to the questions being asked.
- After that was over, the candidates were allowed 30 minutes to answer questions from a writing prompt.
- After that, the lesson plan sent in earlier was critiqued in preparation for the demo lesson.
- Then, candidates met with the school(s) that were interested. From there, an appointment was set for the demo lesson.
I was at the Green Dot office from 10:00-1:40. Whew! In the next post, I will write about the demo which didn’t go as well as I planned. So, bye for now!
Happy Birthday to Me!
Dear Readers,
Today I’m 44 or 22 double as I like to say. I cannot believe it. Where has the time gone?
Tomorrow, I Start!
Dear Readers,
I’m nervous. Tomorrow’s the big day-my first day at my new job. I have 9th/10th grade RSP. I just got my schedule today. I don’t know what to expect. I guess I’ll see in the days to come.
I’ll keep you updated. Bye for now!
School Shopping???
Yes, Dear Readers,
I went school shopping! Not for my children, but for myself. I like well made dresses, so I shop at Talbots & Banana Republic, but don’t want to pay full price. Believe me when I say, when they have sales, they have sales!
I didn’t have to have new clothes, I just wanted them. I’d bought various dresses throughout the school year, but hadn’t done any bulk shopping for myself at the beginning of the school year year since my first year of teaching.
I will post various pics throughout the year. For now, here’s a list of what I bought: Continue reading “School Shopping???”
No More Interviews!!!
Hello Dear Readers,
In the past month, I have been on six (count ’em, 6) interviews! At this point I am tired of interviewing. Yesterday was my last interview. I already had five job offers on the table and didn’t want to interview anymore. I simply didn’t. Just like 8 was enough, six was enough!
I went to the last interview anyway. Just to see! Well, guess what happened with that one? I accepted the job.
The funny thing about the job that I accepted was that I was passing by the site the other day with my daughter and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I worked there since it’s right by your school?”
“Yes,” she said.
Of all the job I was offered, this was my second choice. I wanted the job with Green Dot because of the room for advancement, the pay, I really liked the administration, and most importantly-the free health insurance.
The two reasons I didn’t want to accept my current job was because of the insurance cost (not free) and no pay in the summer. What it all equates to though is bigger paychecks that I need to manage well.
The reason I accepted is because my daughter, Phillise (12)-being the big almost 7th grader that she is-wanted more freedom. She feels that I shelter her too much. (I do, but that’s besides the point!)
Her school is about 6 blocks from where I will be working. So, my plan is to either drop her off at school, or go early and let her walk the six blocks to her school, with her texting me once she gets to school.
I always felt I was not spending as much quality time with her because I was always working to provide. Now I get to spend more time with her and my youngest son, David (16) + my older sons, Sam (24) & Dakota (23).
Reasons for and against accepting the job:
Cons: No summer pay, I have to pay for insurance, I have an extra hour of work more than I did before, I couldn’t take my 1st choice job because the travel time was about an hour each way.
Bonus: I get to spend more time with my children, I make a lot more than I did working at the Catholic School.
That is my post for now, Dear Readers. I am tired since I was out with my friend, Danika, who took me out for an early birfday brunch. So, I will update you more on the interviewing process. It was taxing. Bye for now!
Happy Birfday to Hunter!
Dear Readers,
Today is a special day for me. It’s my middle son’s, Hunter, birfday! He’s 23!!! I cannot believe it. Where did the time go???
Common Core State Standards explained
Dear Readers,
Here’s a link to explain the Common Core standards in a nutshell, in about 3 minutes. Enjoy!
Jokes that teach!
Hello Dear Readers,
When I received an email for Trevor regarding a site with jokes that teach, I didn’t know what to expect. I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised.
Here’s a sampling of some of the jokes on the site:
Why are chemists better at solving problems than physicists?
They have all of the solutions.
Why can’t you trust atoms?
They make up everything.
I thought the jokes were pretty cute. Here’s the website to check it out if you so desire: http://jokesthatteach.com
Bye for now!
The Jacket!
Dear Readers,
I purchased this lovely Trina Turk cropped blazer. I got it at a beyond wonderful price. Why am I upset then? Well, it seems I put on a bit of weight and I can’t fit it. Who can fit it? My baby girl, who @ 12 years old is 5’6 and towers over me. Since she is shaped like her dad’s side of the family she’s nice and slender.
She is very supportive of me and challenged me to lose the weight to get into the jacket by October. If I don’t slim down by then enough to button it, then she gets to keep it. Guess I need to get on the ball!
In order to keep myself honest, I will post some before pics. I will also post pics in October. Here’s to getting into that Trina Turk jacket! Bye for now.
A Panel Interview!
Dear Readers,
Today I had a 7 person panel interview. The space was kinda’ small, so it was a bit intimidating. If I were someone who intimidated easily or interviewed badly, I would have been in bad shape. Thankfully I’m not. So, all went well since I interview very well. Hopefully, I’ll get this job. I’ve had one other and another is coming up on Tuesday, but I want this job. I’ll let you know how it goes. Bye for now!
Fear of Commitment?
Good read.
Are you afraid of commitment? Have you been in a relationship with someone who experiences trepidation at the thought of pledging devotion? We tend to think of people who shy away from commitment as being immature or unwilling to make sacrifices. Maybe you use it as an excuse yourself to keep others at arm’s length. Perhaps you generate the term dismissively as a reason to end a budding relationship, stating it as an embedded character flaw.
But what if we are thinking about the fear of commitment all wrong?
What if the true fear is not one of committing and promising to keep, but one of losing? The fear of commitment hides other fears behind its legs. Do you recognize any of these?
Fear of Losing Self
When we commit – to another person, to a career, to children, or even to a lease, we are bonding ourselves to something…
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Special 2 Me 