tales of a student teacher.

I AM GOING ON MY FIRST INTERVIEW ON MONDAY AFTERNOON.

The head of HR for Hartford Public Schools e-mailed me and asked me for coffee. I have so many questions.

• Does “getting coffee” count as an interview?
• What kind of questions should I ask her?
• I am coming straight from student teaching- aka I will definitely not be wearing heels/a suit. Is this going to ruin my shot?
• What kind of questions might I expect from her?

As a new teacher going on my first interview, I really feel like you could all give me some really good advice. So please….do. I’m stressing out!

Thank you (:

but it will never, ever stop blowing my mind how little credit teachers get. My friends are constantly saying, “Oh, you get to play with kids all day? ROUGH LIFE.”

I leave my apartment at 6:45 at the latest every morning and don’t get back until 4 at the earliest. As a student teacher, I don’t get paid for ANYTHING- no reimbursement for gas, no reimbursement for supplies, nothing. I pay to go to school. I work for ten hours, then I come home and plan for another two hours, minimum.

I wouldn’t trade anything at all, because I absolutely love what I do and I love my kids. Today’s just a “I want more credit for this” day. Can I get an amen?

Home in 24 hours.

I haven’t actually written about my student teaching in awhile.

Because of state testing, and because I’m not a certified teacher for two more months (EEEEE) I’ve been spending a little over an hour every day with the first graders, who aren’t testing. I have so many thoughts. First of all, I love how precious they are. After spending every day with surprisingly street-smart fifth graders, I love that the phrase ‘purple alligator’ can make them bust out laughing. I have built such a surprisingly strong relationship with one of the students- he’s on a Tier II behavior plan, and has some issues, but is SO adorable and tries so hard to change his behavior. I wore a dress today and he told me that I am, “the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen.” (: That didn’t hurt.

I’ve been doing a lot of applying for jobs! Which is terrifying. In the past two days, I have applied for NINE teaching jobs, ranging grades K-5, in and around Hartford. I definitely don’t want to leave the area yet, and I am praying, praying PRAYING that someone finds it in them to hire me! I feel so ready to have a classroom.

I start total takeover next this coming Monday, right after CMT’s are over.This means all day, every day, I’m teaching. I’m not even nervous. My student teaching has been such a perfect experience, I feel like it’s just the natural next step. I’m actually kind of psyched. It’ll be hard to get back into the swing of things after these two weeks of testing, though /:

I had my midterm review with my cooperating teacher and my supervisor today…and I got ALL 3/3’s! :D SO HAPPY. I feel like I’m working so hard, so it’s nice to know that I’m not just spinning my tires and things are actually happening.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking to my principal in these past three days. At U.Hartford, we had a Principal’s Panel for the student teachers to attend and see what some principals had to say about getting hired, and mine attended- so I got to hear firsthand from him what he looks for, which is awesome.The best part- he called on me to speak during the panel to tell everyone in the room about the student self-assessment tool I CREATED. In front of a room of my other student teachers, five principals, a Human Resources Hiring Agent, and all of my professors. It was literally amazing. I was flustered, but so proud. He also told me my school has a first grade opening next year- which I will fight TOOTH AND NAIL for. I want it so badly. I also talked to him today while my students were taking CMT’s for about ten minutes, and he said he would work hard to get me a job somewhere in the area. I’m just so happy. (:

So make a pledge to STOP saying the R-word. Using it is inappropriate, offensive and can hurt the feelings of so many amazing, capable people around the world. A year and a half ago today exactly I took a pledge to stop saying it, and I can honestly say it’s made me a better person. I’m also part of the Best Buddies program- and my best buddy is one of the best, most honest, sincere and hysterical people I’ve ever met. He’s the only man who will text me just to say, “Have a great day today!” or, “You’re going to teach the kids so much today!” Using the R-word as an insult is an insult to him, and I honestly think that people using it should be ashamed.

As a teacher, I have a zero tolerance policy for the word. If I hear any of my stduents using it, they’re immediately given a consequence and will give an apology to not only the other student, but to me. I’ve told them all about my buddy, and about the Best Buddies program, and some of them have honestly inquired about starting a club at their school.

As teachers, we can use our influence in schools to start Spread the Word to End the Word campaigns, or even to start a Best Buddies club. I’m honestly begging you to try and do so if your school doesn’t have one already. It has the potential to change lives.

www.bestbuddies.org

www.r-word.org

Tomorrow, I am getting observed teaching a writing lesson by not only my student teaching supervisor, but the HEAD of the student teaching department. I would be able to handle this better if I didn’t realize that if they weren’t coming tomorrow, we honestly wouldn’t be dragging writing out through the workshop process, because TO BE COMPLETELY HONEST: CMT’S (Connecticut Mastery Tests) start in exactly one week, and we simply have too much to cover to spend an hour on elaborative detail.

Are all of the other teachers running into this, too? Finding places to cut out imaginative lessons/some subjects/etc. because you just have too much test prep or last minute lessons to do before the test? I’m stressing out about it! This is my first time actually dealing with the pressures of having these huge standardized tests looming in front of me, realizing we have five concepts to teach in math that we just DON’T have time to do as in-depth as we want, because we were forbidden to do test prep until last month.

Needless to say, I’m stressed and I don’t want to teach this lesson tomorrow. Wah. Pray for me.

The one small joy in snow.

My student that speaks absolutely no English that JUST moved here from Puerto Rico that I have been spending SO much one-on-one time with …….. transferred schools after being with me for two weeks.

Why.