Working

Working while waiting for work. Lol! Just weird, let me be, still tired from yesterday's clean up and painting at school. 

So what's been up? A lot of blog posts to read about the upcoming school year! Very excited!

Classroom Set Up

So just this week, I've started to clean out my new classroom. Thing is, there's still a lot more to do. This coming week, I'll have a couple of kids over to help with cleaning and painting the room. Yes, fresh paint! I love how things can be done here DIY style. Back where I cam from, there's always someone who should be called to do things because that's just the way it is. 

So, I have 4-5 round tables in my room and I'm thinking whether to set these up in a window shaped arrangement like 'W'. But then I thought it might be hard to look left and right all the time. So, I've designed a new arrangement. This will give me a shorter view of my students and the same time keeping them seated closer. This also gives me a feel of a theatrical place. It's kind of cool in my mind. I hope it will come out cool too, cool in a sense that there will be effectiveness in the arrangement I'm thinking of.  

So here's an overview of how I want my room set up. 

The brown ones are the students' tables while the orange dots will be the students. I'm thinking of seating 4-5 students per table. The black and green will be the white board while the blue table will be my table. 

Any thoughts about this arrangement? What do you think are the pros and cons for arranging the classroom in this manner?

A lot going on

Haven't been able to blog the past week because I was busy doing stuff.

I finished my training for work first. 

At the same time, I also applied for my teaching license. My husband is really very supportive! I'm so blessed that he helps me in everything that I have to learn and do. So what's been up since the application is my preparation for the upcoming exams. Must take the Math Content Knowledge Praxis exam. Really nervous because as I went over the coverage, I was overwhelmed. There indeed are a lot but I'll have to make sure and find time to review everything. So I did. I have prepared a schedule to study the topics, specific target dates so that I can manage time wisely. 

Also, it has been a busy week at work teaching the kids. There will always be kids who will get on your nerves, but you will lose if you let them get to you. So, when I did encounter one, I just had to make sure and keep my cool. I always try to bear in mind that I am the adult and that I know better. This is a kid, they are humans and we all commit errors, so we must learn to forgive and move on. 

I just received via email my schedule for next week. I've got a lot going on. Plus next Saturday I'll be at my first staff meeting! Really exciting but I don't know what to expect. Well, that's all for now.

Oh, did I say that I am also preparing my lesson plans for school too? Haha!

I must stand and deliver!

Currently...

Currently sitting in a corner of a Starbucks shop. Laptop charging and coffee in place. I'm going to finish my Science first quarter plan in 2 hours. I must do this! I can do it!

I'll be going to work in 2 hours, so might as well use my time wisely by being productive. Anyway, I'm listening to songs on Spotify and I find this app very innovative and useful. Songs are updated, grouped into clusters of genre and mood and other stuff. Cool.

I need one more star on my Starbucks card to get to the green level and be on free refills! Hoooray for that deal!

I've been very busy lately doing stuff. Making lesson plans, presentations and everything else in there. Plus, I'm already working, which is awesome!

I've got a long day ahead of me. So I'll be off and go ahead do what I have to do.

First day, small victories, and prolonged patience

It was my first day to be an instructor today!

So I'm a Math instructor at a certain center and today is sort of my official first day (I was at the office on Friday but only sat there to observe and take note of all the facilities we have).

Came in the office 15 minutes earlier, because I don't want to be late. Scanned in and then was assigned to sit with someone first so that I could have another go at observing. For an hour I intently observed and took down more notes. Also it's the first day for me to wear the uniform assigned to us. Each of us were given a red and black shirt. I wore the black one today (there's no assignment of which to wear). 

On the second hour, the instructor I sat with gave me a kid to guide. I was glad to do so. The kid was a little girl maybe around 10 years old. She was really fast at what she does. I mean for a 10 year old doing percentages, that was great! I wasn't even aware of percentages when I was that age. I'm sure. Haha! We worked together for an hour, and she was pretty nice laughing at my jokes and actually trying not to be too shy anymore. 

An hour passed by again, then another kid was assigned to me. This time it was a little boy. I asked how to read his name first and then it felt a little awkward because I'm not a big fan of striking up conversations. So he went about answering his work book and I intently monitored his progress. I'd ask him questions occasionally.  Boy was I glad that the female instructor guiding me started to ask the boy about his summer break! It was like an ice breaker. I picked up on this easily and in the course of the remaining time we were together, I asked him about his weekend because he basically went to camp. At camp, he said he learned how to make a catapult out of sticks and a plastic spoon. Cool! Then I'd cut the sharing and ask him to continue working on his work book. We shared laughs and eventually he didn't feel too sleepy anymore. 

Today this is my little fulfillment. I am glad that somehow, I have helped these kids to learn something more today. I am looking forward to seeing more of them in the next days. I hope they come and sit with me! 

Also, I've noticed how my patience has gone from really short, to quite a longer one. I'm finally achieving a better perspective with this. 

Blogger meet up in Vegas

There's a teacher blogger meet up here in Vegas tomorrow!

I don't know if I can go. :( I really want to go and meet new people and learn a lot.

I don't know anyone there and I'll be alone. Plus, it's going to be at night. Don't know too if there's a fee for attending the event. Anyone going? Hope you have a really great time! Looking forward to reading posts about the event.

Filipino food and green tea!

I'm a Filipina and have grown up in the Philippines. I've been away for only a couple of months and here I am craving for food I was used to.

I can eat them here in the US but it wouldn't be the same (haven't found something very authentic yet).

I'm craving for palabok, chicken intestine, dinuguan, tuyo, tinapa, chicharon, galunggong and itlog maalat. Aaah! It's okay, because my husband and I try to cook some Filipino food. We've tried beef steak, sinigang, adobo and Bicol express. Yum! So, we're still on the look out for more Filipino food recipes because from time to time, we miss them.

Plus, at the moment, I feel the need to drink tea, so I made not one but two cups! I love green tea! Just something to ease my mind and sip on.

4th of July weekend

Reading To Kill a Mockingbird this week. I've been on and off on my reading schedule and it's sad. I always try to read at least 10 to 20 pages before I go to bed. Sadly, I haven't had time with the 4th of July weekend and other things that I'm trying to focus on.

Despite this, I'm glad to be continuously reading the book. It's very interesting that a part of the story's setting is in a school. This got me really excited!

I have a couple more books to read in line for this summer. I hope to finish half of them!

4th of July weekend was a blast. Watched movies, went out despite the rain, had breakfast burrito, and saw fireworks through our window! Awesome, the STRIP was glowing with a splash of red, green, violets and yellows! Wasn't able to take a picture since it wouldn't make sense as the fireworks are too far.

Off to finishing off my Science lessons!

6th grade Science lessons

For almost a week now, I've been preparing a lesson plan/ lesson plans for 6th grade Science. 

This is totally new to me. I'm not terrible in Science nor am I amazing with it. So here I am, doing what I can to make sure the students will learn well. I'll make sure to incorporate investigations, projects and research. I'm so excited for experiments and lab work! 

What are exciting investigative projects have you done with students? How was it carried out and how did the students respond to the activity? 

The Reason I Jump

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida  

I recently finished this book. It is about a boy with autism sharing his thoughts and experiences by answering questions. 

The questions were mostly about why he and some people with autism act in a certain way (putting his hands on front of his face and moving it slowly). He answered that the reason behind this behavior may vary for each person, but for him, it's because when he does this, it makes him feel happy and comfortable. Since his eyes are sensitive to light, doing this lessens the amount of light entering his eyes and this gives a sense of comfort. 

There are a lot of answers to these kinds of questions and may really vary. It is very interesting to know and try to understand the behavior of some people with autism. As an educator, this is an eye opener. To always, always give students the opportunity to express themselves, to never stop caring and understanding them. It may be difficult and complicated to do this, but through communication, respect and compassion, students/ others will be able to get past difficulties. 

Month end

So it's the end of June and really the summer heat is kicking in! 

My husband and I had a blast of a weekend! Went over to the border of Nevada and California and went around the Fashion Outlet. Wow! That place had a lot of stuff on sale and pretty neat too. 

I'm really looking forward to going back there for more!

We also went to a park near our place and since it is my first time to be at that park, I felt really glad to have been there. We walked around for a while and took pictures of ducks and pigeons. Some kid gave the pigeons a whole slice of bread. Oh trust me, it was a feast for those pigeons! 

Also went near the airport to watch a few planes come and go. It was a relaxing and nice spot with the sunset going on and the wind just blowing in our car.

Well, got to get back to thinking more about what to prepare for the next months! I'll be posting more ideas... If and when they come available to my mind haha!

Preparing for the first day of school and so much more!

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So it's 58 days before school starts and I'm really excited!

I've been reading several teacher blogs and have tremendously learned a lot. Things such as, while it's summer break what should I be doing? What should I prepare for the first day? What procedures do I want practiced in class? Truly, there are 3,000 decisions a teacher has to do in a day (maybe more)!

First of all, I've been preparing the list of topics to be covered based on CCSS (Common Core State Standards). I'm fairly new to CCSS and so I've been doing a lot of reading about what it is and how teachers are applying it in the classroom.. At the same time, I've been also reading and researching about PBL (project based learning) as this is what the school I am in is practicing. This is very interesting because I too agree and believe that we learn by doing and not mere rotary memorization.

Next, I've been thinking about preparing for the first day of classes. There are a lot running in my mind. For instance, how will I introduce myself? What things do I share and not share with them? How do I get to know them (Getting to know activities)? How do we discuss procedures we want implemented in the class? Will the seating arrangement be done alphabetically on the first day up until a month? How many forms of assessment and what forms are these? Do I give out several worksheets and a quiz? How often will we have home works? How many projects will there be? And so on. Wow! This is just the first day. Overwhelming as it may seem, I'm trying to list all of them down, sort them and actually involve the class in deciding on certain points. But my definite plan is to try and implement some of Harry Wong's classroom management styles. It has been proven effective on myself since it was used in our school when I was still in middle school and high school.

As of now, I'm focusing on the first topics to be discussed in Math class, that is fractions. So I've been preparing and thinking of activities for my 5-6th graders and 7-8th graders separately. Also, thinking and researching about possible projects to be used for this topic. I've had thoughts of a different form of assessment of fractions where in there will be a cross word puzzle, but instead of questions in word, it will be of operations of fractions and the answers will be equivalent to a certain word which will then be filled in on the crossword. It sounds overwhelming now that I've typed it down. Another idea that popped into mind is using fractions for Sudoku, I really don't know how but I'm still thinking about it.

For a project on fractions, I'm thinking about asking the students to make a reviewer in the form of a brochure, covering all that we will have taken up on fractions (definition of a fraction, its parts, simplifying, equivalent fractions, operations on fractions, and others). Anyone else who has tried this approach? How did you implement it and what is the contents for the rubric? I hope that this will demonstrate strong understanding of fractions because this time, explanation and examples will come from students.

Middle School Teacher - First Time!

So, I have a new job. Hooray! :D

I used to be a high school Math teacher, teaching solely pre-Algebra and Algebra topics-to all girls high school students. This time around, I'll be working with coed middle school students. See how I used the word 'working' instead of teaching or some other word? It's because I believe that when we work with others, learning from it isn't a one way process, rather a two way process, where everyone is involved.

Anyway, going back to my new job.

I'm very excited but quite nervous too. So, in symbols I can say excitement>nervous Lol.

I'm excited with all the changes happening. The transition from working with older students to the younger ones. The topics that we will be discussing which are not topics I'm not very much familiar teaching (besides my tutoring experience with a younger kid). I've been reading about strategies on how to teach middle school students and what things to be considered. I'll be working at a charter school which again, is something very new to me. I might teach three subjects this year. Probably besides Math, I'll be doing Science and Social Studies which again, the latter two are totally new to me. So, I'm really eager to try and get my feet wet in these waters. Plus, I'll be teaching in a multi level classroom! I think it's awesome!There are pros and cons to teaching in a multi level classroom, but that's fine, everyone has to start somewhere and then eventually be better at it. Excited to meet new students and parents too!

On the other hand, I'm feeling nervous because it's a totally new school environment for me. I have studied and taught in a very structured school where everyone's a stickler for rules and there are specific rules for everything. Like how to behave in the classroom (no usage of mobile phones) or that of proper wearing of uniform. Well, I learned that in the new school I'll be in, there are rules but, isn't like what I have been used to. I'm afraid that I might still carry too much of this strictness in me and might scare off the students. So, I'm really trying and preparing to be less of the stickler for rules. I've actually decided to set classroom rules with the students. Let them suggest and decide on rules that we may use, then I can add more if necessary and then, approve and all of us can agree. Nervous too because I have been accustomed to learning and teaching in the traditional method of reading, memorizing, solving and just sticking with paper work. Whereas the school I'm in now is implementing project based learning, which I'm not very familiar with. So here I am, two weeks into reading about project based learning and how to best use it for learning. I love this idea! I mean, students use their hands and actually actively involve themselves in learning and not just simply sitting back just to memorize and solve/ answer questions. 

So, I'm loving the school, the teachers, the administration and the few students I've met. They are absolutely adorable and awesome. I love how kids here behave properly because they have the freedom to, but still keeping in mind that they are responsible of their actions. It feels less stressful for me to try and control them. I've been used to strictly implementing and pushing students to do stuff which limits them from being comfortable and at ease with their peers or with me. 

I'm excited to share new things I will learn such as strategies, project based activities and more!

Well, I'm looking forward to following and reading more teacher blogs because we all learn from each other. Cheers to this new chapter in my life!

If you are reading this blog and would like to suggest articles, strategies or any comment about teaching middle schoolers, please feel free to leave a comment. I would appreciate it so much!