Wow. Just wow. What a week. It started off with some amazing training on Differentiated Instruction, some science experiments, and then Johnny Appleseed madness with the kiddos. Where oh where to begin? How about Monday...I went to a two day training with a Kindergarten teacher friend of mine and we learned all about the amazing world of Differentiated Instruction. Since I am an alternate certification teacher, I did not have endless courses on how to differentiate. Therefore, I was very excited about this amazing training. It is so nice to go to a training where you actually take away a lot of knowledge instead of doodling on a notepad and daydreaming about what you could be doing with your students instead of sweating out sub plans and sitting through a painfully boring lecture....what a waste of makeup! That about sums up Monday and Tuesday. Winning!
Wednesday...oh Wednesday...I was welcomed back with 18 hugs and lots of love. I just love my kiddos! Well we did some fun Apple-themed experiments on Wednesday & Thursday. (I will load some pictures later since I'm still figuring out this blogging thing.) We watched an apple brown and then we figured out what keeps them from browning (lemon juice!). We also did a Sink or Float experiment...guess what? It floated! They really really wanted me to throw the water on them. They were very disappointed when I wouldn't douse them like they just coached the winning team of the Super Bowl. They shall survive.
Today was Johnny Appleseed Day. I remember when I was teaching fifth grade and I thought, oh that looks like so much fun! Well, I was half right! Lets just say that I was only slightly prepared for what would happen when you put 18 six year olds in a room and tell them that we are going to have a party and craft all afternoon. Ok, lets be real, I had no clue what I was in for. BUT, I did stay up late cutting out all of the crafty things their hearts desired. We had Johnny Appleseed pots on our heads thanks to some blueish gray construction paper, and half of a sentence strip. Then we made a Johnny Appleseed of our very own. Followed by an apple wreath...I will post pictures of what they were supposed to look like, followed by what they actually looked like. I had a total Pinterest fail moment with those bad boys...but hey, what the kids don't know won't hurt them...well in this case anyway! THEN we made a foldable book about the life cycle of an apple. THEN we made a diagram of an apple and labeled the parts. Yes, yes, I can hear your gasps now. Well we did all of this in less than two hours. Thankfully I had two parent volunteers show up, bless their sweet souls. One had to leave early, but the other stayed until they were scurried out the door. At one point, as I stood looking out at the craft bomb that had just exploded in my room and thinking that I would probably do things differently next time, I hear hysterical laughter. This startled me and I looked at my amazing volunteer and she is just staring at me and laughing. She quickly apologized and told me that the look on my face was priceless. I am so grateful that she has a sense of humor, since I'm pretty sure that I looked horrified. So we crafted, we fed them apples galore, then we packed 'em up and paraded them out of the door. I had to go to duty and thanked her profusely on my way out. Well, she showed up at the end of duty and said, "Hey, by the way I just cleaned up everything from the crafts, I put some things away and I'm not sure if I put them in the right place, but all that is left is the floor needs to be vacuumed." I hugged her. I love that woman! When I walked in, you could not tell that I had just had a crafting explosion in my room. At that point I could have cared less that one day I might open a cabinet and be showered in construction paper...for the moment, my room was CLEAN again! Woo hoo! We will worry about the cabinet that could be stuffed with God-knows-what later. All in all, my kids spent the day singing (to the tune of Frère Jacques) "Mrs. Malcolm, Mrs. Malcolm, we love you, we love you, today is amazing, today is amazing"....I wish I could remember the rest, but I don't. They walked out telling me that they wished the day would never end. That made my exhausted heart smile....and made every gray hair worth it.
Oh and don't think for one minute that I actually knew how to spell Frère Jacques! Thankfully Google knew exactly what I meant when I typed "Frara Jaka" and helped this poor lil southern belle out. Mmmmhmm...keepin it real here folks. Keepin it real.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
You're Hired!
Success! I did so well as a permanent substitute that I was hired as a full time 5th grade Reading/Language Arts teacher. I was so elated that when the principal offered me the job I jumped up and down like a child and hugged her.
Last year was my first full year of teaching. I had many ups and downs...more ups than downs thankfully. I struggled with finding my confidence as an educator. I was surrounded by such great teachers that I really felt inferior...when I was far from it! I taught 50% of those 5th graders and they scored 2nd in the county on FCAT! I am extremely proud of that! I made some amazing friends and had some phenomenal mentors. I learned a lot from my first year. I learned that my administration is very supportive and encouraging. I was so scared of them when I started. The way I saw it was that they really held the power...they could tell me that I was a horrible teacher and that scared the living daylights out of me. I was so afraid that I was going to royally screw up some poor child and I would have some Donald Trump style firing! Now, let me tell you, those women are incredibly talented, loving, and encouraging, but they mean business! They have high expectations and I did NOT want to fall short. That's great...I probably made them sound like Jekell & Hyde. They are far from it. I lacked so much self-confidence that I just lived to please. I wanted to be told that I was a good teacher and that I was doing my job correctly. Since I was 30 and I had taken quite a while to become a teacher I felt that I had wasted so much time. In reality, the path that I took to becoming a teacher made me a well rounded individual. I am an intelligent woman with a good heart...those are great ingredients for one amazing teacher! Watching my sweeties soar from scoring 14th to 2nd was the boost that I needed.
The thing that I loved most was how much my students loved me. I taught most of them for two years and they were all asking me to move up to sixth grade with them. That would have been fun! In the end I felt that I wanted to spread my wings and try out working with a younger group of students. Fifth graders are fun, but seriously hormonal! I preferred their more angelic personalities from 4th grade! They were definitely more focused on pleasing the teacher than who's dating who. In 4th grade they still have cooties. Not so much in fifth.
Well that's the short version of my lengthy road to becoming a teacher. From here on out you will hear about my life as a first grade teacher! That's right....from 5th to 1st. I've lost my mind...and I'm loving every minute of it!
Last year was my first full year of teaching. I had many ups and downs...more ups than downs thankfully. I struggled with finding my confidence as an educator. I was surrounded by such great teachers that I really felt inferior...when I was far from it! I taught 50% of those 5th graders and they scored 2nd in the county on FCAT! I am extremely proud of that! I made some amazing friends and had some phenomenal mentors. I learned a lot from my first year. I learned that my administration is very supportive and encouraging. I was so scared of them when I started. The way I saw it was that they really held the power...they could tell me that I was a horrible teacher and that scared the living daylights out of me. I was so afraid that I was going to royally screw up some poor child and I would have some Donald Trump style firing! Now, let me tell you, those women are incredibly talented, loving, and encouraging, but they mean business! They have high expectations and I did NOT want to fall short. That's great...I probably made them sound like Jekell & Hyde. They are far from it. I lacked so much self-confidence that I just lived to please. I wanted to be told that I was a good teacher and that I was doing my job correctly. Since I was 30 and I had taken quite a while to become a teacher I felt that I had wasted so much time. In reality, the path that I took to becoming a teacher made me a well rounded individual. I am an intelligent woman with a good heart...those are great ingredients for one amazing teacher! Watching my sweeties soar from scoring 14th to 2nd was the boost that I needed.
The thing that I loved most was how much my students loved me. I taught most of them for two years and they were all asking me to move up to sixth grade with them. That would have been fun! In the end I felt that I wanted to spread my wings and try out working with a younger group of students. Fifth graders are fun, but seriously hormonal! I preferred their more angelic personalities from 4th grade! They were definitely more focused on pleasing the teacher than who's dating who. In 4th grade they still have cooties. Not so much in fifth.
Well that's the short version of my lengthy road to becoming a teacher. From here on out you will hear about my life as a first grade teacher! That's right....from 5th to 1st. I've lost my mind...and I'm loving every minute of it!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Life as a Substitute!
Welcome back!
While I was taking education classes I met this amazing woman named Molly (you can meet her too! check out her website: duchessoffork.com). Molly and I became fast friends. We worked together on many projects and often talked about the amazing charter school where she worked. She quickly had me convinced to sign up to be a sub at her school. During the summer I helped her set up her classroom and she introduced me to her principal. I was very nervous about being a substitute...honestly I was afraid that it would scare me off from teaching altogether....like running away as if your hair was on fire...and I have a lot of hair. Scary thought! I agreed to sub for her 5th grade class, provided that I could go volunteer in her classroom first so that I could see the way a typical school day went. Also, I wanted to see how her kiddos behaved. I volunteered, I copied stuff, I graded stuff, the kids were nice....all in all it was a good day.
The next day was the anticipated first day of subbing! I barely slept the night before. Honestly, it went great. I am a pretty enthusiastic person and I love to entertain a crowd so the kids stayed engaged. Plus I was sportin my no-nonsense attitude of "listen here, I am a professional substitute and I KNOW how things go around here. No funny business. So now let's learn stuff and have some fun."
I conquered! I loved every minute of it! I quickly became a regular sub at her school. I subbed in 3rd, 4th and 5th grades pretty regularly. Within two weeks the principal had sought me out for a possible permanent sub position for a pregnant teacher. I was beside myself. In the meantime I was subbing almost every day at the school. I learned a lot about the school's expectations of both students and teachers. It was a great way to mold myself to their "way" and make myself more desirable of a job candidate. I did sub in second grade one day. Within the first five minutes of class a child threw up her breakfast ALL over her desk and surrounding areas. Super....more fluids. Back to third grade I went! I never turned down a sub job, unless of course I was already scheduled for one.
Here are a few sub tips:
* Always remain professional, polite, and stay out of any drama/gossip.
* Always say yes to the job...even if you are afraid of the age group.
* Don't show fear! The kids can smell it and they will eat you alive if they do!
* Adhere to the schools rules. Always.
* Take candy.
* Take some sort ball. Koosh balls are great for silent ball. Have the kids stand in a circle around the room and toss it to each other. This is great for those 10 minute lulls when a lesson ends early.
* Leave the room cleaner than you found it.
* Leave DETAILED notes. I took notes all day long on the schedule/plans that were left for me. This allowed for the teacher to handle any issues that arose.
* Don't relax during the planning period. Make copies for other teachers on the grade level, grade something for the teacher you are subbing for (if they wouldn't mind). I always told the teachers that if they would leave me a key and a grading scale, then I would grade whatever work the kids did. They LOVED that. There was always a key left for me.
Trust me those few extra things paid off in the end. I was highly recommended around the school and there were TWO permanent sub positions that came available and BOTH teams requested that the school hire me for their spot.
Ultimately, my hard work paid off and I got the permanent sub position. I taught 4th grade Reading & Language Arts from December to the end of the year. I was so excited! I entered that position with as much gusto and flair as one could possibly muster.
I was very nervous about the parents' reception of me. I was fearful of how they would react to a first year teacher teaching their precious darlings. To my amazement, they welcomed me with open arms. They were very generous and understanding. Now don't get me wrong, not every moment was sunshine and lollipops! I rode one heck of a roller coaster for the rest of the year.
I learned so much about team dynamics, the rose-colored glasses that you wear your first few years, being an overachiever is hard in a profession where perfection is impossible (I'm still working on that one), and school has changed since I was in elementary! All that said, there were great learning opportunities in every rough patch.
At the end of the day what kept me going wasn't the validation that I was getting from my team, or administration, it was that light in the kids' eyes when they got it. When they finally figured out the concept that I was teaching. That was the moment that I looked forward to every day.
Next up: You're hired!
While I was taking education classes I met this amazing woman named Molly (you can meet her too! check out her website: duchessoffork.com). Molly and I became fast friends. We worked together on many projects and often talked about the amazing charter school where she worked. She quickly had me convinced to sign up to be a sub at her school. During the summer I helped her set up her classroom and she introduced me to her principal. I was very nervous about being a substitute...honestly I was afraid that it would scare me off from teaching altogether....like running away as if your hair was on fire...and I have a lot of hair. Scary thought! I agreed to sub for her 5th grade class, provided that I could go volunteer in her classroom first so that I could see the way a typical school day went. Also, I wanted to see how her kiddos behaved. I volunteered, I copied stuff, I graded stuff, the kids were nice....all in all it was a good day.
The next day was the anticipated first day of subbing! I barely slept the night before. Honestly, it went great. I am a pretty enthusiastic person and I love to entertain a crowd so the kids stayed engaged. Plus I was sportin my no-nonsense attitude of "listen here, I am a professional substitute and I KNOW how things go around here. No funny business. So now let's learn stuff and have some fun."
I conquered! I loved every minute of it! I quickly became a regular sub at her school. I subbed in 3rd, 4th and 5th grades pretty regularly. Within two weeks the principal had sought me out for a possible permanent sub position for a pregnant teacher. I was beside myself. In the meantime I was subbing almost every day at the school. I learned a lot about the school's expectations of both students and teachers. It was a great way to mold myself to their "way" and make myself more desirable of a job candidate. I did sub in second grade one day. Within the first five minutes of class a child threw up her breakfast ALL over her desk and surrounding areas. Super....more fluids. Back to third grade I went! I never turned down a sub job, unless of course I was already scheduled for one.
Here are a few sub tips:
* Always remain professional, polite, and stay out of any drama/gossip.
* Always say yes to the job...even if you are afraid of the age group.
* Don't show fear! The kids can smell it and they will eat you alive if they do!
* Adhere to the schools rules. Always.
* Take candy.
* Take some sort ball. Koosh balls are great for silent ball. Have the kids stand in a circle around the room and toss it to each other. This is great for those 10 minute lulls when a lesson ends early.
* Leave the room cleaner than you found it.
* Leave DETAILED notes. I took notes all day long on the schedule/plans that were left for me. This allowed for the teacher to handle any issues that arose.
* Don't relax during the planning period. Make copies for other teachers on the grade level, grade something for the teacher you are subbing for (if they wouldn't mind). I always told the teachers that if they would leave me a key and a grading scale, then I would grade whatever work the kids did. They LOVED that. There was always a key left for me.
Trust me those few extra things paid off in the end. I was highly recommended around the school and there were TWO permanent sub positions that came available and BOTH teams requested that the school hire me for their spot.
Ultimately, my hard work paid off and I got the permanent sub position. I taught 4th grade Reading & Language Arts from December to the end of the year. I was so excited! I entered that position with as much gusto and flair as one could possibly muster.
I was very nervous about the parents' reception of me. I was fearful of how they would react to a first year teacher teaching their precious darlings. To my amazement, they welcomed me with open arms. They were very generous and understanding. Now don't get me wrong, not every moment was sunshine and lollipops! I rode one heck of a roller coaster for the rest of the year.
I learned so much about team dynamics, the rose-colored glasses that you wear your first few years, being an overachiever is hard in a profession where perfection is impossible (I'm still working on that one), and school has changed since I was in elementary! All that said, there were great learning opportunities in every rough patch.
At the end of the day what kept me going wasn't the validation that I was getting from my team, or administration, it was that light in the kids' eyes when they got it. When they finally figured out the concept that I was teaching. That was the moment that I looked forward to every day.
Next up: You're hired!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
You want me to do WHAT?
Thank you so much for visiting my blog!
My name is Ingrid Malcolm and I have been teaching for a year and a half. I am a Southern belle that just loves to talk about everything that God has blessed me with! He has blessed me with amazing parents, an incredible husband, fantastic friends and a career that I adore.
I started my journey as a teacher many years ago when I entered college as an education major. Somewhere along the way during my first year I was distracted by the sudden urge to be a crime scene investigator. I was thrilled to obtain my degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Forensics. I was totally excited about my career path and set forth on CSI adventure of sorts. I assisted our County Medical Examiner with six different autopsies. I needed to see if I really had the stomach for all of the blood and guts. **Warning...The following story is a bit graphic, so if you do not have the stomach for hearing about a traumatic experience that I had in a morgue, please move on to the next paragraph** During my last observation, I was standing there thinking about how well I was doing with all of the smells and body parts. I was pretty proud of myself that I had managed not to throw up once around the smell of death. It is pretty distinct I must admit. I was really good at taking notes...I mean, besides observing, that was all I had been doing...until that fateful day when the trusty doctor decided that it was time to take pictures of the deceased. Nothing out of the ordinary....pictures are needed for the autopsy files of course. He tosses his nasty gloves in the biohazard waste bin and grabs his very expensive camera. That is when he realized that he had forgotten to move an organ to the table that he had set up for the pictures. Logically, he did not want to waste another pair of gloves, and since I still had mine on, he asked me to do the honors. He wanted me to pick up the throat of a choking victim and carry it across the morgue and place it neatly on the stand to be photographed. I bet you can just imagine the conversation that followed. It began with my asking, "Are you serious? You want me to do WHAT? You want me to TOUCH that?" With a chesshire grin he said, "Yes, and please don't forget the weenie that he choked on." It took EVERYTHING that I could muster to pick up the tongue and throat of this poor man that just wanted a hot dog for lunch and carry it over to the table. That is when I discovered that dead bodies really, really creep me out. Too many body fluids.
I decided that I should follow my original passion of working with children...so I took my handy dandy Criminal Justice degree and took a job as a case manager for children who had been removed from their parents' custody by the state. I was a social worker! Yay! I could help families in need! Yeah..not so much. I ended up collecting the urine of meth addicted parents (oh look...more body fluids) and regularly reporting to the court that the parents were not following their case plans. Not really what I had in mind for helping these children. Don't get me wrong...social workers are SAINTS. That life was just not what I had envisioned for myself. Two years burned me out FAST. I figured if I was going to work 70 hours a week and my ultimate goal was to make a difference in a child's life I should follow my original dream of becoming a teacher. So back to teaching I went!
I haven't looked back since! I have NEVER enjoyed working this hard! EVER. I suppose that is how you "know" that you are where you are supposed to be!
I am very excited to begin this journey and I hope that you will be intrigued enough to follow along.
Next up: Life as a Substitute!
My name is Ingrid Malcolm and I have been teaching for a year and a half. I am a Southern belle that just loves to talk about everything that God has blessed me with! He has blessed me with amazing parents, an incredible husband, fantastic friends and a career that I adore.
I started my journey as a teacher many years ago when I entered college as an education major. Somewhere along the way during my first year I was distracted by the sudden urge to be a crime scene investigator. I was thrilled to obtain my degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Forensics. I was totally excited about my career path and set forth on CSI adventure of sorts. I assisted our County Medical Examiner with six different autopsies. I needed to see if I really had the stomach for all of the blood and guts. **Warning...The following story is a bit graphic, so if you do not have the stomach for hearing about a traumatic experience that I had in a morgue, please move on to the next paragraph** During my last observation, I was standing there thinking about how well I was doing with all of the smells and body parts. I was pretty proud of myself that I had managed not to throw up once around the smell of death. It is pretty distinct I must admit. I was really good at taking notes...I mean, besides observing, that was all I had been doing...until that fateful day when the trusty doctor decided that it was time to take pictures of the deceased. Nothing out of the ordinary....pictures are needed for the autopsy files of course. He tosses his nasty gloves in the biohazard waste bin and grabs his very expensive camera. That is when he realized that he had forgotten to move an organ to the table that he had set up for the pictures. Logically, he did not want to waste another pair of gloves, and since I still had mine on, he asked me to do the honors. He wanted me to pick up the throat of a choking victim and carry it across the morgue and place it neatly on the stand to be photographed. I bet you can just imagine the conversation that followed. It began with my asking, "Are you serious? You want me to do WHAT? You want me to TOUCH that?" With a chesshire grin he said, "Yes, and please don't forget the weenie that he choked on." It took EVERYTHING that I could muster to pick up the tongue and throat of this poor man that just wanted a hot dog for lunch and carry it over to the table. That is when I discovered that dead bodies really, really creep me out. Too many body fluids.
I decided that I should follow my original passion of working with children...so I took my handy dandy Criminal Justice degree and took a job as a case manager for children who had been removed from their parents' custody by the state. I was a social worker! Yay! I could help families in need! Yeah..not so much. I ended up collecting the urine of meth addicted parents (oh look...more body fluids) and regularly reporting to the court that the parents were not following their case plans. Not really what I had in mind for helping these children. Don't get me wrong...social workers are SAINTS. That life was just not what I had envisioned for myself. Two years burned me out FAST. I figured if I was going to work 70 hours a week and my ultimate goal was to make a difference in a child's life I should follow my original dream of becoming a teacher. So back to teaching I went!
I haven't looked back since! I have NEVER enjoyed working this hard! EVER. I suppose that is how you "know" that you are where you are supposed to be!
I am very excited to begin this journey and I hope that you will be intrigued enough to follow along.
Next up: Life as a Substitute!
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