It’s happening… it’s happening…

It happened. (I hope you all read that as the Bridesmaid’s movie quote!) It happened. I skipped a day of blogging. LORD HAVE MERCY. Just kidding. I was just so busy being a teacher lady yesterday, then I had class, and then I passed the heck out. Literally, I napped for an hour and a half last night. The tiredness continues, along with nail biting, the added bonus of an eye twitch, dreams about losing my teeth (true life), and an addiction to caffeinated tea and coffee. It’s pretty cool actually. (Another Bridesmaid’s quote :))

FAQ

How’s student teaching going? (I get this question about 6.48 million times a day.)

Student teaching is going well. I really like my rockstar teacher. There is a great atmosphere at my school. All of the teachers are very friendly, helpful, and supportive of me- which rocks. My kids are all pretty good. Yes, they can be HUGE stinkers, but they are 7 and 8, so that is expected. We are dealing with their individual attitudes, strengths, and weaknesses, and getting to know each of them on a more personal level. They are learning. I think they are loving it (and me) as much as I am loving it (and them). I’m becoming more and more comfortable teaching with each lesson… it will only be another two weeks-ish before I teach full time. Crazy.

Where have you been? Why do I never see you?

School. Or track. Or horizontal on my couch, futon, or bed in the 205. Those are pretty much the places that I can be found these days. It’s not that I’m super busy working on lesson plans (usually), or that I don’t want to see people, but I am so. stinking. tired. that even if I’m awake, I’m not down to run all over campus, frolicking as the social butterfly that I typically am. Sorry guys. Feel free to stop on over (205 Bax!) and visit anytime. I would love to see you. For those of you at home, I hope to possibly make an appearance in good ole’ Y-town this weekend. But if not, I might not be home until the first weekend in October. Again, if you make it out my way, please let me know!!!

Can we hang out sometime soon?

Yes. Duh. Hit me up. Preferably on the weekends. Or stop by. Or, come December, I will have about two weeks to kill doing absolutely nothing (when I finish student teaching and before winter break). Deal? Deal. 

How is track going?

It’s fall track. It’s kind of ehh. I worked out allllll summer long, so only having fall practices 3 days a week is not a huge deal. Basically we are just getting ready for season by lifting. Which is funny because I have been lifting all summer, and am consequently much stronger than the rest of the fall track girls. Like, I lift with the boys. I love that. Hopefully all of my off-season work will show and pay off when we are finally in season (January-May). I’d like to run some real fast 400s and 800s, please.

So what’s new? How’s your life?

My life is great. I’ve had a lot of fun with my roommates this year! :) (Although my room is MUCH more quiet since I lived with Kat the past 2 years!!) They are the people that I see the most and a great group of girls!! I am very glad that I live on campus too, because I’m surrounded by good friends. It’s nice that I can wander down the hall and chat with friends or hang out with my neighbs. (College rocks, honestly.) I am currently rocking the single every single day lifestyle. Honestly, I’m not sure that I have time for any committed relationships right meow. Not playing volleyball (as much as I miss it) has been bittersweet, heavy on the sweet side. My life is just a little less complicated, way less of a time commitment, less drama, less emotional and physical exhaustion (at least from sports). Plus a super added bonus is that I have free weekends. People: understand that this hasn’t happened in YEARS. I have free weekends to do whatever I want. And I want to support the BCU Chargers!! I’ve been to games, and matches, and all sorts of events. I’m going to live up my last year as much as possible.

What else is going on?

There is really only one other thing going on that I’m excited about. I usually have about one good idea a year (kidding), and here is my idea. I’m attempting to get some sort of mentoring program set up at BCU within the realm of education. There are general college mentors available through the school, but the people that I would like to target are aspiring teachers who are sophomores and juniors, partnered with seniors as mentors. These professional mentors would be available to answer burning education major questions. Such as, “so, what is this class about?” “how many hours do I need to observe?” “what is PDS like?” “how does student teaching work?” Hopefully, this idea will all pan out and be beneficial to students. Maybe it could even branch out to other majors like nursing and business? The possibilities are endless. I’ll keep ya updated.

Until next time…

Peace, love, and movie quotes,

Jayna 

Just Another Manic Monday

Hello all! Welcome back! I hope ya’ll had a great weekend. I know that I sure did! Including a three and a half hour nap yesterday. It. Was. Awesome.

And I needed that sleep to get ready for this week. First thing this morning we found out that one of our students… who complained of his hand hurting Friday afternoon after falling on the soccer field, had broken his wrist. He is in a soft cast and sling. Oops. The p.e. teacher, the secretary, my rockstar teacher, and I all thought that it was nothing, just an injury that he was milking. That’s the hard thing about kids this age. It’s very hard to tell when they have a serious injury or sickness because to them, EVERY injury or sickness is a serious one. I suppose we just try to cover all of our bases and hope for the best. We also have an enormous respect issue with another of our boys. He is uninterested, disrespectful, and purposely mean to others. It’s a difficult issue to address….

Good thing that I have 9 more weeks to practice.  Can you believe it?! This is my 6^th week of working at St. Michael’s... although it’s technically only my 4^th week of teaching. And I almost have the entire classroom already. Pretty cool. A little stressful, but pretty cool.

A little insight…

For those of you who don’t realize (recently, it’s come to my attention that many people don’t), lesson planning is by far the hardest part of teaching. Teaching itself comes very naturally to me. I instinctively check for student understanding, look for participation, and differentiate for different student needs. It’s one thing to know and actively be able to do these things, but it’s completely another to write down each detail of when, and how, and where, and why you’re going to do everything. GAHH. Honestly, I’ve only written a handful of complete lesson plans (in the official Briar Cliff format… it’s quite thorough), but lesson plans are something that you must have for each lesson you teach. For an elementary teacher, that’s about 5-6 lessons each day. When my lessons come from another source such as the teacher’s manual, they are fairly short and include objectives, intro, lesson, activity, and conclusion. It might fit on a post it note. :) (it’s pretty cool actually!) But when I come up with my own lessons (when those creative juices are flowing), it takes a long time. It might take me an hour to write a lesson that only takes a half hour to teach. The time commitment is real. Teachers are some dedicated individuals! :) Hopefully someday soonish I’ll be experienced enough (and have enough resources) to master the art of winging it. I suppose we’ll see.

At the end of today, another teacher in the building stopped by with copies of an article entitled Needed: A report card on America’s parents. I LOVE IT. If you’ve got some extra time, please check it out!

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/needed-a-report-card-on-parents-b9996036z1-223338961.html

So worth the read. Not everything can be put on the teachers. And before I start preaching or venting, I’ll sign off for the day.

Until tomorrow…

Peace, love, and controversy,

Jayna 

Rebecca Black Style

You know what I mean… “IT’S FRIIIIDAYYYY, FRIIIIDAY. GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIIIIDAY!!”

School today was overall pretty good, pretty chill. The kids were a lot better behaved than they been so far this week, which was awesome. And today we were just finishing up projects from the week so I didn’t really even teach anything. Sweeeeet.

The only concern that I have for today is the amount of food that I am faced with at school. I have a fear now of birthdays, and that’s because I’m going to get fat because I can’t say no. Like, “It’s your birthday? Yes, I would love to help you celebrate by eating an entire pan of frosted brownies, breakfast pizza, and chocolate pie. Sure. Happs Birth!” It’s an actual problem.

And now… for your entertainment. An excerpt from a 2^nd graders journal.

“I am going to play socker tommor mourne. Tommor we have pichirs. We are going to wine. My sister plays socker to.”

You know what? Sometimes I too say to my self, “Self, tomorrow we are going to wine.” But I actually mean WINE. :) It’s nice finally being 21.

Actually tonight has been more of a chips, salsa, and margarita night. Coupled with deep cleaning with my roommates… we’re just living the dream.

Until next week…

Peace, love, and lesson plans for days,

Jayna

Friday eve- Aka Thursday

Do doo doo. Just being a teacher lady today. I feel like I have done less this week than I have in the past weeks. Does that mean that I’m ready to take over more of the classroom? (GASP!) The only things that I don’t teach are Reading and Math. Those are the two core subjects, and they take up a LOT of our day. During the morning block, we spend three hours in a literacy block. THREE. HOURS. Granted, spelling and phonics (which I already teach) take up some of that time. And the students spend time each day practicing the Daily 5/CAFÉ (teacher reading skill programs for students… don’t worry about the teaching lingo), but that is still a significant amount of time spend with reading instruction. And while I am endorsed with reading, I want to give my teacher a couple more weeks to get our small reading groups finalized.

So that means that I will most likely be taking over math next week. Math is not my favorite thing. Especially not in the private schools. The public schools recently adopted a math program that is a challenging, different way of thinking about numbers and number sense, but it kind of rocks… I worked with that program all year last year and now that’s not an option. I guess it’s time to put on my big girl panties and deal with it. I’ll let ya know how that goes next week, dear faithful readers.

And now, for your entertainment… The difference between boys and girls as told through a journal prompt. Today the prompt was, “If you could invent your dream car, what would it be like?” Drumroll please!

Girl: “My dream car would be like all blue on the outside and all rianbow in the inside with cats on the seats and sporkls. And the car had a tv in it and the car code have a bottin you code push it and it code dive by its silf.”

Boys: “I wod invent rodot car and it wod have big rocit bostrs and it wod be flowting and it wod have a TV. And I can have egg’s and a big seat and a leters and a snake and a hotdog. And it wod be named zoos.”

I don’t know what our cars of the future will look like, but maybe one of my students will design them. They have a lot of creative ideas, that’s for sure!

I’m just glad that it’s Friday eve and that the weekend is coming soon. Because it’s been the longest week ever… and collectively the 2^nd grade, teachers and students, are sick of it. DONE.

Peace, love, and EXIT signs (as in get me outta here),

Jayna

EEKK

EEKK usually represents partner reading. Elbow to elbow, knee to knee. I’ll read to you, you read to me.

But today, EEKK also stand for Endless Excitement about Killing my Kreative lesson… okay that one’s a stretch but! Guess what!! I’m so excited!! Because the Snow Spelling shaving cream lesson went really well!! And our Principal walked in during it!! And observed me being a competent, creative teacher!! And the kids were enjoying the lesson!! And they were listening!! And they were even spelling their words (mostly) correctly!! And EEKK!!!!

So, there’s that :)

Another reason for EEKK is the way that my kids acted this afternoon. HOLY WOW. They were so distracted and fidgety and straight up rude. Like blurting and fighting with each other and all sorts of annoying things. I guess that’s what I get for having good kids this morning. Too bad for them that I was tired today and NOT putting up with their crap. I made some pretty serious promises to them (promises not threats) about improving their behavior for tomorrow (or they will miss both recesses and specials. Time that they will spend writing to explain, solve problems and apologize.) More updates on how that goes tomorrow.

Thoughts on today.

Being September 11^th, naturally as Americans we remember the events that transpired 12 years ago. The terrorist attacks that launched our country into war and shocked our nation brought us together in a wave of patriotism. Today, in my second grade classroom, there was really no discussion of 9/11. Mostly because the attacks happened 4 years before my kids were even born. Our country has been involved in the Middle East and at war for the entirety of their lives. Crazy to think and reflect on how much life has changed since I sat in my 4^th grade classroom and tried to comprehend happened in NYC.

That’s all for now folks.

Until tomorrow,

Peace, love, and an overwhelming scent of Barasol,

Jayna

"How are you in college if you’re always here?"

Sometimes kids have really good questions. Note the word SOMEtimes. But often, their questions are wildly ridiculous or a complete repeat of exactly what you just said. Such is the teacher life I suppose.

Today has been the day of individual talks. Both my rockstar teacher and I have had one on one talks with various students throughout the day. It’s getting a little old honestly… and the root of the problem/reason that we need to individually address students is because they have underdeveloped listening skills (which also leads to the ridiculous, repetitive questions.) It’s a little maddening. Perhaps it’s just the lengthy Tuesday getting to me (On the real, Tuesdays take eoooons to pass. It’s. Only. Tuesday.).

So on the list of things to work on:

1.     Listening Skills

2.     Following Directions

3.     Problem Solving

I really think these are the most frustrating things about teaching at 2^nd grade level. The students are adorable, most of them still love learning, and love you, and want to try hard to impress you etc. BUT SHEESH. We will learn to listen, follow directions, and solve our own problems this year. (Thank you, thank you, thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me how to problem solve. Sorry it probably took until my junior year of college. I finally understand some of your pain.) Either we learn now, and quickly, or I’m going to have a LOT of kids in for recesses. And that’s just no fun for any of us.

#lifeskills

#pictureofawhale

#YOLO

Final Thoughts of Today (Terrible Tuesday):

The more that subjects that I take over in the classroom, the more that I learn about myself as a teacher. (Imagine that!) Anyway, I’ve already learned more about my classroom setup than I expected to learn. For example, at the beginning of the year, I’m probably going to have a LOT of blank space in my room. That way, I can fill it up with the kid’s work. Yes, some of our bulletin boards are necessary and cool, but I think it’s also necessary and super important to leave (A LOT of) room to display student work. The kids work SO HARD (usually). And I want them to have the opportunity to take pride in having their work on display. It ties into what we are studying and gives them an objective to have neat, creative work. Win, win.

Now, it’s off to night class for me (GACK. GAG. BLECK). Aaaaand then time to go prepare for my close-up in helping with a BCU COMMERCIAL.  Keep your eyes peeled for me, folks! I could soon be a movie star.

Until next time…

Peace, love, and compliments on my roommate’s clothes,

Jayna

Whistle While You Work

Snow White Style!

Hello all! Happy Monday! After a busy, social weekend (filled with LOTS of friends and fun and boys and roommate bonding and sleep and hours spent laying on my futon. All personal panic crisis averted- WIN), this student teacher is BACK and ready to roll. Kind of.

So far today we have still been dealing with some of the events that occurred late Friday afternoon. Two of our boys got into a physical altercation, which resulted in contacting parents and the principal and lost recess time (to write apology letters- MWAHAHA) today. Friday afternoon we also had a puker. (Woohoo- vomit in a hot school!) Said puker had complained about a tummy ache for most of the afternoon, but seemed okay, and truthfully, the class had a rough day. Any child faced with a spelling, STAR comprehension, and math test in the same day might start to feel “upset.” Anyway, this usually bright child had an unusually low score on her math test and asked (or at least her mother asked) to retake it. SIGH. The questions of the day became, “Do we let her retake it? Is that fair to the other students? How shall we address such MADNESS?” After conferencing, my rockstar teacher and I decided that it would be best to allow the student to retake the test and to average out the two scores. Fair and square? I hope so.

Other than dealing with leftover shenanigans from last week, this Monday has been exceptionally normal… Including another early out for heat (SCORE!). The insanity that is elementary school scheduling is really testing my ability to be flexible. Thank goodness it’s not based on physical flexibility, because I would fail (and NO, I’m NOT failing at scheduling flexibility).

Later this week, I’m planning on (hopefully) doing some fun activities to practice spelling words. But it’s a super secret…. Okay, you cracked me! I’ll spill! I want to do the write-on-your-desk-using-shaving-cream-activity J I’m excited about it, but also a little worried about how well my kids will handle it… considering we are still working on some, ahem, listening skills. Only one way to find out!

In addition to operation clean desks and practice spelling words/listening skills, I’ve got a social studies lesson on community helpers in the works. Not quite sure what it will be yet, but I’m excited to be doing something original and not out of the teacher’s basal. Those things can get reeeeaaaal boring reeeeeaaaalll fast. Just sayin’. So in search of the perfect resources, I’ve turned to two of my trusted friends: the internet, and the public library. For those of you who are too cool for reading or libraries or public or whatever, you’re missing out. That place is good stuff. Although in our public library they always look at me funny (because I have a college kid’s card… Sorry I don’t live here!). And then there’s the fact that people in this town just don’t have an overall friendly demeanor. Like no one ever waves from the car at anyone else. (Like ever.) Don’t even get me started on that one.

Questions, Comments, and Concerns to wrap up today:

• Why can’t school just be out early everyday? I LOVE this stuff.

• Why can’t I get on a normal sleep schedule? I swear it will be the death of me.

• Which one of my kids will be the next to start hugging me? I’m up to 4/17 consistently… and I love that super awkward cuteness.

• Why did one of my boys attempt to spell the word “dry” and “j-r-i-y”? Is there something wrong with my speech, or is sounding that one out especially hard?

•  Does anyone have cool ideas of what I can do with all of the “gifts” that my students bless me with? IE, today I received two colored pictures of Spongebob. Bahaha. I’m also holding onto one student’s apology letter for “brlrten” out in class. Annoying, but endearing.

• When will I finally see the whole personality of some of my kids? A few of them are so stinking shy that they are just now (after 3.5 weeks) starting to open up and be quirky.  And it is ADORABLE. Which leads me to my next comment….

•   If you’ve never spent time watching a group of kids before, do it. I promise you will not be disappointed in the entertainment value. Watch how they interact together, or (even better) watch just one specific kid in a group setting (like a playground). Okay, as I’m starting to re-read this I’m realizing that I sound semi-pedophile-y, but seriously kids are hilarious. The things that they do when they are playing and don’t realize that anyone is watching are priceless. Smiles and laughs for days.

It’s nap time for this girl before the FIRST TRACK PRACTICE OF THE YEAR. WOOOOOOO- FALL TRACK!!!!!!!!!!

Until tomorrow…

Peace, love, and BCU T&F,

Jayna