I know I’ve
casually mentioned it a time or two, so you may already know this, but I am a
teacher.
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Technically I’m
supposed to be doing International Public Relations because that’s what I
studied in college. During my senior
year at Texas A&M (WHOOP!!!), and with graduation fast approaching, my
friend Rosie and I went to an International Job Fair at Texas State
University. While walking around, we
were immediately pounced upon by a lady who overheard us speaking to each other
in Spanish. I say “pounced” because
literally that’s how it happened! LOL!!
The “pouncer”
turned out to be the (at that time) Director of Bilingual Education for my
district. Ooops! She had a principal interview me on the spot
and then literally called me every other day for a week until I finally agreed
to come to Houston to tour/interview at a school that she had in mind for
me. She insisted I had the perfect
personality to be a teacher at the intermediate level (5th/6th
grades) and that she had the perfect principal/school for me. I finally caved and came; I figured if all
else failed, I could teach for a year and make some decent money while I looked
for my “real job” at an International PR firm.
I still laugh EVERY
TIME I remember having said this! A
“real job?” How pompous of me!! There is no job that is more REAL than
teaching!!
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I ended up
ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT that first year and went back and did an Alternative Certification
Program to get certified. I started
teaching, right out of college at age 22…and here I am, about to start my 12th
year and I enjoy it more and more every year.
I have no desire to be a counselor, no desire to be an
administrator. No offense to those that
have climbed that ladder; I rejoice in their ambition and success! It’s just that I finally, really, really
know my place. My place is in the
classroom. Teaching and scaring
and molding the children that will one day be the adults that control our
future.
My mother insists
that she always knew I would teach. I
don’t know how; I guess it’s a case of “mother-knows-best” because pretty much
my entire life I said I was going to be one of three things:
1) a Respiratory Therapist – I decided this came when I was diagnosed
with Asthma as a child
2) an author - I’ve always been a book nerd and used to want to write one
too!
3) a lawyer – this one lasted the longest, even through college, where I
majored in Communications and International Studies because I thought I might
eventually do International Law. Matter
of fact, I occasionally still entertain thoughts of going back to law
school…shhh…don’t tell anyone! #itsaBIGsecret
I guess the BIG man
upstairs, my momma, and the "pouncer" Ed knew what they were
talking about after all!
I am a 5th
grade Reading/Language Arts/ Social Studies teacher, and have had the privilege
of teaching in the same school district, under the same principal for eleven
years. Yep, that’s right, that would
the fabulous lady that I talked about here. And while I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed my
summer break, I must admit I am kind of ready to go back!
This week was the
first time we could get into our classrooms so I took advantage of it and went
up on Wednesday and Thursday to get some work done. This year I’ll have a new classroom, a new partner (well kind of,
we taught together as part of a three way seven years ago), and will be going
fully Bilingual after five years as being part of a Monolingual/Bilingual
split. Plus…and this is the saddest
part of the whole thing…I will no longer be partners with Linda, my wonderful
partner of four years!!!! *moment of
silence as I mourn* #veklempt
The good thing is
that Linda’s classroom will still be diagonal from mine and that we are all
still in the same “pod” and on the same team so I’ll still get to work closely
with her. Here’s what our pod will look
like:
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my new
partner
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Linda
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MY NEW
ROOM!!
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her new partner
(and my
old room)
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Luckily, I was only
moving next door, so it wasn’t too bad!
It was waaaaay better than last year, when I had to move across the
entire school and out of the classroom that I had been in for seven years.
I was able to get
my library, small group and desk area set up and did a whole lot of organizing,
arranging, and cleaning. What I am most
proud of, though, is the fact that I purged.
“Purged” as in I went through and cleaned out every single file in my
file cabinet, threw away stuff that I hadn’t touched in years away, and REALLY,
for the first time in a long time EVER, made myself get rid of
stuff that I knew I was not going to use and no longer needed. It felt so good doing that;
actually “good” does not even begin to describe it! I’m glad I went up early and did this because I was able to take
my time without any distractions (I love to stop and talk to my friends), which
is exactly what I needed to be able to do the job properly.
Here are a few pics of what my new classroom looks like now.
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| Small Group area. |
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| Library area. |
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| Back cabinets, and some of the student's desks, already in groups. |
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| My desk/computer/projector area, up in the front of the room by the board. |
The hardest part is
done, thankfully, and I’ll focus on the actual decorating when we officially go
back on the 20th. I’ll have it all nice and purty by the time
the children come back on the 27th.
I’ve been perusing
several teacher boards and blogs that I found through Pinterest, and pinning
lots of stuff to my “Getting’ My TEACH On”
board in preparation for going back to school.
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There are some
seriously talented teachers out there with some BEAUTIFUL classroom
themes!! I’ve never been one to have an
actual theme; well, except for two years ago when everything was – are you
ready for this??? – food related. I
made posters that said things like:
“Reading
– it’s food for thought” (for
my reading anchor chart wall)
“Digital
Bytes” (for my computer
area), and
“Dig
in to a good book” (for my
library area)
How funny (but not at
all surprising) that my food obsession spills over into my classroom
too!
Anyway, this year
I’ll still use those posters but I won’t have an actual theme, I don’t
think. I usually just try to make my
classroom warm and inviting, colorful, and pretty. Pretty, of course, because I refuse to live/teach/be mean (mean?
me??? never!!) in a classroom that is not PRETTY! ;-) Sometimes you just #gottadowhatyougottado! LOL
I promise the AFTER
pictures will be more exciting than the before pictures are. J
PS – I think I’ve
pretty much decided that when school starts again, Tuesday’s will be dedicated
to “Teacher Tuesday’s.” I’ll
talk about teacher stuff and/or random tangents where I’ll tell you funny stuff
going on at school. For my fellow
teachers that already know and can attest to this, and for those of you who
don’t quite know it yet, you’ll see that:
1) there is NEVER a dull moment in the
classroom, which makes for really great dinner-table conversations, and
2) kids say the darndest things, especially 5th
and 6th graders because they are at that age!
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Hope you’ll stay
tuned! J
