Almost done!

Oh my gosh, I'm almost done!! Just this Monday I finished and turned in my Teacher Work Sample. If you have never done one, be very thankful! The TWS was a big paper/portfolio type project. The paper had 7 chapters that totaled to 63 pages that discussed the community, assessments, plans, goals, implementation, outcomes and reflections. Then, I had appendices with all of my lesson plans, students' pre and post tests, students' homework, my notes from class, original copies of my activities, and the grade book. This was such a big project that I spent an hour at Staples trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to use different tabs and separate the sections!! Turning this project in was such a relief. Now I can focus getting everything else done. I have two college classes left... officially (almost). I do student teach next semester, but I don't have any classes except for band, which is more fun than a class. I'm slowly hacking away at these projects and assignments i have left. It's almost done!!! Then, I can go home, and then visit my boyfriend in Colorado for a WHOLE WEEK!! SOOO EXCITED! (Yes, I realize that CO will not look like my picture when I get there in January, but still.... )

MAKE IT STOP!

Some people say that going into education is an 'easy' major.... well, try being secondary ed! This semester has been SO nuts! I started the semester desperately hanging on to stay on track, then had a missing assignment and have yet to catch up! The education department works us so much (and how much of it do we REALLY have to do?) that I slack in other classes... like my math class!! I wish there was something I could do to pause time just to catch up a little. Sure, I have break coming up- but I'm going to see my family and boyfriend who I haven't seen in over 8 weeks. I need a break!

My first time teaching!

I had my first experience actually teaching this semester. Just this week I finished a ten day unit at the Alternative School in town where I go to school. This school is a place for students with attendance issues at the regular schools. They come here and can complete the credits they need to graduate. Needless to say some of them come from rough home lives and school is the last thing they are thinking about.

I taught a unit in Algebra I to 9 students; sophomores, juniors, and seniors. They are really a good group of kids, but teaching them is another issue. There were times that I felt I was talking to the wall, and getting them to take notes and interact with me during instruction was like pulling teeth! I had a student freak out on me because I called on her, and I had other students snap at me because I asked them to get with their group and sit in a certain place in the room to work. I tried so hard to get them excited and get them to truly understand but it was very difficult. The worst part was that when I planned my unit, I thought I would be able to fit everything in and teach it well. Therefore, I added a bunch of things to my pre-test I gave the students. The teaching goes along with this HUGE paper/project and what we do on our pre-test we have to do on the post test to compare results and do statistical analysis and crap. Well, when I got into actually teaching them, I changed what I did from what I planned pretty quick. One of the most frustrating things was that I realized there was so much neat but useless material that I wish I could have left out. BUT- since it was on my pre-test I had to cover it. Therefore, my lessons were heavy with content and material and they were rushed too. Day to day I felt the students understood but the next day no one remembered what to do.


On a different note, I taught four days at Winchester High School last week, too. Here, I had to teach a section of the book to a Pre-Calculus class and implement different strategies. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! These kids interacted with me, wanted to learn, took notes, asked questions and actually cared about math! The coolest part was when they asked why and I got to explain it to them and then SEE that they understood!


A job is a job, and if I can only get a job at a school like the Alternative School- I will take it. However, after my two experiences this year (before student teaching- which will be at Winchester High School) I have realized that school like Winchester is where I want to teach. I have always enjoyed doing the higher level mathematics. Now I know that I also enjoy TEACHING the higher level mathematics, too.

INTENSE DEBATE GOES INTO OPEN BETA!!!

Early this morning Intense Debate went into open beta! Do you know what this means?!?!? It means that EVERYONE can use this amazing product on their blogs now! They also redesigned the website and it looks real slick! Now, I realize that I may be a little bias about Intense Debate Comments.... because the cute developer is my boyfriend... but it's still an awesome system! Provides organization, ability to track friends and other users, and a place to vote on comments which is great because you can express a like or dislike of a comment (which I definitely take advantage of!). It is great from the admin side of the blog too because you can customize how things run- if you want to moderate comments or not, how you want your comment layout to be on the main page, and even customize what it shows on each post for how many comments there are (which I think is pretty neat since you can make it match your personality!). There are so many more great things about the admin side, and the user side, that I don't even know are great and new because I am not a heavy blogger--- that is why EVERYONE should check it out and put it on their own blog!

HOMEWORK STINKS!

It absolutely sucks to have to spend hours doing a 400 college level math class homework, then spend hours writing it up to total 13 pages, then spend several more hours writing it up AGAIN because it's 'lost'. Can someone explain to me how this can happen: you finish working on an assignment, stick it on your folder, put the folder in your backpack, not take it out until several hours later .... and find the assignment missing???????

oh whatever... i'm proud of my boyfriend so I should show it off...

Hello, my name is Katie.

so, I'm really not into the blogging world... but my boyfriend is making comments that will take over the commenting industry.... so I figured I might as well give in so I can use it.. and help him test stuff on my own.... so that's the purpose for this blog at this point! I'm not really sure I have anything important or exciting to say otherwise...... well, I do know that I like my boyfriend and am SO AMAZINGLY PROUD OF HIM!!!!!!

first post

very first blog post ever......