I've moved...

A while ago I moved my blog... but I forgot to post it here...

www.katiejunta.com

Check it out!

How did it get to be November???

So, since I last posed... in MAY a lot has happened:

-graduated college summa cum laude and phi beta kappa
-moved home to Wheaton for a few months
-saw my sister graduate from College of DuPage
-applied for my Colorado teaching license
-saw a good friend from high school get married
-did three phone interviews (which was weird) for teaching jobs in Colorado
-got a new car!!
-got a job teaching high school math at Erie High School
-found an apartment to rent in Colorado
-saw another good friend from college get married
-moved to Colorado
-got stuck in a moving scam... which I am still dealing with...
-get to see Jon (the boyfriend) every day!!
-joined a church: Cool River Church
-took the PLACE test in Colorado to finish getting my teaching license (which was practically the same test I took in Illinois- but more money)
-passed the test and got my official teaching license for Colorado
-had my sister come and visit for a weekend!!!
-wished my sister luck as she moved off to Florida to play in Disney World ever day
-met new friends at the church (who happen to have the most adorable little baby girl I've ever seen!)
-joined the worship band at the church
-made it almost all the way through November of my first year teaching!!!


Well... that's a lot of stuff. I'm so tired that there's no energy to write more than that now. I'm lucky I even got this posted. ... Teaching is a lot of fun but also very hard. It takes up a lot of my time and all of my energy. Poor Jon is lucky if I'm awake long enough to watch a whole TV show with him!

Well, if there are any questions just raise your hand , please!!

I guess I am not very good at this...

Well, I suppose I am repeating myself .... but it has been a while...again.

Since my last post I have completed my student teaching. I was out in Winchester and although it was very small, I had a lot of fun. There are definitely some students I will not forget: Josey and arguing about impossible inverse functions; James asking me about cowboys vs my computer geek, man, I haven't seen that kid in a "coon's age!"; Kimberly and Jordan- PDA!; Corey and Morgan and their singing; Meredeth and her reminders to the rest of the class that fractions are our friends, and of course Mrs. Miller, or Candy... I have to get used to calling her by her first name now!!!! Those are just a few. I had a lot of fun with those kids (and my teacher) and will miss them all and wish all of them luck in all they do.

Student teaching couldn't have come to an end at a better time tough. Jon's dad, who was already struggling with Leukemia, took a turn for the worst the last few days of my student teaching. Jon came to town and they brought Dr. Fox to Jacksonville and so I was able to be there for Jon the whole time and not have to worry about planning lessons and the like. As unfortunate as it was, I was glad to be done teaching and able to be with Jon when his dad passed. It was hard on him, and everyone, and I was so thankful I was able to be at his side through all of it.

Shortly after all the events with the funeral concluded, I got to go back and visit Winchester. I had been invited, with the other teachers, to go their Junior/Senior Banquet and the Prom. It was a lot of fun. I never went to my prom in high school so it was fun to go to a prom, and it was a blast to watch all the kids having fun!

I spent a while packing and cleaning my apartment. Then- graduation weekend!! Thursday May 8th I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Friday I took my parents to Winchester (and the 'zoo') and we loaded Jon's dad's desk into the trailer. Saturday we packed the rest of the stuff into the trailer and had graduation practice. Then, Sunday May 11 I graduated!!!! It was kind of stinky though because graduation was inside. It was the first time in like 20 years graduation had to be moved inside! Oh well, makes sense. I have had to sit through IC's graduation the last three years playing with the band and so of course when it is my turn to graduate it would not be outside!

Since graduation, I have been killing time at home. Applied for some summer jobs but nothing panned out. I'm still working on a full time teaching job for the fall. It will all work out I am sure. For now, I am counting down the days until I go to Colorado!!!

it's been a while

AH! The Sunday before finals started back in December, Jacksonville had the WORST ice storm I have ever seen!!! I knew it would be bad when I went to bed and it was thundering and lightning outside while it was 26 degrees out!! I woke up the next morning to power lines snapping and exploding from the ice-covered tree branches falling on them! Shortly after I woke up we lost power and were out for four or five days. It was a quick dash to get the cars into the garage before the branches over them fell- since everything was breaking under all the weight of the ice. No more than five minutes after getting my car into the garage, the two or three branches above my car all fell to the ground! I basically slept under layers of blankets at night, showered and quickly got dressed to go to school, then walked to campus and lived in Parker for the rest of the day with only snack foods like Wheat Thins to eat! Still, I managed to get all my math assignments done! The first picture is right after we moved the cars. The big branch hanging down in the center of the picture is basically where my car was. The second picture is just a few minutes later when the branch gave out!!!

I ended my horrible semester in December to yet another lost assignment. The worst part is that this time, it didn't disappear from my notebook.... it disappeared from INSIDE the professor's office while the professor was not there! And yes, I had to redo the assignment- AGAIN!

While I was home over Christmas Break, I had probably the best Christmas ever. I woke up with what I thought was heartburn at 4am Christmas morning and after trying several antacids, throwing up everything I took (and then some), and the pain not going away by 10 am, my neighbor (who is a doctor) came over and sent my dad and me to the hospital with what he thought might be appendicitis. So, my dad and I packed up and got into the ER about 11 am and admitted into the hospital about 5 pm with gallstones! The best part of the whole day was the pain medicine they gave me through the IV.... no wonder people get addicted to those things!! December 26 I met with the doctor and decided to have the surgery to remove the gall bladder. The thing with gallstones is that they never go away. Kidney stones get broken down enough to pass, but the gallstones are just kinda stuck there. I was able to have the laprascopic (spelling??) surgery so I only have four small scars and was able to get on an air plane to see Jon five days later! My family and I were finally able to have our Christmas three days late while I was still in pain and a little drugged. Post surgery, we found out that NEEDED the gall bladder taken out when I did because it was three times the normal size with about 20 gallstones each a little bigger than a small marble! No wonder I was in pain!! I have since recovered well and have had no more problems with "heartburn."

I was able to go to Colorado for a week after Christmas. I must say, it will be a little sad to not be able to watch the Chicago New Year's Eve celebration on TV from CO! Jon and I made the most of our New Year's eve since we had spent the day traveling. The rest of the trip basically consisted of me working on my management plan and the two of us playing and beating the Super Mario Galaxy game on the Wii!!! (it's a lot more fun than I had anticipated!)

From the fall semester, I had an incomplete in two classes to finish projects. One was my classroom management class and the other was my math class. I worked very hard on my classroom management plan, got it done and turned in and got another A from the toughest professor I ever have had!!! He really liked my plan and thought it was one of the best that was turned in from my class! I also got my math project/paper/presentation done on time. It was definitely a weight lifted off my shoulders to get those in. (However- the other person in my class did not get the math project done until six weeks after the late-due-date!!......)

Unfortunately, the second week of class my education professor (the really hard one mentioned above) had a massive stroke and ended up passing away for days later. It was sad when it happened, but I have really been missing him lately. I did not like him at first last semester and did not want to think he was helping us by making us do all the crap we had to do. However, this semester in my student teaching and starting to do interviews, I have seen/used SO much of what he taught us! I wish I could thank him and tell him he was right, but I'm sure he knows and is just laughing with me at how prepared I really am.

Currently, I have been student teaching at a high school near Jacksonville and have been LOVING IT! It is a lot of work, but I'm having so much fun getting to know the students, getting to know my teacher, and just being involved in planning and teaching lessons to watch students grow! Also, my supervisor and cooperating teacher both think I'm doing very well as a rookie and will be an amazing teacher with more practice!!

A few weeks into the semester I also took my last test for the state of Illinois to become certified. There are three tests you have to take (a basic skills test, content area test- or a math test, and an APT test over the theory of teaching) and I passed all three on the first try!!! Now all I have to do is finish student teaching and get my IL certificate to be able to apply for my CO teaching license.


OH- and I have officially decided to move to Colorado to be with Jon when I graduate! I'm going out there next week to visit and have some interviews with several school districts!!!! Wish me luck!

One more thing- the week after finals I decided to get out of my living situation and have moved and am basically living by my self now in a really nice apartment! This is so much better than what I had before!!!

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.