Catching Up!

Where has the time gone?  One post I was catching everyone up on summer camp, the next I'm entering my fourth year of teaching (finally as a lead teacher).  

Let me catch everyone up on the past three years:

2012-2013 + 2013-2014 I was assistant in Green Birds -- 2 1/2 turning 3 by December/January

2014-2015 I was assistant in Red Birds -- 3 1/2 turning 4 before May

2015-2016 I will be lead in Red Birds

I have done so much over the past couple of years, including: joining Junior League of New Orleans, becoming more active in the local alumnae chapter of Chi Omega, and babysitting so I haven't had as much time to even think about keeping up with this blog.  As I have been working my booty off trying to change classrooms and get things the way I've envisioned I realized it is probably time to continue.

Moving on... My first year in Red Birds I was lucky enough to have the biggest classroom so I was able to change out centers more often.  I changed dramatic play and sensory table every month and the kids L.O.V.E.D it.  This year I wasn't so lucky space-wise, but my storage area WOW! I could live in my closet its so big.  Setting up my classroom has been a challenge, but luckily I have very helpful/creative friends. For example, found this super cute idea on Pinterest for a cupcake birthday display here.  My sweet, creative co-worker helped me take this precious thing a step further.  We turned the background into a larger cupcake!

I am beyond excited about how adorable it came out!  We used some felt, spray glue, glitter, & confetti.  It was so much fun.  I used acrylic paint to paint the popsicle stick candles, and Jo covered toilet paper rolls in duct tape (she is GENIUS when it comes to duct taping). 

As far as the rest of my classroom goes, I still have two weeks to get it in order.  I've got my centers defined, toys cleaned, and everything is almost ready to go.  Can't wait to start sharing all the fun Red Birds get into this year!

I know it's been a while..... again.  I've been so busy and since I wasn't in a steady classroom I just didn't have too much to say.

As the end of the school year was beginning to hit I still had no job for the summer/fall.  A desperate attempt through Facebook landed me a summer job as a camp counselor and since I was dying to move out I quickly jumped on the opportunity to move to New Orleans!  As luck would have it, the day I began moving in I also landed an interview at a private school in the New Orleans area.  I have fallen absolutely, positively in love with my new home!

I started out as lead Kindergarten counselor at the camp, but weeks into camp groups had to be split and combined so the last couple weeks of camp I was also with Pre-Kindergarten.

A walk through a typical week at camp:

Monday- Color Wars (relay races)

Tuesday- Water Day

Wednesday- Rotations (crafts, music, cooking/science, outdoor recreation, & bible story)

Thursday- Field Trip

Friday- Water Day

Here are some pictures I've taken (children not pictured):

Brandi helping me check out at Winn Dixie LCM

Street Car Conductor at LCM

Petting zoo came to camp! Loved the piggies!

Trip to Global Wildlife

Swinging with PJ

Water Day

Biscuit pizza made on cooking day

Me, Katy, and Brandi at Storyland

My favorite! For 4th of July we made handprint flag t-shirts!
Bottom right, Brandi, Katy, & I had to show off our awesomeness.

I think I had more fun at summer camp than my 26 sweet kiddos did.  Since camp ended I'm on my 3rd week of vacation.   On Friday I will begin working with the 2 1/2 & 3 year olds at a private school close by.  I am super pumped!

Stick around, I promise many updates with stories of my babies when school starts!

Life After Student Teaching

It's official!  I'm a certified pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade teacher!  The roller coaster I was on for five and a half years is finally over.  Unfortunately, I got out of school at an absolutely awful time in the economy.  First off, my parish has been under desegregation stuff and apparently at this point are not hiring all races.  In a parish over they cut pretty much all teachers who have not had at least 3 years experience because they are suffering from budget cuts.  I decided this meant I am meant to leave this town, find a new state, start my life over.  I chose North Carolina.  I applied several places and found out about a month ago they put a hold on all teaching positions.  Where does that leave all new graduates?  Substituting.

Honestly, substituting is the most fantastic choice... if you don't need to work because your husband allows you to be a housewife.  I love it!  I get to see my fantastic 2nd graders quite often without actually having to be there every single day.  Also, I have been in several schools, talked with many principals, seen different forms of classroom management routines, and gotten my name out there.  When they call and need a substitute I can accept or decline.  The problems that occur are: the phone calls at 7 am needing you 20 mins away by 7:45 (but keep in mind the time required to get dressed & pack a lunch) and the fact that one does not get paid much.

Every day is a new day.  Every experience gets me one step closer.  And starting next Monday I will take over a 4th grade teacher's class while she is out on maternity leave.  Wish me luck.  It's also part of an interview.  With that being said, stay tuned for more stories after next week.

What Are You Thankful For?

Since it is Thanksgiving break I'm going to take the time to just do a random post of different things I've wanted to talk about but just didn't fit into my story.

For any of my friends that are student teaching next semester let me start off by telling you the power of a hug. I have a student in my class that drives me up the wall.  He never, ever feels like doing work and my University Supervisor always says, "Kirsten, why did you just let him do what he wants?"  I have tried everything I could think of to get him to work.  He wants computer time so I bribed him with it.  If he did all of his work then I'd let him have free time on the computer.  That didn't work.  No matter what bribe I'd give him he'd NEVER do his work.  Every random Monday he would actually give no problem at all.  We assumed it is the day he's getting his medication and we would give him ultimate rewards for doing such a great job.  This literally happened MAYBE once a month.  Last week I realized how much time I spend scolding him and showing my frustration and I felt awful.  Who knows what he's hearing at home, too.  As the other students were eating breakfast I called him over to me and gave him a big hug.  He looked at me with a huge smile on his face and said, "Now Ms. Kirsten, what was that for?" and I just said, "You looked like you needed a hug and I did too."  I had absolutely NO problems with him all day.  Maybe it wasn't my hug that did it, but his smile that morning makes me think it was.  I'm going to test my theory again Monday.

So, I have this kid in my class.  He is too stinkin' cute.  There's a little girl in one of the other 2nd grade classes that finds me every. single. day to say, "Hey will you tell him I said hi!"  The first time she ever did that I asked him if it was his girlfriend.  His response? "Ms. Kirsten, she was my girlfriend last year but she always asked for my snack at recess and I got tired of it so I broke up with her."  How adorable is that response? I said, "Geez, girls are just too demanding, huh?" to which I heard, "Yeah, tell me about it.  All they do is say 'give me this' and 'give me that'."  Same child also told me he climbed Mt. Everest over the summer and that it is located in New York City.

As the semester comes to a close next Friday I am preparing little goodie bags for them.  I am so sad that I have to leave them, but so ready to graduate!

They will each get a handful of Hershey Hugs so they can feel extra love from me after I leave and some Smarties since they are such smarties.  My students love seeing pictures of themselves and are constantly trying to take pictures with me so I made each one a keychain with a picture of the two of us in it.  I often felt so stressed and they had times where they didn't love me AS much so since they are sometimes sweetTARTS they get sweetTART candy canes.  I also found a lot of stuff with the idea that they are #1 so I got a bookmark, pencil, and sucker all saying that.  I got a lot of the stuff from Oriental Trading. 

So to my friends going through student teaching next semester, I hope you ladies have as much fun as I did and just know that a simple hug is something that will make the students feel spoiled and loved.

Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!

I am down to my last few days with my fabulous 2nd graders and only one subject to teach in a day.  I am left with teaching writing.

This week was different for writing than it has been the past few weeks.  They write awesome paragraphs when they have to write on something they have experienced so I decided they would start celebrating Thanksgiving kind of early.  I found a super easy pumpkin pie recipe that doesn't require any actual cooking.

Monday we read the story There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and we just talked about the different types of desserts we eat during the holidays.

Tuesday was pie-making day!  I showed them all of the ingredients and explained what they were to do and they got to make it.






Here's how we made it:

Individual pie crusts
3 spoonfuls of vanilla pudding
1 spoonful of pumpkin mix



Just stir the pudding and pumpkin in a bowl and then pour into the pie crust. 

After they ate the pie I let each student come up and write their name on a t-chart to show whether they liked the pie or not.

Wednesday was spent making a circle map to come up with some describing words and coming with some sentence examples.  Since we're talking about pumpkin pie and I'm trying to make this process as exciting as possible I let them make the circle map on a paper plate which they decorated like a pumpkin.

Thursday we finally got to the four square.  I held off on the four square because I scheduled my last observation with my university supervisor for that day and I have spent so much time bragging about the four square that I really wanted her to see them create it.  We did one as a class and then they had to do one on their own.

On Friday they transferred the four square into a paragraph.  I found a pumpkin writing template and we added the pictures taken on Tuesday to the writing paper.

It was definitely the most successful writing experience I've had so far!  They had such a great time with the whole project.  For my last week I'm hoping they'll love it just as much because we will be reading The Cajun Gingerbread Boy and they'll get to decorate a cookie and I found foam ones so they can keep one too.  Hopefully after this they'll enjoy writing... 

The Adventures of...

...the Louisiana Philharmonic Ochestra
I patiently awaited the day I'd get to take a field trip with my awesome 2nd graders all semester.  I found the school calendar immediately wrote down the two weeks that the 2nd grade classes could go on a field trip.  Just my luck, the first field trip was scheduled during our mandatory mid-semester seminar.  It was to an alligator farm that I took the 9 year old I babysit to over the summer, so I knew what I was missing out on, but it is a completely different experience as a field trip. 

Well, the next field trip was scheduled for today!  It was a trip to see the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.  I was definitely not looking forward to this one.  I have attended so many musicals, plays, and orchestras and been near a group of children who do not know how to act in a theater and it is very frustrating.  Plus, I just really did not forsee these kids enjoying an orchestra. 

Much to my surprise, though, this was specifically planned for kids!  We all left thinking it should have lasted a little longer!  The conductor came out on stage to greet the audience and a "UPS" man had to deliver a package of "Melody".  The whole performance was so kid friendly and set up to inform the students of the terms used in music--harmony, melody, rythym, timbre, and more.  They played Ode to Joy and provided the audience with lyrics so we could sing it as they played.  At the end of the performance they let the audience pick how the finale would be performed. 

My 2nd graders thorougly enjoyed the field trip.   I was so surprised!!  One student in front of me pretended to be the conductor the entire time and a few seats down another pretended to play the violin.  I was so proud of their awesome behavior (for once).  They were better examples of how to act during a performance than the high schoolers that were there. 

What a great experience for my students.  I'm so happy they actually fully appreciated the trip!

Show Me the Money!

This past week in Math we have been learning about money.  Who doesn't love money, right?  Let's just say after this week, this girl does not enjoy money.  Luckily, I was warned by the other 2nd grade teachers that money is pretty hard, so I dug around my house and got all the coins I could find.

As I mentioned, my students love when I read books to them and it was just my luck that I have The Coin Counting Book that I bought last year for a tutoring project.  I actually started everyday the same because I knew they needed all the help and repetition they could get.  My students loved hearing it so much that they are constantly asking to read it on their own.

We use Harcourt materials for math and it was an absolutely fabulous resource for an awesome game that requires the students to count change up to 50 cents.  Separate the coins from pennies to one half dollar coin in each of the sections.  The students are to roll a die and the student is to place however many pennies into the empty section.  That is "trading center".  We get Math intervention times and I have found that this game works much better during that 30 minute time slot.  I tried it whole group and small groups, but intervention time proved best.

 

(I think it's important for the students to use real money)

The hardest part for the students was adding the money in the trading center.  How did I solve this?

Through the use of a hundreds chart, ten frame, and dry erase markers.  For the ten frame I put (5 cents) at the end of the top row and (10 cents) at the end of the second row.  During our game we'd place the pennies on the ten frame to see what trades we could make and we would mark the amount rolled each time, that way when we would figure out the trades I could ask, "Do we still have (whatever the amount) cents?"  I don't know about the other groups, but my group really soared with this resource.  

Five days later, I can promise you I am so over money... but don't worry, my students are excited about it enough to beg for the money game and counting book every chance they get!  Even though I wanted to pull my hair out after today's test, I really am one happy teacher that they are actually excited about learning.