And she shall be called, The Boulder

This morning we had to fill out an anonymous survey about Inclusion. It reminded me of another “anonymous” survey I filled out for Principal Pretty, and my promise to share with you how I came to be called a “Boulder”.
Flashback: Three years ago. Principal Pretty’s first year. Things were going okay. I had one mom [...]

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so predictable

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
We need to start the poetry unit next week. Who is the only person concerned about it? Me. Who stayed at school til 6:30 last night to copy poetry booklets from Reading A-Z? Me. Who brought home a whole bag full of poetry books, folders [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Week 8

My student teaching school was a year-round school. So for the last week of September and the first two weeks of October, they were on Fall Intercession. The school offered remedial courses (really day care) during the first two weeks, and on the third week they were truly closed. I went in for part of [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 33

Thursday, September 23, 1999
I taught the students the names of the 9 planets and a mnemonic deice to help them remember it.
We were talking about the Sun and other stars when someone asked about the planets, so I decided we could talk about them. I asked them what are planets and did they know the [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 32

Wednesday, September 22, 1999
This morning started with CL, DL’s little sister in 1st grade, giving me a big hug while we were lining up and saying, “I wish I was in your class!” She is so adorable! That totally made my day.

The only thing better than a kid saying they want to be in your [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 31

Tuesday, September 21, 1999
I did the lesson for introducing apples today. It’s a theme for the week for September and Johnny Appleseed. I needed help because there were so many ideas and I had no idea where to start. Mrs. J gave me some good ideas – to just start by talking about the pictures [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 30

Monday, September 20, 1999
I went to a seminar over the weekend about how to be an Interactive Teacher and Communicating with Clarity. It was really interesting. I learned a lot of stuff.

Really? Because I have no idea what the first one is, and apparently don’t do the second one very effectively considering how many parents [...]

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Bonne Anniversaire!

Last summer I had this crazy idea to start a blog. I was tired of hearing people say how easy teaching is, and “you get three months off in the summer.” I knew I was working 45 to 50 hours a week, plus I did stuff in the summer. I was working just as much [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 29

Friday, September 17, 1999
We did the author study art project for Swimmy today.  The kids really liked the books and the illustrations.  They did okay with tracing the large fish; I was pleased especially because I expected some problems with that.  A lot of them didn’t know how to draw the little fish, so I [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 28

Thursday, September 16, 1999
The class baked cakes today – one for the class and one for Dr. Principal’s birthday. (We had a surprise party after school @ the Primary Meeting.)
I totally do not remember this. What I do remember is the Mexican National Anthem playing over the loudspeaker for Mexican Independence Day (no, it’s NOT [...]

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