Brief Summary of this Past Summer

I know my professor, Dr. Shanton, said he wanted us to focus on the recent weeks of being in the classroom, but he also said this was a “free write on our teaching” so I will take that creative liberties in first discussing a couple of summer events that pertain to my professional teaching career.  Over the summer I attended the nErDcampBC conference that was put on by my brother, sister-in-law and a group of their amazing friends.  nErDcampBC was set up like a traditional EDcamp, but with a literary twist, and it WAS AWESOME! I cannot even begin to describe all of the amazing things I learned that day in the Cereal Capital, Battle Creek.  I was able to attend four sessions, but I wanted to attend them all.  Most of the people in attendance were teachers, but there were also many librarians, authors, administrators, etc. at nErDcampBC that came to learn about literacy in the classroom.  I cannot wait for the next nErDcamp, and I will definitely do a better job helping spread the word about this amazing learning experience to my fellow colleagues and friends.  Plus I walked out that day with over TEN free books (that were all donated to nErDcampBC by the hosts’ connections).  All of these books will be on my shelves when I have my own classroom. 

The second summer event I feel the need to discuss is the MTTC.  I took both the elementary education test, and the history subject area test.  The history test was not required for my certification, but I wanted to take it because if I passed it would give me more job opportunities.  I do not think a middle school history class is where I belong in my teaching career, but you never know until you try it and I definitely wanted to keep that door open once I am finished at Albion College.  When I took the tests they gave me both test booklets, both answer sheets, and four hours to finish 200 questions.  No problem right?  The elementary test was not as intimidating so I opened that one first and went to work.  After about fifty questions on that one I decided to look at the history test.  Let me tell you, it was not at all easy.  The questions ranged from all sorts of facts about every aspect of history since what seemed like the beginning of time.  I had spent quite a bit of time studying, but I did not think it was enough.  When I handed in my test I felt confident that I passed the elementary exam, but was certain I could not say the same about the history one.  It was seriously one of the hardest, most in depth multiple choice exams I have ever taken.  The worst part about it all was that I had to wait nearly a month for my results.  When the Albion College certification director emailed me to let me know I passed BOTH I was through the roof in excitement.  I even teared up a bit, because I was all but sure I did not pass the history test.  I am so thankful I will have the opportunity to search for a career in K-8 education and cannot wait to see where my opportunities take me. 

These past few weeks have been fun, interesting, slightly hectic, and a wonderful learning experience.  I started going into my classroom in the mornings about 2-3 weeks ago.  I’d go in for a couple hours and help Mrs. Stacks arrange some stuff, hang items up, learn to make copies (still trying to perfect the double sided-multiple sheet staple-sort copying – I’ll get it eventually…), and do whatever else she needed from me at the time.  While we were working together she was telling me all about how she runs her classroom, what she does on a daily basis, different activities she likes to incorporate in various lessons, etc.  Throughout our conversations, Mrs. Stacks would frequently add “I know this is wayyyyyy too much to take everything in right now, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll have a full grasp of everything.”  I know there are some things she will have to go over for me again during my student teaching (especially copying with staple-sort), but I am thankful she was willing to let me come in to help her out a handful of times as the summer was winding down to a close.  Having this extra time in the classroom since I live so close to Concord has allowed me to build an already strong relationship with my amazing mentor teacher.  It also gave me a chance to meet many of the other great members of the Concord Elementary team.  I know I will seek advice from many of these people during my student teaching experience, Mrs. Stacks and her team teacher Ms. Buseth especially since I will work in their rooms on a daily basis, and I also hope to be able to build lasting relationships with them so we can continue to bounce ideas off each other as each of us learns and grows in our professional career long after my student teaching experience is complete.  As teachers we will never be done learning, and it is great to have people you can trust as you constantly work toward becoming better at what you do in order to help out your students even more. 

Meet the Teacher Night at Concord was on Tuesday, August 27 and it was my very first experience of this event from the teaching side of things.  (We started the night with a class list of 24 students and ended with 26.  It is rumored that one student on the roster is no longer going to attend Concord Schools, so we might be at 25, a more than workable number of students.  Our initial list had 15 girls and 9 boys, and now we’re at 14 “for sure” girls and 11 “for sure” boys.  I don’t know how much the closer to equal demographics will play out during the year as opposed to having a more girl heavy class would have, but in all honesty – as a male teacher – I am a little glad the boys are not too outnumbered.)  It was a fantastic experience to be on the teacher side of Open House night.  I loved seeing the excitement on the students’ faces when they got into the classroom to meet Mrs. Stacks and me.  They would then rush off to see which friends were in their class.  When the students were doing this, Mrs. Stacks would almost always tell them that while it is awesome to already have friends in class, we will also be working toward meeting everyone in class to help build new friendships.  When I have a classroom to call my own I will definitely be borrowing that line from Mrs. Stacks at my open houses.  Being able to meet the parents that night was also really great.  It helps create a comfort level before the school year begins so the parents know that we are all a team and in order for the child to best succeed it is a team effort that does not end when the final bell rings.  

Getting Started

So, I’m a little new to this blogging thing, but I know it is a wonderful tool to use to reflect on my teaching practices.  For my Albion College student teaching course we write at least one reflection a week so I figured having that consistency would be a great time to start a blog.  I will work hard to continue doing this long after I finish my student teaching at Concord Elementary and throughout my professional career.  Hope you enjoy!