Energy-saving times

Apparently the mid-winter break that I am greatly appreciating at the moment has some non-conventional origins (see NYT article). *As a side note, did you know that this was a local, NYthing? According to some NJ sources, this break does not exist! Sure explains some confusion when my friends receive calls/texts from me a) in the middle of the night-"Why are you still awake?" and b) in the middle of the day-"Shouldn't you be teaching the little people now?"* In short, it was a way to save energy (and therefore $$), since it meant that thermostats could be turned down (although with the weather lately, this is probably unnecessary), the system could save on ridiculously-priced gas, etc. Who knew?! I'd like to extend this energy-saving philosophy beyond sheer thriftiness. I'd like to think that the Board of Ed. also calculated that about this time into the year, teachers would deserve a much-needed reboot.

I, for one, have been reaping the benefits of this all-around-energy-saving-mechanism built into our school system. I have been able to attend to little things around the house, such as putting my clothes away as opposed to throwing them in an every-growing pile of my things consisting of anything from clothes to books, doing laundry (I might've worn the same pair of pants to work for 2-3 days the week before), cleaning the bathroom (done out of obligation, not desire), tinkering around on the piano, tending to my garden by proactively weeding and ridding the lawn of bunches of onion grass, and even making a noble attempt at exercising (that's right folks, apparently nice weather+free time=no excuse to not go running, though I'm sad to say that the high school track is STILL under construction, 8 months later. FOR WHAT REASON? UNNECESSARY. Will have to settle with damaging body and running on concrete-inquire within for reasons why I hate running on concrete.). Why have I chosen to list out what, to you, are the mundane details of my day-to-day activities of the week? To rub my excess time in your face? I think not. But rather, to express how truly grateful I am for this midwinter break. I was just telling my mom's friend how surprisingly energized I am, on this gloomy Friday afternoon, despite it being Friday and have done a variety of otherwise incredibly energy-consuming tasks. That's when I realized that there was a stark contrast between me on vacation and me on a typical Friday-self, sleep-deprived, dehydrated, and cranky and unwilling to do anything outside of my school obligations.

I'm hereby am making it my mission (and I encourage you other educators out there) to devote at least 30 min. a day to forcing myself to do something that I may not want to do in the moment, but know that will be helpful for the future (short-term OR long-term), and something that I want to do, regardless of how much my id (I think that's the correct term...some pysch major I was!) protests. This will hopefully lead to more maximization of time and more opportunity to spend precious vacation days doing other, more exciting things, as opposed to catching up and compensating for what has been ignored for the past month or so). This will be particularly important this coming month, as it's a full month of no vacation days. Brace yourselves, educators!

6 months ago...

Today marks (approximately) my 6 month anniversary with the working world, and more specifically, as a "real" teacher (with a certificate!). When I think back to everything that I've been through, accomplished, and survived, I chuckle and give myself a little pat on the back. Some brief highlights worth noting:

• Learning to function with less than 4 hours of sleep
• ACTUALLY looking forward to my time in Jersey and dreading my return to NY (a reflection of one my lower points in life)
• Contributing to the learning of some very special people in institute (we made the most gains in our entire school!)
• My 5-year plan completely falling apart upon learning of my position as a learning specialist
• Getting a full workout during the first two weeks of school while chasing, carrying, etc. children (most likely crawling, hiding under tables, taking laps around the school)
• Getting kicked, slashed at, cursed at by a 5 year old
• Successfully teaching little people how to count (THIS IS A BIG DEAL!)
• Most recently (i.e. Thursday), getting some major bruises on my shins and knees and a super stretched out sleeve on my cardigan while "escorting" a child to the main office

A quick shout out...

My journey thus far has definitely been quite a roller coaster ride-emotionally, physically, and mentally. Some quick shout-outs here...

I am so grateful for my support system, most notably my family and my boyfriend. They put up with a lot as they listen to me describe work with the most drastic mood changes-

"Ughhhhh. I'm so angry that this kid ruined my sweater...I mean, it wasn't super nice, maybe $25 from Gap, but STILL...."

*2 minutes later after that rant..*

"Ohhh let me show you some pictures of my kids. They're the CUTEST! My job is awesome!"

I wouldn't be surprised if they've started to tune me out at this point (their responses and reactions have definitely gotten more generic-"Cool," "You really like working with little people, huh?")

Learning as a teacher

I would definitely describe my rate of growth as exponential. Between my colleagues and my actual experience in the classroom, I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. The more I think about it, the more grateful I am for having chosen to get into a classroom before (well, as it stands now, it's more while) attending graduate school. I find that I'm the kind of learner that requires first-hand experience and thrives much more when left to fall and make mistakes than the kind that can absorb and apply information attained from lectures, discussions, etc. Though I certainly don't like messing up, I think that this dislike drives me to make sure that I never make the same mistake again.

Patience really is a virtue! Especially with students with disabilities. When I first started, I'd chastise myself for not seeing the progress I wanted in my students. We were working so hard, but it just didn't add up-the input did not result in the expected output. However, I've come to appreciate that children experience the light bulb moment just as adults often do-you might spend many tedious hours talking about the same thing, and to the kids, you might as well be speaking in a foreign language. And then, one, GLORIOUS day, it clicks. And they make the connections. And for that one moment, all that hard, intensive work, is worth it. BEST. FEELING. EVER. (on a recent math assessment, one of my students made 31 points of growth!)

The million dollar question is, what is the cause of this delay? Is it that the material is not developmentally appropriate? Or is it that we're just not appealing to the students' learning styles? Most likely, it's a combination of the two. However, in some situations, I find that one trumps the other in terms of likelihood of being the culprit. Thus, one must truly engage in the craft of teaching, and present information in many different ways (differentiate) to really target the root of the problem.

People often ask me whether or not I like teaching. My answer often varies depending on the day asked. However, when it really comes down to it, I am obsessed with my job-I cannot imagine myself any where else (at least at this point in my life!).

Teaching 101-Staying Fit

Before I started teaching, one of my biggest concerns was fitness. In my "youth" (referring to my elementary to high school days), I was quite active, with sports every day pretty much all year round. In college, while I was definitely not as fit and active as I had been, I still had access to the gym, mandatory PE classes (and one particularly memorable modern dance class, thank you, best-teacher-ever!!), ridiculously cheap zumba classes (shout out to my fellow zumba-ers) and even the park for leisure running. All of these fitness opportunities for my taking-if I was not fit, it was 100% due to my lack of discipline.

As a new teacher, on the other hand, exercise did not seem to be an option, primarily due to the immense work load (and long hours at my school). Despite urges from our COO to maintain a healthy work-life balance and carve out time for personal priorities, having a life outside of work seemed to be an ideal, not reality (and even if I did have time for personal priorities, exercising plummeted quickly in rank). For the first couple of weeks, the extent of my fitness ranged from walking to and from train stations, to chasing little children around the school.

Shortly after I started working, I realized that one way to "stay fit" was to just not eat lunch, which is easy if you're a classroom teacher since you're essentially "on" all day (stay fit is in quotes, since studies have shown that it's actually more detrimental to deprive your body of food, intentional or not). It was unlikely that I would not eat lunch, since food is such a huge part of my life. I was still stuck in a fitness rut.

Fitness tip #1: make time in the day to eat, even if it's just a little snack.

Luckily, our school has one awesome dance teacher, and she offers a weekly zumba class (for free!) for all adults in the school building. Though only 45 minutes a week, it's a real workout (both muscular and cardiovascular), and releases much-needed endorphins on a Monday evening.

Fitness tip #2: make time to work out on a high-stress day. It feels awesome to do something for yourself, and lets you step away from a school mindset (even if only for 45 minutes).

Today, I experienced a new type of workout-strength training by books:

I look like a turtle!

In last week's TFA newsletter blast, there was a post by an organization that had recently received a large donation of books from McGraw Hill. These books were deemed unusable for their purposes, and thus they reached out to TFA. I, being a first year teacher, jumped at this opportunity to get anything that could possibly help my students, and scheduled an appointment to pick out some books today. What I thought would be 7-10 books turned out to be way more than I could have imagined. Because I was the first one to swing by, I had a huge assortment to choose from. In all, I picked up about 25 books for my kiddos. AWESOME. As an added bonus, they had a bunch of big books (essentially enlarged versions of books, on average 2-3 feet x 2-3 feet) for me to take too! Serious win. With a whopping 7 pound backpack, plus a few big books in tow, I made the trek from Brooklyn to Long Island through the rain. I was pleasantly surprised by how out of breath I was when I got to my doorstep. I anticipate some aching muscles tomorrow as well. Free books and a workout? Double win.

To give some perspective, here's a picture of the shell relative to the New York Times.

Fitness tip #3: add some extra books in your bag to get some cardio and strength training.

All that to say, today's events have inspired this post, which will hopefully inspire all you (and me) to find time to squeeze in some fitness in your busy lives.

My nook

Nook noun \ˈnu̇k\

1. chiefly Scottish : a right-angled corner

2. a : an interior angle formed by two meeting walls

b : a secluded or sheltered place or part nook and cranny>c : a small often recessed section of a larger room breakfast nook>

I'd say that all of these components of the definition more or less describe my room at school. It is, in fact, located in a right-angled corner of the kindergarten hallway, and it most certainly consists of an interior angle formed by two meeting walls. I would say that for the most part, it's a secluded or sheltered part of the school (it's shaped such that a good part of the room is not really visible to people outside the room), and at times, I'd describe it as a recessed section of the kindergarten hallway/room.

I spent a couple of solid hours making this described nook as homey as possible, and I'd say at this point, I'm mostly lacking a couple of things hanging from the ceiling to brighten up the room (I'm thinking some lanterns??).

Pretty much the entire length of the room

Double duty

As of yesterday, I have assumed a new title (drumroll please...) Chinese school teacher!! This may come as a surprise, since I've pretty much got my hands full with my normal duties as a special education teacher and a student of special education pedagogy, and my Chinese really isn't all that awesome; am I a fluent speaker? Yes. Do I have experience in the classroom? Yes. Am I a fluent reader? Not so much...but I get by! Do I enunciate "properly/roll my tongue at appropriate times (not the Beijing style! more like, su vs. shu)? Not so much. Do I really distinguish between the second and third tones? Nope! And yet, here I am, a teacher in the field, at none other than my Chinese school alma mater, if you will. Which means that the stakes are higher in more than one way:1) As someone educated in the system, I feel as though I have something to prove to the parents of my students; 2) My mom is apparently an awesome teacher of the advanced class and as the daughter of said awesome teacher, in theory, I should be nothing short of an awesome teacher myself; 3) I'm returning as someone who has gone through some education training, and so the expectation (and why I was hired in the first place) is that I can apply what I've learned in the field to my Chinese training. Which is why, apparently, it's acceptable that I'm a bit lacking in some Chinese skills. To further throw a wrench in my abilities to educate these kiddos, I'm teaching a pinyin class. For those of you don't know, I am a devout ㄅㄆㄇㄈbeliever.

In retrospect, I really put much thought when I first accepted the position (first as an alternate, if the first P2 class exceeded 20 students...which it has). I just thought it'd be cool to teach at a place in which I was familiar, and it was an additional teaching experience that wasn't necessarily tied to special education (plus, there was an added source of salary!). But, as the first day of school (yesterday) drew nearer, I started getting cold feet-circumstances had changed since I first accepted, since I now attend Fordham, my faith in my Chinese skills wavered, and this meant that I wouldn't have Sundays free to go places and really enjoy my free time.

Yet, the first day of school came and went, and although I was co-teaching (acting as an assistance for the first 2 hours, then taking over the last hour), teaching didn't seem all that bad! I'm sure that it'll take me a while to get the hang of things (so many questions still unanswered, such as, just how much English is appropriate? I am teaching a class of students who don't really have a Mandarin background/foundation, after all), but this is the kind of challenge that I thrive on. And as long as I make the lesson plans on Sunday after school, it really only takes me an hour and a half or so to hammer it out (if I'm really focused). As an added bonus, my classroom has a document camera that I have access to! There's a smart board too, but unfortunately, no access to that.

Will this additional experience, as I hope, serve as an opportunity to sharpen my teaching ability, or will it prove to be a frustrating and unwise choice on my part? Dun, dun, duuuun! Only time will tell. ;)

First day of school, 2011-second edition

September 7th, 2011. The mark of another "important" landmark in my life-my first day of school as a graduate student. As I sat in my first class as a graduate student, it felt unlike any other "first days" I've had. For one, I hadn't been stressing the night before about what I'd be wearing (it didn't help that I had gotten home from orientation at 9:30, which, on any other day, is my bedtime). I also didn't feel any sense of urgency. The fact that I hadn't officially received my acceptance letter until 3 hours before my first class probably didn't help matters either. To be frank, this really just increased my frustration with the whole situation (my education at TC has been denied to deal with all of these logistical uh-ohs? Again, had I known, I probably would've made different post-graduation plans). I was late-or so I thought-to my first class because I thought I'd cleverly take the orange line instead because it has less stops, only to find that the train itself moved at half the pace of the red lines. In short, my first day of school as a graduate student was incredibly anticlimactic.

**at this point, my computer ran out of batteries, and I lacked the energy to walk all the way downstairs to get a charger, hence the day-late upload.

I will say, however, that I am excited for my education. Although I really appreciate everything that my undergraduate program provided, I always felt like I was lacking the fundamental content knowledge that would improve my teaching. My struggles at institute this summer were a testament to my severely limited content knowledge (and yet I still passed the teaching exam with flying colors-such high standards...). Obviously, most adult know how to add two digit numbers with regrouping. But I challenge you to try explaining what REALLY happens (what, exactly, does carrying mean?) to a group of second graders, or even other adults, and see how successful you are. And I'm definitely struggling to think of ways to best support my students, and so I'm optimistic that this opportunity will really inform my classroom teaching.

I've made it a priority to consolidate my two classes (a math and a literacy course) into one night, so that I don't have to go to school twice a week, from 7-9, which means that I have two back to back classes every Wednesday, which means that my day starts at 5 AM, and ends at approximately 12 PM (after I've showered, gotten ready for bed and all). I anticipated an unproductive next-day, but was pleasantly surprised by my sustained energy throughout the day. We'll see how long that lasts for.

Still, I've begun to consider living in the city-waking up at dawn, only to be in a windowless room for 9 hours and return home just in time to eat and sleep at late hours, the stresses of a commute (e.g. today we were delayed 30 min., with delays at all 3 transfer points I must take) have been enough to make me second guess my living situation.

In short, along with my general sentiments regarding my placement in this program, my first day of grad school was lackluster. But hopefully, from here on out, it can only get better!

Bumps in the road

Today was by far the most difficult day in the Kindergarten classes (across the board). There were tantrums, trips to the no-sensory room (for the most defiant and unsafe behaviors), trips to the deans' office (though that's not unique to today), and apparently a suspension.

Because we are faced with such dangerous behaviors in conjunction with a whole slew of other inappropriate behavior, we often find that we must pick and choose our battles. As a result, despite the huge emphasize on 100% of scholars on task and sweating the small stuff at our school, students tend to get away with relatively less harmful behaviors that are still highly unacceptable (e.g. not sitting in SLANT position on the rug is okay because a scholar isn't hitting her neighbors). At some point, it's necessary to consider the impact that these little behaviors have on the general classroom culture.

I have my own hypotheses, but I'm curious to hear from you-how do you think not "sweating the small stuff" with certain students because it's not developmentally appropriate affects classroom culture? What strategies might you use to get 100% appropriate behaviors?