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It was crazy weather outside,  but nature gave me some great ideas.

In the morning, as I delivered a lecture on the Book of Jeremiah, it started snowing! It only lasted for about 15 minutes. In the afternoon, while I attempted to answered questions on heaven, loving God, and where all animals and plants fit into the picture of the afterlife, the sun shone brightly strong, with occasions of wind sweeping into the classroom.

For my scripture class, I want to bring the practice of Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) and find something else to do while the computer keeps failing us. For my morality class, now that we are in the unit of creation, I want to share with them the experience of meditating with nature. What better way to address these ideas than to take the classroom outside.

I heard it’s supposed to be sunny on Friday, so we will see how it goes!

By the way, my lunch, chiles rellenos (stuffed poblano peppers) was filling and spicy but just needed a bit more salt, haha.

 

One of the first things I see when entering Notre Dame Academy is the Notre Dame seal along with a statue of St. Julie with a girl.  When I ride alone in the Holy Cross van, I arrive at Notre Dame from Holy Cross around 7:30 a.m. This week, because of the Holy Cross spring break and the few people left on campus,  I will enter the school grounds with a bit of extra time for making copies and looking over my lesson plans.

Today, in two of my three classes, we started new units, which means I spent most of my weekend lesson planning and going into the week with little sleep.  My 10th and 11th-grade morality and scripture classes were back-to-back which meant that after 11:00 a.m., I had the rest of the day to check papers.

The greatest highlight during the school day was my morality class. Professor Roche from the religious studies department came to observe me and I received some great feedback after class. During the lesson, which is the first on the unit “respect for creation,” I had a student asked me, “Do dogs go to heaven?”  After my response, I  had to use a couple of attention signals to have the class settled down. 

Next lesson, as a promise to my students to touch on this topic again, I will explain the difference between souls and spirits. Even though the girls became a bit chaotic, I am glad to say that at least this reaction showed that they were invested in my lecture. They also managed to remain quiet for the remainder of the period while engaged in independent reading.  Two points for me!

After returning to Holy Cross, I took a long-needed nap. I woke up four hours later. Now, I am headed to lesson plan for my seventh-grade class tomorrow.

Happy Thursday! Friday is less than 24hrs away! Heading towards the weekend, I had the opportunity to reflect a little on my hobbies and what I do for self-care. I have realized that if I am not well rested or engage in some fun activities, it is difficult to be a good teacher. While having conversations with other teachers, I learned that many of them like to engage in diverse activities and one of the most popular ones was meditating. I can guarantee you that I am not one to meditate. Instead I have found that the best thing I can do for my self-care is to visit my box. No I am not talking about the type of box you put stuff inside when you need to move or give a gift. The box is a term that is used to describe a CrossFit gym! Yes, to a certain degree I consider myself a CrossFit athlete!

This sport has become my meditation, and when everything gets crazy, I can count on an awesome community and team of coaches to make my day better! So when do I have time to do this? Given my latest schedule changes, I now wake up at around 4am and go to the the 5am class to get a WOD (workout of the day) in before my first period at 7:15am!

Here is me bothering my coach as she is trying to wake up. By the way she is not only a coach but the gym owner and the greatest person ever! If you are in town you should drop in to CrossFit CenterMass for a first free class!

Hope you all have a good Thursday! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday! Wednesdays are probably my most busy day of the week, given that I have a 2.5 hour seminar! So after a day of classes I quickly rush to beat traffic and make it to one of my favorite classes I have taken at Holy Cross, English Language Learners.

Not only do I get to hangout with these amazing people, but in this seminar I get to learn strategies that I can use in my lessons to address the needs of students who are in the process of learning English as their second language. Taking this course always serves as a reminder that I am still a student, which as a senior it is scary to think that my journey as a student will culminate very soon.  Regardless, I am happy that while this semester I have been doing the teaching, I also have been learning.

I have even learned  learned the importance of meal prepping (not in my ELL seminar), so I should say goodnight before I burn my omelet!

I hope everyone had a great Tuesday, it is almost Friday! Today was quite the hectic day given that quarter three grades are due soon. Therefore, after a day full of lessons on comparative adjectives in Spanish, I stayed behind in my classroom to complete grading assignments as we geared towards quarter three finals.

Along with my grading, I like to give students personal growth reports. Here I write them small letters or have one on one conversations with them, where I address how much they have grown in the subject matter and as students, while giving them insight on how they can improve. My goal is that they take my comments and not only implement them in my class, but also in their other classes. One thing I have learned is that every student has a diverse need, and I try to strive to meet those needs to the best of my ability. Teaching this semester has been very rewarding, and everyday I get to experience the diversity in my classroom, and while it may sound like a cliche, I do learn from my students as well.

In addition, working in this classroom surrounded by many flags representing different Spanish speaking countries, serves as a reminder that diverse student needs require attention and by meeting them as teachers we help our students grow. 

Well, what a fantastic February break! I could have not thought of a better way to return to school, than coming back as a champion.

As part of my student teaching experience, I have had the honor of being part of the South High Men’s Basketball coaching staff. As an alumni and former player at South High, I could not be more proud of our South High Colonels, taking the city tournament championship last week. The school is excited as we move on to the district tournament! While academics are essential, it is also important to take a moment and celebrate these victories as a community in our classrooms.

As we ease back into things my Spanish classes will be starting some new projects and activities on possessive and cooperative adjectives. I only hope they are as excited as I am about it!

Hello!

It’s the weekend! And February break!! As excited as I am to have a week to sleep in past 5:30 a.m. I already miss Burncoat.

This week was a fun one though.  Thursday, we started the day with a 2 hour delay.  I never thought that waking up at 7:30 a.m. would feel so good.  My work day was filled with review sessions, and planning for after break.

After school, we had our Practicum Seminar.  This week it started with a TEP info session.  It was great to be able to share our love for TEP with some fellow HC students.  We then had a former TEP student come and talk to us about our futures as teachers, which was extremely insightful and helpful.  I ended my night with a Thursday night Fools on the Hill rehearsal, and then was immediately off to bed.

Friday was very exciting.  This week has been Spirit Week at Burncoat.  Friday was color wars, so each grade had a color: Freshman = White, Sophomores = Pink, Juniors = Blue, Seniors = Red, and Staff = Green.  The halls were decorated and the outfits were amazing.  The day ended with a Pep Rally in the gym.

I then ended my day going to BHS’ Drama Club rehearsal.  I went as a guest and watched a run through of their play, and helped by providing some notes.  It was awesome seeing some of my students outside of class and in their element.

This weekend I am staying in Worcester, but then heading home for the week off.

Thanks for listening to my week!  I hope everyone who has February Break, has a great week off.  I’m excited to see the other TEP blog posts that are to come.

Hello!

Wow this week has already been crazy, and we are only half way through it.

On Tuesday, I had my first observation.  I taught a lesson to my Algebra II Honors 6th period class.  The lesson was about Function Composition.  I’m not going to lie, I got pretty nervous right before it.  But, I am happy to say, that it was smooth sailing!  One observation done, many more to go.

Today was much more relaxing, with the stress of my observation gone.  As we are winding down the week and gearing towards February break, the units in each of my classes are also coming to an end as well.  Today consisted of designing many review sheets and quizzes for the end of the week.  2 more days!

After work, I came home and immediately got to correcting.

As of now, I do not mind correcting.  But get back to me in a few weeks and I’m sure I will have a very different perspective.

My day ended with me attending my roommate Grace’s performance in the Vagina Monologues.  It was such a great performance, and a wonderful way to end my night.

Rumor has it, we might have a snow day or delay tomorrow.  Only time will tell!

Hello!

The blog is back!  I’m so excited to be updating you on all things student teaching.

For those of you who don’t know, I am currently doing my student teaching at Burncoat High School, teaching Geometry and Algebra II.  My teacher, Heather Farrington has been so wonderful, and I have loved Burncoat so much so far.

Today was a typical Monday.  I taught two Algebra II Honors classes, and observed as Heather taught her Geometry College and Honors classes.  Below is a photo of my classroom!

At the end of the day, I met up with Elena and her teacher, Lauren, to chat and reflect on our day.

Once home, I spent a good chunk of time lesson planning and grading, before heading to my acapella rehearsal for Fools on the Hill.

Tomorrow is my observation day, so I will be back with an update on how it goes!  Talk to you soon!

Hi guys!  As promised, I spent the majority of my Saturday in Dinand.  It was about as boring as it sounds.  Real Analysis tests will do that to you.  Saturday night, I let myself relax.  I got hit with quite a bit of fomo though, because my best friends from home are all back in my hometown Westwood, and spent last night together in Boston.  But in less than 24 hours I will be joining them!

I am spending another day in Dinand.  However, I treated myself to some Inhouse this morning to help me power through.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving though!  Every year, my family has a Thanksgiving Eve party.  It started 15 years ago as us going out to dinner, and has turned into a party with usually 100+ people.  Then on Thursday, my family is going to our timeshare at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont.  Apparently, the mountains open this Friday, so hopefully we will be able to get some skiing in!

Well, that’s all for this week.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Can’t wait to update next semester when Student Teaching begins.