Today was a special day because I spent the day at Boston College. I will be attending the Lynch School of Education (starting this summer!) to receive a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Their Catholic mission is very similar to the Holy Cross TEP. I am excited to continue my Jesuit education here. I got to stay over Saturday night with my cousin Sarah who is a current senior at BC. It was sunny and 65! Here are some pictures from the amazing day:
The day consisted of a tour, information sessions, an example class, and a lunch. Gasson is so beautiful!These two amazing people have supported me through everything and are the reason I can continue my education at Boston College this summer.My favorite place to get ice cream. I swear this isn’t why I chose BC for grad school. . .
Dinand will always have my heart, but I can’t wait to study in Bapst 🙂From the Hill to the Heights– I can’t wait for my next adventure!
This week is my second week with three full classes. This is definitely A LOT more challenging than my schedule before! It is so hard to keep track of who has done what, what I have said to who, and what agenda and objectives I need to put up on the board each period.
How do you stay organized while student teaching?
Here are some tips and tricks that are helping me right now:
Set out your weekly block schedule so you can see which classes will drop throughout the week. I also put the daily time schedule next to each block.
Quickly jot down what each class did each day after the bell rings. It only takes 30 seconds and it truly saves you from the “Did this class do this yet?” headache tomorrow! My mom is an awesome teacher and this is her template she gave me.
The Pass it in Bin helps to organize submitted student work. I go through it after each period so the Do Nows and Exit Tickets don’t pile up. Also, the black stackable bin is super helpful to organize lined paper, computer paper, colored paper, etc.
Make copies the day before so you aren’t stressed or rushing around during your preps.
Use multiple calendars to help you visualize the major assignments due for Holy Cross courses as well as your breaks. As you can see, Easter is right around the corner!
A few last thoughts:
Update your time log each day so you don’t forget how long you worked each day.Keeping a “To be passed back,” “Extra copies,” and “To be graded” pile helps to keep papers organized. Use paper clips to help you keep the classes separated!Label your PowerPoint slides with the color of the class to help you remember who is on what!A good teacher bag always has tons of snacks, hand sanitizer, and chapstick. You can never pack too many snacks 🙂 ⇧
Stay tuned for my last post where I show you my outfits of the week‼
Happy Monday! Here’s a little tour of Sullivan Middle School and my classroom. ↓
Here’s my classroom.
The hallways look like this.
This is my desk– as you can tell, I love sticky notes.
How do you stay motivated while student teaching?
We are more than halfway through student teaching. Some days, it is hard to stay motivated and positive when that alarm goes off in the pitch blackness. However, I use Pinterest as a Dream Board and I check it every morning to get motivational quotes and photos. Here are some examples of what pops up on my feed:
My mom is also a 7th grade teacher and she sends me morning inspiration 🙂 It helps to have someone in your life who is doing a similar job that you are! We send each other lesson ideas/quotes all the time.
I also watch daily Lenten Reflections from Dynamic Catholic to help me find purpose in each day. The videos are sent straight to my email and they are only 3-4 minutes long. I like to listen to them on my walk home from the gym in the morning before I leave for school.
Usually, I watch the sunrise from my couch if it isn’t cloudy. Not a bad view! It makes getting up before the sunrise worth it.Lunch time with my classroom neighbors! Mrs. Foley, Ms. K, and Ms. Trueman make my day every single day. I am so lucky I get to work with such positive, amazing humans! They have made my student teaching experience so fulfilling. I couldn’t do it without them.
In summary:
Utilize Pinterest or other forms of social media to manifest your dreams and receive daily inspirational quotes.
Interact with people who are going through a student teaching experience like you. Don’t be afraid to ask them for advice! Ms. K and Ms. Trueman always make me feel better when I am having a tough day.
Surround yourself with people who bring you joy and make you feel better about yourself. Lunches are my 30 minutes of the day where I can relax with fabulous coworkers who inspire me.
Stay in tune with nature. Watch a sunrise or sunset to slow down and realize that the days are getting longer and better weather is coming!
Watch short guided meditations or reflections on YouTube in the morning before you start your day to find purpose.
Today, I got up and went right to Mass at 10:30 with my sister. Usually, I got to 7 PM Mass at Holy Cross with my friends but today was a special day. My cousins just bought a beach house in Newport so my family went to go visit! My sister and I stopped into this church on the way home. Mass on Sunday always helps me to remember have gratitude for the beautiful life I have been given. I’m so lucky I get the opportunity to be a student teacher and go to my dream college, Holy Cross. Every day is a blessing and a gift. My Catholic faith and my teaching vocation go hand in hand.
I made three wishes because this was my first time at this church.
My favorite song!
One of the best parts of going home is seeing my dog, Bentley. She is three.
I only live an hour from Newport so it was a short drive over. It was 55 and sunny out and we even drove with the sunroof open. We spent the afternoon touring the house and spending time together. Since they live right on the the Newport Cliff Walk, we made sure to take a walk there. It is so beautiful!
The drive was so fun!
We know we are almost there when we go over the bridge.
This is our cousins’ dog, Bailey.
Bailey is only 6 months old– she is still so tiny!
Views from the Cliff Walk.Family selfie 🙂
Then, my Grammie treated us to dinner. It was delicious. It was special to have such a fun day spent with family. I’m so grateful we got to spend the day together. Sometimes it is hard to slow down and take time for what we value in life, but I think that days like these are so important and special! I feel refreshed and ready to take on another week of student teaching.
Today I got to sleep in for the first time in a while. I went to Kimball because my sister is a freshman at Holy Cross at she has guest swipes. We both got omelets! My favorite omelet has feta cheese, tomato, spinach, and onion in it. I have not been to Kimball in months so it was fun to catch up with my sister and spend the morning together.
My dad and brother were in Worcester today and surprised my sister and I with Starbucks coffee. It was so sweet of them!
Love my little sis!
To do lists are a must for a busy day.
Then, I went back to my apartment and did some laundry. I like doing my laundry on the weekends because it makes the rest of the week so much easier. My friends and I did some homework in a study room in our apartment. I was super productive and got everything but two things done on my to do list.
The views from my apartment are the best.They were so fluffy and delicious 🙂
I baked these gluten free chocolate chip muffins for a special day that I will blog about tomorrow! The secret ingredient is coconut oil instead of butter.
My friends all met up at 6:30 PM at Chipotle. I got a bowl with lettuce, brown and white rice, cheese, mild salsa, and sour cream. So yummy!
My awesome friends part 1My awesome friends part 2We also went grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s.I got all of this stuff for $40! Talk about a bargain.
The last thing I did today was meal prep for this week. I love making my salads and washing all of my fruit ahead of time because it saves me so much time in the mornings.
Today was an awesome day! For the first time all semester, Suzanne and I decided to leave campus a little earlier than usual and stop at Starbucks on the way to school. I’m honestly impressed we’ve lasted this long because we were regular customers at the Starbucks off exit 16 this summer. This little treat was the perfect pick me up and gave us more time to catch up than the usual 15 minute drive to Doherty and back.
Sunrise at DohertyEarly Morning Starbucks Run
After collaborating and catching up with my teachers during first period, I went straight into teaching periods two, three, and four. It was a B day today, which meant second period was long. Lucky for my PreCalc Honors students, I came armed with some tricky trig word problems for them to do independently with the support of a partner.
Today was a big day in Geometry because we finally transitioned from triangles to a new shape, parallelograms. For a while there it felt like the only shape of importance was a triangle, so I’m excited to change course and think about things other than triangles!
After school, Kat (another TEP student at Burncoat Middle) and I went and got our nails done. We have been on the same exact track throughout our four years at Holy Cross because we’re both math majors and in the TEP, so this is our first semester of not being together 5 days a week. It’s definitely been an adjustment!
Once I got back to campus, I had a little break filled with making copies and getting ready for tomorrow before I headed to Nativity for evening study. My time at Nativity each week is one of my favorite parts of the week. I love getting to see my students from this summer and seeing them continuing to grow into Nativity men. Of course, they’re still middle schoolers, so I also love hearing updates on the basketball team and just catching up with the boys.
Nativity Evening Study
I am so excited and humbled to be working at Nativity for the next two years after graduation!
I forgot to blog yesterday, so here is a two for one combo of my Tuesday and Wednesday this week!
Yesterday was a great and busy day! Over the weekend, Holy Cross sent out acceptance decisions and some Doherty Highlanders found out that they will be Holy Cross Crusaders next year!
After the school day ended, I rushed back to campus to interview people for SPUD leadership positions for next year. We have 43 sites we work with in Worcester and a majority of our leadership comes from the senior class which means we have a lot of spots to fill! I was able to knock out five interviews yesterday back to back, so I was definitely a little frazzled by the end but am excited to see what the SPUD of 2019-2020 will look like!
SPUD Office
After some time lesson planning in Dinand, I headed to Pub Night with some friends. Since I woke up at 5:50, I was starting to crash by 10:30 but was glad I got to see friends outside of Dinand.
Pub Night
Today was another busy day. One of my teachers was absent, so I covered her classes which helped me get a few more hours towards my 100 required hours of direct instruction for the semester. I think the students were hoping for a substitute, so they wouldn’t have to do too much work. Instead, they had a regular day of testing and group work with me.
Test Time
After school, Suzanne and I decided to stop at Dunkin’ on our way back to campus for some coffee before practicum. We took a different route from the normal 290 and saw some of the students I work with at Boys and Girls Club who go to Woodland Academy and a dog basking in the sunlight in the front seat with some sunglasses.
First Day of SpringSpring Ready
During Practicum, we talked about our weeks and had dinner with some junior TEP students. The dinner with TEP seniors and juniors is a great tradition because it gives us time to give advice and some clarity to the experience. I’m excited to hear about their experiences next year!
Today was the start of our first full week of student teaching! We have managed to have a snow day or delay every single week since the start of the semester, so we’ll see how this goes.
Daylight Savings Time has definitely made the whole waking up thing a little bit harder, but it makes it easier to stay up later. When I left my room this morning at 6:30, it was still dark outside.
View from Williams Before the Sunrise
Once I trekked to the parking garage in Williams and drove to Doherty, I could finally see the beginning of sunlight from the student lot.
Doherty Student (& Student Teacher) Parking Lot
But before the sun could rise, I was inside, in my classroom, getting ready to teach my classes with my two awesome teachers, Mrs. Razzaq and Mrs. O’Leary. We all have a common planning period first period, so we are able to collaborate and catch up.
Mrs. Razzaq’s Classroom
Today was an extra busy day because my program supervisor came to observe me, and we had an all faculty meeting. I definitely tried my best to stay organized throughout my three periods of teaching but definitely lost it as the day progressed.
Ready for PreCalculusAttempting to be Organized
Once the clock struck 3:30, I left Doherty and headed straight to Boys and Girls Club, one of the SPUD sites I volunteer at. I got to hang out with some elementary school students and attempted to convince them to do their homework. One of my lucky Geometry students gets to see me during the school day AND at Boys and Girls Club every Monday.
Leaving Doherty After a FULL Day
Since getting back to campus, I’ve been printing and lesson planning in Dinand, eating dinner in Lower Kimball (still need to spend my dining dollars), and getting milkshakes with friends from Cool Beans.
Hi everyone! It’s Kate! I’m student teaching High School Math at Doherty Memorial High School. I’ll be taking over the blog again this week. You may recognize me from the great pictures Suzanne shared of me last week!
Today, I spent most of my day at Holy Cross, in Dinand prepping for the week. I had a lot of lesson planning and printing (lots of it) to do and some work for my job as a SPUD intern and homework for our practicum class. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who had left all of my work to do for Sunday, so I was surrounded by lots of friends while doing work.
Suzanne, Allie, and Jenny in Dinand
After a nice five hours of work, my friend, Sam, and I headed to Trader Joe’s to do our weekly food shopping. It was. a quick trip, so she could get back to study for a midterm and I could get ready for tomorrow.
Grocery Store Run
Once I got back to campus, I meal prepped for the week by making breakfast for the week, lunch organized for tomorrow, and even managed to get my coffee in my coffee machine, so I all I have to do tomorrow morning is press the on button. I haven’t quite adjusted to waking up at 5:30, so I get as much done as possible the night before. That way, I can get ready in 30 minutes and get an extra 30 minutes of sleep in.
Breakfast Meal PrepLunch & Coffee Are All Set
After prepping for tomorrow, I got dinner with one of my friends in Crossroads. I have a plethora of dining dollars and am trying my best to spend them all by the end of the semester.
Dinner in Crossroads
Once I got back to my room, I continued to prep for the week by doing laundry and doing the homework I assigned my students for the weekend. Sundays definitely are a catch up day now that I am working full-time. The week days are definitely more exciting and eventful!
I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. Today I made sure that I documented most parts of my day so that you guys could have some visuals for my daily routine. Today, unfortunately, my fellow Doherty TEPer decided that she needed to take her own car to school so that she could stay after. It’s always sad when Kate and I don’t drive together because it’s nice to have someone to complain about how early it is with. Here is me doing my best to put a brave face on without my good friend Kate. (Appearance vs. Reality is a big theme we will be discussing in Hamlet with my seniors next week!!!)
By some stroke of luck, however, Kate happened to pull into the Doherty student parking lot just SECONDS after me. Amazing.
Here is a picture of our cute little cars parked next to each other among all of the students’s cars. Today Kate came prepared with baked goods because she is a math nerd and it is Pi day.
If you look at this picture you can see her smiling face at 6 am as she attempts to bribe her students into liking her with chips ahoy cookies and pie. Not gonna work Kate!!! Just kidding its a great idea and I definitely think I should try it soon. Nothing like some sugar motivators to get the kiddos excited to learn!
Here are some pictures that I took on my hallway duty today so you can get a sense for what the hallways of Doherty look like. There is a lot of really great paintings on the wall that brighten up the school and send really positive messages to kids.
As for my lessons today- they both went well. If you checked in with my blog yesterday and were anxiously awaiting to hear how the ice-breaker with my period one freshmen went… it was awesome. The students who are typically so quiet and reserved had a blast and got a chance to move around the room and chat with other students. Even though this meant that we got to less content material for the day, when we did get back to Of Mice and Men, the participation and energy was soooo much better. I am psyched and am going to keep in mind that this class needs more activity- after all , who isn’t tired first thing in the morning???
We also had a bit of fun with my seniors. I stole the twitter idea from MB at practicum last night and incorporated it into the end of our A Thousand Splendid Suns unit. Here are some of the tweets that students wrote.
TGIF TOMORROW!!!! Have a great weekend everyone thank you for coming read my blog!! Signing off 🙂
