Three months in one post

Let's see if I can remember how to do this...

Some people, who would remain anonymous if the few people who read this didn't know each other, have told me I should not let my little blog die. So after months and months of absence, lets see if revival is possible.

I'd say my life these past few months has been uninteresting and unbloggable, but I absolutely loved teaching sixth grade and every day was at least a little different. It's funny looking back at the little I did blog here about my student teaching, because the last time I was here, I was trying desperately to learn 85 names. I'm sure you've been dying to know this, but yes, I did successfully learn who everyone was. I even learned last names! And distinguished between the repeated "Bens," "Matts," and variations on Katherine. Can someone please cue the Sweet Victory song?

I also managed to teach an entire unit by myself! Although my mentor teacher supplied me with a lot of materials and advice. But it was kind of neat to become the teacher. And make judgement calls like, "Yes, you can go to the library because you forgot your independent reading book," or "No, you can't go to your locker to get your reading journal. Just use lined paper." Exciting, right? I even taught young, impressionable minds how to write a five paragraph essay...and then graded those five paragraph essays. I also got to come up with some great reason why watching the Pixar short "For the Birds" was relevant and necessary to a decision making lesson. (It's totally educational! Just watch it!)

The only regret I have--yes there is one, because life is not perfect--is that I never let my FLEX period class create their own flash mob dance to retaliate against the class across the hall, who barged into our room one day dancing to the annoyingly catchy Friday song. Oh well.

It's only been two school weeks since I left, and even though I've immediately embraced the go-to-bed-late-wake-up-by-noon lifestyle, I miss the kids and I miss the teachers I worked with. But I have a pile of hastily made glitter cards and a signed T-shirt to remember the experience by, and hopefully I'll get to visit some time before the year is over.

In any case, I'm now a Wellesley grad, living a boring life, waiting to find out if I passed my MTEL and get to become a licensed teacher. It seems a bit surreal that I'll never need to drive back to Wellesley again, or take a class there. The other day, trying to find my way to an office I'd never been to, I found myself back in the writing department, looking down a hallway I'd had many classes in, and feeling a little sad. The Wellesley bubble seems impenetrable when you're in it, but now, just like that, it's gone. I don't think I fully embraced the feeling of leaving everything until I was driving home for the last time, after graduation. My commencement speaker told us that there would come a September morning when we would wake up and miss it...miss going to new classes and receiving a new syllabus. I think I'm already ahead of schedule.

Wellesley grads

I guess it's just time I get a job, write that epic novel, and become someone worthy of Wellesley. Piece of cake, right?

Responsibilities are scary.

What am I doing right now, you ask? I'm grading things! How strange. It is an odd feeling to know you have some control over a child's success (only some! They're the ones doing or not doing the work, after all...). Right now I'm grading the packets my classes have completed over the past few weeks for the novel they just read. It's a lot to go through, and I take about twice as long as my mentor teacher, although I take twice as long as him in anything we are grading, really. But that's just thanks to experience.

I also have to finish planning for a lesson on cyber bullying I'm giving tomorrow. This stuff is so serious and the kids know it, but it's hard to really know if they're prepared to fight against it. I did an activity today with my group where I split them based on the kind of shirt they were wearing, and then had them compete against each other in a trivia game. Only I made one group stand in the back and ignored them, or gave them 1 point for a correct answer, and gave the other group 500 points every time they got an answer right. About half way through the group in the back realized I was "bullying" them. And only at the end when we discussed how the activity made everyone feel did the praised group realize they could have stood up for the group in the back, and refused to play until the rules were fair. I guess you could say that happens a lot in real life too.

In other news, this weekend was full of music, food, and football, which was lovely, until the Patriots lost the Superbowl. Sigh.

But on Friday, Amanda came over and we saw Jack's Mannequin with Randi, which was great (minus the standing for hours and dancing girls in front of us).


Amanda and I proceeded to consume Thai food, JP Licks ice cream, brunch, free Burger King onion rings (what a brilliant idea, BK), and Pinkburry fro yo all in a 24 hour period. Yum yum yum. Life is good. And delicious.

PB&J and cake

Whoa, today was long. At school from 7:15 to 2:45, then in class from 3:50 to 5:50. But now I am done. My next task is dinner. I have already perused the dining hall selection, and ended up leaving with nothing but fruit: three apples, two bananas, and one orange. I'll probably make myself a sandwich. I have rediscovered my love of peanut butter and jelly now that I pack my own lunch every day. Thank god I love this sandwich. I suppose one day I will branch out and buy lunch meats. I'm still getting the hang of Roche Bros. I go in there and wander around like a lost lamb because I don't know where anything is. Plus the entrance leads you right into the bakery, and I find myself slowing down as I walk by the cake counter.

For now, I live life on pb&j.

Today was a good day. Lots of laughs with my other team teachers (the science, social studies, and math teachers). Had some good discussions with small groups. Every day I'm impressed with the students' ability to have class discussions, because I know that longer discussions on novels aren't always successful until later in high school or even college. But the kids impress me with their insights, and especially with the engagement they show with the story. Many a debate has sparked in these classes. It's fun to listen to.

I'm starting to work more one on one with various students, especially those who are behind in work. It is nice to get to know particular students, especially the students who might cause more frustration because of how behind they are. As a teacher I am determined not to hold grudges against any student, and I am learning that you cannot judge the students on only one aspect of their work ability. It has been quite interesting and eye opening to be on the other side of education (other than being a student or hearing my parents' opinions), because I have seen already how hard these teachers work to help every student succeed, and I have also come to know many of the more personal reasons as to why certain students are missing work. It's been tough realizing that as a teacher, there is only so much you can do during the day with the student. But as my mentor teacher has told me, despite anything going on at home with these kids, the best we can do for them is give them a good education.


On a different note, this past weekend Amanda, Julie, and I made butterbeer cupcakes! The recipe was inspired by the butterbeer drink from Harry Potter World, which essentially tastes like butterscotch soda. Very sweet. The cupcake batter actually smelled more like frosting. Although the cake itself did not come out too sweetly. The frosting definitely tasted very sweet, so it was a nice balance. And on top of all that goodness (literally), we drizzled butterscotch ganache, as well as attempted to add butterscotch ganache filling. Next time we'll get that technique down a little better. But they were DELICIOUS! I want another.

Julie drizzling the butterscotch ganache.

I also figured since I never got around to blogging my way through my choir Portugal tour, I will give you little pictures or stories of the day. Or something. Who knows. In any case, since I'm talking about food, here's a shot of a delicious Portuguese pastry:

Yum. So good. It was a crispy crust with custard inside and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. And warm from the ovens. We ate these tasty treats at a very famous cake shop called Pasteis de Belem. Here's a great video about the cafe (in English!): Check it out!

And in case you miss it in the video, they sell TEN THOUSAND of those custard tarts daily.

Wait, where did January go?!

I'm back I'm back I'm back! Hopefully.

Life with an "adult job" is quite tiring. If I had endless money, I'd be a student forever. Actually, that's a lie. If I truly had endless money, Europe wouldn't know what hit it. And then I'd build a castle on a mountain and live in it.

Good thing I'm going into a profession that pays well.

So I've been back in middle school for less than a week now. Already tired of getting up before 6am. So tired, in fact, that I didn't drag myself out of bed until 6:15 this morning. Not good when I should be leaving my room by 6:55.

Since I don't want to break any rules or set myself up for future issues, I will refrain from going into detail about my student teaching gig. But I feel that my personal experience is something I can safely share.

Right now, I'm still observing for the most part. Gradually working myself into the classroom. I re-introduced myself today, at least officially, giving the kids a letter I'd written to them and a letter their teacher wrote for their parents. Then saying a few words about it. Went great the first three classes, then by the end of the day I just didn't know what was going on and accidentally said that I told them "where I live" in my letter. Which sounds way creepier than "where I'm from," even though the two phrases essentially mean the same thing (at least in my case). I don't think they'll remember or care though. They're still learning basic life skills like sarcasm, so hopefully a couple dumb phrases (or inevitably, a lot) won't affect them all too much.

Okay, I can't resist this story. Today at the end of one class, one girl dangled a small purse in front of another and said, "Do you like my new bag!" and the other girl gave this huge gasp and exclaimed, "Oh my god, I have the same one! My mom gave it to --" At which point the other girl interrupted: "Yeah. It's yours. You left it at my house." I really wish I was eleven again.

Well, it's 9:30 and I'm wiped. Gah. These past two days feel like an entire month. This is way too tiring. Better rest my brain. I've been trying desperately to learn 80 or so names. Why do these kids all look alike! And half the names are repeated 2-4 times. This will probably be my hardest task all year.

But I'll keep you updated. Hopefully.

Merry Christmas! Again!

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a lovely day!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve! It has taken me a while to recover from writing 46 total pages of papers in about a week. Plus a 26 page lesson plan (although I only wrote about five of those pages--the rest was just worksheets that I had thankfully received from my cooperating teacher).

By now, everyone is done with finals, and hopefully chilling with family, eating cookies, drinking hot chocolate by a Christmas tree, and awaiting Santa.

Since today is Christmas Eve, I opened my last Lego Advent Calendar door today. It was exciting. I got some neat stuff and I've truly enjoyed playing with these Legos, but mostly the Lego items just made me go, "really?" or "yep" or "huh?"

Everyone in Legoland put aside their differences to gather around the chimney and share a mug of cocoa with Santa. A Christmas miracle. Beautiful.
Thank you Lego! Thank you for a lovely countdown...I can't believe Christmas is already here! I've spent the past several days buying presents, making presents, and wrapping presents. I've also spent the past four mornings selling gift cards at the theater. This morning was the busiest. People are such last minute shoppers. How silly.

Merry Christmas!

Don't worry, I'll be back.

So sorry to anyone who actually looks forward to these posts, but I have to take a break for a little while to focus on these papers. I've had enough distractions to last...all week. And they have. But don't worry, I will be back before Christmas, so I will fill you in on what the Lego Calendar brings then. In the meantime, check out Dan Bergstein's blog at laserfarm.com. It's really funny and it'll keep you updated on the important things in life, like the fact that today's Lego item included a tiny, working magnifying glass. The police theme has somehow turned down the CSI road and I'm now a little worried about the remaining items. Why is Johnny a criminal? There's probably a good reason we haven't asked ourselves this question before.

Good luck to anyone else taking finals! Thanks for understanding. Peace, Internet.