First Teacher Evaluation

I had my first teacher evaluation last week. The moment I saw the principal walk in with all of her stuff, my stomach fell to the floor. It was actually a wonderful lesson to have observed! I was teaching about how the holiday, Thanksgiving, began. Not the first dinner, but the woman who kept writing letters to different Presidents to make Thanksgiving made an actual holiday. We also discussed how the President gets to pardon a turkey and watched a video of President Obama doing this. The students loved this lesson and were very engaged. I got a wonderful review and feel much better about the idea of having an evaluation! 

Doctorate

I have been thinking about not stopping after I get my masters degree. I am very unsure though. I do not want to spend more on my education, than I will make. I also do not know what schools are good and if there are any online schools. The only way  I would make good money with my Doctorate would be to teach college. I do not know if that is something I would want to do. I love teaching elementary, but I am not sure I would get paid correctly doing that with a Doctorate. Does anyone have any advice? Or maybe some of you are thinking the same thing?

Students and Sex

I remember when I was in elementary school, and even the early part of middle school, all I wanted to do was play Barbies, American Girl Dolls, of N64. I did not get my first kiss until I was 16 years old or take a sip of wine until I was 21. Sex was the last thing on my mind. Nowadays, it MUCH different. Kids are having sex very early! They are talking about it and thinking about it in elementary school, and I can only imagine middle and high school. Some are even doing it at age 10 and younger. First of all, I find that very gross! Second, I find it extremely sad! Where are the parents? How is this happening? Why are kids so eager to do that, instead of having a childhood. Is it the music? YES. Is it the movies? YES. How about the t.v. or even commercials! YES! YES! YES! Everything has sexual humor and as for music, it is just about sex. This is sad! Wake up America!!!!

Teaching Math

I found this great article at
http://www.edarticle.com/special-education/parenting-tips-for-special-needs-kids-with-math-disabilities.html.
It is a list of tips for parents with special needs kids and how they can help their student get better at math. The article explains that math is very poorly taught in elementary schools, because elementary teachers have math anxiety. Now, I am one of those teachers and would be a poor math teacher! However; my teammates that do teach math are amazing, so that part of the article upsets me. I see their point, but in general everyone that I know that teaches elementary school math is amazing. What is upsetting is how hard they have raised the mathematical standards in fifth grade. I feel that there is a big jump, ( I speak from a GA teacher's point-of-view), from 3rd and 4th grade to 5th grade. The math skills they are asked to learn are very high analytic problems, and they are not there yet. They get so lost and frustrated with having to think that outside of the box that they shut down. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that content is much harder these days than it was when I was little. However, the standards have been raised, so I guess they have to be. 

Christmas in Schools?

Should we celebrate Christmas in schools? So many schools are turning away from this idea and banning the celebration of this holiday, to be fair to all faiths. I do not agree with this. America was founded on Christian beliefs, but we are slowly getting rid of all things Christian in society! It is unbelievable to me. I do not see what is wrong. We are supposed to teach about different cultures, but we can't teach about our own? I try to celebrate an array of different holidays in my classroom, and love to have parents of students with a different culture than my own, come and speak. What do you think? Should we take Christianity out of schools? 

what is a mobie

A few people asked me to further explain my mobi post.A mobi hooks up to your computer and then will project on a screen. It can act as a key board. So I can walk around the room and access the internet, powerpoints, or other things I want to work with. Also, I can write on it. So for example, I can pull a scratch piece of paper and write word problems on the screen and then my students can write the answers on the mobi. I use it a lot for spelling and handwriting. Here is a link to a site that explains much better than I can!!
http://www.einstruction.com/products/interactive_teaching/mobi/index.html

Mobi and microphones

Our county bought Mobi's for every classroom in the district. We also all got a microphone system that works through our ceilings. They are amazing! The microphone has changed my whole style of teaching. It is very easy to get the students attention, because they can even hear me whisper! However, you do have to remember to turn it off when having a private conversation. The mobi's have been great! I know longer have to write on the dry erase board. I in fact, barely do! It does a take a little while to get used to writing on the mobi. At first it looks like how you sign your name on the pen pads at stores. Has anyone ever used one and have a lesson they would like to share? I use mine mainly with teaching hand writing and PowerPoints. I would love some new ideas!!

Parent's today

I am really tired of my students trying to friend me on facebook.  I do not understand why an 11 year old needs a facebook account. It makes me so sad that so many students are allowed on computers without adult supervision or blocks. However, parents don't care anymore. I feel like when I grew up my mom and friends mom's were always checking up on us or doing things with us, but these kids have hardly any interaction with their parents. Parents today are so caught up in their own lives that they lose sight of their kids. This breaks my heart. What changed? What happened that caused such a shift in parenting style? I have a few ideas of my own, but would love others input.What are your thoughts?

Cruise.

Since I finally got a teaching job, I decided to buy a new car. It is a brand spaken new Chevrolet Cruise. It is a 2011 model. Cranberry red! It is so nice to have a car with new technology! It just goes to show you how much technology is changing our world! I can press a button in my house and turn my car on! From the navigation to the speed gage, it is completely high tech! I feel  like batman lol. Now I am just waiting for the days that we get smart houses that will cook and clean for you!

Kitten

Last night I went to Chick-Fil-A with my mom. As we were going to the drive through a stray kitten ran past our car. As the animal lover I am, I was determined to rescue that kitten. So, we got out of the car, in the freezing cold, and begin to try and coax the cat out of the sharp bushes. We used chicken, which the kitten loved! However, every time it went to grab the chicken, we went to grab her. She was way to fast for us. We stayed out there for an hour!A man brought us blankets, which was nice. However, we did not get the kitten. It was very hard to drive away, listening to the crying kitten. We went back yesterday, but she was nowhere in sight. I am still pretty bummed about it. Hopefully someone will get her, and she will find a good home. It always breaks my heart to see animals in trouble!

Elections

I was very happy with how quickly I was able to vote this year. I was in and out in ten minutes. I was really surprised because I did not get a chance to early vote. I went Tuesday at 5:30pm. I figured everyone would be there at that time! There was a fair share of folks; however, not as many as I thought. The people running the vote did a wonderful job and we were in and out. Although I was happy to not have to wait in line (because I have 0 patients with that kind of stuff), it still made me sad that so many people did not care! It is such a wonderful right that we have as Americans! So many people fought for this, yet we take it for advantage! We take a lot of things for advantage. For example, I always have two or three kiddos who eat in my classroom during lunch. They study, work on homework, or get tutored. I love it because during the 10 minutes I let them enjoy lunch and chat they have the most interesting conversations! Really deep and important conversations sometimes. It is like having a kid version of talk radio in my room. Anyway, one of my students was complaining because they did not like what they were eating at lunch. Another student simply looked at him and said, "You better eat it, people in Africa would do anything for that hamburger! What a waste." He then looked at me and said, "I wish there was a way we could send that hamburger there." Man.... what a cool kid! I wish we could have too. 

Veteran's Day

I am in charge of organizing Veteran's Day this year. I am getting nervous about it. I have a few things planned out, but it is a big to do at my school, and since this is my first year, I am nervous that it will not be as good as normal. I have it worked out so that the fifth graders run the entire show, with some help :). We will have breakfast, an assembly, and a veteran's walk through the school. Poems will be read and songs will be sung. We have made a slideshow and it looks like it will be a success. I tend to over analyze things, as us teachers do. Can anyone else think of something that would be special or know of a video that is powerful? I would love ideas! Thanks :)