First experiences as a substitute

My first day of subbing and I was sooo nervous! Although I thought it would be an easy day because it was only a half day and I was supposed to be working in the office. Good thing I am flexible! I was asked to work in the SIP room. This is the student intervention program room for students with severe mental disturbances or behavior problems. To add to this new experience they were having issues in the office because of the system getting me a copy of the lesson plans. So for the first hour or so of the day I was left with no idea what to do or when to do it. I made it through advisory with no problems. It was supposed to be my prep after but one student refused to go to his next class and two others wanted to come back so I made them get notes. I found out as soon as I got the sub notes that I was not supposed to have anyone in the room with me during prep, oops! It was stressful but I survived. It could have been a million times worse. I left that day feeling like I could survive ANY sub job!

Today I decided to try subbing again. I chose 6th grade this time and a full day position. It was their jog-a-thon day so it was supposed to be easy. Today was so much fun!!! The class was extremely respectful of me and they helped me with everything I didn't know about. I had such a great day! I don't think the two days could have been any more different! I am so excited now to get into a classroom again that I signed up for another sub job on Tuesday as soon as I got home. I can't wait! All of my fears are gone :)

Love of reading and fear of writing

Yesterday we had a discussion about who we are as readers and writers. Almost everyone in our class are passionate readers and we were all so excited to share the books we love with one another. The group I was in struggled talking about writing.

Half of our group really like writing. They say this is because they were given many opportunities to write creatively when they were in elementary school and because now their writing has a purpose such as creating activities for children.

The other half of the group, this includes me, don't enjoy writing. Not to say that we aren't good at it, as most people who read frequently are at least decent writers, but we don't enjoy it. We only write when we need to. The reason for this was because we were never given freedom in our writing. All of our writing had to be super structured and the content didn't really matter as long as you got the format right. I remember in high school learning the shafer method of writing. Oh man did I hate this year in high school english!!!! These were some of the worst essays I have ever written but I got full points because they were perfect as far as formatting goes. They were so hard to read, they were choppy, uninteresting and really didn't make a whole lot of sense.

I also have a . . .I wouldn't quite call it a fear, maybe I am intimidated. . .anyway my spelling gets in the way of my writing. I am a HORRIBLE speller! I am always afraid students in my classes will look at my notes I am taking and laugh at the number of spelling errors they contain. I am trying to get over this and I am becoming a better speller but I still hate letting people read my writing unless it has been spell checked first.

I am very glad I started this blog. It gives me a chance to write as often as I feel and gives me freedom in my writing. I don't think I have written this much since I was a high school girl and wrote notes to friends. haha

Excitement Explosion

Ever since I took the intro to elementary education class at UNR I've been hooked on education. It has been 2 years and I'm starting to get impatient! I want so badly to be in a classroom already!! This itch to teach has pushed me to get a job, now jobs, that are teaching children. I am tutoring and subbing. Tutoring is great! Everyday I am excited to go to work, the kids I work with are great and most of them are eager to learn. I am always shocked when it is time to go, it never feels like it has been that long. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is what I am meant to be doing! I am a tad intimidated by subbing. I've only been in charge of a whole classroom once before and the class was already familiar with me and their teacher was still in the the room. I am a very kind person so my biggest fear is being able to enforce the rules. Hopefully I can pull this pretending to know what I am doing thing off!!!

AAAAH! Social Studies!

What is it about social studies that seems so frightening? Maybe it is just me but that subject confuses me! I've always been confused as to what all Social Studies includes. The only thing I really remember about social studies in elementary school is learning about Egypt. . .this does not give me much insight into what the heck this subject really is about. Thank goodness I am learning about that this semester. I am most nervous and most excited about this class because I have no idea what to expect but expect to learn a lot. I can't wait for the mystery of social studies to be unveiled to me so that I can finally be comfortable with this subject.

Everyone can do Math

I want to make sure that all of my students know that math is an enjoyable subject, that EVERYONE can be good at math and there is nothing stopping someone from understanding math. I learned today that females are extremely underrepresented in mathematics fields, the people in these fields are only about 25% female. All students need to know that they can succeed regardless of their gender.
I was given a great bit of advice today, "do not address your classroom as 'boys and girls' because you are stating that there is a difference between boys and girls in an academic setting when there is not." A great idea instead was to address your students as "learners" or just simply "class". Everyone is equally as capable of being successful in a classroom and that needs to be portrayed even in the language we use in classrooms.

Litteracy ideas

• Teaching students to choose books that are on their appropriate reading level. Make sure that you first guide them in this process but also give them room to learn what books they are comfortable reading, which books they need help reading and which books are far too hard for them.
• Instill a passion for reading in all students, even struggling readers. If they love reading they are much more inclined to read on their own and to put more effort into decoding books that may be a little challenging for them. 
• Get to know students at the beginning of the year to learn their interests and to learn about them as a person not just a learner. The interests will also help determine how easy a text is for the student. Background knowledge can make a book at a higher reading level more accessable.
• Be sure to not only include narrative text but also informational texts. Informational texts are extremely underrepresented in classrooms which makes students less likely to read them in their free time. I can definitely attest to that. I was very rarely exposed to informational texts outside of textbooks and now almost have a fear of reading informational texts.