"Ready for Take-off!"

Well, I have survived 3 weeks! 2 left! Thank goodness! It has gotten much easier. I am down to two days of teaching left, then 2 of administering a test. My last week is all professional development. Then I head home to San Antonio to pick up my cats.... head back to Denton.... then make the big move to Dallas and start my job the following day! It is going to be one busy weekend!

Most exciting news of my week? Deciding on a classroom theme :). I have decided to go with airport/airline/travel theme. Since so many of my kids don't get the opportunity to leave the state I have asked 100's of my facebook friends to send my class postcards of everywhere they travel this year. As a class, we will look at the postcards, map out the location and learn about that place! I am really excited, and the response from my facebook group has been great! I really hope everyone follows through.

Some more ideas:

Our morning routine will be "preparing for take-off". Our passports will be our folders that go home every night. Each table will be a different airline (and I will try my hardest not to be bias and always have Southwest win :) haha). I'm the pilot, my special helper of the week is the co-pilot, along with lots of other cute names for "positions".

I have lots of cute ideas for bulletin boards and posters in the class all going off of the theme as well. My reading corner is "Reading Takes You Places". The "place" (posters, props, etc) will change monthly. I'm thinking something tropical for the first month :).

I'm hanging "clouds" from the ceiling over each table with their airlines logo. Hoping to get some blow-up airplanes that airlines produce to hang from the ceiling as well! Above my door on the way in, passenger arrivals. On the way out- passenger departures.

Our mission? Earn our wings :)
The destination? 3rd grade, with a huge emphasis on college (They WILL know the UNT fight song and sing it loud and proud by the end of the year :) )

These are just a few of my ideas :) I have plenty more, and I will for sure have pictures once I actually make all of this a reality!

Have any ideas? Have any connections with free airplane/airline stuff? Let me know! :)

Start of Something New....

There is something very different about my employment experience (in comparison with my friends who just graduated with their degrees in education). For starters, I am so very fortunate to have a job in education. Many, make that all, of my very talented "teacher friends" who I have come to love are not planning for their first classroom as I am, instead they are being told by countless school districts that they are "not hiring" due to our education budget cuts.... but that's a whole different story. You see, I am a proud member of the 2011 Teach For America Dallas- Ft. Worth Corps. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to teach in areas where I am most passionate. I am so excited to teach the students others see as "un-teachable" or "failures". Why, you ask? Because I know they are not "un-teachable" and they most certainly are not failures, nor will they ever be with the correct guidance and support along the way. I will be teaching in a low-income high-need community in Dallas. Although my second graders are years away from college, they will learn that college is where they will go, and from there they will go on to be successful, independent leaders making an impact on their community. All these "goals" start young with the understanding of respect, self motivation, and a life-long love for learning. And that is just skimming the surface of what my students will leave my room with. You see, I believe I am teaching SO much more than "state standards". I am teaching the future leaders, and I will prepare them as such. I refuse to allow society to let their zip code and parent's pay check measure who they are or who they can become.


So here I am at my second day of induction, a week long introduction to Teach For America before we ship off to Houston for an intense 5 weeks of Institute, where we learn to be not just teachers, but exceptional community leaders and advocates. To be honest, although I am only a mere 40 miles from my apartment, city, friends and loved ones I feel so homesick already. For starters, I'm getting over strep throat (which isn't fun in the least) and I'm beginning to regret my decision to pack my highest heels (y'all know how much I love high heels.... so it shouldn't come as a surprise that 4 of my beloved pairs came along for my week long "vacay"). Aside from those things it feels weird to be here. Never in my life have I been surrounded by such like minded people. While I absolutely love my Mean Green Alma Mater I find myself standing next to triple majors from Duke, Harvard and Yale and I can't help but almost feel "inadequate", even though I'm the one with the degree in education (TFA is an alternative teacher certification program). (Not to mention where in the heck do you find time to triple major????? Like HOLY COW.) So far I have sat through lots and lots of slide shows about how to build my classroom leadership and form my "big goals". It's a lot to take in and exciting yet nerve-wracking all at once.


As for tomorrow..... I'm headed to visit my school! See my future classroom and meet my principal. Sign all the "important papers" and essentially leave my collegiate chapter behind and become a "big girl". :) I'm here. Finally. Nearly 18 years in the making my dream of becoming a teacher is coming true.

How I got here

I was one of those kids who decided what they wanted to be when they were 5 years old and never changed their mind. When I was little my aunt, a special needs preschool teacher, invited me to her classroom to be her "special helper"... and that is truly where my story begins. From that day forward I knew I was going to be a teacher when I "grew up". There simply was just no way around it. Watching my aunt, who I already idolized, lead a class of children and teach them was something I will never forget. Her enthusiasm for her "job", which didn't seem like much of a "job" at all since she was always having so much fun shopping for her classroom, inspired me to become a teacher. Many fake classrooms, baby doll students, and multiple "teacher boxes" later I graduated from high school and set off to the University of North Texas, still set on becoming a teacher. Fast forward another 4 years and here I am, a mere two months from standing in front of my very own classroom of second graders. :)

One of my first "classes" back on mom and dad's super trendy couch. ha :)