Update

I have not posted in awhile so here is what has been happening!


I have been working as a para in a Kindergarten classroom since the beginning of the school year. I mostly help students who are struggling academically, help with behavior management, and provide extra ELA instruction during workshops. This has been a great learning experience for me as I transition from college grad to first year teacher.


But now I am about to start taking over the classroom! The teacher that I have been working with is about to go on maternity leave, so I will be taking her place. I am very excited about this, and I am very hopeful! I will be providing more consistent updates now that I am teaching again.


The last few weeks I have been updating my resume and brochure on my online portfolio. I am hoping the drastic change in my resume appearance will help attract attention to my name, for teaching positions next year. The charter school I have been working at has been great, and I'm hoping this experience will help me transition into a teacher!

Job Update!

Well school starts on Tuesday, so I need to give an update! 

Although I did not get my "own" classroom, I did accept a position as a paraprofessional in kindergarten! The school I am at is a charter school not too far from my house so it is quite perfect. The position I have has the potential to turn into a long term sub position, which will be great to get my feet wet. I am absolutely ecstatic to be involved in a new community of educators so that I can continue to learn and grow as a teacher and a person. My teacher that I am paired with is supposed to be amazing so I can't wait to begin! I will be posting my encounters during the year since this is my first year out of college. Keep looking for updates! :) 

Getting Crafty! :)

Now that it is getting to be crunch time for back to school, I have been filling up my free time with making things for my room! These have included posters, classroom management items, organizational tools etc. Basically this is what I had on my TPT wish list. I printed all of these out on cardstock, laminated them, and cut them out how I wanted to. Mostly these were freebies I found online, so I won't post each link because I printed off so much! But again, these were all from TPT so you can easily find similar products that fit to your style! Enjoy! :)


This is my bucket for Box Tops I found on Pinterest. I found the label from a blog, it comes in different colors and you can download it from here

These are signs for my room that show hand signals for students to show me for fewer interruptions, and what I mean when I say "Give Me 5"

Popsicle sticks can have many uses in elementary classrooms! On the left, I have a set of numbered popsicle sticks. I plan on assigning each student a number, and I can use these to call on students, put them into groups etc. On the right, are my Brain Breaks. This one I did have to pay for, but I think it was worth it! I think there were maybe 50-60 ideas total, but I just took out the ones that I thought I would like to use in my room.

On the left are schedule cards. I put magnets on the back, so I can easily change them from day to day. One the right are classroom jobs. I glued them onto decorative library pockets and I will have popsicle sticks with numbers for each student and just place those sticks in the pocket when it is their turn.

These are file folders that I made, that have one folder for each day, and an extra one that says "Copies for Next Week". My idea is to put the copies that I need each day into their corresponding folder. When I am lesson planning for the following week, I can just put one worksheet in the "Next Week" folder so I can make all the copies at once and have a place to store all of them.

These are my absent folders. My idea is to place these on a absent student's desk, and put in papers that are passed out throughout the day into the folder. At the end of the day, the folder will simply be put into their mailbox and everything should be kept neat, organized, and out of the way.

This last idea is for pencil sharpening. I hate it when a student gets up during the middle of a lesson and starts sharpening a pencil. With this idea, if a pencil breaks or needs sharpening, all the student has to do is put their old pencil in the "Sharpen Please" side and take a new pencil that is ready to go! I have one of my classroom jobs as a pencil sharpener, so this is just one less thing I have to take care of :)

Getting Organized

I have spend today running around buying more classroom decor, office supplies, and printing out my TPT collection I have started. Once I settled down, I began my cutting and organizing! Here is what I worked on today:


Today I focused mostly on organizational tools. Last fall, I bought a great teacher binder organizer from Lovely Little Leaders on TPT. There is PLENTY to choose from but I just used what I think I will need for sure next year. The first binder I made was for Student Information. In this binder I included sections for Birthdays, Behavior Notes, IEP's, 504's, ELL, Parent Contact, and I have two more tabs open for whatever else I might need. This is what it looks like:

Next, I made a binder for Substitutes. I put in some information of what I had from substitute teaching (like filler activities). I made generic sections for Lesson Plans, Student Information, Building/Emergency Procedures, Extra Activities, Please Leave a Note. I subbed in one classroom this year and I was really impressed by a similar binder a teacher left for me. Being new to the school, it was super helpful and she kept many pages in sheet protectors so it stayed neat, clean, and it could last her a long time. This is what the beginning of mine looks like:

I found at Office Max divider tabs that go by month. I used these in a binder I made for Lesson Plans so I can go back and look at them the following year.

I also have a binder for my Meeting Notes. I made tabs for Staff Meetings, Student Meetings, Parent Meetings, PLC, Professional Development, IEP, 504, and one extra tab. I know I will have to document many things, just to keep things on track and have a record of what actually happened. Here is what this binder looks like:

My final binder I made is for Data. Again, I found tabs at Office Max that were numbered 1-32. I plan on assigning numbers to my students so that way these numbers will coordinate with them. I also added a sheet at the back of each binder in the event that it gets lost, it has my name on it. This is what this binder looks like:

My last project for the night were some file folders. One set I created a file for Monday-Friday and another for "Copies for Next Week". These I plan on using to organize whatever copies I will need for the week, and have a place to keep files for the next week together. I used the backgrounds that came in the teacher binder I bought, and just added text. I also created files for absent students. I found the covers from Emily Noble, they come in three colors, with owls AND polka dots, and were free! My idea for these is to just place them on absent student's desks, and throughout the day if any papers are passed out they are just placed inside the folder so the student has everything they missed. I plan on laminating these later in the week to make these last as well.

Etsy Purchases

Since the 4th of July, I have seen an increase in job postings, but nothing dramatic. While I am waiting to hear back from the districts I have applied to, I have been doing some shopping on Etsy to keep me busy for the time being. I am so in love with my purchases! I might still buy more, but that will depend on the type of grade/school I will be teaching in. For now, here is a sneak peak at what I have for my room so far! Enjoy ;)


This is a picture of my name plate that I bought for my desk. It was completely customizable, and I think it it one of my favorite buys! I bought mine from HandCraftedHC, and you can view the shop here:

Next I bought a classroom door sign. Again, this was totally customizable and the seller sent me a proof of what it was going to look like before she made it. I had no issues with it and it came out great! This was bought from kasefazem and you can view the store here:

Now this was something I really didn't need, but I thought it was super cute! Another customizable product and fairly cheap considering it is a decorated hand sanitizer bottle. I bought it from lyricalletters and you can view the store here:

Birthday board! This was another one of my favorite purchases. Instead of having some giant display for birthdays, I found this fun little board that has painted chalkboard disks that I can change the names of my students each year. This will take up less wall space and looks way cute! I bought it from Havensplace and you can visit the shop here:

I bought this rubber stamp for a few reasons. One, I thought this would be great to stamp my books with so that way my name is in the book and should (ideally) never get lost. I also thought it would be good when I need to sign off on multiple things, and this would make it a lot faster. I bought this from cupcaketree, and you can view her shop here:

Finally I bought this "READ" sign for my room. I was able to get this in the theme that I'm making my classroom in, and I was able to choose the book characters I wanted to personalize it! I chose Dr. Seuss, because no matter how old you are, you can always have a love for Dr. Seuss books :) I bought the blocks from littlebluebirdcreate, and you can view the shop here:

This next week I don't have as much going on, so my game plan (in addition to always applying for jobs) will be to be crafty! I have a TON of things I want from TPT so I'm going to print them off, laminate them, and cut them out. These range from classroom posters, brain breaks, to word wall letters. I'm just doing the generic things I know that I want for sure in my room so that way I am even more prepared if I get hired last minute. I also have a few more things on my wish list of things I want from local stores in my area, so I will be going on a shopping spree this week! I will post with updates as I get them!

How To Get Freebies In Your Room

I've been following WeAreTeachers on Facebook and I am always getting great things from them! They let me know when a shop on Teachers Pay Teachers has items for free that are popular, talk about current happenings in education, and even provide resources for teachers. Tonight I read a posting where it have a list of ways to get free/cheap supplies for your classroom. As I am going to be a first year teacher next year this was very helpful. I have so much I will need to buy to get started, there are plenty of great resources! Here is a link to the post I found, I strongly recommend following them on Facebook and on Twitter!

2 A.M. Find!!!

I'm lying in bed, exploring Pinterest trying to get even more ideas for my classroom, when I go over a pin that was all about classroom organization. There were some really great things on this pin! I was scrolling through and I found something I LOVED! It is a collapsable file folder that can be hung on the wall! I have been thinking about having some sort of filing system where the students can turn in their papers and this thing is perfect for that. Not only does each section have labels (for the older kids) but it is color coded so the younger kids would know where to put their papers even if they can't read! PLUS at the end of the day/week all I will have to do is fold it up and I have all my papers neatly filed so I take take them home to grade. And it was fairly cheap too! Only $14.99, that and the fact that I am a terrible impulse buyer had me taking out my credit card at 2 A.M. :)

Such a good idea for teachers, thought I would share!

Now that summer vacation is in full swing, I've been spending my days researching on the computer! I know I should really be outside, but last week there was a significant increase in job openings. I spent quite a bit of time researching schools and filling out the applications (those can be quite lengthy). I am still being a little picky about where I have been applying, and I have been questioning that lately. I have been asking myself "Is it more important to just have a job for next year? Or have a job that I will love?". I believe that I have come up with an answer to my problem. My game plan is to continue to do what I'm doing until the end of July, and if I don't have a job by August, then just apply everywhere. Ideally I would like to stay in the area, but if I have to move to get experience that is what I will do! So for right now I'm just going to keep calm and carry on :)

In the mean time, I have been spending the rest of my computer time getting things ready for my classroom! First I spent way too much money on Etsy, buying signs for my classroom and saving ideas for what else I can buy there. I have also been looking at Teachers Pay Teachers for signs, organizational tools, classroom management ideas etc. Mostly I have been looking at the freebies (since I spent so much on Etsy!), but I did find something that I am interested in buying that is in their top 100 list. These Brain Breaks for the Classroom are a great idea! They can be used at almost any age, and there are plenty of ideas so you can pick and choose which ones you want. Plus I love the idea of having them on popsicle sticks. I think this is great so that students can take turns choosing, or you can easily leave them out for a sub during the day. Check them out if you haven't already! If I don't find a job until the end of the summer, I'm thinking about starting to make my own products on TPT just for some extra cash flow. Also, from all of these things I have been researching I just started writing down things I still need to buy for my room if I want it to function smoothly. And boy there is a lot, and the list just keeps on growing! I have the rest of the summer so hopefully by spacing them out I can get a lot of prep work done for my classroom because I WILL have one come fall! :D

I have just recently started following a new blog, Young Teacher Love. I think this lady is very relatable for me being a new teacher, and she has so many good ideas! I've added her button on my sidebar, but check it out! She already has so many followers!

Unfortunately I have not had a lot of good news to report the last few weeks (note the time between my posts). Out of the three interviews I had, I have heard back from two. Both of these districts said that they would not be advancing my application at this time. One of those two offered to have me come back as a sub in the fall, which I thought was nice, but I'm hoping to have locked in a position by then.

The other district I have not heard anything at all from them. I'm hoping that the reasoning is that for the positions they had open right now I may not be a perfect fit for, but they are still considering me if something comes up in the future.

This has been disappointing for me, because these were districts that I really wanted and thought that I had done well in my interviews. But I'm keeping my chin up! There have been several more job postings since then that I have applied for, and it is only the beginning of June so there is still plenty of time. I'm trying to utilize the networks that I have and I'm checking websites quite frequently for postings. I may not have any updates for awhile, but maybe I will get a surprise soon! Everything happens for a reason, I must be meant to do greater things in other places :)

Interview Updates

Within the past week I have had three interviews in some VERY nice school districts! First off, it is a total confidence booster that these schools are interested in me to begin with, and if I can get a job with one of them for my first classroom? Would be amazing!

Second, between the three I think I did alright. Some were pretty intense and had some really hard questions, but that is the point of interviewing so that they can see who I am and how I really feel. I have not heard back from any just yet (still can be a good thing) and I know two of the districts that I interviewed with are doing more interviews this week. I am hoping I can at least know either way within the next week. I would love to get a job before we get into summer, and I am just getting super antsy right now!

I think at a later date I will post some of the questions I have been asked to help others prepare for future interviews, but I am trying not to name districts so I don't want to give anything away by posting the questions they asked. I also will post examples of anything else that I am asked to bring/make for an interview. The sooner I can get a job, the better!

Job Hunt Looking Up

I have great things to report this week!

Last time I posted how I had finished a hard copy of my portfolio to bring with me to my job interviews. I finished this before I went on vacation, just in case I was contacted for an interview and I was! I had my very first interview last Thursday. Since it was right after I came back from vacation I was nervous I was not prepared enough. The initial interview was broken down into 2 parts: a writing sample and an interview with 2 principals. I thought I did well on the writing part, but I was so nervous for the interview! I thought I didn't do very well, because I felt like I blanked out when they asked me some questions. But I tried to stay calm, and do my best. I didn't leave very confident, but the next day I was contacted to come back for a second interview! This was very good news for me, because it is a nice school district that I could see myself staying in for a long time.

Now this week I have another interview with a school that I met with at the job fair I went to. That interview is Wednesday, and my second interview is on Friday so this will be a busy week! I also found out that there was a job posting at my old school that I student taught at. I think I have a good chance of interviewing for that one as well. It is for a different grade than I was in, but the teachers in that grade level I really felt I got along well with so that would be AMAZING if I could teach at my old school! This is the nicest school I have ever been in, and I love so many things about it, it would be a dream come true if I could work there!

Right now I'm gathering more info about the school districts I am interviewing with this week, and coming up with sample questions I might be asked and try to write out what I would respond with. That way I won't blank out during a question again! Wish me luck for this week, I hope I have more good news to update you on next week.

Portfolio Done/First Interview

I do have a few updates I would love to share!

So last week my county had Spring Break, so this allowed me time to work on a hard copy of my portfolio. I spent a really long time working on it, and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I had a hard time trying to decide what exactly to put in, and how much was needed because I have not had any professional interviews yet so I am not 100% sure what employers are looking for (plus it seems like everyone always wants something different!). When I first finished it, there were over 150 pages...yikes! I had put all of my lesson plans in, and examples of student work, but I decided to cut back to just the lessons I had done while in the College of Education at GV since those were my best pieces. I cut it back to 92 pages. I was able to get it printed off today, and I plan on going out tomorrow to get everything bound together nicely. The examples I have seen have all been in binders, so I am hoping by doing something different it will help me to stand out. So far I just have two copies printed off because it was expensive to get it done. Hopefully I will not have to do any more and I will be all set for my first interview!

Last week I was contacted by one district I talked to at the job fair, and was asked to schedule a screening interview! I have no idea how many more people were invited as well, but I think this is a good start in the right direction. I also was able to find a few more jobs to apply for, but there were only those that covered a large group for like K-5 positions not a single classroom. I have been told May is the hiring season for most schools, and I would love to get a job before summer starts that would be wonderful! Wish me luck on my first interview!

Here is a few pages out of my portfolio, just to give you an idea of what's included:



If you need more tips on the rest of what I have included in my portfolio please feel free to contact me! I just wanted to show the type of theme I had made. This took me a very long time to get it where I was happy with it, so please I would appreciate it if you used this as a guide and not just copy my words. Again, if you would like more info please just ask!

Job Fairs

Last week I was able to attend two job fairs this week at local universities. I think overall they went well, but I know there were job fairs each day last week at different universities each day so I was going up against who knows how many other teachers for the same districts. I think some interviews went well, and some not as well but overall I think I did ok. I brought with me my resume attached to my brochure to hand to employers, and I also printed off copies of my transcripts and letters of rec just in case, but I didn't end up handing them out at all. After the job fairs were over I sent out handwritten thank you notes to the people I interviewed with, so hopefully that will help me stand out a little bit! I have been checking many district websites since then, and I'm hoping more job postings will start popping up soon. Only time will tell, but I'm hoping to get something locked in soon before the summer starts! Wish me luck!

Beginning to Prep for Job Fairs

This past week I did not sub as much because I have two job fairs coming up that I am trying to prep for. I finished by brochure to pass out during the fairs (see previous posts). I have begun to ask mentors, peers, colleagues for advice on how I should prepare myself. I have also been going through the books that have influenced my teaching styles, highlighting and marking pages that I feel have great points that I can talk about during interviews. This next week in addition to reading my books, I also plan on researching the school districts that are attending the fairs. By researching the districts I look more prepared, and know which ones I should go to first instead of being surprised at which schools show up. This next week I do plan on subbing more, but hopefully I will still be able to prep as much as I can so I can be ready!

Brochure

I think I am finally satisfied with my brochure. This will be what I plan on passing out at upcoming job fairs, unless I change my mind again! Any feedback would be great, thank you.
brochure.pdf

Getting Ready

Last week I had almost another full week of subbing, but we had a surprise snow day! All week I was in the same grade but in different districts each day. It was really surprising the different levels of independence and maturity each class had. Two of the classes I was really surprised at how needy these classes were, I would think that at the ages these classes were at they should be more independent than they were showing. I'm not sure if it was because there was a sub in the room or if this was normal behavior for these classes. I think this just goes to show what different schools/teachers are capable of.

I was able to finish my brochure this weekend! I still am sure that I will need to do some editing before I start passing them out, but any feedback would be helpful! While preparing my brochure, I was doing research on books that will help me with teaching and I ended up purchasing two books by Robert Marzano. I bought them for relatively cheap prices, I can't wait for them to come in so I can start reading more!

I still have not had much luck with job postings, but it is still early in the year so hopefully things will start showing up soon!


brochure.pdf

Hello!

Sorry I have taken the past few weeks off...I have not had much to report. I have been subbing almost all full days, in various districts in the area. I have had some really great experiences and some that were not perfect days. I was in a new building last week and had several staff members tell me that I had great classroom management skills! This was so exciting for me to hear, it really made me feel good. I also applied for my first teaching position! I have not heard back yet, but only time will tell. This is the first time I have applied anywhere so my expectations are all over the place! Hopefully from now on I will only continue to see more job postings. I have also decided to add another county to my list, so that I can keep my options open for possible jobs. Hopefully something will pay off soon!

So sorry I missed a post last week...I was battling an awful cold and was completely miserable! The week before I was able to keep pretty with subbing in various schools/districts. I even had the chance to sub for one of my old teachers! That was a fun experience!

Because I was sick last week I did not get to sub much, I just needed to rest and I also did not want to spread whatever I had to other schools. This week many schools in my area are on Mid-Winter Break, so as of right now I do not have a full week's worth of jobs lined up because so many schools are out. If I don't end up subbing every day this week I will be working on my brochure. If not that will be my weekend project!

I had a fun experience last night, I found a picture online that I liked so I shared it via Twitter and I was so surprised by the number of responses I got! What I found was a graphic of questions to ask students while reading a novel to promote deeper levels of thinking. In total I think I received over 100 responses to this picture, so wonderful! I was able to follow many new educators, as well as expand the number of people that are now following me. Hopefully I can keep promoting myself via Twitter and continue to expand my personal learning network!

Hopefully with the shortened week this week I will be able to get work done, and have more to post next week!

This past week was a short work week for me. Even though I took a few personal days off, I would not have been able to sub anyways because we ended up getting more snow days out here. I had two full days subbing in two different districts. The one school I met the principal and was told they really need subs so I left my contact info for the future. Here's to hoping I get a call back!

My goals for next week will be the same as they have been for the last several weeks. Since I have taken a few personal days over the last few weeks, I'm going to try and work as often as I can before the schools start having their breaks. I'm hoping I will have something exciting to report for next week!

This week was a shorter week subbing. Monday was a holiday so there was no school, and Friday we had extreme cold again so many schools were cancelled. This week I was only able to work 3 days unfortunately. I still had great experiences though, and was very happy. I was able to do a full day in a Special Education classroom and I really enjoyed that because it was something I had never done before.

This next week will be a short week for me, because I will be taking a few personal days. In the meantime, I still plan to focus on Love and Logic, Twitter, and being able to network. I think during Mid-Winter Break I will work on my brochure and creating a hard copy for my portfolio because I will not be able to work then and I will have no excuses not to get it done!