One of Those Days

Today was one of those days. You know the days that you feel rotten from the moment you get up in the morning and nothing goes right and you end up crying in the bathroom in the middle of the day? (Or is that just me???) I felt like I was getting on to my kids all day long and they weren't learning anything from me. I had this thought that scared me a lot: maybe I'm not meant to do this. I think this thought pops up for most people from time to time (regardless of your career) and don't worry, I'm not quitting. But it's just scary to go through five years and two degrees and then dive into the middle of the career you chose and feel like you're drowning.

I'm going to get some sleep and some perspective and I know that tomorrow will be better. Today's bright spot came from my TLC (who is like a mentor throughout institute). It was corps member appreciation day and she had one of these made for each of us:

It's a 2 sided frame with one of my students on the left (with a blue face for privacy reasons!)
and our motto on the right. It says "I love Ms. Douberly when she teaches us hard math!"

This, along with a really sweet email from the parent of one of my fourth grader's that I printed out and a painting that the student mailed me at Institute really helped me refocus.

This email really touched me.
You have no idea how a small comment or gesture can impact someone!

I have an "inspiration box" at home that is chock-full of drawings, letters, emails, cards, messages from supervisors, etc. that are encouraging and loving. One of our professors encouraged us to make an inspiration box for days like this. She also guaranteed there would be days like this, so at least that's encouraging. I just wish I had that box now! These will hold me over for now =]

A Typical Day in Institute

Hello again! Getting ready to start week 5 (out of 7) over here at Memphis Institute and I am STOKED to be past our half-way mark. The next three weeks should be downhill (work-wise, not attitude-wise) so these are all good things. I got the keys to my apartment Friday and was able to check it out and walk around imagining it all set up yesterday. It is absolutely gorgeous =]

Apartment 4 =]

My favorite room! No surprise there.
Excited to cook with a gas stove for the first time!

Stunning, right?

 So that's what I'm currently excited about. But alas, we still have work to do people! I wanted to give you a glimpse into my daily schedule because I think that most people have no idea what exactly Institute looks like (at least I didn't before coming). So here we go!

A Typical Day at Institute:

• 5:45- Wake up in my dorm room and get ready. Professional dress, OF COURSE, all day every day.
• 6:15- Head downstairs for breakfast. Scarf down food like my life depends on it because I'm normally very late (oops). This is also when we pack up our lunches.
• 6:30- Walk out to our bus. Try to not be rude to all the people smiling and telling us to have a good day on our way out. How are they so chipper so early?
• 6:40- Sleep all the way to school. No shame in this.
• 7:10- Sign in, set up the room for the day, have a quick meeting with the other 30 or so corps members at my school.
• 7:45- Welcome the kids to school and sit with them while they eat breakfast.
• 8:25- Community building time. All three of the teachers in my room do morning meeting and an activity with our whole class (of 8-10 kids).
• 9:00- Teacher number one teaches reading. The other two leave the room to observe other corps members or have a training session in our whole group space.
• 10:30- Teacher number two takes over for writing! The other two either prep for their lessons, observe other teachers, or have a training session.
• 11:40- Lunch time. Have you ever seen an 8-year-old try and peel an orange? Not an easy task. I have learned to pack extra napkins. 
• 12:20- Teacher number three takes over for math! This was me all last week. While I teach, my TLC (teacher leadership coach with TFA) observes me, as well as other teachers, staff members, corps members, people from other cities that want to start a charter school, literally ANYONE. 
• 1:45- All three teachers do some end-of-the-day reflection activities with the kids then send them home.
• 2:15- Head back to University of Memphis on the bus.
• 2:50- Walk straight off the bus and into a session on lesson plan writing or working with families or teacher evaluations or whatever else we need to learn.
• 4:30- Session number two starts!
• 6:00- Freedom. Time to eat in the downstairs dining hall again and talk to everyone about who had the craziest day.
• 7:00- Revise lesson plans, print out materials, prepare things for the next day, turn in lesson plans, relax? No, don't relax. Except on Tuesdays, when we watch the Bachelorette online. This is non-negotiable.
• 10:00- Go to bed. Finally. 

As you can see, it's a long day (6am-6pm of going non-stop), but compared to my internship where I had to teach 22 kids all day, teaching 10 kids for an hour and a half is a nice break. The sessions are helpful, just exhausting. They're basically college courses on education, but much more practical than theory, so that's good. You will never know everything about teaching, so I'm just taking it all in! This week is short: just 3 days and then Tampa! Woohoo!

Summer School's in Session

As my title suggests, we're back in school! Honestly though, after spending a year in a big, crazy, school, this feels more like camp. There aren't many kids (about one class per grade) and we do an hour of community building, almost 3 hours of instruction, lunch, then almost 2 hours of instruction. It's a lot for the little ones, but it's only 4 weeks and you know they're bored after hanging outside in the heat for a couple of days of summer break!

Preach

So this week we are just observing other teachers, getting together our vision of our classroom and a classroom management plan, and having courses at the school about a variety of things. Monday, we officially start teaching with pre-made lesson plans. We're using these for a week and a half or so before we start writing our owns. They also give us a unit overview so our lessons aren't completely random!

After 11 days at Institute, I'm feeling tired, but not overwhelmed...yet. I had a heck of a day though. Our dorm fire alarm went off at 5:45, which coincides exactly when I was going to get up and get ready. I sat outside in our pajamas for a bit, but they pushed back our bus departure time, so that was good! Then after being at school for 7 hours, we had 3 hours of class. In the last hour, the power went out and we had to go to a different dining hall for dinner. Mixed blessing because the walk was further but the food was great ;)

Me this morning, BEFORE the fire alarm

NOW I'm trying to figure out this whole "finish my masters degree and actually graduate and get certified" thing. I have a little over a week left of my online class and then I. AM. DONE. FOREVER. (or at least until I get the notion that I want a PhD hah!) It's just a pain trying to navigate how to apply for a Florida license and then transfer it to Tennessee by the time I start on August 5. Time is creeping up on me! Well, wish me luck for Monday. That's when my collaborative group of 3 starts teaching a small group of first graders and we hit the ground running. But first: the weekend. Hooray!

A Word About Discipline

Hi friends =] So I've been teaching all day since last Monday and oh my goodness, it is exhausting. I feel like I'm juggling five chainsaws all day long. I have ACTUALLY FORGOTTEN TO EAT. If you know me, you know that is very unusual. I usually plan my day around when I get to eat- true story.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is about discipline and behavior management. It's pretty easy to keep 22 kids in line for an hour long lesson every once in awhile, but having them all day is a whole 'nother story! The "Spring Fever" they've got doesn't help matters, either.

A couple of my boys were having trouble controlling themselves and were unfocused and giggly during lessons. I love these kids and KNOW they want to behave for me, they just need help refocusing. So I talked with the student having the most difficulty and since he and I bonded very quickly over Gator football, I came up with a little idea. Since Tim Tebow is such a fantastic leader and makes constant good choices, we called good leadership or good focus moments "Tebow Moments". Whenever I catch this student doing a great job, I just walk by and softly say "Tebow Moment". He absolutely loves it!

Today, he had a really great day and was so so proud of his "Tebow Day". I'm just glad that he's using his leadership abilities for good! Thanks for the inspiration, Tim ;)

High Five for Friday

Hello hello! It's Friday again and I thought what better way to celebrate than with another high five post? Here are the highlights from my week in picture form:

1) I got my butt into gear and started working out again. Watching HBO's "Girls" while on the elliptical definitely makes the time go by quicker ;)

2) This was my first week of planning and teaching full time. Oh my. Lets just say this was also the first week I started drinking coffee. Also, notice the fabulous mug.

3) Our kiddos got a visit from K9s for Warriors, a group in St. John's county that trains service dogs for veterans with PTSD. Check out the work they're doing here.

4) The 3 UF interns had our last seminar with our supervisor Thursday at Caps On The Water in St. Augustine. We ended up staying and chatting over sangria for over 3 hrs as the sun set over the intracoastal. Absolutely stunning. Can't believe our time together is almost over!

5) My uncle graduated with his masters degree in business today! The whole family was able to make it to UNF and watch him walk, even if it meant leaving school at lunchtime. So proud of him!

So that was my week. I'm looking forward to relaxing some this weekend before teaching full time again next week. Weekend, here I come!

And So It Begins

Boy did I have a case of the Monday's this morning. I had a fantastic bachelorette weekend with Lexi, our bride-to-be, and the other fabulous bridesmaids/MOH, where we slept in late, got our nails done, dressed up for dinner, laughed way too much, and saw Taylor Swift sing her heart out. It was hard coming back. Trust me.

SO MUCH RED
PS: Slutty brownies were a hit

Countdown clock says 6 weeks until I move to Memphis and 5 more weeks of my internship. Eeek! Today was my first day taking over the classroom and I taught all day, minus a half hour math lesson (I'm easing my way in). I would definitely say the hardest part was all the planning. The more you plan, the less you have to worry about later!

6 Weeks. Cue panic.

We're starting to learn a little bit about literature circles and the kids were SO EXCITED. They actually thanked me when I announced it. Lol I guess it's all in how you phrase it and saying "I thought I would reward you for working so hard by letting you do literature circles the last 6 weeks of school. But if you don't want to, we can go back to what we know." They jumped at it!

We're teaching jobs this week. Today was "Super Summarizer"

I'm going to try a jigsaw lesson tomorrow and cut out these cute little briefcases out of construction paper for the kids to write their "expert" facts on. I'll let you know how it goes!

Hoping this rain stops so we can get some outdoor recess time. Our kiddos are so tired of being cooped up inside and so. am. I. Here's hoping Tuesday is less gloomy than today was!

Multiplication Workshop Lesson

Hi everyone! I wanted to share my lastest supervisor observation because the kids LOVED it and I was super excited about that =] If I haven't told you before, we have 3 or 4 supervisor observations and 3 mentor observations per semester. It's a lot, but it definitely is making me step up my game!

So I was doing a lesson on multiplication and really wanted to do more of a workshop/inquiry-based type of lesson. I found this blog post about using anchor charts and was *iNsPiReD* to try something we did in a math class I took on-campus at UF.

I started the lesson by giving the students a multiplication word problem and telling them to solve it in their math journal two different ways. Then we talked about some of their strategies, developing their vocabulary. They had the traditional algorithm, partial products, and repeated addition. We also added arrays and the inverse operation. Then I put them in mixed-ability groups of 3 and gave each group a sheet of chart paper, markers, and a word problem. They wrote as many ways to solve it as they could think of and explained their thinking.

We taped them to the walls around the room and each group had a set of post-its. They rotated around and decided as a group one compliment per chart and any questions they had for other charts. Eventually they got back to theirs and got to read what everyone said! Then we went around as a class and everyone got a chance to answer questions on their charts. Here are some of their questions/comments. I was SO impressed!

 The kids were engaged the whole time and really developed their vocabulary! I think it stretched their brains to think of multiplication deeper instead of just an algorithm. One more observation down, four to go!

Love is in the Air

Happy Valentine's Day, friends! I love love love celebrating holidays with my babies. They are always so excited about every little thing that we "adults" often overlook. It's so fun to dress up and do holiday themed activities and then [drumroll] EXCHANGE VALENTINES AND EAT CANDY!!! If I had a nickel for every time today someone said "When are we gonna do valentines??" I would be able to afford a treadmill to burn off all the chocolate they gave me. See?

My collection of chocolate- so spoiled!

Tulips! They just took over our desk! 

Each of the students brought in decorated shoeboxes and had a BLAST walking around the room and passing out their valentines. Then they spent another half hour reading every last note (and sampling the treats). One of the boys made homemade cards with personal messages to every child. It was so stinkin' sweet I about died.

So what did the kids get from me? Funny you should ask! I found a fantastic blog post through Pinterest about candy-free valentines and gave them glow-stick bracelets! It led me to this blog, which had printables already set up for you. All I had to do was buy glow-stick bracelets (15 for $1 at Target!) and cardstock to print out my valentines. Then I cut them up and signed each one. Boom! Quick and cheap, but my kiddos loved them!! 

Love how easy this is 

I "accidently" snapped like 6 glow-sticks while attaching the bracelet connectors.
Party time in the living room!

Done!

Confession: This was just me practicing how to use my timer on my new camera.
Good news: it works!

So that was my Valentine's Day! After seminar with my supervisor and fellow interns, I'm changing into sweatpants and ordering chinese with my momma while we watch girly tv. This is how Valentine's Day SHOULD be, ladies and gentlemen.

Teacher Humor

Wow, it's February! Which means we're bustin out the heart patterned tablecloths and getting ready for Valentines Day and FCAT Writes. They're both outlined on my calendar with a big heart. Just kidding. Kinda. Anyways, instead of going to a super bowl party (not gonna apologize for being lame), I'll be staying in and quilting tonight and wanted to share a little teacher humor with you, seeing as how we're all so test crazy right now!

As I hope most of you realize, teaching is hard. It's exhausting and teachers don't get enough credit for everything they put up with. Which is why it's important to have a good sense of humor! This post is dedicated to a handful of websites that make me laugh really hard when I have bad days. Hope they make you laugh too! =]

Fake it till ya make it baby

Remember that "Hey Girl" tumblr for Ryan Gosling-loving-feminists? Well this is for Ryan Gosling-loving-teachers. It's basically what every teacher wants to hear with a picture of a cute guy. I mean if that's not motivation, I don't know what is.

So great. The Gos just gets me, ya know?

I found this through one of the girls in my cohort (shout-out to cohort 76!) and it's a webseries about teachers. It's hilarious. I watched all 14 episodes in one sitting and they. totally. nailed. it. Here's my favorite:


"Just because you leave a shoe at his apartment doesn't mean you can show up whenever you want"

I've talked about it before, but New Girl is my JAM. I wish Jess (Zooey Deschanel) was still a school teacher, but there's still plenty of quality teacher jokes and the whole show just kills me. Between that and The Mindy Project, I feel like my life is adequately represented in sitcom form.

Don't forget Pinterest for teacher humor galore.

Silence means someone's feeling guilty...

Remember to laugh today!

Flying Solo (and other adventures)

Hello everybody! Hope you've had a great week so far, I sure have! I got a great compliment yesterday that every morning I have a big smile on my face and am super cheerful. That was really nice to hear because I love the environment at my school and it felt good to hear that I help add to it! Snaps for loving where you work =]

Today was a big day for us- the 100th day of school! Can you BELIEVE it?! It was so cute, all the kinders and firsties dressed up as 100 year olds, so there were tiny old people all over the school today in their little bow ties and hair curlers. PRECIOUS!

Yesterday, though, was an big day for ME, as my mentor teacher had to call in with a migraine and I was flying solo! I've taught for half a day alone before and I've taught with a sub for a whole day, but this was my first full day all on my own. Oh baby. But let me tell you, it went so well!!

I had already planned a math lesson for the day so CHECK got that covered! We did a review of equivalent fractions and how to reduce. Then, we played Bingo! Each of the bingo cards had a fraction like 5/15 and then I called out the reduced fraction, like 1/3. You could have heard a pin drop in that room, the kids were focusing so hard. No complaints here ;)

I found it here

Then we did some expository writing to a prompt (a post on that later haha), some FCAT reading practice, some vocabulary, and some work on the computer. Just a basic day, but I was all alone. So weird!

In job-related news, I've been working on all my TFA: Memphis requirements lately. Some things were small, like sending in a picture, joining the social network stuff, listening in to a webinar, and taking some surveys. Yesterday, though, I spent the whole afternoon updating my resume and applying to KIPP: Memphis and TeachMemphis to find out where I'll actually be teaching next year! Basically, you apply now and then interview during Institute over the summer for your actual placement. I was really excited to see that they want us to apply to KIPP, though. I still remember watching a video in my first ProTeach class about the charter school and being in awe. The idea of being a teacher there is crazy to me! Here's a little snippet about the school:



Ok, be honest, did you cry? I'm not that emotional of a person (hah!) but the kids at the end saying "I'm going to college" just made me lose it. So that's what's been going on with me! Still lots of unknowns about next year, but isn't it kinda exciting not knowing what's gonna happen next??

Thanksgiving Break and Final Observations

Can you believe it's already December?! It's still about 70 degrees outside, so it doesn't QUITE feel like December yet, but still, my calendar says it's December so it must be so.

We only went to school for two days the week of Thanksgiving and it was really nice having a little break. We had tons of family come over and we ate more food than I thought possible! But that's ok, because I ran my first 6K that morning! I was super proud of the fact that I didn't have to stop to walk, even if my time was a little slow.

Before and after pics with my mom (who runs much faster than I do)

Back at school, I had my final observation and taught a lesson on identifying the theme in a story. I was very happy with how it went- after a morning pep talk, the kids were absolute angels (thanks kiddos!) and it all went according to plan (which happens, um, never).

I wanted to share a resource that I used at the beginning of my lesson on theme. It's called Wing Clips and it's an online database of short movie clips that are all categorized and all clean for school! I showed one clip and modeled how to identify the theme of the clip, then I showed another clip and had the students identify the theme and three supporting details that helped them find the theme. So fun! You could use these to teach mood, theme, topic, anything!

Such a great resource. Check it out!!

This upcoming week is going to be very exciting. I have my interview with Teach For America on Wednesday and it's going to be all day. I've been preparing for that and making sure I have everything ready! Then I'm going to Atlanta on Friday after school for the weekend to visit with a friend. Who knows? Maybe I'll be living THERE next year!

Prefix and Suffix Flipbooks

Hey everyone! How crazy has the last week been for you? It's been really crazy for us! We had a short week (only 4 days) and SO MANY OBSERVATIONS. My mentor teacher had an observation on Tuesday and one on Thursday and then she observed me on Friday. We also had a Thanksgiving feast with our kids on Friday with vegetable soup in the crockpot, cornbread, fresh fruit and berries, and cookies. So yummy!

One lesson I did this week was about affixes- prefixes and suffixes. This is important for fourth grade to learn new words they come across in their reading. We used flipbooks to teach the affixes. Have you ever seen these?

One side of the flipbook

Reverse side of the same flipbook

These are actually two flipbooks stapled back to back. This is how you make them:
1) Get some colorful paper- we had three pieces of paper per student (all different colors).
2) Cut each piece of paper in half lengthwise.

So much paper involved

3) Fold the pieces of paper different lengths, like the picture below. We kept one as a model while folding and folded the rest to match it.

Pictures are really needed to explain this part!

4) Stack the pieces of paper, one inside another, like a Russian doll, and then staple across the top.

Booyah

5) Staple two books back to back so you can do prefixes on one side and suffixes on the other.

Once the books were made, each student wrote a prefix (or suffix) on each flap with the definition under the flap above. We did all of these together. Then they went to different spots around the room to read their independent books. As they read, they had to find one example of each in the book and write that, along with two examples they could think of, under the affix. They had a total of three examples per affix and then we went over everyone's and talked about what examples we found.

Sometimes we fit two on one flap.

The examples for mis- and non- are on the yellow.
The examples for un- are on the other side of the orange.

I love these flip books! They're great resources for the kids to keep and a lot of fun to make. I just used the list of affixes from the standard for Florida, but you can do whichever ones you need. I would recommend making them for the kids ahead of time and then having them fill them out. Also, I wrote sideways, but it would probably be easier to write normally. Live and learn, right?

This week we only have two days of school! Two days of school and five days off? Can we do this every week???