Memphis In May is HERE!!! and saluting BELGIUM!!

Ever since my senior year in high school when I volunteered for the first time with the Memphis In May organization, I have always found a way to participate in the excitement.
This year, as a teacher, I am excited to be able to share Memphis In May Salutes Belgium with my students!
If you are interested in finding curriculum to go with your class, you can click here and find all the information you need.
There are lots of ongoing contests and fun activites planned throughout the month that you can do with your friends and family, as well as with your students in the classroom.

Here are links to all the upcoming main events:

April 29th - May 1: Beale Street Music Festival

May 2 - 8: International Salute to Belgium

May 12 -14: World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest

May 28: Sunset Symphony

There is lots more information all over the website of things that are going on or ways that you can get involved. MIM is a world renowned organization that is run primarily on volunteers! Each year, they are able to boast more productive and more hours of volunteerism than any other group in Memphis!

IF you would like information on volunteering with Memphis In May, click here!

Happy Friday!!

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• Limited pre-sale for Beale Street Music Festival begins Thursday (commercialappeal.com)

Homework Assignment....

1. View the following YouTube: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8). React to what you see and hear by using the lead-in sentence: After viewing this video, I think……..

After viewing this video, I think that I still feel the way I did when I encountered others similar to it: I do not have the classroom confidence I think I need in order to do all the things in my classroom I think I should. As a teacher, I feel compelled to teach my students to use the technologies that we have in the real world, not just the ones that have been created specifically for the classroom. However, not all of my students have access to that kind of technology. As a teacher I feel that I have a responsibility to teach my students to be thinkers, who can apply, analyze and evaluate. As a teacher, I feel that I have a responsibility to teach my students to be doers who can create, build and reconstruct things in new ways. As a teacher, I KNOW that I have a responsibility to teach my students to understand language, symbols and meanings in ways that some poeple don't even consider. But if I know that I have to do these things, why am I teaching my students the material on a test?

2. Post a YouTube or Podcast link on your blog that you could integrate into a lesson you might teach in your licensure area. Explain in detail how you would use the video and what you would have the students do.

Here's some weird science for you! Now, did you see that too?!?! The bottle froze!!! No explosion, no twisted plastic sides, just solid!!!
In science we are constantly evaluating the way things work and why they work the way they do.
For this lesson, I would do one of two things:
Lesson A:
Have the students use this as a jumping into media point, I'd post the video to the class blog and have a contest to see who could come up with the coolest science video of their own. Then the students would write a paper arguing for the one they thought was best and why.
Lesson B:
We would do a joint lesson with the chemistry class on freezing. It's pretty cool the things that they can do in a chemistry lab. Together with the chemistry class we would investigate the laws of freezing and boiling and whether stirring and moving those liquids can slow down or speed up those mechanisms.


3. Go to: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePaper.pdf and review this white paper about youth and their use of digital technologies and the implications for educators. Combine the information from this site with the site below (number 4) to respond to: “How does this information inform your teaching? What are steps that you need to take to have your classroom an engaging learning environment?”

In attempting to create an engaging learning environment for my students it is important that I see them as true people first and foremost. Then, as an educator, helping them to find ways to engage the material in a digital way; to analyze how others have presented the material, including myself, and to consider it before deciding how best to move forward with that information. I have to wonder, as we move more forcefully in the digital world, I can't help but wonder what this may mean for the actual literacy abilities and levels of students. In the texting community students learn to write symbols and "text shorthand" for the words, phrases, even sentences that they are communicating to each other. What does this mean for the future of language? How will my students 10 years from now write? And honestly, if we are so worried about our students being technologically savvy, why are we not also considering ways to make them environmentally savvy as well?

Each week, my students and I go on netflix and search through the recently uploaded documentaries. We watch 20 minutes, sometimes more and have adiscussion about what we see. Two weeks ago we watched a video called "No Impact Man". It was about a man and his family who, over hte course of a year, went from being major consumers to having literally no impact on the environment. They did not eat take-out, they moved all their mail to digital, they did not have electricity, they did not use paper products, they recycled, they composted, so on and so forth farther than most could imagine. My students and I had a genuine discussion about how this connected to our matierla, and what it meant for htis family to do this, and whether or  not any of my students could do this too. And while this is a great little anecdote, I can't help but wonder, "10 years from now will my students be able to do this?" If I were to send this video out as a link, and then tell my students to meet me in a chat room and share with everyone on a discussion, would I understand what they typed to me? I learned to type on a typewritter. I was pretty fast. However, now I am on a laptop computer, sitting on my bed, but I could be anywhere I want! In 10 years will my students even be in a classroom with me?

As a Department, my science team has started a blog where we share information, ideas and lessons, it is our place to share. As we move forward, I can only see that I will have to become more confident that I know what I am doing so I can start injecting more into the lessons. Right now it is quite daunting to try and make sure that I am teaching the kids all the information they are supposed to have. I am not even sure that i do that well. In the future I would like to include in my lessons, blogs, wikis, linkys, podcasts, youtube videos, etcdc and I'd love for all of it to be made by my students. I would love for all of my students to have a computer at home and one at school, even if they are not hte same one.  When you start a new job, no one says, "here's a desk, now go get all your own supplies and a computer, we just provide the desk and the chair." Why can't high school be more like the real world? Why is it such a huge thing to get a computer in the classroom for each of hthe kids? One of the biggest impedimnets to teaching is that there is money involved. When business people found out there was money involved, they got involved too. Now there are a LOT of cooks in the kitchen. But I"M THE CHEF! what I do is what matters!

So this is my picture of what I think the best technological digital version of my science classroom is:
I would like for all of my students to sit down at a desk each day with the paper they need, and something to write with. I would like for them to each have an ipad. (right now my students sit in groups) So, I would like for each group to have a digital microscope. I would like for my room to be wireless. Next, we will be digitally linked to every site in the world that I need access to, without me having to know whow to hack my way through a firewall designed to keep kids from seeing material that a beauracrat has decided is inappropriate without actually looking at the site. Then, they will all be able to digitally share in a privately hosted blog forum. We can chat when they are at home, they can send instant messages to me during class. They will take all their tests online, turn in all their homework and their inclass handwritten notes, will only be necessary when they want to make a note to find something at home.

4. Go to: http://www.futureofed.org/. This site predicts what learning will be like in 2020. React to what you learn and then describe the role of a licensed teacher, such as yourself, if learning in 2020 reflects what is at this website. Be sure and explore the future forces (a series of colored bars at the top right).

Seriously, if you look at nothing else, this is the site to look at! This website tries to explain some of the major changes that are about to take place over the next 10 yeras in ducation. it is incredible to me how easily they delinate the changes in technology, classroom education and the environment into such a symbiotic relationship of change! We all know that fossil fuels are not forever. What is unique about the American way of life is that it is not meant to last! We create suburbs in the 1940s and 50s as a way of encouraging soldiers coming home from war to get back into the family way, to continue in the AMERICAN WAY, unfortunately, that is a way of consumerism and it is not designed to last. At the rate we are going we will run out of so much so quickly that my children will experience life in a way I have never even considered.
As an educator it is important that I teach my students how to use the information we are gaining to become successful and contributing members of our future society. They must learn how to find information  and knowledge in new ways and to share that information with each other and others around the world in new ways.
For an educator, this is all a very daunting task! My only hope is that as I learn and grow as an educator, I become more capable of showing my students how to do this. I'm honestly hoping this is something like a 12 step program, "once you know that you need to do something and acknowledge it, actually doing it is the easy part...". Well, here's hoping!

Candy labs

So, in my classroom in order to keep me going and the kids excited I wrote candy labs. Honestly, when I first wrote the labs it was before I was ever even in a classroom. But, I just "knew" I was going to be the gift to education, I was going to come in and save the world! Yeah, right!

However, in this first year I have learned a lot about keeping the kids entertained! It has become quite clear that in today's world, you have to come up with new and exciting ways to keep the kids going. And this one is definitely one that helps me stay motivated and going!

Here you will find my candy lab that my students will be doing tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully, it will be fun...

If you decided to do candy labs in your own room, be sure you have a safe place to store your candy! Kids will try to take more than they are supposed to, because they're kids.

Homework for my Reading class...

Ok friends, here are the pieces of the instructions for my assignment this week:
Create a blog posting containing the following items: 1) a minimum of 4 of your favorite ways that you learned that middle school/high content area teachers are using blogs with their students, 2) one way you might use blogs with your students, and why, and 3) how you would know if this way of blogging was effective with your students.

Here are some cool "teacher" blogs out there:

http://gbrovont.edublogs.org/ On this blog, the teacher, Mr. Brovont, uses the blog to inform his students. He doesn't post as regularly as other bloggers might, but it does seem to be a tool that his students can use to engage in the classroom more consistently and regularly.

http://www.chaplescienceclass.blogspot.com/ I am completely impressed with this blog! Mr. Chaple uses this blog to keep his students in the loop! He also uses this to create articles for his students about topics that they need to be aware of.

http://missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/ So, Miss Baker is definitely very into the blogging world! Her blog is very complex with lots of different sections and I'm pretty sure it would take me hours to get through everything on her blog!

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=4771 So, Mr. Gonzalez uses his blog to keep his students tuned in and has gotten some very real attention for it! They're presenting at their local school board meeting about all the fun things their science class has been doing. I think this is a pretty interesting way of using blogs in the classroom.

One way that I have considered using blogs with my students would be to use it to share with them different "fun" things that are happening outside of their own bubble in the world of their neighborhood and school. I have wanted them to see that there are fun things happening in the world of science and so much more to life than just their school, their neighborhood, their family, even this city! However, I worry that they might not be open to the idea of participating on the blog or might not even be into it. I don't know if blogging is something that they're capable of in a way that would make this an accessible project. I think that doing this in this way would be a way for them to learn more about the world around them.
 
I think one way that I know blogging would be effective with my students would be that they would begin to ask questions of interest and engagement in what was happening in the world around me. In the long term, I think that I would know that this would really be an effective teaching tool because over time I would see students reaching for new things and engaging in new areas of the country or new areas of the world.

My homework today

So, I'm in a class this semester called SPED 7000 which is basically "Introduction to the Exceptional Learner". Ie, all students who have any kind of disability, physical, mental, emotional, etc.

Our assignment for today was:
How much experience do you have with individuals with disabilities?

What is your comfort level with people who have disabilities?


This was my answer:
While working in the hospital I frequently found myself dealing with the care of people who had any number of disabilities; for some they were physical or mental and there were others with emotional disabilities, and some who had more than one. These people all taught me valuble lessons about the rights that they have not only as patients, but also as individuals. Many times, there would be children in the pediatrics department, who had not yet been firmly diagnosed with a problem and while the nursing staff may know that there is a problem, it was these cases that required the most patience.


As I continued working with these children, I became more comfortable with them and with their parents. At first I felt slightly intimidated by the experience and the interactions that were required of me. However, I found that if I didn't know how to use a certain assistive device or what the patients were capable of, it worked out best, if I just simply asked them or their parents how best to help.

As an educator, I no longer have any feelings of being intimidated by their assistive devices or their diagnoses. My new intimidation comes in finding ways to be sure that I have educated students for whom, learning is a challenge. It is harder for me to feel as though I have been competent in my job as an educator and made sure that I have shared the pertinent information the best way possible so that I can give ALL of my students the education they deserve. Further, in the classes where I do have students with learning challenges or disabilities, I find I am more frustrated (and MUCH less patient) with the students who are "behavioral issues" or who have diagnosed behavioral disabilities. It's learning to balance these fears and issues that I am finding most challenging.

support?

It really sucks when you're teaching somewhere and you feel abandoned like a ship at sea... Not having a good week and being pregnant does not help!

The kids don't help. Most of them time I feel like they barely listen to me and they don't understand how much better their lives could be if they just took an interest in getting their education.

Such a disappointing state of affairs.

It really leaves me feeling not motivated, uninspired and well, tired.

I wish there was someway to be filled with the energy and enthusiasm I had at the beginning of the school year. It's as though coming to school everyday slowly sucks the energy away from me and I'm left feeling like I'm in a constant battle to teach these kids stuff that they don't care about and won't even bring their notes the next day.

It sucks seeing so many girls pregnant who don't give a crap about their future and have no interest in having a better one. The guys aren't much better. They seem to think that acting out or lounging in their seats is the right way to go.

And then I get lectured on my professionalism?!? I work my butt off everyday to try and motivate the students to do what they need to do. However, they don't seem to care or want to be motivated. I don't know what else to do...It all just feels like I'm trying to push a boulder the size of Texas straight up a mountain without any help or slightest appreciation for the efforts. I feel like I'm suffocating in the battle.

Studying fossils

Right now we're on fossils.

I found this really cool video, or so I thought on dinosaurs and this one has a video of a dinosaur that had been mummified by nature! How cool!?!? And they did a CT Scan and lots of other things to actually get a true picture of what the dinosaur actually looked like.

Clearly, I was into it....so into in fact that I was watching the whole thing. Of course I shushed the class several times at the beginning. Well, a minute ago I noticed it was "really" quite in the room....and now I know why!

Who knew that an exciting video of discovering what dinosaurs actually looked like and discovering a missing genetic link to T-Rex was so boring!??

Elections, Councils and Ambassadors...Oh my!

So, in recent school news I was asked by my principal to be our TEI Ambassador for our school. I have to admit that like many teachers in the MCS system I have been very concerned with what exactly TEI is and what it means. For a while now there has been a feeling of the unknown and I think many teachers are worried about what a new evaluation system could mean for their jobs and their work. Many educators in MCS are incredible, educated and wonderful teachers. Some need a little help with becoming more competent with integrating technology, others many need help with peer-to-peer communication, but there are some very bright stars in our midst. From what most of us can understand about the TEI (Teacher Effectiveness Initiative) the goal is to help find the weaknesses of teachers in each of the 6 Domains of Evaluation and in turn be able to develop a true action plan for each teacher that will help make them more effective and successful at what they do.

Unfortunately, of late, Memphis City Schools has been having a very public arguement with Shelby County Schools about disolving the MCS charter, the possibility of consolidation and SCS getting a "special schools" disctrict charter. Overall, the biggest problem that teachers and the general public are having with this, is unanswered questions. Many of the questions, it seems, can not be answered effectively because the correct, current answer is, "we don't know." Obviously, no politician is going to say, "I don't know." even if it is the actual answer. It is a frustrating place to be.

For teachers, there are some pros and cons to consolidation:
Pro: Shelby County requires smaller class sizes for their classrooms
Pro: On average Shelby County spends about $0.50 more per student
Con: Several teachers in MCS are worried that they might not meet the standards of the SCS
Con: Consolidation may also mean reorganizing zoning, busing and attendance AGAIN

As you can see there is no simple solution and these 4 points are just surface things, there are many bigger issues at play.

In the latest personal professional news, I found out yesterday that I am a newly elected member of the M-PACE Council. The M-PACE council is the political action council of the MEA (Memphis Education Association). It handles interviews of candidates, recommendations for candidates based on education issues, certain issue campaigns and activies. This is supposed to be a "great leadership" opportunity, however, I have not done enough soul searching or pondering to decided if this is something I really want to do. Not to mention, I don't really know what all of this means or how I got the nomination in the first place.

On a happy note, I have had 2 very successful evaluations and have found, to my delightful surprise, that administration at my school really like having me on staff! YEAH!!!

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BIG news!

So, work at Oakhaven has been going great! I'm totally settled into the routine of teaching, the kids are great and Geoff and I have a great routine.

Well, the weekend of Halloween (this past weekend) I still wasn't feeling well. It had been nearly a week of feeling icky. Friday nite I bought a pregnancy test to take Saturday morning. AND IT WAS POSITIVE!!!!

We will be having baby #3 around June 23rd, 2011!!!

Everyone at work and at home is very excited!

This week has been busy as we prepare for the THINKSHOW. It's kind of a neat program that the entire school district puts on. My students did 2 projects. As a class we did a meiosis at work project showing weird heriditary traits that people have. As groups they did a poster with 3D models of the cell during each stage of meiosis, described what happens during meiosis, gave an example of meiosis in medical or scientific research and an example of how meiosis has gone wrong. I was very proud of those who were able to complete their prokects. For the spring though, I will definitely do something a little more elaborate and start earlier!

Crazy Things have been happening!

So, obviously it has been MONTHS since my last update. So, I'll try and give a breif synopsis of what you've missed while I was away.

Late July:
I attended inservice with my dad as we prepared for the school year to start. It was somewhat informative, but I made several good friends!

August:
Just before school started I was asked to help coach the Cheer team! I was so excited to be able to participate in that way. The school year got off to an ok start and I was on my way to being a "real" teacher. :) I finished my summer classes with 2 A's and was looking forward to my fall classes. The kids also had a good start to their school year at Grahamwood Elementary and we had everything in place for our nanny to help out in the mornings. Life was looking pretty ok.

September:
The majority of the month of September went well. It was a blur of cheer practices, football games, school, teaching and kids...and swimming! Life seemed to be going fine..Until week 6 of school.
On Monday of week 6, September 20th, the day before my 9th wedding anniversary, my principal informed the school that he was going to have to surpluss a few teachers. (Surplusing means that the school has more teachers than the Board of Education believe need to be in the school) Needless to say, I was more than a little upset.
On Tuesday, Geoff brought me flowers, a card and a sandwich (that he made) for our 9th annivesary, it was so sweet!
On Wednesday, my Principal waited until after our faculty meetings and academy meetings to inform me that I would be surplussed and that the next day I needed to attend a surplus fair to get a new job.
So, on Thursday, I signed a contract with Dr. Durrah at Oakhaven High. I was excited to have a job, but nervous about what the future would have in store.
On Friday, I went back to Kirby, gave out the jerseys to the cheerleaders, gathered my belongings, had my phone stolen and left the school.

Monday, September 27th was my first day at my new school. I spent the day getting my room in order and on tuesday I got my classes.

October:
My first full week at my new school was Homecoming! It was hard to get into the school spirit since I no longer was at the school I was used to and didn't know much about my new school or students. Everyone was amicable and the kids seemed fine. I was just very unsure of where I stood and it made me nervous.

I spent most of the month working diligently on being prepared each day and working ahead on my planning. I developed my system for my classroom and how I would teach each chapter became my own personal formula.

As of now, I have finished my White Board Protocal for the entire year and have made charts for each quarter. I have also started outlining my syllabi for the 3rd and 4th quarters.

In home news, Geoff and i finally came up with a remodel plan for our kitchen and storage room that we are both happy and excited to do! We went to the Home depot and with the help of Chris in the design center, we should be able to have this done by April or so.

More news to share, but it will have to be in another post!

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I got a job!!!

I interviewed with both schools and was offered and accepted a job at Kirby High School!!!

I am very excited and honored to begin working there this fall.

On a happy note, I found out that one of the other students who is in the fellowship program with me will also be working at Kirby High School, too!!!

Happy Happy Happy!

INTERVIEWS!!!

I am quite excited to announce that I have two interviews tomorrow!!!!

One is at Kirby High School and the other is at Craigmont High  School.

Let's hope all goes well!

Tonite I have a quiz in my Assessment Class and will be working on homework for my online class. It is a very exciting time for me.

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well

Today's homework for my online class.

So, we had a few discussions to do. I've tried to make them as easy to follow as possible. And where possible I have included the links to the original material to make sense of the information.

Discussion1:

• Describe the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning.
• How have your ideas about this changed thus far in the class?

My answer:

Describe the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning.
In order to effectively integrate technology with teaching and learning, the instructor must be willing to make a mistake in front of the class. Part of the learning and teaching experience is beign able to make mistakes "teachable moments". Sure, it stinks to have the computer or the program put up a dialog box that says you messed up, but it's also really cool to be able to demonstrate for your class, via a computer projection, a digital image of how to disect a frog.
On the other hand, being able to do "cool stuff" on a computer should not be the only accomplishment from the integration. The students should learn some sort of skill in the process that is applicable to the real world, is a valuable workplace skill and (bonus) can be helpfulin other classes.
How have your ideas about this changed thus far in the class?
Before  taking this class, I would have said that technology integration was accomplished if the students wrote their reports on the computer and then emailed them to the professor or used the computer to do research or if the professor used a power point presentation. Now I see that using a power point is unfortunately being seen as a modified projection of slides to be copied, the research is not peer reviewed journal articles but wikipedia and writing reports and emailing them is the digital version of handing in your homework.
Obviously, my perception of effective technology integration has matured to say the least.

 Discussion 2:
Consider the information from Anderson, Grant, & Speck's Excerpt from Chapter 2: Technology Tools to Support Literacy (as well as the other reading material in this module) and describe 3 different strategies you could use to integrate technology with teaching and/ or learning in your class.

Review the ideas of your classmates and consider the possibility of using or adapting their strategies in your classroom. Discuss your thoughts as appropriate.

My answer:

In biology we sometimes are limited to the uses of technology and it other ways we have been blessed!
Due to the religious attitudes of many and the verocity of our population towards legal action there are now several programs that allow you to do a Digital Dissection. This program allows the students to get all the real-world experience of doing a frog dissection, without the gross out factors including the smell of fermaldihyde. (sp?)
 
Another fun one for me is Google Wave. If you are not on a wave and would like to be invited to mine, just message me in "real" email at rkannady@gmail.com This program allows you to send "waves" to a person or a group of people and you can follow the wave and see what they do or where the articles or other digital materials go. It's pretty cool.

Using the google wave program, I would send an article to my class. Assigning each of the kids a day in the wave, their job would be to read the article (from a reputable, peer-reviewed journal) and then find something that was of interest to them to then send the next part of the wave. At the end of the wave, we would have 30 (1 for each student) articles. They could then pick an article to either write a 5 paragraph essay on or share in some way with the class. (poster or presentation). Whatever response method they chose would be added to our wave series.

The really fun part is that you can covert the wave to a blog posting ( or series of postings) and that you can start a new wave with each new topic of study in the class.

Finally, I think it is important for kids to understand their environment and the impact that their choices have on the world around them. Using a geopost the kids can track the movement of waste as it is collected and eventually deposited in a landfill or sent out via liquid waste disbursement etc. They can then digitally do a time-sped model to see how the waste will effect the environment at that same rate continued over a period of time.

Also, have you guys seen the new sun chips bags? They are supposed to be compostable. How cool would it be to take a digital picture of a sun chips bag compost and see if different composts will speed up the degration of the bag?

For a science experiment a student could use a series of glass compost boxes. put the bag up against the glass and in each compost use different materials of waste. Each day they would take a picture. Then they could use a computer to create a slideshow (or imovie) to show the degration of the bag over time in a side-by-side comparison of which goes faster.

 Also, I intend for each of my classes to have a blog where either daily or weekly or as frequently as possible. The students discuss what they thought of the different classroom exercises, what they learned, etc. Hopefully, over time, they'll get a better understanding of what we're doing in class and I'll get to see how they're liking what we're doing. It can alsobe a way of keeping the parents informed of what we're doing in the classroom.

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Exciting Things!!!

Sorry I missed my Tuesday list! I'll have to do that next week. However, this has been an eventful 2 days!

I have now gone to my evening class about assessment and have participated in my online class about technology in the classroom; I have also talked to my online professor.

I am very excited about all the cool things we will be doing in the online class and I'm hoping that it will carry over into the school year easily.

In my classroom class, Assessment and Evaluation, the professor is very entertaining and I've met several people who are in the Fellowship program too! We are very well-educated and eclectic bunch! One guy even plays in a band and another has been an electrical engineer for 35 years.

I also found out today that my resume has gone out to principals so I should start hearing from them to interview soon!

In other cool news, I found out today that one of my friends from Grad School has also decided to become a teacher!! Yeah! I hope all things work out well for her.

Now, I have to go work on my homework and finish reading for class tonite.

I'll be posting my work here later so that anyone who wants to see what we're doing and learn stuff too, can.

Enjoy!

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Classes Start Today!

Today is the first day of classes for my summer classes. Wooray!!

One class is a technology integration class. This one is 3 weeks long, 19 days, to be specific. Frought with lots of digital assignments, some of which may get posted here. I have already done today's assignment, printed out a bunch of 'stuff' and reviewed the projects to be completed. It looks like a lot for 19 days (when I still have everything else to get done too...) But, alas, it is school and I am so excited to get moving!

The other class is classroom assessment. For which I have also done the first assignment. This one is a 5 week lecture class, and I must admit I like a class with face time! My dad alrady took this class, from the same professor...no pressure :)

On a bittersweet note, this weekend was the last chance for Annie to qualify for our Regional Swim Meet. She worked so hard to get as fast as she could and when it came time for the 50 breast, she put it all out there in the water...and dropped 8.9 seconds!!! (For those who don't know, this is an INSANE amount of time to drop and basically no one does this!) However, it still put her 4.7 away from the cut...We have decided to look forward to next summer, when we could have as many as 3 cuts!

Off to finish the work and get ready for class!

Waiting for a School

So, I signed my Fellowship contract today to teach for Memphis City Schools as a High School Biology teacher. I am really excited about this new chapter, however, I am a little nervous.

My nervousness primarily comes from the fact that I am a little obsessive compulsive and like to plan and that is hard to do if you don't know where you are going to be and what your schedule is going to be. It also is because I will have to coordinate with Geoff to get our kids to and from their school, so we'll have to get a nanny.

In the meantime while I wait I have met with one of my friends who was a Teach For America teacher. She gave me lots of great resources, but I still want some serious planning and information. I also am a member of the National Science Teacher Association they also have lots of great resources!

Now, I just need to figure out how to stay calm without knowing what's next...ugh...

This book also has some good insight, though I have to admit I don't own it yet...Maybe when I get a Nook!!

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Contract is Signed!!

I just signed my Fellowship Contract! It's official, I am a Noyce Grant Teaching Fellow. *Sigh* Now, I just need to find out where I'll be teaching...


On another happy note, there are only 3 weeks left until I no longer have 107 jobs!!! Hooray!!!

Time for School!

I am officially registered for classes for this summer!!! OMG! So, it looks like I'm going to finally get on track for becoming a teacher. I spent saturday with a friend trying to psych myself up for the first day/week of school. Hopefully that will work...

UPDATE

Ok, so there is a lot to update about, so I'm dividing them by subject...

Dad: He was offered and accepted a job teaching at Central High School! He will be teaching practical law and personal finance. He is super excited and I couldn't be happier for him.

School for me: I got accepted into the Masters in Teaching program and into the Noyce Grant Fellowship. You can read more about the fellowship program , it is an amazing opportunity and I am super excited! I start classes next week!

Teaching: I do not know yet where I will be teaching. I was accepted into the new teacher pool for Memphis City Schools before I got the final and official acceptance into the Fellowship Program...so we'll see!

I graduated with my Masters in Sociology in May and with my Certificate in Women and Gender studies...all in all things are going well...

I just wish they would go faster!

TEP Interview

I scheduled my interview for the teacher education program last week. I just need to get my background check done. Finger prints and all..

My parents took my kids out of town for the weekend and I told my dad I had scheduled my interview. He said that the woman who oversees the interviews asked if I was his sister. (In her defense, she has never laid eyes on me...and I do write like a "real grown-up" in emails.)

Is it terrible that I was not amused by this anecdote? I know my dad was and he did correct her, but still!

Later I intend to post complete instructions (as best I can) for those of you interested in becoming a teacher in Memphis City Schools, yourself.

Step 1: Take a Deep Breathe.

Step 2: Get a heaping helping of patience...