Woof. I feel like I finally have a minute to slow down and process my life, and share with all of you! So I'm working at this AMAZING school. It's a charter, which, if you know me, I never thought I'd ever find myself working at a charter school. But I'm so happy I got over my stereotypes and generalizations of charter schools and applied. So my school is basically designed around the fact that students in the welfare and preventative services system underperform their counterparts in school. It's like Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs...They're too busy worrying about where their next meal is going to come from or where they're going to sleep to concentrate on memorizing multiplication facts.

Anyway so we have this cool model of intergrating Academics, and Social-Emotional needs as part of their curriculum. There's actually a Social-Emotional curriculum taught by the social workers and behavior interventionalist...It's all whole-child focused and SWPBS and love and logic. SO MUCH LOVE AND LOGIC.

I have a co-teacher which I was really concerned about because I tend to think I suck as a teacher and knowing someone was going to be in my classroom ALL THE TIME watching scared the crap out of me. Her name is Jenny and she is an amazing genius. She went to Montessouri school and did 4 years of Pre-Med and a year of Med school ay Brown, decided she didn't want to be a doctor and decided to be a teacher instead. And that usually would make me grrrr people turn to teaching when there's no other choice, but in this case it totally worked. She's so committed to the kids, and to my growth as an educator...I totally lucked out.  My whole staff is pretty awesome..young...but they're all married/engaged/pregnant...and I'm the youngest one...and sometimes it's awkward because they'll be talking about like engagement parties or afterbirth waters breaking..and i'm just like blech.

My kids...are amazing...difficult..and such strong little people. 3rd grade is apparently the toughest cohort...and I believe it. Students are being moved in and out of homes, evicted, reunited then seperated from birth parents, just SO MUCH going on with them that I can't imagine going through as a 22 year old. But because of all those things going, on a lot of them are wicked stubborn and I feel like I'm going through this phase of having to earn their trust...They're like not used to people sticking around and so why should they accept me...They are testing their little hearts out...but I can tell that I love them because even when they are awful to me..I'm still thinking good thoughts and miss them on the weekends...I didn't have that with my student teaching group so it's such a nice new feeling to have. And they are so smart. Most of them. That doesn't always translate to their test scores...but they are wise.

My biggest issue so far is that I'm still really having a difficult time having the kids see me as their teacher too...They had Jenny last year and here I am...new teacher in the school, and I spent the first two weeks kind of sitting back observing seeing how things ran...In that time the students also observed who was boss...I'm still trying to gain that authority and respect.  I'm also not a yeller and I don't want to be, and don't think I will have to be...but it's been a challenge reversing that Ms. H is the teacher and Ms. B is the assistant thing that I obviously have going on.  Hopefully this will get better as I continue building relationships with the kiddos.

Ashley.

Preprepre-planning

Just received an email from the teacher I'll be co-teaching with.  She seems very sweet and outgoing.  She wants to get dinner and/or drinks the week of PD.  Sounds like my kinda lady! haha. So there are 10 or so new hires according to the email we got from the VP and I was officially given the third grade spot.  There's another new 3rd grade teacher, 1 first, 2 seconds, fourths and fifths, so its a large group of newbies!  That makes me a wee bit less nervous since I won't be the only new one.  Our homework for New Hire Orientation is to read an excerpt from a Guided Reading Guide and an Assessment guide by Fountas and Pinnell.  Luckily I know a bit/lot about those programs so it'll be review.  I want to go in there feeling (more than) competent and confident in my abilities!

I've also been going through the ringer to get my NYS teaching certification through interstate reciprocity.  A gazillion online forms, more trips to the Post Office than I've ever taken in my life, lots of money of course, a few dozen phone calls  and a trip to get fingerprinted and I think I'm finally done.  Just waiting to be evaluated.  If I get this license I'll have two years to take the NYS tests, which I'll probably sign up to take for Summer 2013, get it over with.

Okay I'll stop my procrastinating and continue my reading..and or end up on Pinterest.

~Ashley

My ABCs

Saw this on someone's page and thought it'd be fun...if I could figure out to link things...I would!

A- Age - 22

B - Bed size- Full!

C - Car - A very old Camry that's still truckin along.  Hoping to buy myself a new one for Christmas this year!

D - Dogs or cats -Dogs, well both, but I don't have any pets =(

E - Essential to start your day- checking my twitter for news/funny stories

F - Favorite color - Pink!

H - Height - 5'4"

I - Ice cream - Cookie Dough, two deserts in one? YES PLEASE!

J - Job title - 3rd Grade Teacher

K - Kids - none

L - Live - Native New Yorker!

M - Magic Kingdom - I heart Disney World!!

N - Nickname - Ash, and other silly things that thankfully did not carry over from college haha

O - Other siblings- older and younger sister..MIDDLE CHILD SYNDROME!

P - Pet peeves - adults not knowing the difference between your/you're and their/there/they're

Q - Quote from a movie -"Ir'a not who I am underneath but what i do that defines me"- Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins...Or anything from Mean Girls =)

R - Right or lefty - Righty.

S - Favorite season - Fall - The weather is PERFECT cool, breezy, New England Falls are BEAUTIFUL

T - TV - Brothers and Sisters 

U - Unknown fact - I chose to go to UConn on a complete whim..I liked the pictures in their prospective student handbook and that was that. Good thing I LOVED my time there

V - Vegetables - Broccoli (who says that right? 

W - What makes me run late -Underestimating the amount of time it actually takes me to leave the house. AKA if I want to leave at 8, I actually leave at 8:15.  Apparently I'm just not smart enough to realize that in the moment haha

X - X-rays - My teeth, and right arm after a 3rd game of leap frog

Y - Yummiest food - Sushi!

Z - Zoo animal - Koala bears

I got an offer!

This was a week ago, but in true Ashley fashion I forgot to blog about it.

It was one of the most incredible experiences ever.  The process for this application: Phone interview, in person interview, I went in to be an assistant for the day and then they said they'd be in contact.

So the secretary calls me on behalf of my P (who was on vacation) and I literally was speechless, which has never happened in my life.  She laughs and says she'll give me time to think about it. In my head I'm like HA I don't need time, I need to regain my ability to form coherent sentences. I emailed and accepted within an hour, after talking to my mom.

The details about everything are not that clear to be honest...each grade has a CTT classroom so I know I'll be one of two teachers, in a 3rd, 4th or 5th grade class.  I'm pretty sure it'll be 3 because that's where I have  the most experience through student teaching and clinicals.

Orientation starts August 14th and school starts August 29th and I CANNOT WAIT!  Granted I'm nervous about this co-teaching business but it'll be a great learning experience teaching alongside a seasoned professional. AHHH!!!

Now if only my CT certification would magically turn into a NY cert...

Ashley!