The day has consisted of:
Waking up at 5am-ish to be ready for school by 6:15-ish.
Elementary school, teaching, DRA test giving, lectures and lesson planning until 5.
Dinner.
Lesson planning from 6:30-right now....which is 2:30 am.
I guess going to bed at 2:30 doesn't quite count as an all nighter...
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Scorpions and no sleep
Apparently Phoenix has scorpions. I’m not sure why this fact freaks me out as much as it does. Somewhere in my city girl mindset, I considered things like scorpions a novelty that exists purely in sci-fi movies or Hollywood. Wrong-o. They exist in Phoenix. Also it is blazing hot here, and I am using sweat glands that I have never used before. I am however turning a nice shade of brown instead of pale white, so that is wonderful.
ALSO wonderful thing about Phoenix is the FREE bus system. Well okay, they actually have like three bus systems, and I am sure they aren’t all free. But the nice convenient one that takes me to target when I need things like hangers and extra deodorant (see sweat gland usages mentioned above) is free so I am a happy girl. I also walked into a coffee shop today that served delightful iced coffee and people were listening to music and working on their laptops. I felt like I was in Seattle again for a second. Until I walked back out into the 100 degree weather.
I am excited to get a few spare hours here and there to explore the city for the short time I am here. We are so busy doing teacher training stuff here that it is quite literally blowing my mind. We teach tomorrow for the first time, and I am going to be in a third grade class, which makes me unspeakably happy. It is crazy, with every lesson plan I am doing I picture my Zion kids. Troublesome, since this is a distinctly different culture. It’s comfortable though. I am team teaching with four other people who literally just learned how to teach this past week, so I am lgoing to be the only one who feels comfortable. Campus is buzzing with nerves and anxious feelings.
There is about a million things I could write, because there are about a million things going on in my head. In the past week I have
1. Graduated from college
2. Moved out of the princess house
3. Moved away from the homeland
4. Moved away from the family
5. Moved away from the best friends
6. Moved into a dorm room (eww)
7. Learned how to be a teacher (again)
8. Met about three hundred new people (Hi, I’m Leah. I’m from Seattle. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat)
9. Set up a classroom
10. Wrote about twelve lesson plans
11. Did DRA testing for a bunch of third graders
12. Not slept at all.
13. Not ran at all
14. Ate really gross food.
Yep. One week down, four to go until New Orleans!
Love Y’all!
(Yeah, I just Y’all-ed!)
ALSO wonderful thing about Phoenix is the FREE bus system. Well okay, they actually have like three bus systems, and I am sure they aren’t all free. But the nice convenient one that takes me to target when I need things like hangers and extra deodorant (see sweat gland usages mentioned above) is free so I am a happy girl. I also walked into a coffee shop today that served delightful iced coffee and people were listening to music and working on their laptops. I felt like I was in Seattle again for a second. Until I walked back out into the 100 degree weather.
I am excited to get a few spare hours here and there to explore the city for the short time I am here. We are so busy doing teacher training stuff here that it is quite literally blowing my mind. We teach tomorrow for the first time, and I am going to be in a third grade class, which makes me unspeakably happy. It is crazy, with every lesson plan I am doing I picture my Zion kids. Troublesome, since this is a distinctly different culture. It’s comfortable though. I am team teaching with four other people who literally just learned how to teach this past week, so I am lgoing to be the only one who feels comfortable. Campus is buzzing with nerves and anxious feelings.
There is about a million things I could write, because there are about a million things going on in my head. In the past week I have
1. Graduated from college
2. Moved out of the princess house
3. Moved away from the homeland
4. Moved away from the family
5. Moved away from the best friends
6. Moved into a dorm room (eww)
7. Learned how to be a teacher (again)
8. Met about three hundred new people (Hi, I’m Leah. I’m from Seattle. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat)
9. Set up a classroom
10. Wrote about twelve lesson plans
11. Did DRA testing for a bunch of third graders
12. Not slept at all.
13. Not ran at all
14. Ate really gross food.
Yep. One week down, four to go until New Orleans!
Love Y’all!
(Yeah, I just Y’all-ed!)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Phoenix
I am here. I am exhausted. I am alive. I am going to bed and will write more later.
Love and miss you all,
Ms. Holliday
Love and miss you all,
Ms. Holliday
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
6 days away...
“You have to be slightly crazy to be a teacher. To be a good teacher, you have to be absolutely insane.”
-my uncle Les, educator for 42 years
“The world already has a savior, and you are not it. Jesus died on the cross for all humanity, not you. So every once in a while, give yourself a bit of a break.”
-Dr. Hartnett
“Teaching is a ministry. It isn’t a job you can stick to if you don’t think of it that way. It’s your job to educate these children, not just academically, but spiritually.”
-Brother Damian (Mentor teacher)
“Do you ever feel like sometimes, it’s only the other teachers that really get it? You go home to your loved ones, and they listen, but they don’t really understand?”
-Speaker in school training
“When they are here at school, we are substitute mommas and poppas for our students. You gotta teach them, but you gotta love them too.”
-Sister Jewel
Yes, you have to be a touch insane to be a teacher. You have to not require much sleep and you must enjoy caffeinated beverages, seeing as you will be dependent upon them. You have to be willing to trade in comfort and relaxation for things like waking up in the middle of the night in a panic over test scores and student learning plans. To be a teacher, you must be willing to be all things to all people. To your principal, you are a professional with a degree. You are an expert on learning, and you show your art through your students. To parents you are a guide to their precious babies. You are one who holds the key to success.
To students, you are even more. To your students you are an endless source of knowledge. You are a doctor when they are hurt, a judge and jury in the face of recess injustice, a counselor in times of trouble and a mother or father in times of insecurity. To your students you are a scientist, a writer, a mathematician, reader extraordinaire and traveled geographer. When they struggle, you are their cheerleader, when they need to be challenged you are their catalyst for success. As a teacher you must nurture but push, challenge but encourage, expect much of your students and give even more of yourself. There is no profession that wears more hats then that of a teacher.
Today, I said goodbye to my class of precious third graders. While I could not be more excited to move to New Orleans and teach, I am deeply sad about leaving this class. It is hard to imagine a group of children who hold within them more life, energy and potential for success. I have seen them learn and grow, not just as scholars but as new humans who are learning what it means to follow the simple but difficult rules of life: Work hard, love one another, love God. I have witnessed these nine year olds grapple with life circumstances that many adults could not handle. I have been inspired by their resilience and capacity for hope. I have felt with them their sadness, and hold that sadness in my heart still. I have felt proud of them, annoyed with them and grateful for them. I have poured myself into them, and now they will be somebody else’s. But they will always be a little bit mine. I can’t help but wonder if every year will feel like this.
As I walk away from my first teaching experience, I also wonder if I will ever feel like I did enough. Will I ever leave a classroom at the end of a year (or the end of a day) and think, “Yes, that was a ten. I accomplished everything I could.” Will I ever give myself an A?
Yes, I do believe, as my uncle informed me, that you have to be crazy to be a teacher, and to be a good one you have to be insane. I suppose I will feel successful when men in white suits come after me J.
-my uncle Les, educator for 42 years
“The world already has a savior, and you are not it. Jesus died on the cross for all humanity, not you. So every once in a while, give yourself a bit of a break.”
-Dr. Hartnett
“Teaching is a ministry. It isn’t a job you can stick to if you don’t think of it that way. It’s your job to educate these children, not just academically, but spiritually.”
-Brother Damian (Mentor teacher)
“Do you ever feel like sometimes, it’s only the other teachers that really get it? You go home to your loved ones, and they listen, but they don’t really understand?”
-Speaker in school training
“When they are here at school, we are substitute mommas and poppas for our students. You gotta teach them, but you gotta love them too.”
-Sister Jewel
Yes, you have to be a touch insane to be a teacher. You have to not require much sleep and you must enjoy caffeinated beverages, seeing as you will be dependent upon them. You have to be willing to trade in comfort and relaxation for things like waking up in the middle of the night in a panic over test scores and student learning plans. To be a teacher, you must be willing to be all things to all people. To your principal, you are a professional with a degree. You are an expert on learning, and you show your art through your students. To parents you are a guide to their precious babies. You are one who holds the key to success.
To students, you are even more. To your students you are an endless source of knowledge. You are a doctor when they are hurt, a judge and jury in the face of recess injustice, a counselor in times of trouble and a mother or father in times of insecurity. To your students you are a scientist, a writer, a mathematician, reader extraordinaire and traveled geographer. When they struggle, you are their cheerleader, when they need to be challenged you are their catalyst for success. As a teacher you must nurture but push, challenge but encourage, expect much of your students and give even more of yourself. There is no profession that wears more hats then that of a teacher.
Today, I said goodbye to my class of precious third graders. While I could not be more excited to move to New Orleans and teach, I am deeply sad about leaving this class. It is hard to imagine a group of children who hold within them more life, energy and potential for success. I have seen them learn and grow, not just as scholars but as new humans who are learning what it means to follow the simple but difficult rules of life: Work hard, love one another, love God. I have witnessed these nine year olds grapple with life circumstances that many adults could not handle. I have been inspired by their resilience and capacity for hope. I have felt with them their sadness, and hold that sadness in my heart still. I have felt proud of them, annoyed with them and grateful for them. I have poured myself into them, and now they will be somebody else’s. But they will always be a little bit mine. I can’t help but wonder if every year will feel like this.
As I walk away from my first teaching experience, I also wonder if I will ever feel like I did enough. Will I ever leave a classroom at the end of a year (or the end of a day) and think, “Yes, that was a ten. I accomplished everything I could.” Will I ever give myself an A?
Yes, I do believe, as my uncle informed me, that you have to be crazy to be a teacher, and to be a good one you have to be insane. I suppose I will feel successful when men in white suits come after me J.
Monday, June 1, 2009
June 1
I am currently more stressed out then I can ever remember being. For those who read this (if there is anyone who in fact, does read this) and know me, you probably laughed at that first sentence, since I have said it before. However, this time I mean it.
In exactly two weeks from today, I will be on a plane flying my butt to Phoenix, where I will spend five weeks learning to teach. Never mind the fact that I just spent the last two years learning to teach. I digress. Anyway, before that can happen I must accomplish the following:
1. Graduate college and pass my finals.
2. Finish student teaching.
3. Pack and clean my house.
4. Clean my car.
5. Pack my car.
6. Finish jumping through and innumerable amount of hoops to be a certified teacher.
7. Take and pass the middle school English praxis.
8. Say goodbye to my parents, family, friends, city that I love and college.
I am ending one phase of life and starting a new one, all within twelve hours of one another. Awesome.
In exactly two weeks from today, I will be on a plane flying my butt to Phoenix, where I will spend five weeks learning to teach. Never mind the fact that I just spent the last two years learning to teach. I digress. Anyway, before that can happen I must accomplish the following:
1. Graduate college and pass my finals.
2. Finish student teaching.
3. Pack and clean my house.
4. Clean my car.
5. Pack my car.
6. Finish jumping through and innumerable amount of hoops to be a certified teacher.
7. Take and pass the middle school English praxis.
8. Say goodbye to my parents, family, friends, city that I love and college.
I am ending one phase of life and starting a new one, all within twelve hours of one another. Awesome.
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