Letters from Students

From two funny, intelligent, and yet normally distracting, boys in one of my Pre-Algebra class.

From a sweet, wise girl in one of my Math 7 classes.

From One Place to Another

Yikes! I didn't realize it had been a month since I last posted. As a quick snapshot of my past three weeks, March 3-8 was my last week at E. Middle School; 11-15 was technically my first week at my second placement but it was Spring Break; and 18-23 was my first official week back at P. High School. 

My second placement is back with my CTA teacher, Mr. Cosine, who I have been with since my sophomore year. With this relationship as well as student relationships established, I was able to teach two periods of Math 1 on Tuesday and Thursday! Granted it was more directing from one activity to the next and checking over answers, but it was still something and it was much better than observing the whole time. This week I will be starting full time tomorrow! Nothing like starting off with a bang. It has been interesting to transition back to the high school because I am having difficulty re-instating my role with some of the students I've seen for the past two years as a student teacher as opposed to an observer or helper within the classroom. Thankfully the Freshmen class, Math 1, I only know a couple students so I am able to start fresh with them. They are also a good buffer between what I had been experiencing--7th graders--and who I will also have to teach--11th graders. It has certainly been fun to see both the physical and cognitive differences between all three age groups. Although I miss some of the (odd) personalities of the 7th graders, I am looking forward to the higher maths and ability to ask and answer more difficult questions. 

As far as my last week at E. Middle School, it was hard to leave. A good chunk of the students verbally said they didn't want me to leave which spoke well to my ability to teach them in the classroom and the relationships I had made with them. On the last day, March 8, it was a bittersweet day because it was also my birthday. That being said, I made my students some pretzel treats for my birthday but I also gave them some pins that read "you are loved" as a going away present so as to remember that I truly loved them and was blessed by them letting me teach. While I gave gifts, I also received gifts too! My cooperating teacher gave me my first piece to place on my desk when I get a classroom of my own--Minnie Mouse holding a 2+2=4 chalkboard. Then from my students, two classes wrote me cards, one girl gave me some chocolates, and three students wrote me personalized letters. Can you say I felt loved too? (letters on previous post) I certainly did. 




Thankfully, it is according to God's plan that I will be back. But more details on that at another time!

Winter: 4 Nancy: 1

Believe it or not, I have had four snow days to the last five days of school. Two winter storms in a row have nailed my current city. I'll be honest, I'm ready to be back at school. I'm sure my middle school self would be yelling at me right now, but it gets boring fast when you can't go see your friends and you already cross a bunch of stuff off of your to-do list. For example the first snow day way back in the beginning of the month I was starting to feel overwhelmed so that day was certainly needed in order to get caught up and ready to go again. This past Friday's snow day (while we probably could have had a late start) I used the day to prepare the lessons for the last two weeks. Tuesday's snow day was focused on my electronic portfolio and resume. With all of those work days, yesterday became a play day and I took on the snow to drive to Central. The drive was fine in the afternoon but took on quite some vengeance as I traveled back here last night. Given the poor road conditions and too many rural students within the area, welcome to snow day number 4. Luckily there is a big event going on at Central that I am a part of where I can go help out early but still, its time to be back at school. A week from tomorrow is my last day and I really want to see my students =(

Nonetheless, when we have had classes, Math 7 is working on solving equations and Pre-Algebra is learning how to graph linear equations. And why yes! These are the hardest chapters of the semester...so the students are really struggling keeping information they have learned considering in school one day, out for two. Thankfully, the next lesson for Math 7 was going to be a review since we were quickly losing them in two step equations and it may be that I spend a good chunk of tomorrow reviewing in Pre-Algebra also. 

In Math 7, I created a new review game for them using math jokes and a hangman app. What would happen is that the students would guess a letter and if the letter was in the word then I filled in the blank. But! if they guessed a letter not in the word, not only would they start hanging the man, but they also would have to do a problem regarding solving equations. When I used this game for solving equations with fraction coefficients, I actually started hanging the man upside down to remind the students they had to use the reciprocal (flipped fraction) to solve these problems. Also, originally I had them doing a problem for every letter they guessed, but they said that wasn't fair, in which I agreed. Plus by adding you could have a problem or your couldn't, it added suspense and energy to the game. The two jokes I used were "What did the acorn say when it grew up" ..."Geometry" (Gee-I'm-a-tree!) and "What do vegan zombies eat?" ...."Graaains." While I know the jokes are dorky, they are still jokes and even pity laughter works for me. 


In Pre-Algebra, it really stinks that I will have to leave in the midst of this chapter because I think I have really cool lessons that will help the students understand graphing and especially slope better. I definitely post pictures of how I go about this once we finally get to it...the lessons have been planned for two weeks now and I'm getting anxious. As a preview, the activity for Monday now involves taking normal pictures, placing a coordinate plane over them with two dots, and then a line through them. They will have to find the points, find the slope, and say if it is a positive or negative slope. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes I do realize that Valentine's day was last week but I still want to blog about it because it was such a grand day. That day at school, and that week as a whole, is where I really felt like I was a part of the community there both faculty and student wise and I was no longer just the new girl. Within this day, I woke up to a Valentine's day breakfast (pink pancakes!) as well as a Valentine's day gift from the family that is so kindly hosting me as I student teach. Then at school! Some kids came around with cupcakes so I ate one of those; another student gave me a chocolate kiss; a different student gave me a gift filled with chocolate; and last but definitely not least, I had a student write me the most wonderful Valentine (it read I love you Mrs. Huggleston (I'll take it) and I mean it. Love, student. Love not only was in the air for those hormonal middle schoolers but also for their teachers that teach them every day. Here is are two pictures of my gifts from Valentine's day. 

Zap!

Zap is a game that I merge together from various other review games. I created this game after Jeopardy didn't have the competition, engagement, or review level I desired for the students. I found this Smart Board App on the Smart Board site exchange.smarttech.com but created the rules of the game myself.

The set-up/rules are as follow:

1. Each row is considered a team.
2. Each individual student gets a different number (I had numbered 1-30 because most classes have 29 students)
3. Each student has their own "game card" that is split up into four sections regarding problems that have been learned in class (i.e. Simplifying Expressions, Adding Expressions, Subtracting Expressions, and Factoring Expressions). Each student must play the game and put each problem under the correct label. 
4. I put one an expression up on the whiteboard that follows under one of the four topics and allow students 1 minutes time to work on the problem.
5. After one minute, I call out a number (I have my own deck of numbers that I randomly draw from).
6. The student with that number comes up and does the problem. If they get it correct, they get to earn points for their team by playing Zap! As seen in the picture below, there is a dark blue area that can have different point values. Each point value can be added to the light blue bank. Each team can say whether they want to keep clicking and obtaining points by tapping the dark blue side. The catch is, if the word ZAP! appears, that team loses all the money they gained in the bank.
   (If the student gets the problem answered incorrectly, I call out a new number, allowing a different team or possibly the same team to answer).
7. After that problem is answered correctly and the points are added (or not added), I put up a new problem on the board, call up a new number, and repeat.
8. In order to win, not only is it the team with the most points but each student in that row must have their "game card" filled out correctly. 

The best part about this game was that I never knew who was going to win. Zap! has a random number generator in it so you never knew what was coming. There were games were it was after every 4th hit, there was a Zap! and some games where it took 12 hits. Those teams that were ambitious could either get away with it or find themselves unlucky. 

Welcome to full-time

Oh my! It has been ages since I have been able to sit down and blog because starting February 5, I took over Pre-Algebra and entered full-time status. 

Regarding Pre-Algebra, I came in halfway through Chapter 7 which had to deal with equations and inequalities. Luckily the students have already had a thorough background in solving equations so when I taught solving inequalities, it was almost a walk in the park for them (but remember! when you multiply or divide by a negative number, flip the sign!). Because the students were familiar with the concept, I was able to spend more time on creating fun activities or word problems for them to solve--which most of the time ended up dealing with traveling. For example, one day we created a budget to go to Adventureland; another day we "traveled" through space to see how much we weighed on different planets (i.e. I weigh over 3000 pounds on the sun and under 20 pounds on the moon); and we also pretended to backpack across Europe. I really liked creating all of these examples because I felt it was a good way for me to teach math and for the students to get to know me--like how I have more or less backpacked around Europe and how my dad and I go to Adventureland every summer. I ended the chapter with playing a review game I did in the regular math classes called Zap! They also really enjoyed the competitiveness of the game while reviewing the concepts. As I looked over their tests, their scores fell in line with how they normally score. 

These next weeks, we start Chapter 8! All the kids have been groaning about this chapter because it is all about graphing and learning about linear equations. It will be a tough topic to learn and teach but I'm really excited for many of the lessons because this gives me a good opportunity to try different activities. I look forward to sharing them on here!

Considering regular 7th grade math, from the last post to this one, I played two different review games. I started out one day with Jeopardy and the second day was Zap! Originally, I had imagined that we would play Jeopardy both days but I found it was hard to keep kids engaged when it seemed in all three classes, one team would take the game away. While that is good for that row to succeed, I also wanted to create more competition and engagement--that is when Zap! was formed. The explanation of this game is seen in a later post. After these two review days, I was definitely anxious for the kids' testing because this was the first time I was ever actively involved in a classes learning. And those kids...they came out on top for themselves (and for me)! The average score was a B and in one class the mode class was an A+! Miss Mobius said we couldn't have asked for better results. I am so proud of my kids. 

After the test, I also had the students write a review of how I was doing. Overall the students really liked the games I was playing and how I was able to get math down to their levels. One thing I needed to work on was my speed of teaching. They said sometimes I would talk too fast or get off topic for a split second and then they would be lost. Excitement sometimes gets the best of me. But with both of those comments in mind, I'll keep the games coming and try to slow down my presentation as to continually help each student succeed. 

Now in that class we have moved onto solving equations. I have brought back Whack-a-Mole which many students enjoy and I am trying to find new games to play. I've already created on for tomorrow's class so I hope it goes well! While these first couple of lessons have been fairly simple for most students, this next part of the chapter is going to prove itself more difficult. Oh! One of our days too was a word problem galore day, so in one of the story problems from the book I changed it to deal with Dory and then I found this picture online so it became the motto for the day as I sang it after each problem. Surprisingly enough, 1st hour enjoyed it the most. 

Dear Students

Yesterday I was talking with another teacher in her classroom and I saw this posted on the front of her desk and I absolutely loved it. So when she left, I swiped a picture of it as a reminder of something that I will want in my classroom. After I saw this, I proceeded to look closer at her classroom and I found all sorts of motivational posters and sayings. Definitely a warm classroom created and I've heard she is one heck of an English teacher. 

Whack-a-Mole and Snow!

This past week has been something else. It is crazy to think I've only been there for 3 weeks because I feel like I have developed so much in the past 2 weeks in learning how to develop and teach a lesson and how to direct and relate to the students. Because I am starting to get the hang of things, I tried to do different types of review and practice for them where it would still keep the same structure while still hopefully adding a bit of excitement. For example, E. Middle School runs a Gradual Release model for their lessons which looks like I do it (Teacher), We do it, You (all) do it, and then You (independently) do it. It is a method of which I have heard of but most of the time at Central we practiced the We, we, we mode so to change my language has taken some getting used to and I still slip up at times but that is how the notes go. In generally I do an example and then they try an example in their notes. After that I may do their example on the board according to their directions or I will send someone up to the board who has the right answer or close to the right answer because then other students can catch mistakes. As of right now, the best way to help the students learn the topics (different operations on expressions) a lot of practice is best. This is where I get to be creative and try new things. 

For example, 

On Monday I created an activity for them to do in partners where they had to use the distributive property and adding linear expressions to find the perimeter of their desk. I started it off by having them make a prediction on the desk's perimeter so that whoever was closest at the end would win a piece of candy. I know bribing isn't always good, but sometimes it is nice to add in that element. I think the students enjoyed the activity but unfortunately the activity was rushed and so not everyone got as far as I would have hoped. 



On Tuesday and Thursday, I taught the students subtracting linear expressions. I started off on Tuesday with an example about the Super Bowl and ended up making a big fool of myself one of the hours because they found out quickly I don't follow football all that well. But oh, well! After I taught them the lesson, I pulled up a game I found for SmartBoards called Whack-A-Mole. And it was similar to the games you play at ChuckieCheeses but this time once you "whacked" (aka "lightly hit") a mole, a different problem popped up for them to try. I let the students pick the problems if they answered one up there and I liked that it added an element of surprise and choice for the students. 

Oh yeah! Wednesday. Here is what Wednesday morning looked like =)

I would just like to say, I actually did get a lot done that way in the regards to lesson planning to hopefully alleviate stress and planning for the next days to come.

Friday I reviewed with them the of how to find the greatest common factor of two different numbers. Luckily they had already learned this previous in the year but this time we added in different variables because it leads into Monday's lesson on Factoring linear expressions. Once again to add an element of surprise and choice for the students I put different numbers in a cup and had students draw them out so that the class had to find the GCF of those two numbers. I am really glad I didn't really use technology today because it was nice and fun to walk around with the students and to show we could have fun without it.

Now for next week! On Tuesday I start FULLTIME. PreAlgebra will be halfway through their chapter so it sounds like a good place for me to jump in so that I can learn the rhythm and flow of their classroom before trying some new things in Chapter 8. Luckily, Math 7 will be predominantly reviewing for the test and then taking a test so I have time right now to focus on PreAlgebra. Wish me luck!

My first math doodle

I got my first random picture from a student! Too funny.

Sayings of the Week

So a couple sayings that I found quite humorous this week. As a precursor my maturity level varies between where it should be and that of a middle school boy.

One happened while we were playing a game called TriBond. In this game the goal is to guess the connection between 3 different words. For example Pert, head and shoulders, and suave are all shampoos. So anyways I let a boy read off some of the cards and he gets to one that stumps us all.

"Snow, Moth, Gum."
Now we all are confused and I take a guess at flies but all of us were wrong.
"Alright fine I'll just come right out and say it...Balls!"
*everyone bursts out laughing* and my composure is shot.

Second good quote once again had to deal with unicorns. A different boy spent 15 minutes trying to convince us unicorns live in the ceiling vents. It was priceless.

The Goldilocks Dilemma

This week has been a learning filled week. Starting Monday, I took over all three hours of regular 7th grade math and the whole week I've felt like I was in my own Goldilock's story because I could not figure out the pace of the lesson and each period has its own personality. Before I go into day by day review of what I did here is the class makeup,

1st hour: this is what Miss Mobius and I like to call the 'bobblehead' class because that is about as much energy as you will get out of them. This class is extremely easy on the classroom management side but it is so hard to tell if they understand the material or don't because they give such little feedback. There are some days where it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall while trudging through molasses. I'm working on how to alter a lesson to their needs/capabilities that first morning class.
2nd hour: is probably my favorite hour. The class and I have such a good relationship as a whole and individually because they have a good amount of energy and are respectable to me and each other. I also have found I am able to be myself around this class the easiest because they are easy to joke with and be sarcastic with.
5th hour: is my classroom management test. They come in right after lunch so they're bursting with energy and chatter so its the complete opposite of 1st hour. They are the only class to have really heard my teacher voice and while it is hard to be in discipline mode because I want to teach them, I know I have to instate my authority before I can be more of myself around them. Because I wasn't hesitant to manage them, it made Thursday and especially Friday flow and feel a lot more comfortable.

Monday I felt the lesson went too fast because even though it was creating a review foldable (see below) giving directions and reviewing the material takes a lot of time since they are not used to my language and I'm not use to their 7th grade demeanor. Up until this point I've spent my time observing, planning, and teaching high school math students but high school pace is much quicker than 7th grade pace. Although the speed was a little rough, the students ended up liking the review foldable because there is a 'secret' compartment that they can flip to. The foldable is essentially 8 flashcards in one piece of paper so that they could review properties, evaluating expression, finishing sequences, and using the distributive property.

Tuesday caught be by surprised. They were supposed to take a quiz that day so I had (naively) assumed it would be an easy day. What I had forgot to consider was the quick review I needed to give them and how to state the directions clearly for the quiz. I also forgot about the time between handing out the quizzes and receiving them back how I would be grading them. Lastly, during 5th hour, my classroom management hour, Miss Mobuis went out into the hallway to tutor a student who had been gone and that time the students decided to test me. They are the first class to really hear my teacher voice because it took them quite some time to stop talking for the quiz. There were two students who I had to keep telling to be quiet so afterward I brought each of them aside separately to tell them the reason I had to keep yelling at them was because some students cannot concentrate with noises around and I didn't want to assume they were cheating. Luckily, both of these confrontations went well and calling for authority now helped me later in the week.

Wednesday was my first full teaching day since Monday was mainly review and Tuesday was the quiz. This lesson went too slowly. I'm certain 1st hour took 2 hours. The problem was that I tried to have the students see visually what a word problem was asking for. I had three students come up and play Hugo, Patricia, and Sun (seen right) and then handed them expressions as the story asked for it. This idea did not go over so well 1st hour, 2nd hour really enjoyed it, and it was about 50/50 on 5th hour. At this point I was starting to get nervous about this timing thing because on Thursday my supervisor was coming and I really wanted to nail the timing for him and myself. I made sure then on Wednesday to take care of myself by exercising and getting enough sleep and that surely did wonders on Thursday and Friday (who woulda thunk it....).

Thursday Goldilock's was achieved! I finally got an activity for 1st hour to move around to and get their energy flowing--thank goodness because this was the hour my supervisor came. I handed out an index card to each student with either an expression or a vocab word they learned yesterday. The goal of the activity was to find their partner. This activity worked really well 1st and 2nd hour and it was easy to see if the vocabulary words stuck or not. After this activity, I gave them notes over how to simplify expressions and then I had them trade off with a partner in the steps of simplifying different expressions. The lesson finally timed out really well! 5th hour I learned that having them get up and move right away proved difficult because it was hard to get them to all be quiet enough to give good directions. I'm still learning. Also, my supervisor gave me some really exceptional comments considering it being my first time being watched. I told him about my timing issue and he said that I'm likely to continue struggling with that but when I do get it down, it will make my lessons so much better.


Friday was just wonderful. The lesson for Friday regarded adding linear expressions so I split up the examples I did for them and then they did for me into three 'levels' so that they knew the difficulty of each problem. I really think they liked knowing this and could anticipate each part well. After the lesson, I had 5 index cards numbered 1-5 that they could chose from. Surprisingly they really liked this activity (thanks to Miss Mobius for this idea). 2nd hour I had one boy tell me that he got all 5 problems right! He was so proud of himself and so am I. Those are the moment I live for. 

As you can see, I survived week two even with all of its struggles and strengths. This next week I teach all of Math 7 classes again and in about a week and a half I attempt to add on Pre-Algebra.

Last but not least, I go to show a ViHart video on Tuesday and Friday about Spongebob and Fibonacci as a continuation from Friday's small exerpt about them. Here's that video!

Here goes nothing..here goes everything

Overall, I am really impressed on how inviting the classroom environment is. I have felt fairly comfortable in front of the class the whole time, I have learned all 150 kids names (that was my goal for the week), and I have now been given the responsibility of all the 7th grade math classes because my teacher trusts me. I am very flattered and very nervous for tomorrow especially since it will be my first full out lesson. I'm slightly worried about how to move from the college student to a student teacher where I have to focus more in on classroom management. I think it is only easy now because I'm the new girl, but I think that will soon fade and they will bring out their true colors. All in all, my teacher has a good classroom management in place which is extremely helpful and I'm noticing that discipline is more controlled than the high school. I've realized that that is obviously because the high schoolers were taught how to act in middle school. 

Looking back, I'm really thankful for how this week has gone and that so far I have the patience, creativity, and ability to stand in the middle school classroom. The students are a show everyday and I love seeing the environment, attitude, and flow change from class period to class period. I can't believe I start to take control of half the day tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Here goes nothing...here goes everything.

Names, Fibonacci, and BUZZ!

Thursday was very similar to Tuesday's review session (I'd show a picture, but Ms. Mobius erased it before I could snap a picture). Because I was starting to get into the flow of things, I spent most of Thursday really trying to nail down names. I decided to not let pride get in the way of me asking for their names, sometimes more than once. Thursday after school, we had our department meeting where we solidified the curriculum map for the chapter we are currently working on. While I didn't have much to say, Ms. Mobius did ask me to explain the Flyswatter Bingo game and the Review Foldable I'm making on Monday in order to let the other teachers know of the ideas I'm trying to contribute to the classroom.

 Friday was predominantly quiz day because it was the end of the semester so school was finished at 12:00. That day went by so quickly because we only had 30 minute classes so with checking assignments, creating homework maps, and taking a quiz, there was not much time to reflect. Luckily, each class finished their quiz early so I was able to use those last 5-10 minutes. For the Math 7 classes, I told them about the Fibonacci sequence because they recently were taught about sequences. I was able to tell them how it is all over in nature and how it's one of my most favorite things about math. In one of the classes I was also able to talk to them about the Golden Ratio. One class period, I rambled as long as I could and there was still time left so I took a survey.

Me: So I was wondering, if when I start having kids, what do you think about naming a kid Fibonacci?

*blank stares* *two kids in the back shaking their heads*

Me: No? Hmm fine. Well what about if I named a kid Pythagoras and wait for it....I could nickname it Pi. 

*This girl is crazy looks* *more kids shaking their heads no*

Me: Fine. I suppose I should start paying for therapy now. 

For the pre-Algebra classes I was able to introduce the game BUZZ! to them which was a lot of fun--especially with the last class of the day. The game is a counting game where the leader starts at 1 and then each person follows in sync the subsequent numbers. The trick is anytime there is a number with the number 7 in it or the number is a multiple of 7, you have to say BUZZ!. For example

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, BUZZ, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, BUZZ, 15, 16, BUZZ, 18, 19, ...

Each class could only make it to 26...we will be trying for 30 next week!

The rest of Friday was spent lesson planning for this upcoming week because Ms. Mobius is handing off the 7th grade regular math classes already! Happy Lesson Planning Weekend to me!

Properties, Flyswatters, and the Unicorn Apocalypse

4th hour discussion today:

Little Limit*: There is going to be an Unicorn Apocalypse.

Me: Really? Why do you say that? Unicorns are not scary.

LL: Exactly. When they explode, they'll explode into a million sparkles!

Me: Sparkles? What about using their blood to live like in Harry Potter?
Little Prism: Hey! Haven't you seen the Chronicles of Narnia? They have unicorns that go to war!

Me: I suppose you're right, maybe they are able to start an apocalypse.

LP: I have a unicorn! I rode it to school today!

Miss Mobius: Really? What's its name?

LP: Captain SparklePants

(some time later)

LP: You know which apocalypse I'd prefer? A Dinosaur Apocalypse, because really who can say they've been run over by a T-Rex? Anyone? I didn't think so. It should be a Dinosaur Apocalypse.

And those were the words of wisdom of the day brought to you by lovely 7th grade girls.

Looking over the last three days, I can't believe it has only been three days. It feels like I've been here at least a week already if not three (each day feels like a week because so much information is learned student wise and pedagogy wise). Before starting this week I had assumed that I would be observing most of this week...boy was I wrong. 1st hour I already started putting things into the grade book; 5th hour I was helping someone out in the hall; and by the end of the day I was creating and running the tutoring session. Talk about diving straight into the classroom! 

Tuesday Miss Mobius went ahead and let me create and lead the board problems which is about a 10-15 minute chunk at the beginning of every regular 7th grade math hour where the students review previous concepts from the chapter. So in order to help make review interesting, I traveled back to my 5th grade classroom where my teacher always made it like a game show to come up and place your answer on the board. The game show is called "Why Me?" Because everyone knows that is your first thought once your name is called. While first hour was a little low on the energy, 2nd and 5th hour really had a lot of fun with it as I joked with them how I needed a theme song and a big spinning wheel. Simultaneously, the students showed growth from the day before and I was able to help out those at the board who were struggling. After I finished these games, my job was not over. I started to place myself in the classroom as another teacher that is able to walk around, answer questions, and catch mistakes. These moments have really built up my street cred if I must say so myself. Here's an image of the board problems I used:

Wednesday--Today! Today I ran that same 10-15 minute chunk but this time we wanted to specifically review five properties that the students are learning. I remembered a fun game I always liked to play--Flyswatter Bingo! Again, I made it sound like a game show and had the competition set. I also remembered to talk about setting rules with what to do with the flyswatters and what not to do and I felt the students got the point without feeling harped on. Once again 1st hour was a little hesitant but we got the goal accomplished, 2nd hour was crazy competitive, and 5th hour was somewhere in between. It was such a blast walking around handing the flyswatters to the students whether they had volunteered, tried to volunteer their friend, or even made a slight gesture like fixing their hair. I didn't have anyone become self-defiant but they all rose to the challenge. Here's the flyswatter bingo I put together:

So all in all I am honestly having a blast everyday with these kids. I must say, I am getting along well with my goal of learning all of the students names by Friday (I'd say I'm at a solid 50% if not 60% on all of their names). I'll keep you posted on how I do Friday because Miss Mobius might be testing me there. 

So there you have it! There are some small tidbits to an already crazy, exciting time.

*Little will be placed in front of each student's name because a girl named Limit just isn't that exciting. I am aware though that most of the time these students are not little since they're not smaller than me... 

P.S. Because we talked about Unicorns today and because this is probably the first video I saw online in middle school, I'm bringing back Charlie the Unicorn. 

I'm ready

I can't believe that January 14 is basically here. I woke up this morning at 7:30am and realized that in 24 hours I will be in my classroom getting set for the day--mind blown. Here's a picture of part of the classroom that I will be working in:

The last couple weeks have sent me on a roller coaster of emotions ranging from joy and excitement to terror and anxiety. Overall though, I feel certain that these are the emotions I'm supposed to be feeling going into a career that I've prepared for and dreamed about since my first day of college.

I remember how when I first saw the year 2013 pop up on the screen at midnight on New Year's Day, my first thoughts were, I finally made it--I made it to the year of change. I was filled with so much expectancy and excitement regarding student teaching, graduating, and starting a real job--all the things that 2013 will bring. And! It will bring so much more! I realize the transition will be another roller coaster of its own, but once again, I have to think that it is time and God is going to take me step by step through all of it.

E Middle School are you ready to learn from me? Because I'm certainly ready to learn from you.