First Steps

AH! Where does all the time go? Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Things have been a bit crazy since I graduated last Friday. Well today, I am elated to announce that I have accepted a long-term sub position at the school where I completed my first student teaching assignment. I will be working in a 5th/6th GATE classroom and start Monday! I predict it is going to be an insanely hectic weekend, but in the extremely profound words of Barney from How I Met Your Mother, "Challenge accepted!".

I Did It.

The task: You will create a digital video that will highlight your teaching growth and practice.

Over 1000 photos and 12 hours of numb-butt from sitting at the computer later, I present to you my final EDS 204 Video Project! I've never done anything like this before so go easy on me Ebert and Roeper. I do hope you enjoy! :) I will be presenting this video along with my research paper looking at the effect of social conferencing on student motivation during the M. Ed. colloquium this Friday at UCSD. It's been one h-e-double hockey stick of a year and I can't wait to see where my teaching career takes me next!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who made this last year possible! Special thanks to my amazing supervisors Kathy and Rusty who I forgot to include in my credits (SO SORRY)!

What are your thoughts on the finished product? Rotten or fresh?

Making an ImPACT III

Here is the final lesson in my measurement unit for PACT. It focuses on building the measuring skills acquired from the center activity and comparing lengths. You can access the worksheet with the grids for the strips here. (I forgot to mention I'm a Word Neanderthal and still use 2003 because I'm so used to it haha). Also, I recommend printing the worksheet double-sided to save trees! :)

Materials for this lesson on comparing lengths.

Making an ImPACT II

Yesterday I posted the first lesson to my measurement unit for PACT. Today I will share the second lesson: Measuring with Nonstandard Units. Access the worksheet for the center activity here.

Check out my spiffy poster worksheet I used with
built-in sentence frames to help model the worksheet
for the center activity. All of my students were able
to see wherever they were sitting on the rug!

Making an ImPACT I

Hello friends! Today I thought I would start the first of a series of posts focused on PACT. For those of you who don't cringe at the mere utterance of the acronym, PACT stands for Performance Assessment for California Teachers. The teaching event for my PACT was centered on math.

Finding Mnemonic

Last Friday my boyfriend and I went to see Wicked at the Civic Center in San Diego. It was my second time in the last 6 months (my first time being at Pantages Theater in Los Angeles around Christmas time with my family). If you asked for my honest opinion I would say I enjoyed the overall performance at Pantages just a little bit more. I thought the singing was phenomenal the first time I saw it, but watching the musical a second time definitely had its perks too. For instance, it was interesting to see how the different cast members put their own unique spin on the characters because there were some glaring differences between the LA cast and SD cast. Another bonus to watching it again was that my boyfriend pointed out a plot connection, don't worry I won't spoil the fun for those that haven't seen it yet, that I hadn't made the first time around. It was such an "Aha!" moment and I can't believe I missed it the first time.

Happy Birthday America

236 years ago today, our country declared its independence. I'm not used to the 4th of July falling in the middle of the work week but I will be partaking in all the typical festivities - a huge family bbq and hopefully lots of fancy fireworks! It's also my beloved little brother's birthday so happy birthday to him as well. (If you're wondering, he's 216 years younger than the U.S.A.)