The Student Teaching Life... or Lack There of

When I first started writing my blog, I felt like I didn't really have anything to write about. I chose to start with everything I needed to write down about my best friend, Liz, because I knew the inspiration she gave me would be a great place to start. I knew that my life wasn't interesting when I started, but I figured at some point it would be! Something that I really wanted to be sure I wrote down was all of my experiences when I was student teaching. Well I started that back in August... and I still haven't written a single post about it, so tonight my goal is to get in everything about the first half of the experience!

For anyone who doesn't know, I am an Early Childhood Education major at MTSU and I'll graduate this coming December!! Once I graduate, I will be certified from birth to third grade, which allows me to work in daycares, preschools, or elementary schools in classes up to third grade. When I first declared my major, I chose Early Childhood over any other type of education for a few different reasons. First, I knew I wanted to work with the younger kids. I have had an incredible love and passion for younger children since I was a child myself. I think this love grew due to being an older sister to my two siblings, an older cousin to 11 of my cousins, and being a babysitter from the time I was 11. I've been trained to love, care, and help younger children. It's a part of who I am!

Another reason I knew I wanted to teach the younger ones is because of my personality. I am a very sarcastic and poke fun at you kind of person, but I can also get VERY irritated when someone responds to my sarcastic comments with sarcasm... especially when they are younger than me. I knew that if I taught students any older than third graders that I would be majorly tested with their attitudes, which could be a big problem. My last reason isn't a real reason, but it's true! If I worked with kids much older than third graders... they would completely tower over me! Short person probz... HA!

When I first started, I wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher, and nothing else. First grade would of been okay, but second and third graders completely terrified me. My last semester before student teaching I was in my primary practicum class and I got assigned to a third grade classroom. I was horrified. Luckily, I only had to be there one day a week for 3 hours. I went into that classroom and was shockingly surprised. The kids were still loving towards me, aka they didn't back sass me, and they were very independent. I left that placement feeling a little bit better about working with the older grades, but since I was only there for 3 hours every week, I still wasn't completely confident. My second placement in primary practicum was in a second grade classroom. This placement would also be my first student teaching placement... and I was actually upset when I found out I had only moved down one grade level. I will say that the way our Early Childhood department works is amazing. Our department is the only one that has you have a practicum placement that is also a student teaching placement. This allowed me to be able to get into the second grade classroom and get familiar with the age group, and get acquainted with the teacher who I would be spending A LOT of time with come August.

Now that I got all that explaining out of the way...

I began my first student teaching placement at Northfield Elementary in Ms. Catalano's second grade classroom. I went into the school the first day, pranced into the office and asked to meet with the principal. I was determined to have him remember me, because lets be honest, I would like a job come January!! I remember every aspect of my first day. I went into the second grade hallway and walked into Ms. Catalano's class. I was SO excited to meet the kids and get to know Ms. Catalano even better. I was beyond blessed to be in that school, with those kids, in Ms. Catalano's class.

My whole first placement of student teaching flew by. Looking back, it actually is all a complete blur. My first week there was just a bunch of sitting around and observing. If Ms. Catalano, who's first name is Sarah, needed any help I would jump in and help out. The kids were absolutely adorable and I started to get to know their precious little personalities the moment I walked in that door. I started picking up math lessons first, then social studies, then reading. I was teaching all day, everyday by my third full week there.

I quickly learned I loved the second grade age group. They were still independent like the third graders I had worked with, but they were still sweet and loving like the kindergartners I loved. They were perfect. I could be a little sarcastic and joke around with them without them getting their feelings hurt, and I could show them some love as individuals, as opposed to only giving them love as a whole group, because of how independent they were.

Sarah was the most amazing teacher I had ever worked with. She has her classroom management down pat, which is a big part of why the kids are as amazing as they are. She has those kids trained!! She is a strong, confident and amazing woman, which makes her an even stronger, more confident, and more amazing teacher. I learned so incredibly much from working with her, that I have been attempting to put the things I learned from her into practice in my second student teaching placement.

The kids, and Sarah weren't all that were amazing! The whole second grade team is phenomenal!!!! I was blessed to be able to get to know them as well as I did. I found out a few weeks before I began student teaching that two of my sorority sisters, both of which pledged with me back in 2008, would there! Megan King had just gotten her first full time teaching job at Northfield in second grade. Carrie Clemmons had gotten an interim position there that began the first week of school and ended when the kids got out for Fall Break in October. The other two second grade teachers there, Kim and Beth, were awesome as well. I could not have felt more at home ANYWHERE.

I could go on and on and on about how amazing everything in my first student teaching placement was. I came home everyday with a smile on my face and some great stories to share with my roommates. I woke up every morning excited to go to school. I didn't dread the hard work that came with it. It was as perfect as it could be. Here are a few pictures of some fun stuff we did throughout the time I was there!

Left with normal hair... came back the next day with this...

Paper mache to make globes!

Painting our globes blue!!

Read to succeed day!

School pictures!

Those were just a tiny bit of what I got to experience with these amazing kids! They are too skinkin' cute! My last week with them was very emotional for me. To me, I was at a perfect school, in the perfect grade, with a perfect teacher, a perfect team, and the perfect students; so of course, I did not want to leave! My last day there was a very sad one! One of the kiddos brought some donuts for the whole class in the "celebration of sadness" that I was leaving. After lunch that day we went back to the room and I was completely shocked to see a table set up with all sorts of sweets and goodies. Ms. Catalano, Mrs. June (the second grade EA), and the kiddos had all pulled together and thrown me a going away party!! Needless to say, I bawled like a baby.

The kids, Ms. Catalano and Mrs. June had all brought food, and gifts to send me off. I was completely overwhelmed with the love. I had a few students shed some tears, and even more students vocalize how they didn't want me to leave. It was in that moment on my last day that I realized, this is why I do what I do. I put my all into those kids while I was there. The amount of tough love that I showed them was unbelievable; and in that moment, they showed me that it worked, and they loved me for all I had done. I'm starting to get upset just rethinking about it! 

This little one cried and cried on my last day... :(

I can't even begin to put into words the amount of love, patience, understanding, knowledge, help, and all around amazingness I experienced and learned while I was at Northfield!! I have already been back to visit once or twice, and every time I set into the school I am welcomed with open arms, loving smiles, and a lot of screaming/excited little voices! This was by far, the best experience I've yet to have in my educating career! 

Running the race called life

Well it has been a little over 3 months since my last post... I knew that would happen! Life gets so busy that I don't have as much time to blog as I'd like to! Anyways...

When I was growing up, my parents introduced me to every sport possible. In elementary school, I played soccer, softball, basketball, did gymnastics, cheered, took tennis lessons, just about everything. When I was in middle school I chose to concentrate on my gymnastics and cheerleading, and dabble in a little karate and volleyball, but pretty much dropped everything else. Then when I started high school I was bored with gymnastics and cheerleading, and I knew I didn't want to stick with karate and volleyball; so I completely switched tracks and chose to play soccer and run track!

The point in me saying all that, is to get the point across that I have always been a very active child, teen, and young adult. The summer before I came to MTSU I was all lean and toned from my last seasons as a high school athlete, and I was determined to stay that way. Liz and I had started working out together to keep each other accountable, and man did we do a good job! We would work out everyday together that summer. When I arrived at MTSU, my roommate and I decided we were going to keep the whole working out thing going together, and even though Liz was in Memphis still; it didn't stop her from calling and texting me everyday to make sure I wasn't slacking! Sure enough, the summer after my Freshman year, I was back in Memphis and Liz was my workout buddy, yet again! Sophomore year came and went and I was a little bit more of a slacker, but I still kept up with my workouts here and there. Summer after Sophomore year I found myself back in Memphis with Liz by my side at Lifetime Fitness everyday, multiple times a day.

After Liz's accident that summer, I couldn't get myself back into working out. I tried, but it was simply too hard. I had become accustomed to her holding me accountable and being by my side for just about every workout I took part in, and it hurt too much to try and do it without her. So I slacked, for days, which turned into months, which turned into a year and a half.

Junior year I had moved in with my current roommates, all of which were really athletic, in shape, and workout crazies. They would invite me to go, time after time after time, and I'd say no. Finally, I was ready to give it a shot, so I said yes, much to their surprise!!! It was weird, it pretty much sucked, and the next day I was really not happy I had gone since I was so sore; but it was the start I needed. First it was workouts in the gym a few times a week, then it quickly turned into an everyday event, and before I knew it, it wasn't the working out that grabbed me, it was the running.

I found myself wanting to get off of the elliptical and run on the treadmill; then I couldn't stand the treadmill and I wanted the track. Of course, I ended up getting bored with running around in circles, and the winter weather started turning into spring, and I found myself running all around campus. The sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, the music loud in my ears; I was addicted. It was my get away. If I was sad, I ran; if I was mad, I ran, even if I was happy, I ran.

I started out barely being able to run a mile outside, then I noticed I was able to go a mile and a half. Two weeks into it and I had just about doubled my millage and run around 3 miles everyday. It was the part of my days that I looked forward to; it was the one part of my day that I was not willing to miss out on. My roommates and I decided we wanted to start running races, just for fun. We signed up for 3 or 4 races, that would span out over 3 or 4 months, within a 2 week period. We found some of the funnest ones that were offered in the Middle Tennessee area, and ran towards them full force!

My very first race was the Muddy Buddy 5K. They called it a 5K, but the course was a little over 4 miles long. It took place through fields and woods, and was full of obstacles all along the way. I went into the day of race able to run 6 miles straight, yet I was so not prepared. I died. The cross country terrain was nothing I was use to. I was running up hills (which I honestly considered mountains), through creeks, and had to climb and work my way through obstacles the whole way along. I'm pretty sure I threatened Chelsey's life a few times during that race, because she was the one that found it and said "this will be fun!". Once the Muddy Buddy was all said and done, I was VERY glad that Chelsey had found it and signed us up!

 

The next race Chelsey and I found, that we thought would be a lot of fun, was the Titians 5K!!! We are both pretty big Titians fans, so when we found something that had to do with our love for running and our love for some Titians football, we couldn't resist! The race started at LP field, on the field. We ran around the field, out of the stadium, all around Nashville, and ended back on the field at the finish line! It was a pretty fun race!

This brings me to our most recent race... THE COLOR RUN!!!!! The color run is a very popular race that takes place all around the US. It is a 5K with different color stations all along the way. There is a white shirt only policy so that you can see just how colored you got at the end! Everyone is given a pouch of colored power for the meeting at the end, and they use the same type of colored powder to chunk at you all throughout the race! We were the first ones out of everyone we knew to sign up, so we created a team that we named Color Me Beautiful! We ended up having 12 different members on our team! It was by far the funnest race that I've run thus far! I'm hoping they come back to Nashville again next year! I was actually told that I can't even consider the color run a race, because it's more like a party :)

Whole group before...

Whole group after!

Roommates before...

Roommates after!

Back before...                                                  Back after!

Had to add a picture with one of my favorite guys!

Needless to say, I love running! I would tell anyone who is wanting to get into running to start small and slow. It's a difficult process, but it is beyond worth it. Running helps you stay healthy, while also being an incredible way to relieve stress and clear your mind! Don't get discouraged if you start out and can't do much. If you stick with it, you will start to build your endurance, cardio, and strength! Before you know it, you will be doubling your millage and not even breaking a sweat! I would say find a buddy to do it with, and sign up to run as many fun filled races you can get your hands on!