The Princess and the Frog

Posted on August 28, 2013 by HAJ

Well, beginning teacher mistakes happen the first year. Mine, last Friday, was the following:

The students, especially the ones that are not in my class, love visiting. They love visiting your classroom so much they will pretty much climb the walls to get in. (NOT KIDDING) Last week they pounded my door like they were on fire. Today I heard them scream my name “Miss Jesi!!!! Missssss JESSSSIIII.”

Now, one thing that comes from my experience at Nuhop and other wonderful kid-places, is that I can tell the difference between “Miss Jesi come quick I am bleeding everywhere scream” and “Miss Jesi come now I want to be entertained by you.” Nine times out of ten I open my door anyway, look down and see a big smiling face.

STUDENT: Miss Jesi can we visit now?

ME: please stop pounding on my door and let me get some work done.

STUDENT: Pleeeeaaaase can we visit?

Now, usually I am a pretty tough nut to crack. Of course those that are usually trying to pull one over on my are Jr. High and up. This was an elementary student. A cute, adorable, elementary student.

*crack*

ME: I’ll tell you what…. you bring me a frog…an Alaskan frog you can come in.

Student: A frog?

(obviously he had never had that request from a teacher before.)

Me: A frog. I want to know if there really are amphibians in Alaska…on the tundra!

Student: Lots of frogs! I will catch one! …Then I can come in?

Now…. some things going through my head now. Or rather the order of which I thought I was clever.

I really truly wanted to see these frogs that freeze and thaw in the winters of Alaska
I thought there was no way he was going to come back because it is already “late fall weather” In Ohio if it were this cold “ain’t no amphibian got time for THAT!”
I figured I had at least an hour maybe more because I just sent him on an adventure to a waterhole.

I sat down at my desk and started to work. Complete silence. Ahhhhhh.

15 minutes later.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

ME: no way. (ignoring knock)

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

STUDENT(s): (yelling) MISS JESI!!! MISS JESI…. He caught a Frog!!!

***thwarted***

I stopped doing my work. It was Friday afternoon anyway. Then I let about half the elementary into my room to play with marbles, draw on my board, and color me a picture.

This was of course after I told them lots of fun facts about frogs such as:

did you know they can breathe through their skin?
They swallow their food with their eyeballs!
He doesn’t really have cold blood…his body just regulates from outside temperatures. (I think this one went over their head)
No… you can’t get warts…that is just a myth.

I sat on top of my desk and watched the frogs and the kids. Sometimes teachers make mistakes. Sometimes… we get to see kids play while learning.

Frog, stapler, coffee cup, papers.

One of the older kids made me this after she asked about some of the pictures on my wall.

part of the sunset tonight. 🙂

My first students….

Posted on August 23, 2013 by HAJ

I almost cried right there. I was standing in the gym. I was watching them play. I was watching them laugh. The day was rough–could not get them to talk, to listen, to sit in a desk how you are supposed to. Oh, the difficulty that this year is going to bring. I have 13 students in three different grades. All of them on many levels. All of them with very different motivations for school. Let’s just face it for some of them…school isn’t their top priority.

(then again what middle school student LOVES school?)

I thought–OH MY GOD. I am going to do this for an entire year. This isn’t some three-day gig through outdoor education and this isn’t some week long sub job. This is my JOB. It is day one and they told me I was going to cry. “They” being the other teachers who shared some rough first day experiences.

but….I LOVE MY NEW JOB.

I stood in the gym watching them run around, shoot baskets, hide in the bleachers, and sprawl on the gym floor. These are my 13 students. These are my 13. I am a “real” teacher. I know I have said it every time I substitute and every time someone has asked me what I do for the past seven years; but this time, I have proof. These 13. I don’t have to go around blubbering about having “a piece of paper” to prove it. I have a class. This is what I have worked for so hard. This is what camp has taught me …to LOVE.

And they are so good.

It is a phrase Clint* uses. Good. He says it when he appreciates a person, when he wants to state their value. At first I was a bit taken back by the phrase. Good is such an empty adjective sometimes. People say “good-job” or “good-going” or a teacher writes “GOOD!” at the top of the paper. I have a huge preference to the adjective beautiful.

but then….I love Clint*–and when he says good! HE MEANS GOOD: They are beautiful, they are smart, they are clever, they are interesting, they hold an intrinsic value that no-one else can hold–They hold it and they let it shine in the things they do and how they do them……AND they are in my class. MINE!

They might not understand but they ask questions all the time. They might have to be told to sit in a seat, take off their hoodie-hood, and to listen when I am talking; but they apologize and learn I mean it.

They visit me after school, before school, and say hi to me on the weekends. They help me clean my room and decorate the walls. They have a great desire to be seen and heard.

I didn’t cry–-I smiled. Let’s just clear this up now. I am blown away at how much I love this “teaching thing.” It is hard work but–these are my 13 students.

Awesome.

Children, children everywhere. Love it.

*see first post on Alaska, refers to Clint as “Amazing Boyfriend.”

My First Classroom

Posted on August 23, 2013 by HAJ

Whoa.

When I walked into my room I was like WHOA. This is my room? I have a room. I will have students. My students. Someone is going to pay me to do this. Then I see a smart board, piles of books, class-bathrooms, copy machine, and personal computers.

Whoa.

I had two days to set up my classroom. Now for those of you that are not teachers you are probably no pooing your pants. In fact for those of you that are new to the profession and never had to set up your own room–maybe you’re not even thinking twice. I know I didn’t sweat it—-then the night before my first three days came.

HOLY CRAP!

I don’t have names on the desks, they don’t have cubbies, I don’t have books organized, I don’t have rules printed out, I am going to need to give them folders and paper, —what?! what is that in that cupboard? Which science book do I use for a 6,7, AND 8th grade combined class?!! How do I use the lamination machine? Do I have scissors? What should I put on the walls? Where should I put my word-wall up? What kind of rules should I have? Do I need to do Homework on the first day? Where the hell do I find those Alaska Standards? Shit. Shit. Shit. Yeah, I might have had 600 mini-panic attacks.

Luckily my principal knows what it takes to set up a room. He also knows that the small amount of teachers on staff aren’t super-human–well perhaps some of them are. (not me) He stated that rooms probably wouldn’t be set up. Well, he was right. I thought I did most of the set up—but when the kids actually came into my room I realized how much more I needed to do. I still don’t have everything “golden” and I am on day–seven. I have lesson plans going. I have classroom management magic (and building on this more daily). However, the fact that I have cupboards and bookshelves that need cleaned still drives me nutty.

Here are some of the things that I did do:

Owl Reading Spots: They can place their name in the clear holder when they move to that spot. For some reason my students love the floor way more than their nice desk. I can’t hate though…I never liked to read at my desk either.

Red Light, Green Light, Yellow Light: In a red light they may not move a lesson is in progress, in a yellow light they must stay at desks to work quietly (restroom, water-fountain in room open), green light means they can go to reading spots and whisper. They can’t move if their name is on the board–this is a total bummer for some kids, they love those reading spots!!

Whole body teaching: When I say “class” they say “yes” (however I might say class…and I have so far said it like a sumo-man, a dainty grandma, and shouted it super loud), when I say Freeze they freeze, when I say mirror-words: they mirror everything I do and say. It really sounds silly but WOW. It works great.

Rules: Every time a rules is broken I refer back to the posted rules that they signed, which is also posted. I point out that even I follow the rules in my classroom.

GYM: I find what they like and I use it for reinforcement and redirection. THEY love GYM time. You would think that I am going to take their pet puppy when I take even a minute away from gym time. mwhahaha. I got my entire room clean in under 5 minutes because of this threat. Mostly because they know already that I stand by what I say. I will take their time if they take mine.

Plan ahead: I have an extra set of lessons or ideas for almost every lesson I have. It isn’t anything elaborate but it has already saved me twice. My students are sometimes more advanced than my choice or way less advanced than the book. I have decided to re-do most lessons to create something that works well for them.

The Chaos that was my room above and below.

temporary desk arrangement. my desk.

The students have 1 hour of their home language daily. (I do not teach that!)

First assignment a fake-facebook get to know you.

BOOKS!!

An assignment to make posters of any rules we spoke about.

Reading owl. They love these! 🙂

Moving to Alaska

Posted on August 18, 2013 by HAJ

Around June I accepted my first teaching position from my first job offer and my first job interview. It did take me 3 months to decide and a couple other interviews and applications–but I knew this one was the one I wanted. The teaching job I was meant to have.

I didn’t have much time to think about it after I accepted the position. I moved out of my apartment and a week later started 8 weeks of summer camp. Another job I live to love.

At the end of this summer of camp I started dating an amazing amazing man.

On August 8, 2013 that AMAZING man offered to drive me to my brothers wedding two states away. (Knoxville, TN)

On August 10, 2013 My little brother, Johnny, got married to a beautiful woman Melissa.

On August 11, 2013 Clint (aforementioned amazing man) and my parents took me to the airport in Knoxville, TN and I started flying to Alaska.

I still wish I would have gotten just five more minutes with him before I left.

School started in two days (August 14). I had two days to do what most teachers do in a week (or slowly all summer.) My flight took me from Knoxville to Chicago quickly. I actually sat behind my brothers best man and wife. When I got to Chicago I had to walk a mile across the airport and under the airport to the terminal for my 8 hour flight to Anchorage.

That flight was awful I felt like I was in a scene from Wall-E. Nobody spoke one word to anyone. There were T.V.s on the back of every seat. The flight attendants were pretty people with pretend smiles–robotic.

I stayed overnight in Anchorage and flew out to Bethel and Eek in the Morning. Eek, Alaska my new home.

I was met off of the small (about 10 person plane) at Eek airport by my principal. He picked me up on an ATV with a wagon. He gave me a quick tour of town as we rode.

Principal: That’s the airport, that’s the post office, that’s the store….that’s it.

Saying I was tired or emotionally and physically drained is probably an understatement. I had traveled for over a day, just experienced my brother getting married, and had to say bye to a man I loved. (love*).

None-the-less, after getting dropped off at my new apartment, spending 15 minutes looking around and thinking to myself “WOW, I am here”—I was ambushed by my new co-workers.

*Knock at door*

I opened the door and was immediately hugged by Julia and greeted by Caitlyn. Later, I met my apartment mate Kayla. All were so nice and made me feel welcome. Then I received a short tour of the school and got to see my classroom for the first time.