Yes, I Still Have Some Fingernails Left...

I’ve bitten my fingernails since I was a little kid. Who knows how these things even start? Now that I’m older it’s simply a hard habit to break, so I might go a couple months without biting them and then pick it up again, maybe as a response to stress or just something to do absent-mindedly for no reason at all. I also bite the skin around my nails, crack my knuckles, and bounce my knees and feet while sitting down. Most people find these nervous habits quite annoying, so I try to curb them when I’m not alone. Of course, now that my husband is out of town for work for a bit, no one is around to help me stop. :)

Have I mentioned I’m so glad to have a husband who loves me unconditionally? Even with all my craziness? I’m very blessed, from my incredible family to my relatively good health and everything in between.

However...and there has to be a ‘however’, because who writes a blog post to state that all is well in the world? Who does any sort of writing to say that everything’s fine? In writing, there has to be some sort of problem. Something must be considered or analyzed or mulled over. A character must encounter an obstacle in a fiction novel. Even in an excellently written nonfiction article, there must be a problem to be resolved from the outset. We take a journey with the author to find the answer. Thomas Newkirk makes this argument in his article ‘How We Really Comprehend Nonfiction’ in the March edition of Educational Leadership. (I’d put a link to the article here, but you have to be a member to view the full text on www.ascd.org). 

Anyway, the ‘however‘ in this case is that it’s mid-July and I am still unemployed. I enjoyed my brief time as a Literacy Coach here in Norman, but the funding for the position ran out. I was left to find new work, along with other Literacy Coaches at different middle schools in Norman. I knew going into the job that this was a distinct possibility, if not an inevitability; the principal was clear from the start that funding was low. This knowledge hasn’t been much of a comfort, though. The past few months have been a new lesson for this teacher in steadily rising agony, self-doubt, and obsession. My nails have been bitten down to the quick and I’m questioning every action and non-action I take: Should I call this district again about job openings or will I seem pushy? Should I email that principal again to make sure she hasn’t forgotten me, or will the email just get buried in her inbox? At the end of the summer, I would just love to teach. I would especially love to teach middle school kids and help them become skilled readers and writers. At the least, I certainly want to teach kids to look for the problem in a text, the “itch to scratch” that Newkirk describes. After all, if they can identify and comprehend the central conflict in the text they are doing pretty well. 

I guess it really started last fall, and I found it funny to read an old blog post from March 15th, in which I described the feeling of a jobless applicant running on a wheel that seems to go nowhere: “Once my student teaching wrapped up, I spent time with family and spent time job searching. To say that it was maddening would be an extreme understatement. The waiting, the wondering, the overanalyzing of every minuscule detail of the search-apply-interview process – it was driving me crazy. Then out of nowhere, another job popped up, I interviewed, and got it! Now I am a Literacy Resource Teacher at a middle school in town...” Of course in that post I was the giddy teacher who had found a job and could get off the wheel for a bit. Now I am right back on:

I’ve now been on a total of seven interviews since last fall. One was successful in getting me the short-lived job as a Literacy Coach. One was early in the morning and God only knows what I said with my without the aid of coffee - that was bad. In another one, the administrators already had a particular person in mind for the job and my interviewing was just a courtesy, really. Another went really, really well! I sounded intelligent, the administrators nodded in agreement to the things I said, and I walked away feeling very optimistic. Then I lost out on that job to someone with more experience. In another interview, the principal stepped out of the room twice to take phone calls. While he was occupied, I had to talk to the school counselor/secretary. (It’s a small school and some people wear multiple hats). She told me how much she couldn’t stand middle school kids and couldn’t believe I enjoyed it. As politely as I could, I told her I loved working with that age group and left it at that. 

I’ve been rejected via phone call, letter, and face-to-face. I’ve been rejected by simply not hearing back from people at all and seeing the listing disappear from the job board like a mirage. I feel like I have “paid my dues”, as they say. I know I don’t have much experience, but I’m dedicated to working hard and learning more about my craft everyday. I’m also a qualified applicant who went to a good university and I’m thisclose to finishing my Masters degree. By the way, when people talk about the economy and the public sector jobs being in a dismal state...I’m the sort of person they’re talking about. I’m stuck waiting by the phone and hoping I didn’t accidentally turn it off or something:

Early episode of Friends, Season 1 Episode 20, The One With the Evil Orthodontist

If my only concern was making a buck, I wouldn’t be so worried, but what’s really at stake here is much bigger: my health insurance. My husband does freelance work, so he can’t get insurance through an employer. And, once I got the Literacy Coach job in February, I got off of my parent’s health insurance and onto the best plan that was offered to me by the school district. Most of my paycheck went toward that insurance and will continue to until my contract is officially up in August. Not only is it great coverage that I want to continue, but I simply have to have something. 

I am not the kind of person who can go without insurance. My life is dependent on the infusions of Remicade that I get roughly every two months from my rheumatologist. Remicade is an enormously expensive biologic medication I take for my Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and it’s keeping me in remission. I know this because I tried going without the Remicade in 2010, at which point my left knee became inflamed to more than three times its normal size. Things have gotten back to normal now that I’ve recovered from this flareup, but it was a necessary reminder of what can happen so easily if I let my disease go untreated. I know I can’t afford Remicade without insurance, unless I want to quickly accumulate a lot of debt. Bottom line: I’ll take a job anywhere with good health insurance if I can’t get a teaching job very, very soon. 

I went on an interview last Thursday and I think it went well. If I got it, I would be teaching at an alternative school here in Norman. It would be a great learning experience for me and quite the challenge. The administrator said she would “let me know either way” sometime early this week. Now that it’s after five o’clock on this Monday evening, I’ll hope for her call tomorrow. So, yes, I still have some hope - and some fingernails - left as I continue the job search. Please wish me luck, and send me prayers, good vibes, or whatever you like. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for listening. :)     

Just Tell Me How...

As a new teacher who strives for professionalism, I am happy to be a member of ASCD, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. The benefits of membership are well worth the cost – five books a year, lots of magazines, access to online articles and professional development, and probably a few other things I haven’t discovered yet. Anyway, I get excited in my nerdy little way when I see the newest magazine in my mailbox. The authors always have a unique way of presenting their research so that I can learn a lot in one short publication.

The topic of each month’s volume is always relevant, but none more so for me than March’s Volume 69, Number 6 – Reading: The Core Skill. Being that I was hired as a “reading specialist” of sorts, I was very excited to dive into this issue. I’ve only read two articles so far, but they have already helped me feel better, like maybe I am helping my students a little bit? Put it this way – I don’t think I’m doing any harm, but I still feel unprepared on most days, wondering if I’m doing the right things for the kids.

The first article I read was Allington and Gabriel’s “Every Child, Every Day”, on pages 10-15. The authors outline the six best practices for teaching children to read, especially those who struggle with reading. In their view, these are six practices that every child should be doing every day in school. And the good news? Most of these practices are what they term “high-impact, low-input” strategies. They have a very positive and significant effect on student’s reading skills, and they are relatively easy to implement; no special materials are required and no sacrifices are needed to time or money.

The first best practice is “every child reads something he or she chooses”. This makes sense to many educators and anyone who knows about intrinsic motivation. As Daniel Pink has argued, engagement is only possible when we are allowed some autonomy. Allington and Gabriel agree: “The research base on student-selected reading is robust and conclusive: Students read more, understand more, and are more likely to continue reading when they have the opportunity to choose what they read”. It isn’t that students should only read items of their choosing, the authors maintain, but they should have their choice at least once a day.

The other best practices are similarly sensible: (2) “Every child reads accurately”, (3) “Every child reads something he or she understands”, (4) “Every child writes about something personally meaningful”, (5) “Every child talks with peers about reading and writing”, and (6) “Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud”.

When I read the details of children reading accurately and comprehending, I couldn’t help but think, “Just tell me how. Tell. Me. How.” How do I know when they are reading on level? How do I know when they experience “high-success reading”? I’m still not sure.

I was happy to read that the authors want students to be learning comprehension strategies as a connected whole, rather than in parts. Many remediation programs focus on skills one at a time as though they are mutually exclusive, which is ridiculous. We don’t read a text to identify the author’s purpose OR to understand context clues OR to make predictions. We use all of those skills when we read, plus a lot more. Instead of learning “basic skills in isolation” we should be “reading connected text for meaning”.

The best practice that made me feel quite relieved was the last one – every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud”. I do this with my students every day, usually doing all the reading aloud. I know that they need to hear the correct pronunciation of words. They need to have some phrases, idioms, and other items of note pointed out to them. Most importantly, though, they just need to hear proper fluency. By no means am I the best and most fluent speaker, but I’m a much more experienced reader than most of my struggling and reluctant readers. Maybe I am having a positive impact on their reading skills? I sure hope so. I will keep working, studying, and trying new strategies, and report as much as I can along the way.

P.S. If I had to pick the most important sentence in the whole article it would be this: “When we consider that the typical 4^th grade classroom has students reading anywhere from the 2^nd grade to the 9^th grade reading levels (and that later grades have an even wider range), the idea that one workbook or textbook could meet the needs of every reader is absurd” The bottom line is that workbooks and textbooks are not the end-all, be-all. Students need a great variety of real books to learn to read and to enjoy reading.

Creative Writing

It isn't very often that I get to write creatively as a graduate student.

For that matter, I never really wrote creatively as an undergraduate. In the world of academia, informative writing is the bulk of what we do. We research, cite our sources, research some more, and then for a change of pace, we do a little research.

Dr. Baines lets us do things a bit differently, though. During our last class, he had us partake in several multisensory minilessons before finally assembling a poem of our very own. (I can't remember the last time I had written a poem...maybe high school?) The subject was Love, and we began with a discussion of the many cliche expressions surrounding love. Our goal was to create something original, moving beyond the typical images, and we engaged many senses to do so.

Eventually I'll describe the lesson itself in some detail, but for now I'm going to leave you hanging. :) This weekend I will have much more time to blog about how we created the poems. Until then, I leave you with an audio recording of me reading the poem. I titled it "A Fresh Start on Love". Picture a woman watching a beautiful sunset on the rocky coast of Maine, deciding to start anew...

*After several minutes of tinkering with the Mac* Well, there was going to be an audio recording. It's not posting here on Blogger, so I will ask my tech savvy friends tomorrow how I go about this. Thanks for bearing with me! :)

***

A few classes later, and after talking to my classmates, I decided to make this easier. Here is the video, courtesy of my friend, Jamie, and her iPhone! :)

Online Learning

I have a Thursday night class at OU that I really enjoy. The people are fun, understanding, and highly intelligent, so it is an honor to spend time with them. It’s also just nice to talk with fellow teachers who understand the craziness of my days.

Our professor is Dr. Lawrence Baines, a really great person and mentor. We sit in class, drink tea that he provides, and talk about all things teaching. No matter how long my week has been, I look forward to it because the discussion is so engaging.

I tell you all this for two reasons: 1) to plug my awesome teacher’s books, available on Amazon, with lots of great information and strategies for teachers, and 2) because I will often reference articles here on this blog that Dr. Baines gives us to read. As I’ve said before, it is easy to use online spaces like blogs and Facebook accounts to spread awareness and advocate a position. The more I teach the more I feel that advocacy is important – the general public needs to know more about modern teaching.

One such article that Dr. Baines recently provided was “How Online Learning Companies bought America’s School”, published by The Nation in November of last year. The article’s premise is that online learning companies have slowly but surely insinuated themselves into our K-12 classrooms, mostly without our knowledge or approval (and when I say “our”, I mean students, parents, teachers, communities, and really all of the U.S., because we all have a stake in K-12 education).

Companies have used money and lobbyists to leverage themselves, and they have put up a front with philanthropies like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, much like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. Of course, I will let you read the article yourself to discover for yourself the hows and whys. You can probably figure it out without much prompting – the motive for these companies is money, and lots of it. Our nation’s children represent a “market” to them, ready to be tapped. The company executives stand to make a bundle of cash, and our kids end up…well, they don’t seem to care much about the kids, or if they do, they are looking at the situation with dollar signs in their eyes.

The question that I came up with by the end of the article (along with a feeling of nausea) was how do we, as teachers and citizens, fight back? After all, I read this article during my plan period at work, while I was also eating lunch. Where do we find the time, not to mention the money, to fight for what we know is right for our clients, the real consumers of our work – who are they? That’s right, they’re children. Not millionaires and billionaires who can spend hours perfecting their golf game and ordering servants to clean their golden toilets. The people we work for are kids, kids with minds and bodies that are still developing, who have a plethora of issues to deal with already. We do what we can within our schools to make a difference. But when companies from outside begin to order us around, we take umbrage. When their orders have a negative impact on kids, we get downright pissed off. Of course, getting mad isn’t productive. We need to channel that anger into a strategy for fighting back. Teachers reading this, what are your thoughts? Until next time...

First Teaching Job

Good afternoon, my lovely readers! I apologize for my long absence. I have no excuse other than to say that the pace of my life has picked up quite a bit since my last post. As always, I hope to be a better blogger, but there are so many things to do that by the time I think to myself, “I should write a blog post about that”, I don’t get to it…It’s a lame excuse, I know, and I’ll get better. :) Anyway, I want to blog about the high and low moments of my days. I feel that thinking and reflecting on them will make me a better person and a better teacher.

Last fall, I completed my student teaching internship here in Norman. My post “140 Children” dealt with some of my first impressions, but then my blogging hiatus kicked off and you didn’t get to hear any more of my adventures. I’ll try to work in some stories from time to time, but the thing is that many of them repeat themselves naturally. Kids are kids, as one of my mentors wisely told me. They are absolutely unique, make no mistake, but many of their situations are alike. So, now that I find myself in a new job (that’s right!), many of the stories – both heartbreaking and inspiring – will crop up again and again.

Once my student teaching wrapped up, I spent time with family and spent time job searching. To say that was maddening would be an extreme understatement. The waiting, the wondering, the overanalyzing of every minuscule detail of the search-apply-interview process – it was driving me crazy. Then out of nowhere, another job popped up, I interviewed, and got it! Now I am a Literacy Resource Teacher at a middle school in town, helping kids with their reading skills in small groups. I work with different students every day, from all three grade levels (6, 7 and 8). In total, I see about 60 students a week and am trying to differentiate lessons for each group.

It is not a job that I would have expected doing, but it sure beats subbing and it gets my foot in the door here. Most importantly, it gets me some experience in working with kids who struggle when it comes to reading text. They are a mixed bag – many know they need help and are defiant, many know they need help and are grateful for any knowledge they can absorb, and still others do not even realize how important reading is and would rather get hit by a bus” than read anything (in the actual words of one student). Others believe that they can read just fine and see no reason to spend their Explo time with me once a week. They have threatened to have their parents call the school, so we’ll see how well that works for them. I have tried telling them their reading comprehension is the real issue – can they read something and understand it afterwards? I have also tried to convince them that we can read things that are fun and interesting to them. Indeed, that is what I would prefer. Some believe me, and they’re very forthright with their preferences. Others doubt my sincerity and are staying quiet until I can gain their trust.

I’m sure I could go on and on, but I will stop for now. If I am going to make blogging a regular thing, I need to keep it short. My hope is that by reflecting, thinking, and writing about my school life, I will gain some insight. Maybe I will learn about myself or my students, who knows? If nothing else, I hope to preserve some of the amazing moments in the life of a teacher. Everything happens by so fast, and memories fade. With a blog to record some fleeting thoughts, I hope to preserve them.

140 Children

My student teaching is going splendidly! :D I absolutely love the school, my mentor teacher (and all the 8th grade faculty, really), and most of all, all 140 kiddos we see everyday. Yes, you read that right, 140 kids, each around 14 years old. If that seems like a large number, it is. That works out to 35 students in each class. Way more than there should be, especially in a room that isn’t all that big. Ms. Eliason has told me that in her first year of teaching she had 24 students. The number slowly increased, and has fluctuated over the years, now settling at a number that isn’t ideal and yet could be worse.

They are really fantastic kids, all with so much potential. One has already given me a hug. One has these big, brown, gorgeous eyes that are pretty much capable of looking into my soul (though I won’t tell her this for fear that she’ll realize the power she holds). One gives me high fives every now and then. One is a class clown, always participating in class discussion but taking time to tell a little comical story with each answer. One is impossibly frustrating, but not openly defiant. One is quite possibly a genius. One seems to be asleep all the time with his head resting on the desk, but he’ll frequently pop up and answer a question, out of nowhere.

I could talk about them all day to anyone who will listen. Any teachers reading this will surely not be surprised - all our kids are fascinating. Middle schoolers are especially fascinating because so many changes happen to them in such a short span of time. Physically, they are going through the joys of puberty. Some are tall enough to pass for a substitute teacher. Some are tiny enough to look like they are lost and need to be returned to their fourth grade class.

In terms of maturity, they are making decisions about who they want to be and what they value. While some are getting more involved with their churches and school sports, others are hanging out with peers who will only bring them down. They are deciding its cool to get suspended for fighting or bullying or stealing. They need to break the cycle, but when their parents don’t help matters and their older siblings don’t set a good example, they take the easier path. Those are the ones that break my heart.

Many of them, in two of our classes in particular, are on IEPs (Individual Education Plans). These are legal documents that specify that the child has been tested for disabilities and needs certain accommodations and/or modifications in order to perform well in a classroom. Cerebral Palsy, ADHD, Bipolar, you name it and one of our kids is dealing with it. Some of them are not much different than any other kid, while others are really struggling. Meanwhile, some kids who are not on an IEP really, really, really ought to be. They are just barely keeping their heads above water.

Some kids are soaking up the knowledge and skills that we teach them, showing us that they are learning all the time. Others look frightened and lost, knowing that something is expected of them but not knowing what to do. Are they learning? If not, why? What can I do? Others are bored to tears, academically way past the majority of their classmates and hoping for a challenge. How can I keep them engaged in the day’s lesson?

There is so much to try to wrap my brain around. One thing I am sure of, however, is that these kids are all loveable. Even the frustrating ones. And they work hard everyday, even if that means just showing up and listening. This has got to be the most rewarding job in the world.

My First Days of School

***Please note that most of this was written several weeks ago, around the end of August. Things have gotten pretty busy around here since then. :)

The first day of school always carries a certain mystique about it, at least it does for a nerd like me. My hopes are high for a super-spectacular year and the possibilities are limitless. I sorta make resolutions, the way people do on New Year’s Eve. Maybe this will be the school year that I find a way to balance everything - school, family, friends, exercise, hobbies, (dare I say?) relaxation. Maybe this will be the year I don’t show up to all my classes late or almost late. Whether it’s truly evident to my classmates and teachers or mainly exists in my mind, I seem to have this reputation as the chick who runs into class at the last minute, out of breath, looking like crap.

At any rate, motivation is high just before the start of another school year. I’m excited to see my friends in class after the long summer and no assignments have been handed out yet...I guess it really isn’t that different for a 6-year-old or a 24-year old in this way!

This year the feeling was heightened, because this year I will be putting much of my studies into real-world practice. Everything that I have learned, everything I was supposed to have learned, and everything I have yet to learn - all of it, with any luck, will go to helping real-live children do some learning of their own. This fall, I am a student teacher.

If you don’t know what a student teacher is, the description is in the title. I am still a student, but I’m very close to being a teacher. I have my bachelor’s degree and am working on my masters, while also doing the training for certification to teach English at the secondary level (middle school or high school). My student teaching is a semester-long internship at a local school and one of the last steps I take to become fully certified (certified to teach that is, though I may go a little insane in the process...). I will be shadowing an experienced teacher everyday, observing her and the students in the classroom and school environment. I’ll then gradually take over many of the teaching responsibilities to the degree that she and I are comfortable. I will have to do at least three weeks of full-time teaching and all the responsibilities entailed.

This is go-time. This is where it all comes together. My college courses have taught me a great deal, but that does not add up to much compared with actual classroom experience. It’s both exhilarating and nerve-wrecking, to be truthful. A friend has told me that I will learn more in this semester than in almost all of my college classes combined. Mind you, this is nothing negative against OU...it’s just that there is so much that has to be experienced and cannot really be simulated in a collegiate atmosphere.

Oh, and did I mention that all of this is free labor for the district? Yeah, I don’t get paid. That’s one reason why so many preservice teachers end up getting certified alternatively, because they understandably cannot go several months without an income (and it’s awfully hard to work while also student teaching, though some have pulled it off). Luckily my hubby can support us, and clipping coupons is a favorite pastime of ours anyway.

The good news is that this internship is also an extended job interview at the school. The teachers and I will be seeing a lot of each other and learning if I am truly a good fit to work at this school. If all goes well, I may be lucky enough to get a job offer in the spring or next fall, if they are hiring. I will certainly fight for a teaching job here in Norman, and the first step is working hard during these upcoming months.

So. That’s how it all works. Nervous for me? I sure am. One of my professors reminded all of us student teachers that we are college graduates and we are capable. I think I needed that.

The hubby and I returned from a trip about a week prior to the start of classes and this is also when I found out where I would be student teaching, who my mentor teacher would be, and what grade level of students. Yeah, I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? The schools, the district, and everyone has to coordinate to set up these student teaching placements, so it can be a long and arduous process. Also, and I didn’t know this before, we at OU are competing with other universities around the state for many of the same placement spots in Norman schools...I guess everyone wants to be here!

Initially I was placed at Irving Middle School, with Carol Wahpepah as my mentor teacher, in an 8th grade language arts classroom...Based solely on the grade level, I was immediately disappointed. I had been hoping for a high school assignment. I had indicated only high schools on my list of preferences when I filled out the form to student teach. Quite frankly, I had expected to get assigned to one of the high schools. I had always thought that OU tried to give you a middle school experience and a high school experience, so that you could try them both on for size. I loved the 7th-graders that I observed at my field experience at Whittier Middle School this past spring. They were positively adorable! But I was psyched for high schoolers this time around.

So I did what any overeager rookie does, especially one that thinks first with her heart and then with her head as I do - I went straight to my advisor’s office the next day, a Monday afternoon. No appointment or anything, just showed up. I was tired of only communicating through email and just wanted to talk this through. Of course he was busy when I first arrived, talking with another student about her dissertation (Hi, Kimberly!). I waited outside for my turn and then calmly explained that I was “a little upset” about this placement. He then explained the rationale as such: 8th grade is as close as I can get to high schoolers if I want to student teach this fall. Many new teachers have been hired recently at the two local high schools, and they cannot take on a student teacher until they themselves have been teaching for awhile. It isn’t fair to them or me; the idea is to give us a highly experienced teacher to learn from and one who won’t consider me a burden to their own growing pains. Also, there are four middle schools here and that means more openings, both for student teaching placements now and for jobs (hopefully) afterwards. Moreover, by doing my first field experience in a 7th-grade classroom and my student teaching in 8th grade...that gives me lots of training in the middle school environment, making me more appealing to a middle school looking to hire someone.

I accepted this explanation. It made sense to the rational part of my brain. At this point, I started getting excited again for the placement. It may not have been my first choice, but then again my life seldom goes as expected, and the changes have overwhelmingly been for the better. I read about my mentor teacher on the school website and looked at the reading list for Norman Public Schools and that’s when I saw it. A single book title. One word: Night. As in, the novel by Elie Wiesel chronicling his experiences in the Holocaust, and the first book that haunted me, grabbing hold of my soul as I read. I was in 10th grade, the only Jewish girl in my class, when I read it. I was now beyond excited that my 8th graders would get to read this and that I would get to reread it, seeing their reactions to it at the same time.

The hubby and I went away for another quick trip out of town, one last hurrah for the summer. As such, I had no time to meet with my mentor teacher before Monday last week...more on that in a second. :)

We got back Sunday evening last week. Orientation for student teachers was Monday morning at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. There were maybe 60 or 70 of us, from all subject areas, in the auditorium, though I am terrible at judging numbers of people in a given room. We were all excited and nervous to begin this new journey. The dean of the college spoke to us and noted that we have the potential to have an impact on thousands of lives...thanks, that really helps with the nerves! But, of course, it’s also very exciting. The one thing I’ve always wanted to do with my life, in some small way, is make a difference. Teaching is the best way to do that, and in spite of any nerves, I am sooooooo excited! Then last year’s Oklahoma Teacher of the Year spoke with us and shared some of her stories. I think she really put many of us at ease, for some reason I can’t even pinpoint...just the fact that she knew what it was like to be in our shoes. :D

I got some lunch after orientation, and opened my wallet to discover that I had been driving without a license. When travelling, my camera bag often doubles as my purse and I put my ID and a money inside. Not having that bag with me, I was just lucky to have a credit card so that I wasn’t stuck paying for Bison Witches with dishwasher duty. Anyway, this gave me the perfect excuse to run home and get my ID, along with much needed hugs from my husband. He is really my rock. When I need support and my world feels like it’s spinning a little too fast, he is there for me and I am grateful.

Next it was off to Irving! I arrived to find that my fellow student teacher, Jordan, was right when she said it was under construction. Of course, I had expected a portion of the building to be under construction, maybe a single hallway or something, but no. In fact, the entire building is being remodeled, with wires hanging from the ceiling, wet paint on the walls, ladders and equipment here and there. I really wondered how kids were supposed to start showing up in two days. Couldn’t they have picked a better time to do this? Say, I don’t know, summertime??

I met with my mentor teacher, who seemed glad to see me. One of the first things she said was that it was odd that my advisor had referred to her in the email as an eighth grade teacher. She used to teach eighth grade but was teaching seventh grade this year....

Crestfallen once again. This was beginning to feel like a roller coaster ride.

I did my best to hide my disappointment. We talked a bit more and I helped her do a few things to set up her classroom. They had only been allowed into the building a couple days ago due to the construction, so every teacher was scrambling. In her words, they had all agreed “to plaster smiles on our faces and get through this construction, knowing that it’s worth it”.

That’s what I was doing, too, plastering a smile on my face. I told myself that it would still be a great experience no matter what. Seventh graders here, at this Title 1 school on the other side of the railroad tracks, would be a little different. And I wasn’t blaming my advisor, the district website still had her listed as an eight grade teacher. Besides, I hate causing any trouble, and I felt like it would all be just fine.

Thankfully my husband stepped in again when we got to discuss it that evening. Reminding me that this was my career we were talking about and that I would only get one shot to student teach, he said I should at least let my advisor know the situation. One polite email later, he did feel badly for the error and said he would do what he could. I resolved to make the best of it if I was to stay put and yet hope for a last-minute switcheroo to an eight grade classroom.

Tuesday was a kind of open house for the incoming sixth grade students, fresh from elementary school and mostly scared out of their gourds. Ms. Wahpepah and I did some more work to set up her classroom while the kids and parents toured the school. Then, after lunch, I came back to another surprise, but this time it was the one I was hoping for - I now had a home in an eighth grade classroom! :D Ms. Wahpapah understood that my two internships shouldn’t be at the same grade level and joked, “You’re fired.” I’m still not sure if it was Ms. Wahpepah or my advisor who did the work to get things changed, but at any rate I was set up to student teach for Ms. Maren Eliason now. Same school, different hallway. It happened really fast, but I thanked Ms. Wahpapah for everything and took off. I texted my husband that I had been “promoted” to eight grade, and went to meet my new mentor teacher.

So, the roller coaster ride was finished on a high note - or maybe the ride was just beginning, depending on your perspective. Stay tuned. :D