The Final Days

Today was my last day of student teaching. I'm actually supposed to look for real jobs now! I miss my students so much already. I wasn't even inside my house for five minutes when I started bawling because I'm not going to go back after break.

Anyways, let's back track. In advisory we are doing Student Led Advisory where the students actually teach the advisory lesson. Two girls did snow flake making. It was fun! I love crafts and I really do want to make some now that I have nothing to do with my life.

Later in the day my MT calls me over and tells me to look at this one student's snow flake. This student is so adorable, but he's kind of spacey. I don't even know how to explain him, but this snow flake was totally him. My MT says to me, "Look at Anthony's snow flake. Only he would make it look like a devil." It was so funny and so true! A few days later Anthony tells a student that his looks like a mask and I just start cracking up thinking about my MT's comment. Hopefully you can tell which one is his... hahaha!

So this week was definitely rough. The students finished up their comic projects and some turned out so cool! Yesterday was pretty much non stop from 8:45-4:20 when I worked from 4:21-9. I made cookies for my advisory and mentor teacher. I also made record bowls out of what I had left and then 4 paintings to give to my advisory kids. It was a long day and I really appreciate my friend coming over to give me some support. I also found out last night that my mom, on top of having MS, now has breast cancer. It's only a stage 0, but prayers would be wonderful! I definitely do appreciate him coming over to hang out and he even helped me with some dishes.

Today was my last day. Like I said I cried. My advisory through me a surprise party and one of the my students made me a cake and she made me a large card which she forgot and also put together a small notebook full of notes from all my students! I didn't actually get to read the book yet because we had a fire drill at the end of school so she couldn't stop by, but I'm going to visit them again after the break and pick it up. The party was also a secret Santa exchange and we had food. My advisory kids are so cute. I'm really really going to miss them!

The female student is the one who put all of the party and stuff together. She is such a sweet girl. The boy is also in my advisory.

Throughout the day I gave out so many hugs and I got cards and gifts from people. I also graded a ton of stuff. Some of my students were shocked I was leaving and they asked if I could get hired there and stuff like that. :( I'm so appreciative of the amazing students I had and a great MT. Plus, an amazing team of teachers. My MT had a lunch for me yesterday where we all ate Indian and all the team teachers came to eat lunch in our room. It was a great feeling knowing all those teachers appreciated my work.

This is a picture of what I received today from various students and teachers.

Finally, I'm going to finish this post off with two pictures of the classroom. One is my desk and the other is the poster we hung up from our advisory door decorating contest. I'm sure I'll write some more about stories from student teaching that I missed and my MT said he would keep me updated with texts of the crazy things the students do. I'm also going to keep this blog going, so no worries this isn't my last post!

I Love the 80s

A few weeks ago I was grading binders and some students were in the room working on projects. One of the students there was also in my advisory. I was listening to Mae and she goes, "Who is this? I really like it!" I told her it was Mae and that they were my favorite band. It turned out we have a similar taste in music. I decided I wanted to make her a mix of Mae songs, but it took me a while to finally get it done. When she came in yesterday I told her I had something for her. When I gave her the cd she goes, "I'm going to cry. I'm going to cry. You just made my day." It was so sweet. Today she told me that she had listened to the cd all day yesterday. I decided to put a playlist on here of some of my favorite Mae songs. It's not all of them, but there are too many good songs!


Today was 80s day for spirit week. It was pretty hilarious. One kid rode through the halls on old school four wheel skates - he ended up getting in trouble for wearing them inside, but it was so funny! Everyone was shocked I didn't dress up in 80s wear. I wish I would have! However, my supervisor came in and probably would have thought I was a nut! I told everyone it was okay because I was made in the 80s and that's what counts. One student said, "Really?! What did you wear." I responded, "I was just a baby." One girl was dressed up like D.M.C. My MT was talking about her outfit and how good it looked then said he knew every word to the songs. The students went crazy and told me to show them he did. He starts rapping in the class and it was HILARIOUS! It was really good too! I was surprised. I didn't think he'd actually be as good as he was!

Speaking of spirit week, I took pictures of the door! We will find out tomorrow who won! Our classroom has two doors because it's a double room, so we had extra work. My advisory is awesome though and definitely pulled it off. They also made T-shirts for the pep rally tomorrow. They were so cute.

The math teacher had everyone draw a picture of themselves and they put it on the door. One student has an IA because he's legally blind. The IA went crazy with it. I had to take a picture of his drawing. The other drawing is of my student. She was there when I took a picture, so I had to put it on too!

Tomorrow I will have a list of all my students wikis! Their last day is tomorrow! I'm so glad we are almost done with this project. Finally, my MT put me in charge of the craft activities. He wants me to think of some fun Halloween activities we can do so I've been searching Pinterest. I'd love suggestions and ideas though!

Crafty Crafty

My two friends, Brooke and Heather, decided that we were going to have craft nights on Thursday nights as an escape from our lives as teachers. You can see Heather's art blog here! Anyway, I decided I was going to make something for the classroom. You can see the finished product below. The binder order is a list that we write on the board that tells the students which order the papers in between the tabs to be graded should be in. It is on the board all the time so I thought I'd make a more permanent sign instead of the hand written one. He was so excited and after it was up he said that I put is "Objective" and "Agenda" signs to shame. He also said, "You'll probably be like, 'Mr. Frecker, I'm taking that sign with me when I leave.' and I'll be like NOOOO." I told him that I'll leave it as a parting gift and he said that I shouldn't say that so soon because I could leave hating him! Haha!


Our team gives out Big Red Bucks to students who display acts of C.R.E.D.I.T. It's cool because each teacher gets their own to hand out. I got my own stash! The students can trade in their "bucks" for snacks, supplies, or even save up to get an iPod touch or other high priced items. To go along with this there was a girl I've been butting heads with lately. Yesterday, she said she didn't understand the Economic systems unit right before the quiz. I asked her what she didn't understand and she was like "I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF IT!" I was trying to see what part she didn't understand because her saying all of it didn't help narrow down exactly what she needed to know. Then she flipped out and turned away from me, so I walked away. Then my MT went over and she flipped out again because I wouldn't answer her question. My MT told her to go out into the hall so that he could talk with her. He eventually told her that 1. She needed to be specific about what she needed help with 2. He wasn't going to help anyone who was doing other work in class and said to me "I can multitask" and 3. He wasn't going to help anyone who was constantly talking in class. Today she had time to cool off and apologized to my MT and me. So, for that act I gave her a big red buck. I know I have days where I lash out at people, so I understand that she could have been having that problem.

Lately the students have been coming to me trying to allow me to give them an extension on stuff. I was kind of lax at the beginning which was a mistake, so now the honeymoon is over. One kid asked if he could have an extension on his homework because he had a football game last night. I told him that he couldn't because he knew from last Friday that this assignment was due the following Friday. Another kid asked if he could have an extension because he missed a day, but again he knew for a week that he would have to turn in his homework on Friday. Seriously, people. I worked my butt off in high school so you should too!

Good news! I'm almost done with my power point! I have a ton of stuff to do this weekend though. As soon as I'm done writing this I'm going to grade quizzes. Then I have to create my lesson for my observation on Tuesday! I also have to create a short bio for the Open House on Thursday. Next week is going to be crazy!

So, I didn't realize that this dress was this short until now! I did the bend over test which they told us to do if we were unsure if something would be appropriate or not. I probably won't wear this dress again to teach in, but I was running out of warm weather clothes. I mean, seriously, Cincinnati do you have to be 100 degrees in September!? Anyways, I bought this dress in San Francisco. I can't remember the name of the store, but it was very similar to a Forever 21!

Moving In --- My Desk Edition

So, these are the lucky items I have displayed on my desk at the school:
1. A Franklin D. Roosevelt pencil sharpener -- He's my hero and my favorite president. I wrote about him on the essay portion of my OGT.
2. A perpetual calender I bought in San Francisco -- I love it and it's totally my style.
3. A doily coaster from Urban Outfitters -- Needed a place to put my coffee.
4. A small candle holder that I turned into a place to put paper clips and rubber bands -- Don't worry, the wax was removed.
5. A picture of my sister, my brother, and me on our first trip on an airplane/and to Florida. I was about 5.
6. A dinosaur wearing a Cleveland Indians jersey. I mean, come on, I had to put something Cleveland related after all the nonsense my mentor teacher gave me about it! :)