Tree Genocide...

Happy Christmas!

It is Christmas time

One day I will be people-less

Cats will be my love…

Certification Pending...

This is such a depressing thing to see when you have studied for what essentially amounts to three months straight.

Sadly, I only have myself to blame considering I let my background check slip. Now I have to get in touch with people to have my work email unlocked.

It has been a long and winding road already…

No one at grad school said anything about additional certification…

The program was geared towards preparing student to teach adults, not kids.

Then again, when I asked the ‘teaching career’ guru if I should get certified in general education or special education…she said ‘no’.

Do yourself a favor, if you are going to specialize in ESL, special education, or any other area…go for additional certification in general education. There are more special education jobs than there are ESL (in my State, anyway) and there is WAY more general education jobs than there are both ESL and special education combined.

Get it while you are still in college!

It will open up three times as many doors for you!

Start in general education, get that experience, then work towards the subject or kinds of students you actually want to teach.

Get your foot in the door!

Depression...

It’s hard to keep your head above the water when you’re drowning in your own tears...  Take that, former me who wrote horrible Goth poetry! 

Oh Dear...

“Give me your phone number!”

It does not seem to matter to her that she is six and I am…not.

Yes, I started my teaching journey rather late…

Secretarial work just wasn’t cutting it anymore…

Again, it didn’t matter to her that I am several years older…

I am the ‘fun’ teacher…the ‘nice’ teacher…the ‘pretty’ teacher.

What I lack in classroom management (since this is my first year), I make up for in enthusiasm, kindness, creativity, subject knowledge, and yes…fun.

This was not fun…

I had to leave a note with her ‘every day teacher’ that little girl insisted that I give her my cell phone number.

I did not, for the record…

I am weird and admittedly a little immature, not predatory!

Depressed Again...

Depression hits hard

What if it never leaves me

Will I be trapped here?

Forth Classroom…

I was at a community college, panicking over my BA in English.

So I went for an associate’s in medical secretary.

I helped my friend learn her medical terminology, abbreviations, grammar, and anatomy.

I helped another friend learn about computers as we had to take Windows, Excel, and Access.

All three of us struggled comically over transcription.

The Puerto Rican said that the “Puerto Rican” doctor on the recording didn’t sound right.

The Caucasian said, “Where the heck do you find the ‘send’ key?!”

I felt like the smartest person in the room for the first time in my life.

Nothing ever changes...

Bureaucracy is a tumor on society’s ass that will never go away…

Government…fueled by greed and money…one of the worst necessary evils…

All I wanted from Biden was student loan forgiveness for my admittedly incomplete education.  Did I get my diploma?  Yes.

Did I graduate feeling confident and ready?  No.

My student teaching was interrupted by Corona.

This may not seem like such a big thing to you…

But when you have anxiety and are faced with a new experience, a new challenge, a new career…  It is terrifying to feel ill prepared.

Teaching well behaved adults who want to learn English is one thing but teaching children who are a million times more hyper, sociable, and sneaky than you are is an entirely different matter.  I am happy to say that I am finally on the right track to becoming a teacher…hopefully a GOOD teacher.  But at the same time, I am very disheartened that it took so long and I had to jump through so many rings of fire to do so.  You’d think that someone at some point in the educational food chain would know how to organize things better…streamline the process.  Make things easier.

No.

First I get told that I need to have three different certifications…

Then I’m told that the school district that just hired me needs me to do yet another background check…

I’m working in the same State!  Why do I need to get another background check when I just got one done last month?!

Sixth Classroom...

Three weeks just sitting in a library watching ELLs take the ACCESS test…

Oh great, Corona.

I’m banned from the school and go home.

Now, the school shuts down and the children seldom show.

I sit in my bedroom talking to the walls on Zoom.

YouTube stories…picture books and animations on environmental and wildlife conservation…

Stories lead to class discussions and simple assignments.

The edTPA is not going to happen.

Thankfully I don’t need it for institutional backing once I finally graduate.

Virtual classrooms where students are constantly interrupted by poor internet or having to watch younger siblings.

These kids are learning nothing yet being passed onto the next grade.

It’s such a disservice…

Eighth Classroom...

After a long painful summer of no luck…

I finally made it as a teacher…

Kind of…

Their usual teacher just popped out her 3rd kid…

Hey, more power to ya…

I was a long-term substitute for 5th grad math…

But I have a BA in Literature…

And an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language…

What the heck do I know about 5th grade math?!

Surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be…

The morning kids were wonderful…

Low energy, just like me…

The afternoon kids were naughty…

And so, so hyper…

But I loved their individual personalities…

And their general mischievousness…

So adorable…<3

Tenth Classroom...

It is Summer School and too hot for a self-proclaimed lava monster to find much joy in taking her small class out for recess.

I have a mixture of English Language Learners, General education, and Special education.

Three of my students have unmediated ADHD…

I’m beginning to see myself in a whole new light…

I must have been an annoying kid to wind up on such strong ADHD meds by the time I graduated high school…

My third grade teacher apparently couldn’t put up with me being a disorganized mess.  She kept begging my parents to up my dose even though my grades were A’s and B’s.

There were no ADHD experts in our area…so I get to learn this now as an adult.

I’m in my thirties and I am often mistaken for my twenties…both in physical appearance and in my mannerisms…

How embarrassing…