I’m A Magpie...
I’m a magpie...
You can become a child’s hero in surprising ways…
While I was waiting for names to be called at Parent Pick up, a little boy named Dell dropped the shiny silver bead he had found.
He became really upset…
It was going to be yet another surprise gift for his mom! Dell usually tends to pick her (and his teachers) flowers and draw pictures full of hearts. So when he lost his bead Dell began to panic and crawl around on the floor.
I make beaded jewelry for fun…
It took me 3 seconds to find what he was looking for. I picked it up and gave it to him…
I got the biggest smile…
And since that day, I’ve gotten a couple of hugs as well…
Erase the stigma and ignore inaccurate depictions in the media. I’ve said it a couple of times now.
The sweetest boys have Autism!
More Posts from Rengerain and Others
What am I watching?!
Watching a movie
It is so very trippy
Appropriate drugs
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!
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!
Swearing...
Sub psychotic rage
Blood pouring from sacred place
The pain of betrayal.
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
Oops!
Background check needed before certification can go through…
Guess what I forgot to do during winter break?
Yup.
So my K-6 general education certification is pending until the background check I had done last week is cleared.
This, sadly, has cost me a couple of job opportunities…
But hey, as long as parents continue to act worse than their children in my state, I should be in a position in no time! Seriously. ‘I can’t stand to see my kid in my mask’ is just code for ‘I’m tired of hearing my kid whine about masks and I don’t want to wear one myself so here I am protesting my family’s right to get terminally ill.
The fact that America ever made it to become a first-world country much less a world power is still a mystery to me…
I love my country but I hate the spineless, cowardly, selfish, greedy people who run it.
White Cherry Blossoms...
White petals flutter
Warm sun, gentle breeze, sunny
Spring has come at last
Talk to Them...
“I hate it here. School is too hard. The playground is different from the one in Pennsylvania. I don’t like Delaware. I don’t like living with my grandpa. I want to live with my mom and dad but they have to fix the house so we can go back. My brother and sister and I moved down here. My baby-baby sister is with mom and dad. I want to go home.”
This ramble is brought to you by a displaced boy in first grade.
Sometimes you just have to listen and not just shove a lesson down their throat.
Not long after this, I sat with him again. We worked on his reading, which is something he hates. He still hated Delaware. He still missed his mom and dad. But he was more willing to participate and work with me. He didn’t act up or whine.
Sometimes a chat can make a world of difference.
Even if the effects only lasts two weeks before he goes back to Pennsylvania…
Life Changing Moments…
In teaching there are sometimes life changing moments…
One such moment for me was when I first got sucked into teaching ESL.
Another such moment was when I sat in on an ESL kindergarten class…
I met my first little autistic student.
He was non-verbal and hated colors and loud noises.
His fixation was a car…but it was also me…oddly enough.
Direct eye contact and then a hug…
His teacher discouraged it… It was my first day there and she did not know me.
But I did not mind the hug…
From then on, every time he saw me, he’d rush over to hug me or show me something he worked on in class…
This is how I decided that my next Master’s degree will be in Special Education, one sweet boy who changed my life…
Second Classroom...
My second classroom…
I taught Japanese studies.
I was twelve-years-old.
I had a whole classroom full of peers that hated me.
I was the ‘weird’ kid who was friends with all the teachers.
Many of my peers left my speech on Japan wanting to visit the country.
It was nerve wracking but wonderful.
