DIY Teacher Planner

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alexandrea nicole, DIY, Organization, planner, school, teaching

In one month school will begin…And this teacher will be ready. I have finally hit the magically number of 3. I survived the first year – just keeping my head above water. In my second year I settled in and made improvements to what I implemented in my first year. I am excited to start the third! Now that I am comfortable in the classroom, I am thrilled to see what this year will bring.

One thing that saved me my first and second year was my personal teaching planner. My first year, this consisted of printing out a page every week to write down lesson plans. I slipped these into a three ring binder on my desk. Last year, I made, printed, and spiral bound my own planner with calendar, weekly lesson plan template, and gradebook. This was a huge improvement! Everything in one spot.

I took what I liked from each of those categories and made some minor changes for this year’s planner. It’s so crisp, clean, and ready to go! I can take a deep *sigh* knowing that no matter how crazy things get this year – I can at least keep my sanity. I would go insane if I didn’t have this organizational tool.

My favorite new part is the notes pages I added. These will be perfect for login and passwords, staff meetings, and collaboration with teachers/administrators/parents.

My total cost for this project was $4.80. Here’s to starting the year of organized and enthused! YAY!

xoxo,

Alexandrea Nicole

 

 

 

 

Finally, a little clue to my future!

Tags

Argentina, Courtney Rose, Fall, future, God, planning, plans, Prayer, school, student teaching, summer

It felt as though the College of Education forgot me when placing student teachers for the fall, but there was no need to worry because I finally received my placement!

I’m ecstatic to announce that I’ll be student teaching at Kearney High School!

The first half of the semester I will be in a sophomore English classroom, and the second half I will be in a Spanish I and II classroom. I am very excited to know where I will be student teaching in the fall because I am so much of a planner. Since I will be gone for 2 whole months of the summer, it is going to be nice to at least have an idea of what to expect in the fall.

So now is the perfect opportunity to begin praying for next semester! I’m praying that God would use the student teaching experience to show me where he is leading me to serve after graduation. Right now I’m keeping my options open and am considering whether He wants me in the field of education or if He wants to use me in full-time ministry. How any of that will work out, God only knows. But I’m praying that between my summer serving in Argentina and my student teaching in the fall that God would reveal where He wants to use me – at least for a time.

For now I’m going to finish the school year strong with the last of my finals and the end of my field experience at Kearney Catholic. Doing my best work and bringing glory to God daily.

~Courtney Rose~

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¡Viva Argentina! – Prayer

¡Viva Argentina! – Language Preparation

Finally stepping into a classroom!

Field Experience Update

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Courtney Rose, school

Sorry to disappoint, but this week has kind of been hairy. Not literally of course, but there have been some late nights. I guess this is an update about my field experience more than anything, so here it goes!

I finally got to meet my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Slaughter, at KCHS and observe her classroom this week! Some of you know that it has kind of been a struggle to get to that point. Last week I went in to begin my field experience, and the secretary told me that the teacher was sick. Then the next day I was planning to go in, I called the office before driving over there. They told me she was still out sick, but then I received an email from her later that day asking me to come in at 1:30. Sadly, I did not check my email until 1:45, so we rescheduled to begin this week.

Thankfully on Tuesday I made it to the classroom without miscommunications or anyone getting sick! I am looking forward to learning from her this semester and interacting with the students. Right now I am mostly helping her out by grading papers, but starting next week I will begin tutoring some students as well. At some point in the semester I will be teaching at least one lesson, but I still have some time before I need to decide more about that 🙂

For now I am just praying that God gives me the strength to do my best in all areas that I am involved in from my field experience and schoolwork, to my two jobs, Navigators and AOII. This is a full semester, but God has blessed me with these many opportunities, and I am excited to see how He uses me in them.

The Best Kind Of Day

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alexandrea nicole, school, snow, snow day, teaching, winter

Today is the best kind of day – a SNOW DAY! What makes this snow day even more exciting is that it wasn’t expected! Surprise! Snow days were always a students dream come true, but now that I’m a teacher and on the other side of going to school everyday a snow day is even more precious.

What am I going to do today? There is a long list – trust me! I’m going to start by trying to get caught up on my grading and get my lesson plans ready for the following week. There’s always things to do around the house. I just hope I leave myself enough time to do something fun and creative!

Hope you have a great day – whatever kind it may be!

xoxo,

Alexandrea Nicole

Finally stepping into a classroom!

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college, Courtney Rose, English, experience, learning, school, semester, skills, Spanish, student teaching, teacher, teaching

After spending the last 3.5 years studying my subject areas of English and Spanish, I’m finally ready to step into a classroom to work with a cooperating teacher for 80+ hours of field experience before student teaching in the fall.  This will be the first opportunity I have had to interact with students in a real classroom environment since my classroom observations freshman year of college.  Somehow that just doesn’t feel right. However, I am praising God to have this opportunity to gain experience and learn from a seasoned teacher.

It is official: I will be working with Mrs. Slaughter in her Spanish 1 & 2 classes at Kearney Catholic this semester.

I can’t wait to begin learning from her starting a week from today! It’s going to be a crazy semester of growth for me in both my Spanish and teaching skills.

~Courtney Rose

Summer “To-dos”

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Courtney Rose, Dress, Handcrafted, list, routine, school, summer, to-do

Just as the summer seems to finally be under way, my summer is only just beginning! This week is only the second week I have been out of summer class, and I have finally developed a daily rhythm.  Wake-up, eat breakfast, exercise, shower, get ready for work, tidy the apartment, grab lunch, work, fix supper, play with the roommate’s kiddo, go to bed.  Not too thrilling, but it works! The biggest problem with this routine is that I feel I’m not accomplishing much besides the bare minimum.  This dilemma calls for… A LIST! It is that time of year for a summer to-do list! Don’t even try to claim that you don’t have one of your own.  My list usually consists of some books I want to read and craft projects that need to be accomplished.  Most of what goes on the list will never be completed, but it is the thought that counts, right?  This summer’s list is going to be short and practical to begin with.  I have some projects that I have procrastinated on, and I simply need to sit down and finish them.

Here is my current summer to-do list:

Courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

*Make Justin’s Birthday present. (Little Justin’s first birthday is next Friday and I need to start sewing his present… stay tuned for more info about this surprise.)

*Replace zipper on Heather R’s dress.  (I have promised to fix this dress for my friend for over a year.)

*Hem and finish Heather M’s dress.  (I started making this dress at the end of last summer.  It has been sitting in my closet ever since because I need Heather to try it on before I hem it.)

*Start and finish pink knit dress for myself.  (I have this terrible habit of only making things for friends and family.  I spend a lot of time and effort into making these gifts for others that I do not have the energy to ever make anything for myself to enjoy.  I bought this fabric at the end of last summer and need to finish this project for myself for once!)

Once I finish these projects we will have to see how much of the summer is left and maybe I will tack on a couple of new tasks 🙂

~Courtney Rose~

Busy, Busy, Busy

Tags

Courtney Rose, school, summer

Boy, have I been busy this last part of the semester! From final papers, projects, meetings and more, I have not had time to blog.  Now that summer has begun, it should be much easier to stay on top of this blog and continue to share projects.  Sadly, I cannot say that school is over for me because I have a summer class until June 3.  Yay for school!  Already though, I have had plenty of free time to devote to craftiness.  Keep checking in to see what my first summer project will be!

~Courtney Rose~

School’s Out

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alexandrea nicole, break, cartoon, school, summer, vacation

{http://www.phaseware.com}

This pretty much sums up how I feel about today – It’s bittersweet, really!

x0x0

alexandrea nicole

Big News

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alexandrea nicole, eagles, FCCLA, Milford, purple, school, student teaching

It’s official! I will be a student teacher at Milford High School next semester! I am very excited as this was my top preference. It will be nice to be in a small school and still be close to Lincoln.

I am fairly familiar with the school as I did a practicum there last fall. However, my cooperating teacher has a new room. It will be interesting to see what it’s like. She also has a very active FCCLA chapter, which I am excited to be getting involved with as well!

It’s a good thing I’ve already got some purple gear! Eagles have paw prints, right?

x0x0

alexandrea nicole

Surviving Dead Week

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alexandrea nicole, dead week, school, studying, to do list

That’s my goal this week – to just get by! I been dreading this week for about a month now. Just looking at the week on my calendar with all the appointments, assignments, and notes makes me a little queasy. Now that it’s here though, I’m not sweatin’ it too badly. It’s Tuesday – the week has begun and I’m not dead yet. Things are looking up!

What’s on my plate for the remainder of this week?

• Concept Map
• Ethnicity Final Exam
• Research Article Critique
• Research Credit Survey
• Philosophy of Education Paper
• and the professor who still has to give us 3 quizzes (in two class periods)

Looking at it now I’m optimistic. I can get that all done by Thursday! (I don’t have class on Fridays, which sounds great, but really means that all my course work is squished into four days.)

Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought the whole purpose of dead week was for professors to wrap up the course and prepare you for the final exam – not make all these projects and papers due. Also, notice the final exam I have this week – I actually had one yesterday too. Professors think they are doing you a favor because you get done with that class early. Wrong. Now while going to class and frantically finishing course work, I also have to find time to study. I would have much more time for that next week when class isn’t in session. Alas, I have two finals this week.

Another goal is to show up for my finals at the right time at the right place. EVERY semester I have shown up on either the wrong day or wrong time for a final. Luckily for me it has always been BEFORE the actual final. But you can image how nervous that would make a person to sit in the hall waiting for your class of 50 to show up to the final you thought was supposed to start 15 minutes ago. Something is wrong here! This year I think I can make that happen. I have checked and double checked. I have three finals during finals week – two on Wednesday, one of Friday. (note to professors who moved finals – I won’t be getting out of here nay earlier since your finals were on Monday and Tuesday anyway).

That totally concludes my rant for the day – time to get to that list!

x0x0

alexandrea nicole