Allison's work

First let me say I'm sorry this is so long, I guess it's just been a long week and I have lots of new things to say about my job!

I had my first "parent night" on Thursday night. It was lovely. I have to say, I was a little nervous. I visited my parents in Tennessee this weekend (for a family wedding) and my wonderful Dad made me watch the movie "Freedom Writers". If you haven't seen the movie, I'll give you a little bit of what it's about. First of all, let me say...EVERY teacher needs to watch this movie. It is heart-wrenching (I'm pretty sure even for people who aren't teachers) but it really makes you realize the power of a good educator and the extreme need for open minded, optimistic, supportive people in our education system. With that said, in the movie, no one shows up for her first parent night. As I was writing "Welcome" on our board, the thought came to mind that maybe no one would show up for my kids either. Thankfully, I was wrong. I had 5 kids out of 11 show up. That's not bad. We called it an "Academic Showcase" at our school and it was pretty much an end of the year open house. We had to decorate our rooms with projects we'd worked on in class. My kids studied bugs. Mostly butterflies. They pained wooden butterflies and dragonflies and we hung them from the celling. It turned out really well. All the parents that came echoed each other in saying that they were really happy with me as their child's teacher. They all said they felt like I was doing a really good job and that they had really seen progress in their children since I started teaching them. That, to say the least, felt REALLY good. I have to say. Teaching, especially Special Ed. kids, is a challenge in and of itself. It is really tough to know when you are doing a good job. My kids are so unpredictable. It's very hard to gauge sometimes if they are making progress. But hearing it from the parents of my kids made me really realize, I'm really helping my kids. So that was my first encouragement for the week.

My second came in the form of something I was dreading a little bit. As a new teacher in Florida, it's mandatory that I have a "mentor". Mentors are teachers who have been teaching for a long time (mine is over 15 years) and they also have to take a class on how to be a mentor. They have a portfolio that they have to keep on their new teachers. They have to do a few observations over the course of the school year as one of the requirements. So, my observation was scheduled for Wednesday. I planned to do a science experiment with my kids. I wanted to teach them about how water runs down mountains. I waited and waited for my mentor to come and she didn't show up. I had to go ahead and do it without her. I was a little disappointed but she came to me right after school and explained she'd been really overwhelmed and had just completely forgotten. The next day, she did come. So, I recapped the experiment for her, and my kids and displayed the illustrations they had drawn of their experiments as part of my lesson. The review that she sent me in my email today was so wonderful, I need to share it with all of you. I'm going to post it here...

Dear Allison,
I just wanted to send you a quick and casual note to tell you how much I enjoyed visiting and observing in your classroom yesterday. The lesson was GREAT and I was so impressed with so many things. Some examples are: the children were so engaged and enthusiastic, the use of specific and general praise, classroom management, your animated and pleasant demeanor with the children. I really liked the reveiw and the compare/contrast (of plants/animals that live in fresh/salt water). Many questions were higher order and open ended. I was so pleased to see you turn the boy's incorrect answer about the octopus into a correct answer in a different context. I can't begin to list all the wonderful teaching practices and tecniques that I saw. Can't wait to come back on Tuesday.
P.S. It must also be nice to work with such a pleasant, smiling assistant.
Have a wonderful weekend - you DESERVE it!!
Your mentor and friend,
Denise

Wow. That really just made my day!

So, My birthday is on Sunday and my kids, with more than a little help from my WONDERFUL assistant, threw me a party today! It was so much fun. My assistant went way overboard with the gifts, as she does. But my favorite thing was a bag they made me. I've taken pictures of it for you to see. We call ourselves "Holland's Horses" and the kids painted this using their thumbs to make the heads and bodies of the horses. Each horse is a different child. How thoughtful! This is something I will always treasure!







I'm very excited about the weekend. We are going to have a little get together at our friends' house tomorrow. And I think Chris and I are going to go in the morning to check out the Disney job fair to see if I can't find some summer employment. I've been told they hold lots of seasonal positions for teachers, I'll let you know how that goes.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend and thanks so much for reading!!!