Last day of spring break as a student...

Today is my last day of spring break as a student. I've been going to school non-stop for the last two decades from preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, graduate, and now post-graduate; it's been a long, tedious journey. Being a student is a safety net/bubble for me; I have somewhere I belong, a place where I can learn, where I can let go my emotional baggage of being my parents' daughter, a place where I can think express myself.

This spring break is one of the most not relaxing ones I have had... Although I got the chance to sleep a lot, but I was sick for about half of the time. The highlight of my break was probably the start last week when I got to have dinner with some of my fave girlfriends. I don't know why I can't enjoy my break.... Maybe it's because of the little damn critter running around at night harassing me so I have been afraid to fall asleep. :(

On a different note... old man is out of town which means=mom is less edgy. So that's one thing that has kept me sane... though mumsie is still shrieking once in awhile, but it's definitely less than when the old man is around.

Not exactly teaching related... but sort of.

The first school I worked at, let's called it Yut is a school located in a not so great neighborhood, while school two (let's call it Yee) is located in a very odd part of town where there are lots of wealthy middle/middle upper folks mixed with hippies and homeless. The first few weeks of student teaching in Yut, my friend's stuff got stolen in the classroom she was working in. Throughout the semester, we had multiple break-ins and stuff stolen. But even in a more affluent area of Yee, there appears to break ins too. Those thieves sure are low to rob schools. Anyhoo, that's not what I was going at. In Yut, the Mandarin Immersion program I worked in, I often saw parents drop off their kids every morning. I would greet most of them and chat a little bit. I really envy these kids being able to brought to school by their parents; I was always dropped off by my grandma. I mean I love my grandma, but my parents were never around to even look at my homework. Which makes me wonder... why did I even do it? Haha. They never went to the parent-teacher conferences either, and I was always translating for my grandmother, so I could have gotten away with a lot of things as a kid. Darn, I could have slacked off in elementary school. Ok, back to student teaching! Yee is a very affluent public school with a strong PTA force to help the kids achieve their goals; every day I see parents waltzing around volunteering. Hell, there is a fieldtrip to the Academy of Science coming up and I can't even go as the student teacher because there are parents who have to do a lottery to chaperone! Well, fine by me. I can always go by myself outside of teaching. But man, these parents... don't they have jobs? Or other things to do? I mean it's great they can invest time and money in their kids' future... but I see a huge discrepancy between Yut and Yee. Money talks. These kids at Yee are learning more, have more resources, they get music, dance and LOTS of extra curricular activities... It's sad how the quality of public education varies so greatly even though these schools are suppose to be getting the same amount of funding from the government.

equality does not=equity

First post!

Ney Ho! Hallo! Bonjour! Konichiwa! Anyeonghasayo! Nihao!

I started this blog to record the tidbits of my teaching career. Originally, I wanted to start this last blog last summer when I started my student teaching but I got lazy and never got around to it. My first semester student teaching also ended kind of flat, with my students. I believe part of the reason was that my master teacher never really acknowledged my presence in the room; she was always doing her own thing and I was just there to help. Second, I didn't actively teacher because teaching in a classroom was still very new to me. Here's some photos from my first semester of teaching.

 Frog Puppets that lets students use their drawing and pasting creativity

English Alphabet Word Chart

Farewell Book students made me (probably forced/required by teacher but nonetheless cute)

Christmas/Farewell Gift for each student in my class (cute Japanese erasers)

As for my second semester... I am in the middle of it. I am currently on spring break, but it doesn't feel relaxing at all. I might be procrastinating, but in the back of my head I am thinking about projects and assignments I have to complete. Today, I finally did my federal taxes. That took a LONG time, calling the IRS and Turbotax. But luckily that is done with and I got a minor amount of refund back (coffee $$$).

Last week I went in to watch my kids perform-my master teacher kind of use peer pressure to guilt me into going. But I was glad I went anyways because I really do care about these kids and I want to see them perform. However, it totally messed up my Wednesday schedule and I had to scrounge back home and sleep and practically did nothing. HOWEVER, something did happen the next day during my student teaching. After school was over, the kids were saying goodbyes to their teacher, each other and they automatically (without any prompts or hints from their teacher) TO ME!!! ME!!! The student teacher! Usually I feel invisible in the class but they did it without anyone hinting or prompting them, that says alot! I hope by the end of the school year, they will learn to be more comfortable with me and talk with me. One baby step at a time. :)