Well, I finally made it. Monday, May 17, 2010 was graduation night for TEI. Everyone was there looking sharp. One of my master teachers was there and gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Graduation was followed by extra good news.... I passed PACT!! What a relief! Now it's off to find that job. Job prospects are not great in the Elk Grove School District, and in California for that matter. However, I'm confident that something will happen... it has too!
Two weeks ago, Xanthi, Ramneek (classmates), Xanthi's daughter and I went to Explorit in Davis (the website is http://www.explorit.org/, and the address is 2801 2nd Street, Davis, CA 95618). This was part of our science course, and we had to create a slide show of our visit. It was a great day, we had lunch, then met at the museum. This photo is of one the Explorit employees holding a ball python! He explained what it eats, how strong it is, its natural habitat. There were many interesting and fun exhibits where adults and children could learn and explore different scientific phenomena. The last two weeks I had my solo teaching. Generally, it went well. I had to take one day off as a mental break. However, the lessons did go well. I still have to work on my management, but I was able to practice a lot of the strategies that my master teacher has taught me. For example rewarding groups with stars, complimenting students who are doing what they are supposed to be doing. I did have to resort to bribing them with Jolly Ranchers to get them to stand in a straight line after recess. You gotta do what you gotta do! Now it's a matter of getting through the weeks remaining in student teaching, and doing 2 CAT lessons (science and social studies), and finishing up the remaining assignments. I have my Me Map due next week. Eeeek! It's a very personal assignment, but I will get through it. Almost there! Just 4 more weeks to go!
This semester has been very challenging. We had our PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers) due today. This consisted of writing and delivering 3 math lessons, video tape the lessons, writing approximately 40 pages of commentaries, and uploading several PDFs to support our work. It has been a grueling 2 months. Everything was put on hold, and put on the back burner. Since we are the first TEI cohort to have to complete this, there was a huge learning curve. The final cut video that we had to upload had to be no greater than 100MB, we didn't discover that until we were well into the project. We had to learn to create PDFs (yes, I'm one of those who didn't know how to do that). We had to write pages of reflections on what went well, and what didn't without being too self-deprecating. In the end, I got it done. The TEI program coordinator, Kathy, was a huge support, and so were my many classmates. Now onto the rest of what is due this semester. Right now, I am on spring break with a week off. Then I solo teach for two weeks! Yikes!
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