A Year?!?

I feel ashamed I haven't written in almost a year! We have officially been married an amazing year and so much has happened!! (No, I am not pregnant!!). I have a teaching position, 7th grade middle school science, at one of the toughest schools in the state. It has been honestly a stressful, exhausting, and yet humbling experience. Scott and I moved into an apartment in September closer to my work and while he finished college (Class of Fall 2012 at Kennesaw State!!) We shared an amazing Christmas together at our own place, and we have a new pup! Lily is now about 9 months old, a hound-boxer mutt essentially. Still a bit of a hyper pup but she is super sweet and overall a pretty good pup. I'll post some pics soon!

It is now late April and I am proud to say we are under contract for our first house! We've been waiting on the appraisal and the underwriters and wow it is super stressful waiting.. If it is meant to happen, God will make it happen. The entire house fell into our hands and we are fortunate enough to not even need a Realtor but has still provided its bit of stress. Several people have told us that if we can survive buying a house, that will be the most stressful decision in a marriage, surviving the purchase means you will have a strong, long marriage  At this rate I definitely believe it! I've got so much to tell you all but for now I'll leave it as is and write a few more posts in more detail on the other subject matter :)

Financial Peace University - Debt Free 2014

Scott and I invested in purchasing the Financial Peace University home kit for Christmas last year. We started the session in January and that started a crazy journey together. If you know anything about Dame Ramsey's Financial Peace University, it has baby steps to getting out of debt and growing yourself financially.

Baby Steps:
1. $1000 in an Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt with debt snowball
3. 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of income into ROTH IRA or retirement
5. Begin college funding for children
6. Pay your house off early
7. Build your wealth and give!

We had baby step 1 knocked out! Though, it was difficult to move forward to step 2 paying for a wedding though.

It took us until June to get back on track. Now here's where some tricky things come into play - neither of us got a paycheck in June. So we plan and intend to pay off debt but are stuck in place until pay comes at the end of July. The goal though is to pay off ALL student loans, the new car, and credit cards within 2 years! The house will be in the mix of this at some point but that is still on hold until I am placed in teaching.

July 2012 is our official starting point. The goal is to be debt free by December 2014.
Ready, Set, Go

Control Freak

The idea of Locus of Control  – If you can’t control it use creativity and flexibility, work around it! Find a solution! It’s our responsibility. And this idea totally makes sense. We are here to change the status quo. Of course there will be hurdles but our problem solving; our creativity is what will make the distinction of good and great teacher.

I wish I had heard this term previously because I think it is a great lesson to apply to any part of life. You definitely cannot control everything, but what you can control, you take care of and make it the best it can be.

 It is midsummer – July to be exact. I have not been placed. I received transitional funding and we are not even touching it to ensure I don’t have to pay it back if I don’t get placed. It is one of the most stressful times right now for Scott and I. This past month neither of us earned a pay check. I won’t be paid until mid-late August. He won’t until the end of July. We’ve got one month left of budgeting like crazy before funds start coming in, but the worst thing is that I have not been placed. The whole scene in Atlanta is incredible. It seems like all the districts are either in a hiring freeze or have turned away from TFA. It’s a really tough situation to be in, and the only response I am getting is we are working on it. The update this week – principals are on vacation for July 4 week. Lame but understandable. Here is where the locust of control comes in… I cannot control when I get hired but I stay invested. I continue learning all I can for my students and collecting everything I need for my class. Most importantly, I pray. I pray because I feel like God has brought me this far for a reason. God has placed me on this path to make a difference and I pray he will let me bring the biggest change I can by placing me this Fall.

I had many people negative and positive telling me about Teach for America. And I do understand both ways, essentially it is a gamble. I quit my paid job for a career that may not even pull through. But I think things happen for a reason, and Teach for America is just another stepping stone in my journey.

Black Belt Scholar

There are a few things that make a teacher incredible, ways to essentially grade yourself on a rubric to see if you are on the track to success in being the best teacher for the students. One is the Culture of Achievement (I’ll go in more detail later) which describes how engaged your class is with the material and their level of understanding. It is a goal of TFA  that all teachers create a culture of compliance and on task, meaning the students are understanding materials and students are staying on task. There is a general interest of the subject. I personally float around this area- sometimes better, sometimes worse. Another way of measuring is your ability to plan, invest, and/or execute with your students. I am still growing in planning and execution, but Alex and many of my peers say I am really good with my investment. You know you are always hardest on yourself, but I am still on the so so about how I feel regarding my investment plan. I created the Black Belt Scholars Program in which students can earn smiley stickers by staying on task, participating, having moments of maturity, etc. With every 4 stickers a student can earn a rank (a color ribbon). By the end of the summer, if they all earn black then there will be a mini black belt ceremony. I will tell you my students are definitely about getting those stickers! Several are super excited about getting their “black belts” in a few days. I feel like my connection from the Black Belt program to my classroom vision is disconnected – but it may be because I am disconnected from my classroom vision which is ever changing. Not sure best way to approach that but maybe to write the vision on a white board that can be changed… But these type of things are to be implemented for my classroom in the fall. I’ve actually been thinking, since I do have a full year to work with to try and incorporate character building lessons with Black Belt Scholar to truly have a holistic program incorporating behavior, academia, and social skills. This character initiative would involve a word of the month, perhaps Power Up activities based on the word, if possible incorporation of the word into daily use of labs and activities, and maybe a student of the month that demonstrates the word (this would include if possible a letter from me, letter from the parents, and a letter from the principal).

Daily Life of Institute

The thought process of TFA is as follows: Teach very basic info, throw teachers into the classroom, then help them learn from mistakes, and then give more tools! It's definitely a lesson learned and I truly appreciate the way they do it as well. We learned literally how to lesson plan and create a goal prior to our first day of teaching. Materials we learned through out sessions in Institute seemed to build up on each other. With every new thing everything started to connect; think of it as if you were handing me puzzle pieces and I was getting enough to finally start to see the big picture. 

My CMA (supervisor) Alex is truly an incredible person if you ever have the chance to meet him... He teaches in New Orleans and I believe he is transformational! Alex provided us with a notebook on the first week to write stories, take notes, have students write in it, or journal about good things my students did. I used it for all the above and even did reflections on journals that people wrote. I am going to type up a few of the day's reflections on here for you to see my thoughts... 

DAY 1 Reflection

The hands system works awesome (finger system if a student needs to use restroom, sharpen pencil, ask question, etc)! I never would have thought but it is true, kids love cheesy things! I feel like the BMS (Behavioral Management System) is stupid - well maybe just unnatural.. I need to try narrating maybe it will help. My students are fantastic though! Very smart and Polite! Overall today went well. I need to figure out why my boys take so long to test take... 

That was it. At this point I was teaching 7th grade life science; I was overwhelmed, and I was excited. I was all ready problem solving how to make these more effective students. It was definitely an overemotional day and was even better when we arrived back to GA Tech to a group of TFA members congratulating us on our first day of teaching! The energy from them really fed into the fire and excitement for the next day.

Day 2 was definitely more student focused on their futures and their goals.

DAY 2 Reflection

Today was amazing! All the kids were involved in our diffusion and gummy lab! I had 2 female students reach their orange rank today J One wants to be a teacher and I think she will definitely get there! DC (names initialed/changed) is so smart and she understands all the concepts really well! She wants to be a nurse, and I hope I can guide her to that path. I’m struggling to reach out to KS and AC. Tomorrow I’ll make sure to find a way to give them smileys. I also want to help DM become more refined. She is a great student, very smart, but can be too dramatic. If she channeled differently, she would do even more amazing! I’m going to do my best to get ahead in my lesson plans AND study for the GACE. I asked the students what college they want to go to, and I will use this as motivation too. I want to print the logos and tape them to the desks so it serves as a daily reminder to them.

KD asked me after class if I was going home – I responded no, that I was going to work on the lesson plan for the next day. He responded cool. It was a super simple conversation but completely amazing considering KD was one student I was worried about in regards to being invested in class. I was super excited...

Things began to make sense as the week went on with more growth, learning from mistakes, and trying new things. The following week was a drastic change, one I would never have imagined. Due to lack of students and too many teachers, classes were combined. Monday I started with a brand new group of students teaching 6^th grade science. My class size grew from 8 to 16! It was a huge difference in the level of understanding and maturity too. I decided, earth science being my specialty that I would start the first day with a bang. I planned a sedimentary lab using playdoh.

DAY 6 Reflection

Today is definitely a new beginning! Started 6^th grade Earth Science with 13 new kids and I taught them sedimentary rock. We did a lab where they had the opportunity to create the “rocks” with playdoh, rock bits, and sand. Overall it was awesome! I was worried I had the bad kids, the bullies, the rebels (gossip travels around teachers)…. I talked to some students at lunch and they just don’t like science, but of course math is easy for them! Well, they were awesome for me. I believe I got them invested and did not have a problem because of it. Alex overheard “science is going to be awesome” and I overheard “she is a cool science teacher” J  I am so pumped! I am going to work on my key point connection, giving instructions, and keeping engagement with fun materials.

Teach for America - Metro Atlanta Corps 2012

Metro Atlanta Institute 2012. Wow. I can't even begin to fathom the incredible journey I've taken thus far, and I still have a week of institute left! It's incredible to think I have been teaching summer school for 3 weeks… legit, in front of a classroom! The experience has tested me, stressed me, and impressed me. I have met some incredible people that I will probably be close to for the rest of my life! I can't even imagine what Scott thinks I'm doing or what my family thinks for that matter but maybe this will help explain a bit more. It started with a week of instruction for us... 

5:40am my alarm clock goes off and surprisingly I didn't hit the snooze. It may have been my nerves but I was up and ready in no time. I catch the bus at GA Tech to ride to my school site for the first time - King Middle School, named for MLK Jr. Not knowing a single person yet when we arrive, I am freaking out in my head. We arrive and walk into a room filled with roughly 35 corp members and staff. That first day we shared our personal stories with complete strangers and began to investigate the strange world of teachers, and to my surprise I was excited, I was ready for the rest of the adventure to begin. That night I even had an hour long conversation with my aunt (also a teacher) trying to dig up as much advice as I could, to be the best that I could. That was the goal to be the best... things definitely change!

The achievement gap seems like such a common sense but there is sooo much under the surface that most people don't realize. Ignorance is bliss right? But that's not fair to children, especially those that don't even have the opportunity to do as much just because a single teacher would not invest in them. We heard story after story about students who could not read that were graduating high school (not sure how the teachers passed them!), the cheating scandal in APS, and even the fact that they predict the number of needed jails by 3rd grade reading level is outrageous. But it’s all true and it’s a shame that while our country is focused on passing pointless laws, fighting unnecessary wars, we have a huge movement on our hands to change the future of not only our children but our nation! The best nation in the world and we are struggling to educate our students in STEM... Really? (but that’s another rant) We also heard story after story of the local community wanting teachers who were excited, willing, and those that will make change. That's where TFA steps in, where I think my calling is to... 

TFA is pushing for transformational leaders, not only having students pass classes, but truly changing their future possibilities, AND having those students advocate for themselves and others. Setting HUGE Visions and even BIGGER goals! The thing that pushes us over the edge I believe is the passion, the fire we all have to fix the problem. My spark - Every child deserves to be encouraged and loved to be better. Every child has the right to be whatever they want, and I may be the only one to provide that opportunity in their lives. We saw some examples of students and teachers on that path - it only inspires me further! One Day is Today is the motto because Every Day Matters!! (I saw a shirt that said Carpe EVERY Diem and I want it!!)

So that being said, what have I done? How have I grown? What have I changed if anything? What will I do? So many questions and I think the best way to answer is just to tell you my story. 

House Hunting Continues

House hunting is definitely an emotional roller coaster!  You fall in love with a house but its not a guarantee you will get it. It's a long waiting game - well torture game. You would think a bank would want to make the money and get rid of the house but instead it seems to be on the backburner. AND then you have those realtors who make it a game, dangling an awesome home over several potential homeowners and investors. I know its a game of free market but how can I even compete when I cannot pay as much as others. Are you going to deny me a good house in a good neighborhood because I don't have the income? And by good I don't mean a pool, huge yard, and fancy cars... I am talking about safe, no shootings, no flood plain, etc. This first time home buyer is getting discouraged being outbid by investors and having houses taken from under my feet.

We put an offer on a house.. cute little place with a small but private back yard. I know we had to be one of the first to put an offer but you know how it goes.. The Realtor is waiting to receive offers to essentially choose the best. Should you not at least consider the offers that came in first?

It's a double edged sword. Scott and I are frustrated enough but it is a lesson in trust as well. God will provide. He has the right house for us and we have to have patience and trust in Him.