Meet the Teacher Monday!
Me!
Just a little slice of Florida paradise!
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Tell us a little something about you...
I'm Jess or Jessica, Jessie, Jesper, or well I can't tell you my other nicknames they are just too embarrassing. I live with my boyfriend of 5 years in a cute little house and I love our life. (Hoping for a ring…oh but we won't go there…lol) I love teaching, learning, reading, biking, boating, sunning, and recently bloggin' and Pinterest! I received both of my degrees from the University of Central Florida-Go Knights! My undergraduate degree is in Early Childhood Education (PK-3) and my Master is in Reading Education. I would eventually love to become a reading coach. I had a wonderful summer! I graduated with my Masters in May, my brother got married to a beautiful women in June, I took a fabulous trip to Costa Rica with my boyfriend in July, and got to spend a lot of quality time with my best friend, who is constantly busy because she's in med school. I just had my first day of school today and it went smoothly! I just hope that the hurricane holds off until the weekend!
How long have you been teaching?
This is my fourth year teaching. I taught a Pre-K/kindergarten mix class my first year in a charter school-CRAZY! Then I moved to a Title 1 school and taught first grade for 2 years. I just switch schools because they built a school right next to my new one and I'm on an annual contract. It actually turned out to be a wonderful decision though, I'm in a great school with lots of parent involvement (I had 6 mom's want to be room moms!) and I love the staff. I am teaching first grade again this year and I'm so happy!
You might not know...
That I originally wanted to be a music teacher…eek! I could never do that now! I played the piano for 18 years and really want to get into music education. I tried out for the program at my school and got in but then I heard all about the program. Such as you had to practice for pretty much half your day and the program was 5 years and you could pretty much kiss your social life away unless you wanted to join the music fraternity. Well that just wasn't me! I want to join a sorority and have a fun college experience without being so serious. So I learned that although music was a passion of mine it was not what I was meant to teach. I volunteered a lot in Kindergarten classes and I knew it was where I wanted to be! I just had to be in an Early Childhood classroom!
What are you looking most forward to this school year?
I'm looking forward to utilizing my parent volunteers! I have never really had parents volunteer for anything besides parties and field trips so I'm looking forward to using parents in my room. I'm also looking forward to a fresh start with a new school and a new class. My babies as I like to call my students are so wonderfully different and special this year, I know it will challenge me to be a great teacher!
What do you need to improve?
I want to improve on my organization of everything, which I have a great start on thanks to all my blogging friends. I just want to continue to stay organize and not a paper mess on my desk! I just have to remind myself every paper and thing has a home!
I also want to improve on using CAFE. I used it last year but not to the full extent and I just want to incorporate in more into my reading series. It is so hard to fit everything in to one day! I had a million activities planned for today that we didn't get done….sometimes I just need to slow down and take it easy though.
What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?
I love chart paper! I think it is essential to make anchor charts even though mine don't look that pretty.
BOOKS! I LOVE getting new books! I buy books all the time and I never think my classroom library is big enough. I actually want to get more shelves for my library. I can incorporate a book into any activity for the classroom.
I also love sticky notes! I have them in probably 12 different colors and a entire drawer full of them. I love using them for list, for the CAFE board, or sticking reading strategies to kids notebooks. I think they are so pretty and bright they just make me smile.
Join in the teacher week fun!
