Welcome to my blog, an experiment in reflection for my first full year in the classroom. Before I get into that, I should explain 1) where my blog name came from and 2) what I'm doing.
1) Basket was my nickname during my Americorps program, and it's kind of stuck. I quite like it, and well, Book is another nickname of mine - so I combined them. 2) I'm living in New York City and participating in a program - Urban Teaching Corps (you can check out their website here).
As for living, my apartment is wonderful, I am fully in love with it and the area. There is a bakery near my place that legitimately sells EVERYTHING for $1! It's a blessing, and there are many grocery stores and places to get food, which was essential! For the space that I can call mine, here are some pictures, though they are fresh from when I moved in and it is no longer as sparkly clean as it was - though I'm doing fairly well on the clean front!
Going more into the teaching portion: I'll be working with another teacher in their ELA classroom in a middle school in Inwood, basically at the top of Manhattan. To preserve the safety and confidentiality of the school, my colleagues, my students, and their families, I will refer to my school as IMS (Inwood Middle School). Remind me of that, I'll probably need it! Additionally, any names that get mentioned in this blog, outside of my own, of course, will be reduced to initials.
I was supposed to start a graduate school program this past week, but some stuff came up (mostly my already licensed self) and I no longer qualified, so I'm going to another program in the spring. I'm rather happy for this, considering I'll have time to adjust to being in the classroom and the environment of my new school, as well as getting ready to go to school. I really have to fill out that application...
But, anyway, I have to say, I'm completely freaked out. Tomorrow is the first day of teacher training and I'm both super excited and super nervous. I want to make a good impression and I hope my mentor teacher likes me and is supportive.
Going into this experience, I want it to be completely different than student teaching was. Through several presentations during our summer training, I know it's possible that I can set the mood and tone for what I want this year to look like, and for that, I am glad. When I student taught, I don't think I had that mindset at all. I also didn't go into an environment that necessarily wanted me (my cooperating school was begged, at the last minute, to take me because everything else fell through) and a teacher who did not necessarily see the opportunity as a time to teach me, but as a personal vacation for her.
This time, I am hoping for something different. I have a variety of skills already, and I know that this year will strengthen them and give me new skills as well.
But, I want to start with something new, and fresh, so I want to set a goal for this week, which, I will be blogging about as I go!
For the week of August 5:
I would like to be present and attentive to all of our professional development sessions (as hard as that is) and learn at least 10 things (boiling down to 2 a day) about my cooperating teacher.
I'll let you know how things go tomorrow!
-Jessica
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