Sunday, February 12, 2012

Class Picture!!

WARNING!  Cute kids lie ahead. Please use Adorable Shield when viewing image.  

We finally got our class pictures and teachers also get a free copy of this one!  I looked at all the pictures and realized that Brady is still on it.  I miss that kid.  I hope he's doing well at his new school.  And our new girl, Lizzy isn't on there.  :(  


Our class Valentine's party is this Tuesday afternoon and I'm so excited!!!  I can't wait to hand out my Valentines and get all their cute ones!  The party should be fun, I've got lots of fun games planned for them. One of my room moms has her birthday on the 14th and she's going out of town so the other room mom and I have been planning.  Usually I just get an email saying to hand out a note and that everything's taken care of, but this time I actually got to help plan things.  Mrs. Larson is in charge of the decorating Valentine's Boxes and I'm in charge of the games.  I found this one that I'm really excited about.  You split the class into groups and then give each student a straw.  The objective is to get all your Q-tips (or Cupid's Arrows) into the bucket placed a few feet away from the group.  I tried it this weekend and it's super fun to shoot the "Arrows" through the straw/blow-gun.  I can't wait to see me kids try it!  I've also got three jars full of candy that they can use their estimation skills to guess how many pieces are in each (see you can still do MATH during a PARTY!)  The winner will get to keep the jar of candy.  It should be fun!  I'll  be sure to take lots of pictures so you all can see how it goes.

In other news, last week I had an interview with the head of hiring & firing for all Elementary Schools in the district.  Our district has a screening process that you have to go through before you are eligible to interview with a principal.  I know its early but he wanted to get all the Intern screening interviews done early.  I won't lie...I was pretty scared out of my mind but somehow I did really well.  He was very personable and the interview was conducted in more of a conversational way (versus Q&A session).  He would usually respond personally to the answers that I provided.  During the interview, you get a score on how well you answer what he is looking for.  While I met with Kyle, Jennifer took my class.  After both mine and Jessica's interviews were over, Jennifer then met with Kyle and our principal, Michele.  They talked about our scores and then Michele and Jennifer talked about possible openings for next year. When Jennifer came back to talk with me right before our lunch, she said that I had scored really well.  There's a possible 50 points that you can earn and she couldn't tell me the exact score but she said that it was in the 40s.  YAY!  Kyle also mentioned at the end of our interview that I was very well situated and that I had no reason to worry.  He would gladly recommend me to principals for possible job openings within the district.

I also had my second round of JPAS observations with my principal.  And I got those scores back too.  They were pretty much the same as last time and she was very impressed.  On a range of not effective to highly effective, my overall score was barely in the highly effective range.  Michele said that a score that high for a first year teacher, especially an intern, is very impressive.  We talked a little more about where the scores came from and then we veered to next year.  She asked what grades I would be willing to teach.  We don't know yet what will be available for next year, but she just wanted to know so she could keep her options open!!!  :)  That sounds like a pretty good sign!

I'll keep you posted!

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