I have been waiting to officially post the exciting news that I have been offered a K-5 position as a reading teacher! For those of you that know me well, I am somewhat superstitious about sharing updates about my job search. I keep it very private and illogically think that sharing news about upcoming interviews may decrease my chances of getting a job. With that said, I have signed the papers and have even moved some things into my new classroom. It's real now!

Becoming a reading teacher has been on my bucket list for quite some time now. I hadn't imagined I would be doing it this early in my career though! I am excited, nervous, overwhelmed, and proud. The voicemail that I received after 4 consecutive interviews feels like an award to me. Years of hard work, practicum, student teaching, writing lesson plans, college courses, more college courses, (did I mention college courses?) and workshops had led to that single moment.

I thought about all of the interviews that I had. The few that led to jobs (more on that later), and the many that led to nothing. That was the most frustrating part. In the beginning of my search, I used to get so happy that I was getting called for an interview. Naive, I would assume the position was mine. After around 30 or so interviews with no response back, my spirit was gone. I almost dreaded hearing that I had an interview. "Great. I have to take off of work so that I can just be rejected again." Why am I sharing this depressing part of my story? In hopes that it will reach other educators entering the field.

Here are some tips that I learned along the way and I feel played a HUGE part in my success in finding a job.

1) Take any and all interviews. I even went on interviews for bilingual positions just because I knew a little bit of Spanish. Yes, it was embarrassing and cringe worthy when they asked me questions in Spanish and I just stared back, but you never know what kind of doors it can open. Be honest about your credentials, but don't be afraid to put yourself out there.

2) Keep your mind open to part-time or leave positions. My first "real" teaching job was a leave replacement that was only supposed to last a few months. I ended up staying the whole year. YOU NEVER KNOW!!! It certainly was discouraging at the time. I wanted full-time and I wanted permanent but that opportunity wasn't at my doorstep. That leave replacement gave me a ton of experience and if I had turned it away just because it wasn't a full-year position, I would have missed out on an amazing opportunity. If there's nothing better, take it!

3) If you can, keep all of your work experience in education. This is HUGE. With all due respect to some of my peers, sometimes I would see friends who had their Master's in Literacy working in a clothing store. We all have bills to pay and I get that, but if it's possible, keep your work experience IN education. I worked as an educator in a children's museum, a preschool teacher at a local school, a teaching assistant in a special education classroom, and as a reading tutor. When going on interviews for permanent positions, I felt confident that I had a unique background and had lots of experience to talk about even though I had never taught officially in a public school.

4) Let your talents shine! This sounds so cheesy and cliche I know, but it took me some time to realize this. I learned sign language as a young girl and one day, I decided to put that on my resume. Ever since then, I have been asked about it on every single interview I've gone on. You may think your background in college is exceptional, but unfortunately, the job market is flooded with people with the same credentials. Find something that makes you stand out and make sure you bring it up. I highly recommend learning sign language too. Not only will it give you an edge on interviews (and in other fields as well) but I've found it to be a really useful and motivating tool in the classroom.

5) READ, READ, READ. Stay current. Follow other teacher's who you respect. Check out TpT and blogs! I really like Hello Literacy, Conversations in Literacy, Mrs Willis' Kindergarten, and The Moffatt Girls. 

6)"It's Who You Know." Many people will tell you this throughout your search.This is so very true, especially in education. And I don't mean this in the "My Uncle is a Superintendent so he will give me a job" kind of way. While certainly nepotism can be prevalent in public schools (although I've never been witness to it), that's not what I mean here. The "who you know" are the people you encounter every.single.day. Get to know other teachers in your area, make a good impression with your professors, stay in touch with your cooperating teachers from student teaching, BE NICE TO THE SECRETARY, etc. These are the people who hear about job postings, who may be on the hiring committee, or who may eventually recommend you for a position. It's like being on a constant interview.



7) Just Keep Swimming! Lastly, and this is the one I don't have an answer on how to do it, but try not to get discouraged with your search. I kept telling myself with each rejection that I
was never applying for a job again. It really beat me down into the ground when I wouldn't hear back despite thinking I had the best interview in the world. There are so many reasons why you may not get picked and most of the time you will never know why you didn't get picked. Just keep swimming!

Do you have any other tips? What's worked for you?

Weather Unit: Observations of the Wind

One more day until Spring Break at my school and I am EXHAUSTED so this is going to be a quick post. This week we've been learning all about weather and my kids are completely fascinated by all things weather. Tornadoes, tsunamis, lightning, etc. The more destruction, the better for them LOL!

In the middle of the week we did a fun observation day of the wind outside and reported the weather. It wasn't the windiest day unfortunately but it gave us some good opportunities to test the wind. Some kids thought there was no breeze at all until their paper blew off their clipboard! Then we had some kids tossing their papers into the air to see if theirs would fly too. Did I mention I'm excited for Spring Break?

Each kid had to rate the wind conditions using a modified Beaufort scale. They really like learning what the word "gale" meant. I love pushing them to learn new and interesting words that real scientists might use.

Then they had to back up their observations with drawings of visible evidence of the wind. This little girl was observing me as she drew this. Hysterical!

They also had to write 1-2 complete sentences describing the wind conditions. I forgot to get a picture of their responses. Click on the link below to get this FREEBIE! Please comment with how you used it, I hope it gives you a good excuse to get outside!

Click on the link below to be redirected to this FREEBIE!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wind-Observation-Sheet-1783486

100th Day of School!

I'm sharing this post about the 100th day of school on the...108th day of school? I'm not even sure anymore. After 100 days of being a first-year teacher, I still haven't figured out how to make time for blogging. I'd like to document this year so that I can always remember this special year. And the 100th day of school was a very special day for me! Every morning we put a sticker on our hundred chart to show how many days left until this celebration. It always cracked me up when the kids asked what would happen after the 100th day. Some thought it was the end of the year!

Anyways, it was a pretty eventful day. I was inspired by Cara Carroll on her 100th day of school blog post on doing 100th day stations. She is right that there are so many ideas for the day, it's hard to just pick a few! While I didn't make my celebration as elaborate as Cara's, I DID do stations and the kiddos loved it!!! They were so engaged the whole day.

I learned a lot about my students from watching them interact in the stations. My kids that are usually the most wiggly and distractable really enjoyed stacking with 100 cups. This was my favorite station because it got them moving, experimenting, and working together! I didn't give many instructions on what to do with the cups. I just put them out and let them explore. Some students had to use some problem solving strategies when the others in the group would try and "hoard" all of the cups. I tried to intervene as little as possible and they did great!

The 100th day hats were a hit! Next year, I'd really like to do the cute ones that have all of the stickers on them to represent 100.  

One of the littles gave me this note this morning. Love it!!! As if I would forget the 100th day of school. ;)

 "The 100 day of school is today. I can not believe it. We are going to dance and celebrate. So do not forget today is the 100 day of school."

What shocked me the most was that the class was so enthusiastic about filling in a hundreds chart with missing numbers. I thought this was one of the less exciting stations, but they were really into it. My struggling students used my hundreds pocket chart as a reference and it was really exciting to hear, "I see a pattern!"

We did a little fingerpainting to show 100 gumballs.

 Throughout the month of February we worked on creating this "100 reasons why we love first grade" bulletin. This was my favorite to create and I loved walking past it everyday. Their responses were darling! I took a photo of my favorites. Obviously, I love the one that says, "I love mi tchr because byotfol (beautiful) evre day." Apparently a messy bun and the same pants all of the time is beautiful! :) Gotta love them!!!

That's the day in a nutshell. I spent a lot of this day reflecting and carefully looking around at all that I have created, done, and worked on. It has been very hard for me not to be overly critical of myself as a teacher. I'm new, and constantly comparing myself to other teachers. It's very easy to convince yourself that you're not doing enough, to worry about if your kids are learning, and to focus on everything that is going wrong. Now that I'm over 100 days in, I now remind myself that I am not perfect. My kids ARE learning and there is proof everyday. My mantra that I tell myself is: I'm a good teacher now and I will be an event better one tomorrow. 

DIY Applique Letters - My Share Chair Project

A few months ago a friend of mine was moving upstate and was getting rid of a lot of her furniture. I can't fit anything else in my apartment but I will always accept free stuff, especially when I think it can be part of a DIY project! Along with a kitchen table and a dresser, we took 4 of these kitchen chairs. I knew I wanted to do something with them but couldn't decide on anything. 

Then, after a recent observation I had with my principal he suggested that I create some kind of "share chair" for my class. I've been trying to get them to really pay attention to their peers when they're speaking and not just me. I'm hoping making a designated spot for a sharer will help create that kind of atmosphere.

So, I immediately thought about what I could do with my extra chairs. I had just recently discovered how to do applique letters for a Christmas present so I used some left over heat n bond and had tons of scrap fabrics in my closet. If you want to try this project, you will need:

Materials needed:

Scraps of fabric 

Heat n bond iron-on adhesive (1 yard package)

Iron

The first thing you’re going to want to do is select a font. I like to choose really chunky ones for applique because it’s easier to cut out and see once on the fabric. For this product I used Hello Firstie from the amazing Jen Jones and her store Hello Literacy on TpT! Click on the link below to link to get her great fonts!

Hello Literacy Fonts

Enlarge the font to whatever size you need. Most likely you’ll need it really big. I had it on size 413! Then you’ll need to make your text backwards.

Next you’re going to need some kind of iron-on adhesive. I used heat n bond Ultrahold. You can get it at your local craft store or on Amazon.

You’re going to want to trace your letters with the bumpy side down. Sorry I didn’t get a photo of this since I’m a one woman team! Then I cut out all of the letters individually since I wanted each letter a different color. Leave some space around the edges of the letters so you have some room when cutting. Now is a good time to start warming up your iron!

Once you have picked out your fabric, lay the bumpy side of the heat and bond and iron away. It only takes a few seconds. Be careful, the fabric and adhesive get hot!

Next, carefully cut out each letter. Leave the applique on for now. You’ll take it off in a later step.

 Organize all of your letters or shapes in their places to make sure they fit and to make small adjustments. If you’re a real perfectionist, you can pin the letters so that they don’t move, but I’m not that kind of gal. J

Peel the backing off your letter or shape.

Sorry this isn't the best photo!

Place wrong side down and iron on. I spend some extra time on corners and edges because I don’t want those parts to stick up, especially since this is meant to be a chair.

And you’re done! I did end up sewing that dark blue section to the chevron because I didn’t want if to shift around but that’s optional of course. 

That's all! I hope this tutorial gave you some good ideas on how you can use applique in your projects or classroom. Feel free to comment with how you use it!

If you have any questions about the instructional, please comment or email me at workofharte@gmail.com.

Happy Teaching! :)

Weekend Writing Journal: Meet Sparky!

Our district has a two-hour delay today. Yay!!! Instead of refreshing the school website every 5 minutes to see if we have closed instead, I figured I'd update this blog.

Over the summer, I stumbled upon this post by Scholastic and was inspired to create my own class mascot. I immediately went on Amazon and bought this dude:

I introduced him to the class in the beginning of the year and he stayed on my desk for months. I got questions about him almost every single day but I never found the right time to officially introduce him. A few weeks ago, I made time for him. As a class, we came up with some ideas for possible names and then we took a vote. They came up with some really cute ones! Chubby was my favorite but in the end the class votes showed Sparky was the winner.

The kids were so excited to have a part in naming him but they were even more excited when I said Sparky would go home with them on the weekends! I bought a notebook from the dollar store and created the cover above. I laminated the cover because I know it's going to get a lot of wear and tear! Every Friday I send Sparky home in a little backpack with the journal. The students are supposed to bring it back in the next school day, usually Monday and then share with the class about what they did. 

 I created a parent letter describing the project and also included a calendar of when each student would take Sparky home. This way parents could let me know if that wasn't a good weekend (ex: going on a vacation, wedding that weekend, etc.) 

I taped this letter inside the journal so parents and students have an idea of what to write about. Now that we're a few weeks in, most of them will probably just refer to the other journal entries from students.

Here's an example of the calendar. Underneath the black is where all of the students' names are. This helps parents know when their weekend is coming up.

It has been so much fun reading the entries.  I had one student who brought it back to school without any writing. It made me a little sad but at least he brought it back! I have some student work samples below. This student really went above and beyond!

Sparky had an indoor snowball fight. So cute! 

Sparky played school and got a report card!

I put the journal in my writing center. When students have extra time or finish their work early, they can read the journal and spend some time with Sparky.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I love this project and can't wait to see what else my kids come up with! Do you use a weekend writing journal in your classroom or a class mascot?

Clipart Credit

The Vidal Scholarship Fund: Humans of New York

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

If you're on Facebook, you've probably already heard of the popular page Humans of New York. If you haven't, then stop what you're doing and go there now! I love this blog so much. Brandon Stanton photographs strangers in New Yorks and asks them deep, personal questions and amazingly finds out shocking and sometimes devastating stories. Sometimes there is a really inspiring post like the one below. He interviewed a young boy named Vidal. When Brandon asked him, "Who's influenced you most in life?" Viral answered, 

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

"My principal, Ms. Lopez."

"How has she influenced you?"

"When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter."

Little did he know, that comment about Ms. Lopez would lead Brandon to go hunt down the principal Ms. Lopez and eventually lead to a creation of an enormous fundraiser that (as I type) is at around $800,000. I'm confident it will be $1,000,000 in a few days. The funds will be used to send students on field trips to Harvard, create a safe summer program, and also be used for scholarship funds. Just amazing!

Along with the fundraiser, he has also been interviewing the staff and students at Vidal's school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy. I'm going to let the photos and stories speak for themselves. If you'd like to donate, click on this link and help send some kids to Harvard! 

https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard

 

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I grew up down the block, but I used to get bussed to school in a white area. There were always a lot of people in that neighborhood who would make us feel like we didn’t belong. They would try to send a message that blacks aren’t allowed. But the principal of the school was a Jewish man named Irving Rahinsky. And every morning, when we got off the bus, Mr. Rahinksy would be standing there at the curb, waiting for us. He would shake each one of our hands as we stepped off the bus, and he made us feel like we belonged. So now that I’m a teacher, I come in early every single morning, so that I can stand right here and make sure my students get a hug and a handshake when they arrive.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I can teach a lot of things. But it’s so hard to teach effort. It’s so hard to teach want. And there are certain days when it seems like the scholars don’t care, and you feel like no matter how hard you try, nothing is getting through, and the negative thoughts get louder and louder, and it’s easy to feel worthless. And today was one of those days. Normally I’m always the one with a smile on my face, cheering everybody up. But today was one of those days.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“Sometimes the gaps are so large, you don’t even know where to start. The lesson plan says that you’re supposed to be teaching about tectonic plates. But if they’re going to understand tectonic plates, they need to understand density. And if they’re going to understand density, they need to understand mass and volume. And if they’re going to understand mass and volume, they need to know how to multiply. And some of the scholars don’t know how to multiply. The gaps can be so large you don’t even know where to start. How do you fill the gaps created by years of miseducation? Sometimes it feels so hopeless you want to give up. But I was up at 2 AM the other night, reading all the comments people were writing on the posts about Ms. Lopez, and I just kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, and it reminded me that I have a purpose and I need to keep going.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I was a teacher in Nigeria. I had 41 students in my classroom. Most of my students in Nigeria had no shoes, no clothes, no food. Nothing, nothing. But they wanted to learn. They showed up every day wanting to learn. When I told my colleagues that I was going to teach in America, they said: ‘Don’t do it. The students there don’t want to learn. They will scream all during class.’ In a way, they were right. My classrooms in America were much different than my classrooms in Nigeria. There were fewer students, and more resources, but there was not the same desire to learn. I’ve had to learn to teach motivation. And I’ve found that the only way it can be done is to show it myself. I try to teach each child as if they were my own. If the students see that I am trying my hardest every single day, many times they will respond by increasing their own effort.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I used to be a public defender. One time I represented a man who was facing thirty years for crack possession. He hadn’t graduated from middle school, and he had a previous record with several drug charges. I worked on his case, and I managed to get his sentence reduced to twelve years. He was always so good about thanking me, and after the case was finished, he wrote me a thank you note. It really bothered me that we live in a society where this man felt he needed to thank me for getting him a twelve-year prison term. I didn’t decide to become a teacher until two years later. But I always think of that note as the turning point. I still keep it in my classroom.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

"Vidal is very loving. I sometimes worry that he might be a bit too loving, and someone will take advantage of him one day. Anything that needs to be done, Vidal does it. He does laundry. He cooks. He cleans. He always tells me: 'Mom, you rest. I'll do it.' One time he didn't have any money to get me a gift for Mother's Day, so he wrapped up some things we had around the house, and gave them to me."

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

"What's your biggest goal in life?"
"I want to make it out of the hood. I don't have to go that far. But if I can just live an inch outside, then I'll feel safe and know that I'm straight."

That last one really gets to me! I hope you enjoyed this post and feel as inspired as I do. If you would like to contribute, here is the link again! https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard

Happy Teaching!

Mrs. Wokanick

Instant Success with Happy Notes (FREEBIE)

For the first few months of school, I had a stack of readily copied behavior forms when students acted out in school. I really only used them during exteme problem behaviors like when a student would physically or verbally hurt another student. I used them for documentation, accountability, and to alert parents of a concern. They are useful and I definitely need them, but I was forgetting one very important tip I received at the beginning of the year. Don’t forget to send the positive things home too! With that in mind, I made these simple “happy notes.”

On the first day I used them, I gave them to a student of mine who may not get the most positive comments most of the time. He was so excited to get his happy note that he propped it up on the corner of his desk so he could see it all day. All it said on it was, “You’re doing such a great job!”

When he came in to school the next day, I asked him if he showed it to his mom. He smiled and said, “Yessss.” I asked him what she said about it and he shyly said, “I don’t remember” and scurried off to his seat. I continue what I’m doing and about a minute later, he came running over and said that she gave him a big hug and said, “That’s my boy!” Happy tears!! I wish I did this sooner.

 

I just copied them onto yellow paper and keep them in my desk like this.

Every now and then, I write one out and privately give it to a student at my desk. I make a valient effort to not make it a competitive thing or use it as an incentive. It’s not a prize that students get. It’s just…a happy note! :)

Click on the link below the picture to get your FREEBIE! I hope it helps increase your positive communication with students and their families.

Click for your freebie!