Vanessa Pierce

Hello all!

Well, after two happy snow days (happy that we had snow days–I was sick in bed), I came back to the students, and were they wound up!  Yes.  We worked on problem solving, which by itself might be considered boring, but coupled with snow outside and wound up kids, was booorrrrriiinnnggg.  Talk about not being able to engage students!  I mean, they did what I asked of them, and with “minimal” complaint, but there were no fireworks.  Pretty sad, too.  Yesterday was my last day with the kids.  I said goodbye (with 20 seconds left in class–no crying here!) to all of my classes.  I got a few hugs from students, which was sweet.  I love hugs (who doesn’t know that?).  

My mentor teacher made a little bound book with all my students’ pictures and had them all sign it.  Pretty wonderful!  Talk about an ego booster.  :)  Ms. Pierce, we love you.  Ms. Pierce, you’re the best.  Ms. Pierce, we’re going to miss you!  Hooray!  I’m going to miss them too.

I was really hoping that today was another snow day, not that we needed any dangerous weather or anything like that, but I really wasn’t feeling up to going back to school today.  I actually woke up without a voice.  Awkward.  So, I “emailed in sick” today.  First time doing that.  Oh, boy.  I’m sick enough on the “last” day to not go into school.  Well, that’s okay.  We assumed that yesterday would be my last day anyway.  :)  

Things I’ll certainly miss:

Waking up with first period (or at least watching them wake up)

Trying to calm down sixth period.  They’re too excited at the thought of leaving for the day!

Endless high fives.  I just hold up my hand, and someone will high five it.

The students who are patient with the others and who might actually want to learn…

Being funny with the kids

The staff (immensely going to miss!).

And about a thousand other things.

Well, now it’s my turn.  Maybe soon we can all be getting paid to do this thing that we so love!  Hip hip hooray!

May we all keep pressing on to higher and higher places!

Peace and joy to you all!

Happy last week of teaching, all!

Sad last week of teaching, too.  I have separation anxiety.  I don’t like being or coping with out things that I love and need.  In undergrad, I had my math classes with three guys. Towards the end, there were just three of us in the class: me, another lady, and my math buddy Daniel.  Daniel graduated before me, and after spending three days a week with him for two years, well, the withdrawal was unbearable.  I started healing (read: repression) about two weeks after the misery.  Okay, so maybe I get a little obsessed with my friends.  

What I’m thinking about is how difficult it is going to be to make the change…No longer seeing “my” students, no longer seeing you guys.  Luckily, Christmas is just after our graduation.  I will be overwhelmed with family, so the “let down” of having this change will be easier.

So, just to make sure that you’re aware:  I’m going to miss you guys!

This last week, I’ve been “warning” my students that my last day is going to come.  Some students are getting excited for a change.  Some are acting sad.  Some are actually sad.  I’m sad (yet happy to go, too).  Even though they’ve known from the beginning that I was going to leave at Winter break, it’s still like a shock to them.  Ms. Pierce, why are you leaving us?  Don’t you like us?  My response always is, well, you guys know that I love you, but it’s my time to move on and get my own job.  I’m going to miss you, but let’s enjoy our time together.

I wish I could do something great and memorable and fun for them before I leave.  I just don’t think I have the funds or creative thought to bring it into being in the next five days.  Oh well, kids are forgiving…

I look forward to the next time we meet!  I hope you all have a wonderful last week with your students and future colleagues.  

Hello all!

Happy Beautiful December!  I honestly never thought I’d make it this far.  I mean, in life, in this year, in this program.  What a delightful thought: I can hold on until the end!  What hope!  

I just got done grading 80 tests on graphing.  I didn’t calculate the average.  But, on the tests where students got less than 50%, I wrote “please see me” at the top.  There were a LOT of those.  Super-scary!  I asked my roommate (who is a teacher) what he thought, and he’s like, well, it could be your teaching (ouch) or it could be the students (ok, not so bad), or it could be the test (hmm…).  I think it is the test.  I’m not just copping out, truly.  I know that the test was difficult.  I mean, if you know your stuff (first you graph the y-intercept then you do the slope), then you’d be fine.  My classes and I repeated the “mantra” First you graph the y-intercept then you do the slope, like 25 times over the course of learning this graphing jazz.  One would think they could do that.  But Ms. Pierce, what the heck is slope?  :(  Okay, so, I’m considering re-teaching the main topics from this test.  Graphing with slope and y-intercept, graphing with x-and y-intercepts, reviewing what is slope.  Really, that’s about it.  

Okay, awkward.  Should I re-test them on the material if/when I “re-teach” it?  Is that considered punishment?  

On a completely different aside, I am going to absolutely miss these kids.  (we call them “kiddos” in my school)  It’s highly possible that I’ll have withdrawals from not seeing them.  I had withdrawals from not seeing you guys during summer.  I mean, it’ll be hard to get over not seeing these kids everyday, but then also “losing” you guys.  Not fun.  Dang.  The gravity of the situation is beginning to pull.  We’ll have to be sure to give one another addresses and phone numbers…

Well, my friends, just a few days left.  I hope everything is going smoothly for you all as we wrap up our existence as student teachers.  Peace and strength to you all this week!

Warmly,

Vanessa

Hi all!

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!  Hooray!  Three more weeks of teaching, and then we are graduates!  Hip hip hooray!  We’re gonna make it.  We’re gonna make it!  We’re gonna make it! (said to, of course, the tune of “I think I can” from the little engine that could)

I’m sincerely excited to graduate.  I am growing a little anxious, though, at the thought of starting out on my own.  I am wondering if I’ve learned enough to carry me through.  With all the technology and other mediums besides pencil and paper out there along with the millions of activities online that I can access, will I be crafty enough to incorporate them into the lessons to make learning math fun for my future students?  Right now, I feel as though I’m flailing about as I try new activities and mediums besides pencil and paper.  Will this feeling of falling/failing/flailing cease ever?  I hope so!  Although I am growing acclimated to the extreme stress I feel, I do not want to become a stressed-out person who may burst at any time.  (not good for anyone involved)

So, on Wednesday, I watched my mentor teacher utilize individual white boards with the students.  We’re working with graphing, and she had them write down the slope and y-intercept on the white boards, and then draw the corresponding graph on the reverse side (it’s a blank white board on one side and a white board with a green coordinate grid on the other side).  What a perfect way to assess the students.  Why the heck didn’t I think of it?  Will I remember the resources at my disposal?  Will I remember to incorporate them into my lessons?  I sure hope so!

I have been having nightmares about teaching.  So, I haven’t been sleeping very well lately.  That can’t be good, right?

Thank goodness there are Christmas songs playing everywhere.  Songs make me happy.  

I feel as though in the past couple of weeks I have been filleted open and all that is wrong with me and the way that I try to teach has been exposed.  I feel that I’m going to need some closure here soon.  Like literally and figuratively.  As I said earlier, it seems to me as though I haven’t learned enough to carry on.  If all of my short-comings are exposed now, when are they going to get wrapped up and made better?  You know, I have only 3 more weeks of teaching left.  Will that be enough time to bring myself and my teaching strategies (along with classroom management) up to the standards necessary to get my initial license?  Lord, I hope so!

Well, there we go.  That’s fun and uplifting.  

Continue to take care of yourselves.  I look forward with great anticipation to the next time we meet!

May this week bring you peace!

Happy December!

Hi all!

So, on Thursday, I had a serious talk with my 3rd period class.  They’re seventh graders and several of them have challenging behavior issues.  So, I was thinking that morning, what if something happened to me in that class?  Would the students know what to do if there was an emergency?  One student knew how to pick up the phone and dial 9-911 (but didn’t know how to get an outside line).  I explained how to call the office, using the “emergency button” on the wall, and if there was an emergency, that I’d need one of them to be responsible and call the office.  All of the students were perfectly well-behaved during this non-math talk, which made me pretty pleased.  I’m glad to know that at least a couple of the students in that class could help out in an emergency.

The new district goal is that next year, all 8th grade students need to be in Algebra 1, high school algebra 1.  So, in an effort to accomplish this, I am pushing my “average” seventh grade math class to higher and higher levels to prepare them for algebra.  It’s not going as good as I would have wished.  During the last chapter, we learned equations and inequalities.  So, instead of stopping at two-step equations I taught them how to combine like terms and simplify before solving equations (including the distributive property).  Okay, so they complained a lot during that stretch.  I felt really bad for them.  Now, we’re learning graphing in the coordinate plane.  Rather than stopping at just making tables for the graphs, I taught this third period how to graph using the y=mx+b form, using the y-intercept, and also using the x- and y- intercepts.  Again, I feel so bad for them.  It is really difficult stuff to conquer, and yet my mentor teacher and I agree that we need to push them to this level to prepare them for algebra.  I talk to the kids and tell them that I know this stuff is difficult.  I know also, though, that they can do it.  We’re going to be reviewing a lot the next couple of weeks.  I hope that helps…

Well, I’m beginning to count down our days again, this time out of excitement!  We have 26 more days until we graduate, 16 of which are teaching days.  :)  Hooray!

We can persevere until the end!  I wish you all peace this week!

Happy Thanksgiving…

Hello all!

I had conferences last Thursday night and will again next Tuesday.  As can be expected, most of the 19 slots were filled with parents who are actively involved in their students’ educational careers.  I must say that having my mentor teacher nearby, seeing what she said to difficult parents, difficult things to say to parents, and the positive things to say, well, that was a necessary experience.  I wouldn’t want to be a teacher without seeing what might happen.  

My Dad tells me often that I am his greatest investment.  The greatest investment of these parents is the student who I have in my class.  Good way to look at it.  When they get irate or frustrated or joyous at the outcome of their child’s achievement, well, it makes sense.  I can’t hold anything against them.  But, it is comforting to know that the principal and vice principal are nearby in case there is a serious situation where I feel threatened.  I hope that is how it will be when I get a job at a school–protection you know.  :)

I am looking forward to next week’s conferences, getting the chance to meet the parents of my students.  Hooray!

I hope this week brings us all peace and joy.  

So, for our halloween social, I volunteered to help supervise the pumpkin carving contest.  About two days before the social, I realized that pumpkin carving involves sharp instruments.  So, now I’d be stuck supervising middle school students with knives.  Great.  Why couldn’t I have picked working with the cake walk or supervising the game room?  Or, I could have been a hall monitor or watch the students in detention.  Oh well.  I realized that if students got hurt, I’d know what to do.  So, on halloween, I was pretty pleased with the results of only one kid cutting her finger.  The knife broke inside the pumpkin and she tried to get it out.  Cut herself.  She washed up and there were Band-Aids close by.  No biggie (at least I didn’t cut myself).  

During the social, I got hugs (side hugs of course) and high fives from many students.  Can I re-iterate how much I enjoy being outside the classroom?  Seeing kids in the hall and walking by other classrooms and on field trips and at halloween socials…well, it’s just a different feel.  Much more relaxed.  No standards, no requirements, no need to be completely formal and stiff.  It’s nice.

So, for halloween, I dressed up (in an actual dress–an extraordinarily rare event) as a princess.  What a fun time–seeing all the kids dressed up as something other than a middle school student.  There were so many vampires around me.  I was constantly reminded of the saga by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse/Breaking Dawn).  It was difficult to keep my mind focused on the task at hand.  Thankfully it was a half day, not much learning going on.  :-)

I hope all of you are well, and thriving in your positions!

Hi all!

Happy almost Halloween!  I’ve been finding an excess of candy in my house for the last couple of weeks.  My roommates have just as much self control as I do, knowing that the giant bag of chocolate assortment delicious candy resides in the closet under the stairs (we keep it there for Harry Potter).  Death by chocolate, maybe not, but tooth decay by chocolate–perhaps.  

Anyway, to plunge forward to why you’re actually here…

A few weeks ago I had my third period class come up with “what it means to act respectful in the math classroom.”  We brainstormed individually and then as table groups (4 students) said everything on our list making sure that each person had a complete list of all ideas at that table.  We then as a class came up with 8 ways to act respectful.  I put them on a poster, and each day I hang them up in the classroom.  Some days, having the students read the “acting respectfully” poster does nothing.  The students do not act respectfully what so ever.  But lately, I’ve been targeting one of the eight ways to act respectful and asking students what that means to them.  This started when a volunteer read the first one on the list, listening with open ears, and then another volunteer read the second one, respecting other people and their property.  While the second volunteer was reading, several students were talking.  I then asked the class, what does number one say?  When should we listen?  Just to me?  What about when others are talking?  Will that be respectful to that person if he/she is talking and you’re talking?  So, that worked pretty well!  On Thursday, the smartboard kinda crashed.  My whole lesson was prepared for it (all of my lessons are on the smart board–oh, how I miss the white board!).  So, as I was restarting my computer and letting everything rest, I had the students take one whole minute of silence to read the list to themselves.  All eyes had to face the poster.  I was amazed by their ability to stay silent for the whole minute.  So, I restarted everything and as it was taking longer than a minute, I asked for volunteers to tell me what “Be your best” means as one of the ways to act respectfully.  I got a good range of answers from always be on task to don’t give up to stay focused and try.  That day, those students were participating appropriately–no blurt outs, lots of raising hands, staying focused.  It was good.  No, it was great!  So, although it’s taking a long time with lots of effort to have the students model respectful behavior, it’s worth it!

Well, good luck this week!  May you all avoid tooth decay!  :)

Hello all!

My mentor teacher suggests that I try to see the positive behaviors in my students rather than all the negative.  So, the other day (Friday), during 6th period, I tried to get the class’s attention, to no avail.  So rather than try again, I walked around the room, and acknowledged the students who were sitting quietly, waiting to learn.  It seemed that having me away from the front of the room actually made the talking increase.  So, I raised me voice and said something profound like, “guys, it’s been 4 minutes and you all are still talking.  Don’t you think it’s time to learn?”  

I’m thinking about bringing in rose-colored glasses.  The ability to see what I want to see would be nice.  Acknowledging students for their good behavior, and maybe the naughty behavior would stop.  Most of who I am revolves around being nice and encouraging and offering positive support.  Hmm, in the classroom, though, it’s extremely difficult to offer the students acting appropriately the positive support that they deserve.  It seems that negative behavior gets my attention a whole lot more frequently than appropriate behavior.  It’s going to take some work.

Imagine that, more work.  ;-)

Do any of you have any ideas as to what I can do to balance the acknowledgement of students who are acting right, and the behavior correcting of the other students?

Thanks!  I wish you all peace!

Hi all!

So, Thursday was an all-school field trip for Kennedy.  The students (and staff) had several choices for trips to attend.  There was rafting, hiking, horse-back riding, trip to Florence, to Newport (aquarium), Sand boarding, jewelry making, and bowling/putters.  So, I went on the putters/bowling trip (by default, but with kids is definitely my top choice).  About eight students, of the 47 who were on this trip, are in one of my classes (either than I teach or that I observe).  So, there were a bunch of students that I didn’t know.  Well, I must say that students (kids) like to be outside the classroom.  I had so much fun, and was able to cheer on the kids with the bowling and the arcade games (not so much the golf)!  It was remarkable!  I was able to connect with several kids, and it really made me happy.  Yippee!  I think that anytime we are outside our classroom, and able to make connections, that it leaves a lasting impression.  Maybe I’m being a little over-zealous, but I think that the kids really enjoyed spending time with me and visa versa.  

Another little note about being outside the classroom.  I went to the mall on Saturday (I am in desperate need of clothes that fit and look nice) and ran into 3 of my current students and one of my former students (from Elmira).  All in one day!  All over the course of like 2-3 hours.  Eek!  I will now vow to never leave the house in a “less-than-professional” state.  I’m always excited to see people that I know, truly, but I was a little out of my element when I didn’t have the safety of my “authority” inside the school walls.  It was an odd feeling.  

This weekend has given me a lot to think about in regards to teaching and maintaining my role as a citizen.  I mean, I have to shop.  I cannot hide from people that I may see.  Remember when Nancy was telling us about being famous.  That’s dawning on me now.  Not that I have anything that I do that I need to be ashamed of, but I like to worry.  What if the kids saw me shopping at Victoria’s Secret?  I had a bridal shower to go to this weekend, and was looking for a gift.  See, I’m even justifying to you, and you’re my friends.  I’m just giving more thought to “how upright of a citizen do I need to be.”

All just thoughts.  I hope you all can remain in peace.  Only 69 more days until we graduate!  Hallelujah!