I'm a Little Late..

I'm a little late for the start of "Teacher Week", hosted by the Lovely Babbling Abby but I want so desperately to participate.. so I'm breaking the rules and I'm going to post yesterday's subject today.

Ten Things About Me as a Teacher:

1.. I will start my 5th year of teaching this August and I'm still just as excited/nervous to start the school year.

2... I always pick out my first day of school with students outfit at least a week before the first day with students.

3... My favorite part about teaching first/second grade is teaching the kids to read. I love when they come to me as non-readers or barely-readers and leave me as full blown readers. I love the growth they make both academically and emotionally. They come to me as babies and leave me as third graders! It's amazing.

4... I LOVE teaching math. I wish our math block was longer than it is. The things I could do with 2 hours to teach math! There's something about teaching math that gets me so excited and my kids have learned to love math, too. They get just as excited for math as I do. Last year I had a student write our principal a letter asking her if it would be okay to skip language arts and just learn math.

5... I loathe teaching social studies. I think it's because I already focus so much on being good citizens and social skills, that by the time social studies comes around, I'm bored with it. And I'm not a history buff by any means.

6.. I teach students who are emotionally disturbed or have some pretty severe behaviors that interfere with their ability to be educated in a general education setting. My classroom is a multi-grade self-contained classroom that is usually filled with boys.

7... I want to be a principal someday and I'm halfway through my master's in school improvement/leadership. This summer I was a site director for summer school and it was great practice. It provided me with great opportunities to see if being a principal really is something I want to do. It sealed the deal.

8.. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to school. I read, read, read anything I can about being a better educator, leader, and student. That's probably why I enjoy taking grad classes so much.

9.. I was a horrible teacher my first year of teaching. Horrible. I had no idea what I'm doing. I've improved over the years and now I think I'm a pretty decent teacher.

10.. Sometimes I feel like I can write an IEP in my sleep. (IEP's are individualized education plans-- a sort of road map for education students in special education. It outlines their strengths/weaknesses and how we are going to educate them. and it's a legal document) I can take one look at an IEP and have it basically memorized. I can also write goals/objectives for just about anything. Seriously.