Super long weekend, Love it!

Today starts the beginning of a four day weekend. We have Monday off for Memorial Day and Friday they gave as a teacher compensation day. After class tonight I am heading to NH to visit family and tomorrow I am going to a Red Sox game. Other big plans for the weekend, so excited for a break and to get away. Alot of school work to do for next week, considering it is the last week for two of my classes. Plant Biology meets for the last time Tuesday and Computer class Wednesday. I have one major project in Plant and 3 in computer. Luckily my plant project is almost done. We had to collect tree, shrub and herb/weed specimens that we had to mount and then idenitify. It was alot of work, not hard, but just took alot of time to find the specimens, cut the specimens down appropriately to fit on construction paper, mount and label. I took some time last night to do all of the identifications so I only have a few loose ends to wrap up which was a relief. Now I just need to get cracking at my computer stuff, which I seem to be making progress. Things at Troy are quickly winding down, only 8 days of classes, which is crazy to me and the Regents on June 16th. Graduation is 2 weeks from Saturday, this year has just totally flown by I can hardly believe it. No other updates to report I think. Hope everyone is staying cool and please let me know if you have questions!

Have a Safe Memorial weekend!

Last visit

  Today was my last supervisor visit most likely and last three way evaluation meeting with my mentor and supervisor. It is so amazing to me how quickly things are winding down. I am waiting in anticipation for graduation and waiting to see what pans out with jobs, please keep your fingers crossed. I must say today's meeting and observation was the best yet, I was told it was my best lesson yet, so going out on a really positive note is always a great thing. I had a great lesson with my students, they were very engaged and asking really good questions and I had their attention. The past couple of weeks have been stressful and classroom management has been difficult, so I am not sure what about today was different, but it worked and I am thankful. It was also neat to see the students having a discussion and I utilized their feedback well.
  Yesterday, I had the oppportunity to be involved in a mock interview. The Career Center here at UGC organized the opportunity for MAT students to do a panel interview with 3 individuals, most UGC alumni, to get us comfortable with the panel interviews we will be encountering when applying for jobs. It was a really great opportunity, that I am thrilled I was able to take advantage of. They asked some great questions and provided valuable feedback. I figure the more practice I get, the better I will get so that I can do a great job in an interview to hopefully get a job.
  Other than that, not too much more to report. Just working on final projects for the term and hoping to end things on a high note and be closer to a job that I will love!
  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Only about a month left

Just looked at the calendar today to notice that I only have about four weeks left until I graduate! It is hard to believe I only started this program about a year ago. It is amazing how much time flies. When they tell you the MAT Program is intense but goes by faster than you can blink it really does! It is amazing how much has been accomplished in a relatively short period of time. I am not going to lie, it is a lot of work, and most of my time and energy have been devoted to school, but to be done in one year and applying for jobs, is a time and money saver and gets the job done right, faster. And if you plan right, you can still squeeze in some fun things to keep you sane and healthy. Also, having the year long internship where most of us started teaching our classes right away, I can certainly say with speaking with prospective employers is something that truly impresses them and sets us apart. It is amazing to me after having gone through almost the entire year to imagine not having a full year internship. It has been great to be able to see the curriculum all the way through, especially since it had been approx. 5-7 years since I had dealt with most of the information in addition to seeing what types of struggles the students have as well as questions. In addition to be able to know the students, to be a constant in their lives is huge and very rewarding. I have seen a lot of growth in many of my students, and smaller growth in others, which is still progress. It is hard to imagine not walking into Troy High everyday next year, it really has become home for me. I know many of the other teachers, the hall monitors and some of the other staff, I am truly going to miss it. For those of you that are starting this summer you are in for a real journey. The summer though at times seems overwhelming was truly one of my favorite parts of the program and is just the beginning of the workload. So enjoy the summer program, take in all that you can, because it only gets a little crazier. Hopefully I will get to meet many of you over the summer as I will be working at the Graduate Center this summer, so please if you see me, say hi and ask any questions if you have any, I remember being in your shoes and the more questions you ask, the better it will be!

Hope to meet many of you soon!

Moving along

So last week's post did not publish as I thought it had so I ended up posting it today though it was last week's information (sorry about that). This week has been pretty busy so far, here I thought it was going to be on the quiet side. My supervisor came in today and I gave a quiz yesterday and I am just trying to gear up for interviews, job applications, wrapping up the school year preparing my students for the Regents, it is just crazy. As I had mentioned last Friday I had the opportunity to chaperone a field trip of my mentor's AP students to RPI. This was a lot of fun and the weather was great for walking around RPI's campus.We had the opportunity to get into the labs, where the students and myself were able to dissect fruit flies (well I attempted, it was really hard!). We were also able to see microprep, which was all the preparation needed so they could run different samples they were testing, so many steps for the small amount they end up with at the end. We also were able to see the process where they were able to test drosophila wing muscle, to see how strong they were and various other items. The students seemed really interested and was a great learning experience for them. We were able to have lunch in the dining hall, which was nice to regroup for the afternoon. Overall a great day and a great way to end the week.
   As I had mentioned a few times last Friday, was the Wine 101 hosted by our very own Dean Allen of Education. He was our host for the evening and walked us through the wine tasting process, as well as introducing us to eight wines, share what they should smell and taste like and what meals they went best with. There were also appetizers and desserts served. It was an enjoyable evening and I have some new wines to try, I am definitely a white wine fan, so there is a new one, beginning with a V that I need to go out and get. We received a booklet that listed the wines we tried and other future suggestions, which is always helpful. Great food, beverages, conversation and company. This Thursday actually marks the last TGIT of the term. It will actually be a fundraiser for the Cancer Society, so they ask us to donate $3 per student which all $ collected will go to the Cancer Society, so we are hoping for a large turn out. So I am hoping to finally make it since I have been unable to during the year. This Friday will also be our last Urban Roundtable. It is amazing how quickly things seem to be coming to a close. Only a little over a month until Graduation it is so hard to believe.

Well I think that is it for now! Please write with questions!

Busy Busy week

   This week has been extremely busy, even busier than I had been expecting, not quite sure why. I know part of the reason is my large presentation for my seminar course is tomorrow so I have been working like crazy to put the final touches on it. I really love my topic and I am super excited to talk about it, but the overall delivery always makes me nervous. I am very glad to be getting to present earlier rather than later. I feel like the later on in the term it gets, the more work there is so this is one less thing I need to do. I may have mentioned earlier that my topic is KIPP schools. One of my classmates is doing a presentation on charter schools,so I had to find ways to cover what makes KIPP different, which is easy enough to do, but just wanted to avoid any overlap. It is an hour to an hour and twenty minuted presentation, which I think to date is the longest I have had to present, so I am hoping it all goes well. Part of the presentation is supposed to be interactive, so if I planned it right takes some of the burden away from me.
   This Friday, the very much anticipated Wine Tasting event and food is being held. I have been looking forward to this for weeks and has been what I have been looking ahead to with this busy week. I will certainly let you know how it goes. Also Friday, I am helping my mentor chaperone his AP students to RPI. My mentor had worked in one of the labs at RPI over the summer and thought it would be really neat to bring his AP Biology students there for the day to tour the facilities and learn about the different research that is being done right across the street. We will also be doing lunch there, so this is a great way to end the week and I am really interested myself to see what is being done at RPI.
  Well I  think that is all for now. Hoping the weather gets warmer soon, it is freezing today.