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June 11th, 2007

andrew said :

What level are you on now in the TTT?

March 31st, 2007

hannahsugs said :

Yes, you pulled me in! I think I'm gonna get addicted to fluthering, although people don't post frequently enough to make it a very time-consuming addiction. On the Tim Tang Test, Matt and I are on level 35 now, and chugging away!

February 21st, 2007

gailcalled said :

Sarah; I have been brooding about the child you described. His condition sounds pathological, and helping him may be out of your ken; it sound as tho you have been loving and supportive and sensible w. no luck. I worked w. kids that age for a few years and then with older teen-agers...it was easier in an Independent Day School since we had a child psychologist on staff part-time. But we could always spot the kids who needed therapy or intervention w. the family.

Questions

• July 21st, 2009

  How can I patent and sell my awesome vocabulary development curriculum?

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• January 25th, 2009

  Do I need primer before I paint a patch of my wall?

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• January 1st, 2009

  Which energy-saving lightbulbs are the best?

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• December 17th, 2008

  Is the Baryshnikov Nutcracker still shown on TV?

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• December 1st, 2008

  What is the second, smaller compartment in my dishwasher's soap holder for?

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Answers

• 3 days ago

  Did you feel stupid and incapable when you student taught?

  @missjena I have several thoughts. 1. Please don’t give up! It sounds like what you are going through is totally normal. 2. It’s too bad your professors are not more supportive of what it is like to be a new teacher. I’m sure you are already aware, though, that it IS actually impossible to be a perfect teacher. Of course, it’s very possible to be an excellent teacher. But in your first year, you will be excellent at very little. (Sorry to break it to you!) Every year you will become more and more excellent at more and more things. If you really care about your work, you will probably never feel like you are “done” improving, because you will always want to tweak something, improve something, try something new. Letting go of your perfectionism, especially at the beginning, is the only way to stay in teaching. I speak from experience! 3. Learning each grade level’s curriculum is really hard. The fact that you have not seen the fourth grade curriculum before means that of course it will be a struggle to teach it. And even when you yourself can write a correct sentence with proper grammar, it is an entirely different skill to teach a student to do so. It involves understanding where that student is starting, where his/her confusions lie, what the steps are to achieving mastery, and the instructional techniques to get the student there. There is no way that you will “just know how” to teach a student something that is new to you. Even now, in my fifth year of teaching, I still struggle to figure out the best way to answer student questions, address misunderstandings, and break down new material into the logical components of mastery. Teaching is really hard. (But that’s also why we love it, right?) 4. Let the students help you. When you try to explain something and fail, ask the student what is still unclear. Tweak your explanation and try again. See what the student can do this time that s/he couldn’t do before. Keep this process going until the student is closer to understanding than before. After you have done this dozens of times, the explanations will start to come more naturally as you anticipate student misunderstandings and address them before they arise. But at the beginning, you have to build up your repertoire. It takes time. Be patient with yourself. 5. The fact that you are thinking about all of these things and taking your student teaching experience so seriously means that you care. Which means that you already have so much of what it takes to teach children well. 6. It will get easier. It will never be easy. But it will get easier. Really!
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• 1 week ago

  What's a good, healthy, non-perishable breakfast food that I can eat on the go?

  Oatmeal is yummy – you can buy it in flavored packets if that makes it more appealing – and you just add hot water (or cold water and then microwave). If you have fresh fruit around you can add it as a topping, and if not a little honey is delish instead. Sometimes I also add slivered almonds or cashews. The honey, oatmeal, and nuts are all nonperishable. Yogurt also lasts quite a long time in the fridge – close to a month. I love the “Wallaby” brand because it is not sweetened with refined sugar (instead cane juice and fruit juice) but there are tons of other brands of course. I find that a yogurt in the morning provides a lot of lasting energy. If I don’t feel like a flavored yogurt I’ll have plain with some granola on top. Again, if you do have fresh fruit in the house you can add it too. Yum!
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• 2 weeks ago

  Did you feel stupid and incapable when you student taught?

  @missjena: What exactly are you experiencing as a student teacher? Can you provide more details?
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• 3 weeks ago

  Is Jack London Square in Oakland CA a good place to live?

  I was just there this morning and was thinking how charming it is getting. You have to like the industrial chic look. The square itself is pretty – near the water with all the sailboats – shops, restaurants, etc. I believe most of the housing is condos/lofts in converted warehouses. I don’t know anyone who lives there but it certainly has a nice feeling and each year gets less industrial and more charming. You also have to like the sounds of trains as they do run right past there!
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• 1 month ago

  What's your favorite chefs knife?

  I love my Shun knives from Crate and Barrel.
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