Teacher Week: Open House

Today I am starting Babbling Abby's Teacher Week....one week late. I wanted to wait until we went back to work before I started this series so I could be in teacher mode. For those of you who don't know, I will be blogging about a new topic each day this week. Tomorrow is Teacher Must Haves! Stay tuned...

Today's topic is Open House. It's a little get to know you...about ME! :)

1. I am Katie. I teach 5th grade Math to all the 5th graders at my school. This will be my 4th year teaching in 5th. Previously, I taught 4 years in 4th grade teaching just about everything. Gosh, it just hit me how OLD I sound now. This is my team from last year.

2.  I have wanted to be a teacher since I can remember. I was THAT kid who took all the teachers old worksheets home and played school all night. Oh, and it was like Christmas when they would give me blank "Progress Charts" which is what they would keep all our grades on. When all my friends were probably asking for Nintendo's for presents I was asking for chalk holders and lesson plan books.

3.  I am an Oklahoma girl 'til the day I die....but I was offered a great job in Texas that I couldn't turn down...so now I'm an Oklahoma girl, living in Texas. I literally found out I got the job, drove home and had 3 days to pack up and be back down here...for good! It was a hard adjustment at first and I was as homesick as someone can be....but I love it now.

4.  I have recently been thinking about my career goals. I have no desire to go into administration, so that's out. I came across a job this summer that I was told I would be perfect for...and I agree. When I'm ready to leave the classroom, I want to be a Math Coordinator for the district.  They plan staff developments, create projects and programs and assist the teachers with new ideas when they get stuck on how to teach something. It's sounds like a good gig for me. I'm just happy I have a plan now. :)

5.  I wear a lot of hats at my school. Other than being a 5th grade teacher, I am the Student Council sponsor, Campus Technology Trainer, (I teach teachers how to do stuff computers) 5th Grade Team Leader and Multicultural Day Coordinator. Whew!

6.  The previous statement now brings me to this. Until you have been a teacher, please do not comment on our hours and summers off. We encourage, provide self esteem, self worth and pride to our kids. We stop fights, bind friendships...teach honesty, respect, responsibility and life long lessons. We are counselors, nurses, storytellers, coaches....examples. We hurt when our kids hurt, and we celebrate with them too. They are our babies from 8-3:30 Monday through Friday. And don't get me started on ALL the paperwork that goes along with this job too. I'll ust go ahead and stop now.

7. My biggest compliment was given to me by a former principal. She told me it had been a long time since she's seen someone like me. She said I was a natural and what she wished other teachers strived to be like. At the time I figured she just really wanted me to move up to 5th grade so she'd tell me anything...but then the next principal told me close to the same thing, maybe even a little better. :) Then he offered me a job at his new school in Austin. I'm on my 3rd principal now...

8.  I think my biggest strength is my creativity. I am not one to go to the teacher supply store and buy all the name tags and letters. I prefer to make mine so they will be different...and cuter. I'm also one of those people who can be given any topic...and I mean ANY, and come up with some kind of a lesson or activity. A great example would be from summer school. The World Cup was on and I was DYING to watch the US play. So, I had the kids come up with all the ways we could find math in soccer and we made posters displaying our facts...we came up with 45 of them. Then we went outside and measured the soccer field and goal, counted hexagons on the ball, etc.

9.  My mom and sister are both teachers as well. My mom is in elementary and sister is a high school history teacher.

10. I really enjoy coordinating school wide events at my school. We started College Week last year, where we all displayed our school spirit, wore college shirts and talked about the importance of furthering your education.

And my biggest event to date...Multicultural Day. This was a biggy. We transformed 6 classrooms into countries and the whole school travelled to each country learning about it, tasting food, playing games, doing craft and listening to music. It was soooo AMAZING! Here is a link to a video I made...for some reason there is no volume, but you can get the picture. Video.