Pointless Announcements

I just got an award for hitting 1000 posts. So, uh, go me.

Sometimes I think I should contribute more around here. Then I think, fuck it. I make it work, what more do you want from me?
--- merged: Jun 5, 2013 at 5:23 PM ---
To celebrate this momentous occasion I'm in chat. None of you are. Fuckin get it together, guys.

 

Dear God, the thing is 77 pages long after double-spacing, and I haven't even added my reflections yet. I've got to BS some stuff later. At least it's all in one document now. I just need to add my appendix and then I'm ready to print!

 

My husband is home. Now I can get things done.

 

I saw one of my favorite college professors this afternoon at the coffee shop. He was deep in conversation with one of the instructors in the department, so I didn't get a chance to say hello. However, it really made my day to see he's still around.

 

I finished my first work sample today. It's 140 pages long including the appendix. It was 124 pages without the appendix. That's a lot of bullshit.

In case you were wondering, teachers have to show they know how to teach before they can get licensed. One of the ways we do this is through a work sample. All universities have different requirements. The requirements of my university are very stringent and there are a lot of them. Fortunately, many of the pieces are things we practice in classes before beginning the student teaching portion of our program. A work sample typically includes a setting, which details the school, classroom, and community environments; a unit plan rationale, which explains why we taught the things we taught and how they are aligned with state standards (in my case, Common Core); our lesson plans, which have several components of their own including a critical reflection on each one; an assessment plan, which details how we assessed student learning and why those assessments are valid, reliable, and aligned with the standards (lots of tables and Excel graphs); and finally, an essay that critically reflects on my teaching practice, philosophy, and how student teaching worked out for me. The appendix includes the paper I drew a huge chunk of my setting from. It's a lot of stuff to put together, so I'm glad to have it done.