Kate's Eye View

I had my interview yesterday and I think it went well. I prepared a teaching portfolio with materials such as my license, resume, references, Praxis scores, transcript, HS lesson plan, MS lesson plan, examples of activities, picture of pasta DNA in the classroom, email to students, email from parent.... It ended up being 37 pages long! I also made a pretty sweet cover for it: The position I applied for was for 6th grade and 9th grade Earth Science. Earth Science isn't my first choice but I'll doing anything! It would be fun nonetheless. Apparently they teach the curriculum through the use of kits. Utterback did this and I really wouldn't mind it especially since Earth Science wasn't my main focus in college. At the end of the interview they said they were looking to make a decision pretty quick and they would be in touch with me soon. Also, when I was getting ready for my interview yesterday Jack called from CityScape, our current property management company. ...

Today was a good day because I had my in-person interview with Otter Tail Environmental. I was supposed to meet with the same person that did my phone interview about two weeks ago but I ended up with another person who also seemed very nice. He basically just reiterated what the job entailed (working independently 40+ hours a week doing mosquito surveillance and pesticide application when needed). I think the interview went very well and he seemed impressed that I already had a college degree and experience working in a lab keeping track of data and being very detail oriented. He said I would hear back from them probably by the end of next week, so around April 24th. Yesterday I applied for a teaching position at a school called Bruce Randolph School and today I got a call to come in for an interview on Monday!! I am so excited and hope it goes well. It sounds like a really neat school because it has been undergoing a transformation from a failing middle school into a passing scho...

It has been 4 months since I last posted... time flies! In the meantime: I took the Praxis. I turned 23. Student teaching ended. I graduated. Got Recognition of Excellence on Praxis. Moved back to Littleton. Celebrated Christmas with my mom and Jeremy. Went skiing. Went snowboarding = broken distal radius. 3 weeks in a long cast. 3 weeks in a short cast. Applied for my teaching license. Watched the super bowl. Went skiing. Went snowboarding. Painted the kitchen and entryway. Applied for teaching jobs. Watched all 4 1/2 seasons of Lost. Found a new apartment. Got a new haircut. Received teaching license. Applied for summer jobs. And now we are headed to Flagstaff for Easter tomorrow. There. We're all caught up! :-) This looks like a lot but ever since January it has been very boring for me. I went from having a million and one things to do and worry about and having to get up at 5 A.M. to having nothing to do and no time schedule. Needless to say I don't know what to...

This is how I spend my time. Making DNA models out of pasta! I'm going to have my classes do this next week during our DNA unit. I came across this activity on the internet and I think it has the potential to be good in a high school class. Particularly, I like how it shows the three parts of DNA, a phosphate (ziti), a sugar (pinwheel), and a base (pipe cleaner). The different colors are the four different bases (A, T, C, G). This model is weak in the area about teaching why A goes with T and C goes with G. So, I am addressing that on a different day where they will analyze the percentages of A, T, C, and G in different organisms DNA. It is also weak in how it models the bonds. The bases are really boded by hydrogen bonds which are actually more like a magentic attraction rather than a sturdy, covalent bond. However, my students have not had chemistry yet so this detail would be lost on them.... Hopefully it goes well. I am doing this with them next Friday.

This weekend I decided it was finally time to refinish my car's headlights. They looked terrible! Not that I am so concerned with the appearance of my car but I think they were so bad it was probably to the point the headlights weren't as bright as they should be. Here are the before pics: After 1 hour of sanding and polishing this is the outcome. The driver's side came out much better than the passenger's side. :-( Not perfect, but at least they are better than before. Also, something else random. The other day Tucson water was doing something in the street and this is how the water looked coming out of my tap: Yuck. I am pretty sure it was dirt. In other news, I finally had a chance to finish a book I have been reading by Margaret Atwood called The Blind Assassin . It was very good. Mostly about women and stages of life and how decisions we all make can change the course of things for yourself and the people around you forever. This book was so good I passed i...

This is the Before (from last month): This is the After: I had a chance to work on the little bit of yard around my door today because yesterday was the end of the 1st quarter and today was grading day. Yay! Half-way done!!!! I got all of the grades entered yesterday so I didn't have to go in today. From here on out I am doing all four biology classes and unit planning, within the constraints of what my mentor teacher wants of course though. Jeremy is coming on Thursday!! I'm so excited to see him. This period, between his last visit and this visit, is the longest we have ever been apart! Looking forward to next weekend.... :-)

Student teaching is going OK. I have been teaching 4th and 6th periods since my last posting. I have a good relationship with both of those classes but 1st and 3rd are another story. I lead all four classes on Monday and it went well with all but 3rd period. They pretty much look at me like “Why are you telling what to do? You’re not my teacher”. I think that class is going to be a struggle. Thursday, I think there was some damage done to my working relationship with the 6th period class. They are, for the most part, really good students and they get their stuff done. However, there is a group of students who are very outgoing and very loud--all of the time. And I know for a fact that they distract other students in the class. So, Wednesday we moved out about half of the tables from the room and rearranged students so that they can sit around the edges of the room and at tables in the middle of the room. It gives us much more room to move around the room. So, when we made the ...