The not so “new” job…

tonyburgess replied to your post: And She is Back From Outer Space…

It’s good to see you again. Congrats on your new job. Hope other things are well too.

It is nice to be back that is for sure. And thank you on the Congrats, but after 3 days at the new school. I couldn’t take it anymore. The location and dollar extra was not worth the things I had to deal with.

I was a Pre-K teacher and yes the class size was smaller, but I had to deal with children that had severe emotional disabilities, learning disabilities, and just problems I didn’t have the experience to deal with. Not by myself. Pre-K kids are 4 years old, I had kids still in diapers and there was not a place to change them within the “classroom”. And not always someone to ask to step in, so I could go change them. Several of them could not communicate with me. The “classroom” wasn’t a room, so I had a problem with some running off and this was a problem to me because we were close to the main entrance/exit. I had problems getting them to listen to me. These kids wanted to be chased when in trouble, which I am against. They don’t need that negative attention and sadly somewhere that is the way they get it. I would hope not at school, but I don’t know.

I couldn’t spend any time with the kids, because I spent the time either refereeing or speaking to the kids. And one of the children I felt needed a nurse, but I cannot express that because I am not a doctor. Though my mother works as a nurse for special needs children, attending school with them to offer the help they need when the teachers cannot always fill that in a full classroom.

The only time they were required to wash their hands was when they were through using the potty. And several argued with me when I enforced washing after blowing their nose. And it seemed like no big deal when they coughed and sneezed uncovered. Thus why I am sick!

The tipping point for me was when the children decided to throw scissors at me and chase after me with them. I called the director at my original school. She offered me my position back. I finished the afternoon which ended with the kids throwing toys all over the place, because I asked them to clean up their toys that they dumped all over the ground. They strongly stated that “Even though you didn’t play with them, its the teachers job to clean up.” I don’t play that why…I will help, but if I don’t play with the toys and make the mess… And these kids were SO VIOLENT! And wanted to argue about everything.

Friday I called in, hoping the director was in, but she wasn’t. I left the message “I’m not coming today, because this isn’t the job for me and it isn’t going to work out.” I was ask to call back, but I didn’t and they never called me. I won’t call them unless I don’t get paid for those days I worked.

The worse part, I feel bad for the person that helped me get the job and the director WAS nice, but, I was lied too. And the person who helped me get the job didn’t lie to me, not one bit. She was relaying the things she was told (or lied to about).  I was told that I wouldn’t enter the classroom without training and I did NO training. And that was just the beginning of the lies. I honestly feel like my passion for teaching and kindness was abused and it hurts!

And She is Back From Outer Space…

Craziness in a hand basket, literally over packed. And this is what happens when I stay away from blogging for too long. Even with excitement and secrets.

Summer officially ended this week. Which is sad, but I get ok with it more each year when it passes. Yes, I didn’t go to the beach, go to any amusement parks, go to any fun festivals or do anything fun outside of working, but I still lived.

Summer at work was crazy in a sense. We had a lot of children enrolled in our summer camp class, which is a good thing. Our third teacher was offered a new position at a new school and moved on at the beginning of the summer. I miss her dearly!  Kim and I are very capable of taking care of those kids (sense we were in ratio), but some days to have a third teacher would have been nice just to be able to get things done and meet ever single one of their needs for attention.

As most of you know, I current live in North Carolina (Camden County). It is a long distance from the school I work at. This summer marked my 2 year anniversary, but the drive was taking its toll on my wallet and alertness. I was told about a school MUCH closer to the place where I am staying and I was going to get paid a little more. It was a hard decision in the end to make, but after the summer was over, I would be making a career move to the new school where I was offer a job as a Pre-Kindergarten teacher full-time. 

And this is where this blog post will end…and the next one will start… I must over load you with to much all at once.

Look Mom, I’m blogging!

OMG, I seriously need to make a real update to this blog. hehe. Nothing too exciting has occurred in my life recently.

Kenny is finally getting hours! Thank you Mother Nature for actually being winter, during winter. Maybe we can get caught up on bills and work on our debt. We will still be moving in with his parent’s at the end of March. Though if the hours stay this way at his job, we might start looking at places sooner then later. I feel it is just best to continue with this move, so we don’t fall back into this dilemma again.

I’ve been thinking about going back to school to get my licenses to teach regular school.  Of course I need to decide whether I am going to do elementary or secondary. I just have a lot of thinking and reflection to do.  There are some other things that I’ve thought about going back to school for, but teaching is the biggest one.

Haven’t been doing a whole lot due to financial woes. And I’ve been trying to work as much as possible. Last weekend was as Excell weekend. Not as many families came this time. 

Well, everything else I want to update about can better be done via photos, so I will save those for other posts.

This was our last week using the theme Creations and Innovations, the sub-topic was “Some Things Help Us To Design Our World”.  So for a science activity, we made tie-dye milk, since one of our vocab words was tie-dye. Here is what you need: Milk (I used whole milk, since it was suggested) Food Coloring A shallow dish Liquid dish soap You fill the dish up with about a half an inch of milk. Then take the food coloring and add two drops that are well separated. The activity also suggested toothpicks and small straws, but they didn’t work for us, so I used an eye dropper instead. Fill the eye dropper with the liquid dish soap and squeeze a drop it into the dish.  This will cause the colors to swirl and move around, giving it a tie-dye effect. The kids thought it was really awesome, but after the first drops of soap, it doesn’t do anything. Now it might be because we used cold milk and not room temperature milk, I don’t know. Also the guide didn’t give me a reasoning why the milk and soap reacted like that (Yes, my 4 year olds did ask me).

This was our last week using the theme Creations and Innovations, the sub-topic was “Some Things Help Us To Design Our World”.  So for a science activity, we made tie-dye milk, since one of our vocab words was tie-dye. Here is what you need:

Milk (I used whole milk, since it was suggested)

Food Coloring

A shallow dish

Liquid dish soap

You fill the dish up with about a half an inch of milk. Then take the food coloring and add two drops that are well separated. The activity also suggested toothpicks and small straws, but they didn’t work for us, so I used an eye dropper instead. Fill the eye dropper with the liquid dish soap and squeeze a drop it into the dish.  This will cause the colors to swirl and move around, giving it a tie-dye effect.

The kids thought it was really awesome, but after the first drops of soap, it doesn’t do anything. Now it might be because we used cold milk and not room temperature milk, I don’t know. Also the guide didn’t give me a reasoning why the milk and soap reacted like that (Yes, my 4 year olds did ask me).

A couple weeks ago, I was drawing pictures for posters for work. We used the posters as signs for games during a Family Game night through the Excell program.  One activity we showed was our “Miss Polly Had A Dolly” rhyme with puppets.  I just drew from the little puppet we use. Drawing at work is such a ego and confidence booster.  Today I heard “Oh My God, Ms. Ana, I didn’t know you were a teacher and an artist! Wow!” :3

A couple weeks ago, I was drawing pictures for posters for work. We used the posters as signs for games during a Family Game night through the Excell program.  One activity we showed was our “Miss Polly Had A Dolly” rhyme with puppets.  I just drew from the little puppet we use.

Drawing at work is such a ego and confidence booster.  Today I heard “Oh My God, Ms. Ana, I didn’t know you were a teacher and an artist! Wow!” :3

Yesterday I made Gak for my class for a small group activity.  This month our theme is “Creations and Innovations” and this week we focused on “Some things help make work easier and play more fun”.  The kids in my class range from ages 3 to 6 years old. I asked them to see if they could get the Gak as flat as a pancake with their hands, then to use a rolling pin. I then asked which one was easier. The Gak was a BIG hit and very easy to make! It is White School Glue and Liquid Starch measured out in equal parts. I made 1 cup of Gak for the activity (1/2 cup of glue and starch). My tip would be to start with a little less starch then glue at first. When I did equal parts, it was very runny and had to add more glue. Of course if you want colorful Gak, just add some food coloring. The kids said it felt sticky, but it didn’t stick the table or the play-doh toys we were using and even our hands were safe. It,however, did stick to clothes, but it dried just like school glue does when you get it on your clothes. Which will wash right out. I am not going to lie, I had fun playing with Gak too. Back when I was younger, Nickelodeon actually made Gak (fashioned after the slime they were famous for) and sold it in stores. I wanted it soooooo bad, but never got any.  To think that I had all the ingredients in my house growing up the whole time… :3

Yesterday I made Gak for my class for a small group activity.  This month our theme is “Creations and Innovations” and this week we focused on “Some things help make work easier and play more fun”.  The kids in my class range from ages 3 to 6 years old. I asked them to see if they could get the Gak as flat as a pancake with their hands, then to use a rolling pin. I then asked which one was easier.

The Gak was a BIG hit and very easy to make! It is White School Glue and Liquid Starch measured out in equal parts. I made 1 cup of Gak for the activity (1/2 cup of glue and starch). My tip would be to start with a little less starch then glue at first. When I did equal parts, it was very runny and had to add more glue. Of course if you want colorful Gak, just add some food coloring.

The kids said it felt sticky, but it didn’t stick the table or the play-doh toys we were using and even our hands were safe. It,however, did stick to clothes, but it dried just like school glue does when you get it on your clothes. Which will wash right out.

I am not going to lie, I had fun playing with Gak too. Back when I was younger, Nickelodeon actually made Gak (fashioned after the slime they were famous for) and sold it in stores. I wanted it soooooo bad, but never got any.  To think that I had all the ingredients in my house growing up the whole time… :3