Wrapping Up School Year & Opening Statements for Portfolio
Today marked the last "long day" at my school site. The next five days I'll be going in to work are going to be a breeze. Tomorrow (Friday) we have a community trip to Walmart, Monday we go bowling, Tuesday we have a pool party with the other self-contained special education classes, Wednesday we go to IHOP and the library. Then on Thursday and Friday I'm taking off work to go to my cousin's wedding in Phoenix and won't return until Sunday late morning/early afternoon. Monday is the last day of school for the students and it's also a half-day. We're basically going to have a graduation for all the 8th graders (ZS and my former student RP are among them).
Although I may be jet-lagged slightly, I am not going to pass up seeing them at their commencement. They have made great strides since I've gotten to know them and I wouldn't want to miss this for the world! On Tuesday, teachers and other staff are supposed to come in and help clear out the building, since they will be bulldozing it to the ground and rebuilding it over the next couple of years. But me? I'm taking off :P Unless NS found a need for me to go in, I plan on just taking off. I'm not going to return to this school next year anyway, so I figure what's the point?
Aside from that, I'm going to strive to complete my opening statements before my last summer course begins in July. This will help lower my stress level once I officially have to start really working on my portfolio. I believe I can do it. I already wrote four of them on Learner Characteristics/Environment, Assessment, Instructional Planning/Strategies, and Ethical Practices/Reflectons. With much thanks to Sara for reviewing them and providing me feedback, I'm feeling pretty good about these papers. I only have two left, technically. I also have to write my philosophy of education at some point, but I'm not concerning myself with that until I am done with my opening statements, 'nuff said :P
And as I noticed, in the last two sections I have to write opening statements for (Social Interaction/Communication/Language and Collaboration), I did not have a single artifact from any of my classes in them. So these last couple of days, I've improvised 12 artifacts or so that I could have easily created from a course or two that I have taken. Whether there will be six in one and six in the other, I don't know yet. I'll figure that out when I print them out tomorrow and see how they work in either section. Anyhoo, it's about time I hit the sack. I'm feeling very pleased tonight.
Although I may be jet-lagged slightly, I am not going to pass up seeing them at their commencement. They have made great strides since I've gotten to know them and I wouldn't want to miss this for the world! On Tuesday, teachers and other staff are supposed to come in and help clear out the building, since they will be bulldozing it to the ground and rebuilding it over the next couple of years. But me? I'm taking off :P Unless NS found a need for me to go in, I plan on just taking off. I'm not going to return to this school next year anyway, so I figure what's the point?
Aside from that, I'm going to strive to complete my opening statements before my last summer course begins in July. This will help lower my stress level once I officially have to start really working on my portfolio. I believe I can do it. I already wrote four of them on Learner Characteristics/Environment, Assessment, Instructional Planning/Strategies, and Ethical Practices/Reflectons. With much thanks to Sara for reviewing them and providing me feedback, I'm feeling pretty good about these papers. I only have two left, technically. I also have to write my philosophy of education at some point, but I'm not concerning myself with that until I am done with my opening statements, 'nuff said :P
And as I noticed, in the last two sections I have to write opening statements for (Social Interaction/Communication/Language and Collaboration), I did not have a single artifact from any of my classes in them. So these last couple of days, I've improvised 12 artifacts or so that I could have easily created from a course or two that I have taken. Whether there will be six in one and six in the other, I don't know yet. I'll figure that out when I print them out tomorrow and see how they work in either section. Anyhoo, it's about time I hit the sack. I'm feeling very pleased tonight.