Raising The Bar in 2014

Happy New Year 2014! I am so grateful for the many blessings and lessons that are shaping me and inspiring me on a daily basis. I feel very fortunate and humbled by everything that's been happening in my life.
I keep so busy that sometimes I forget to sit down and relax a little. My body definitely deserves it. I've recently picked up a second job outside of teaching, and I am also very excited to announce that I will be volunteering at an awesome non profit organization called Horsin' Around. Horsin' Around offers therapeutic riding for children with physical and mental special needs. It's amazing! I had never heard of something like this before, and being the person that is always trying to serve and help others, I couldn't resist such an amazing opportunity. I love horses and I love kids, so this is ideal and perfect! Since the last time, I have also been working on my "Raising the Bar" tutoring project. I have made a flier and have started to spread word about the wonderful things I plan to do with children to help elevate their academic achievements. I have been getting a great deal of support from friends and family, something that I value wholeheartedly. I even have some teacher friends who have various types of credentials and specialty degrees, that are offering their time to help with tutoring kids in the community as well. Can't wait to see how it continues to grow and take off from here. Since I am so busy, I have created a new Instagram page for the teaching and tutoring side of my life. I hope that I can gain more support, inspiration, and ideas through this medium. My account name is @raisingthebar4kids, so please please follow me and I'll definitely follow back.

I am just SO happy!! 2014 is off to great start!  :)

                                                

Happy Holidays!!!

First and foremost: Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Happy Kwanzaa!

I am SO happy and extremely excited to be writing again. I've been so caught up with teaching my first year in kindergarten that I haven't been very good with keeping up with my blog. Well, that's all about to change! One of my resolutions for the new year is to keep up with my blog and to keep sharing with the world my passion for teaching!

This holiday season was one away from my family again. Thankfully, I have a very supportive boyfriend that shares the holiday and his family with me. Last night we spent Christmas Eve with his family. Like every Dominican Christmas Eve party there was an abundance of delicious food, dancing, presents, and lots of laughs. We even played monopoly! It was a great time! Even though I was away from my family in New York and Dominican Republic, thanks to social media apps like facebook, instagram, whatsapp, and skype I was able to video chat with some of my loved ones- which made all the difference in the world!

 As the holidays are here, I can't help but reflect on the 2013 year. It has come with a lot of struggles and obstacles, but also with a lot of experience and maturity. In 2013, God has showered me with an abundance of blessings, starting with landing my kindergarten teaching job in my school district. I feel VERY blessed with the opportunity to do what I love most. I also feel very blessed for the adventures I bestowed upon throughout the year. I just finished getting back from an exotic Caribbean cruise with my boyfriend and his family. We visited the islands of Grand Turk, Aruba, Dominican Republic, and Curacao for his cousin's wedding. It was an amazing time, and offered me some peace, serenity, and relaxation that I craved! I am very grateful for the trip and the people I met on the trip. It's always a great time when you're surrounded by fun and spontaneous people. I love the cruising life, and can't wait to do it again soon!

I have many resolutions for the coming year, but the one that I'm overjoyed by is the idea of starting up my very own tutoring services business. I will start out very small and local. My plan is to offer my teaching services in the community to children in grades K-5 who need extra help with reading, writing, spelling, math, homework, enrichment, and even English Language Learners. I am anxious to begin advertising to the community about it because I think that this can be possibly something that can offer me some additional income (Lord knows I've been looking for a second job), as well as spread my love of learning throughout the community to the children who need it most. My overall goal is for students to "Raise the Bar" in their educational achievements, and become successful in all of their academic areas. Eventually, as I can get my clientele up, I will invite other co-workers and teachers in the community who are interested in working within the "Raising the Bar" Tutoring Services business, therefore expanding the business with other teachers' skills, credentials, educational backgrounds, and general expertise of subject areas and grade levels. I truly hope this becomes something that brings me a fountain of opportunities to branch out for the greater good of my community, as well as to broaden my horizons as a classroom teacher.

Prior to our winter break, we had a great deal of fun preparing for the holiday season in kindergarten! We made lots of arts and crafts, sang lots of songs for our Holiday Program, and we also had Pajama Day and hopped on the Polar Express. 

Kindergarten is truly so much fun! I promise to keep you all updated on some of the wonderful things we do in class!

Well my friends, I'm off to enjoy the rest of Christmas Day with my Georgia family and friends. It feels great to catch up with you all, and I look forward to being more consistent with this blog. I hope you all enjoy your holiday season with those most dear to you, and for all my teachers out there- ENJOY YOUR WINTER BREAK!

Patience Is Truly a Virtue

Yesterday was the beginning of Pre-planning week for teachers. Instead of being in my classroom organizing the room and getting the classroom ready for my kiddos, all day I was filling out paperwork and getting my pre-screening done. I am awaiting that final call from HR that will give me entrance into my new school and classroom. I can honestly admit that I have been very antsy to start. I am the type to pre plan, and the fact that I wont be able to have access to my room to get everything ready is making me worry that I wont have enough time before the kids start school on Monday to ensure that our classroom is just as I envision it. Ugh! I'm very impatient.. and it is something that I am working on. I am learning to be more patient, and that everything will happen when it is supposed to happen.

Nevertheless, I am very eager and ecstatic to walk into a public school and clock in for the very first time. I'm excited to walk into a bare classroom and fill it with vibrant colors, educational materials and resources, and everything we'll need for the year to make our classroom warm, inviting, and safe. If that's not enough I'm excited to meet the teachers, staff, and students who will fill the hallways each day. I sound like this is my first year teaching... and it sort of kind of is. This will be my first year teaching at a public school!! 

I graduated two years ago from Armstrong Atlantic State University with my BSED in Early Childhood Education (K-5). Since then, I've worked as a preschool teacher teaching Pre-K at a local daycare. I was very appreciative to find a job in my field as soon as I graduated in May of 2011. I had worked at that daycare while I was studying at Armstrong, and was familiar with the wonderful staff there and the parents of such loving children. There, I learned a great deal. I experienced first hand everything I was learning about in all of my classes. I experienced how to communicate with parents, how to deal with behavior issues, how to effectively manage a classroom, how to co-teach, and anything else you can think of when it comes to working in childcare. Though I loved working there, the pay for a first year preschool teacher isn't the most ideal. I struggled a lot financially last year, and I knew that my ultimate goal was to teach in the public school, where I would have a greater impact on students, make a little bit of a better salary, and receive much better benefits. Working at that preschool is something I will cherish forever, because though I went through a great deal financially, I stilled reaped an abundance of ideas, support, and first hand experience that prepared me for teaching in a public elementary school. 

I live for teaching. I've always wanted to be a teacher. When I was a little girl, I remember playing school with my little brother and having him play the role of my student. Coming from an economically disadvantaged family, we couldn't afford the blackboards and other toys needed to play school, so of course I would use what we had available to us. I would sit my little brother in his chair, give him paper, pencils and markers and he would have to listen to me as I would "teach" him a variety of things. I would take chalk that my mom would buy from the dollar store and use the front door as my chalk board! My eraser was a wet and dry napkin and my textbooks would be old books that I would find lying around the house. Hmm... the memories. 

I've always known that I wanted to help other children succeed. My love for children and teaching is incomparable. I just always knew that it would be a dream come true if one day I could have my own REAL classroom with REAL students, and a REAL chalkboard haha. Now that I'm one step closer in that direction, I can't help but feel nervous, excited, worried, and overjoyed. I feel blessed that my dream is that much closer to becoming a reality. I have come from the very bottom. I was the first in my family to graduate with a college degree, and still, I don't want to stop here. I want to go so much further. Not just for me, but for my family and for those economically disadvantaged children who sometimes fall through the cracks and can never make their dreams possible because of limited resources in our urban communities. I want to inspire, lead, and I want to help produce positive and productive citizens who will grow up and better the world we live in. I want to be a part of the change I want to see in the world... That is why I teach. 

So for now, I will continue waiting by my phone until I get that phone call that will be the beginning of many years of fulfillment and joy.