Bloggy Award!

Thanks to Heather from Adventures Across a Sea of Blue for giving me the "Honest Scrap" award! I love getting comments from readers and get extra excited to find out that my readers want think my blog is worthy of awards! How fantastic.

The rules for this award are as follows:

• Thank the award giver
• Link back to the award giver
• Name 10 things about you that people may find interesting
• Nominate and link up to 10 other blogs for this award
• Comment on each blog to tell them about the award

10 Interesting things about Sneaker Teacher

Ready, Set, Go!

1. I moved to Germany 10 days ago with my husband.
2. I speak spanish (well enough to do some parent teacher conferences with spanish speaking families, but would love to become more fluent).
3. When I was born the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck.
4. I want to write a book (soon!)
5. I was accepted to a doctoral program back in the US and am trying to figure out a way to still make that happen from Germany.
6. I love to read but have terrible reading comprehension.
7. Since graduating college I have been a nanny, a preschool teacher, and a first grade teacher. I am now a TA in third grade at an international school.
8. In college, I worked at a store called Hope's Cookies in PA and ate my fair share of free ice cream.
9. I broke my husband's heart in college, but I married him so I think I redeemed myself!
10. I am terrified of amphibians, but not reptiles.

Because of the name of this award, I would like to pass it to the following blogs written by homeschooling moms. These creative mamas post about some pretty cool projects and activities.

Milk & Cookies

Passport Academy

1 + 1 + 1 = 1

Knowledge House Academy

Our Homeschool Fun

Moving Forward

After waiting for a long time, I finally heard back from my doctoral program advisor with regards to whether or not I can continue with the program from Germany. For those of you who are new readers, here is the brief background:

I applied for a doctoral program back in January of this year (before my husband was offered a position in Germany). I was accepted and had plans to begin my coursework this fall in Oregon. Around March/April, my husband got a call from the global office indicating they wanted to bring him over to Germany for a position on their global team. At first, was I devastated at the thought of having to give up the program, but then I began thinking of alternative ways to make it work. I submitted a proposal to the program coordinator asking to remain enrolled and to use Skype in order to participate in courses from afar. I have been waiting since July to hear back.

So, the short answer is that the faculty members were not keen on using technology as a means for me to participate in the courses, however, I did have support from a few of the faculty members (mostly my two advisors) so it is possible that I can continue and somehow make this work!

I just need to figure out the details with my advisor to see where I go from here and what the next steps should be!

Hopeful

By crazy coincidence there is a first grade teacher at my new school who will be taking a maternity leave this winter. In Germany, a woman can take up to three years for maternity leave while her position is held for her. I was hoping that something like this would happen, so I applied for the leave position as soon as I got home. Right now it is posted as 8 months with the possibility of being lengthened. Wouldn't it be great if she decided to take all three years??? I know there are a few other applicants, but I am hoping that my experience of having taught first grade for the past three years will bode well for me. I think that the principal and director will interview applicants and they would also like to see sample lessons.

Fingers crossed!

Just a quote today

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."

~Chinese Proverb

First Day of School

Today was my first official day of work at school with kids!

Because it was the first day and the school day only went until 11:50, I did not get much face time with the third graders today as I know their teachers need time to get organized and to get to know them before they jump into the curriculum for the year. I spent the first hour in the work room doing some labeling, copying, and laminating for the teachers. It was funny because I realized that those types of projects are one part of teaching that I love, but don't ever really get to appreciate because of all the other responsibilities that come along with being the classroom teacher. I am usually too busy with other aspects of the job to have the energy at the end of a long day to spend time standing next to the hot laminator or to get caught up on making cute games for my kiddos. Now, that I am a TA, those projects are my job in its entirety! Okay, not really...Once the kids get settled in their routines, I will be working in the classrooms helping students for the most part rather than copying and laminating. For the time being (the first week of school or so) however, I get to bask in the glory of organizational teacher projects and embrace my inner perfectionist! I have the TIME to go slow and complete things in a neat and organized manner which is fantastic and fun!

I did get to meet the students in both classrooms and they seem great. As far as "not having any discipline problems" which is what I was told by the principal, these groups of kids seem like any other typical group of kids--they are chatty, smiley, wiggly and don't all keep their hands where they belong. I do think that they are well behaved and well spoken (English is a second language for most), but I also think that they are more "normal" than I was expecting--which is a good thing!

It was interesting to listen to them tell what they did on their "holidays" as the outings consisted of trips to Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, and China among other destinations. I guess I still have to get used to this international setting! The students I will be working with are from at least 10 different countries including Germany, Italy, Greece, France, Holland, India, and the US. I can already tell I am going to learn a lot working at this school.

I have to say, it was nice being able to go home at lunch time! Working three hours/day might not be so bad! :) Now I can head outside for some much needed exercise!

Spelling Development

Did you know that students go through stages of spelling development? I loved reading about these stages in the class I am taking because it really helps to clarify what skills students have and where they are in their spelling development.

The Stages:

Pre-phonetic spellers use letters or letter-like symbols to represent language. Random stirngs of letters, numbers, and other "markings" may also be used to represent words. These students typically are not yet readers and do not make the connection between print and oral language.

Phonemic spellers have discovered phonetic principles of spelling and attempt to capture the sounds of words in their own writing. They typically represent only some of the sounds in the words they want to write, most often initial and final sounds.

Letter Name spellers typically represent all of the sounds in the words they want to write, but do so on the basis of letter names. An example would be "babe" for "baby."

Transitional spellers begin to notice the differences between their way of spelling and the way words are spelled in books and begin to incorporate some traditional spellings in their writing. Students at this phase often overgeneralize some of the rules that they observe, for example writing "eet" for "eat."

Correct spellers are students who regularly employ words that are spelled correctly according to standard English spelling. This does not mean that they do not still misspell words, rather that they correctly spell most words most of the time.

I learned that it is actually a good idea to give students spelling words according to their developmental levels rather than using 1 list for the entire class. I have never done this, but it does make sense. I know that the spelling program used at my new school is leveled for different groups of students, so I am interested to see how it works!