the nation's top teacher bloggers

Very excited to be among this group! 

I think my little homemade bloggy button fits in just fine. 

Not sure I would actually consider myself to be one of the nation's top teacher bloggers, but a little exposure and a bloggy bash are sure to inspire me to be a little more attentive to my blog! 

Stay tuned for photos from the conference next month! 

Kindergarten by Day, College by Night

It finally happened.

On Monday night, I taught my first college class!

I am teaching a hybrid course called Second Language Acquisition and Development for K-12 Educators as an adjunct. Hybrid means that we meet at PSU 5 times and then on alternate weeks I use the D2L digital format to post assignments and prompt discussions.

As an adjunct, I basically inherited the course content and it's my job to deliver it. Having all the content created for me has its advantages and disadvantages, but I think overall it was beneficial given that it is my first ever college course.

Since I have control over the format of the D2L course page, I tried to make that super organized so my students will have an easy time understanding what their assignments are and when/how they need to turn everything in. I took several online courses when I was living in Germany and working on my doctorate, so I am pretty familiar with how those types of courses operate.

So far my takeaways from being a professor are as follows:

• I really like having my own teaching space. It was weird to arrive in a random classroom prior to class only to find that a different class was in session. I showed up very early, but by the time I got access to the room, my students were already coming in. I had to figure out how to get technology running, arrange the small room to accommodate 30 students, and get all my papers organized with an audience. I had no idea what the table/seating arrange would be and since we were very crowded, the set up was not ideal for the group activities I planned.

• Adults ask a lot of questions. Even though I thought I made things VERY clear, there were still many clarifying questions.

• Adults actually did what I asked and I didn't need to redirect any behavior. It was great to just calmly circulate when they were discussing in groups. I listened and enjoyed what they had to say. I don't often feel that way in Kindergarten. 

• The amount of work I have to grade just grew exponentially. I don't grade a whole lot in Kindergarten, but my college students have to write a 500 word reflection each week minimum. 500 words times 30 people is a lot of reading. Plus, I have to read the textbook chapters so that I can be familiar with the content and plan activities to go along with the content. 

• I was a lot more self conscious teaching adults than I ever am teaching children. Hopefully that gets better. 

The next course I am going to teach is entirely online, so that will be interesting as well. 

Now, please share with me some of your favorite memories of college courses so I can be a rockstar professor! 

What did professors do that you LOVED and also what did professors do that you HATED?

More Button Business

Just to be 100% sure that I am not breaking any code of conduct for borrowing images, I adjusted my button a little bit. I tried using an actual image of my Dr. Top sneakers, but it was way to grainy, so I decided to just use the overlays within Picmonkey. I think it came out okay. Even if it doesn't include a sneaker, I still think it's a good match.

In case anyone else has the burning desire to create a blog button, I followed this tutorial and it was pretty simple. I am by no means a coding expert, but I was able to follow the directions and figure it out. 

Now what do you think?

My Button, My Button, Just Made a Bloggy Button

Pete the Cat reference....anyone...??

I just followed a tutorial and made my very own blogger button since I was asked to submit one for the Southern California Kindergarten Conference. It's not super creative, but I think it works and it goes along with my blog name. My only question is (for any experts out there)...Is it okay that I just googled a photo of an adidas sneaker to use or is that a image grabbing no no? I don't want to submit it to the conference if I did something I shouldn't have. Not that I want to go back and redo it, but I could take an actual photo of one of my shoes if necessary. 

What do you think of my button?

It's kind of lame, but I think that is the best I can do...

Help a Sneaker Out!

My colleague/friend and I will be presenting at the Southern California Kindergarten Conference and there is going to be a blogger meet up! I just got an email asking if I have a "blogger button" that I can share with the organizer and I don't! Anyone out there in blogland willing to help me make one?! I'm thinking something with a sneaker and an apple would be fitting. 

If you can help please comment or email me at sneakerteacher26@googlemail.com.

Thank you!!

Professor

Towards the end of the summer I submitted an application to be an adjunct professor in the ESOL/bilingual endorsement program at PSU. Since completing my doctorate,  I have really wanted to start teaching at the university level in addition to teaching at the elementary level. I really enjoy my part time employment status, so I felt like teaching one or maybe two college courses would be a great compliment to my Kindergarten job because it would still allow me to be home in the afternoons with my girls. And, as a grad student, I always appreciated professors who were still practicing teachers.

About a month ago, I completed a survey on literacy instruction that was sent out by a professor at PSU. The survey asked for follow-up phone interviews, so I had a brief chat with the researcher/professor. As we chatted, I mentioned my dissertation and how I make efforts to teach reading in culturally responsive ways even while using a core reading program. At that mention, the professor asked if I was interested in teaching at the university level and I said yes, so we discussed the prospect of having me teach a course that is part of the reading endorsement program.

Yesterday, I heard back about both opportunities and I am now slotted to teach Second Language Acquisition and Development for K-12 Educators in the winter, which is a hybrid (partially online) course and also Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction in the spring, which is entirely online.

I'm so excited!

The winter course is from 6:40-9:20 PM, which works out really well in terms of sharing childcare with my husband and the spring one will allow me to work/grade from home, which again works out really well.

Woot! Woot!