Interview Time!!

Long time, no blog. I know...

I had an opportunity to go to Florida with my boyfriend's family and took them up on the offer. I was off of work for a total of about 13 days!! Good Friday, spring break, Weekends, and my vacation all helped me relax.

With summer approaching I have been a hot mess wondering what I am going to do when summer comes around. I have told you I'm a teacher, why would I need an interview for a job so badly, right? Well... I've been paid as a sub for the past year and a half and have finally been offered an interview... (for the job I'm already doing) if it sounds weird and confusing, then yes, you're following along.

Anyway, Friday is the big day! I am nervous considering this will be my first serious interview. Plus, this could be the difference between me working a cash register all summer or working on my tan instead. I'm opting for the latter. In order to ensure I will be the number one candidate I have obviously been preparing since the phone call came in on Monday. These have been my main focuses:
1. Have Up to date resumes to distribute to each individual on the interviewing panel. I also made copies at Staples on thicker, ivory paper to stand out and look professional.
2. Think of my outfit! I want no controversy when I walk in the room. I am going to interview in basic black pants from Express and a grey with black lapel blazer by Rampage. I'll probably wear a black ruffle blouse underneath (because my white button down has a sauce stain on the collar) . For shoes I will wear black alligator esque pumps that I can easily walk and teach a mini lesson in. I'll wear a watch and maybe pearls and my hair will be away from my face, but still down. (I look like a toddler when my hair is up and I'm trying to be a big girl.)
3. Extreme attention to detail on my mini lesson plan! I have plenty of copies of my lesson plan so they can see my objectives. I am also engaging them in the lesson by reading them a two line imagist poem and asking them to draw what they envisioned in their head when I read to them. I will then break them into groups and have each group do a different task based on their accelerated reading scores. Each group will focus on the same intervention skill though: understanding author's craft.
4. Organizing my teaching portfolio. I want to be prepared to show data driven decision making, differentiated instruction, out of the box assessment methods, etc.
5. Reviewing possible interview questions. Even though I work in the school in the very position I'm interviewing for, I'm still nervous that they may bring up educational jargon that I am not familiar with.
6. Preparing questions for them.
7. Reviewing data/demographics/CAPT scores of school.
8. Of course there's a million other little things I'm doing because when it comes to having a salary or not I absolutely need to be a perfectionist and be over prepared. I want to come across as confident, capable, and worthy.

Any tips for miss?

Night to Day

As young professionals, we tend to have more "night" wear and fewer "day" pieces. On a beginners budget, it only makes sense to re-use what you have and pray it works (or pray for a promotion)!

I have a gorge underwire corset top strapless dress with a bubbly-esque bottom. I usually wear it with fierce black platform open toe pumps... But black can be a bit much during the day.

Here's a solution to transform it from night to day:
1. Layer a simple black tank with thicker straps underneath
2. Choose flats or wedges to tone down the va va voom
3. Accessorize black with teal, coral, and gold. The black makes these bright colors pop. In my opinion, try to stay away from hot pink and black because if done incorrectly it looks cheap.

What do you do to transform night wear to day wear?

Recycle your wraps/sandwiches

Quick Lunch Hint: (You may already do this, but just in case you don't...)

Scenario: You're out for lunch or dinner and order a wrap. You eat half because you're watching your girlish figure. But funds are tight and you'd hate to see half your wrap go to waste. You're apprehensive to bring the wrap home because you know you won't eat a soggy wrap.

Solution: Bring the wrap home and empty the contents for a salad.

Example: Chicken Caesar Wrap into a Chicken Caesar Salad. Voila! (I added croutons.)

What are your favorite left overs from restaurants? Do you change them up like I did?

Spring is black!

For those of us on a budget, we don't always have the ability to buy the newest seasonal trends. We have to re-use our clothes and rock them to the best of our ability. Black is a color that everyone has plenty of... With that being said, it doesn't really liven up a room the way bright colors would for spring. Since black goes with practically everything, I say you enhance the black that you have with two colors: teal and coral. What's brighter than those two colors? And what color makes them pop more than white? BLACK

I'm on a gold kick lately, but silver has always been a fav of mine too... I think the gold just makes it all look cultured and chic. Take a look below at some of my favorite coral and teal/turquoise pieces.

I made the gold chain necklace; the coral, wood, and gold chain necklace; and the silver and teal disc necklace. The gold bangle was my grandmothers. Some of the other pieces I bought from Charlotte russe and American Eagle.

Look how I stack my brackets:

Notice how in this picture I'm wearing a khaki colored jacket. This has been my go-to spring piece so far! It even goes well with a black shirt underneath. I wear it out and to school and sometimes don't even bother to take it off.

What's your favorite color with black? Or what's your favorite color combo for spring?

School your dresses!

Let your dresses make an appearance in class too! Dresses are great for school because they keep you cooler and you know cool is always appreciated if you've ever taught on a second floor of a school, with broken windows, and a blacktop roof level with your room in 90* weather. Heck... Even 70s and 80s is enough to get these students cranky. (Maybe even some teachers too!)

I am uncomfortable wearing a lot of my dresses to school without tweaking them first. However, that's for another post... these two dresses in particular I actually would wear alone later on in the day when it gets hot. Some people frown upon wearing sleeveless items to school, but I'd prefer my arms to be showing rather than sporting two sweat pools beneath my arms. Here's an easy solution: cover up the arms with a denim/jean looking button down. Button downs are lightweight for spring/summer mornings, but can be removed on hotter afternoons when you just can't breathe another second in the heat.

Here are two of my favorite stand alone dresses for school. The length and necklines are perfect and they're not clingy. They can also be used in a million ways. Here is just one of the ways to change it up with a jean/denim button down.

Alone:

Tweaked:

Alone:

Tweaked:

Notice how I re-used the same wedge! Stay tuned for postings on how I select shoes for school, how to make night dresses into day dresses, and how to accesorize black for spring/summer.

What's your favorite thing to wear to school in the summer when it gets hot?

What a suck up.

Sometimes students slack in some areas and try to make up for it in others. One of my students specifically asked me in the beginning of this week what my favorite kind of flowers are. Today their first 3 page MLA style paper was due (gasp they're seniors) and in lieu of a paper, I received tulips. Of course that illicited a chuckle out of me... Perhaps it was because he was also dressed as Darth Vader for decades week (70s day.) Mask, breathing ventilator and all. Yup.

You may be wondering what happened to getting your teacher a good ol' fashioned apple? Good question. The answer is because he already gave me an apple a few weeks ago.

Yes, this kid is all about theatrics. He once performed a one man show with no talking, only dancing, to pre-selected symbolic songs pertaining to Hamlet instead of taking his test. It was my challenge to him. I anticipated a 3 minute show. I received a 10 min drama. And although the flowers look fab in their new home, he still has to do this essay. Maybe I just won't take off the -10 point per day late penalty for him. C'mon... It's not every day a lady receives flowers.

Come to think of it, my favorite flowers aren't tulips. I'm more a lily kind of girl. That just goes to show how often I receive flowers;I actually forgot my favorite kind. "Smh"

What's the funniest suck up gift you've ever received from a student?

Manage Time Wisely

I am currently in a teaching position which is considered a 32 hour job. However, I don't see how my workload is different than the full time positions, but maybe it is. Either way... I try to complete everything I can during school hours. When I was student teaching, I remember spending an uncountable amount of hours on grading papers, projects, and developing lesson plans. As time goes on, it became easier. However, the best piece of advice I have ever received for teaching is: "Never do anything that a student can do for you."

Often enough there are students who are looking to raise their grade or just want to be back on your good side. Or, you have students who stay for detention. Don't have them sit there while you slave away. Make them not want to come back for a detention; give them work.

Some examples of student labor:

Delivering a note, book, etc. to another teacher in the building.

GOOD (As long as the other teacher is expecting the interuption and as long as the item being delievered isn't confidential. Choose the student wisely based on how long will he/she take in the hallway and can the student afford the miss class time.)

Manually stapling the packets for tomorrow's class because the copier once again is out of staples GOOD (As long as the packets aren't a test or quiz)

Organizing messy areas of the room/Labeling Folders/Hanging up projects

GOOD (This is usually good on half days or days with a messy schedule when few students are in the building. This helps students have more pride in the class because they were involved in making it look nice.)

Entering student grades into software program

BAD (No matter how trustworthy a student is, you never want to compromise another student's education. You want each student to know you take their work seriously and this is communicated by handling gradebooks on your own.)

REWARDS:

I try to reward based on the deed. In the past I gave students a "Good Job Ticket" (yes, even in high school). Once they collected two, they were able to select a prize out of a "prize box." The prize box contained dollar store items and perfume samples, makeup samples, key chain holders, fake tatoo sleeves, etc. Students laughed at the prize box, but they actually did hold on to their tickets in their back packs, wallets, purses, etc. and reminded me when they obatined two tickets.

I also gave extra credit to some students for putting in extra effort in English class.

Currently, if I like what a student does for me, I will enter their name in a raffle for the end of the year. The raffle will be for a movie ticket or two... depending on how funds are and depending on how long the list is.

Just recently, we re-organized a whole shelving unit! It's more practical now, I was able to raise a student's grade, and it just over all isn't an eye sore anymore!

What was the best thing you've ever had a student assist you with?