Chapter IX: Luvin' It!!

What a busy week! I have been reading all weekend and writing papers for school. I wanted to get all my reading and writing done before the week started and concentrate on my practicum and volunteer work. Tuesday (yesterday), my practicum at Roosevelt Elementary was another success. I am diving more and more into becoming involved inside the classroom rather than being an observer. Last week, I wrote tons of notes on Mrs. Dearly's classroom management and routine. Yesterday, I walked around the classroom and helped those who needed it. It was exhilirating! It almost felt like being behind the wheel for the very first time, but with someone training me.

Mrs. Dearly and Mrs. Windell both know that I volunteer in both their classrooms at their respective schools. I am so glad that they support me. My professor, most especially, is very happy that I'm doing this. She shared with me how observing different schools will enhance my career as a teacher. What's so interesting is that I'm picking up techniques, in addition to my preschool teaching background, and I'm ending up making my own philosophy by using them in both schools.

I am very overwhelmed by the huge support that I'm getting from everyone who sees what I'm doing. I don't feel restricted. I feel free. BOTH teachers really like what I'm doing. For example, I have used my Montessori background in Mrs. Windell's class with one of her students who really needed help. It totally worked! The positive-reinforcing-social-problem-solving language that was used in my previous job was something that I also used, but with older children, and I used a little bit of that in Mrs. Dearly's class. What I picked up in Mrs. Dearly's class -- e.g. Direct Instruction (my cohort knows what this means) -- I utilized while tutoring Mrs. Windell's students.

The type of language I'm using with the children is what's my favorite. It is sooo much more different than with preschoolers, but in my case -- toddlers. I wasn't struggling to find the "right" words as most childcare centers with their own philosophy have their own "language". With elementary school aged children, it felt normal. I spoke normal, and I wasn't struggling. They understood me. I was able to give explanations in ways that they understood; and it was absolutely glorious when they said, "Oooooh, now I get it!" And I get tickled pink when they said, "Thank you, Mrs. Olson".

Mrs. Olson.

Call me old fashioned, but I really like that! It shows respect to authority. All my years as a preschool teacher, I was called by my first name. My first name is a tongue twister, most especially to the little ones, so they called me by my nickname, Miss L____. Not that it does not show respect -- it has absolutely nothing to do with that -- traditionally, this was something that preschool environments have been doing for years. I felt uncomfortable having children call me by my first name. It felt as if I was obliged to be their friends; however, I believed it was to be at "their level".


I can go on and on with the differences between being a preschool teacher and working at an elementary school. But if you ever decide to be either one, you really have to think about where your comfort zone is, or you might end up in a miserable job -- a dead-end job, if you will.;

Financial Aid update

Okay...I'm gonna go off topic here. Remember how I said that I was looking into a private loan? I have decided to go with FAFSA. Apparently, the laws on private loans have changed (thanks alot, Obama administration). I was totally confused with what the financial aid office told me. I initially thought that I can only apply after January 2010 for the spring quarter; yes, I can still do that. What I did not know that FAFSA is an ongoing thing.

You see, a couple years ago, I was enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division to study Graphic Design. I decided to quit that because the job market in that area was looking very bleak. Dummy me, completely clueless about this stuff, thought that financial aid stops sending money to the school as soon as I stopped attending. As I had found out -- they were still sending money to AIO! Yikes!! The good news is -- there's still a lot of money left from that financial aid and the most simplest thing I did (which I found out by myself), was renew my app and transfer that aid to Western. The lady at WWU financial aid, whose been helping me since I started at WWU, was extremely happy that I fixed the discrepancy. Going back to school may be a pain in the butt to get in and having to deal with all the technicalities is chaotic, but like I said in the beginning, it's well worth the ride once your foot's in the door. (Rumor has it that it's very difficult to get into the Elementary Ed. program at WWU, despite your economic class. They're very picky about their candidates, hence, the small classes (there's about 25 students in each cohort and that's small).