Have you enjoyed following my student teaching blog?

If you have enjoyed reading about my adventures in student teaching, and thought some of my lessons looked good, please consider supporting my efforts!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Hillary-Hanel

I am (slowly) putting many of my lesson plans and resources online for other educators to use. I am using the website TeachersPayTeachers.com to showcase and sell my work. My items are mostly priced at $1, but my maximum price is $3. I also have some free lessons in my store!

Why would you buy lesson plans from a brand new teacher? Most of the lessons I have up for sale were taught while being observed by one of my university professors and they all received very good feedback. I taught most of the lessons multiple times each day, and worked out any kinks throughout the day. The 15 day unit plan I prepared was for a History Teaching Methods class, so I worked closely with my professor to develop the unit.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on my store or work, I would love to hear from you!

Thank you for your continued support! All proceeds from my lesson plan sales will go toward the Hillary-Needs-to-Pay-her-Student-Loans Fund. 🙂

Graduation!

I made it! I have officially graduated from Central Michigan University with my Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education degree!

I began my new job as an educator at a children’s museum. I am very excited for this opportunity!

Here are the 6 of us Dominican Republic student teachers! We made it home to Michigan just in time for a snowstorm!

Thanks to everyone who has supported me as I worked to complete my degree. I have wonderful family and friends who have enriched my life so much.

I am hoping to start working on my master’s degree next fall!

It’s already been 5 weeks in the DR??

Somehow time has just flown by and we are heading back to Michigan tomorrow!

Last night we went out to dinner with our professor, Karen, our coordinator Bernadette, and our host moms Adela and Estela. It was so much fun! The restaurant was called El Conuco and besides yummy food there was music and dancing for entertainment. The dancers were so talented, I cannot believe the moves they were doing. The girls were spinning so fast I don’t know how they could stand up after. They taught some of us to dance too. I am an awful dancer and I didn’t want to be the entertainment for the whole restaurant so I joined the band instead. I do really want to take salsa dancing lessons when I get home because it looks like so much fun!

Today was our last day at school, and it was another half day of exams. My students took their Spanish and Sociales exams. I felt bad because I wasn’t much help to them because they obviously study Spanish at a much higher level than I am capable of and I do not know much about Dominican social studies. But, it’s not something I should worry about because I wasn’t expecting to become fluent in Spanish in the short time I’ve spent here. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and an intermediate course during college, but it has been 4 years since I’ve used it at all, so it took me a few weeks just to get used to the language again. I was looking through some old papers that I wrote for my Spanish 201 class and I was pretty good at Spanish back then, I wish I had kept practicing! I was proud of myself for writing a thank you note to my host family in Spanish though! So when I get home, the plan is to take Spanish and salsa lessons!

Thank you to my host teacher, Ms. Pacheco, my students, everyone at St. Thomas School, my professors, my host family, and of course the other 5 student teachers for making this an unforgettable experience. I will forever treasure the memories made here!

Exam Week for St. Thomas and CMU Students

It is funny to think that this time last year I was studying for exams in classes such as Ecology, Education Theory, and Museum Programming and now I am sitting on my balcony in the Dominican Republic relaxing because I have completed all of the requirements for graduation. Graduation is THIS WEEK. And real life is starting Monday since I have a big girl job. How crazy is that?!

My students are under pressure this week too, because it is midterms week. Today the high school students completed their math and social studies exams during the half day of school. Tomorrow there is no school because it is a “study day.” Then another half day Wednesday. If exams were like that in my high school or college midterms would be a piece of cake! Like regular school days, exam days here are very different from what I’ve experienced at home. Students are still pretty talkative even though they are taking an important test. The teacher whose class the test was for would walk around to the different classrooms to answer questions. They were giving a lot of help because students had tons of questions. I felt like I was not very helpful at all today.This is what I accomplished: Helped a girl put her hair in a ponytail because she had a broken finger. Updated my LinkedIn profile. Made the finishing touches on my electronic portfolio. I did not know how to help because if it was my class I would have been much more strict on the talking issue, but I did not want to overstep any boundaries because I realize there is a difference in expectations here. Or maybe I’m just a “mean lady,” as a little boy at the museum once told me when I saved him from running into traffic…

Good luck to all my friends at CMU who are slaving over a hot scantron this week 🙂

27 Charcos

What a fun day! I’ve been looking forward to the trip to the 27 Charcos for weeks, but I had no idea how awesome it would be! I was expecting to walk around the edges of some beautiful waterfalls and just see nature. Boy was I surprised.. I ended up hiking up a mountain in the jungle, jumping off cliffs, and sliding down the waterfalls. It was amazing! Oh did I mention that it is finals week back at CMU? So while everyone is studying this weekend, I have been fortunate enough to be a part of this great program that takes me to jump off waterfalls! How cool is that?!

We left bright and early at 5:30am to drive to Puerto Plata. We were the first trip out to the waterfalls today and we had two really fun guides, ChiChi and Moreno. We had about an hour hike to reach before getting to the waterfalls, which was great because it warmed me up because it was pretty chilly.

We made it to the first pool of water, and that was kind of a test run. We swam a little and jumped off a small ledge. I was terrified of even that little jump, but I had no idea what I was in for next.

When we got to the big waterfalls we had to either jump or slide, there was no walking around it. Sliding was fun, it was crazy seeing these natural waterslides made by water!

When we got to the biggest drop we could choose to slide down or jump off. At first I was going to slide. Jumping from 30+ feet into deep water sounded crazy. But then I thought that I should jump because a) I wanted to say I did it (and hopefully have a cool picture!) b) it would hurt less than the slide and c) jumping would be faster than sliding. So I jumped. After they counted uno, dos, tres about 7 times, I finally made it off the ledge. Clearly I am terrified, as you can see me flailing about in the picture.

I’m so glad that I did the big jump, it was a lot of fun! There was a little more sliding and jumping and then we reached the end of the waterfalls. After a short hike back to the buildings we were greeted with a delicious buffet, which was necessary after all the hiking and adrenaline rushes.

I thought it was interesting that admission to the Charcos, including a helmet, life jacket, and guide was only 500 pesos (about $12). It would be at least $75 dollars to do something like that in the states, I’m sure. And there were no waivers to sign, that would never happen in the U.S. Luckily no one got hurt, because our guides were so helpful and kept us safe. I am covered in bruises, but they were worth it! I have a trip all planned out now because I would really like to take my family to the DR. We could stay at Olga’s house in Las Terrenas and visit the waterfalls. The only expensive part would be the plane ticket!

On the van ride home I was reading the Hunger Games while everyone tried to nap, and I made a little friend.

This teeny tiny baby lizard crawled onto my finger and was just the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know what to do with it, but luckily we were stopping for a baño break so I gave him a new home in a potted plant.

It was a fantastic day, and we have another interesting excursion planned for tomorrow. We spent the evening making sandwiches and filling a piñata with candy to take the the children at the sugar cane fields tomorrow. It will be a very new experience.

Visiting Other Schools

Today half of our group of student teachers visited other schools in Santo Domingo. We went to the International School first thing this morning, and wow, was it different from St. Thomas! I really like that it has an outdoor amphitheater, a pool (being built), a functioning library, an art museum, and it is more out in the country. All of the teachers that I met there seemed very nice, and the little kids were just adorable. Today was one of those days where I wish I would have been an elementary teacher instead of secondary. But since I’m a week away from graduation, I better stick with what I have, haha. I go back and forth a lot, I never could decide 100% if I wanted elementary or secondary. Lucky for me, I can have the best of both worlds by working in museum education!

After International School, we visited my school. We just wandered around looking at everything, which I haven’t even done yet! It turns out my school has a store, an auditorium, and tons of extra classrooms that I never knew existed! Next the group headed to St. Michaels, but I stayed at my school because I planned to go souvenir shopping with a couple of the teachers after school. We went to quite a few different places to get things for our friends and family back home. It was nice to see some different areas of the city, too! I am most excited for the sweets that I picked up in la zona colonial – dulce de leche and cacao balls.

We have an exciting excursion planned for tomorrow morning at 5am so I am heading to bed! I hope to have some really cool pictures to post from our adventure.

Subbing in the DR

Today my host teacher was out sick so I taught all of the classes on my own! Normally that is not a big deal to me at all, I started subbing in Michigan over 2 years ago, and subbed all the time during my student teaching. Here school is so different, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to exactly carry out the plans my teacher wanted because I didn’t have the right tools. Luckily she emailed me last night saying she might be out and left instructions for the day so that I was prepared with alternate ideas before I got to school.

Just Kidding 🙂 ….most of the time at least.

Almost all of the classed were supposed to do something that involved the projector – which I have no way to connect my computer to. I asked around the school but was unable to find a good solution, so I came up with other plans. Instead of watching documentaries we discussed study guides and I had a chance to talk with students to get to know them a little better. the 9th graders worked diligently all hour on their World History study guides. Almost all of the the 8th graders claimed to have finished ALL of the study guides for their classes, but I think they just said that because they wanted to chat. One of the boys just kept wandering around blowing bubbles, where he got bubbles I have no idea. We were supposed to play a geography game by projecting a map of South America onto the board, so I had to come up with something else. First, I tried to draw the continent on the board so that they could name the countries, but it turns out I can’t draw. So I found a worksheet in the desk (I hope it was okay to use!) and had the students use that to label the countries and geographic features. This worked well, but it wasn’t as fun as the game would have been.

It was kind of funny that I subbed today, because my teacher and I just talked about how subbing works yesterday. She said that if a teacher is absent, an aide from an elementary classroom will come fill in, but that they don’t really teach. Later, one of the other student teachers and I talked about this and compared it to subbing in Michigan. To be a substitute teacher in Michigan all you need is 90 credit hours of college education (in any degree/major), pass a background check, attend a 2 hour training, do some easy online training modules and then sign up for sub jobs! You don’t need any experience in teaching, and there is no interview. We couldn’t imagine if they did subbing like that here. I’m not sure any of the non-teacher subs would make it through their first day!

Overall, I survived my first day of subbing in the DR! I have always felt that flexibility is an essential part of being a teacher, and it definitely came into play today.

Done with My Final College Assignment!!!

Today my CMU professor came to observe my teaching for one last time. Now that it’s done I have finished all of my college assignments and am basically just waiting to graduate. Of course I will still be in my classroom here and will be teaching government for the remainder of the week, but it feels so nice to have everything else done! I think that my lesson today went well, my professor had some very nice things to say about it, as well as some helpful ideas.

My 12th Grade Government Class at St. Thomas School

One thing that we talked about was how facebook is used in the classroom. I know I mentioned it before, but I still think it is a really good use of technology. Each grade has a private facebook group (only students are added to the group and no one else can see it) where they can talk about class, ask the teacher questions, find assignments, and download powerpoints. Everyone in the states is so afraid of using social networking as a classroom tool, but I see it as a wonderful resource.

After we walked home from school (it was so hot today!) I relaxed a little and then got to work on some museum lesson plans. I officially start my new position as a Museum Educator on the Monday after graduation (not much of a break for me!) but I am working via email right now. I am really excited for the things that are coming up and I can’t wait to get home to work on new exhibits and play with the little kids! Even though my degree is in secondary education (grades 6-12), I love working with young children and have learned a lot about teaching them throughout my CMU education. A big part of my job will be to align our programs and exhibits with the topics and education standards that are being covered by our local schools, so I’m glad I learned all about the Common Core, Michigan GLCEs, and Next Generation Science Standards in my education classes. I have also learned so much about classroom management during student teaching, so I will be able to apply that to museum programs to make the experiences as enjoyable as possible. I also had my graduation party invitations sent out today, so it is starting to feel like “real life” is coming up really soon!

I was quoted in CM Life! Read the article about student teaching, and share your thoughts

http://www.cm-life.com/2013/11/08/student-teaching-terms-lengthy-enough-for-students-faculty/

Read the article at the link above. CMU is considering changing student teaching from a 1 semester experience to a full school year. I am glad that I was able to share my opinion on this issue. Now I would like to hear what you have to say! Please share your ideas or experiences, I would love to hear from fellow educators. Take the poll below 🙂

 

Teaching 8th Grade Geography and My First University Coordinator Observation

Tuesdays are shorter days in my classroom because we only have students for 3 of the 7 class periods. It gives plenty of time for things such as lesson planning and grading. Today I taught the U.S. History class as we continued learning about U.S. Imperialism. I also taught the 8th grade Geography class for the very first time. My CMU professor came to observe my teaching for this lesson.

In geography the students are currently giving presentations on the different countries in the Americas. I interrupted their presentations today with a lesson on the geography of Michigan. I showed them how to use a KWL chart and we reviewed the 5 themes of geography while learning about the state I live in. They seemed very interested in the lesson, and had some wonderful questions, which made me very happy! I love it when students get involved with a lesson because they are genuinely curious about the topic. The students were very well behaved as well. They had so many questions that the lesson went right up until the bell rang, even though I had a few more things that we could have done in class. Both my coordinating teacher and my CMU professor both liked the lesson and provided some very helpful feedback.

 

I have noticed that I teach much differently here than I did back in Michigan, and I think there are a couple of reasons for it. Typically, I stand and move around the room more while lecturing, but here I feel like I am a little more tied to the desk because of the set up of the desk/computer/projector. Since I taught in my Michigan classroom for a much longer period of time, I felt more like the class was mine and I created almost everything on my own. Being here for a shorter amount of time makes me feel like the classroom will never become “mine.” I am okay with this because I expected things to be different, but I had gotten used to being the only teacher in the classroom and using my own materials. I guess I just felt more in control and prepared for my classes in Michigan.