Adventures of Mrs. Sam-I-Am

Different Colors Make a Rainbow...      When you are looking at a rainbow you see many different colors and blends of color within the single image. This is like the diversity within a classroom. Each person: teacher, student, staff member, everyone brings their own unique life, culture, and individuality to school making for the opportunity to use that to learn about each other and each other's cultures.      Being that I am a white, middle aged, very quirky, alt southern momma style, I feel like I just give of the momma vibes and can be there for the kiddos. Even though I am sure that my students will be different in may ways, I am always interested in others so I will listen to anything they will want to tell me about their culture, lives, or even themselves. I love to learn new things so I would even love to help kids learn about themselves if maybe they need to explore their own diversity. 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...     If I were to try and teach my students about a favorite hobby of mine, I would probably choose to paint. The thing about painting is that it can be so personalized to each person. We could paint hats, or plates, or paper, or canvas. I think for a classroom in the intermediate elementary age range the idea of a "feelings painting" would be something that could be used for the Window/Mirror concept within teaching.  By using this idea of "feelings paintings", I feel like the students could look through the window into me and see that maybe my life and since of self can be bright fun but also a little messy. When they use the paints to do their own paintings, the choices of colors and movements of the paint can really help them see a mirror into their own world while also giving me as the teacher, a window into my students.      One thing with children is that they all feel that they are not as good at something as someone els...

Does Testing Make You Nervous?       When I was in high school in the early-to-mid 2000's, standardized testing was a thing I am sure, the problem is that I can only talk about my experience with the ACT because that is the only kind that I had to take. I had such extreme text anxiety that I started taking the ACT in the 9th grade and took it at least once a year until I graduated in order to work on my test taking skills and anxiety more than anything. Even though I have always prepared the best I could for tests, they are just scary to me.      By the time it came to the pandemic I was not in school myself yet and a mom of three, so my learning experience was more along the lines of how best to educate children while surviving the crazy world around me. We decided to homeschool the kids in order to try and keep our family as safe as possible for as long as possible. I had one kid in 4th grade, one in 2nd grade, and a 3-year-old, all while trying to keep t...

Why a Teacher?      When asked what made me want to become a teacher, I truly do not have an answer for that. I am sure that most teachers have that one person that truly impacted them into the moment of clarity that teaching was their calling, but I do not have that. Being homeschooled, I did not have the influence or experience from others saying I wanted to do it, but I always knew that I wanted to work as a special education teacher in a public school system. Always. For as long as I can remember if someone asked what I wanted to be that was the answer. Now my life didn't pan out just so and I am just now getting live out that dream, but I never stopped dreaming it. Even with all the hardships that I have had to face and overcome in my life and adulthood it didn't deter me.      When my husband had his accident and all the sudden, I was teaching a grown man how to walk and talk again, when I was helping with physical, speech, and occupational therapy da...