Getting Teacher Certified in Texas

What a journey it has been! We moved to Texas in February (my husband in January) and I started fresh looking for a new job. I updated my resume, I applied online to different districts nearby where I lived and I scoured the internet researching schools, test scores, and the recertification process in the state of Texas. I was certified in MN with two licenses. The first license was K-6 Elementary Education and the second was K-12 World Languages and Cultures: Spanish. Minnesota does not have a specific licensure program in their universities (at least not the one that I attended) for bilingual education, mainly because there isn't a need for bilingual certified teachers there. At least there isn't a need anywhere near to that of Texas. 

Through researching the TEA website and calling around, I realized that I would only be approved to take the Generalist EC-6 exam and PPR initially. I took those two tests with a small amount of review and studying the days beforehand and passed both on the first try! yay! Now I am certified as a Generalist but guess what....I was hired as a first grade BILINGUAL teacher! I am so excited about it but nervous about the two tests that I will be taking to be Bilingual certified. Since all the Dallas testing sites are filled, I will have to be traveling to Huntsville, TX to take the BTLPT! Just so you know that's like two hours away.  I've been studying the competencies of both tests and I am confident in my skills, I am just nervous that they will throw me a curveball I'm not ready for! Eek! 

Wish me luck as I study this next month! 

Happy Summer!

Betsy

Gone to Texas!

Hola a todos!!

I have kind of left this blog of mine be for a while and I hope to update it as part of my journey of teaching since I moved to Dallas, Texas.

Last fall my husband got a phone call from a company in Dallas asking if he was interested in a position that was opening up for them. After having grown up in Minnesota, met and married in Minnesota, and started a life there (not to mention most of our family and friends are there as well) we never considered moving....really...ever.  The job was something my husband was hoping to get into in maybe...10 years...he never imagined the opportunity would present itself now. We had to see what would happen. So "let's just see what they have to say" became "Holy cow! We're moving to Texas!" It was a shock to us and our families but we have always looked at it with a mindset of an adventure to grow and explore a new part of the country.

Keep in mind he got the first phone call in August during workshop week and the job was offered in October. He wouldn't start until right after the New Year in January of 2014. It was something he had to do but what was I supposed to do in the middle of a school year with all my Kinders? At first I felt like I wasn't allowed to leave my job in the middle of the year. I mean, who does that? I can't just leave them like that? It felt like it was only acceptable if you were on maternity leave, not just for a family move. My hubby knew how important my students were to me and supported me either way. We knew we had done long-distance before and we could do 6 months, right?

Wrong. I suddenly realized that I had a family now that I needed to be with. Yes it was just me and my husband but he needed me and I needed him. This would be big move for us and we needed to support each other through it all. I ended up putting in my resignation for the end of January and while Andy spent the weeks working in Dallas and the weekends in MN with me, we worked on selling our dear old house and packing up my classroom things, and getting ready for the big move.

The parents of my students were surprisingly supportive and my students didn't really know what was going on I think until the day I left. Then I realized...these kids are 5 years old. They will go through many changes and many teachers in their lives.  They will be JUST FINE without me. It was a big deal for me to realize this because as a Kindergarten teacher I kind of pride myself in giving my kiddos a great first start! They ended up doing just fine and the teacher that replaced me is a rockstar. They are so lucky!

In the end I miss my colleagues a ton and the sweet culture of the school I got my start in, but I am SO GLAD that I came here with my husband. I cannot imagine doing this big adventure without him or leaving him to do it himself. We are having a great time exploring the city and the surrounding area. We have visited some friends in the area and I am working on getting certified too (more on that in the next post).

We still love MN and miss our family, our friends, and the lakes but what's life without a little adventure, eh?

Salud!

Betsy

Math Centers

Hello!

So I wanted to share something quick that I made to practice representation of numbers. I have many students who have nailed numbers 1-20 and are now moving up to 30-100. They get confused - like all - with remembering the difference between setenta and sesenta when it is said. We'll get there though and SOOOO many will be a part of our CLUB DE 100!!

I am very excited! Our school uses NUA (New Urban Alliance) strategies for learning which includes thinking maps but also cognition maps and different graphic organizers. For my Libro de Numeros activity, I used the Frayer model to help us represent each number. Typically it is used as a vocabulary development tool but numbers in a second language IS vocabulary development! :) 

Here is my Libro de Numeros book at my TPT store for free! My kinders loved reviewing numbers 1-10 with it and will do another book for the tricky numbers 11-20. Using the Frayer model students were able to build their understanding of the each number and creativity represent it the way they wanted. It worked great for me as a fun Friday review activity but would be great for a sub, Daily 5 Math center, morning work packet, or weekly math center on reviewing prior concepts (or new ones!)  

I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to sharing more fun activities with you soon!

Betsy

 

Update!

I have 21 little kinders who all speak English natively. However, a few have a bit more experience with the Spanish language than others through our district Spanish preschool or one parent is a native speaker.

The first few weeks of school were very, VERY hard. Although it was my second time in kinder (third year overall) I had never started the year with them since I had been a long term sub before. Imagine all your management, descriptions, explanations of routines, etc that are soooo important the first few weeks all in a language where NONE of your students understand a word you are saying! Yikes! Between me dancing around the room modeling every single thing to repeating phrases over and over again...we were all exhausted.

But alas!! It is the beginning of December and my little ones are moving so far ahead! I'm so proud! We have almost everybody acing the letter sounds and some are even reading! Wahoo! I'm hoping to begin a solid weekly structure to my literacy instruction. I have been doing leveled grouping with centers but we will begin truly using our curriculum and nose dive into the nitty gritty!

I know I am little behind on showing room set up but tomorrow I will return with pictures to show my room and how I use it. I am looking forward to sharing what I do every day to build biliteracy and bilingualism in my little kinders! :)

Chau!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I am Betsy and I am super excited to begin adding to the bilingual, dual, and total immersion teacher blog world! Wahoo! Looking forward to posting lots of great stuff that is happening in my classroom of amazing Kinders! I teach Kindergarten in a one-way Spanish immersion school. My students have never heard me speak English but are understanding most of what I say everyday! Simply incredible.

Chau for now!