Teacher Week '13 - Meet the Teacher

Hi everyone!
I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' this week for Teacher Week 2013!

Every day I'll be posting about a different topic! I'm excited to see everyone's classrooms on Tuesday! I'm going to be sure to post new pictures of mine as well!


Today is Meet the Teacher day, so here it goes! (Cross posting from my About Me section)

1. My name is Kaia and I currently teach full-day kindergarten in Seattle, WA. This will be my third year teaching! I taught a 1/2 split my first year, 1st grade my 2nd year, and now I'm back to kindergarten (where I did my student teaching). I am SO excited to be teaching kindergarten--it's been my dream since I was little! Don't get me wrong--1st and 2nd graders are great and cute and all, but I think everyone can agree that kindergarten is "special" :)

2. This year I'm planning on beginning my National Boards! I haven't been teaching long enough to do the whole thing, but I'm working on my "Take One" this year and I'll continue the rest during the 2014-2015 school year. Our state has a big, long process to get your residency certificate, so I figured I'd do the biggest and the best one right away :) I'd love to hear from anyone that is currently going through or has gone through the National Boards process!

3. Besides teaching, I love to work on websites and web design. I'm not the greatest (I admit I'm a bit rusty) but I truly enjoy sitting at my desk staring at code all day! Ha! I taught myself HTML and some java when I was about 13 in order to create.... DRAGON BALL Z websites! I made lots of fansites for my favorite anime shows and even kept up a website to keep my friends in the loop (PRE FACEBOOK). I stopped the website business about 10 years ago but I'm picking it up again for the sake of blogging! Be prepared to see lots of changes around here!

4. In my free time, I love to play video games! I love Star Wars and I'm currently playing an online game called World of Warcraft.

5. I might be known for dressing my kids up like Darth Vader ...

6. I've been following blogs for about 3 years now. Blogs like The First Grade Parade, The Inspired Apple, Ladybug's Teacher Files and Kindergarten Kindergarten really helped me wrap my mind around having my own classroom. I don't know how I would have done my first year without some amazing ideas from these sites!

7. I have two dogs - Tycho and Darwin. They are the cutest two boys around!

8. I work at a really small school--there's about 300 students total! It's awesome to be part of such a small staff (we have about ~15 classroom teachers, about 30 staff total), but it gets tough when we have to have so many splits! This year our grade levels look like this... K, K, K, 1, 1/2, 2/3, 2/3, 3/4, 3/4, 5, 5/6, 6! Crazy! At least kindergarten was left alone :)

9. This year I'm going to be both a literacy and a math "lead" teacher. I'm a little nervous about doing professional development with the staff, but I'm pretty good friends with our site-based-specialists (SBS's) so I'm thinking they can help me out!

10. I love to shop, like most teachers, and my favorite designer is Marc Jacobs. When I was in Hawaii this summer I came across both a Marc Jacobs store and a Marc by Marc Jacobs store... I literally started running when I saw it! It sounds corny but I think Marc Jacobs encompasses what I want and like in fashion. I always say, "He knows just what I like!"

11. If I wasn't a teacher, I would be a forensic anthropologist! I majored in anthropology at the University of Washington and I LOVED studying human remains (it sounds macabre but it's really interesting!). I was actually pretty good at it too! I think if time and money weren't an issue I would have done it, but don't get me wrong, I love teaching! I've wanted to be a teacher as long as I can remember!

Now that you know how nerdy I really am, go check out Blog Hoppin' for more Teacher Week!

3 comments:

  1. Wow lots of splits! All the best with your National boards!
    Erin
    The E-Z Class Follow on Bloglovin'

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so jealous that you live in Seattle! I went to an AFT Conference there three summers ago and I loved it! What a gorgeous area. Best of luck with National Board. I am a NBCT (2007) and it was the best professional development I have ever done. It really makes you look reflectively at your teaching practice. I participated in a couple yahoo groups that provided a place to ask questions, rant, and commiserate. I also got tons of useful information from the chat groups I joined. There is alot of support out there and I think it was helpful to not feel alone in the process!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The school I taught at used to have split grades and parents could choose to put their children in those classrooms. I got some of the kids that had been in those classrooms and they were such amazing thinkers and readers! I taught kindergarten last year and it does require oodles of patience. Good luck and I hope you have a great year!

    Ashley
    Tacky the Teacher

    ReplyDelete