So...I have an announcement...

So, some of you know this and some don't...

I am giving up teaching! 

..only for a year. 

I have been presented with an amazing opportunity to go back to school to work towards my goal of being a special needs teacher. 

This wasn't the easiest decision to make but it is what is best for me and teaching children with special needs has always been my ultimate goal. With the help and support of my amazing family and darling boyfriend, I will resign from my current position of "toddler teacher" at the center I am at next week.  I am enrolled full time at a university around us for classes starting in January. 

Some may ask,"why not go to school part time/night classes/online  and still work?" Well, that was my original plan however, a full semester-6 classes of pre-requisites to get into the program are only offered on campus and during the day. I asked my former director if she could accommodate me in any way so that I could do both and she completely shot it down. I approached my family about it and they all agreed-if bettering myself and advancing my education isn't that important to her then I probably don't need to be working there. 

In this time, I will also be traveling. 

Currently, I have 3 trips planned.

I will be using these trips and learning experiences and to gain more knowledge about other cities as well as myself. 

After this first year of prerequisite classes,my plan is to continue online while interning as a special needs assistant for the school system here.

I do fully plan on returning to this blog in 2015 and will transition into educational posts focusing on special needs!

Until then though, follow my lifestyle blog: Coffee&Glitter
I hope you all enjoy coming on this journey with me! 

True Life: I am a Preschool Teacher

Well hello! I have been debating on whether to write this post or not because it will become pretty "uncensored". Basically, I want to bust a few assumptions that some other people have about preschool teachers and I also want to share a few of my personal ups and downs so far. I guess I will just jump right in (grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine..this is a long one!)

My Story/Experience

So, in 2009, I graduated high school. I, like most 17 year olds, had no clue what I wanted to do. The only thing that was for sure was that I would be shipping off to Ohio in August for college. At the time, my major was Hospitality and Tourism Management..that was fun and all but it wasn't my "calling". I finally chose to listen to my heart and switched to childcare. I moved back to Florida and started applying for jobs right away. Being that I had no teaching experience and had only babysat the neighbors children, I assumed I would only be able to be a "teacher assistant". To my surprise, I went to an interview for a TA position but landed a spot as the lead teacher in a 2-3 year old room. 

Busted Assumption #1: Preschool Teachers do NOT just sit around all day and play

When I told some of my friends how surprised I was that I got hired for a lead teacher, they acted like it wasn't a big deal and that it wasn't a very strenuous or demanding position (insert grumpy cat face)

I will admit, when I was first hired, I did not think that I would have had to do as much as I did but, I was quickly corrected. 

Preschools-at least in Florida- are held to pretty high standards. I had lesson plans to do each week following a specific curriculum and also tying in each developmental area, emotional support, spanish and sign language lessons and, a special interest area. Now, I am not saying it was "hard" or looking for a pity party but, it was a decent amount of work and I did actually care and want to put a lot of thought into my plans. 

Continuing on, the director that hired me, told me that she too started the way I was and became somewhat of a mentor to me. I immediately registered for classes to obtain my CDA certification (child development associate).  With this, you are looked at more seriously than a teacher with the minimum requirements from DCF and you are most likely to get a higher pay rate. 

busted assumption #2: preschool teachers didn't go to school/ it is a "cop out" career

You're right, you do not need any form of a degree to be a preschool teacher. All that is required is a 45 hour course through the Department of Children and Families. Now, let me clarify, I have a bachelors in Hospitality Management. I have my CDA. I am completing my Bachelor's in Early Childhood and will be finished in Fall 2015. There are several preschool teachers I know with Masters degrees. Yes, there are some preschool teachers that do not have formal schooling but, they are qualified to do what they do and there are many courses and certificates that they can take. However, not every preschool teacher chose that route. 

So, the first director that I worked with..we will call her "S"... seemed to be the perfect boss. She guided me, offered advice on various issues I had while obtaining my CDA and, it got to where I was promoted to the assistant director. I worked at this particular center for just under two years. Being a "newbie", I was definitely biased and thought my center was perfect until I started to talk to my professors at school a little more. I will not go into extreme detail but, it turned out that the center I was at was not exactly to code-the children were all very well taken care of and it was nothing to do with neglect or the well being of the children but, the bookkeeping end of the center was a disaster and that can get a place shut down. In Florida, if the center gets fined or shut down for any reason, it will go on the record of all of the employees. When I learned that things needed to be fixed at this center, I approached "S" and she didn't take kindly to what I was saying-in fact she showed her true colors and get extremely defensive. I decided shortly after to put my two weeks in and find a different-more legally proper-place to work. 

The second place and most current center I worked at was amazing! It was an 8 room preschool, 18 teachers, 98 children and all up to date! The director and I really clicked during my interview and she said something to me that I will always take with me

"You will only be as good as the center you work at"

this may not make sense to all but, if you are ever a preschool teacher, this will speak volumes. 

At this center, we have monthly inservices, staff meetings, center wide projects, weekend team building projects, course requirements, and mandatory conferences we have to attend...

busted assumption #3:...you're not a real teacher

ugh. excuse my french but bull shit! Nothing..N O T H I N G makes me more mad than hearing this...and I have heard it from teachers in the school system, parents, friends, etc. The only thing I really have to say to this is PLEASE spend a day in my shoes. You have anywhere between 6-12 little two-three year olds running around for 8 hours a day. You have to conduct state mandated assessments, follow a specific curriculum guide, plan for the theme, teach through play, and hit 7 developmental areas each day. 

What People Typically Won't Tell You:

-If I had a complaint about preschools vs. school boards, there is no real chain of command. It is teachers and director. If the director is doing something wrong (like at my first center) you can talk to them but if they don't agree, you are pretty much SOL. Yes, there is a labor board; yes, there is DCF; yes there are private lawyers but, it is pretty damn hard to swing people to see it your way if you are a new teacher with limited experience- believe me, I tried. 

-No, you will never get rich. In fact, you will end up spending A LOT of your own money. I started at $9.50p/h and currently am at $15.50p/h. I am fortunate enough to work somewhere that reimburses the teachers for classroom supplies but, that is not the norm. I spend at least $30 a month and around back to school/August, I spent $375. 

-It is hard work and can be heart breaking. I have now had to talk to DCF three times about a child's well being. obviously I would never want to see a child separated from their family but, you are a state mandated reporter when you are a teacher. Toddlers and any child really, will be children but you know or will learn the signs of abuse and neglect and it will never get easy to make that call, write the statement or bring it to a 'higher ups' attention. But, it is your job to ensure the well being of the children. 

-It is R E W A R D I N G! It is W O R T H IT! It is F U N! Each and everyday with these children is different and you can do your best to plan but, sometimes you just go with the flow. 

The bottom line is that teaching children from birth-5yrs. is extraordinarily rewarding but it is also a time consuming commitment. Some of these children have little to no stability in their homes and look to you as the one constant so you can not bounce in and our of classrooms from center to center because these children need you. Watching a two year old come out of his or her shell and start to develop 2-3 word sentences is a feeling that is indescribable. Walking into your classroom of 6-10 little ones on a monday to get attacked with hugs and "hey hey guess what I did this weekend"s will bring a wave of emotion you didn't know was possible and hearing the tiny soft voice of a toddler saying "I did it!" "I love you Miss Sarah" or "see you tomorrow" brings so much joy into your day. Regardless of what is going on in your personal life, it is impossible to be sad around all these smiling faces. 

I know that this is very long but, thank you for sticking with it! I appreciate you stopping by. 

I will now leave you with a photo montage of some of my favorite moments:

Playground Time!

Snuggles!

Water Day

Name Practice

Fire Week!

Ringing in the New Year

Classroom Hop Scotch

Strawberry Shortcake

Reading time!

Night crawlers!

Fashion in a Preschool

Hello readers! 

Thinking back to when I was younger (13-14) I always dressed "ahead" of my age. I was never a ripped jeans and tube top kind of girl-I'm not saying I don't own a few pairs of ripped jeans that I may or may not rock here and there- but I just preferred dressing up! Still, at 23, I make a point to always go for jeans over sweatpants to run errands. 

One of my favorite parts of being a teacher is being able to dress "teacher-y". I promised myself that I would never be like my high school science teach who rotated the same moo-moo like shirt in 4 colors! I always strive to put together a cute, affordable, and PRACTICAL outfit! 

In August, I finally gave in and signed up for stitch fix and I fell in love! If you haven't heard if this monthly box yet, 1. Get out from under your rock 2. Click here! Anyways, I am obsessed with SF and I have kept a LOT of the pieces I've been sent! 

For this post, I just wanted to show you five of my "go to" toddler/teacher friendly outfits and I have put together. (Excuse the mirror pictures, J was working when I wanted to write this and my four legged babies are not good picture takers!) 

Outfit 1: 

Coral Blazer: Kohls 

Black&White Striped Top: Old Navy

White Shorts: New York& Co. 

Black Ballet Flats (not pictured): Target

Outfit 2:

Navy Blue Rope Print Top: New York& Co

Magenta Tank: Forever 21

White Shorts: New York& Co 

Sandals: Southen Fried Chics 

Outfit 3: 

Chambray Shirt: New York&Co. 

Gray Tank: Old Navy

Maxi Skirt: Stitch Fix 

Sandals (not pictured): Old Navy 

Outfit 4: 

Sun Dress with Coral Sash:Mint Julep Boutique 

Sandals (not pictured): Southern Fried Chics 

Outfit 5:

Red Kimono Top:Forever 21

Khaki Tank: Forever 21

Boot Cut Jeans: American Eagle

Brown Belt:Body Central

Shoes (not pictured): Khaki Sperrys

What are some of your favorite outfits?

Five for Fri-SATURDAY!

Happy Happy Saturday Y'all! I can not express what an amazing week this has been for me. I hope you all have had great weeks as well! 

I am going to jump right into this Five for Friday hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching!

So, first, I experienced my first NFL game this past Sunday! My boyfriend is a DIEHARD.. I mean D.I.E.H.A.R.D New England sports fan. I will be totally honest with y'all, until I met him, I would wear certain team colors proudly and I would buy all the cute bows but, I didn't know squat about the game itself and before him, I didn't care. This changed because of the amount of passion J has for his teams. J goes out of his way to make a conscious effort to teach me about different plays, players, and parts of the game and I love it. I love the look he gets when I understand what he is saying and I really am beginning to enjoy it as well. 

Anyways, I bought us tickets to see the first Patriots game of the season! The Pats took on the Dolphins in Miami and although we didn't win, we had a blast! 

Second...holy baby fever! So no, we are not even close to thinking about having children but I have a serious case of the baby fever after this weekend. Ladies, I think we can all agree that seeing our men with babies/children is just heart melting. Well, this weekend, we spent a lot of time babysitting-most of the families I babysit for are super close to me and are invite J to come with. He typically does and it is so adorable.- hello photo montage:

 

These five children are all very near and dear to my heart and I am so happy/thankful/overjoyed that J takes an interest in them and their families as they all do for us. 

WHOOP WHOOP for small victories! A huge thank you to Miss Lindsey Johns- the soon to be Mrs. Lindsey Paull over at Thriving in Third for featuring me on her "Featured Teacher Friday"I now have 20 followers on Bloglovin and Blogger! 

Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

 My classroom is full of six little rock stars! This month, we are focusing on community helpers and the past week, we specifically focused on firemen and police officers. I could not be more happy with the children and parents I have this year! 

Because, it isn't a five for friday...saturday without these two. 

Oh! and to throw in a number six... I got my first cold of the year last weekend..yeah, I went to the Patriots/Dolphins game in 111* weather for four hours with a fever, sniffles, and sore throat..oh hi there best girlfriend ever! 

Dayquil, Antibiotics and lots of cough drops! 

Welcome to My Space

When I first decided I wanted to be a teacher, I had all of these visions of having the cutest room with a decked out desk and everything being in its place.

Reality Check

Being in a toddler class, the whole room is "their space". There aren't formal desks or a teacher desk but, I love it. Thankfully, the director of my center understands the importance of some 'teacher space' and had shelves and built in areas installed in each room. I'd like to share with you what I have done with mine. 

I have two filing cabinets that I now use for storage since I am no longer a file folder user-I upgraded to binders! I store extra supplies in here, my substitutes 'survival pack' student folders, extra file folders in case of emergencies and of course, snacks! 

On top of these cabinets, I have my students art center-again, the whole room is the toddlers play space. Even though most of this area is "mine", the art center made the most sense here as there are many art supplies we use that I can't just leave out without direct supervision such as scissors, glitter, small parts, etc. 

The children have direct access to their markers, crayons, chalk, and paper. Paint and the items in the purple drawers are "teacher jobs". In the purple drawers, I store everytime from pipe cleaners to brown bags to fabric scraps to googley eyes. 

Moving up to the second shelf, I have attached wore baskets to hold our items for the week. I preset and precut everything for a smoother time during our art centers. I also usually plan 3 weeks in advance meaning that all of my crafts and books are picked out, pre cut and pre set for 3 weeks. I also keep our lunch supplies, my lesson plan binders, and all of my post its, pens, hot glue guns, staplers, scissors, etc on this shelf in organized and labeled drawers. 

Finally, on the third shelf, I keep my bag, a jacket and a spare change of clothes, playdoh supplies and random art suppose such as foam stickers, shaving cream, and rainy day activity supplies. 

Although my room is not traditional, I love it and I love that my class loves it! 

What does YOUR space look like?? 

Sarah 

My First SLANT BOX Review!

Oh my goodness! I am so so so excited to finally be sharing my first SLANT box experience. When mustering up the motivation to start blogging again, I came across the #SLANTbox. Naturally, I keep clicking and clicking and reading more posts and reviews until I was practically obsessed. If you haven't heard of SLANTbox, click here. Jameson, the SLANTbox originator, is a rockstar! She takes the time out of her personal life to come up with awesome themes and match over 200 teachers with two partners. Each teacher sends to one person and receives from another, how cool?! 

In August, I was paired up with Angela Gatt from Fun in Fourth to send to. Angela lives in Canada. She is so incredibly sweet and I had an awesome time getting to know her and pick out items that I hope she will love. 

I was matched up with Kristy Fasano from Librarian Life to receive from. Kristy lives in New York. Although we didn't speak much, the gifts I received were pretty spot on to my personality. 

Super cute NY--> FL 

Birthday/Hello Note

All my awesome items! Including:

Blueberry preserves (yum!)

purple glitter pencils

purple stamp pad

lots and lots of stickers

jeweled nail file

heart and star cut-outs

washi tape

a gorgeous purple and turquoise necklace

several keepsake boxes

a compact mirror

letter stamps

Thanks Kristy! 

I can not wait for September's match ups! 

Read All About It!

I am not sure why, but bulletin boards are probably some of my favorite things! I love to find neat quotes for them, fun borders, and the perfect background paper to tie it all together. In my classroom, I have four. 

 

This first board is a mandatory school information and "teacher board". On here, I have a list of all the allergies in the center, our monthly menu, class roster, and proper table washing procedures. I also hang notes that I get from staff members and families, our current class picture, and "Praises for Young Children."

This next board hangs right above the changing table. I have our daily schedule, proper diapering procedures and our daily/weekly cleaning list. 

This is the Parent Board. I hang our monthly calendar, daily schedule, weekly lesson plan, and my "Why I Teach" note here. I encourage parents to bring in interesting articles, questions, etc. to hang here as well. 

And last but not least, our classroom board. I change this board monthly based on the themes. For July, our theme's were Fourth of July, Pets, Jungle Life, Reptiles, and Dinosaurs. I typically make my board correspond with the theme that I have the most decorations for and this month it happened to be the jungle! "Monkey See, Monkey Do. We Love to Learn, How 'Bout You!"

How do you decorate your bulletin boards?

-Sarah

First Day Jitters

"First Day of School! First Day of School! First Day of School!" This is what runs through my head on the morning of the first official day back. For some, it's excitement and happiness. For others it's dread and moaning which makes me question why they're in this profession. And for a few it's nerves. 

Being that I am a preschool teacher, our center is open year around and only closed on major and bank holidays. However, our summer numbers are pretty low so the classes typically combine, many teachers take various days and weeks for vacations and the students are not where they would be when we are at full enrollment. Although the toddlers are kept on the "toddler side", our summers are much more laid back than our curriculum August- May. 

Come August 18, everything changes around here and goes back to "normal". With this change causes a lot of confusion and transitioning from class to class. Some of the children are not phased at all but others recact as if their world has been turned upside down...and that is okay because it is my job to help them get acclimated. 

I am a very particular person and I like everything in my room to be perfect for that first day. I start preparing all of my bulletin boards, student forms, cubbies, diapers baskets, etc. Well in advance. I like my classroom to feel like a home away from home for these children. I hang pictures of them at their levels, plaster the walls in their art work, have their names written in several places and just try to make them feel like they have a place here.

The first day at a new school, in a new classroom, with a new routine can be scary to some children but teachers aren't classified as superheroes for no reason, right? 

What do you do to make your students feel comfortable in your classroom? 

-Sarah 

Back to School!

Hi fellow bloggers! I am excited to show you my Back to School forms! 

I have been diligently working on these to get them perfect and I am finally happy with them! 

 This flip book is the first item in my "Welcome" folder to the parents of the children in my class. I found this gem in Lindsey's TPT store after browsing google and Pinterest for HOURS and coming up with nothing. As usual, Lindsey's products are thoughtfully designed and are editable meaning they work with any grade/age! I tailored it to my needs then used astrobright paper to print it on. (I did capitalize the S in Supplies after taking this picture!)

I then included a biography page detailing where I am from and my schooling.  

My director found this darling poem through a series of pins and I added it to cute paper. 

A copy of our daily schedule, of course! 

And finally, another darling poem encouraging parents to read to their children. 

What do you put in your back to school packets?

-Sarah