education – markmagpusao.com

Last day of School

An artifact is a human-made object that provides evidence of a past culture or period.

Today was the last day of school. The last day that I spent as a 3rd grade English Language Arts Teacher in 2025.

Straight to the keyboard.

What did I learn from teaching a full academic year?

I don’t want to do this. That is what I learned. There are too many responsibilities and tasks to do on a given school day that it is overwhelming. The learning curve is too steep to be a proficient teacher right after school. Teaching students who are disrespectful, rude, or unwilling to put the effort don’t make the job enjoyable. I found very few moments in my year and half where I enjoyed teaching. I will further to add to this laundry list of why I don’t want to be a general education teacher at a later date, but the moments today were good.

Last day

Somewhere along the way, I learned that elementary teachers will get their class a gift. When I graduated from student teaching, I gave my class Frisbees. I taught them how to throw and play a modified version of ultimate Frisbee. These kids were from the bilingual class, and they choose to play Frisbee over soccer. So, I gave them all Frisbees. They signed the Frisbee that I used throughout the year. Last year, I gave all my students a picture of themselves with a quote I wanted to give them. All of them were different.

This year, I wanted to give them a portfolio or book of all their writings. I was their ELA (English Language Arts) teacher. The end of their book would have a message from me. Think Lisa’s Substitute. Then I wanted their parents to create a message that makes them appreciate their parents. Think Iron Man 2, when Howard Stark talks to his son from the grave through a secret recording. I kept this sketch and idea in my head for a long time. I didn’t do this. I still feel it is a strong idea that should be thoroughly planned out. Maybe someday.

Today, I gave my students a photo of themselves. They were props like 80s sunglasses, a blow up novelty 80s cell phone, a blow up novelty boom box and a vuvuzela. They also showed the camera a printed QR code. The code is an unlisted YouTube video. I made a slideshow of pictures of their 3rd grade year. I printed the 4×6 photos and framed them. I had 44 students this year.

My closing remarks to my class

” I learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”- Maya Angelou

I put this quote on the board. I thanked them for the opportunity to be a first year teacher. I apologized for the mistakes that I made. I paraphrased the quote to fit my situation. You will probably forget what I taught you, you will forget what I did during the class. I think that you will not forget how I made you feel. I hope you felt safe, listened to, and cared for. I told them that the quote will also reflect them when they grow up. People will not forget how you made them feel. Then I passed out the framed photos. I did this to my morning class and my afternoon class. For some reason, the afternoon class started bawling for 10 minutes after I left their room. That class was the most difficult in diversity of behavior issues.

Why?

Why do this at all? … As a teacher, we do take pictures of our students. I thought that I should give back all those photos to them. I take pictures and give them Fuji Instax print-outs. So they do have most of those physical photos. One of my students showed me her teacher’s slide show of last year. So I stole the idea. It does not carry the weight of the Iron Man 2 idea. Regardless, the photo and the QR code are an artifact. Not the education definition, but the normal definition is just as strong. An artifact is a human-made object that provides evidence of a past culture or period. A year book is an artifact. Some of them bought year books. I just made them a video slideshow of their year and just for their class. Again why? I would want someone to record the happy childhood of my life. Perhaps, that is why I became a teacher. To give them a better education and childhood than what I had.

10 de noviembre de 2024

I really don’t like listening to people complaining. Who does? Since this is my blog. I’m going to complain, but I will try to propose a solution to my problem. Currently, I’m in my 2nd quarter of my 1st full year teaching third grade elementary. This is the hardest job I have ever had. The task is impossible to do with 100% accuracy. Only people who have had actual experience as a classroom teacher knows this. I have to lesson plan, differentiate assignments, accommodated special needs/dyslexic students, communicate with parents, manage behavior, grade work, hand work back, input data for the district, make sure my students feel safe and appreciated in the classroom, and so much more. It is overwhelming and insurmountable. Maybe because this is my first year doing this. I should probably give this an honest try.

I do believe in the fight against illiteracy. I believe being illiterate is one of the worst things that a human being experience. I have to fight against that everyday I am in school. Most of my students can read. Can they read well? No. They need to read better. They need to read to synthesize. Synthesize means to connect and combine to create new ideas. This is higher level. Reading to memorize facts and dates is meaningless unless they will play Jeopardy.

Handwriting

I’m going to focus on cultivating my students to have better handwriting. My plan is to make a writing journal for common sight words. They will practice writing legible words. Not beautiful, but legible. Handwriting can promote literacy and reading comprehension.

Several things I want to focus on.

to light on paper (not dark enough, press harder)

not touching baseline ( concentrate on making letters touch baseline)

not legible( words are messy, concentrate on making letters that are legible)

words not taking the entire line( concentrate on using the entire line when creating sentences or repeating words)

Valencia, Spain

A week at Taronja…

La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. I first wanted to visit because of this building. It is also portrayed in the Disney movie Tomorrowland.

I spent a week in Valencia. I enrolled in the Intensive and conversation classes at Taronja this week. I never been to an immersion language school. I met people from all over the world. I will most likely come back.

My week in Valencia consisted of class Monday through Friday. The class schedule alternated from the afternoon and mornings. Every day I had conversation class as well. That class consisted of speaking on topics extemporaneously. ( Spoken or done without preparation. I’m trying to use this new word I learned in public speaking class.) The entire experience was great. It felt like I had 5 hour long italki lessons that didn’t stop. For the most part I enjoyed every bit of it. I think my level is at stage where I can live without too much effort. Could I work efficiently in this language equally to my mother tongue? No. Hopefully some day. I enjoyed the consistent curriculum at the school as well. The class I jumped in was covering imperfect, indefindo preterito, imperatives-positves/negatives, preterito perfecto and pluscuamperfecto. I have heard, read, and spoken these tenses before. It was a review but I needed it. There is so much nuance to using these grammar tenses than the English past tense.

Left to Right. Me. Guy. Andrea, our teacher Alberto.

I felt bad for some of the students who had to digest the language faster. For the most part my classmates did very well. I think the advantage I had was my time in the language because I have been learning it so long, 5 years. This year as well I started to use italki consistently. The trick with italki is…. you can’t stop using it. Maybe when you get competent enough and achieve your goal. If you the time, money and freedom I would have done this course a long time ago. I didn’t have all those resources. I also have a philosophy that one can learn a foreign language on your own. That is another blog post.

I will most likely come back to the school because I had so much fun. I had fun during the class, with the social activities after class, and the city of Valencia. The last time I was here I only saw the arts and science museum. I didn’t even go in the city center. This time my apartment was right across the street from Mercat Central. I will probably come back May of 2020 or winter of 2020 and spend the whole month in Valencia. The class sizes at the school were smaller and very intimate. I was able to ask all the questions I wanted, at times we had friendly debates.

I met some cool people as well. All the professors were very friendly. I felt they were generally interested in me. Even though I was just passing through the school a week. As a traveler, you can get incredibly jaded from meeting new people. There were times I felt it. The professors really cared about teaching and helping their students. As an aspiring teacher I saw that quality. I met and had some interesting conversations with the becarios(interns) at the school. Stefano, the head becario, spoke 5 languages and hailed from Switzerland. There were also a handful of Italians which made the vibe quite warm and fun. (I don’t know why I feel Italians do that). Andrea,(Italian male name), who was in my class this week, always came in late. Although that was a stereotype characteristic, he always brought something to the table when we were learning. Guy, Australian, was in my class as well, he has living in Valencia for some months now and has about 10 more. Though we are not compatriots, we both speak English as our mother tongue. In that sense I felt bonded more with him than the other students. I wonder if that is the way how most people feel when they speak to people from other countries, the common mother tongue.

I’m going to try to blog when I leave a location.

Sidenote: Urgh.. I got my grades for the Fall Semester. All A’s except a C in Introductory Algebra. I went to the stages of grief fairly quickly. Denial. I don’t believe I got a C. I went to every class, asked questions, and I did fairly well on most tests. Anger. I thought my professor took a shine to me as well. I’m never going to be nice to teachers. Bargaining. Maybe I can email her and ask how she tallied the score up. Depression. I’m so stupid. (sigh) Acceptance. C’est la vie. I guess I just have to double down on my weaknesses. So I can crush college algebra next semester.

Truth be told. I’m still on Bargaining,

Planning Ahead

At this point of my return to school. I am in my first semester at community college. I plan on finishing with an associates in teaching. I estimate that I will transfer by Spring 2021. Then on to a university, I am not 100% sure on which one yet. I have narrowed my choices down to three. University of Houston 90%. University of Texas- Austin 8%, and Sam Houston State University 2%. I realize I can elect to go anywhere in the world, I choose to stay in Texas because I just moved here, cost of living, and the veteran’s program I am using coincides with Texas.

How do I choose what college to go to? I think about what I want to do. I want to be a teacher. Great. Okay. What kind of teacher? There’s P.E, Art, Math, Early childhood development 1-6, social studies, special education, English as a second language. There are so many options! How does one choose? At this point I’ll finish with my associates in teaching. I have yet to take any classes either. I would like to volunteer at some schools in the Fall. My initial thoughts were to be a language teacher in a foreign country. I have a lot of time think about this idea and I will use the upcoming year to flush it out.

I finished my art exam test on got off of class early one day. I used that time to take a tour of University of Houston. It was an unusually cool for a June day in Houston. So a walking tour was perfect. The university was great with all the amenities and opportunities it offered. It is one the most diverse schools in the nation. It is located in the 4th largest city in the nation, behind Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. It was an easy sell for me because I just moved here and I didn’t want to move again.

The thing I don’t like about colleges. First and foremost it is a business. I didn’t really know what that meant when I was 18 years old. Higher education is a growing industry. In essence a school tour is a 90 minute sales pitch. I have visited a few schools in my time. I had a girlfriend who went to Cal( UC Berkeley), so I went there often and college avenue ran from my art school in Oakland to UC Berkeley. I visited Stanford University for the Cantor museum and Rodin sculpture garden. When it comes to colleges nothing really impresses me anymore. A normal tour consists of showing us buildings of where students and/or teachers gather, and so on. Unfortunately you can never know what a school is like until you go there. It is one of those experiences you can’t fully grasp until you jumped in. Much like the military me.

The tour illustrated an emphasis on college life. The first time I went I didn’t really enjoy that. I feel its probably better for young adults to start renting apartments and start being an adult sooner vs living in the dorms and life on campus. This is probably for economical reasons, city planning, and ease of access to campus. As an older student I will probably move closer to the campus but continue my activities in the city vs college activities. College will eventually end for all students. There’s no reason to switch off campus because you already have a community. No need to transition. In school, it is super easy to meet friends because they have similiar goals and interests. As an adult, making friends is very difficult. I believe people should be exposed to that as early as possible. These are a just a few thoughts on how broaden your college bubble.

What do you think? Did you graduate from college? Do you have children? What do you think they should do? Write your comments below.

Next blog post: Alaska.