Back To School!

It’s that time of year again, a time when students and teachers stock up on pencils, paper, markers, crayons and so many other fun school supplies. It’s time to go back to school.

I’m really excited to start the new school year, it’s my second year of teaching and I’m really excited about it. I never thought I would become a math teacher, when I interviewed for the teaching position I actually applied and interviewed for a Language Arts position. But when I received the call a few days later with an employment offer I was shocked to hear that they wanted to hire me to teach math, even after I told them I was horrible at math. But desperate to change careers, I took the 4th grade math position trusting my principal that she was making the right decision. In fact, our conversation at the beginning of last year ended with her saying, “Kelly, don’t worry about it. You will be a great math teacher. Just trust me, you’ll see.” And boy was she was right, I actually liked teaching math. I guess because I struggled with the subject when I was a kid it made me aware of the struggles my students would face, especially my friends who were receiving services for special ed., and allowed me to find ways to explain and demonstrate the concepts in ways they could understand. There were many challenges to overcome last year. Not only did hurricane Ike completely mess-up the entire year, but there were several educational challenges with my special cluster of students. Out of the three math classes I had, two of them were special ed. clusters. But by the end of the year my student’s hard work paid off and 60 students out of 65 passed the TAKS test, 22 of them were commended! That means those 22 kids only missed ONE problem on the TAKS test, quit an accomplishment! I’m so proud of my little superstars!

This year, I’m adding science to the mix and I’m looking forward to helping my students explore math and science. I just know it’s going to be another successful year! And now…
Welcome To Mrs. New’s 4th Grade Math/Science Class!