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My personal high for first semester- My son switched schools this year first time ever going to school without my mother (Teacher as well) and he has rocked it out making all A's and just doing exceptional.

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My Professional high for this semester has been getting the chance to be Department chair for such a fab group! CTE is the place to BEEEEEE!!! Seeing my student be so successful with their benchmarks as well- only had a total of 4 students make below a 70 out of all my class combined

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My professional low has the students that dispite my best efforts of remediation and trying to help them still have not submitted some of my major grades. I like the end of the Q for us but I did not see many take it seriously and now they are struggling with majors grades that they can no longer go back and complete.

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My fav way to spend my holiday break is just spending time with my kids and extended family. Christmas Eve we celebrate with my extended family by having our traditional dinner prime rib and all the fixings, Christmas day I grew having my mom make breakfast and now I do that with my kids and my family comes over to have breakfast with my kids.

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My Personal Low for the semester was my dad breaking his hip and needing a total hip replacement. While trying, it has turned out well. To use a term from Courtney, he totally "rocked it!" He is back up and moving around, he has even used the lawn mower to cut up leaves. Now, we just keep an eye on him when he isn't looking. :)

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My Professional Low is working with one particular student who is attending help sessions, opens and assignment then doesn't complete it. We have been through this several times, but I haven't been able to get he going this semester. Rare to see one showing up consistently, but still not completing anything. Just wish I could get her working.

And, having a student pass away post surgery, after they were home and back in class. Very unexpected.

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My Favorite way to spend the holiday break centers around family traditions. The extended family always meets December 23rd for a Chinese Auction which is traditionally tons of fun and full of laughter. Christmas Eve is always at may parents with oyster stew and opening presents. Then Christmas day is the family diner at lunch time, then a trip to Charleston to visit my in-laws. Hectic but fun. A new addition this year was walking through the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas Lights with friends.

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My Personal High for this semester was getting my son settled in his new house 2 weeks before his wedding. My brother and I flip houses together and we decided to redo his master bath and knock out a wall between the kitchen and dining room. Then it moved on to new flooring for the bottom level of the house. Everything turned out great, but we were really rushing to get it finished and them settled. It is so nice to be done and everyone is happy! :)

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My Professional High for this semester is getting a few of my students who were really dragging on board and working. Seeing them doing well currently with averages C and above is rewarding. Especially since I really had to stay on them by email, calls, in help sessions. I even reminded them several times to complete the same assignment that we talked about in previous help sessions. But, it finally worked!! Maybe they just wanted me to stop talking about the missing work? Who knows, but something finally clicked.

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I am proud that I have finished all of my requirements for PACE!

For the first time in a while, I am not in school or taking any courses LOL.

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My professional highs include being a part of such an amazing team,

being able to see my students in person at testing,

and watching the growth of my students

from the beginning of the semester to now.

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I feel proud of how well I was able to serve student despite the learning curve and growing pains I experienced myself this first semester.

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There were points in the semester, especially at the beginning, that felt very overwhelming and it didn't feel like it would get better. Fortunately, it did, but phew... it makes you NEVER want to start a new job again! Haha

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I have gotten so many good ones this semester...

Best advice: The to-do list never ends. It'll still be there tomorrow, log off at 4:00 pm. Ha!

Best tip: Brandi showed me where the "Quick Eval" list was at some point, and it changed my life! Made grading so much more efficient!

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I have 2 professional highs this semester. 1. My benchmark scores. They still aren't best but for me they are great, since it's been 3 years since I've taught. 2. Actually enjoy teaching again. When I left teaching I wasn't happy with my school or the students. I didn't think this was something I wanted to do again. However, getting to stay home and have a positive supporting environment, has given me the confidence to be a good teacher.

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I wish I could get some of these students to complete the work. Some of them are wonderful and engage in class discussion. They just are behind and I've done everything I can to help them get assignments completed but it's just not happening. I wish I could go to their homes and sit with them until it is all completed.

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I love spending time with my family. Now that my daughter is old enough to understand Christmas, it's going to make Christmas morning way more fun! She finally understands Santa and is super excited to bake cookies and leave carrots for the reindeer. Since most of my extended family now has young kids we do our big celebration a few days early so everyone can stay home Christmas day to relax and play with presents.

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I have way too many to list them all but here are a few:

1. Katrina - first semester is like Jell-O once you get going with making it and put it in the fridge it takes awhile to set so next semester hopefully your Jell-O will be set and you will feel less stressed

2. Courtney - showing me how to get to newly submitted assignments instead of searching for the to grade (night and day with grading) (one of many tricks)

Also, getting help with the negative parents. I didn't realize how much that can drag you down.

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Transitioning back to professional life after 3 years of being a stay at home mom. I did not have high expectations (personally) I thought I would be in tears everyday sending my daughter to "school" while I attempted a new job. However, she loves school and hates it when she can't go and that makes it a lot easier. Having, an actual positive work environment for once has been a game changer.

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Getting to be home everyday and not having to drive 30 minutes one way to work has been a total game changer for me. I love my new job, and I also love that I get to see my family more. :)

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Entering the semester, it looked like such a daunting task to have a total of 183 students on my roster. I wondered how I was going to survive! I am not just surviving now; I am thriving. I love the community at CASC and how much everyone helps one another.

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My personal low for the semester was finding out that my MIL (who keeps my children during the day) has a lot of health issues arising. I am thankful for the the flexible nature of this new job, which has allowed me to continue working on days when she is not able to keep my children.

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Despite my many efforts, I still have some students who have yet to even start Microburst (the major program we use for my course). I worry some of them will not have enough time to catch up as we near the end of the semester.

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Best advice: From C. Webber and K. Haynes - "We could make this complicated, but we don't have to." HAHA I overthink things WAY too much sometimes!

Best resource: From A. Bolin's video on putting roster info into a spreadsheet with filters and then using TVA to schedule class connects. Total time saver!!

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I just love getting family time in together at Christmas. My oldest is turning 3 a week before Christmas, and I feel like this is going to be the most fun year yet. I want to take her to see all of the lights and attractions that this time of year offers.

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My favorite ways to spend my winter break are to relax, watch movies, and enjoy time with loved ones.

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Opportunity to work from home but still build relationships with students via virtual

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Opportunity to teach a new course - Accounting and learn more about this pathway

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Losing my Aunt Kathryn in Novemer - she was a fantastic teacher of 35+ years and taught English! She was my go-to for teaching advice and I will miss her bunches :)

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The challenge of learning Accounting - tough content and definitely challenging but a lot of fun at the same time to teach to students

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So many - Love the PD on Targeted Instruction and learning about the Mello, Medium, Mountain breakouts

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Taking a mini-vacay with the family - Christmas movies - basically just embracing QT time with my family with no schedules or due dates or anything pressing!!!