5th Grade Teacher: Haylee Harwick

Today on the blog I have Haylee Harwick. You may know her on Instagram as hellomrsharwick. Not only does she have a killer Teacher Pay Teacher store, she also has a podcast, shares free weekly slides, runs a blog, and has the cutest style! Lets just say everything she does is teacher goals for me and I was so excited to connect with her and share that interview with all of you!

1. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

At first I wanted to work in PR or event planning! I loved working weddings with my dad when he photographed them, and it was just so fun making someone's special day possible.  Now I could totally see myself working with graphic design or marketing because creating things has been something I really enjoy!

2. Is there a moment that sticks out to you that you remember from school with a teacher you had growing up?

I will start with the good haha.  I had a teacher that I was lucky enough to have for 2nd and 3rd grade named Mrs. Thompson and she was just such a joy.  She was goofy, not afraid to be weird and had us to the most amazing lessons.  She definitely thought outside the box and clearly had such a love for each of her students. To counter that, I feel like we have all had a bad experience or two and it could easily be that your personality didn't mesh well with the teacher.  I have just found that the ones that didn't try to make a connection with you were the ones in my mind that were "bad".  If you don't have a connection with someone, you aren't motivated to do the work.  Just shows how much that counts in the classroom.

3. How long have you been teaching, what do you teach, and what did it take for you to get there?

I have been teaching now for 4 years, next year will be my fifth! I currently teach 5th grade general ed because I love all the subjects!  For me this was a bit of a process.  I started out by graduating and getting my BA in communications, and then got my credential and MA.  In the credential program I have to do 5 months of student teaching, take a whole bunch of teachings tests (CBEST, CSET, and RICA) and to finally get my credential pass 4 TPAs which test you on your knowledge of becoming a teacher.  Basically tests how you get to know students, assess students, help ELL/SPED, and a video of you teaching.  After that, you undergo 2 years of Induction which means you have a mentor teacher who checks in on you, watches a few lessons, gives feedback and a lot of paperwork.  It especially feels like two more years of college courses.  At the end you have to put all your paperwork together and apply to clear your credential. I also started off at a very tiny school in order to get my foot in the door and gain experience.  After a year I moved to the school I am now and have loved it ever since!

4. What is your go-to tool you use in the classroom and why?

Google Classroom!  I treat this as our homepage to where they get everything.  It is just so easy to have all common links,materials and assignments all in one place.  I absolutely love meshing tech with hands on experiences and I feel as though this is a great platform to do this. 

 5. Is there anything you do to accommodate your students and how often do you find yourself using that accommodation?

For GATE students I love giving them fun extensions to do, such as a research project.  Something that extends and excites the student rather than gives them more work. Using google slides is such an easy way to motivate students! I love flexible seating because I feel as though kids need to move around and find a spot that suits them! I feel as though this adds to the creative process and gives the student an environment they enjoy.  For struggling students I love hands on approaches.  For example,my students were struggling with volume of a composite shape, we used play-doh to recreate these shapes and walk through the steps by physically cutting it up and then finding the volume of each piece!

6. Your Podcast is now at the top of my list to listen to for my workouts, what inspired you to start a teacher podcast?

You are so sweet! I promise new episodes are being recorded this week! I am an avid podcast listener because I commute to work and thought what not a better way than to go more in depth with things that I have been loving, or FAQs that I get!  I personally loved podcasts that seemed casual, conversational and unedited like you were talking with your BFF, so I tried to resemble that the best I could.  Lastly, I try to make everything as relatable as I can!

7. Any advice for a new teacher?

Take things one thing at a time! I went in trying to master everything and  I got so stressed, and lost.  Pick one area that maybe you are the most confident in and really master that area.  You are not going to be the best at everything and that is okay! Also, make sure you have a rule/procedure for everything and model, model, model.  Never let your expectation drop and make them do it again until it's how you want it, never settle.  Consistency is key and the sooner you learn that, the better. 

8. How has it been teaching virtually?

This was a struggle at first as I wasn't sure what the kids were going to give me in return.  I would say after listening to feedback from parents it went really well! I think the trick is finding things the kids actually want to do.  I tried to find interesting articles, podcast and activities that they would think were fun and not work.  For reading we did a novel study and did little activities for each chapter and they LOVED it.  You just have to add a little twist and get that buy in from them. 

9. A lot of people have been saying they hope things start to change in education since this Pandemic, do you think anything will change from it?

All I can say is what I hope for.  I think if anything people have started to really appreciate teachers and all the hard work they put in.  Like how a teacher can conduct a room full of 10 year olds, deal with the behaviors of 30 kids, and creatively think of a lesson to grab their attention.  As much as I would love for the government to appreciate us to the point where we get paid/treated like we should or be given the materials we need to teach I don't see that happening.  I think appreciation is a step in the right direction and maybe someday might lead us to some of those things.  People think we just have the kids color all day and play games but that's definitely not the case.  Plenty of hard work goes in and I think that picture is finally painted for most.    

10. Last but not least, where do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years I see myself working for my dream district.  I currently drive 40 minutes to work and know that it isn't feasible to stay here forever because I love where I live.  I love technology and would love to be teaching at conferences to fellow teachers on how to use it effectively in the classroom. Tech is a tool that I feel like some are scared of, others use incorrectly and most don't even know where to start.  

Thanks so much Haylee!

Happy Teaching :)