Student Teaching-- Week 1

This has been a CRAZY and really fun week. 4th graders are so funny and VERY social (lol). The first day of school I was numb to the feeling that I was begining my student teaching adventure. It was so surreal that I didn't feel any kind of emotion... I mean I was excited and nervous but I didn't have the butterflies in my stomache or anything... but I did a few days later. On day 1 all 19 warm bodies were in their chairs ready to begin a new school year. Since I am student teaching at a VERY small school (190 students in the ENTIRE district), the teachers already know EVERY student's name. The atmosphere of the classroom was pretty inviting and comfortable because the students already knew the teacher and the teacher already knew the students. We only had 2 new students and they didn't waste any time jumping in to the class conversations. In our class we only have 7 boys and 12 girls... and by Tuesday, there was a major talking problem... with the BOYS!! Who would have ever thought the boys would be getting in trouble for talking?!? We nipped the talking problem in the bud pretty quick... by Wednesday the class had to write the definition for "chatter" out of the dictionary as punishment for excessive talking. Thursday was MUCH better and Friday was pretty good too.

On Thursday I taught the DOL and Social Studies lessons. I was more nervous teaching the lessons with my mentor teacher, Mrs. Champeau, in the classroom than I was about actually teaching. There's just something about teaching in front of another adult. I kept thinking "am i doing this right?", "is this making any sense?" i guess i did pretty well because DOL went fine and most of the students made a 100 on their Social Studies assignment. The Social Studies lesson was kind of rocky and not as organized as I would have liked it to be but I fixed that for Friday's lesson... which was about latitude and longitude (not my strongest areas). I haven't graded those assignments yet but as I was walking around, everyone seemed to be getting it... so that's a good thing. I guess the first subject I'm going to be taking over is Social Studies and I am totally OK with that. Next week I am teaching a Math lesson on Thursday and I'm a little nervous about it. Luckily it's mostly review AND it is a short lesson. I have my first observation on the 8th with my supervisor and it is during a Math lesson... so I figured I should get some practice before the big show.

My schedule has been pretty crazy... I've been getting up around 6:15 every morning and getting in to bed before 9pm pretty much every night. I feel like such an old lady but by the end of the day I am just exhausted and ready to sleep.

I'm looking forward to this next week of student teaching. Now that we have routines down and we are getting to know our class schedule, hopefully this next week will go smoother than the first!

Monday- Day 1 and Tuesday- Day 2 of In-Service

Day 1: This day went pretty well. During the morning session we had Kathy Smith as our speaker. She spoke to us about using visuals in the classroom and gave us some really great ideas for hands-on activities. After that session, a group of us went to lunch and chatted about anything and everything. It was great to get to sit and just chat with the teachers. They are all really nice and I'm looking forward to being "one of them" (almost) this Fall. After lunch we had some time to work in the room and get things a little organized. The hall theme for this year is "Under the Sea" and I just have to say, our display is AWESOME! I drew a submarine and we decorated with ocean-backdrop paper and ocean-y cut outs. It's really cute:



After a while of working on the room we went to the computer lab for a Webinar on how to use the new textbooks (Huckabay adopted new ELA textbooks this year). The textbooks have some really great activities and ideas as well as great extensions online. I'm excited about getting to teach from that book.


Day 2: This day started off kind of rough. My car wouldn't start (battery died) so I had to call my school and let them know I was going to be running late (perfect that my battery was dead on the second day-- at least it wasn't the first day!). I called my roommate to come home from work and jump my car. I also called my dad (because they know EVERYTHING!) and he told me to jump it and head to Autozone after school. Luckily it was only my battery and my car started with some help and I was off to Huckabay. I got there right at 9 (when the workshop started... I was supposed to be there at 8:45). There was an email training (the school got a new email service) and then a District Improvement Plan group discussion session. I thought it was really neat that the teachers were involved in the process of editing and giving their input on the District Improvement Plan... I had no idea teachers were involved in that process... it makes sence and I'm glad I got to sit in on that discussion. After that meeting we all went and had lunch again and then spent the rest of the afternoon working on the classrooms. My teacher and I spent most of our time working on our hallway display:



And this is the Kindergarten hall display... I thought it was REALLY neat and that's wehre I'm going to be doing my student teaching for my second placement (I think... we're still trying to figure that one out).

Recent Happenings

On Saturday, Craig and I began our registery at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and we had a lot of fun! Craig had the scanner and he was having a blast... however, when we got home there were some silly things on the registery that came off. lol. After we registered (3 hours later), we ate lunch at Fudrucker's and then ordered our wedding bands from Jared's. I'm really excited to get the ball rolling on our wedding. So far we have the venue (for wedding and recpetion), cake, caterer, and a few more things. I'm glad we're getting an early start... I don't want us to be stressed the day of the wedding. This weekend we are going to talk to a travel agency about honeymoons and I'm really excited about that.

In other news, my summer is coming to a close; babysitting ends next thursday and student teaching orientation is on the 13th. Then I start inservice on the 16th and school starts on the 23rd. I'll be in full swing before I know it and then I'll be graduated!! I can't believe it's already here and I am so ready for it.

It is bittersweet that my time in Stephenville is coming to a close. I'm going to try to make my last semester my most fun semester. We already have a list of fun things we want to do this fall and hopefully we can get a lot of the list marked off! I told myself I'm going to be more adventurous this semester and not say "no" to fun opportunities just because I want to stay home. My first adventure is going to a Ranger's game with my brother and his family. I'm really looking forward to it. It's a great way to end the summer and begin my last chapter of my college career!