End of Week 2: Things I Will Do Differently

Hello my blogging friends, I am sorry I did not write all week last week. The week was a busy one.

I absolutely love my school though. It is wonderful. I am learning a lot about teaching. I am learning things that I will use in my own classroom and also coming up with other ideas for my classroom. There are some things my cooperative teacher does that I will do differently but that does not mean the way she does it is wrong. It just means we have different ideas.

One thing I will do differently is create a student chart. This chart will have all of my students names on it and be used for when my students need to use the restroom, for attendance and discipline. I will have the students move their tag when they are in the restroom and also at the start of the day. This way the students are not interrupting during teaching time to ask to use the restroom. They know if someone else is in the restroom and wait until that person returns. Attendance will be easy because all I have to do is look at the board to know who is missing.

I will also use the board for discipline by having the students turn their cards when they break a rule. This helps them take responsibility for their behavior and will help with control of the classroom.

Now I am not saying my cooperative teacher does not have control of the classroom. She does. The kids are great and they are not disruptive. But she is at a school with a lot of parent support so the kids know they need to behave or their parents will discipline them at home. Most classroom teachers do not have that so must find ways to discipline students and help them make good choices.

As for the restroom and attendance. The chart just seems easier for me.

I learned this past week that kids do respond best when the teacher is always calm and speaks to them in a calm voice. The teacher can never lose control even when the child does.

Today I began week 2 of student teaching. It was a good day. We had a great math lesson with all of the kids and our science lesson went very well. The kids are learning about skin and such. They were very intrigued by the lesson.

The school I am teaching at is a very small private Christian school by the way. We go from grades K-8 and there are two teachers for the school with one aid and now me. Some days are very busy with grading papers and such. Today went so smoothly that we got all of our papers graded and done early. It was fantastic to get out of there by 5 PM.

My college class that goes along with the student teaching is not as enjoyable. It is really a thorn in my side. I wish they would realize that we are busy with our student teaching at least 40 hours a week and sometimes more. They really should not add such a load on top of it all.

I am learning a lot at my little school and will say more tomorrow.

Hello my friends,

I did not write about day three or day four of student teaching. I was so darn tired when I got home both nights that I did what I needed to do and then I crashed. The week was very draining. Getting up so early is hard for me to get used to and then working 10-11 hours a day is even harder.

I also have a class that goes along with my student teaching. I checked out the class last night and WOW it is going to be so demanding. I am dreading the class so much. I cannot believe that the school would expect us to do this class along with our 40+ hours of student teaching. I wonder if maybe they want us to fail.

I am enjoying the teaching part of the placement. It is great to help the kids learn and watch them understand things. I do not like the math portion because math is not my thing but thankfully I won't be teaching any math above 3rd grade when I get a job.  Math might not be as hard if it was done how we did it when I was a kid. They do it so much differently now days.

I am off for three days so will check back in next week.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Day 2-Whew

Well I survived day 2 of student teaching. Seriously the student teaching part of it all is just fine. It is the long hours I am there that is wearing me out.  I am there from 7:30AM to 5:30 PM and that makes for a long day. 

I am extremely exhausted and off to bed now, just wanted to check in and share that I survived. I know I will adjust to the long hours soon but for now it is rough.

The Adventure Begins

Well the day I have been waiting for since the end of summer has finally begun. I started my student teaching today. It has not been easy getting to this point but finally, here I am.

I was actually scheduled to begin student teaching last August but the school that had accepted my placement backed out last minute because they were a new school and decided they could not meet my needs. When I say backed out last minute, I mean literally last minute. I was supposed to start on Monday and they terminated the placement the Friday before.

That left me no time to really set up a new placement because of the lateness of the termination and other obstacles that stood in my way.

So I finally decided to start student teaching in the spring session which is now.

I am completing my student teaching at a small private Christian school. I love the little school because they use traditional teaching methods.

My first day was rough though. Not because of the kids or the other teachers, because I have been sick and it was a long day.

I got there at 7:30 AM and left at 5:45 PM. We did get a lunch but it was in the classroom. There really just were not a lot of breaks. I also have not worked or anything for a while so it was hard being gone that long in one day. I am sure I will adjust.

One consolation so such long days is that the school is a 4 day week so I will have every Friday off. That will be wonderful.

I love the school and it is going to be a lot of fun. I will learn a lot too. I don't like getting up at 6:30 though but will adjust to that soon too.

My classes will begin again on Thursday so the next 16 weeks will be hard ones but in the end I will be a licensed teacher.