Almost there...

I have just finished 3 weeks of full time teaching. WOW! My students have tracked out for a 4 week break and I am going to be working with a teacher across the hall. I can't believe how fast time flew during those full days. I feel like a real teacher. I taught 27 students math, reading, writing, social studies, and science... and they actually learned something.

When they track back in at the end of April I will have a week and a half left with them. It will be an exciting, sad, and happy time. I am so grateful that I was paired with such a great teacher and such sweet children. They are a handful at times, but all have very good hearts. I will miss them while they are tracked out but I will continue to learn while they are gone.

wow... over half way done.

Teacher teacher!

I taught for almost two straight hours today!! I did a reading mini-lesson, two guided reading groups, and a writing lesson. wow! It is slowly sinking in that I will be in charge next week!!!!!

Tick Tock Tick Tock...

Time is a precious treasure! I am very dedicated to my school work and I have been diligently working on several projects for college classes. It has been so hard to try and balance a college career with the lesson planning life of a teacher. I am taking on a lot of responsibilities in my student teaching classroom earlier than others because I am in a year round school, meaning my time is more limited. This looks like it is leaning toward a complaining type post, so I'll try and cut this short...

The point I am trying to make is that I would love to have more time.. I would LOVE to be able to read the stacks of blogs and books that inspire my educational mind.

To end on a positive note: I am starting a new imaginative narrative with my students tomorrow and teaching a lesson on point of view using the two versions of the 3 little pigs :)

Update!!

Ok this is a mixture between a post about school and a post about my life.

A. School...
I taught my second social studies lesson on Friday and it went 150% better than the one I taught on Wednesday. The students were engaged and loved the lesson, especially when they got to write their own Mountain Jack Tales. Of course the day got better when my entire desk was covered in Valentine's Candy, cards, and flowers. It was just an overall great day.

B. Life...
Right after school on Friday, I drove home to E.City. I went to see my Granny who was in the hospital and found out she was doing much better and could go home Saturday. After visiting hours, I went to my boyfriends house prepared for a relaxing evening. Well... about an hour later, he proposed!!!! I said "yes!" of course. This weekend has been so wonderful and I am looking forward to carrying this good feeling through the week. The only downside of this whole thing is that my Dad is out to sea on a submarine until the 17th, so it will be next week before he finds out that I am engaged.

Deep Breath

Breathe in.....breathe out.

Wow. Today was tough. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, today was my first experience in teaching the whole class together. I taught a social studies lesson about African American culture in North Carolina.

When I completed my plus/delta chart as instructed by my cooperating teacher, I had two things on the positive side and a never-ending list on the "what I would change" side. As we went over each thing that I wrote down, I was near tears. I knew coming in that I was going to make mistakes and that I could not expect to be anywhere close to the "perfect" teacher. However, that did not stop me from picturing the "ideal" students, the "ideal" responses, and the "ideal" lesson.

I am scheduled to teach again on Friday. I will walk in ready to conquer a new day and hope to keep a level head. Hopefully that day goes a little better and I only go up from here.

Where has the time gone??

It is February 9th! Wow! We only have two weeks until the end of our block classes until we are released as official student teachers! I start full time teaching in 3.5 weeks. OMG! I am nervous, excited, scared, anxious, + a million other things. Tomorrow I am teaching my first whole class lesson. It is a social studies lesson that I have been planning for probably 3 weeks. I want it to be perfect. One thing that I have learned though, is that no matter how perfect you make the plan, it has to be changed. When you get up in front of all of those eager faces and they don't do things just like you imagined they would in your head, you have to be flexible enough to change the direction of your lesson to fit their needs.

Something my wonderful cooperating teacher reminded me is that the students have not seen my lesson plan. They have no idea what is scripted for me to say or what I anticipate their answers to be. They have no idea how long we are supposed to spend on a certain part of the lesson. This means that if I decided to not ask one question or to add in a couple, the students really could care less. They have no clue that my lesson was tweaked. Thinking about this makes me a little less anxious for my lesson tomorrow, but I am still on edge.

I know I will get better the more practice I get, but wouldn't it be great to just snap your fingers and be the best? Ok, I know that is unrealistic and one of the best things about teaching is that you are also a student who is constantly learning. Wow! I'm excited!!!

Tyrrell County School System

I spent the last week in Tyrrell County, NC. The town of Columbia goes back and forth being the smallest and second smallest school system in the state. The week long visit was a requirement for rising senior teaching fellows. You are required to pick a county from a list and then spend a time getting in depth knowledge about the behind the scenes work in school systems. I hoped that my county was on the list, but took the next closest one.

I was not looking forward to spending the first week of summer break in a school system. The first day, I woke up at 6:00 so I could drive the hour drive and get there on time. I was very surprised at the greeting I got. The Director of Curriculum and Instruction was the one who organized our trip and I was greeted by her with a huge goody bag full of neat things. I found out that there was only one other teaching fellow going through this experience with me. We met and started to talk like old friends.

I was shocked at how much I was enjoying the trip. Monday we spent time in the high school and met with the Superintendent. Tuesday we went to the 4H center and Somerset Plantation. I had been to Somerset when I was younger and it was nice to visit again. Wednesday we walked the boardwalk, went to the old theatre that acts as a museum, and went to an after school program. Thursday was dedicated to the Elementary school and middle school. Friday we met with the transportation man (thats right one man) and the maintenance man (again, one man).

This school system is extremely small. The middle and high school share a campus, a media center, a gym, cafeteria, art room and teacher, music room and teacher, and vocational classes. Even though the system in tiny, it is not small on charm. Everyone there is extremely nice and helpful. I felt comfortable talking with random teachers or administrators. They all expressed a love for their small town and explained that they new all the children's names as well as their parents. The administrators pride themselves on being supportive of the teachers.

OH! I almost forgot. This little down-home school system has a SMART board in every single classroom. There are 5 laptop carts at the middle and high school campus and 3 at the elementary campus. There are 5 computer labs total between the 3 schools. Technology is not lacking!!

I believe that when I graduate college, I will definately put in an application to teach in Tyrrell County. I would love to be a part of such a tight-knit community.