First Time

Today, I teach math for the first time. I am a little nervous because my teacher won't be there and its just a sub. It shouldn't be to bad. But knowing its the first day of a new math unit and if I do a bad job..... oh man it would not be so good. I'll write later and tell you how it goes.

Spring Break

This week Seattle Hill is on spring break! Which means for me I just have classes this week. Any ways, after spring break I will begin to teach some new things. Such as, Math and Social Studies. I think teaching both will be fun but, I just haven't taught them yet, it will be something new. I have my third and final observation coming up in three weeks and it will be during math. It is so crazy how time has flown by being at Seattle Hill. It makes me sad to think I will be saying good bye to the kids I have been working with all semester. As a teacher I will have to do this every year.

Which brings me to my next point, as of right now it is unsure whether or not I will be doing my full time student teaching in 2nd grade. Because, both of my teachers might be moving grade levels. Scary thought! Here is what Jamie and Amy believe will happen, Jamie will move to 4th grade and Amy will move to 3rd grade. What does that mean for me? Well, I would most likely stay with Amy and move up to 3rd grade. All this means that I would be working with the same group of kids that I am with now, and just continuing on from where we left off at the end of this year. Not as scary as I thought.

Now to go back a little ways, it has been so long since my last blog. I have had my second observation it was during science. Over all it was a success. Except for one part, when the kids took the pinwheels they had made outside to see if there was any wind, a huge gust of wind came taking all of the pinwheels with it. All the kids started to scream and chase after their pinwheel, there was absolutely nothing I could do but laugh. My professor was standing in the back laughing also. So much for good management! All in all ,it was a great lesson the kids enjoyed it and so did my professor.


That about sums up everything exciting in my world of student teaching, so weird to think that I only have 4 weeks left... CRAZY!

Long Time, No Blog

I know it has been well at least a month since my last blog, I have been crazy busy with everything! Here is what has been going on:

First of all during my science lesson I had the Principal, Super Superintendent of the Snohomish School District and a board member come in to Jamie's room. Of course it was while I was teaching, but the kids where really good while they were there (Praise the Lord).

Another exciting thing that happened was Amy had to take an afternoon off and had a sub, I got to be the teacher for the whole afternoon. It was great! I got to re-establish myself as a teacher with the kids. I went over that it was OK that I don't do things like Ms. Grimes because, we are different people etc. The reason I had to do this with Amy's class is there are a handful of kids who are constantly reminding me of how Ms. Grimes does it. Ever since then they have done much better.

Also, even when Jamie and Amy are at school, they have been letting me take over the afternoons while I'm there. I love it! It is giving me such great experience being up in front of the kids. Because of this I have been able to experience the kids when they are behaving really well and not so well.

That's about all I can think of. Hopefully it won't be so long in between my next blog!

Bathroom Break!

This is just a funny moment that should be shared to all,

Yesterday during show and tell a students was telling the class all about his poster because, he is the star of the week. As he was going through his poster Jamie and I noticed that he was wiggling a lot. All of a sudden he stops squeezes his legs together and said, " I have to go to the bathroom." and runs out the door. Jamie and I had no idea what to do other than just laugh. Oh man only in second grade!

Short On Time

Since I have a couple of spare minutes before I am off to Seattle Hill, I thought I would try and catch up on the last week and a half.

Last Friday I had my first observation, it went GREAT!! My professor really enjoyed my lesson even better, the kids really like it too. My lesson was on idioms, I was surprised at how in to it my students were. It was such an energizing feeling. After my lesson was over my professor and I went over my lesson, she had nothing bad to say about. YAY!! such a huge relief.

Also, over this last week I have been teaching science. This has been a great experience and the kids really enjoy it as well. I'll give more detail about the science lessons some other time.

Tayte (my autistic student) just warms my heart. One morning while he was doing his entry task he just started to laugh in the middle and said, "I'm such a funny guy. I'm the funniest guy around." This just put a huge smile on my face.

Yesterday (Monday) I was in Jamie's room all day so, at the end of the day I went in to Amy's room to see my other students. All the students started to ask, "Ms. Craig where have you been?" I told them I was in the other room and they were all so happy to see me. This was the first time any of the students expressed that they missed having me in their classroom. This was such an encouragement! It makes me want to have my own students that much more!!

Catch-up

Can I just say how busy my life has become, and my blog has suffered from it. I don't even remember the last thing I wrote. That is when you know that it has been a long time. So, I will just give you some highlights from the last week and a half.

Over the last week, I have done many reading and phonics lessons which has been a great experience. I also, had the opportunity to take over the afternoon portion of the day last Thursday. I led factoid testing, pack up and took the kids out to the bus. It was a good successful afternoon! Jamie even left the room to work with a student one on one. It was just the students and me - I was a little scared at first but, grew more and more confident at time went on.

Last Friday, I taught my first math lesson. The kids have just started a new unit about data, so we played "guess my rule" with Yakkites (YAK-TEE). A Yakkite is just a fictional alien - and no two Yakkites look the same. It was so much fun. First, I read the story about how they came to earth and started to reveal some on the Yakkites so that the students can begin to see how they are different. Then as a group we played "guess my Yakkite" and the kids were really in to it.

On Monday, while I was helping some students during writers workshop, I met with students and edited their papers. After I was done with a students I looked over my shoulder to see the principal of the school watching me - talk about instant nerves! I said, "hi" and continued on with with my work.

Those are the highlights from the last week or so.

Short Day

Tuesday was a short but good day at Seattle Hill. In the morning one of my professors who observes me during this portion of my student teaching meet with my CT's. It was a good meeting, she told them what to expect and what I should be doing in the classroom at this point. Once, the students started to come in they began their entry task but, shortly after it was time for an assembly. This is the first assembly I have attened at Seattle Hill, it was the Tear of Joy Puppeteers. They use table top puppets and told two different stories it was very entertaining and the kids love it. I was really suprised at how good the kids where, they sat so quietly it was Amazing. After the assembly, it was time for reading which I taught. We started off by finishing "Tikki Tikki Tembo" and did some phonics review on the white board. Before I knew it my time was up and it was time for Math. Math we gave the students a test - nothing too exciting there. After math I walked the kids down to lunch and got them seated at their lunch table and that was the end of my short day at Seattle Hill.