Week 5: Monday. Enough said. ;-)

I'm not feelin' so hot, so I didn't take any notes on today... let's see what I remember!

It was the 100th day of school! Thank goodnesss it was a fun day the day that I'm not feeling 100%. It began with a fun activity: #ed Hershey's Kisses were hidden around the room, and the kids had to find them and put them in place on a number grid. It was a mad dash to find them -- totally cute! We read "Grampa's Teeth," which was fun for me, because I had to attempt to talk like I had no teeth, and anyone who knows me well knows that I don't act or do impressions or anything. I think my theatre camp co-workers would have gotten the BIGGEST kick out of it!! ;-)
We did a bunch of other hundred-day activities... and I can't think of anything that stood out. No "Helpful Hints" or "Need a Smile?" moments -- at least any that pop into my head. Then again, The Bachelor is on in the background, and I'm in some pretty desperate need of NyQuil... tomorrow will be better :-)

Week 4: Ups and Downs (Pt. 2)

Thursday: The schedule was rearranged due to a music concert rehearsal, so we skipped calendar and reading right away in the morning. When we found time to work on that stuff (and Word Work), I decided writing quickly would probably be better than making sure I used my best first-grade handwriting, but boy was I wrong! ;-) The kids made fun of my "silly writing," and PSH brought me a kindergarten handwriting book to practice in! haha. Again, their behavior was a little rough... that's the hardest part!! The tattling is insane, too. After lunch, I actually stopped reading aloud because they were so chatty. I gave them a warning or two, saying if they didn't raise their hands and just talked, I was going to stop reading. I felt bad, but I had to follow through! Overall, I didn't feel like today was one of my BEST days. Tomorrow will be better :-)

Helpful Hints:
-For problems on the rug: assign spots, send them from the rug, or make the trouble-maker your "special helper," so that they stay by you and don't lead the other kids astray.
-Let them know you mean business by following through! (This is my biggest problem!)
-Put highlighters next to the turn-in basket, so that they have to use the highlighter to underline their name. Then they can't forget it! ( Tip courtesy of PSH :-) )

Need a Smile?
-As I was tying a student's shoes, he says: "Tying my shoes is boring!"
-A student was complaining about his tooth, so another student decided to be helpful: "I know where you live, and my dad can rip your tooth out." ;-)
-CT: "Whose chair is this?" Student: "That's mine!" So he drags it halfway to his seat, then just leaves it in the middle of the walkway...
-"Mmmm... like, I didn't get my snowball yet." This little girl asks almost every day, despite that fact that my CT and I have told her tons of times that snowballs come on Mondays... she is so obsessed with these little snowballs that her mom called my CT to ask when her daughter was getting one -- wow! ;-)
-This student has a HUGE puffy jacket, so he can't get his backpack on by himself (cause the straps are so tight). He says, "I can't get my backpack on cause I'm so buff!" LOL!!

Friday: Well, I didn't take too many notes on today... but it was a pretty good day :-) I took my first star from a student (and felt SUPER bad about it...), but I think the rest of the students finally understood that I am in charge, too, so they should listen. We had a Community Meeting in the morning, which is when the entire school meets in the gym and lunch room to listen to announcements, and cute little awards for individual students and classes as a whole. I love the concept!! During centers time, I took the students who were finished into the computer lab to play games. They were amazed at how fast I could type, haha. Who knew that I'd have to help them so much to play games, though?! I don't think I sat down that entire time ;-) I do have to say that it was fun!! :-) For Word Work, I wrote a cute little note to them and wrote "This is from me to you," since we're working on the words "from" and "this." The Word Work book actually has some really good ideas!!
Mr. CT and the CT kids all came during lunch today -- the oldest was wearing a nametag that said "Little Miss CT-in-training." SUPER adorable! The students all enjoyed their visit, too. The middle CT kid gave one of the students a hug and kiss before they all left! It was quite funny :-)
I got to lead another activity toward the end of the day, and it went pretty well. Today was MUCH better than yesterday!!

Need a Smile?
-"Miss Wodrich, see this note? I'm gonna put it inside my shirt like they do in the movies, like when they open their jackets and put it in their shirt pocket." Super cute!
-"Miss Wodrich, I like you!" Then he gives me a hug!! I love working in first grade! ;-)

Week 4: Ups and Downs (Pt. 1)

Sorry for the day-late post ;-)

This week was interesting, to say the least!

Tuesday: Well, today was one of those days that I've heard about from other student teachers, but had yet to experience... pretty rough. It started out fine when I was beginning the reading lesson and trying to get the giant book of chart paper to stand up so I could write on it. Using the whiteboard ledge seemed like a good idea, so that's where I put it, despite the students saying it probably wasn't going to work. Of course, after it fell one of the students said "I told you you shouldn't have done it!!" ;-) I wasn't quite sure how to proceed with the reading lesson, so my CT helped me out. She showed me that it's OK to REALLY lead the students toward the answers, because they don't have a ton of background knowledge to allow them to be able to figure out the characteristics of fiction books on their own!
The hard part today was the students' behaviors. This testing-me-thing is getting crazy! For example: I began to give them their Sentence Dictation test, and one of the students gets up in the middle of my directions to move to a different seat. I asked her to sit back down, but she kept walking. She got to her new spot and began setting up her privacy folders, despite the fact that I asked her to move back to her seat. I felt kind of mean, but I grabbed her folders and moved them back to her desk. Thank goodness she followed!
My supervisor came in today to meet my CT and see how it was going, since I started SUPER early.
At the end of the day, I was giving out Neat Treats, and I was telling the students how much I wished I could give out a neat treat to one of the students, but I couldn't because there was no name on it. Of course the quietest girl, who is super sweet and doesn't always understand everything, got up to put her name on it, then went to take a Neat Treat. If it was anyone but her, I would have been like "You forgot your name, so you can't have one this time..." ...But it was her. I just let her have one, and I felt awful about it!!! I just couldn't make her sad like that!! Oh well, I'll do better next time...

Helpful Hints:
-Re-explain centers on Day 2, so that students are able to remember your expectations. It really helped when my CT did it!

Wednesday: There were a lot more happy moments today (yay!), but the behavior was still a problem. I need to stop thinking of them as just these cute little kids with good intentions, and realize that they ARE able to understand why we should be quiet when a classmate is talking, etc., etc. They're just so cute!
Today they realized that I'm left-handed. Apparently, none of them have ever met someone who is! It was quite an experience ;-) I told them that me writing with my right hand is like them writing with their left hand, so of course they wanted to see, and try it themselves! I said later, if we had enough time after the lesson. The morning actually was pretty smooth after that! In addition to the subjects I've already taken on, today I got to teach Theme Time, since I found the poem for that time :-) Again, I felt like I was leading them directly to the answers, but maybe that's just what they needed. It'll take some time for me to just know automatically what they're capable of.

Helpful Hints:
-Sending students to sit in different squares on the carpet was really helpful during the read-aloud. They needed some sort of separation today!

Need a Smile?
-I had them ROAR every time the book said to, because my ROAR-ing sounds like a squeak ;-)
-One of my students told me today that he used positive thinking twice, and it worked, so he's going to use it at home!!! I'm so proud! haha.
-Randomly throughout the day, a student would break into dance. He's pretty good at the robot thing!!
-At the end of the day, I was talking to one of the students. He looked back down the hallway, then forward really fast and said "I can't look that way, there's a girl I know!" I said "Oh? Why can't you look at her?" He said "She's really cute." ADORABLE!!!!
-I learned how to use the book binding machine today... and managed to fling the binding in my face. What an experience ;-)

I think I'll post Thursday and Friday later, because these entries always feel so extremely long!!

Wrapping up Week 3 and Tackling Week 4!

There are a few things I need to add to Week 3, before I begin Week 4... :-)

Addendums:
-A certain teacher would like to be mentioned more in here... so I'll give her her own initials... how about PSH? Hint: the last letter stands for 'hair...' ;-)
-Last week PSH almost gouged out one of my eyes in the teacher's lounge, since she was animatedly talking with a steak knife in her hand... to my CT on the other side of me. Funnily enough, I didn't even notice until one of the other teachers said she looked like she was about to get me in the face with the knife!
-My CT got me my first teacher stamps! Of course, one of them said "Awesome!" I should have used it every time I said the word during the morning routine, I probably would have filled both sides of a sheet of paper ;-)
-I got to hear a beautiful "teacher 'love' story," about my CT and the teacher next door! They're so funny, and they work so well together! That taught me to always be nice to everyone, and they may come to be one of your best friends and a great asset to the teaching team :-)
-A "Need a Smile?" moment I forgot: At the end of one of the days last week, a student went to get my jacket for me to go to bus duty!! It was super sweet, too bad I didn't have to go outside that day... what a nice thought though!

Monday: My time in first grade is not even halfway over, but I'm already dreading the day I have to say goodbye to these kids! They are just too cute. In addition to the non-instructional duties and direct reading instruction, I'm now taking on Word Work (or what we knew as spelling in our school days ;-) ). Today I gave something called a "Cloze Story Word Test." The students have a paragraph-long story with blanks. I read the story, and they have to fill in the words that aren't written. I think it went pretty well! No one got more than 2 wrong out of the 12 problems... so I would be proud of that, except that I just gave the test, I didn't do any of the teaching for that unit ;-) Oh, heck, I'm proud of those kids anyway!! I had some extra time to read to them, so I picked up that Jack Prelutsky book, and they got REALLY excited -- apparently they liked it more than I thought! Yay!
After lunch: The students worked on a football player glyph... unfortunately, that was more complicated than my CT and I anticiapted. I was working on bulletin board things while she was leading the activity, and just listening to it was enough to make me go slightly crazy!
--Student: Can I use 2 colors?
CT: It says "choose your favorite color." What does that mean?
Student: One color. But, like, can I use 2?
--CT: Use a black crayon to write the number.
Student: Can I use brown?
CT: ...black.
--Student: Do we have to color the whole jersey?
Student 2: Do we have to color the hands?
Student 3: What color are the shoes?
CT: Oh my goodness, can't you all just color? Do we have to have a conversation about it every time???
[[That maybe sounds mean in writing, but her tone was so light and joking that I couldn't stop laughing!!!!]]
After dreaded bus duty: I was grading the word tests, and marked one wrong... then decided that it was a 12/12, and 100%. Oops... teachers make mistakes too!! ;-)

Helpful Hints
-Follow through with said consequences -- the students catch on and start to take advantage when you don't!
-Give higher reading groups comprehension questions for at home, so parents know what kind of questions to ask, and so students can work beyond the text.
-Integrate topics throughout day... so use the material from direct reading instruction in the guided reading groups, and maybe even use the theme texts throughout guided reading, centers, and direct reading instruction!
-Positive behavior management: "The things I like about the way [student] is sitting are..." -- The students knew EXACTLY what my CT wanted from them when she listed all the good things the other student was doing!

Need a Smile?
-CT: "What does 'greedy' mean?" Student: "My dad's greedy!" (oops... haha)
-Me: "Don't you want to create your own team??" Student: "I like the Bears, I better do them." (I don't think the Bears will be hurt if you create your own special team, but OK...)
-In the mentor text for reading today, my CT's now-husband wrote an ADORABLE note to her!!!! Wish I could remember it, it was WAY too cute not to share ;-)

First grade is AWESOME (yes, awesome, haha), and that's all I can say at the moment!!! :-D

Week 3: Learning and Teaching; Teaching and Learning :-)

Overall, this was a good week!!! :-D


Monday: No School, MLK Day! :-)

Tuesday: Calendar - piece of cake! This week I took over the direct reading instruction (a 15-minute lesson in the mornings). Today was "Immersion Day," meaning that I read all the books we would be using for the lessons. Easy peazy lemon squeezy.
My CT was looking for ideas to increase the kids' quality work, so I came in with a few. After reading, I make a sign to put by the basket where they turn in their work. I'll attach pictures :-) I got to explain the poster to the class, and I was SO happy when I saw them actually look at it before putting in their work. My CT suggested adding visuals for the non-readers, such as a crayon for "color," a sample line for their name by "name," and an eraser by the "erase neatly." The finished product is much more colorful than what I posted here!! [[ I also included pictures of the bulletin board I put up my first week :-) My first teacher bulletin board! ]]

Helpful Hints
-Use visual clues for non-readers
-Positive attention: on students' birthdays, they can choose students to give them positive comments. SUCH a cute idea!!!

Need a Smile?
-They found words that rhyme, such as "dip" and "sip." Try saying that fast... and think of a slight speech issue... I had to ask him to repeat himself to make sure he wasn't swearing at me! ;-)
-"Wedding? Eeeeewwwwwwwwwww!"
-"If I were a penguin dressed in a tuxedo, I would... go on a date." (Aren't you a little young for that?? haha.)

Wednesday: One student came in and told me right away that his dog died last night :-( He handed me a note that said his dog is in heaven. That was so sad! Luckily the students had their stuffed pets to keep them company. I had them talk to their pets during calendar, such as whispering the answers to my questions in their pets' ears and the like. Then we worked on looking at labels in books.
The majority of today I spent looking up and making centers for next week's football/Super Bowl/Chicago Bears theme :-D I had SO much fun creating all the papers, but I realized that I'd spent an ENTIRE day making it all, and that there's no way I could do that for every week of the year. Thank goodness there are so many resources available!
I found a Jack Prelutsky book at the library, so I asked my CT to check it out for me to read after lunch -- I was SO excited, but when I read it, I realized that Jack Prelutsky doesn't spell everything out in his poems, so most of it went over their heads... oh well... one student did enjoy it, though, and asked me to read more :-)

Need a Smile?
-"You really are a nice teacher!" :-D Awwww, they like me! They really, really like me!! ;-)

Thursday: One of the students yesterday said he had the same stuffed bunny that I had, so he showed it to me first thing in the morning! Adorable. :-) Reading this morning was talking about photographs in books... and that's all the lesson said. So... I had to make up what that meant on the fly! I think it went pretty well, I just talked about the difference between a photograph and a drawing, and why we like to use photographs more (because of all the detail). While I was working on that with the students, the principal walked in to talk to my CT. I stopped for a second because I got nervous, but I got right back in it, since I wasn't being observed. It made me realize how nervous I'll probably be come observation time... but it'll be OK :-) I also had the students do some exercises to wake up their brains, since we had an extra minute.
After lunch, I got to see them take a math test... then we had to put together these INSANE packets after we got all their scores. I can't believe all the work for an after-assessment packet!! Hopefully it's actually useful for them!

Helpful Hint
-Get into situations that make you think on your feet, so you get better at it!

Need a Smile?
-The students had to write what they wonder about, here are a few of their answers: "I wonder how cool I am." "I wonder if I'm cute." "I wonder when I'll get $300." "I wonder how tall I'll be when I grow up." ...oh wait, the last one was my CT. She's funny! ;-)
-Student blurts out: "My mom's having a baby!" CT:"Oh really?" Student:"Yeah, it's either a brother or a sister." CT:"Well, I hope so! What else would it be, an alien???" ;-)

FRIDAY!!!! OK, I have officially realized how big of a Bears fan I am, and it is seeping into my teaching. I tried to teach them the Bears Fight Song. Almost every student wore Bears gear. We silently cheered for the Bears as we were walking to Music. As soon as the bell rang at the end of the day we shouted "GO BEARS!" What a fun time ;-) I hope none of them are Packers fans... oops.
Morning: I did a mini-health lesson in the morning, because I saw at least two different students coughing into their hands then touching things, and I do NOT want to be out sick for student teaching! They seem to have heard most of it, but they're young so it hasn't become automatic for them yet. Oh well, I did my best.
I felt like the reading lesson was rough this morning, I was not at my most positive. I kept asking them to "stop" to "please don't." (Our lesson was to cover up the pictures and try to read a few words, then uncover the pictures to see if they helped us.) When my CT took over for Word Work, she pointed out all the positive behaviors (like she always does), and they snapped to it right away. It was such a huge difference that I noticed right away I had to bring my positivity back!
Meeting: I got to go to a Jolly Phonics training with my CT and two other teachers on the team. As ridiculous as it is, I was SO excited! I feel like that taught me more than a semester of reading/language arts methods did. It was quite an interesting experience... let's just say that teachers need their grown-up time... "uh, uh, umbrella!" LOL!
After lunch: I read Tacky the Penguin. It says that he's an odd bird. One of the [least odd] students said "I'm odd!" It was cute :-) I told him that we're all a little odd, so of course everyone else (except one) added that they're odd, too. Ohhh, kids. ;-)
At the end of the day, after our cheer, my CT added a cheer of her own: "Gooo lunch!" (There were some lunch boxes leftover in the basket!) I thought that was a great way to end a great week ;-)

My teacher nerdiness, which has been suppressed for the past couple of months, has come back out. I brought home my first teacher prep work!!! And I'm excited about it! Everyone thinks I'm insane... but we all know that this is probably the one and only time I'll be this excited to bring work home, haha. And so ends my third week... only 6 more left in 1st grade...

Finishing Week 2: The Honeymoon Phase has Ended...

It's crazy how much my energy level has changed from the beginning of the week! Let's rewind and try to figure out why... ( 'cause I'm sure THAT'S going to be difficult ;-) )

Tuesday: I still had difficulty with the whole morning routine -- still super choppy! I know I'll get it, though. If I can't even get that to work, I'm in for a rude awakening with the rest of my teaching experience!! ;-)
Later: I get critiqued by a student on my ability to put new nameplates on the desks. "There are a lot of bubbles!" "Wow, you're really slow at that!" "We finished all our work and you're still on the same table!" ...Oh boy, I hope they don't look at the kangaroo I drew as an example, or they'll start critiquing my art skills and I'll NEVER get any teaching done!! ;-)
Lunch: First, let me just say how much I LOVE lunch time. Thank goodness teachers have that rest period during the day! Anyway, today was nice to see the school community shown -- one teacher was having an off day, and every staff member in there was SO supportive. Wherever I end up, I hope that kind of support is there!!
Afternoon: Social Studies was about MLK Day -- the kids were so adorable!! I love that they have no concept of why on Earth there would be any reason to separate the African-Americans from the whites, or why someone would want to shoot another person. They are all about making sure everyone's equal and treated fairly. It was awesome! [ Note: I need to use a thesaurus and start including synonyms for 'awesome' in my vocabulary ;-) ]

I've decided to start including 2 different sections now: "Helpful Hints" (things my CT and other teachers say to make teaching smooth) and "Need a Smile?" (for those happy moments in the day that we could all use more of).

Helpful Hints
-Get familiar with technology, fast!!
-Try to call on a variety of students -- not the same ones every time.

Need a Smile?
-Student: "Miss Wodrich, you're a good citizen!"
-Student: "You're a good teacher!"
-Student: "You're slow at that."

Wednesday: YES!!! I finally feel like the morning routine went smoothly!!! Now the students seem to be testing me. One boy must have asked me to use the bathroom three times. When I gave him a time limit, he pushed that to the end. Two girls didn't want to come to the carpet for a read aloud. Even when I counted down, they moved as slow as molasses. I feel like taking a star for not being on the carpet in time is entirely too harsh, so I didn't. Hope they don't take it to mean I'm a complete pushover. Geez, balancing this is going to be tough.
Again, I helped a portion of the class with math. This section is so hard for them!! And then... half of the week was over.

Helpful Hints
-Have students pair and share stories when they want to talk about every page in the story.

Need a Smile?
-"My mittens are brown like babys." (From a tiny white girl whose whole family is white. Where did that come from???)
-Student boy: "Ladies first! Boys, let the girls get their shapes first!" (There is hope, chivalry is not dead!!!!!)

Thursday: Calendar went well again, woohoo! WAY more students came to play The Mitten game than were done with their center work. When I said that they had to have all their work done and that I was going to check, a few did go back to finish. When we were grading later, we found out some kids were less-than-truthful. To be expected, I suppose.
After lunch: Two students got in a fight. That was the biggest downer ever. My CT called down to the office and they were both bawling... my heart was breaking for them! That's going to be one of the hardest things for me: getting over the tears.
Later: I decided that we were going to tiptoe to our special. It kept them quiet, but it was slow going. We were already late, and a few kids were STILL trying to change from boots to gym shoes! I enjoyed it anyway :-) By the end of the day, I was ready to fall into bed.

Helpful Hints
-Time management! Try to get to specials on time. ;-)
-Share, share, share!!

Need a Smile?
-"My mitten is as brown as a beer." (I think he meant bear... but my CT and I could have used one of those at that point--what a week!)
-Me: [I'd found a hat in the hallway] "Do you like my new hat?" Student: "Give that back you ridiculous hedgehog!" [ From the play some of the students did! Great text-to-world connection! ;-) ]

TGIF!!! The honeymoon period of student teaching is definitely over; now I see the 'work' part. That's OK, hopefully there aren't too many down days!
The morning routine went well. I led the start-up for centers, which I thought I explained well, but there was a little confusion. Some the students performed a play! It was adorable :-)
Later: I led the "Lost Mitten" activity. I wish I would have thought about it more beforehand, though, because it didn't go super well. I needed a way for all the students to stay engaged.
Today was a huge blur. I'm slightly surprised I made it without falling asleep or completely snapping at one of the kids unintentionally! Thank goodness, though :-)

Helpful Hints
-Maybe it's OK to be a little stricter... kids could use some structure.

Need a Smile?
-Picture little first graders waddling like penguins down the hallway ;-)


Even though I'm dead tired, I'm still enjoying my experience a TON. My CT and the other teachers are amazing!!! ( And I'm not just saying that because they're reading it ;-) ) Everyone's just so nice!
I'm learning a lot from my CT, including something I like to think of as "SuperTeacher vs. RealisticTeacher." Since we don't have super powers, we can't be SuperTeacher all the time. We know what we should do, but with time restrictions and natural human imperfections, we can't physically accomplish it all. I'm glad I get to see the two sides; going into student teaching, I was worried that I was going to be expected to be SuperTeacher all the time!! I'm glad I'm allowed to be human :-)

Week 2, Day 1. It's a funny story... ;-)

I had my first hilarious classroom experience in this particular classroom... While I was reading aloud to the class for the first time, one of my students let one fly... and I couldn't help but laugh!!! I felt so terrible, but it was just so unexpected! I couldn't talk, and had tears running down my face... when I finally almost got it under control, I saw my CT (cooperating teacher) laughing, too!! It was a neverending cycle. Luckily, the poor student is more outgoing and was totally OK with it, and my CT and I tried to cover it by saying that it was a funny story from lunch that we were laughing at... I'm so glad I wasn't in front of the class during writing, cause he let two more go during that lesson. Oh boy!

So that made the day pretty interesting! Besides that, I got to do the morning routine (lunch count, calendar, weather, etc.) lead one guided reading group, and walk the students to their specials. I was more nervous than I thought to do the morning routine, and I have to work out some kinks since it took me forever to get through it all. My CT gave me some positive comments about it, though, and one thing to think about: some of the students didn't come to the carpet right away for calendar, so she said to think about other techniques to use to get everyone on the carpet, in case the students ignore me saying "Clean up your desk and come over here!" That's definitely something I should have in mind!

For tonight, my homework is to watch The Bachelor so that I can participate in the teacher's lounge lunch discussion about it tomorrow ;-)

Week One: Piece of Cake!

Since I've seen so many past student teachers keep blogs about their experience, I figured there might be something to it... so here goes mine!

Week One was easy and SO much fun! The worst part is getting used to this 6:15am wake-up... which involves a 10pm bedtime... which is not really happening.

Monday I did a lot of observing and some helping around the classroom: organizing supplies for Tuesday's math lesson, making copies, and grading the cut-and-dry assignments. I took a lot of notes, and wrote down questions about how the classroom was run: Is there a bathroom pass? What are the behavior procedures? Etc., etc.

Tuesday involved less note-taking and more preparation, but more involvement with the students. I got to settle a GIANT argument over an eraser ( ;-) ) and help students with work. Today the students seemed to realize that I could help them with more than tying their shoes, haha. My cooperating teacher also gave me a binder to start keeping copies of worksheets and other resources. I have a feeling that binder will fill up pretty quickly!! Tuesday mornings are also the 1st grade team planning meetings, so I had to get there a bit earlier.

On Wednesday, I was able to learn a little bit more about guided reading, since I don't feel like I was prepared for that at all. I also graded more writing assignments, learning what my cooperating teacher expected from the students. I started to catch on to which students were "graded" more leniently, and which students could be held more accountable for their work. [[They're not graded on every assignment, but they do have to complete all assignments. Student work isn't sent home until it reflects the student's ability, so some work is sent home with more misspellings than others.]]

Thursday was MUCH more involved: I took half of the class to work with them on their math lesson, while my cooperating teacher took the other half. The lesson was SO difficult for them; I don't remember learning to flip, slide, and rotate shapes in 1st grade! It was a difficult concept to teach, and a difficult one for them to learn. My cooperating teacher said she didn't know how the other teachers did it with only one teacher in the room. After that lesson, she gave me some positive comments about what she saw as I was working with half of the class, which was a very nice way to end that crazy lesson :-) I also got my first picture from one of the students, which immediately went into my binder ;-)

Friday went by SO fast. They have early release every Friday, so that the teachers can spend the extra time meeting as a team. Friday morning was a staff meeting, as well, during which the principal introduced me to the rest of the staff (slightly embarrassing, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stand up or what!). The student who drew me a picture came up to me and said "I really hope you can be a teacher!!" It was adorable :-) I got a hug from one of the slight troublemakers in class, too.

It was an AWESOME first week -- I have such a great feeling about this class and my cooperating teacher! She's super positive, and keeps her room warm so I'm not freezing all the time ;-) Everyone at the school has been so nice, too. I feel bad because I can't remember everyone's names or positions, but they all come up to me and ask how my week has been and if I'm learning a lot. It's such a GREAT environment!! Hopefully the rest of the year will be just as wonderful!!!