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!!!