Week 17: Over Already =/

Monday:

I can't believe this is our last week of student-teaching already! There were definitely parts where it felt like it was moving slowly, but these last five weeks really sped up. This week I won't be in the classroom that much either, which will be kind of weird. I'm so used to the routine of our day, but I'm really excited to visit more classrooms!

Today I went and visited a kindergarten classroom. There morning meeting was very similar to ours. I asked Andrea if everyone did it this way in the whole school, and she told me that they try their best to have similar routines in each grade. This way when they enter a new grade they’re not learning a completely new set of daily routines.

It was a lot of fun visiting the kindergarteners. I observed in that grade for a semester, I forgot how much I loved them! They are at such a fun age and so quick to welcome you. I was only there for about an hour, and when I left they all got up and gave me a hug. =) I’m excited for this week, maybe I can get more of an idea of the grades I would want to teach and the grades I wouldn’t.

Tuesday:

            It’s kind of weird not seeing my students the entire day and visiting other classrooms. I didn’t leave for the whole day, but I was gone for a long enough time that when I returned my students all gave me a hug and asked where I had been. Since yesterday I went to a kindergarten room, we decided today I should go visit a first grade room.

            One of the teachers that help in student council is a first grade teacher, so I went and observed in there for a good amount of time. I watched their entire reading chunk and it gave me a lot of ideas on how I want to teach reading. All of the students read with such great expression! They did their reading in a circle, and each student took a turn reading the page. After they were finished, the entire class would then echo-read.

Each and every one of them read very well, and I asked Holly how she did that. She told me that this year she really wanted to focus on reading with expression and focusing on comprehension. In my future classroom, I want to take this mindset with me. It’s kind of interesting how different years your students may come out with a stronger skill-set in a new area.  I’m very grateful to be going to new classrooms, but I’m getting nervous for leaving! It’ll be a rough Friday.

Wednesday:

            Today I decided to visit the other second grade classrooms to see how they did the same activities. As I have mentioned before, we all plan together; so we have the same plans for every day. I was able to see a math lesson in one of the classrooms, and I watched Daily Five in the other classroom.

            It was interesting watching the higher-level math class since I was so used to mine! One other thing I noticed was how our students act differently with different teachers. Some of my students are in the higher math, and the ones that are usually not chatty were awfully chatty! I couldn’t help but say something to them each time, but I just couldn’t believe how differently they were acting in the other classrooms.

            Honestly, they all teach similarly but they treat the students differently. Andrea has a very friendly “Ms. Honey” kind of relationship with her students. Another teacher has more of the friend relationship with them, and the other treats them more like her own children. She is the only mother out of them so it makes sense. =) It’s just interesting to see that they all teach the exact same things, but teach them so differently depending on how their relationships are with their students.

Thursday:

            This week is really flying by, I cannot believe that tomorrow is my last day of student-teaching! I still see them a lot every day, but I almost didn’t want to go into other classrooms today since I only have two more days with them. I am really excited to graduate soon and hopefully getting a teaching job of my own, but I’m going to miss them a lot.

I went and watched a fifth grade math lesson today for about an hour. One thing I couldn’t believe was that they seriously had an hour and a half of math where they didn’t have any students pulled at all. In second grade, we’re lucky to have a half-hour where no kids are pulled for something else. It’s interesting that not all of the grades have the same amount of time to teach to their entire class. They should try and even that out at the school a little bit better.

It was fun going into the fifth grade classroom, but now I know I DO NOT want to teach fifth grade. It’s a very odd time, and I feel like it is similar to junior high. The kids respected the teacher, but I didn’t like how friendly they were with each other. I want to have a good relationship with my students, but I want it to be appropriate.

Friday:

            Okay, so this is my very last blog post and I’m pretty much just going to talk about how amazing my class, the staff, and Andrea are. =) I am not an emotional person, but I did tear up a little bit today. During our morning meeting, they refused to say, “today is the greatest day I’ve ever known”. Instead they changed it on me to “today is the worst day I’ve ever known.” This I thought was kind of funny, but I kept trying to explain to them that since I’m leaving that means they are even closer to summer break! They weren’t buying into that at all.

            So in the morning, Andrea told me not to bring a lunch. She had me go into the office for something, and our lunch group was in there along with a bunch of food! They had a sign that said “Stefanie’s farewell fiesta”. They made tacos, rice, guacamole, and a cake! It was so nice of them, and it was delicious! We even ate in the principal’s office because she was out that day; it’s okay, she approved. =)

            Later on in the day I was called to go down to the office; Andrea’s mom in the receptionist, so she was just giving me food to take home. When I came back, the lights were off and the door was locked. I unlocked it and they all jumped out and yelled “surprise!” They had a big banner saying goodbye and a treasure chest filled with “teacher stuff”. Then Andrea handed me a book with letters from them. After that we went to go take a picture in the back of the room and after we took it we all started walking towards our desks. Then one students started crying and gave me a big hug, then they all came back and basically tackled me. I did tear up a little bit, because I’m going to miss them a lot. I already have planned to come help out for field day. This staff, the class, and Andrea have just been amazing. I don’t know what I’m going to do without them!

            

Week 16: Only One Left!

Monday:

    Today was a pretty normal day, and I feel like it went by really fast! This morning the student that was switched to another room came into our class by mistake. He acted like he was really excited and completely fine with switching. However, since I am teaching less I kind of peeked in while walking down the hallway. He looked pretty sad, but hopefully it will get better as the weeks go on. At least it's only one month of school.

    One thing about this situation that I wonder about is the parent. I don't think I would be okay with someone switching my child out of their normal classroom one month out of the year. They would have to give me a very good reason as to why it is my child that needs to leave. I hope that his parents asked these questions rather than just going along with it.

    Other than that situation, it was a pretty lighthearted day. You can tell they are getting ready for summer break. A lot of them were wearing nice clothes, and almost all of them were pretty chatty throughout the day. We added a summer countdown to our morning routine, we count down the days each day. The school also begins the ABC countdown tomorrow. I think it's supposed to be even nicer tomorrow, so we will se how that goes! =)

Tuesday:

    Today was the start of our ABC countdown! In honor of 27 days of school left, we celebrated by making paper airplanes, eating apples, and having an art appreciation day. The kids all wrote their art teacher a card, but my favorite was the airplanes. We went outside for about 20 minutes to practice flying them! I couldn't believe how nice it was outside; Andrea and I didn't want to go back in. =) While we were outside, the other teachers and I realized how the student that switched classes was kind of by himself. He wasn't playing with his friends from our class, but he didn't play with his new classmates either. It was pretty sad to watch because he just seemed like he had no idea what to do. He came over and gave me a big hug and said he missed our class; I wish the principal would have thought through the decision a little bit more.

    On a lighter note, you can definitely tell that the weather helps students realize that summer is coming. They were pretty chatty today, but I couldn't blame them; the weather is starting to make me check out a little bit too! The end of the year is coming, and I'm happy I get to see what that is kind of like. However, I'm still nervous about that first day of school. We talked about it a little bit at night class, but that is one of those things I won't be completely confident about until I have done it. All of the tips I get from the teachers here are basically going through rules and procedures. I think the idea of being super strict those first few weeks is a good idea! We all have a lot to think about before we graduate, kind of crazy!

Wednesday:

      We are continuing the fun countdown, and today was letter B! We were able to go outside and blow bubbles for a good amount of time. It was a lot of fun and you could tell that the students were really enjoying it! It's really nice to be able to get outside throughout the day to kind of space things out a bit. The students are completely disinterested in anything academic at this point. So being able to go outside for a little bit really helps them get some energy out and refocus on what we need to do. 

     Today we also had another problem with the same little girl we have been dealing with. It's really hard to keep up with her, she gets mad about one thing at one point during the day; then is smiling about the same situation at another point during the day. It's exhausting to try and understand what is going on. She recently has been getting caught in her own lies a lot. 

     One thing that happened today was her asking other girls to smell her markers, but then she would get upset when they would use them! Finally Andrea explained to her in a very simple way how confusing she can be to the other students. She gave an example by saying, "If I asked Miss Geer to give me a high-five then got mad at her for hitting me when she did it, would that make sense?" She responded by saying no, but you could tell it wasn't really sinking in. I suggested to start documenting the different things that happen with her, so if the mom calls again she can explain what really happened. Hopefully this will help and it seemed like the principal really liked the idea! Since I'm not really teaching anymore, it's nice to feel like I'm contributing! =)

Thursday:

     This morning, just like every Thursday morning, was student council. I'm very grateful that I was able to experience some kind of after/before school activity. Next week we don't have it, so this week will be my last student council meeting with them! It was kind of sad saying bye, but it was funny listening to all of them tell me I had to teach their grade next year and I can't leave Howe. =) Even though I only saw them once a week, there were a few kids that I really connected with and I am going to miss!

     Although it was my last student-council meeting, it was more smiles than sadness. We were finishing up this Nike fundraiser where everyone brought in old shoes that they could either reuse or donate. Nike does has this really cool program where they take old shoes that are really beaten up, and instead of throwing them in the trash, use them for a lot of different things. Some of the shoes will be used for turf fields and others for the bottom rubber portion of playgrounds. It's a really cool program and I'm glad I was able to learn about it!

     Altogether, student council was a really great experience. It was a fun way to get to know one of the first grade and third grade teachers. It just showed me even more how the staff at Howe is amazing! They really did an amazing job at making me feel welcome with them, and are more than willing to help me out in any way possible. I hope when I do find a school to work at, that they have a staff similar to the one here. Most of the teachers work hard with basically no direct curriculum, and still try their best when there really isn't anyone keeping them accountable. There a good group of people. =)

Friday:

     It's crazy to think that next week I will just be observing! I can't believe time has flown by this quickly, it's kind of terrifying and it hit me pretty hard today. I feel very blessed to be able to work with Andrea. Since she is younger, she can relate to a lot of the feelings that I am having because it wasn't that long ago that she was in the exact same boat that I am in. It's kind of cool too because she is transitioning to a totally new spot in life and so am I, and I'm sure that match up wasn't an accident at all. =)

      Hearing about all of the people getting job offers already makes me so anxious about next fall. I don't know if I have a job, I don't know where I am living; but Andrea helped me a lot today with relaxing and trusting that everything will work out how it is supposed to. I know that teaching is the right career choice for me, I'm very relieved that I'm not having second thoughts about that. However, I still have so many unanswered questions, but I'm confident that God knows where I am going to be and what I will be doing. If it's not in his plan, then I guess I need to accept that; hopefully it's in his plan to give me a job kind of far away! =) Regardless, I'm very thankful for Andrea and all the experiences I have had so far, they will shape me into the teacher I was always meant to be. =)