Student Teaching Shenanigans: First Observation

Today was my first observation with my supervisor, Marilyn. She is very nice so I was not really that nervous at all when I was doing the phonics lesson.  The lesson was about 50 minutes long and she observed the whole time.  After the lesson, we went to an office and did an interview where she told me about what she observed.  The observation was aimed at seeing if I had a good "teacher voice" and if I had good control over the class with positive interactions.  She said I did an excellent job, saying my voice was firm yet friendly and I was able to use it as a tool to keep the kids under control.  She said that I did good a reinforcing the students' positive behavior, kept a lively pace, and was well organized. What she would like me to improve is using the phrase "Ok" in my directives and increasing the wait time when I ask questions.  Overall, I think I did very well and I am so excited!  My next observation is for math an is at the beginning of February.

On another note, yesterday was another 2 hour delay day, which went a bit better than the day before because the delay was not for anything nearly as serious as last week, so almost all of our students came to class.  I was able to teach the phonics lesson in the afternoon and my co-op taught reading, making it a day that was useful.

Next week, I begin my unit on solids and liquids and make my first bulletin board with a snowman writing piece the students are going to do!  Got a lot of planning ahead!

Of course, I could not finish this post up without putting my new favorite one-liner, heard today.  I gotta tell the story that goes with this one liner though: A student came up and was complaining that a girl was telling her something that was wrong and my co-op says to her "If she told you to jump off a bridge, would you?".  the student said no and walked away.  Hearing this, another student comes up, taps on her desk and says "Someone told me to jump off a bridge once and I didn't do it."  It was all I could do not to break out in laughter right there!  I am having such a fun time with these kids!!