Student Teaching Shenanigans: The Next Step

Couldn't write one of these for the last few weeks because all of my stories that I could write about would be too descriptive of my students.  My last placement was in a Autism and Severe Disabilities classroom and there are not words for how much I enjoyed my time there! I learned so much not just from the teacher but from the students as well! One thing I learned was patience; seeing what these students go through every day and what they have to deal with makes you thankful for what you have and give you the patience to put up with them through their trials.

The 7 weeks I spent in that classroom was not close to enough time to learn everything that I could and want to learn from them.  This is why I am staying!! No, I am not just going to just live in the classroom, I am happy to announce that I have a job!! My last day in the classroom, my co-op found out that she would be getting a new student who was severe enough that he would need a one-on-one aide. Because I am not certified yet (only because of paperwork that takes five years to fill out), I am able to become a paraprofessional, or aide.  So, before my last day was even over, I called and made an interview with the school district's substitute service.  They had to hire the aide through this service because they are not able to hire outright this far into the school year.

I went for an interview the Monday after Easter, then went in for a training and did the background check stuff that was necessary.  This past Tuesday, I had my final training and am officially considered a substitute teacher! Not even an hour after my final training was finished, my co-op called the job in for me and I was booked until the end of the year! I had my first day yesterday and WOW was it awesome! I have worked in classrooms for years because it is what I love to do,  I didn't really care if I got paid for it or not because it was fun. To actually work and get paid for it though is beyond cool!!

I cannot believe that I already have a job and I have not even graduated yet!! It is very exciting!  I know that at the beginning of student teaching, knowing that the end was coming near, I was very worried about what would happen.  I should have known that everything would fall into place. I have learned one more thing from all of these experiences; don't worry too much about the future, just live each day and everything will work out.

See ya out in the "Real World"!

Student Teaching Shenanigans: Job Fair Woes

Today was the Greater Philadelphia Teacher Job Fair in Valley Forge, PA.  I had been dreading this to begin with because I had heard that this would be a waste of time, plus it was a day away from my class that I love!  Well, it turns out those people that warned me about these were absolutely right!!

There were so many booths you couldn't tell where the lines started, ended or what school they were even for.  There were soooo many people! The one Florida school was only looking for Secondary Ed positions.  Half the booths weren't even doing interviews, just passing out information! Oh, and here is the big kicker: I had been prepared for a lot of walking and waiting in long lines, but what I was not prepared for was waiting in the line just to find out that the school district has no positions available or that they are currently not accepting resumes or that they would rather the applicants check online and send their resumes electronically!!! If you would rather have it electronically, then why the heck are you here?! What happened to being personable and talking face to face?! There was even a school district that had a booth that was not doing interviews, but passing out paperwork for their own job fair and open house in May! Out of all the booths I tried to visit, only 2 did interviews; one was a scripted paper that a guy filled out and one was a woman just asking questions based on my resume.  Quite honestly, I think I bombed at least the first one if not both.  I was just not comfortable and had trouble concentrating with all of the noise around me.

At this fair, I did not feel like myself.  I felt like a number in a suit with stats written above my head that employers looked at.  I was uncomfortable and anxious and didn't even feel like I was in my own body.  I felt like they were interviewing someone else and I was just sitting there watching.  It was a terrible experience and I do not wish to go to any more job fairs.  I would really like to see the stats of people who actually get hired at these things! Please, if you have been hired from a job fair before, please comment and let me know, I am very curious about this!

You would think after this crappy part of my day that my woes would be over....guess again.

My dear friend Nicole was nice enough to offer to take me from the job fair to our Thursday night class.  She was still doing interviews, so I waited for a while in the lobby of the fair.  She eventually texted me when she got out to her car and got her phone so I would know she was there and ready.  As I was walking out I get a message from her saying that her car would not start.  When I got there, she let me hear the noise it was making; sounded like a tin can was inside of it.  The two of us, not knowing anything about cars, thought it would be a good idea to try to give it a jump, thinking that would work.  This great guy saw we needed help and offered to help out, which was great since I was staring at the clips and the battery trying to figure out how the heck they went on. (I decided that my Dad needs to teach me a couple things about what is on the inside of a car)

We tried to start the car a few times, but it just would not work, so it wasn't the battery.  We thanked the guy and I proceeded to call my all-knowing Dad to have him listen to the sound to see what was the problem.  He guessed an air filter, which meant that the car would have to be towed.  Nicole's family said they would come out and take care of the car later tonight, but we could not wait because we had to get to class, so my awesome Mom came all the way up to Valley Forge (a 45 minute drive without traffic) to pick us up and take us to our class.

Not only was today a waste of a day, it was an overall crappy day! Now that I have written it down, I am prepared to wipe it completely from my memory! I can't wait to see my kids tomorrow!!

Student Teaching Shenanigans: Please Touch Museum

This week, I started my new placement in a special education room! The class mostly has students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, leaning more towards severe cases.  This experience is completely different than any experience I have had so far in all of my school practicums.  I have worked with my co-op before, she is actually the one who got me interested in working with students with severe disabilities.  I have already learned so much so far and cannot wait to begin more one on one work with the students!

The main part of this post is to talk about the awesome field trip we went on on Tuesday! We visited the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.  This is a childrens museum that is very interactive and has tons of rooms for them to explore and enjoy! There were all different rooms, including a room that was like a town, an Alice in Wonderland themed room, transportation room, water play room, and even a carousel! It was a lot of fun and quite honestly, I want to find someone with kids so that I can take them there and play some more!!  Here are some pictures of the museum for you to explore:

The front of the Museum

The sign

Inside the little town area

I have always loved little towns, I thought this was soo cool!

Great Grocery Store

Soo cute inside!!

The Arches all children can recognise

Captain Noah!! I watched this when I was a little girl

Such a good childrens show!!

Alice in Wonderland

Part of the door and mirror maze

This flamingo moved just like the croquet ones

"Do you play croquet?"

A bush maze

Looking down on the Mad Tea Party

Looking down on the Alice in Wonderland area

The kids love spotting the cat in the tree

Remember the movie Big? The piano on the wall is the original one from the movie!

This was an area for the students to see what it is like to be blind.  There was also a wheelchair they could sit in to see what being in a wheelchair was like

I love Carousels!

The Waterplay area

In the lobby center was this Statue of Liberty Arm

Looking over towards the Transportation room

Towards the Waterplay room

The Lobby

Transportation room again

Close-up on the Statue of Liberty arm...Made out of tons of different objects

The kids could sit and drive part of a Septa bus

Did you think I would not find any Disney here? Check out this Dinoco Helicopter!

Toys that were on display

These playsets are rides from Walt Disney World!

Rockets Away! Air cannons are used to shoot foam rocket pieces into the high ceiling of the room

On our way back to the exit after a fun trip! This last picture is of the ramp that acts as the "Rabbit Hole" near the Alice in Wonderland play area.

Student Teaching Shenanigans: Saying Goodbye Part 1

Before I begin my story, let me explain why this is "Part 1".  As I am getting my degree in Elementary and Special education, I have to do two placement for my student teaching; one in regular education and one in special education.  While this is good because I get two wonderful experiences with different types of students, it also means that I have to say goodbye two different times. Saying goodbye is hard enough once, but having to do it twice is even more painful!  One of my two sets of goodbye's happened this past Friday as I finished up my regular education placement with the little first graders.

The kids knew that I was leaving, they had been told at different points during the week, though every time they were told, they acted like they didn't know. Even on Friday, some of them didn't understand that this was my last day.  I was not teaching too much in the class anymore, I even left the class a couple times to observe other classrooms.

As the end of the day on Friday drew near, my big goal was to not cry in front of the kids when I said goodbye.  I was hoping that this would be easy because I was not really leaving, I am staying in the same building, just going to a different classroom.  I should have known that my co-op wouldn't let it be that easy! I knew that the class had done something for me, they were teasing it and trying to tell me all week, but I just pretended that I was oblivious and didn't know what they were talking about.  When the end of the day on Friday came, there was a big pink bag that I was supposed to open.  All the kids gathered around as I pulled out this picture frame.  The frame held a paper that said "Thumbody Loves Ms. Clawson" and all over the paper were they kids' thumbprints, decorated to look like them! It was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen and I was just so happy! As if that was not enough though, there was even more in the bag! My co-op gave me fancy paper to print notes on, a few books for my classroom, a notepad that she had that I had been admiring, a Reader's Theater book and a book with some teaching ideas in it! I could not believe she had gotten me all of this and it was at this point that I had started to tear up! All of the kindness that she had shown me in the last 7 weeks and then doing all of this for me....I was completely speechless! I was good though, I composed myself, said goodbye to the children as they left to go to the buses and did not cry in front of them.  When my co-op came back, I thanked her from the bottom of my heart and gave her a little surprise of my own.

This first experience was by far one of the best I have ever had and I will never forget a single one of the students that I had! With the ending of this first experience, it means that I am half way finished my student teaching, which is beyond unbelievable!! I barely remember it beginning! Tomorrow morning I walk into my new placement, my special education room, with new adventures to begin! My first adventure: a field trip on Tuesday! Can't wait!

Student Teaching Shenanigans: Third Observation and Mid Term Meeting

Last Wednesday was my third observation and my final one in my first placement. It was for a reading lesson, I was being observed for my questioning techniques.  I had the entire lesson typed up and it was ready to go! And then...naturally...the snow came, canceling school on Tuesday.  This snowday moved my entire lesson back a day, so instead of the students reading the story for the second time and answering the questions, they were reading it for the first time! As the lesson went on, I was just making up the lessons on the fly, coming up with prediction and open ended questions to ask the students.  It turned out that my supervisor liked what I did on the fly even better than what I had planned! She understood that the lesson was different because of the snow and said I did fine adapting.  In this visit, we also had a small meeting with my second co-op, the teacher that I will be going with next week.  You will be hearing more about that very soon.

My Mid-Term Meeting...something that I was honestly not sure what to think about.  I did not know if I should be nervous or worried, so I just went in confidently and hoped that was the way to go!  It was just a small meeting with my supervisor where she went over my binder and over the evaluation forms that she filled out, that my co-op filled out and that I did.  She said my binder was very well organized and was looking good (Yay!) and as far as grades, looks like I am off to a very good start! My co-op and myself both gave me in the B+ range for a grade (I always grade myself on the low end, I hate grading myself!) and my supervisor almost gave me a perfect score! I was beyond shocked, but very happy!

As for today, I finished my final day of solo teaching in my first placement, which is beyond crazy! Where has these last 7 weeks gone?! Now all that is left is the report card day tomorrow, Thursday I start transitioning the class back to my co-op and Friday, I say good-bye to the class. :(

Student Teaching Shenanigans Restrictions

Due to recent events regarding a teacher in Pennsylvania who said negative things about students and a school district on the internet, restrictions are being set onto teachers and other professionals regarding the expression of their opinions.  It has been advised that we no longer talk about situations in schools, especially regarding students.  Because of this, my Student Teaching Shenanigans posts from here on out will include very little mention of the students that I work with or their quotations.  My posts will mainly focus on the experience I have as a teacher and the lesson I teach and learn.

Frankly, I really do think this stinks.  I am a student teacher, thoroughly enjoying the experiences that I am having and enjoying sharing these experiences with my friends and because of one person, all of us have to be restricted.  My students say some of the cutest things and I enjoy sharing them.  I hope you have enjoyed the segments that I have had so far and I will work to make sure that my future posts are still an enjoyable read.

Student Teaching Shenanigans: Parent Conferences

Yesterday I had school, but for the first time, the kids were not there! It was parent - teacher conference day, a day that I was not entirely sure what to think.  These conferences were not the typical conference that every student has, this was a conference day for those students who were having a tough time and are really struggling.  While I do not have a problem talking with adults or parents, it does get kind of nerve wracking when you do not know how a parent is going to react when you tell them that if their child does not show improvement by the end of the year, they may have to stay back in first grade, which may be the case with a couple of the students. I was very interested to see how Maria handled these situations.

We only had 5 conferences, four of which we needed a translator for because the parents spoke mostly or entirely Spanish.  Seeing the way the teacher, translator and parent worked was very interesting, it flowed a lot smoother than I thought it would.  Some of the parents brought their older children with them to assist in the comprehension because they have been in school and understood more English. Even a couple of our students came in with the parents and we had them read a book while we talked to the parents.

All of the conferences went fine, the parents seemed comfortable and asked questions when they had them. Maria offered ideas and ways that the parents can help the students at home to do better and some of the parents even talked to us about what the home life is like for the students and gave us things to watch out for in the classroom. They did not get upset or angry with the teacher, they just listened, which was very cool. I am glad I was able to see this dynamic of being a teacher, it made me feel more confident for when I have to start this. I really liked the open communication that I saw and I hope that I can make my classroom seem as friendly to my parents and students.

Student Teaching Shenanigans: Valentines and In-School Field Trips

I have to do a little blog here about my first holiday as a teacher in a classroom.  Yesterday was Valentines day and while it is an adorable holiday filled with love, I believe that it is also a holiday to try to get your teacher's fat! My evidence for saying this? For Valentine's day, I received a total of 4 boxes of candy, 10 or so valentines with candy attached to them, 5 cupcakes, 2 brownies and a cookie! Holy Guacamole! I am surprised that just looking at all this has not sent me into a diabetic coma! Aside from the enormous amounts of sugar, I do think that the holiday is very awesome and I loved spending it and doing fun activities with the children!

There is one thing that I am curious about though.  Is there some sort of trigger or button in a child's head that tells them to act like a nut on a holiday?? I am not exaggerating when I say that every single student, even my best ones, were practically bouncing off the walls! And I didn't even give them much sugar! They only had pretzels, chips, cheese curls and a cookie at the party! Makes no sense at all!  If a scientist can find the cure for holiday insanity in students, I would be much obliged!

My other little story for this post is about a in-school field trip we had today.  The concept of In School field trip evaded our students- we had some even bring their lunches today for the field trip, even though the form specifically said that was not needed and that the people were coming to us.  The "trip" was two women from a local park system who came to our class and did experiments with Solids and Liquids, the science unit I am in the middle of teaching.  They did an excellent job and the kids loved the experiments they did! The only thing I was disappointed about was that half of the experiments they did gave away half of my lessons that I still have to teach.  I was sitting there watching them do Sink vs Float and was disappointed because I am planned to do that lesson with the kids tomorrow! My co-op made a note for next year that if they do this field trip again, to do it in March or so, after the unit is finished so as not to spoil the surprises and lessons we teach the students.  I think the kids will still be excited about the science we do anyway, they love learning about it!

And of course, gotta end this post with a one liner from a student.....I ask the students "When your car is broken, where do you take it to get it fixed?" and a student pipes up and says "The Vet".....priceless I tell you!!

Student Teaching Shenanigans: The Early Dismissal

Last Night, some of the teachers and I stayed a bit late to get some work done for the classroom.  We ended up talking about the weather and how not a single meteorologist seemed to know what the heck was going on. They all forecasted snow and rain mixes, starting and ending at all different times, from Tues night through Wednesday.  All we could hope was that we had off for the next few days.  After our planning and our "See you on Friday" wishes, we went home, keeping our fingers crossed for, if nothing else, a delayed opening.

I woke up to my alarm at 6:30 disheartened.  No phone call had woken me up to say that we were delayed or off.  Mom tells me that it has been snowing, there is probably about 2 inches outside and no end in sight. My dad takes my sister to school at her high school and calls to say that the roads are awful! My co-op even calls me when she was on her way in to tell me the roads are crap and the students shouldn't be going in under such conditions.

I got on the road to school and they weren't exaggerating.  Slush, snow and black ice were everywhere, a hazard for not only buses, but for cars and for the poor students who would have to walk to school.  I finally get to the school and begin to set up for the day, ready for a crazy, workless day.

We had 18 of our 23 students show up to class, which shocked me.  The kids arrive around 8:20 to the school on average, but today, we had buses still pulling in around 9:00 because of the conditions.  It was an absolute wreck.  People were very upset with the day and the phones were ringing off the hook in the office.

After everyone finally got settled and we did a bit of our usual routine, we decided to do a butterfly project with the kids to go with the book we were reading.  Around 10:00, as Maria was explaining the instructions, her phone went off.  I looked at the number and it was 411-000-000, which made no sense to me at all.  She said to ignore it, but I was curious, so I googled the number on my phone.  Here's a tip for anyone: If you see this number, answer it, it means there is a school announcement of some kind! The website I found said they got a call from this number and it was a school calling about a school closing announcement.  I tell my co-op this and she has me listen to the message that was left.  The internet was right, it was a school announcement, we were going to have an early dismissal.  We were getting out at 1:00.  We inform the kids of this and then begin the project.

About 10 minutes into the project, the principal enters the room.  My co-op was out, so the aide and I were the only ones in there.  He tells us that the lunch schedule has been changed to accommodate the early dismissal and that there would be no recess.  He also tells us that we are now responsible for calling all of the students parents and finding out how they are to be getting home. At hearing this, I will admit I was pretty upset.  Not only were we called in under crap conditions only to be sent home in a few hours and waste a day, now our day was made completely insane for us! How are we supposed to take care of a classroom and try to keep an order while making at least 18 phone calls???

I say at least because just calling a phone number and getting the answers you need is never that simple.  You get an answering machine at the house, so you have to call the cell phone, but that is turned off, so you have to call the work, but they are not working so then you have to call the emergency contact...And then you get the houses that are no longer listed under the numbers on the emergency card or the number is no longer a working number.....get the picture? Making these phone calls was beyond insane.  I am glad that the aide, Feo, was there though to help with the Spanish speaking callers; I got a couple calls where the first words were "You speak Spanish?" where I would simply say, "No, un momento" and hand the phone off. 

So after the phone call fiasco, it was time for lunch, where Maria and I had duty.  We warmed up our lunches and went to the cafeteria where we proceeded to stuff our food down our throat while making sure the kids did the same.  After this, there was only about an hour or so left before dismissal, so we did calendar and another butterfly worksheet and then got the kids ready to go home.  This was probably one of the only times that I will see all of the buses there in time for dismissal. We got the kids where they needed to go and sent them on their way.  And once they were gone, I had a brief chat with some other student teachers about their crazy days, grabbed my things and went home!

Moral of this story: When you think you are going to have to send the kids home early, Do Not Bother Sending Them At All!! It is dangerous for both parents and children who not only have to make the dangerous trek to school, but then turn around a few hours later and do it again! Not to mention, its a pain in the ass for teachers and a waste of a day! We would much rather make up one day than waste one in this fashion!

Oh! and of course I have a couple one liners.  To show how out of it my co-op and I were, she had this great one liner while trying to tell the students to do a page in their "I'm Done" books: "I want you to do I'm one done page one. (Said after I burst out in laughter)....That didnt make sense did it?" 

And this lovely one liner came from a boy who was in the cafeteria. He was strutting with his food to his table and randomly burst out "I had a dream about Twilight".  Completely random but hey, that's what these one liners are all about! :)

Student Teaching Shenanigans: The Unexpected Day

Let me paint a picture for you: It is a Friday (a Friday that could have been off for snow if we had gotten more than we did) with a room of 22 first graders, with occasional periods of snow outside.  And if that isn’t scary enough, imagine taking on all of them on your own with no lesson plans!

That, in a nutshell, is what happened to me.  The morning went well, few problems, then the kids went to lunch and that all changed!

My co-op wasn’t feeling so well (there is reportedly a stomach flu going around the school) and she decided that she should lay down for about 20 minutes after lunch.  Not a problem at all, I’ve gotten the kids at lunch before, totally cool. So I got the kids from lunch, took them on a bathroom break, and then brought them back to the room.  I had to make them sit with their heads down for 5 minutes because of bad behavior in the cafeteria, but after that, we started calendar. 

Halfway through calendar, my co-op walks in with sunglasses on (not a good sign).  Still not feeling well, she wants me to start a project with them for about a half hour why she tries to get her strength back.  She hands me a project to do with the kids, along with a book about butterflies.  So after calendar, I read a book to them about the butterfly life cycle.  With the help of 3 4th graders who come down some afternoons to help, I flubbed my way through the project, hoping that I was doing it right, since I really had no idea what I was doing.  While working on the project, I get a call from the nurse saying my co-op is feeling worse still and wants me to give the spelling test.  I tell her not a problem.

Once we get the project done, I give the spelling test.  A few words into it, a boy points out to me that most of the words are written on the board or under the vocab list (the spelling words were related to butterflies), so I thanked him for his honesty and took all the words down, shaking my head at myself.  After the spelling test, I look at the clock.  It was only 1:55, we had til 2:40 until the kids had to go to computer lab. I scrambled to find something for them to do, pulling out a morning work paper on time.  The children started to do the paper and then the guidance counselor walks in.  He tells me he is here to give the guidance lesson to the kids, which would last from 2 to about 2:35. Feeling kind of relieved to have another adult in the room for a short time, I had the children put the papers away and he took over for the guidance lesson.

This “down time” gave me a chance to grade some tests and run some errands I had to do.  Someone saw me in the hallway and asked if I had left the kids by themselves, which made me laugh (please, I am not that much of a rookie!). Watching the time and realizing I had to get the kids packed up and ready to go home, I made the executive decision that they would not be going to computer lab today, there was just not enough time, we would walk all the way to the other side of the building where it was (Claymont is a big school, used to be a high school) and once the kids were settled, they would have had about 3 minutes on the computer before dismissal. 

Once guidance was over, I had the kids pull out the worksheets and work on them for about 10 minutes before I had them pack up.  I had about half the class raises their hands to tell me they had to go to computer lab.  I tell them that there isn’t enough time and that we aren’t going to go. One boy, who had been bouncing on my last nerve like a trampoline all day, came up to me and insisted about 3 times that we had to go to computer lab. Let’s just say that by the end of the day, that boy owes me a whole weeks’ worth of recess. 

The end of the day comes (finally). The kids pack up, we play a short “I Spy” game, I walk them out to their buses and the day is over!!.....or so I thought…..

Me and my relieved self are walking back into the school, towards the library and the first grade hallway.  As I get to the hallway, I see a boy with a lollypop just standing in the front of the hallway staring at something. I stop to look and see relatively large drops of water falling relatively fast from some tiles in the ceiling.  Mind you, we have a second floor to the building, but I was pretty sure that there was not a bathroom right above that area.  Another teacher walks by and stops, turns to me and says, “Oh my, that can’t be good”.  I run to the office, which is just down the hall, and tell the two secretaries that there is a leak in the first grade hallway.  One pulls out the walkie talkie and the other gets on the intercom and calls a custodian to the area right away.  I run back out to where the drip is. 

After the intercom call, several teachers start to gather around me and the boy with the lollypop. (I turn to my fellow student teacher, Vinnie, and ask if he know who the heck the kid is.  I was finding it hilarious that this boy was just standing there, watching this, mesmerized.) One of the secretaries comes out to check the damage and I suddenly hear her go, “Oh my God, the Books!”  I knew what she meant as soon as she said it; the wall where part of the leak was belonged to the library! Right underneath the possible source of the leak was about 500 or so books!!

Being the book lover that I am, I run after her into the library and look for any damage.  We spot water dripping down one of the walls and decide that we better start moving the books out of the way, in case water starts coming in here too.  Some more teachers and my friend Vinnie came into the library to help.  One of the teachers pointed out that you could hear water rushing above where the one set of shelve were.  There was about 8 or so of us helping in all and it took between 5 and 10 minutes to move all of the books to a safe area.  Half way through moving the books, the library aide comes in the room and almost freaks out wondering what we are doing.  We explained to her and she came over and started helping too.  I felt so bad for her because it will take a long time to put the books back where they need to go, so Vinnie and I offered to come back after the weekend and help her put them back if she needed. 

I walked out of the library and checked on the leak, which was still steady, but the custodians were taking care of it now.  Some water was coming down the walls and ruining a few pieces of artwork by some third graders which was really sad, so I tried to move them a little.  Then I walked back to my classroom, sat down, and finished grading some tests. 

Overall, it was an incredibly insane day, one that I surely will not forget any time soon and one that few other student teachers can say they have experienced.

Student Teaching Shenanigans: 2 Hour Delays = Waste of Time!

My first little post about my student teaching! It is going well so far, I know all of my students names already and have even come up with some of the nicknames that I will call them when I write about them.  I have already taught a little bit, doing some simple worksheets with them and playing a bingo game.

I wanted to write a little post today because today was my first experience on the teacher's side of a 2 hour delay due to weather.  What I discovered: It is just as FRUSTRATING as it is on the student's side, if not moreso! We only had a little over half the class today, 15 instead of 23, not that we can really complain, there was a teacher that only had 5! Missing so many kids, it was pointless to begin a new lesson with them because we would just have to reteach it tomorrow to the other students. So instead, we gave worksheets to do that went over some of the concepts they have had difficulty on as a class, such as time and money.  We also played a sight words bingo game. Really, what else could we have done with a class this size??

Even if we did have a majority of our students today, we wouldn't have had time to do any real work! The kids came in around 10:20.  Once they were settled and working on their morning work, it was time for them to go recess, at 11:05! After that came lunch and then we had about an hour and a half, maybe a little less for us to try some kind of constructive work before they had their special. Once they came back from that, there was 20 minutes before they had to be packed up and ready to go home.  This day flew by!! It was insane and I really hope that we do not have another day like this.

A positive from today: I got two really good 1 liners to close this post out with!

This was a conversation between my co-op and a student about another student.

Student: "*other student* isn't coming to school today"
Co-op: "Why?"
Student: "Because."
Co-op: "Um...Because Why?"
Student: "Because it snowed."
Co-op: "That makes no sense, you live right next door to him and you came!"

And my second one liner:
 "I didn't do my homework because my mom thought we weren't going to have school today"

Ah the joys of teaching!

And so it Begins...

I am going to be student teaching tomorrow.

As I type that sentence, my brain is looking at it saying "What? No you are not! You still have years til that, what are you talking about?" But no, its not years or months from now. It's here, now! I have been preparing for what seems like forever for this, but at the same time I feel that I am not yet ready.  Where have these last 3 1/2 years of college gone? Wasn't I getting ready for prom just last week? It just doesn't seem like a reality to me.

But it is a reality. Tomorrow morning, I will be walking into a first grade classroom as their student teacher for the next 7 weeks. And boy what a crazy 7 weeks it will be: Learning all of their names and traits, slowly teaching all of the lessons, making plans, putting up bulletin boards, grading homeworks and tests.

It's not fear that I am feeling; I feel prepared from my classes and I will know how to teach these kids.  I have worked in a classroom before, many times, but I guess it just wasn't under as much pressure as this is. Maybe it is just a mix of nervous and excitedness, finally being where I have been working towards for years now.  I am really not sure how I am going to feel walking in there, but I will walk in with confidence and ready to begin this semester!

Let me end this post with the beginnings of what will be my Student Teaching Shenanigans postings.  These will be the little stories I have from my time student teaching.  This first story is from the first grade room that I am beginning in tomorrow.


My first day in the classroom, I was standing in the classroom with the Paraprofessional waiting for the children to come in.  The teacher, Maria Natalie, was running late, so we were going to greet the children and have them unpack as we waited for her to arrive.

The students started coming in, including this adorable little curley-haired girl.  She stopped at the door and looked at me with a very puzzled face.  She then immediately walked to the para, Ms. Fio's desk and began to cry.

"I do not like substitute teachers" she said through tears.  My heart broke for the girl and Fio and I could only look at each other and laugh. She gave the girl a hug and assured her that I was not a substitute and that Ms. Natalie would be arriving soon. I walked over to her and bent down to say Hi and told her I was just visiting and that after Christmas, I would be helping Ms. Natalie teach so that I could learn to be a teacher like her. Once she heard this, she immediately calmed down and proceeded to be my shadow all day, wanting to hold my hand in the hallway and help me with anything that I needed. She even gave me a hug as I left the classroom that day.

Wasn't even in the classroom for five minutes, didn't even say a word and I made someone cry, that must be a Student Teaching record of some kind!  Well my little shadow will definitely be welcoming when I walk in tomorrow morning!

As often as I can, I will be posting stories about my experiences in the classroom, as well as keeping up on my Disney news.  With some good planning, I am hoping to keep on top of my updates and not fall in to the unorganized trap I have seen other student teachers fall into!


Send your Pixie Dust, this is the beginning of my entrance into the real world!!