10 weeks down
and six more weeks until the end of this adventure, I am having such a great
time I can’t believe that it is almost over. This week was my 2nd
week in Kindergarten and it was a great week filled with lots of learning
opportunities.
On Monday, I
took over calendar, lunch prep, and theme learning. It was a really great
transition. The students were open to me teaching and really interacted with me.
I did forget to go over how many days in school, but they did not freak out on
me. I just had a student raise their hand and tell me that I forgot. On
Tuesday, I added math to the list of things that I am now teaching. My math
lesson was number comparison stories. I tried to do it with manipulatives, but
had to put the manipulatives up because they students were playing with them
more than they were paying attention to me. Once I put the manipulatives up I
got more student participation.
On Wednesday, my
cooperating teacher had no voice so I went from teaching part-time to teaching
full time. I will be completely honest that full time teaching came quicker
than we had discussed, but I felt ready and I have been doing great. On
Thursday, my cooperating teacher had an IEP so I was by myself to get the
students and get the day going. I was a little nervous at first, but the
students really responded to me. Thursday was picture day and so in the middle
of my calendar teaching, we were called for pictures so we had to revamp our
morning schedule just a little, but it did not affect our whole day.
I also scheduled
my next observation with my college supervisor on Thursday for Tuesday morning.
I am looking forward this observation, because on Tuesday, my cooperating
teacher will not be in the classroom, but she will be on campus. She will be
working with the other kindergarten teachers to plan next year. So it will give
me a true look at what I need to work on.
On Friday, my
cooperating teacher was out at an IEP meeting again so I had to get the day
going by myself and she was in an out of the classroom most of the day. There
was also a staff meeting on Friday morning. The school provided smoothies for
all the staff. The staff meeting was to go over some of the major things
happening in the next couple of weeks, to give recognition to staff that has
earned it and to share the winners of the biggest loser competition. I did
learn a valuable lesson though. I learned that it is really important to
prepare for lessons the night before you plan to teach them. For our thematic
learning, I was going to do an art project with the students and I figured I
could gather the supplies on our prep period and something came up and I
couldn’t use our prep period to gather the materials and I had to rush to do
them before the lesson. Well, chaos ended up happening and we didn’t get a
chance to finish the project like I had planned. One of the second grade
teachers organized a staff-wide Happy Hour at the Cervasa Bar inside the Fiesta
Henderson on Friday after school. The Fiesta is a community partner of the
school, so they were happy to assist. It was a great time to hang out and get
to know some of the staff members.
The school I am
at allows me to gain experience with a few different types of innovative
technologies. In the classroom, I have access to a Smartboard, an Elmo and
laptop and projector to use during my lessons. The students are familiar with
these technologies and they are excited to help with use them. I also have an
infrared teardrop microphone that I use. The microphone is wireless and the
sounds comes through the speakers in the classroom. It is so great because I
don’t have to raise my voice because the microphone amplifies my voice so that
all the students can hear no matter where they are sitting.
I can’t wait to see what experiences
I will have in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to share my experiences with you.
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