Week 12: Affection and Closure Part 1
Wow, what a week this week. I can’t
believe that I have completed 12 weeks of my student teaching and 4 weeks of my
general education student teaching adventure. To be completely honest I feel
that this week has been my hardest week emotionally.
This was the first week back to
school after a weeklong break. On Monday, I was prepared for their behaviors to
be crazy, but it wasn’t until later in the week that behaviors started to be
crazy. I guess they were just tired from the excitement of the break. On
Monday, I chose my new helpers for the week and by lunchtime on Monday, I had
to fire them and choose to new helpers because my helpers couldn’t handle the
responsibilities. I told them that they could try again this coming week and
that I wanted them to watch how leaders are supposed to act.
On Tuesday morning, we got a new
student. It gave me an opportunity to refresh the students’ minds on classroom
procedures and rules. Instead, of me going over the rules, I asked students to
raise their hands and share a rule with the student. It didn’t take the student
long to get comfortable in the classroom, because by the end of his second day
in our class he was sent home with a yellow card.
Also on Tuesday afternoon, my
college supervisor came to do my last formal observation. It was a great active
lesson and students really enjoyed it. I still need to work on my classroom
management and a few other things. One of the math lessons I taught this week,
didn’t go so well. In reflecting on this lesson at the end of the day, there were
several things that I could have done better. I made sure to right this
reflection down to be sure that these are things that I think of the next time
I am planning lessons.
We also started teaching the
students to square dance for Spring Literacy Night and for a parents’
performance. They will be dancing to about 5-6 songs and we took one song and
focused on it, so that it would not be too much for them to learn at once. They
learned the song very quickly and are very good at it. We also shortened our
morning calendar routine by taking away the time we spent counting. At first
the students were thrown off by it, but by the end of the week they started to
catch on. Also in the afternoon during math time when we count we have started
to count down the days left of school. So now in the morning we count how many
days they have been in school and in the afternoon we count how many days left
of school.
I did have an interesting situation
this week; I sent a student home with a red card and a note home. The next
morning when I asked her for it, I saw her with a pencil and writing something
on the note. Well it turns out that when she handed it to me that she had tried
to sign her mom’s name. I didn’t take the note and I told her that she knew the
consequence for not bringing her note. When I was talking to my cooperating
teacher about it during prep she decided to call home and find out if the
student’s mom had seen the note. It turns out that the student’s mom had not
seen the note. So the student ended up getting recess and lunch detention.
During our
grade-level meeting this week, they went over a new program that they are going
to start next year to supplement the Trophies series and the introduction of
high-frequency words. On Friday, I during prep my cooperating teacher and I
were having a discussion. She was telling me that they school has a 90 minute
reading block and about some improvements that she sees that I could make.
Normally, I can take critiques well, but I was already feeling down and I just
had to let it out. When my cooperating teacher saw that I was crying she asked
me what was wrong and I told her that I felt like can’t find my middle ground.
I feel like I am either teaching to fast or to slow. She said that she even has
days like this and she told me to keep a journal and write down my success and
keep that book with me all the time. She told me to read it when I feel down.
We talked for quite a while. It was a great heart-to-heart. She made me feel a
lot better. She has inspired me to continue to do the best I can.
I can’t wait to
see what my final weeks bring. I can’t imagine what life is going to be like
without these students in my daily life. There are several students that I have
grown so much in the short time I have been in the classroom and I am so proud
of them.
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