I told you all I would let you know how my evaluation went on Wednesday, so here it is. It went great!! I was not that nervous until lunch, which was right before my supervisor was coming. I had prepped the students by telling them my supervisor's name and explaining that she was my teacher and would be watching me. I had also told them it would be nice if they would welcome her to the classroom, so we practiced saying that a few times. I had my binder and lesson plans all laid out for her and I knew what I was doing....but, you know how it is, I was still nervous. However, once I started teaching I was fine! Which, I knew I would be, but getting started is always the hardest part.
My supervisor gave me a really good evaluation, and she said she was really impressed! Yay!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day!
Another Valentine's Day has come and almost gone, and it held a slight surprise for me this year....it's been snowing all day long! A girl and I were talking at work today, and we couldn't quite figure out why the snow was so surprising, considering it is still February, but for some reason Valentine's Day and snow didn't seem to go together. I had to listen to wintery/Christmas-y music this morning before work so that I wouldn't get mad at the snow. For some reason, listening to Christmas music makes the abundance of snow seem okay and even acceptable. Can anyone explain that??
Anyway, I did work today, as well as last night. I have been working once a week on Sundays, since I started student teaching. Last week, a girl asked if I could cover her Saturday shift for her and I said yes. Then, another girl needed someone to take her Saturday evening shift because of a birthday, so she and I switched. So I went from not working on Saturday to working from 5:30-slow down. (Slow down literally means whenever business slows down). I ended up working until about 9:30pm last night and today I worked from 10 until about 5pm. I made good money both days, as it was busy due to the holiday. We had a special going all weekend long. It was a one pound ribeye steak in the shape of a heart to be shared by two people. Each person got a choice of potato (baked, mashed, or fries), a trip to the salad bar and dessert bar. All of this only cost them $19.99. Pretty good deal, huh? We had quite a few orders of it last night...not so many today, but we still had a couple. One guy ordered it for himself, and just had us box up the second potato for him to take home. He ate the entire pound of ribeye, along with his salad, potato, and dessert. Pretty amazing, right? I thought so.
Student teaching has been going really great! I am loving the students, my cooperating teacher, and just the experience in general. I have been taking over a few things here and there, including leading them to lunch and specials. I also have been reading books to them after lunch, and just last week I started helping out with the reading time and math worksheets. Because reading is stressed a lot on the MAP tests (Missouri's standardized tests), our reading time is an hour and a half. Seems like a long time to ask kindergarteners to sit still and learn, right? Well, it is. But my cooperating teacher does a good job of making it interesting and breaking it up. They will start on the floor, return to their tables to complete part of a worksheet, then go back to their floor spots, then back to the tables, etc. The students handle it pretty well. The last two days, Thursday and Friday, I read the story to them and asked them questions about the story. My teacher keeps telling me I need to be louder....who would ever have thought I had a quiet voice??? Haha, just kidding. I know I have a quiet voice, and it is hard for me sometimes because I feel like I am shouting and I don't like to shout. But my teacher assures me that she has not heard me shout once, so I just need to learn to be louder.
This week I have my first supervision by a college professor. I am not really nervous about it yet, but I think I might be when it gets closer. I will be teaching science time, followed by math time.
This weekend, my body has been working on developing a nice cold. I have been taking dayquil and nyquil, which helps. When the dayquil kicks in, I am fine. But as soon as it wears off, I can definitely tell. Hopefully, it will not last too long. I have been trying to get some extra sleep and keep my body pumped up with Vitamin C.
School is not in session tomorrow, for me, due to President's Day. The college will still be holding classes, but since I am not taking any on campus, I have the day off tomorrow. I didn't even tell work, so I don't have to work either. :)
Well, the dayquil I took a bit ago has not kicked in yet, so my head is sort of pounding, so I will end this now. I'll let you all know how my first supervision goes!
Anyway, I did work today, as well as last night. I have been working once a week on Sundays, since I started student teaching. Last week, a girl asked if I could cover her Saturday shift for her and I said yes. Then, another girl needed someone to take her Saturday evening shift because of a birthday, so she and I switched. So I went from not working on Saturday to working from 5:30-slow down. (Slow down literally means whenever business slows down). I ended up working until about 9:30pm last night and today I worked from 10 until about 5pm. I made good money both days, as it was busy due to the holiday. We had a special going all weekend long. It was a one pound ribeye steak in the shape of a heart to be shared by two people. Each person got a choice of potato (baked, mashed, or fries), a trip to the salad bar and dessert bar. All of this only cost them $19.99. Pretty good deal, huh? We had quite a few orders of it last night...not so many today, but we still had a couple. One guy ordered it for himself, and just had us box up the second potato for him to take home. He ate the entire pound of ribeye, along with his salad, potato, and dessert. Pretty amazing, right? I thought so.
Student teaching has been going really great! I am loving the students, my cooperating teacher, and just the experience in general. I have been taking over a few things here and there, including leading them to lunch and specials. I also have been reading books to them after lunch, and just last week I started helping out with the reading time and math worksheets. Because reading is stressed a lot on the MAP tests (Missouri's standardized tests), our reading time is an hour and a half. Seems like a long time to ask kindergarteners to sit still and learn, right? Well, it is. But my cooperating teacher does a good job of making it interesting and breaking it up. They will start on the floor, return to their tables to complete part of a worksheet, then go back to their floor spots, then back to the tables, etc. The students handle it pretty well. The last two days, Thursday and Friday, I read the story to them and asked them questions about the story. My teacher keeps telling me I need to be louder....who would ever have thought I had a quiet voice??? Haha, just kidding. I know I have a quiet voice, and it is hard for me sometimes because I feel like I am shouting and I don't like to shout. But my teacher assures me that she has not heard me shout once, so I just need to learn to be louder.
This week I have my first supervision by a college professor. I am not really nervous about it yet, but I think I might be when it gets closer. I will be teaching science time, followed by math time.
This weekend, my body has been working on developing a nice cold. I have been taking dayquil and nyquil, which helps. When the dayquil kicks in, I am fine. But as soon as it wears off, I can definitely tell. Hopefully, it will not last too long. I have been trying to get some extra sleep and keep my body pumped up with Vitamin C.
School is not in session tomorrow, for me, due to President's Day. The college will still be holding classes, but since I am not taking any on campus, I have the day off tomorrow. I didn't even tell work, so I don't have to work either. :)
Well, the dayquil I took a bit ago has not kicked in yet, so my head is sort of pounding, so I will end this now. I'll let you all know how my first supervision goes!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Snow Day
We have a snow day today. There is about 2 inches of snow on the ground, but it is still snowing. It is definitely weird, because I am used to going to classes no matter what (at college) and rarely getting snow days at home. However, it is simply because this area is so rural. It's amazing how location can make such a big difference. Even though I am pretty sure I would not have minded driving in this amount of snow back home, I have no desire to drive in it here, especially not all the way to school. The roads are quite hilly and curvy...not ideal for driving on when they are slick.
Anyway, I am actually slightly disappointed that I don't have school today. I wasn't even going to be with the kindergarteners today, but I am still disappointed. Yesterday, my teacher and I attended a curriculum training workshop at the high school. Although she was bored, because it is hard to apply to kindergarten and she has attended these for several years, I found it actually quite interesting. We actually talked about stuff that we talked about in college classes. It is always exciting to me to know that what we are doing in classes is actually stuff that happens in the real world and that we can take with us. After the speaker talked for a while, he let us actually work on the curriculum that everyone is developing for their grade level. It is a little confusing because the school already has a curriculum, but I think he really just wanted them to focus on what they, as teachers, thought that students at their grade level should know by the end of the year. So, for kindergarteners, they should be able to identify and describe different shapes, so that became part of the curriculum. Basically, for each part or skill that kindergarteners needed to know, my teacher created a lesson plan. Yesterday, I helped her go over them and revise them a little. Today, I was originally going to go back to the classroom, but she really enjoyed having my help yesterday, so I was going to help her finish with the curriculum.
Anyway, it may not sound like a very exciting day to anyone else, but I was looking forward to it. I was looking forward to working with an experienced teacher on stuff that happens in her classroom.
Hopefully, you can tell that I am enjoying myself. Although I am not actually teaching quite yet, I am not so nervous about it, and I really do not want to switch over to 2nd grade in 6 weeks! I am enjoying kindergarten so much that I don't want to leave! :)
Anyway, I am actually slightly disappointed that I don't have school today. I wasn't even going to be with the kindergarteners today, but I am still disappointed. Yesterday, my teacher and I attended a curriculum training workshop at the high school. Although she was bored, because it is hard to apply to kindergarten and she has attended these for several years, I found it actually quite interesting. We actually talked about stuff that we talked about in college classes. It is always exciting to me to know that what we are doing in classes is actually stuff that happens in the real world and that we can take with us. After the speaker talked for a while, he let us actually work on the curriculum that everyone is developing for their grade level. It is a little confusing because the school already has a curriculum, but I think he really just wanted them to focus on what they, as teachers, thought that students at their grade level should know by the end of the year. So, for kindergarteners, they should be able to identify and describe different shapes, so that became part of the curriculum. Basically, for each part or skill that kindergarteners needed to know, my teacher created a lesson plan. Yesterday, I helped her go over them and revise them a little. Today, I was originally going to go back to the classroom, but she really enjoyed having my help yesterday, so I was going to help her finish with the curriculum.
Anyway, it may not sound like a very exciting day to anyone else, but I was looking forward to it. I was looking forward to working with an experienced teacher on stuff that happens in her classroom.
Hopefully, you can tell that I am enjoying myself. Although I am not actually teaching quite yet, I am not so nervous about it, and I really do not want to switch over to 2nd grade in 6 weeks! I am enjoying kindergarten so much that I don't want to leave! :)
Monday, February 1, 2010
First Day
Today was my first day in Kindergarten for student teaching. It was a good day! The students are fairly low academically, but they are such sweethearts! Although they all said good morning to me when my teacher asked them to, by the end of the day they were calling me by name and giving me hugs! :) Although, they still have problems with my name. First off, remembering it is hard enough, but also my cooperating teacher keeps forgetting how my last name is pronounced. The past few times, she did get it right, but she would still look at me and ask, "Was that right?" So I don't really blame the students for not knowing my name yet. :) At the moment, they tend to call me "Miss Gayham", which is close enough so I do respond to it.
The students are fairly rambunctious, and like I said, fairly low-achieving, so it will be a bit of a challenge. It is still weird for me to picture myself teaching the class all day long, but I have been told that eventually it will just be second-nature. Can't wait for that day! I do NOT like being unsure of myself! I am not nervous, necessarily, just not entirely comfortable either. I guess you could say I'm not exactly "biting at the bit", so to speak.
I will keep you updated as much as I can!
The students are fairly rambunctious, and like I said, fairly low-achieving, so it will be a bit of a challenge. It is still weird for me to picture myself teaching the class all day long, but I have been told that eventually it will just be second-nature. Can't wait for that day! I do NOT like being unsure of myself! I am not nervous, necessarily, just not entirely comfortable either. I guess you could say I'm not exactly "biting at the bit", so to speak.
I will keep you updated as much as I can!
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