a productive day

Today I have baked 2 cakes (so far...a third to come) a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a batch of cupcakes. Its the end of the school year and there are parties to be had a school. But that is all I have gotten done. I needed to get laundry done, clean and just get organized. Well I have tomorrow morning and all weekend. I also needed to get the dogs out to the beach...
In other news I got my official teaching certificate in the mail yesterday! Hooray for being officially official!!!
Definitely looking forward to the paycheck at the end of the month.

Time to go check the cake.

Today...

I have completed all of the requirements to get my degree and y teaching certificate. Now I wait for two things. 1. Graduation-not until the 14th. 2.My Certificate to be effective-MONDAY!
So today I turned in my application to be a substitute teacher. I know that the district has needed more subs recently so I am hopeful that I will be kept busy. But in the process that means I have two full week days with NOTHING going on. I have discovered recently that I am TERRIBLE at having nothing to do. I can't sit around and twiddle my thumbs. Today, I watched the dog sleep. It has been a LONG day. I have read a LOT of blogs. I think tomorrow I will bake. There are so many cupcake recipes that I want to try. At least that will keep me busy in the morning.
Until then here is a not very clear picture of my pup Napili and my moms dog Fiona who turns 6 today!
Happy Birthday Fiona!

this week.

Ok first thing I have a short list of things that I remember from the week that made me smile:
1) Little girl accidentally called me mom. Been waiting for that to happen. It was adorable though because she thought it was so funny.
2) Little girl ran up to me Tuesday and completely randomly gave me a big hug.
3) First graders trying to keep a secret. So adorable.
4) how excited the kids are about my birthday.


On to other things. Taught all day tuesday while sick had a great lesson observed. Taught the majority of the day today. Went good. Kids were fantastic this morning and stinkers this afternoon, thank goodness for double specialists.

My birthday is tomorrow... I am pretty positive that my first graders are more excited about it than I am. They are hilarious. I lost count of how many times I was told, "Don't look in my desk" or "Don't look in my cubby" or "Don't look in my pencil box!"
Can't wait to find out what they are trying their hardest to keep a secret. I will keep you updated :)

first full week of student teaching

So the week started out a little crazy. Got a call from my Fabulous mentor on sunday night saying that she wouldn't be there. So I got to teach ALL day on Monday! There was a sub there but as there were no real sub plans just what I had been told she just let me teach all day long. It was FANTASTIC!
The rest of the week was pretty good. Kids were getting used to the schedule again.
On thursday we got a new student. Lets just say that he will be an interesting case.

Friday was a good day. I taught the first hour of the day. At the very end of that hour however one of the super bees decided to pull out his tooth while we were all sitting in the carpet area. GROSS! Then later in the day another little super bee pulled hers out too! I can deal with a lot of nasty things but kids walking around all day with a kleenex in their mouth trying to pull out their tooth is NASTY! Not only is all of the blood gross but they have their dirty hands in their mouth too...then they try to hold me hand. yuck! Lets hope that all of the loose teeth fell out over the weekend.

Tuesday + Substitute+tears=LONG DAY

So the day started out good. Mentor explained the whole day to me. Substitute showed up I explained the day to her.
Students come in complete their planners, then it's calendar time (usually 20 minutes)Then I had a pilgrim packet to finish with the students well the calendar time ended up taking 45 minutes. I improvised and finished the packet after recess and only got 2 letters finished in handwriting instead of 3. THe day continued in this way.

Tears- 2 boys who were frustrated=a lot of tears.

Questions: What ideas do people have for explaining Venn Diagrams to first graders? Because I am not sure if they completely grasped the concept with the manipulatives that we used...

it has been too long...

Well here is a list of the things I have gotten to do in first grade since my last post:

-go on a bear hunt! we went through the candy factory, the jello swamp and the peanut butter river and into the cave. And there were big green eyes, a little bushy tail and screaming 1st graders! (makes for a pretty good day)
-teaching a math lesson at the last second because two other first graders decided to have a shoving fight and my mentor is the intern principal.
-kindergarten testing...she was more worried about the fact that my hair clip was making a reflection on the ceiling than the letter sounds I was testing her on.
-provided LOTS of kleenex and hand soap.
-bleached the desks 4 times.
-taught a math lesson with my supervisor there at which point my students decided that the worksheet was far too hard and so I had to completely change the lesson plan that I had written (6 pages!) so that we could actually explain the concept like they needed...it all worked out in the end because she got to see me working on my toes
-got a LOT of hugs even when I am not sure I want them because all of the kids have booger noses.

It has been a very busy week in first grade and I think it's only going to get busier. Hopefully the candy highs are nearly over because I don't think I can handle it anymore. October was a LONG month. I only get to see my super bees once this week but I can't wait!

I know I picked the right profession.

I know that I picked the right profession from the very beginning. I chose to be a teacher when I was in first grade. I have never wavered from this because every time I looked at another career I could find something about it that I wouldn't be able to deal with...
Well this year has so far just solidified that I picked the right profession. My classes are stressful this term but I get to see my little super bees on Tuesdays and Thursdays to take some of that stress away (and add some other types) but I LOVE it! Well today in class I got to make a sack puppet. When you get to go to class (college classes especially) and have a good time with a great group of future teachers, the only thing better is getting to teach little ones. Well here is a picture of s couple of the puppets from class. We had too much fun!
Tomorrow it is back to my Super Bees!

first observed lesson

So I finally got to write and teach a lesson. it went GREAT! I have been teaching here and there since the beginning of the year. But today was the first time I actually wrote out the lesson I taught. The lesson fit perfectly in the time slot I had and I think the students really enjoyed the lesson. Listening to the students talk today while they were doing a couple of different projects provided plenty of entertaining. FOr instance I learned via one of our super bees that my mentor teach does all of her planning on the first day of school. I found this to be hilarious because the first day is so completely insane especially in the first grade. My mentor is organized but I don't think anyone could do that if they can then they are my hero.

I will try to update this blog as I go through my student teaching and as I hopefully start my first year of teaching in the fall.