Update:December

Ok so I haven't written in forever. So here is an update.
December: I got to teach a ton! We had several days with the substitute so I got to do a lot of the teaching which was absolutely fantastic. We made some cute crafts for the holidays and had a good time. The 2 stories that stick in my mind the most are both about little Outrageous Orange (OO). So the first one was on a day where I did the opening circle then transitioned to my mentor teaching. My circle time went great with the kids paying attention and staying quiet, even more so than usual. I turned the class over to my fantastic mentor and all the sudden they were loud and wiggly and they were just not being respectful of her. She asked them why all the sudden when she started teaching they started talking and OO says, "But Miss B is our teacher." It was completely inappropriate but also quite funny.

Then just before break I had taken the class out to recess about 5 minutes earlier and was in the room with 2 girls who decided to stay in for medical reasons. When OO walks into the room...I was thoroughly confused. So I asked "OO where were you?" (I thought I had taken him to recess...) His response was very matter of fact, "It takes me a long time to poop." Then he got his coat and went out to recess.

First graders have no filters.

I had my conference with my Fabulous Mentor and Fantastic Supervisor. It went great! They think I am doing a great job and gave me great marks. I also earned a 4.0 in my course work at the college!

Now for January: I will start taking over by about the 13th and by the beginning of February I will be teaching full time for 8 weeks! I can't wait!

More stories to come soon I am sure. Back to school on the 3rd! Until then I will enjoy the rest of my break. I will try to update more often now that I don't have big papers to write anymore.

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...

headaches...

The day started great. Kids were a bit wiggly and chatty but that is normal for them. We had a great reading group today got a lot done. Then we went to lunch...
When they came back they were a completely different class. THey were loud, rude and constantly moving! I don't know what happened at lunch to take away my wonderful super bees and turn them into loud and crazy hornets but something did. Having one of the most serious assemblies of the year at the end of the day wasn't the greatest thing to happen either. On the plus side the Veteran's Day assembly was pretty great and engaging.
Our students wrote some fantastic thank you notes to veterans this morning!
But in the end I came home with a terrible headache. Long day and now on top of that I have homework. Thankfully my full course load is almost over.

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!

lock down drills and flu season

today was our first lock down drill and of course that means flu season needs to hit full speed. Of course 3 minutes before the scheduled lock down my little miss red (each child has a color assigned to them.) decided that she was thinking she might puke so we made a trip to the office and of course ended up having to spend the lock down in the nurses office sitting on the floor during cold and flu season. Doesn't that sound like fun? Then as the day went on I had several students say they were no feeling good. But the kicker was at about 2 when the little boy across from me looked up and you could just see that he was going to barf any time, you know the look. So we made like cheetahs and walked as fast as his little legs would go with the bucket in front of us to the nurses office and thankfully I didn't have to sit on the floor with the nasty germs.

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.