the ZOO!

We survived the trip to the zoo and everyone made it home safe...and tired. Here are some pictures that don't show any faces but still show how much fun we had.

Looking at the black bear. The three girls on the left side of the picture are the three goofballs I had for the day.

Making tracks in the sand.

The polar bear. This bear looks like I currently feel after going through the WHOLE zoo in 3.5 hours.

The star we made. This shows some of the diversity in the class and shows just how adorable these girls are.

Possibly the Penguins. Or the Otters...or the fish...honestly don't remember.

The Sea Lions. They LOVED these. They kept swimming right by the girls' faces it was fantastic to watch.

the end of my year with the super bees...

I'm done. I finished my student teaching on Thursday. There were tears in the car, but I held them back in front of the kids. The class surprised me with a pizza party for lunch on Wednesday. Then there was an "emergency staff meeting" on Wednesday afternoon that involved cake and some goodies for my future classroom.
I was so lucky to work with such a wonderful and supportive staff. Everyone was always willing to answer questions and offer their help. I had a fantastic class full of some of the greatest kids. We had our challenges but in the end I can laugh them all off. I will miss everyone so so much! Looking forward to my visit on Wednesday.

just about cried on the spot.

So I am stepping out of my classroom and letting my fabulous mentor take back over. But this afternoon, after being out of the classroom the majority of the day I came back in for the last hour. One little super bee (Cotton Candy-don't remember if I mentioned her before) came up to me and gave me a big hug. When she let go she looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, "Miss B------, I don't want you to leave." It was so so sad I almost cried right there on the spot. I am going to miss all those little super bee smiles every morning! Next Thursday will be bitter sweet...



The picture is none of the super bees, just a random one from online.

nearing the end...

I can't believe that I am almost finished with my student teaching! It has been such a great experience. I am going to miss my little super bees so much!
This week was supposed to be just me going out and observing and doing very little teaching but with other circumstances I am actually teaching 3 days this week.
The students are thoroughly confused. Today in reading one of the kids asked where A.M. was and I told him. An he made that face that says, "but you said...I am so confused." We told them that I wasn't going to teach reading anymore and then I teach it today. And they will probably be even more confused tomorrow when I am not in the room at all... oh goodness. I am going to miss them all so much!

Question: Does your elementary school have a track?

P-U-K-E

I am giving teaching responsibilities back over to my mentor teacher since I only have 10 more days left with the super bees. So today as my fabulous mentor was teaching a spelling lesson and I was correcting papers in the back of the room we were just going about our business. When I hear "FOREST GREEN JUST PUKED!!!!" From about 5 different little voices. I look up and sure enough it's all over the floor, him an his desk. We get the bucket to him and he promptly pukes right next to it, of course. We got him down to the office, and to the nurse to head for home. (we are still missing our recycle bin while it gets sanitized). I then got the task of keeping the kids away from the vomit and helping to clean it up as that is the one thing that my fabulous mentor just can't do without joining the little one in the nurses office. Lets just say that EVERy students desk has been bleached as well as the door knobs and drinking fountain and everything else I could get to.
After this we knew there was no more focusing the kids on anything so we had some choosing time at which point FM turned on some music. Automatically the girls all started dancing and singing along to the very popular song. It was HILARIOUS! They were so into it! And they recognized each new song before FM or I could. I think my favorite was when I was cleaning desks and heard "Lay Gaga, Lady Gaga!!!" they were so excited!

oh and I got to deal with boogers today too.

sick. again.

being sick is the worst. I want to spend my days in first grade world, not on the couch feeling crummy. Don't know what I have but I do know that strep throat is going around: fabulous mentor had it 2 weeks ago, principal had it last week and we have a student out with it now... I really hope thats not what this is.
This week is Dentist/tooth week in our classroom. Just in time for them to come now that none of our students have any teeth! Seriously. We got a new little girl yesterday and we were talking about her teeth (she is missing 6 of them!) and mom actually said, "She can at least eat better now."
Our room is losing so many teeth that we keep filling and overfilling our tooth chart. It's nuts!

On to other news: I finished my humongous lesson plans and passed all portions! FANTASTIC! Now I can just focus on my teaching. It is lovely. My lesson plans went from 10 pages per 45 minutes to two pages per week. Love it!

The worst part of being home sick: DAYTIME TV. It is now time to use that free ondemand button.

fire drills and math lessons

I have been teaching the math lessons on a daily basis. Today's lesson was going great I was working with the kids and my awesome mentor was pulling kids in pairs to paint their whales in the hall. Until the great principal came and told AM (awesome mentor) that she needed to come and run a fire drill. As I have never even been at the school during one AM came in and explained the drill to me before she went to the office to run it.
Let me tell you that is the absolute most ANNOYING LOUD fire alarm I have EVER heard! I have heard a lot of different ones and that one is by far the worst. The students cooperated much better than I expected but it definitely could have gone better.
After the drill we had a talk about what we could have done better. The only thing the kids were worried about was why they have to turn their backs to the school while we wait in the field.
Hopefully I won't have to go through another one of these drills anytime soon. But if we do I know I will be ready.
And it's only Monday...


Also: Last week was my birthday. On Friday we had a very fun day. In the morning I was sent to a different classroom so that the students could complete their surprise for me. After lunch we had a little party. My AM brought in Popsicles, I "jumped" into 22, they sang the birthday song, we had choosing time and I got some fantastic cards. It was definitely a birthday to remember.

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 :)

Authentic teaching experience

Woke up this morning feeling yucky. But I took the cold medicine and blew my nose and went to school. I had an observed lesson with my supervisor and didn't want to reschedule.
Well I got there and ended up teaching the WHOLE day so my mentor could go help with all school testing.

My observed lesson went great! The rest of the day went well too.

I think this is one of many days in my future where I will teach while sick rather than write those sub plans. At least now I know I can do it and the students were respectful of the fact that I was losing my voice on and off. They did a fantastic job during my observed lesson, I was so impressed.

And to make the day better I got a compliment on my classroom management from another staff member this morning!

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...

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!

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.