Today marks the end of the official first full week of school. It has been a crazy (almost two) weeks in the fifth grade! Since it has taken me a few weeks to get this blog up and started, i will back up and begin with the first week of school in the life of a student teacher internship.
The week leading up to the first day of school [September 7th] was full of long days, long meetings and an overload of information. This week i was able to attend the district school year kick-off assembly. I was able to meet staff from other schools as well as meet some of the professionals that move around throughout the schools in our district during the year. During this assembly we also had a motivational speaker that played off our theme for the school year, "Capturing Kids Hearts." He reminded us that no matter what kind of day we are having or what problems we face with our students or the bumps in the road we will face, we all have shoes. Each day we should be grateful that we have shoes because there are people in this world that don't have the luxury of having shoes. Walking away from this assembly I realized that this idea is a great thing to bring into this upcoming, chaotic year with me. Everyday, i have shoes.
The rest of this prep week consisted of DIBELS assessment training, SIMS training and district grade level meetings. Along with these required meetings I was busy getting my classroom set-up with my CT. It was great to finally be involved in the set-up and pre-planning for the first week of school. As a student, you never realize how much preparation goes into getting things in place for that first day and first impressions of the school year. To top off this crazy week we also had our open house. Despite the fact that most families and students were in-and-out, I was able to meet most of my kids and introduce myself to their parents. Slightly nerve-racking but I think it started a great foundation for this upcoming year.
The First Week:
First lesson of teaching: there is never enough time in a day! My CT and I had sat down to run through how the first week of school "typically" runs. Days filled with "getting to know you" activities, creating and learning classroom procedures and rules and getting acclimated to the room. This week went by with a flurry (especially since I'm not there on Fridays). While I have a hard time even remembering everything we did, I was able to really start learning about my kiddos. With 29 of them, it will be a constant "getting to know you" process but I am super excited to start skimming the surface of their various personalities.
Week Two- Flexibility
During our opening week activities and the creation of our class constitution there was one word that we made a point of becoming a huge part of our fifth grade vocabulary. That word is flexibility. Another thing I have learned quickly is as a teacher, you must always be on your toes. Lesson plans are a fantastic backbone of your day but when it comes down to it you need to be able to adapt and change your day/lessons/schedule with the drop of a hat. This week I was given my first opportunity to show how well I can be FLEXIBLE. My CT came in one day this week and informed me that during the afternoon she had a meeting that she had to attend. I was given two options; I could jump in, teach her social studies lesson, switch classes and teach the other section and then do closing planner and activities with my kids OR she could have the principal come down and take over. While the thought of teaching 60 kids with the drop of a hat left me a little nervous, this became my opportunity to dive-in to my upcoming role of a lead teacher. Unbeknownst to me, the lesson included teaching my students a song about the continents and oceans to the theme song of the Adams Family. Surprisingly everything turned out great. I even added some new dance moves to help kids remember where everything is located on a map! The high points from this week were: being able to observe Flynt Cooter reading assessments (to see where my students are as readers), begin setting up our Daily 3 and CAFE reading/conferences and beginning taking over small daily routines.
For now, I'm off to a full Friday of classes in E.L. Until next time,
MSN
