Week 12: Proud of myself :)

Monday, April 1

We had Easter Monday off for spring break still, so no school on Monday!

 

Tuesday, April 2

When I walked into the classroom today, on my desk there was a bag of Fritos, lots of Hershey kisses and a Lunchable! Christy gave me the little gift to celebrate that my wedding month has arrived, and that I am starting to teach full-time this week! It was so sweet and thoughtful of her; I feel so blessed to have been placed with two awesome teachers for both of my student teaching placements. I know I’ve said this before, but I couldn’t have picked better teachers to work with! 

 

With today being my official first-day of full-time, I would have thought I’d be more nervous but I really was not. I felt prepared and confident going into the day, and am happy to say we got everything in! I mentioned last week that a problem I wanted to avoid was planning too much for each day, and I think today went great. I actually taught the same lesson that I did for my first graders at my first placement for math today; we did an M&Ms graph where the students needed to graph the amount of each color. When I taught the lesson at CPCS, I was concerned with how well they would do it, and they did fabulous, and with my kindergartners, they did just as great! It’s neat to see how lessons can work for various ages when they are just tweaked a little. 

 

Wednesday, April 3

In science, we are starting a dinosaur unit. What I love about teaching science in kindergarten is that it’s not too crazy in-depth; we aren’t going to learn the names of twenty dinosaurs that I cannot pronounce! We started the unit by just talking about what they already know about dinosaurs, reading a book and doing a worksheet that helped clarify what did and did not exist during the time of dinosaurs. We only have official science lessons two times a week, but I am working with the other kindergarten teacher on coming up with some cute projects we can create on one of the non-science days. 

 

Being the official full-time teacher, it’s neat how the other teachers in the school value me just as one of their own. Like I said, the other kindergarten teacher and I are working on finding a cute dinosaur project, and she also came to me to ask what I used to introduce dinosaurs this week as she is starting that next week. I felt like a real teacher handing her my paper so she could make copies of it to use in her class! I’ve mentioned Mrs. Bunte before (the awesome lady who helps with copying and whatever else we need). Even she has been coming to me to ask if I need anything done rather than just asking Christy. I really appreciate how much the staff recognizes me as an official teacher; helps me feel more confident! 

 

Thursday, April 4

Every month a Family Project gets sent home. These projects are normally some type of art-ish thing that the students are encouraged to work on with a family member and bring to school some time that month. Because Earth Day is later this month, the family project is to make “recycleable critters” and they are turning out so cute! Some of the critters turned in so far are a mosquito (made of egg cartons, milk carton, cardboard and paper towel roll), turtle (made of bubble wrap and plastic Easter eggs), and an entire farm with chicks (popping out of an egg container), a silo (Pringles can) and a rooster (made of a milk carton and cardboard feathers). 

 

I love the entire idea of having Family Projects, but I especially love this recycleable critter idea. I think it is definitely something that could be incorporated into any grade, and I will absolutely be keeping it in mind when I have my own classroom. 

 

Friday, April 5

One week down with being full-time, and it flew by. Being in front of the classroom all day definitely can be tiring but it is something I really enjoy. I am so excited and proud to announce that we got everything in just like we planned! It’s a good feeling knowing that when I come in on Monday, we won’t need to switch our plans around; I will still be able to teach what we originally planned for. Christy keeps giving me a hard time that I need to give her some pointers on how to fit everything in; I told her it’s just beginners luck and I probably won’t be in the same position at the end of being full-time in two weeks! 

 

Something I noticed about having the morning and afternoon classes is that my afternoon class generally goes a lot smoother. A huge reason for this is the class dynamics; the morning class is much chattier and harder to keep focused while the afternoon class is quicker to listen and work quietly. Another reason why I think the afternoon class goes smoother is because I better understand how to go about the day; because I just did the same thing in the morning, I know exactly what type of transitions work best and can incorporate those in the afternoon. Not that the morning class has gone badly at all, but I do feel like the afternoon class goes better. I’ve made a goal for myself to make them match up and have both go just as smooth!