Week 17: Done!

Monday, May 6
Today starts the end of my student teaching career! I can't believe that my last week is here. It's been a fun adventure but I am ready to move on to the next step. Both of my placements were great with awesome students, teachers and colleagues. As I look back on my time at the schools, I can see a lot of growth. I think back to my first day and how nervous I was, and now I feel such confidence in front of the classroom. I remember not knowing how to prepare those agonizingly long lesson plans, and now I can whip them out in no time. I remember not feeling so confident in talking to the other teachers at the school, and now I'm collaborating with other teachers on what we should do in what units. I remember having a hard time remembering my students' names, and now I could tell you their names, family life and how they are doing in school, or what they need to work on. I absolutely feel like I have grown in my teaching ability too; I have a better idea of what lessons need in order to be effective and engaging. Student teaching has been an incredible experience!

Tuesday, May 7
Because I am only teaching journal this week, I have a lot of free time. This enables me to spend time in other classrooms so that I can see even more variety of teaching styles. Today I spent time in the other kindergarten teacher's class. Her class is actually a little behind ours, so what I observed were lessons that I or Christy have already taught. It was really neat to see another teacher do the same lessons and pick up on the differences between us all. Christy is very laid-back while Dawn is a little more strict. Her classroom seems to have more rules in it and the students are much more responsive to her. I think my teaching style is in the middle between the two but probably closer to Christy. I am more of a relaxed person so I would guess that I am more laid-back. I still maintain my classroom management, and so does Christy and Dawn, but overall I am more relaxed. It was good to experience another classroom though and see another teacher in action!

Wednesday, May 8
Tomorrow we are having our Mother's Day Fashion Show so I did a lot of prep work for that. Here's what the day consists of tomorrow: students change into an outfit of their parents, parents arrive at school, students do a fashion show, sing some songs, students eat ice cream with parents, students sing another song, and then students go home with parents! The whole thing only lasts an hour but we have been practicing for a loonnnngggg time for this! The students are doing a great job with their songs and their runway walks are hilarious; they are putting so much hip into each step-- it's great! I spent today cutting the flower nametags for the adults and putting together their presents for their mothers. Our aide Mindy made silhouettes of their side profiles, and we made CDs with mother-y songs on them that the students decorated CD case covers for. Today was mostly spent getting all those things ready for tomorrow; it flew by!

Thursday, May 9
Today was an absolute success! The students did such a fabulous job with everything! The only thing was that the morning class had a little bit of camera-shyness and were quite a bit quieter when singing their songs, but otherwise they did amazing. The students were hilarious walking down the "runway" in their parents outfits; obviously the clothing was large but they did the best they could for walking. When we were helping the kids getting dressed for the fashion show, they were sort of having a hard time getting everything on. One boy who's quite small, Jace, was putting on his dad's pants, and Nick says, "Wow Jace, those are some big pants." Jace looks up quite exasperated and says, "Yeah, I wish my dad was skinnier!!" =)
It was a great day though; everything went according to plan and the kids did a superb job!

Friday, May 10
Last day =(  it is definitely a bittersweet feeling. I am SO sad to leave Beecher; it's been an awesome placement where I have learned a lot and have made some awesome friends. Christy and Mindy took me out for lunch to celebrate. I feel so blessed to have met them this semester; it has been awesome getting to know them and I will absolutely be staying in touch with them, both professionally and as friends. Because this week was Teacher's Appreciation Week, I've given a little something to Christy each day to show her how thankful I am to have been in her class. Overall when I look back over the semester, I have seen God's hand throughout each day at my placements. I feel so blessed for such a great semester!!