Week 4

I am almost devastated to type week 4 in my title. I cannot believe this will be the halfway point of my first half of student teaching! Gosh, I am so sad! I am loving every second of it. I never dread going to school everyday and when I'm gone, I miss my kids! I may be ridiculous, but I praise God everyday that this experience was dropped in my lap when I thought it was a huge mistake in the first place. Wow, God...you're such a silly guy!

Anyways, I teach in the afternoons. I teach spelling and social studies or science (right now is our three week social studies interval). Next week I will start teaching ALL day. Can I just say I love social studies? Today was the Alamo lesson...SO much fun. I get so excited and I think it gets the kids excited, too! I am almost positive that I have the assertive presence I have been lacking. My students are no longer testing my boundaries and I am thankful for that!

I dealt with my first throw-up student last week. She came up to Mrs. Jordan's desk to make corrections on her paper and she just started getting sick. I told the students to turn around and do their work and gave the girl the trashcan and she walked up to the nurse. It was really sad because I, being the Madame Barfs-a-lot of elementary school, know how it feels to puke in front of a class. She went home sick, obviously...but the situation was handled...and I didn't throw up myself, so SUCCESS!

I finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and I loved every page of it! Almost every student in my class who is able to read that level has begun the series and I am excited that I was able to help them get excited! I have started the Harry Potter series again....don't judge me, haha!

Anyways, life is so wonderful and I am loving every minute of this whole teaching business!

Perks of Student Teaching!

Because today was a holiday in the public school system, I had a day off!! It was absolutely wonderful. I slept until 11 this morning, worked out, had lunch with Tim, and cleaned our apartment! We are about to go grocery shopping followed by pizza and watching the Stars game! We haven't had an evening together, alone, in over a week! I am very excited!

Friday I got to be the teacher in my class because my teacher was at a workshop. It went well overall. I had to do some documentation because, of course, the day the teacher is gone there is a scuffle on the playground. But, the boys were all happy and friends again by the end of the day...one just had a black eye. So, I documented the incident just to be safe in case there was a mad parent (which I doubt there will be) and I checked with a teacher that I had taken necessary steps.

My boundaries were tested on Friday. The students, being the little stinkers they are, decided they would see what exactly they could get away with. So, I was pretty stern with them, but they were kept in line! Hopefully next time they will just know how I work and forget the testing the boundaries part.

We had our DNOW this weekend at Crossroads. Our youth had a great time, we had a great time, and I think they learned some good stuff. I am really going to miss our youth group when we move. It was so nice to see Daniel, Mary, Chaz, and Hannah, too! I miss them so much and it was great to hang out and catch up.

So starts week three tomorrow!

Mmmmm

Today I found myself in a new routine. Every morning when I get to Spring Hill, I put my things down in my classroom at my little desk and head to the teachers lounge. In the teacher's lounge, there are teachers, food, and coffee. I get my daily morning cup of coffee with Carmel Vanilla creamer and splenda sugar. Often, there are donuts, cake, or goodies someone has made...but I typically avoid them for my well being. Today as I walked in, I found myself automatically in the teachers lounge getting my cup of coffee...it is now routine and I love it! Free coffee on cold mornings to get us up and revving for the day! My new necessity- teacher's lounge coffee...it MUST be special since it's from the teacher's lounge!

I once again succeeded in riling up my class today. My poor teacher...She says the things I do are great but sometimes I wonder if the energy freaks her out. We played a science game today and a spelling game today that the students have never played. They LOVED it! However, the classroom was slightly noisier. She says she loves what I am doing and I sure hope so! I think a little noise sometimes is okay...but it's not my classroom...sooo, hopefully I am not completely wrong!

On a side note- Today marks one year and six months that the Hubs and I have been happily married! Such a hunk...and he's all mine ;-)

Day 5

As I cried myself out of bed because of my serious morning condition I have suffered from all of my life, I reminded myself of why I woke up at 5:40. I go to Spring Hill to do the thing I love most right now! Once I was out of the shower, I was feeling less pathetic and was able to start my day. I got ready, packed my disgustingly adorable teacher bag, and picked up my fellow Spring Hill companions. It was a wonderful day!

Today was a writing day. Meaning, our fourth graders practiced a writing passage for the TAKS test. Therefore, my teacher and I had a lot of time to get things done around the classroom. For me, I used this time to make the fun games that I will be playing with my kiddos! My kids will be Cloud EXPERTS this time tomorrow. I had to find 45 pictures of specific clouds and it took a very long time to put together, but I think they will LOVE it! We are also playing Science Jeopardy to get ready for their science test next week! I think they will find these games extra fun!

Today I thought before I acted in the classroom! I heard this awesome corny joke that I know they would have LOVED and it came to me as Mrs. Jordan had left the room. PERFECT! I could be the cool student teacher who jokes around when Mrs. Jordan is gone! As I opened my mouth, I quickly closed it upon thinking about how every student would then have a joke to tell and my teacher would walk into a class of chaos after leaving it peacefully pleasant. So, I thought before I acted and saved myself and the teacher some trouble. I just like to entertain...but I can't ALWAYS do that.

5 days in and life is fantastic!

I lost a tooth.

Day 4 of student teaching:

Lessons of the day

1) Have project measurements pre-marked when marking with anything other than whole inches. 4th graders in my class do not understand what a quarter of an inch is. An activity that was supposed to take 10 minutes to explain and put together took 45 minutes because the thought than one inch can be divided into four parts was over their heads. So, drop teachable moment so activity can be completed in one day.

2) Have a procedure for when students tell you, "I lost a tooth." A student raised his hand to tell me he had lost his tooth. I laughed and said, "cool."...then realized he should probably rinse out his mouth. I referred him to our teacher and she had little boxes to put them in.

3) I am going to need to be more authoritative. I got to do a book talk for my students for the book The Sea of Monsters from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. If you have been around me for more than five minutes, you know I am dramatic. Well, give me a script or a story and I am on my way. I had the kids on the edge of their seats with excitement and then they couldn't calm down. Although I love getting students excited...I need to be stern enough to get them back on track. Pretty sure my teacher had me to thank for the hyper kids at the end of the day.

4) Always act like you know what you're doing. My teacher had to take a student to the office and did not get back in time to take the students from the computer lab to the buses and cars. My teacher never got back...So, I pretended I knew what was going on and got them from the lab and to their respectable places and then prayed that I did the right thing and they all got home...my teacher returned to the room like 5 minutes later and apologized...but I guess pretending to know what's going on is good for the students.


It's been a great week...I am definitely glad for a weekend to unwind with but I am excited about next week!!

It MUST be a dream!

So, because three flawlessly wonderful days is just unheard of...I must tell my tale of day 3. It's funny how when big events come up you dream about them. I remember the month before my wedding. I kept having these ridiculous re-occuring dreams that I would be up at the alter and some guy (not Tim) would come down and I HAD to marry him...I had no choice. I also remember dreaming about sleeping through my finals the night before finals. Well, in my dream last night, I was awaken by a doorbell ringing. I had no idea why someone would be ringing the doorbell before 6 am. Then, Tim jumps out of bed and says, "Jenni, it's 7:05!" I jumped out of bed to see my phone ringing because my ride is waiting for me outside.

Then, I realized...this was not a dream at all. It was the reality of my morning. So, I washed my face and put on some makeup, grabbed the first pair of clothes I could find and left...10 minutes flat. (My ride had left at 7:05 because I would not make them late because of my stupidity.) In the midst of my getting ready frenzy, my hunk of a husband was being the saintly wonderful man that I love so dearly. He went out to start the car, put in the address in the GPS, made my lunch for me, and was waiting at the door to kiss me goodbye. With the help of him and my GPS, I arrived at the school at 7:59 and the students were not in the room yet. My teacher had been notified thanks to my friend, Andrea, whose mom works at the school. My teacher was absolutely understanding and wonderful about the situation. It was a bad morning. (I never turned the sound on my phone back on last night after church, so while my alarm was going off, there was no sound.)

Because of the kink of the morning, I felt out of it during the day and tired. So, because there cannot be three perfect days in a row...this one came about.

I have decided to be a better blogger and try to humor you readers with my fun student teaching stories. Hopefully you enjoyed my drama of the morning. What a nightmare!

Student Teaching

The past two days have been the most wonderful days of my education career! I began my student teaching at Spring Hill Intermediate School Tuesday. I was nervous because it was a new district so far away and I had no idea what my teacher would be like....not to mention I had no desire to teach fourth grade! Well, my teacher is absolutely AMAZING! She is so sweet and loving and SUCH a great teacher! Spring Hill is a wonderful district from what I can tell. I walked in and felt welcomed automatically. The kids are angels and my teacher picks what she gets to teach. I love it! I could so be a fourth grade teacher! It reminds me a lot of my elementary school. These two days are the first time in the past four years that I have felt completely confident in wanting to teach! Hallelujah! Spring Hill is much different than Marshall...but a good different! I have a feeling these first 8 weeks are going to fly by much faster than I would like them to. I emailed my professor begging him to let me stay for the second half, too since fourth grade is considered a lower and an upper grade. Anyways...just a quick update before I hit the hay! I am loving student teaching!

Just some thoughts

Tomorrow is the official first day of getting back into my workout routine. This break has been glorious not thinking or worrying about working out seeing that it is not a favorite of mine. My little belly can vouch for that! But, it must be done. My goal is to lose at least six pounds in the next four months. I think it is doable, but it will be a challenge. I have been the same weight since high school...but maybe I can break that! I can see myself now moaning in anguish and hating myself for not running for two weeks....humorous for others I can imagine. Luckily for me, most people don't get back for another week so I will have the gym basically to myself....so maybe I won't make a fool of myself after all...at least not in front of many people.

The last step of my education begins Tuesday. I will be student teaching in Spring Hill in a 4th grade reading class. I think I'm ready...well, maybe I will be ready if I can remember the teacher I am supposed to be with. Ha! I don't know that I ever got official documentation of my mentor teacher's name. Hm..I should look for that. But, it should be a great semester! It just doesn't feel real...I will definitely keep updating how that goes.

Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia?? It made me want to be a blogger for one and two I am hoping to be like Julia when I am old...without the annoying voice. Just saying.

To my family- Thank you for a wonderful holiday season of joy, relaxation, and full bellies!