Monday was a pretty normal day. I took the day off from the Reading block because I really needed to start collecting work samples and assessments from my case study student. As part of my student teaching, I am required to pick a student who I feel needs the extra attention they may not be getting. The student cannot have an IEP, but can be on the brink. I chose a student, I'll call him Andy, who really struggles with his work, but has such determination it is almost unbelievable that he is not an A student. He is an amazing little boy, and I really enjoy spending the extra time working with him. So during the Reading block, I collected and copied samples of all subjects, I took pictures of projects and pictures that were in the hallway from art or our classroom, and I copied a couple assessments, a few in which I graded myself. I was grateful that Ms. M let me take the time to just work on the things I needed, since a part of my case study work was due on Wednesday. Below are images of Andy's "bio in a bag" and a picture he created in Art.
Wednesday was a nervous day for me. Not only was my supervisor, Pstef, coming to observe me for the second time, but I was doing a science lesson! Totally not my strongest subject, and I was super nervous. To make it worse, the lesson was right after lunch, so the students would be pretty wild. And to make it even more worse, their Wax Museum was right after science, so they were going to be extremely wild! At lunch prep, I got all of the materials together. I was doing a "Soaking Sponges" lesson from FOSS. The students had to figure out how much water weighs in grams by using a sponge. I already had the groups planned out, and made buckets with all of the materials ready for each group. The only thing I left out was the water, which I would fill up a pitcher during the lesson and walk around giving the groups water when they were ready for that step. Now, to make it even worse, it was a rainy day, so the students had indoor lunch recess, in the classroom! I was so worried that my buckets would get messed up. I rushed to eat my lunch, and went back to the classroom. When I got there, Pstef was already there. I think he could tell I was horrified when I saw him in the noisy, child frenzy classroom, but he greeted me warmly, and made a joke which calmed me down a bit. Once it hit 1:30, it was my time. It took a few minutes to get the students settled, but the second I threatened to keep them from the Wax Museum, they quieted down so quickly, I swear you could hear a pin drop. The lesson actually went really good, and it was really fun. The students were excited about experimenting if water actually had a weight. The lesson was over, and Ms. M took over so I could talk with Pstef. We actually weren't having a legit conference, because he needed to be observed himself conferencing with one of his student teachers, so I wouldn't even find out how he thought my lesson went until the next day. I gotta tell you, this is the worst. Having no idea what your supervisors thoughts or comments are, and having to wait a whole day to find out, and having to find out in front of another supervisor, is completely horrifying.
The Wax Museum however was amazing! It was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my whole life! So many parents showed up, which was amazing. It was so much fun walking around pushing the "buttons" on the wax people. I really wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't know how well that would go over, especially with parents being there, so I decided to just leave my camera in my bag.
Thursday was Read Across America, and the day Myers decided to celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday! We started the day off with an assembly. After we got the students settled down, I was surprised to see The Cat in the Hat come on stage, also known as Mr. K, the schools principal! It was so funny, and the students really enjoyed seeing this! He is super tall and skinny, so he played the part well! A couple teachers came out to read, including the Reading Specialists, who were dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2, blue hair and all!. Again, another time I forgot to bring my camera! I really need to start bringing it with me everywhere we go! Throughout the day, we read different Dr. Seuss books to the students, and we even had other teachers going in and out of classrooms to read. Overall, it was just a fun, relaxed day, in honor of Dr. Seuss!
So I had to leave school early to head up to WCU to meet with Pstef. I won't lie, I was nervous. But I don't think that nervous feeling ever goes away when your are getting critiqued, no matter how much of a confident person you are. I got to school early, of course, so I just hung around the lounge and studied for a test I had later that night. ( I'm currently taking my Classroom Management course) It was time to meet with Pstef, so I headed over to Dr. B's office. Pstef looked a bit nervous himself, which kinda made me feel better. Pstef started by telling Dr. B where I am placed, what grade, and what I taught the day before. The first words Pstef actually said to me made me wanna cry... " I just absolutely love your teaching stye." For your supervisor to tell you this, it's hard to not get teary eyed. But I tried my best and just smiled saying thank you. He continued to go on about my strengths. He said my lesson plans are thoroughly written out, I had a great anticipatory set. He said the thing he loved about my teaching so much is that I pull from the students. He said he noticed it my first observation too. His exact words were " You had an anticipatory set that engaged students and got them thinking about the procedures of the lesson. I like the way you let students "discover" what to do and why. You ask excellent high-order thinking questions." He explained to me that I never give away what I want the students to figure out on their own. He told me I could easily just say "Okay, today we are going to use sponges to find the mass of water. We are going to weigh the dry sponge and then dry the wet sponge and subtract." He said I pull the answers from students. He also told me that this is something you rarely see from student teachers, and is something that cannot be taught. When your supervisor for one of the most important milestones in your life gives you this type of compliment, it really makes you feel great. I think this was the point in my life when I really realized that this is what I love doing, this is what I have worked hard for, and this was the payoff point.
A few other things Pstef wrote on my Observation Sheet were:
- you have a relaxed, confident, and natural teaching style
- conversational tone
- you were aware of behavior, were mobile, monitored progress and gave feedback
- complimented correct behavior
- rang bell for attention, which students responded to
- gave visual by writing procedures on the board, though procedures were said aloud, and given on worksheet
Friday was the day I started taking over the Math block. I started today because they finished up Unit 7 on Wednesday with the test on Thursday, so today I introduced Unit 8, fractions. Eek. I'm actually very confident with fractions and know them well myself, but I didn't know how easy it was going to be to teach 8 year old students about them... The lesson went over okay. I didn't get through everything I wanted to. Ms. M says it has nothing to do with me. She said she can barely get through things herself because for some reason there are so many interruptions and problems during the Math block. Math is the only time we switch during the day. About 8 of the students in our class go to Mrs. S for enriched math, and we get about 7 other students. I would say we are the average math class. Mrs. W has the lower math class, which includes students with IEP's. And for some reason, math seems to be interruption central!. Ms. M says its because the students take it as "social hour", a chance to talk and see their friends from other classrooms. Hopefully Monday will go over better.
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