Sorry this post is a day late, however the excitement of school closings took over my house last night! I found out that West Side was closed around 9pm and just after 10pm we all received text messages and e-mails from Calvin announcing that they would be canceled. You would have thought that someone won 1 million dollars because of the loud joyous shouts that came from my housemates and friends. Needless to say we had a sleep over in the living room complete with our mattresses and a movie! Sleeping in was wonderful too! We woke up to about 14 inches of snow, despite the dreams/nightmares by a few of the girls that nothing had happened overnight!
As for my day yesterday it was good, a little different than normal. As soon as school started all the 8th graders, the 2 homeroom teachers, and myself got on a bus and headed to a another Christian middle school. While their the students took a standardized test similar to an ACT. It will take the place of other tests that West Side 8th graders usually take. The big difference is that this test includes some interest and career type questions and feedback. Overall I think that the students liked the new test and the chance to not have normal classes for the morning. We returned around lunch time and just had 2 classes left for the day.
I feel like I am getting a feel for the way things go at West Side and am starting to learn names. However, I have not seen much teaching yet. Of the 7 class periods I have seen (due to the testing yesterday) 3 have taken Math tests, 1 math quiz, and 1 project worked on in the computer lab. That leaves just 2 classes I have seen taught, one of which was a review day. With that said I don't feel like I have a grasp of my teachers classroom management styles or teaching styles. It will come with time, but I suppose it will have to wait until tomorrow as today is a day off. As much as I love having a snow day, hopefully tomorrow I will be able to see a full day of teaching!
For now I am going to try to get some stuff done. Lots of homework even during student teaching!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
B is Blessed
Day one at West Side is complete. I titled this post B is for Blessed as I feel extremely blessed for the school I am student teaching in. Already after day one I feel at home in the community of the school. The teachers and students are very welcoming and helpful.
Today was a bit of a whirlwind of trying to get to know the students and other staff members. Throughout the day I will see 80+ plus students, that is a lot of names to learn! Today each class introduced themselves as well as said a fun fact, while they did that I attempted to make a seating chart for each class. 80 names is a lot and I need all the help I can get! I also did a bit of grading today for my teacher. Math is an easy thing to grade as the answers are right or wrong, not much gray area for answers. Today was also spent observing and trying to learn the ways of the classroom. I need to make observations about the classroom management my teacher has. Although I have a bit of an idea already, it will take much more observations before I could articulate my thoughts in my assignments.
The plan is that I will take on one class at a time, most likely one per week. Eventually I will be teaching all the subjects and I will have to do that for at least 2 weeks. After that time I will back off from the responsibilities until I am just observing for the end of my time.
I look forward to the challenges and exciting things that lie ahead! Thanks for your prayers and support today!
Today was a bit of a whirlwind of trying to get to know the students and other staff members. Throughout the day I will see 80+ plus students, that is a lot of names to learn! Today each class introduced themselves as well as said a fun fact, while they did that I attempted to make a seating chart for each class. 80 names is a lot and I need all the help I can get! I also did a bit of grading today for my teacher. Math is an easy thing to grade as the answers are right or wrong, not much gray area for answers. Today was also spent observing and trying to learn the ways of the classroom. I need to make observations about the classroom management my teacher has. Although I have a bit of an idea already, it will take much more observations before I could articulate my thoughts in my assignments.
The plan is that I will take on one class at a time, most likely one per week. Eventually I will be teaching all the subjects and I will have to do that for at least 2 weeks. After that time I will back off from the responsibilities until I am just observing for the end of my time.
I look forward to the challenges and exciting things that lie ahead! Thanks for your prayers and support today!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A is for Adventure
Tomorrow marks the beginning of Spring Semester 2011. For me this means beginning my semester of Student Teaching at West Side Christian. While there I will be teaching 7th and 8th grade math, along with one section of 8th grade Bible. I have been anxiously waiting for student teaching to start since I began at Calvin. I still have to pinch myself to remind me that my time has come. These last 7 semesters FLEW by, but I could not be more excited about the journey I am about to start.
I hope to use this blog to reflect on my experience at West Side as well as share my experiences with family and friends. It is also my hope that this blog will be a reminder to pray for me as I student teach for the next 14 weeks. I am so excited about the experiences to come, but I know that it is going to have its challenges as well. Pray that I can use all I have learned to teach and impact the students in a tremendous way.
Thank you in advance for your prayers for me and my students. You all have supported me throughout the years and I would not have become the person I am without each of you.
More to come tomorrow, for now I am heading to bed.
I hope to use this blog to reflect on my experience at West Side as well as share my experiences with family and friends. It is also my hope that this blog will be a reminder to pray for me as I student teach for the next 14 weeks. I am so excited about the experiences to come, but I know that it is going to have its challenges as well. Pray that I can use all I have learned to teach and impact the students in a tremendous way.
Thank you in advance for your prayers for me and my students. You all have supported me throughout the years and I would not have become the person I am without each of you.
More to come tomorrow, for now I am heading to bed.
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