Whew!

I am currently enjoying my Friday off from school! This week we had parent-teacher conferences after school on Tuesday and Wednesday as well as all day on Thursday. I was a little nervous to sit in on these conferences. However, they were a wonderful experience. Luckily the parents at my school are very involved and supportive. It was great to meet the parents of my students because I understand my students on a deeper level. My cooperating teacher is great at communicating with parents about students' tests scores, academic growth, and social qualities. Even when students had areas that needed improvement he did a good job of presenting the situation with a possible solution. I learned a lot on these days of conferences. Of course I will still be nervous when I am a first year teacher and conferences come around but I think this week was a good learning experience.

As well as having conferences, I was observed by my KSU supervisor for the first time. Obviously I was a little nervous waiting for that lesson to occur but everything went well! I was observed on Valentine's Day shortly before the party so I was very nervous about classroom management. However, I did a good job of being calm and consistent with my classroom management so the lesson went as well as possible. I had to say, "I will wait for everyone to be on task," a LOT so the lesson was a pretty slow pace but that is okay! We were working on translation. This was not the translation you would think of during a foreign language class but the kind that slides a shape form one place to another without changing the size, shape or orientation of the figure. We made a fold-able with the term translation, definition, and example of a shape that was translated. Then, we made a handbooklet. The students traced their hands and then traced how they would look once they were translated. Next, we practiced translating shapes on our manipulative mats. Over all I was pleased with the lesson and am looking forward to the rest of my unit that will occur next week.

Valentine's Day was very FUN once my observation was over. We had sherbert and Sprite punch, cupcakes, and candy galore. To my surprise my Valentine's Bag was very full - to the point of overflowing. I received lots of Valentine's that said "Number 1 Student Teacher." That made me very happy. I love the kids in my class so it was nice to receive such kind messages from them in my Valentine's Day bag. We watched Jumanji and we also played a game with conversation hearts. Each table group had a minute to build the tallest Conversation Heart tower they could. The kids were so intense and it was hilarious to watch them build their towers.

Next week we will be working on geometry and going on a field trip to the museum on KSU's campus. I'm excited to teach the rest of my unit and take the kids on the trip. I'm sure I will have lots to write about after next week but for now I am going back to enjoying my Friday off!

Miss Freund

Time Flies!

The last few weeks I have been neglecting my blog because I have been so busy! Last week I had the opportunity to teach reading. My fourth graders know that I L-O-V-E to read so everyone in the room was very excited during my reading lessons. I had a few students act out the meanings to our vocabulary words which was particularly fun to watch.We read an autobiography and a biography during the week. At the end of the week the kids interviewed a partner and wrote a biography about that person. I was happy to read their work  and to see, through my assessment, that they had understood the selections we read.

On Tuesday, my cooperating teacher left during my reading lesson because he  started getting a migraine. Of course I felt bad for him but I was excited to teach the kiddos the rest of the day! I was in charge of the mornings during the week so I ended up teaching the whole day. Our class is listening to the novel 11 Birthdays currently for read aloud time. Finally, I was given the chance to read to them! Although my voices for the characters were not as good as my CT's (so my fourth graders nicely told me!) we still had fun during that time. Luckily in math we were still covering probability. Since I had taught probability the week before I did okay during math! Whew! In Social Studies the students are working on their Famous Kansan magazine covers. This was not hard to teach since they were mainly working independently on their projects.

This week is going to be a pretty relaxed week for me. I had been hoping to be formally observed but, alas, I have to go observe other fine educators around the building. Today I watched a kindergarten math lesson. Tomorrow it's on to first grade for reading. Even though I only observe one lesson at a time there are other interns coming to watch my CT teach during times I normally teach. SO, I will just be doing daily grammar, math, calendar and reading groups this week. Oh well! I can work on my math unit covering transformational geometry and the portfolio assignment. For those of you who are not student teachers...we DO have homework along with all the teaching we are doing.

Highlights:
- I will be teaching 6th grade starting in April! YAY! I love fourth but 6th is going to be an exciting challenge!
- Watching students act gracefully in the halls and classroom. (Graceful was a vocabulary word...hahaha)
- FOUR of my students are reading Harry Potter now..
- Becoming a dragon at recess. The girlies in my class are very creative. They become mystical creatures at recess and decided that I need to be a dragon so I can warm them with fire on cold days at recess.
- A few boys in my class inviting me to watch their bball games! I am going this weekend!
- Being the teacher for the day when my CT was gone! This meant that I could teach the OTHER 4th grade class during Social Studies.
-Getting more comfortable as a teacher, earning more respect from my students (even if, for one student, it meant having a talk with my CT and I) and making more and more connections with my kiddos!
- The high fives, hugs, and dancing that my students and I give/do when they get something that had been very difficult for them! WHOOP! 

Goodbye for now! I am going to get some work done on this portfolio and unit!!

Miss Freund

Are You Staying the Whole Year??

 I know it's a couple days late, but I am finally writing about last week!  Time has definitely been flying by. I thought my first five-day week would feel very long but it went by so quickly. I am very grateful that my awesome cooperating teacher gave me responsibilities for the week. Instead of simply continuing my observations, I had the opportunity to plan and lead reading groups, daily language, and calendar math. These tasks were all low stress and wonderful ways to begin living up to my role as the student teacher. I particularly enjoyed the reading groups because both fourth grade classes do reading groups together. This meant that I got to know some of the other fourth graders as well as their teacher and student teacher. We played a fun vocabulary shuffle game, read a reader's theater, and worked on our comprehension skills and strategies. Calendar math is always fun because we get to add money each day to our daily depositor - we always joke that we are SO rich and that we get to buy lots of awesome things with our money. Along with those responsibilities I  did the usual: copying, grading, planning etc. Outside of the classroom I helped with tutoring after school on Thursday. I enjoyed getting to know students from other grades and classes. It was fun to work with the students in a more relaxed environment and to see them succeed in the various tasks they had!


The support of my cooperating teacher and the other fourth grade teacher has been great! They give very useful feedback after I teach and give lots of encouragement. I have a lot to learn and I know that I will grow so much this semester.  The other interns, our clinical instructor, and KSU supervisor had our weekly seminar on Friday. Having that small group to talk with is so nice. It's a much needed time to ask for advice, give encouragement, and share ideas. I am lucky to be at a great school with these folks!



Highlights:
-Starting to teach things!
- Spelling Bee: I loved seeing the four kids from my class do SO well. It was great to see their classmates cheering for them. It was even better to see the class support their classmates when they were eliminated.
-  Lots of my students are now reading Harry Potter. If you know me at all you know how awesome this is for me to see!
- Helping with after school tutoring. It is nice to meet some kids from outside the fourth grade.
- Creating a puppet show with a few of my students at indoor recess. It's called, "The Muffin Show" and the bad guy is called Big Pa. His mission is to eat allllll the talking muffins in the world with the help of his minions. His minions are doughnut holes that do what he says because they are scared he will eat them!
- Listening to  a student play "Sand storm" on the keyboard.
- A student asking....Do we get to have you stay the whole year???

Now...off to finish preparing my reading group activity for tomorrow as well as my  math lesson! :)

Miss Freund

I Can't Believe It!

Hello, blogging world! Throughout my life I have tried to keep a journal numerous times and have completely failed every time. This blog is my new attempt at keeping a written recollection of my life. When I say, "my life," I really mean student teaching because my internship will be my life for the next sixteen weeks! It is so hard to believe that I am student teaching this semester. For the past four years my friends and I have viewed student teaching as an exciting, terrifying, far-in-the-future experience but here we are beginning our journeys. This blog will be my way of sharing my experiences with my friends both near and far as well as recording memories for myself! 


Bright and early Wednesday morning I returned to the fourth grade classroom I worked in last semester. Nothing could have started my semester off better than the smiling faces of my kiddos when they realized I would be in their room again! I love that on my first day back both the students and the staff made all of us interns feel welcome. I also loved seeing my own desk at the front of the room next to my cooperating teacher's desk! Although I was not in charge of any lessons this week I learned a lot regarding classroom procedures, schedule, management, etc. It was also nice to see my cooperating teacher's routine; how he plans, communicates with colleagues and parents, and much much more. I can't wait to slowly take on more responsibility this week. I will be doing calendar math and reading groups this week; it will feel great to be teaching again instead of just observing! 


Some highlights:
- Class birthday celebration on Friday; the birthday boy conducting "Happy Birthday" with the help of my CT. 
- The students presenting their famous Kansans magazine covers. It was hilarious when a boy called Carrie Nation "a window bashing female."
- One student being SO excited to talk to me about the books he read over break. (We are both book nerds!)
- Learning the average dance. This is a cute little dance for the students to remember how to find the average from a set of data. If you ask I WILL do it for you! So much fun!
- Riddle time! 
 
 Well, friends, I will post again at the end of next week! I didn't have a lot to say this week but I'm sure I will in the future! I hope you all have a lovely week full of lots of fun and learning! I'm sure we'll all have some challenges but it will all be okay! :)


- Miss Freund