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