The last day before Thanksgiving Break!

It is finally here! Thanksgiving break is upon us and I can almost taste the turkey! It is now 1:24 on Friday, November 22, 2013 and I am only 1 hour and 6 minutes shy of a much-needed break from school! It is hard to believe that I’ve made it through my internship and I must say that it has been one crazy whirlwind of ups and downs. I was able to make it through, however, and with flying colors I might add! I have learned so much since the first day of school and I’m even a little sad that it’s over.

 The next two weeks of my internship will consist of my helping transition students back into Mrs. Adams’ teaching. I will be assisting my mentor and trying to give her full reign of the class once again. It seems weird that I’ll have to show students that she’s the teacher again when it took so much effort to get them to see me as the teacher.

Throughout the past few months, I have learned quite a lot about being a teacher. The most important thing that I’ve learned is that you have to be yourself when you’re in front of any classroom. Students can pick up on your vibes and when you’re not being yourself, they know it! I think that my students got to know me just as well as I got to know them and I’m so happy about it.

Another thing that I’ve learned is that you have to be able to deal with lots of things on the fly. This means that you cannot plan for absolutely everything! Things are going to come up that you can’t control and as the teacher you simply have to be able to deal with it without freaking out. Interruptions are going to happen and you’re not always going to be able to teach what you’ve planned. It happens and you just need to be flexible.

Overall, teaching this semester was a fun-filled learning experience and I wouldn’t have changed anything about it. I’m so glad that my students were so accepting of me and that my mentor teacher took the time to work with me. The staff at FSHS was extremely helpful with anything that I needed. I couldn’t have asked for a better semester of student teaching!

Preparing to phase out...

It is so hard to believe that I am almost finished with my semester of student teaching! It seems like just yesterday I was writing my first lesson plan for my 9th graders; I really don't know where the time went! Throughout my time with Mrs. Adams I have learned a great deal about teaching, students, and even myself. I think that my favorite thing I've learned from her is that you've got to work hard in order to get what you want and that is just what I have been doing.

This week marks my last week of full-time teaching. This means that next week, I'll only be responsible for two class periods and co-teaching the rest with Mrs. Adams. I wrote my last lesson plan this week and it was so bittersweet. I was, on one hand, glad to be finished writing lesson plans, but on the other hand a bit sad that I won't be spending a whole lot of time with either my students or my mentor anymore. After Thanksgiving break I will be completely phased out and I'll just be observing and helping out wherever I can.

Though I am looking forward to finishing up this semester and moving on, I am going to miss the everyday routine of going to school. I have found that I really do enjoy being a teacher and I'm so happy that I've chosen it as my profession. I have really blossomed this semester into the teacher that I want to be. I know that I've still got room to grow, but I truly think that I'm on the right track!

2 novels at once!

Last Friday wrapped up my 3 week teaching span of having to teach 2 completely different novels at the same time! I was teaching The Hobbit to my regular ninth grade English classes and The Hound of the Baskervilles to my ninth grade English Honors classes. Fortunately, the Honors classes have wrapped up their novel because it was only 15 chapters long and they took their final test on Friday. The other classes still have about 2 weeks until we finish The Hobbit, but I think I can better focus on just one novel rather than two.

Teaching two novels at the same time really wasn't as hard as I thought that it would be. The thing that took the most time was reading the novels along with the students because I had never read either one until now. I had to read with students, which was a chapter a night, so that I could keep up with what I was supposed to teach them the next day in class. The hardest thing for me was trying to remember what happened in which novel, so I had to take a lot of notes in order to keep my facts straight. I think I did a really good job with the two novels though because my Honors students took their test on Friday and most of them got A's or B's, so I'm pretty proud of myself.

Having done this during my student teaching really shows me that I can do anything when I put my mind to it. I had to read these novels on top of all of the other work that I've had to do as well. It shows me that putting effort into something really does work and the students' test scores have provided that evidence. This was a great learning experience for me and I'm glad that my mentor teacher made me do it. She always seems to know just what it is that I need to learn and she always pushes me to do things I think I can't.