Well since my last post I have completed a second student teaching placement, worked all summer, started my 5th and final year of my university career, and almost completed a third student teaching placement.
I decided I should start blogging again, I really enjoyed it when I started, but I have just become preoccupied with "life."
Maybe to start I should talk about my second placement in a grade 7/8 multi-level classroom. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from my cooperating teacher. She used so much technology in her classroom and really had the students engaged in everything she did in her class. I ended up teaching a social studies unit that I had created on Ancient Rome, which was fun, but after I completed it I found so many other things I would have loved to have done. I also did many science lessons, that my cooperating teacher and I created together, and I taught. The group of kids I had were also very smart and pushed me in my thinking, when asked many questions.
The class used the ipads on a regular basis as well as my cooperating teacher used the smart board everyday in her lessons. From this I learned so many things, and I have a list of awesome apps that fill up pages in a notebook. Student teaching in this class was an awesome experience, and I learned more in those 7 weeks then I had in the weeks prior of sitting in a classroom. The best experience is just to put yourself in front of a class and teach.
The summer flew by, and here we are. I have two weeks left in my fall placement, and am thinking about wrapping up the first semester.
I cannot say how much I am loving elementary school. I am teaching in a grade two class with 18 students and I feel like I have found where I want to be. I am planning like crazy, teaching full time and loving it. My cooperating teachers are extremely helpful and really letting me explore and take in the whole teaching experience.
I planned a whole unit on "Community" and the kids have really taken to the activities and I feel like they will just pick up whatever you throw at them.
My mornings consist of ELA, which is daily five, journaling, poem learning, brain breaks and plenty of fun. They love to do daily five and sometimes ask to do it. I try and mix things up a little bit, just so its not the same thing everyday, and they are always willing to do anything. In the afternoons we do math workshop, which again they are crazy about (anything that involves moving around and different activities they love) as well as social studies and art occasionally. I am just loving everything about grade two. :)
Anyway, my plan is to post some of the stuff we do in class, some of the resources I use etc. So stayed tuned, I will keep this blog going!!!
-LB
