Hello to this little piece of blogland! I am not officially a teacher yet, but I am starting my year as a resident intern/teacher candidate-whatever terminology you prefer :). I decided that although this blog will hopefully be used for my own classroom someday, I should start documenting my residency experience as soon as possible so that I can have it to look at in future years. I am a little behind as far as the start of the year goes, for a few reasons. The first one being that the start of the school year has been pretty hectic with students and planning (as any teacher would tell you I'm sure :)). The second reason is that like many other teachers just starting out, I have contracted the flu in only my second week, so I haven't documented things as early as I maybe should have.
Better late than never, right?
The year started for me (and every other teacher) on August 15th with meetings, rallies, planning, and open house. I have gotten to work with my mentor teacher every step of the way and she has been more than accommodating throughout this journey so far. Students began school on August 22nd, which is much earlier than I ever remember starting elementary school. It seems as though it gets earlier every year! I am in a first grade classroom with 18 students. I will be spending Mon.-Wed. at the school and Thurs.-Fri. in my college courses, along with the other interns participating in the program.
I don't remember every single detail of the first couple of weeks, but a general overview will do for right now.
Being on the inside of teaching is much different than I expected it to be. There are a lot of scheduling difficulties, trials with students and curriculum, and not nearly enough time on your hands. I am told that things smooth out as the year progresses, which I can understand. At the beginning of the year it's as if the students are still at the same place they were at the end of the previous year (um...duh?). So in other words, my first graders still have many kindergarten tendencies and behaviors as well as a completely different schedule than they are used to. Our students asked us during the first week, "When do we get to play with toys?" because they are used to that in kindergarten.
A lot of the first week is going through the schedule with the students, as well as what will be expected of them throughout the year. I found that hallway and classroom behaviors need a lot of work-things such as not acting up in the hallway on the way to the bathroom, lunchroom, etc. Things such as not talking when the teacher talks, respecting each other, etc. are also issues. It has definitely been a little exhausting, but already very rewarding. Even if a student is having trouble with behaviors, it is still very easy to form an attachment to to that child-each student has so many attributes to praise and be proud of, a teacher just has to look past some surface behaviors to get to that point sometimes. It is completely worth it to do so.
Our schedule so far has consisted of our morning meeting, in which we go through the schedule of the day, the date, our calendar, and what day of the school year we are on (shown with money/coins). We then work on the normal curriculum areas such as math, handwriting, reading, and spelling. In addition to that there are many 'specials' including music, art, gym, and library.
I am very excited for the rest of the year and hope that I can document the year as it continues so that I can have something to look back on in future years :).
God Bless!
Mrs. Aman
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