Last week at the center

This week is NAIDOC week. This means a week that focuses on Aboriginal culture in Australia. In the preschool we are having some people come to cook aboriginal food, play aboriginal games, and we were hoping to have some aboriginal dancers come in, but they weren't able to get them in. This week is my last week in the center and I cannot believe it! I kind of thought I would be able to coast and not have to teach too much. My teacher today however had me do story time and group time. These are the two parts of the day that are direct instruction, so that was interesting... I didn't expect her to have me do that. It was a good day and we had johnny cakes which are an aboriginal food that is kind of like a bread, and then they fry it and slather it with butter and golden syrup. Golden syrup is what they put on their pancakes sometimes and its kind of like a mix between maple syrup and honey. It's good-I'll have to bring some home. Along with Vegemite and TimTams and chocolate caramel Cadbury koala bears. Over the weekend I went right from school on Friday to another American girls' host mum's house. We had a sleepover and it was nice because they had a hot tub and sauna and we had a few drinks. Then I had the worst game of Monopoly in my life. Next day I was hungover and unhappy. Then that night we went to the lantern festival which was cool and included a parade with a ton of lanterns. Very cool, I got a cool cameo ring which I have always wanted. :)

On Sunday we went sea kayaking. This was fun! We saw whales and dolphins, and now I'm sore! But seriously, it was just a lot of fun, and the weather was beautiful. Today after school a teacher from the center took us out to the wall. This is a wall of rocks lining the mouth of the river into Ballina. It was very beautiful and we saw a ton of dolphins. I kept trying to take pictures but I only really got one decent one. :/ It was very cool though! Then Beth and I went for a walk on the beach at sunset. It was very romantic. We have been trying all last week to wake up early to run in the morning, and this morning I finally woke up! I'll try for day #2 tomorrow :)

We have a lot planned this week like going over to our director's house for dinner tomorrow for curry, and afternoon tea on Thursday as a 'goodbye' to us. This week should fly... Then it's up to Cairns and Sydney- and I'll be home before I know it missing the heck out of this place. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone I miss in the states. It seems so much easier when you don't see someone for a month when you live in the same country but a month away from people while I'm here has been a lot harder!

Observations:

Duna=comforter

Someone a size 0 would be a size 10 here. (no I didn't gain that much weight, that's just how the sizes run! I bought a size 14 shirt today)

Estate=neighborhood

year=grade (ex. 1st grade would be year 1)

Today I saw a whale! Beth and I have been trying to exercise on the beach lately and we saw some!! My first real whale sighting. They are migrating so we will probly get to see more! yay My supervisor came for the last time so I think I'm pretty much done teaching.. I mean I have tomorrow and next week I'll be helping but not teaching. YAY.

Observations:

windscreen=windshield

lounge=couch

Teaching-ahoy

This week is my last head week! The time here has FLOWN!! I don't understand what I have done all this time- I feel like all I've done could fit in a couple days time. Anyway- its all turned out to be pretty great anyway. I feel I've conquered the homesickness, the classroom and keeping the children under control and maybe even fitting in a little. I'm pretty ready to go home where it is way warmer than it is here- it's in the 40s at night and 60s during the day. And no one has heating and everyone loves the windows open (weird). Even though I'm ready to be done in the preschool and I'm ready to be home and see my loved ones, I can't wait until our final week of traveling! We are headed to Cairns and then Sydney for some FUN (I hope-if all us girls can get along and decide what we are doing) woop woop!

Observations:

Jumper=sweatshirt/sweater(did I mention this already- i think I did)

cuddles=a hug

They call hearts love hearts

Snapping is clicking

There are no three hole punches here-just two hole punches (binders, paper-all just two punches!)

There are a lot of signs around town saying 'refuge island' I had no idea what this meant until this past week when I asked and she said its where you can stand and cars will stop so they can cross! (like.. isn't this called a crosswalk?)

The speed limit is written on the road and not just on the sign- and in case you didn't know the speed limit is in kilometers. Everything is metric here. Grams, Celsius, liters, etc

They say heaps instead of lots. I love it!

Not sure if I've written this either but they have no 1 cent coins. They used to have 1 cent and 2 cent coins. Things are rounded up or down-kinda weird. There is talk of getting rid of the 5 cent piece.

They don't have dollar or 2 dollar bills but rather coins worth two dollars and 1 dollar.

If a child has to go to the bathroom they say 'i gotta make a wee'. Or can I use the toilet?

They use the words 'nearly, pardon, and fair bit' (pardon is if they don't hear you or if they burp)

Clearance sales are called stock take sales.

Today I had a little adventure with my host mum and my roommate. We went to a town called Nimbin. It was interesting. I guess its a counter culture where people moved to in order to leave the cities. There is a lot of pot smoking there, and they are against government regulations and such. We got offered hash cookies a few times. Today for the first time We visited the college that I am enrolled in (southern cross university). There really is no reason for me to go to it because I'm not taking classes but just student teaching. It was neat to see, and I saw the school my host mum teaches at. Both are in Lismore-on the way to Nimbin. In Nimbin we just walked around a bit and then ate lunch at a cafe. The ride there was so pretty. We were going to go to a waterfall but it was super far away and we had to get back for dinner. We had dinner with two of our American girls at a restaurant in town. Afterward we played the slots. Pretty low-key night.

Observations:

Zebra crossing- where you cross the road (crosswalks)

Things are two hole punched instead of three hole punched.

gas=petrol. And its measured in liters Also, the signs say 148 instead of 1.48. That's what price gas is right now- $1.48 for a liter of unleaded gas.

There a lot of mixed drinks in cans/bottles unlike in America (like captain and coke or vodka drinks)

Tafe= technical college (stands for: technical and further education)

Finally posting about the weekend!??

This weekend was a long one. We had off on Monday because of the Queen's birthday. So me and 5 other girls went to the gold coast. There are normally only 5 of us, but on Wednesday Lauryn's host mum took in another girl from Ohio. She is checking out the program in Australia to see if students from Xavier are going to come study abroad here. I think that would be a cool job! Her name is Katie. So out party has grown from 5 to 6 American girls. This makes decision making and doing things together SO much harder. On Saturday all of us girls went to the Currumbin wildlife sanctuary. This was basically a zoo, except maybe a little less enclosed and less cages. Here I got to hold a Koala named Ruby, and see a lot of interesting Australian animals. We got to go in an enclosure with Kangaroos (pictured above) and Emus. This was neat because I was SO CLOSE to all the kangaroos. I saw a little kangaroo and its joey, and saw them hop- I took videos- check out my youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/user/anna14b?feature=mhee#p/u) It was a great day and we went to a club for lunch which was right on/over the beach. We finished off the day by watching an aboriginal dance. I wish I could have taken video of that, but it wasn't allowed. We did nothing at night and I was quite pissed because there was a good special at the hostel we were staying at for dinner, transportation and free drinks all night for $25. Instead we went out for dinner and a beer for $25. On Sunday we went to a place called Infinity which was a maze-like thing. Two of the girls went to the rainforest for a high ropes course. The rest of us were going to go to an amusement park but it was rainy so we decided not to. Infinity was dark inside and all mirrors and lasers and it was fun but kinda short. After this we went to lunch and went shopping. I bought so much cool stuff and it was all pretty cheap! It is winter here so a lot of sale stuff was summer stuff which was perfect because when I get back to the states it will be summer. I also bought an awesome bag to take back all the extra crap I've bought/acquired here. On Sunday evening we made dinner at the hostel and watched a movie (little fockers) It was on at the hostel with cheap drink specials. On Monday we went shopping again, and I bought some but not a lot. By the end of the weekend I was getting annoyed and ready to return to my host home. I wish I could have gone out one night to experience the night life and let loose and dance. I feel my mind was dwelling too much on what was going on at home and missing home too much.

Monday was the first day of my head week. My teacher wasn't there and things were kinda tricky. The sub kept butting in and running the class and it was frustrating!! I also couldn't get the children's attention for story time, so that was frustrating.

Today was much better. My teacher let me 'own' the classroom and she was the actual teacher in the classroom. Meeting/story time went a lot better because the children are older and I think they can listen better. Even my teacher agreed today went better! Yay. Only 7 more head days! Then my last ween in the preschool. Then comes the fun traveling part!!

Notes on Australia:

serviette=napkin

Australians hate kiwis (new zealanders)

toilets dont flush and have two buttons (one for number 1 and one for number 2)

Monday morning you sure look fine

Today was a good day. :) I managed to forget about the shit that's happening in my personal life and really set in with the kids. The day went fast-I had fun and was engaged! The teachers noticed a change too. I think last week the personal things happening hurt my professional performance. I wish this break up had not happened when it did since it's becoming apparent it had to happen at some point. Well if I'm wishing for things I wish it didn't have to happen at all. Anywho... I had a great day. Dinner was good with my host mom- I think things are really getting more comfortable. We finally gave her the gifts we were told to bring from home to thank her for letting us stay with her. Beth and I thought we were going to give them at the end of our stay but we gave them today- she liked them YAY. Today also, I got the child im supposed to be observing. My adviser said I am to pick one child, observe them and then make the lessons based off them. Ideally, I would like to observe more children but one is turning out to be a lot anyway!! I need to go write up my obsevations as i simply took notes at work today.

Aussie things:

sick=awesome, sweet

fully sick=very cool/sweet

(I learned those two from my surf teacher- he was SO cool and very funny.)

Bundjalung is the native spoken language of the aboriginals.

First weekend here

This weekend the 5 girls from Stout went to Byron Bay for the weekend. It was super fun! We went out to eat on Friday, and went to a couple bars after. It was very expensive to get drinks! On Saturday we walked around a little after going to breakfast and we went to the beach to lay out. It didn't seem like we got tan though... I have to get tan before Margie's wedding! So when we were on the beach a lady came around to give us wristbands and tell us how we get free champagne and 3 dollar meals at a place called cheeky monkey! We left and got ready for dinner and spent all night there. It was super fun and they have contests and dancing on tables. We then went to a surfing lesson on Sunday- It was heaps of fun!! (they say heaps here instead of lots) It was very tiring but I really was awesome at it -HAHa. I think I found my sport!

Whirl.wind.

Today was a good day-but yesterday I was so anxious. We have not had much direction and I am not a good question asker. I feel that they should be giving us some expectations but we were given none. I will have to ask more questions. I feel like I did ask more today and felt better today. The center I am in has two rooms and Beth are each in a room and we switch sides after Tuesday so we can get a variety of experiences. So far I do like the Weds-Fri room better than the Mon-Tues room. They children are older and the lesson planning is more clear. Another thing that is hard in these preschools is that there is a schedule but no timing. The teachers switch activities when they feel it is time. I think this is better for the children. At this age they don't need to be on a time table and the teacher gauges how long activities will last based on how much the children are getting out of them. If they are all antsy the teacher will switch activities. If children are complaining of being tired the teacher will have nap time sooner. It is great that the center is so child-directed, but it is hard to follow along sometimes when there is no timing. It is a lesson in sitting back and going with the flow for me!

The philosophy of the school going along with this is that all the lesson subjects are from the students. If a child finds a caterpillar on the playground and has a question about it-the teacher will make a lesson on that because that child had an interest. It is a really great approach and I think this is necessary to be mixed in in my own teaching!! It is truly a child-centered approach. And why else are we teaching but for the child!? This also has the children more interested and actively engaged in their own learning.

Today after school our host mum said she would pick us up late because she had a meeting (she is a high school teacher). We decided to meet up with her at a coffee shop downtown so we could have a look at the shops and such. We waited at the coffee shop for a half an hour and then decided to walk to a house where some other stout students were staying nearby to see if we could call our host mum. On the way we passed the cop shop so we stopped there and asked to use their phone. It was an interesting experience. We got a hold of our host mum and she picked us up at the cop shop. We decided we may need a phone as this is the second time she has been late and we have not known. (she was late on our first day to pick us up from preschool) Picture above of Beth at the Police station, along with a view of the downtown Ballina area.

This weekend all the students from Stout are going to a neighboring town called Byron Bay. It is supposed to be a good place to stay for clubbing and shopping. It is not too far and should be great fun!!

Aussi-isms:

Lollies=candies

jumper= sweater/sweatshirt

They have never heard of graham crackers or smores!

biscuits= crackers

One teacher said they shorten anything they can because they are lazy:

Afternoon=Arvo

Biscuits are bickies

I don't understand why such a relaxed and laid back environment can make me feel so anxious.

Preschool

Today was my first day at the preschool. I am in a room with 3 year olds for Monday and Tuesday, then I will have some older kids for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The classes are HUGE. There are 20 in each class- two classes in the center- Beth is in the other room. The first thing in the morning was a drummer man who came and drummed for the kids-they also drummed along with their little drums the man provided. He was so charismatic and funny! It was kind of a crazy morning then with this man coming and a lot of support staff involved today. Something that's different from home is how many children have support staff and have the labels labeling them special ed. This normally doesn't happen in US until at least Kindergarten because they say it is so hard to tell when they are special ed or not. So that was interesting how much help these children got! So at 10:30 the children had morning tea. I asked, 'Do the children actually drink tea?' Apparently that is a stupid question because you know, children and hot liquids could be dangerous. So morning tea is just snack time HAH. A lot of them ate hummus for snack-so cute!

Also during the day children were trying to climb trees and teachers were helping them!! This was kind of scary. This would not happen in the states.

Many children also come barefoot and don't wear shoes at all. The center was very open and outdoors- we ate outside, and obviously played a lot outside.

You would think that there would be no problem because they speak English here but it is SO HARD sometimes to understand today. For about 10 minutes I was trying to understand this woman saying beetroot hummus.

Aussie slang:

If you are very drunk you are Maggotted

Mom=Mum

Kylie Monogue=Australian

college=Unie

fags=cigarettes

Byron Bay

Today was the first full day with host momma Julia. She took us to Byron Bay, which is a little touristy place. We went to this lighthouse which is still in use. It was a cool experience. We were at the farthest east point where the sun rises first. The views were spectacular!! Pictures up top. We ate some chips and fish ( I had a salad instead) at a place in Byron Bay and then ate them on the beach. Then me and Beth (my roommate) went to visit the beach a few minutes from our house. We had a great time- I got wetter than expected!! I was trying to get my pic taken on these rocks when the wave went over them and onto me! Also, you may know I love cats. They have two here! Dory and Oprah.

Some things I learned:

The school year is completely different! they have four terms between each are two weeks vacation, and have a summer holiday which is 6 weeks (December through February)

They have funny accents here

Rockmelon= cantaloupe

They drive on the other side of the road

chips=fries

Their cars have the driver seat on the other side of the car!!

Things are very European(obviously due to their history)

Tampons do not come with applicators !!

pubs=bars

Many times they drink at the bars in hotels in town.

Children have to take a test after the end of high school in order to pass high school

Sydney to Ballina

Today I rode on a plane from Sydney to Ballina. I met my host mom, and am currently in the house I will be staying in for the duration of my student teaching here. I got to Australia on Friday at 8:30 ish. I waited anxiously for all the rest of my crew to arrive from L.A. They arrived but their luggage did not. This was annoying for them, but also for me because I had to hear all about it. There is something about complaining that is so fun to do but so un-fun to listen to. I of course mean them no harm in saying this because I would be pissed and venting about it too. I am, however, grateful that this did not happen to me! Traveling alone internationally turned out to be not so bad. Except, in the Toronto airport I had to get off the plane outside instead of on one of those walkways. Then, we were way far away from the actual airport, and I had to pick up my bags from baggage claim and then run to get through security on time. It was hard!! The seats on my Air Canada flights were not comfortable at all! We stayed in a hostel in Sydney last night, and that was OK. We went to bed early (7:30) because everyone else was tired. I was a little tired, but kinda wanted to party it up. It was fine though, and I know we are headed back to Sydney after teaching so that we will have more time to see the town and party it up. Here are a couple pics of Sydney for you to enjoy! We took these while we walked around Darling Harbor.

Tomorrow I am going with my host mom and my roomie Beth to Byron Bay, which is just a little town with shops and the like.

Australia

I am packing up my room/house today. I am so tired of it.. I am taking a break right now. hehe. I leave for Australia on Wednesday, and I am moving out of Menomonie tomorrow. I hope I have everything packed by then!! I'm not too far in packing as of right now. I'm super nervous right now for the flight, the adventure, being in another country altogether.

Monday, February 28th, 2011

I had the worst headache today. It was an okay day though. Things went according to schedule. I had the children make cat in the hats and this went pretty well. It seemed a little hectic but as Mrs. Gibson says it is bound to feel hectic sometimes. I really like the way the project turned out, and Mrs. Gibson said we would be able to see how good my directions were when we saw the finished the project, which I think are SO CUTE.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Today I taught the whole day except for daily 5 and intervention time. It was pretty good, except Mrs. Gibson was gone for the afternoon for an all district Kindergarten meeting. Since there was a substitute I would like to think that the children were a little more rowdy because of this. I was not as comfortable with my lesson as I wish I was so I felt it didn’t go as well. I had no idea that the workbook page I wanted to use was not in the workbook! That was probably the worst feeling I have had teaching so far. Luckily, the sub copied the page from the one workbook we could find, and the children were able to work on the worksheet. I was able to read a book that was close by while she ran and made the copies!

Tuesday, February 22nd

Today was an interesting day having come off of a snow day. The children were much better behaved than I thought they would be. Today I only did morning meeting. It went well. Children were, as I said very well behaved. The morning meeting today rolled easily. I introduced the new greeting, and announcements easily. I was able to observe Mrs. Gibson work with small groups during daily five which was good to see and know what I will be doing on Thursday when I actually start my head week. Things got pushed back a bit this week since Monday was a snow day.

Thursday, February 10th

The kids who came to school today are not the same ones that left us yesterday. The children were so much better behaved today even though today was the 100^th day. It was a fun day, and I felt as though things went pretty well. One problem I have is when I teach math I normally have then have ‘work time’ and I come around and check their work and then give them another problem to work on. It is so hard to get to all the children before they lose focus and before they get loud and chatty. I have in the past asked Mrs. Gibson to help me check the work so it goes faster. I think she is faster at checking than I am. I cannot imagine being all alone in a situation like this when I am a teacher on my own. Also , there are only 17 children in the class and most schools have many more children in their class than this. I successfully did the whole afternoon today and I feel very good about it.

Wednesday, February 9th

Today was day 3 of the children having indoor recess. Mrs. Gibson said she even has gotten to the end of her rope. The children have gotten very chatty and rambunctious. I felt like I gave sooo many take a breaks today. Mrs. Gibson said don’t worry about being so hard on them until you make 7 kids cry. I just wish that I could have more fun with them and have them be able to handle it. It leaves me feeling drained at the end of the day. Today we tried the game that we worked on yesterday and the children really got the concept. We did a worksheet for evaluation and the children all got most of the problems correct. It was very exciting to see them grow from one day to another. Today’s lesson went ok, and the children seemed to grasp the understanding of what a cube is. Overall it was a good day, just a couple behavior problems.

Tuesday, February 8th

Today math went pretty well. Mrs. Gibson said I did better today than yesterday. This is good, but it was unfortunate that many of the children didn’t grasp the concept. We played a game with partners for numbers 2-6. I will repeat the game tomorrow at quiet time. Then, in tomorrow’s lesson there is a worksheet with the partners for 2-6, so that will show for sure if there needs to be more reteaching. Today during playtime, however, there was a controversy over a child sharing her toy with all children. She made two children cry and I didn’t know how to help the situation, so after school Mrs. Gibson and I brainstormed ways to help the child and ways to nip the problem in the bud next time she brings in a toy to share for show and tell. I think it’s a hard time to help the children learn during playtime, because we all wish children could just play nicely together, but this is a learning time as well. It’s important for teachers to help the children learn social skills during this time as well.

Monday February 7th

Today I taught most of the afternoon. That is what I will be doing for this whole week. I taught a math lesson that I thought went ok. I felt that I forgot things or I just wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked to be. The children were kind of rowdy today; Mrs. Gibson seemed to think a lot of them had stayed up for the packer game last night. Maybe. I was able to control most behaviors I felt. While we were doing calendar I put up the pieces for the weekend rather than having three kids put up the pieces. One child said, “the kids are supposed to do that!” I told her that this is the way I was doing things. I wonder if I should have elaborated and told her that different teachers do things differently or if I should have just sent her to take a break.

Friday, February 4th

Today was a hectic day. All the children from mine and another kindergarten class went snowshoeing in the morning. I was excited to go snowshoeing for the first time, but as teachers we all just monitored the kids and none of us even put on snow shoes. Most of our time was spent just getting the snowshoes on the kids and making sure they stayed on. The children were hard to control today and luckily I only had to teach morning meeting and dismissal so it went pretty good. We also had a guest speaker; Mr. Ding who talked about the Chinese new year. This was a great reminder for me about what the Chinese new year is all about.

Thursday, February 3rd

Today Mrs. Gibson went home halfway through the day. So for the afternoon I taught the children with a little help from the substitute checking their work at work time. Everything went pretty smoothly. I got through calendar and math and I feel the children have a good handle on their teens which was what I started teaching yesterday. We then made valentine bees. Mrs. Gibson recommended that I teach one step and then let the children work on that part of the bee, and then model the next step. I think this took a long time because many children were faster than others and would just sit for a while while the other children were finishing up. I tried to direct children who were all done with a step at a table to go on, but this was hard for them to hear and hard for me to tell everything that was important. I would have to get the children’s attention every few minutes so they could listen to the next set of instructions. There were two more pieces to glue on the bee and it was free time. I talked with the sub and the children had already had an extra play time so we decided to work through free time. The only other thing that was tough was that I thought Mrs. Gibson had already done the folders for the day (pack them with important sheets and fill out the communication chart for each child.) but she hadn’t. I gave all the children the papers but wasn’t able to get the communication charts done.

Wednesday February 2nd

Today I taught math and Morning Meeting. I was not very nervous about it for some reason! I was a little nervous but really didn’t get that unprepared feeling in my stomach. I was able to put a couple sticky notes to remind myself the order in which I do things such as calendar or what comes after morning meeting so that made me feel better and I referenced those a couple times to recall what I was supposed to do. The children were a little rowdy for morning meeting and I had to give a few warnings. At calendar time I gave out my first ‘take a break’ in which I simply tell the child who is misbehaving to ‘take a break’ and they go and sit on a chair and think about their actions. I was able to do this for a couple children and I think this prevented some of the children from acting out. During my math lesson things got a little chaotic when I tried to have three children pass out the materials and three different children collect the materials. Mrs. Gibson suggested I always make my line leader and caboose the helpers and then children aren’t coming up to me asking to help. And also to have the children be responsible for their own materials-getting and cleaning up. I feel pretty good about the lesson although I didn’t have enough time.

Tuesday February 1st, 2011

Today I had a day to observe mostly. All the kindergarten classes made valentines’ boxes in the gym this afternoon. This was sort of frustrating as all of the kindergarten classes together is A LOT of kids. I was able to help my kids work on their project and they all turned out well. I just need to remember that they aren’t going to be perfect and children sometimes need a little help. Today during daily five children asked me to sharpen their pencils which I did, until Mrs. Gibson told me that she doesn’t allow children to do that during daily 5! I had no idea! She told me it was partially the children’s fault because they knew better than to ask because this has always been the rule. It’s hard when those kids try and test you and you don’t know any better! I guess I just keep learning as I go.

Monday January 31st

Today I had my first official teaching assignment. I read a book to the children called “Knuffle Bunny”. This is one of my favorite children’s books so I wanted to share it with the children. There weren’t any behavior problems and I felt confident with the children’s attention. The one thing that was a problem was when I went to dismiss the children they left for free time before I had a chance to dismiss them a few at a time. I asked them who dismissed them and they sat back down and I dismissed them by shirt color. I got to lead the class back from Gym class as well today. It was a great day and I wasn’t even nervous about reading the story- I hope this isn’t a bad thing!

Friday January 28th

Today was another day of just observing. I thought it would be a good idea to take an authoritative role and get the children ready for the hall in their line, and I was thinking Mrs. G. might let me lead them in the hall, but this did not happen. I’m sure if I would have asked she would have let me but the whole focus of the day is the children so it’s hard to find time to communicate with her. I was able to interact with the children and keep them busy while Mrs. G. was taking care of a behavior issue. All the children were sitting at the table ready to make pizza with us and I decided to have them raise their hands to see what toppings they were going to pick. It helped the children get excited and I felt good that I had kept them occupied and out of trouble for those couple minutes. It was a good day that ended with Mrs. G. having me leave early to get my district badge- which lets me get 15% off at Joann fabrics! Awesome! I am looking forward/am nervous for getting to do some teaching because it is starting to get kind of boring.

First day student teaching

Day 1-Thursday, January 27^th

Today was a day I have been very nervous for for a long time now. I was nervous to make a good impression on my cooperating teacher Mrs. G, who is a very nice, helpful and funny woman. She seems to have a lot of knowledge and I am eager for her to share some of this with me! On my first day I think things went well. Most of what I did was observe the class and routine, and get to know the children. I know all their names and some of their quirks or personalities. I have gotten to know a couple of children who need help in certain areas. For example, there was a little girl who would not talk to teachers. She wouldn’t talk to me or Mrs. G, or the music teacher. I see this as an obstacle and a challenge. Mrs. G. said she is often just refusing to be oppositional and defiant. Wow! I got to share a little about myself during morning meeting as each of the children shared a little bit about themselves. At the end of the day I am very tired, but am looking forward to tomorrow!

Student teaching

Thursday I start student teaching.

My thoughts on this are suspended. I was scared out of my mind on Monday when I had to met with my cooperating teacher for the first time.

My boyfriend shared some wisdom with me and I am just going to take the experience as it comes and try to learn as much as I can from it. Another goal is to put forth my maximum effort; because I don't always do this and I need to in order to know if teaching is right for me.

I have to start a daily journal. I think i will post some if not all of my reflections on here.

The class I will be in is a kindergarten classroom in a local school. It takes me about 5 minutes to get there so I am glad of this because of my problems waking up. I have swore to be early every day. I have to be at the school 8am-4pm. This is something I'm scared of too.

The class is in a school which has a grant that lowers class sizes (yay!) but does so because of the poverty in the area. Should be interesting. Also have heard there are a lot of special needs in the class. The teacher also said this is her best behaved class in 20 years. This I have to take with a grain of salt as I'm sure it won't be smooth sailing.

The cooperating teaching is a very nice woman who says she doesn't allow lateness or absence, but said she was willing to work with me on parts of the class I will take over if I am not ready for them. She presented me with a binder of information saying "welcome miss B" on the front. It really did make me feel welcome!