I Went Back Monday!!!

Wow last week and the weekend have been quite busy. I epically failed at keeping up with my social life this week. I basically went to school, went to student teacher orientation and came home. The good news of the week is that my roommate is here!!! She drove all the way from California and got here in three days. It was nice having her finally here because I got to decorate. So we now have furniture and the walls are no longer barren.

As far as student teaching goes, i've been hard at work lesson planning. I started today on my first lesson which went okay. I wont pretend it went perfectly. My first class barely finished the assignment before class ended and a few even had to take the assignment home. My second class got finished with five minutes to spare (so we played a vocab game), and my last psychology class finished with twenty minutes to spare. I ask how in the world am I supposed to plan for that. It helped that after my first class I knew what questions I was going to get and addressed them before the questions were asked but wow.

I was told I was crazy today and no it wasn't because I was acting crazy. It was because I told my students they would have to write in full sentences. After being told I was crazy, I told them that they are going to have to write in complete sentences for the rest of their lives. They didn't seem to believe me and when I addressed the issue with my cooperating teacher he seemed to think it wasn't an issue worth fighting with the students over. Again I ask; Are you kidding me? I was looking at my schools report card and only 40 percent of my students pass the english portion of the state test. This means that my 60 percent of my students are not at the reading and writing level they should be at. So when my cooperating teacher made it seem like this was an issue not worth fighting for I have to disagree.

On a lighter note my students are really opening up with me and I'm really getting to see all the different personalities in my classroom. I have to say i'm loving it. I end everyday excited for the next day. I am excited to lesson plan because I know I am actually going to be able to teach it. I know I wont always end each day with this feeling but I'm being reasured everyday that this is what I am meant to do. At this point in my experience I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world to be finally doing what I am meant to do.

So for those of you interested in my anecdote its going to be less rambling and more structured thanks to my education class that goes along with my student teaching. Don't worry it will still be me, I just have to include somethings that I normally include anyways. For instance I have to tell you my goals for the next week. Here they are:

1. One of my goals Is to teach well planned lesson plans that have many enriching activities built into them that apply to several types of learners.
2. My second goal is to get to know my students names better. By the end of the week I hope to know half their names.

I've already been working on goals so those will just be added to my list. For those of you who are interested I find that I have four main type of learners in my class. Students who learn better when they hear instructions, students who learn better by doing hands on activities, students who learn better repeating instructions or talking through steps and students who learn better by seeing me do what they are supposed to do.

According to my check list:

1. The balencing seriously went onto the other extreme from last week. The only people I saw this week were the people in my education class and my roommate.So I will keep trying with the balencing act.
2. I really failed at the procrastination thing this week. I waited till Sunday to do all my work and I feel that it really came out in my homework. I care more about my lesson plans so that suffered far less then my homework. Again, I will keep trying!!! Maybe some accountability will help.
3. Eating healthier is going really well, I ran out of most of my healthy food over the weekend and was too lazy to go shopping for more. I have a feeling if I don't, eating healthy might suffer.  
4. I need to be held more accountable for my relationship with God. Especially when it comes to going to church. I just haven't found a church I like. Any suggestions?
5. I didn't go crazy this past week even though student teaching orientation almost did me in.
6. Being the best teacher I can be now includes being patient and being assertive (mainly not letting students walk all over me).
7. On the note of finding a job, its going to take a lot more work then I thought it would. :( But I did get my resume and a cover letter done. :) Now time to go out and get those letters of recommendations.

I think that is it for now. No picture this time. Sorry!!!
Thank you for reading and please continue to pray,
~Abby

Oh yeah I forgot to mention my first observation is this Wednesday. Wish me luck!!!

Preliminaries

As I tried to sleep last night I worried over what this first day of meetings would be like and what meeting all of the other teachers would be like. It had been a long day and I just wanted to turn my mind off. I was a student teacher from a small town, who went to a small christian college. I had just spent the summer working sixty hours a week barely making minimum wage, just to spend most of the money I made on car repairs. I spent all of Sunday moving into my apartment and grocery shopping.

Things I worried about while trying to sleep:
Would my students like me?
Was all of this worth it?
Was I even going to be able to find a job when I finished?
Were my lesson plans going to be good enough?
Where was I going to get furniture for my apartment?
How was I going to get the furniture to my apartment?
How am I going to pay my student loans if I cant find a job?
Was the water coming out of my facet going to make me sick?
Was my friend who is now my new roommate going to like living with me?
Will she still be my friend when we are done living with each other?
Was I forgetting to do anything?
Was my alarm really going to go off in the morning?

I probably worried about more things but the ones listed were the major issues I was worrying about. I prayed that God would let everything go smoothly and help me fall asleep. He was definitively listening and he was merciful to my prayer because I fell asleep quickly after my prayer and everything the next day went perfectly.

The next day started early for me because I couldn't sleep any longer. My neck and back hurt from moving all day and I was too jittery to hardly eat. It was just meetings for today at school. I got to meet all the teachers in my district along with other faculty. I was relieved to see that everyone was so nice and accepting. I meet more people then I remember and learned more in one day then I did in an entire semester of an education class. I learned to my intense relief that the school I was at really did care about the students as individuals and not just the test scores they produce. My cooperating teacher still seems pleasant which is nice because i was dreading having a horrible cooperating teacher.

After a long drawn out two in a half hour meeting about the changes initiated last year and about the new changes that are going to be initiated this year. We meet with the social studies department for our district after that. This is where I learned a ton. After all of that I was done by one and left to my own devices. Instead of continuing to unpack I'm off to visit with friends I haven't seen for a while. I will leave you with my goals for the next semester and after.

My goals: In no particular order
1. be the best teacher I can be
2. Don't go crazy
3. Maintain a healthy social life (which for me, means don't be a hermit)
4. Better my relationship with God
5. Do not procrastinate
6. Find a Job
7. Eat healthier

That's it for now I will let you know how things go later.
~Abby

P.S. I should probably tell you what I'm teaching and my general location.
I am teaching three sections of Psychology and one section of government and My general location is the southern suburbs of Chicago.

P.P.S. I love dressing professionally