Thursday was an amazing day, I got to meet my students and really see how the first day of school looks on the teacher side of things. The kids were rambunctious and down right crazy by eight period. I was exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. The kids really seemed to be responding well to me. After my cooperating teacher did a small getting to know me thing, he had the kids fill out note cards about themselves but didn't share them that day. We had about ten minutes of free time so I decided I would try to learn their names. I did pretty good for me. Remembering 120 names is kinda hard.
Even though I was exhausted on Thursday evening I went to my first White Sox Game!!!! It was pretty awesome I was blessed to get a free ticket from my amazing friend. The Sox lost against the Cleveland Indians but the experience was priceless. I got back around 11pm and was pretty much delirious with exhaustion, good thing I wasn't driving!
Friday proved to be a bit more challenging then Thursday. The first day mania had worn off and the kids were just pissed to be back in school now. Most of the teachers were going over their syllabi today and the kids were bored out of their skulls. My cooperating teacher went over his today and went over the students' responses to the note cards. This was my real first reality check. The kids were loud, they weren't listening or being respectful and if I heard another kid yell and call another kid stupid I was going to scream. I decided that I needed to talk about respect right away. My cooperating teacher didn't care what I did after he was done so with less then ten minutes to spare at the end of each class I talked to my students' about the importance of respect in my class and how disrespect wasn't something I would tolerate (trust me it needed to be done). I also had the kids fill out clock buddies. This will hopefully allow me to have the kids pair up quickly and effectively. Although with a test on my eighth period, i'm not so sure how well its going to work.
On a brighter note; the teachers at my school are amazing. I don't know how many came up to me and asked me how I was doing, how the first day was going and how they could help. I felt so welcomed and felt like they accepted me as one of their own. The funnier side of this is that all day today teachers have been jokingly asking me if I'm going to be back Monday morning. I reassure them that I will be and they just laugh as they walk away. I'm not quite sure how to feel about this yet.
I have lots to do this weekend, including my own homework and lesson planning.
According to my check list:
- I might have the opposite problem then I worried about when it comes to being social. I have to work on a good balance of socializing and working this semester.
- Procrastinating is still an issue, but I'm working on it.
- Eating healthier was going pretty well until the baseball game but I am back on track (hopefully!).
- My relationship with God is an ongoing process
- Not going crazy is going to be harder then I thought
- Being the best teacher I can be is now going to include working on my patience.
- On the note of finding a job, i'm thinking about applying to teach for America but i'm not sure.
I'm hoping to know 30 percent of my students names by the end of next week and I'm hoping to improve my classroom management which I'm going to add to my checklist.
I think that's it for my first week student teaching,
Please pray for me; I'm going to need it
~Abby
P.S. Friday's are casual days. This was me today, how did I do for casual?
