This Month's Update

So there really isn't a whole lot to report on since my last post. Things are continuing to chug along.

School is keeping me as busy as ever. We are getting down to the wire with only about three weeks left before finals. I'm honestly not that stressed out though. Every week, it seems that we have some sort of project or assignment due but it's all coming easier and easier as I gain more teaching experience and pedagogical knowledge. My classes are informative and really revving me up to become a teacher.

Practicum has been an absolute pleasure! Honestly, it is the day of the week that I look forward to most. Ms. Godfrey is an excellent mentor. I have learned so much from her and a lot of my teaching methods have been learned from her. She is way supportive of me and that means a lot. It'll be nice to have a good reference. Because of her and her class, I now have a stronger desire to teach the younger grades and that includes kindergarten.

On week in practicum, I was to give assessments. Now if those aren't the most draining and exhausting things in the world I don't know what it! It surprised me too because all I did was sit there and administer a simple literacy test to the students over and over and over....and over again. I would rather have had to teach in front of a restless classroom than those tests. It was, however, a great experience to see the assessment aspect of the teaching field. I'm glad I did it and it gave me some good one-on-one time with the kids.

This last week, little Aimy was being quite disruptive. Ms. Godfrey said, "Aimy, do you need to go down to Mr. Phillips' classroom again?" Of course Aimy responded "No!" To which Ms. Godfrey warned, "Then you need to obey the rules." Aimy boldly stood up and said, "No I don't! I'm different!" It took everything in me to keep it cool and collected and not bust out laughing. Dear little Aimy then instigated a classroom discussion on how everyone was different but everyone needed to follow classroom rules. One of the more entertaining afternoons of practicum.

The week before that, I had the opportunity to teach a lesson to the class that I created all by myself. The lesson's objective was to have the students be able to create and read cvc words (consonant-vowel-consonant). I not only taught my own original lesson, but Dr. Jaret was there to observe it. No pressure! Haha! I ended up adjusting the objective to just having the students differentiate between consonants and vowels. This because it seemed that they just weren't quite ready to form real words. Ms. Godfrey seemed to really like the lesson. Dr. Jaret not so much. She gave me some constructive feedback and now I get to go back and revise my lesson. I really enjoy teaching those kids.

I recently realized that I only have two more weeks with them! It almost brings me to tears thinking about it. I have grown so attached to them. I hope that I can stay in contact with them as I go to Disney World. I want to send them pictures and postcards so hopefully they remember me. Who knows?! I could end up being their 5th grade teacher! That would truly be a wish come true.