Three Weeks Up!

I can't believe I've already finished 3 weeks of my student teaching! Time is flying!! I already talked about my first week and the last two weeks have been just as eventful! I'll try to sum it up:

- I went on a "Winter Survival" field trip with the 5th grade class this past Tuesday. We drove out to a place with lots of space for us, got out and walked

half a mile through snow whilecarrying our own gear, and met up in the middle of some woods. The kids were instructed how to collect kindling, tinder and pieces of wood in various sizes in order start and feed their own fire. The adults were told to DO NOTHING many times (I guess they've had bad experiences where the parents feel bad for their kid's failure so they take over and that's not the point of the day) so we just encouraged them along. I had a group of 6 girls and I kept trying to tell them we needed more than these dinky little sticks and they should look for downed trees to get big logs, but it took a while for them to catch on. Eventually, we got the go ahead to light our fire and pull out our food. One of the girls in my group actually brought stuff to make guacamole... not sure if that's cookout food but whatever. We also had hot dogs, and special hamburgers, and grilled cheese, and ,of course, s'mores! Everyone wanted to be in our group after they smelled our spread! After our great food, the kids were taken on a walk and then played a bit of hide and seek and then we went back to school. Great cold day!

- I bonded with a student on that field trip-one of my EI kids that had so far ignored or got upset with me because I'm a girl. That day, he hovered around me and my group until my girls yelled at him to go back to his own group. Ever since he's been one of my best students!

- I had a 1st grader do some crazy stuff including hitting on me several times:

-he actually noticed that I wore my hair differently and told me I looked hot

-he looked at the rings I wear on both my ring fingers and told me I shouldn't have them since he wanted to put a ring on my finger

-he offered to find my CT (cooperating teacher) a woman

-he came up and grabbed my sides and hugs me full-out

- I saw a total meltdown from one of my EI kids... scary to watch since he was screaming and wouldn't walk and had to be dragged out of the gym in front of some 2nd graders who then asked if his legs were broken and why he was being dragged outside

- And I had a kid come into our office and tell me he's excited to give me a Valentine's Day card!

So yeah, like I said, eventful! I'll be starting to teach a lot more this week, especially my own lessons, so I hope it goes nice and smooooooth!

Lessons Learned from the Gym

This first week of student teaching phys ed at the elementary school has been full of some crazy but great things! The principle at my school missed school Monday and Tuesday so my CT (cooperating teacher) had to take over the role... there was a sub there but she didn't know how to teach PE so I got to lead the class several times on my first few days there! Scary but also pretty awesome! I thought I'd share just a few of the fun happenings with you so you can start to see what you're missing by not teaching K-5th graders PE!

-you get Kindergartners whispering to you that you're pretty

-hugs from random children that like you just because you're associated with someone else they like: their other PE teacher

-birthday treats from kids you've known less than a week

-chubby little EI kids with partial mullets trying to explain how to kneel by telling the other kids that they have to get down on one knee like the prince does when putting the slipper on the princess

-going through almost an entire song of listen-and-move (songs put with movements like running or galloping that you have to listen for to figure out what to do) before you realize you have 3 Kindergartners following you in your shadow

And these are just a few of the things my week was filled with! Jealous yet?

Long One...

Happy New Year!!

With the start of a new year, I'm going to try to be better about my blogging! There's a lot going on right now so there shouldn't be a shortage of things to talk about...

2010 is starting off a lot like 2009 in the way that I'm about to start student teaching again! If you've been following for the last year, you'll know that I was supposed to do my semester of student teaching last winter semester, but it fell through. Well, I think I've fixed the previous problem so I should be all set to go now!! I'll be starting out at Northside Elementary in Ann Arbor just like last time, but my secondary placement has been moved to Scarlett Middle School, also in AA. I was hoping for Canton placements this time around since I'm living at home this year to save money, but I'm still pretty excited to be at both of these schools. Monday's my first day back at the schools so pray that everything goes well please!!

One major change from the beginning of last year is that I now have a neice!

Noel's the cutest baby and she almost never cries. We've got her to stick out her tongue when we do it first and she's just started giggling! She'll be 3 months old on the 3rd and she's the first grandchild/neice in our immediate family so everything seems new! We all love babysitting and we keep trying to think of new reasons to get Kyle and Danielle out of the house so we can watch her! With all of the holidays and football days recently, our days have been wonderfully Noel-filled. I can't wait to see what she does next!

Last semester, my time was filled with work and class. I took my hopefully last Math class that was a killer and yet somehow I got A-! It was one of the best surprises ever! My working situation was part-time at ITS for my dad- cleaning and doing scrap-runs, and then part-time at the local Family Christian bookstore. It's been great working there, but I'm taking a break from that while I student teach.

The last new thing in my life is the house I bought. It's in the same neighborhood as my parents' house, just a walk away, and we're redoing nearly all of the inside and some of the outside to suit my brother/sister-in-law's taste since they'll be the ones living in it when it's ready. It's pretty neat to see and help with all the changes going on over there, and be a part of the new plans for the house. It's certainly giving the whole family something else to do!!

I think that's it for now! I'll try to be back soon! Thanks for reading!!!