Finals: Observation, Papers turned in, class taught

This week was a week of finals, Finally. I began this journey in 2006 and I will end it in 2010. In a week I will be a Washington State Resident Teacher. It has been a journey and I have tried to enjoy the moments as much as possible. Two different co-horts, many professors, two master teachers, two principals, one field instructor, 24 fifth graders, and 24 second and third graders. Along the way, we explored pendulums(swingers), zoomers, mealworms, crayfish, bess beetles, triangle and arch, crayfish, and twirly birds. We have read and written about 50 states, presidents, novel studies, guided reading groups, "just right books", Houghton Mifflin readers, Flat Stanley, Peggy Parish novels, Cinderellas from every Culture. We have created haikus, cinquains, spring color poems. Sea Turtle pastel drawings, Triarama pop ups, Clay wind chimes, Scientific Illustrations of Insects and Painting. We have sent out Flat Stanleys to community members and museums all over the country. We have received them back from all over, including President Obama. We created as a group a Map of Our Community. We planted seeds and watched them grow. We learned about LCM, GCF, and multiplication and division, shapes and symmetry, coins and counting, two digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. I learned that classroom management is about having high expectations, looking for ways to notice positive behaviors, having classroom procedures that we created together and review frequently. I learned that differentiation is so much more than have the highs help the lows, and that the professional community and collaboration that you find in a school means everything to how enjoyable your experience is as a new teacher. I am hopeful for the future. I am looking for a teaching job!

The Rubber Meets the Road

This week I felt as if the rubber met the road. Spring is in full swing. Windy-blustery-every changing weather made all my students a bit loopy and me with them. The challenging students in my class have really stepped up their behaviors. Somedays every trick or management idea I try doesn't work. I am left sad and exhausted, then the next day I have the most awesome day that I am blown away. Something works, something is successful. This week was Staff Appreciation Week at school. The students brought cards, SB gift cards, presents and flowers. It was sweet. We had a field trip, it was mother's day. It was a full and crazy week. We made wind chimes out of clay for a mother's day gift. I fired them in the kiln and the students painted them, wrapped them. We made cards with Cinquain Mother's Day poetry. We finished up our Spring Poems and art work inspired by the Hailstones and Halibut Bones video. We are learning two-digit subtraction with regrouping in math, and how communities change in Social Studies. We are continuing with our Balance and Motion unit in science. I will be observed by my FI and Principal next Wednesday and then I will submit my letters of recommendation and hope and prayer for an interview. I will start transitioning back to my MT after MSP is completed. I will stay and follow my students to the end of the year. I have grown to love them and know them individually. I have come to learn that their problems have become my opportunities to grow and learn and challenge myself to try harder, be stronger, work faster and longer. I am thankful for my experiences.