Week 9

I am so happy spring break is finally here. But I know it will not be long enough. I am torn between just vegging out this break and coming in refreshed, or trying to use some of this week to get ahead on some things. 

Learning Experiences

I have been working on my lesson plans for clinical placement. Since the time I can get to my school is during their math block I decided to do my Fine Arts lesson and tie it into a math lesson. So that is the one that I have been working on. After I finish that one I am going to do a literacy and social studies lesson, and the teacher offered to flip her schedule that day but I am going to try to see if I can find a day where I can come in at their normal time for that. That way I do not mess with their schedule. For my math lesson with the Fine Arts integration I am doing a lesson on time. I am having the students build themselves a clock that will help them learn to tell time on an analog clock. I think this will be a fun lesson and I hope their clock will help them in future lessons on the topic as well.

Outside Learning

I am pretty sure I have mentioned this, but on Mondays through Thursdays I work at the after school program at Polk Central Elementary. Well this week I got a surprise. My boss was going to be out this week and she left me in charge. She just dropped it on me without me expecting it. It was a surprise but it was a very good experience. I got a taste of what it was like to be in that type of leadership role and I got the experience of stepping up to the plate when something like this was just dropped on me. Everything worked out, we did not have any problems which was nice. But I did get the experience of interacting more with the parents when they came to pick up their kids. Most of the time I do not get to see much of the parents because I am off somewhere with my students. So that was another good thing. Being a leader like this is exactly what NCTCS standard 1 says, when it says teachers must demonstrate leadership. And working with the parents goes along with standard 2e, "teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students."

Future Classroom

I am starting to make my own lesson plans that I have to teach to a class. I am not just making these lesson plans just to make them, but I am getting to actually implement them. I am also getting feedback from the teacher on how the lessons went. I also got the experience of working in a more leadership position among other teachers, not just among the students. As well as talking more to parents. These are all things that I need to continue to work on. I will definitely be doing these things in my own classroom so it is good to have the experiences now.