What a crazy day! Third week of student teaching and I find myself in charge of the entire school day. With NO IDEA what the plans for the day were (except for the subjects I was scheduled to teach) I jumped right in and took over for my poor sick mentor teacher :( . I knew this day would be great practice for me but MAN was it a whirlwind. Props to all you teachers out there! As a teacher, In one day you manage to be a counselor, a referee, a parent, a friend, a juggler, an event planner, an artist, a role model, an actress, a clown, and I am sure I left out many other roles. It can be exhausting- but FUN! The most fun came of course when I was prepared. I had the pleasure of teaching this AWESOME 3D shapes unit that the wonderful Charly Stagg wrote. It was so interesting seeing some of the things the kids came up with when thinking about 3D shapes in our world. The kids had fun decorating their little booklets; turning 3D shapes into real objects, such as a roof for a pyramid, a paper lantern for a sphere, and an ice cube for - well a cube of course. I was impressed with the thought these little guys put into their drawings and just had to share how much of a stress reliever it was to have this unit prepared and ready for me to teach. The students respond so much better when you are ready for them! That being said, I do think I did pretty well on the fly...

Week 1 and 2 of student teaching are now behind me, and with a few shaky lessons out of the way, and one pretty uplifting evaluation, I am feeling pretty good about it all. BUT LET ME TELL YOU- those 6-year-olds have blown my mind! I never would have thought that such intellectual and intelligent things would come out of such young minds. Just teaching a lesson on "clouds" was enough to floor me as the youngsters spouted off types of clouds before I could even get the information out. I have learned that these little sponges are constantly absorbing knowledge, and their innate desire to learn has been apparent in every lesson I have witnessed- or even taught. I taught the class today about how I have type 1 diabetes, fully expecting blank stares and confused gazes, but was astonished at the sensitivity and curiousness they showed as they asked me questions. I am quickly building deep relationships with these kiddos as we get to know each other, and I am beyond excited to take over full responsibility of teaching in a few weeks. I am sure I will feel the stress of it all soon as I begin to plan more deeply for that, but in the mean time I am just doing what I can. I have, however, built a PRETTY STINKIN AWESOME unit on the Chinese New Year that I am pretty sure the whole first grade team might be using... so I am pretty proud about that! Thanks for reading and of course I welcome your responses!!