Survived week 1...

I don't think I have ever looked forward to a weekend this much before. I can't believe how exhausted I am. I knew teaching was hard work, but I may have underestimated a bit. I am excited to have finished the first week, but I definitely have my work cut out for me this weekend. I have been struggling a bit with classroom management and all last night I was brainstorming ideas in my head on some new things I might have to try. I feel like until I get classroom management under control, the kids are not going to really be learning like I want them to. My class is really a busy one and we have about 2 or 3 particular kiddos that have serious behavior issues and are a constant distraction. I hope to come up with something that will be meaningful enough to these kids to help them listen and behave better in class. My goal for this weekend is to come up with something new to try that will make the remainder of my residency more enjoyable.

Here it goes!

The first few days of my residency have gone relatively well. Other than having to write a referral and send a student to the principal, I can' t complain much. I think the biggest thing I have realized is how much time teachers spend out of school preparing and going over lessons. Each evening I get home, veg for an hour, make dinner, and look over and plan for the lessons I am teaching the next day. It's insane! I feel like I am a robot with no time or energy for anything other than teaching, which is sad for my little kiddos. Today I felt completely incompetent when I taught the math lesson. I will definately prepare better tonight. Math algorithms and strategies are not taught the same as when I was in school. I feel like I am learning how to perform math concepts all over again.
We are teaching and introducing "mental images" in reading and writing. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to teach children about the pictures in our brains when we read and write? My kiddos seems to be struggling with the concept...

Getting ready...

Residency is making me more than a little nervous. I see how many different things my teacher has going each day and I wonder how in the world I'll be able to handle it all. Lesson planning for my first residency week was actually not that hard since our school uses so many "scripted" or "boxed" curriculums. I hope that I'll be able to incorporate some of my ideas into the daily grind because many days I am here seem the same. I'd love to "mix it up" a little. I am interested to see how the kids adjust to me being the full time teacher. Yes, they have already gotten used to me teaching a few lessons each day, but they have always acted a little different with me than they have with my mentor. I feel like I need to be stern and strict from the beginning because we really have some challenging kiddos in our classroom. We'll see how it goes...

Back to School!

I am finding it very hard to get back into the routine after my time off with my baby girl, Addysen, and Christmas break. Although it is great to see the first graders, I find my mind wandering and focusing on how my kids are adjusting to being without me on a daily basis and how much I miss them. The first graders are excited to see me and bombard me with questions about my new baby and when they will get to meet her. I make a mental note to myself that I need to have my husband bring her in next time he is in town so that they can atleast see her. Not much has changed in the six weeks I have been gone, as far as the daily routines go. I am eager to make the rounds in the classroom to see how individual students have progressed because I can tell that some of them have made tremendous gains. The first week back from break, my mentor started family journals. I am really excited about this having sees examples of journals from previous years. They are great! Each week the children use their journals to write a letter to someone in their family. They then bring the journals home and have that person write back to them. It is really neat to see the dialogue and correspondence that takes place, as well as how the children improve in their writing. I honestly can't believe we are starting residency next week. I feel very overwhelmed, but atleast now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that I am on the homestretch to graduation!