Day 1

Hello! 
Today is January 21, 2014. It is the first day of my student teaching experience. I'd like to keep a blog of my day to day schedule in order to look back at my struggles and successes when my experience is over. I am scheduled to be in Crompond Elementary School from January 21st to March 14th. Even though today was my first day, it just happened to be an early dismissal. Since it was an early dismissal there was some quick adapting to be learned! The school day ended at 11 a.m. therefore, time only allowed for 3 class periods. After announcements and the pledge, I went over to Ms. Alessi's class for social studies with Ms. Barber. The students have been studying terms about the government during the past two weeks, and today they learned about Elian Gonzalez. The year was 1999 when this controversial parental custody battle began. At the time I was 8 years old. Elian is 21 this year and he was 6 when the custody battle took place. When Mrs. Alessi finished reading the story, the students were put into groups to predict what happened to Elian. All of the groups had high hopes that the U.S was going to do everything in its legal power to keep Elian in the U.S., but they were devastated when they found out he was taken back to Cuba. The students were asked to go home and talk about this date in history with their parents for homework. That concluded first period. Second period I stayed with Ms. Alessi and Ms. Barber as the students went to their special, library. In library, the students started to grasp the concept of plot with the librarian. Then each student was asked to take out a book to read and record in their reading log when they have finished. Third period was dedicated to Math with Ms. Barber, and her 9 special education students. This math class is a pull out from the general education class in order to give these certain students the scaffolding and support they need in order to close the gap. In class the students went over the expectations for the week, went over homework, and also wrote down their homework for each subject in their assignment pad. By the time each student finished writing their homework down it was time for dismissal! Ms. Barber was not kidding when she said the day will fly! After school I was lucky enough to get together with Ms. Stern, Ms. Alessi, and Ms. Barber to talk about the scheduling for the rest of the week. These 3 ladies are a true team and it shows! I know I will learn a lot from each of them.



Teacher tips!

1. When a student or the same students raise their hands often and you want other students to participate say thank you, but no thank you to them. This is a signal to the other students that the teacher wants more participation.
2. When you want to gain attention of the students after talking with their groups, count backwards from 3 and by 1 they will quiet down.
3. Everyone manages their class differently, take a little bit from everyone and make it your own.
4. If you start to get nervous just remember you're older than the students and you have worked hard to be at this point in your academic career! You are smart.

Tomorrow
January 22, 2014
Tomorrow will be my second day of student teaching with Ms. Barber. It will also be the first day I meet with my supervisor at Mount Saint Mary College. My supervisor will observe me three different times throughout my experience. Enjoy the snow! I will post again tomorrow :)

Quote of the day:

"Success does not come to those who wait, and it does not wait for anyone to come to it."