I have completed my first official week of full time teaching at my first placement even though I have been basically doing it for a bit beforehand. I have really been enjoying my time here and I am so sad for it to end in about 3 weeks.
6 weeks in and I am running the classroom. My teacher has no problem leaving me alone with the students for a subject or two at a time and she really encourages me to take risks and critically think about my teaching. If I don’t learn now then when will I? I love my cooperating teacher and the other 3rd grade teacher plus all of the academic support team members.
I spend a lot of time planning the lessons for the rest of my time here and I think I have it all finally locked down. I have free reign of what I am teaching in Social Studies and Religion as long as I stay in school policy. For math and reading I have been given the book or topic to cover but how I cover those materials is completely up to me. The only thing I don’t have a say in is writing as they have state testing coming up soon and we want to make sure that they stay on track which is fine.
I was out one day and when I came back, my kiddos all told me how much they missed me which reminded me why I want to teach in the first place. My university supervisor has come and visited two times now and she is impressed with me and says how she enjoys coming into my room and how I critically think about what I am teaching the kids but also how I want them to implement it into their daily lives. I also had a visit from the head of the student teaching program and she also told me that I was doing good and she is excited to see me at my second placement.
