Dear Prestudent Teachers,
Now that you are settling into your classroom with your CT , students, routines, how does it feel? Are you team teaching, teaching any lessons yet? I will be visiting each of you in the next couple of weeks for a brief encounter. Please email me the date and times you will be in your respective school classrooms. Thank you, Frances (fvitali@unm.edu)
This is the third time I have gotten to work with my cooperating teacher and I am loving it. She is so supportive of all that I have shown her and what I am going to teach for the ten days. We have taught reading groups together and I really feel a part of her classroom she asks my input about students as well. I am going to start my 10 days on November 8th and will teach a unit on "Where We Live" This addresses the social studies standards and benchmarks for 2nd grade. She is very excited for me to teach this and for the amount of time I get to teach. I do have to say it was different writing lesson plans for this 10 consecutive days. I felt I wanted everyday to be really a big WOW and was having a difficult time getting my arms around it so to speak. With her help she reminded me each day does not have to be a show sometimes the subject just needs covered and we do it the best we can.
ReplyDeleteWell things have been moving along quite smoothly for me. I’ve been working with my CT continuously for the last few weeks now. We both agreed in the beginning that I would begin my solo teaching by Nov. 8th, which is this coming Monday. Tomorrow, I will be completing the last two hours of my 18 hours of observation/work in this classroom. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by. Last night, I finished the last of my unit preparations. This allowed me time to present it to my CT for critique and comments. I wanted her to look at it in advance so that I could receive useful feedback before teaching the unit. After visiting with her this afternoon, I left feeling much more confident about everything. At this point, I feel well prepared, the students all know me by name, I know theirs, I know thier routine, and things are happy and good. Being in this class has truly been instrumental for me. Mrs. E is very supportive, I always leave her classroom with not only great ideas, but also useful resources which she kindly provides for me. No matter what the class is working on, if she feels that I should now something in particular about the lesson or the strategy she is implementing, she doesn’t hesitate to fill me in right away. Since this happens while the lessons are in progress, she only takes a moment to explain, and then she proceeds without much interruption. However, her doing this has allowed me to learn strategies as they are being applied, which has been very advantageous.
ReplyDeleteTuesday we went on a really cool field trip to San Juan College. We watched a performance called 45 presidents in 45 minutes. It involved a lot of dancing and singing. It was fun sharing this experience with the kids, and also very informational!
I have worked with my cooperating theacher since my first semester at UNM. I love her! She has helped me in so many ways. Every week we have been planning and planning. Our team teaching was great. We did a matching activity with the children. Last week, we thought of ideas together that I will be teaching! i am kind of nervous! I love the children in her class, they listen very well! I think that we are going to have lots of fun together. I am going to begin my solo teaching Nov 8! My CT has agreed on making copies for me and let me look through lots of her books to get ideas. This weekend I am going to finalize everything and am going to be ready for Monday!
ReplyDeleteThis week I spent a lot of time with my CT and the classroom! I am getting to know the students, and get hugs when I walk in :) I have been helping with language arts blocks and math lessons (if she needs to step out of the room I take over, and while she is doing small group work I help the rest of the class). Next Thursday we are going to team teach a lesson on adjectives. They are going to be describing a Thanksgiving meal! Since TA is going to the school next week, we decided to start my 10 days on the 15th. This will make Thanksgiving break it up, but I think it's also advantageous to see how a break in a unit works, too. I will be teaching Time, which I am very nervous about! My CT is very supportive, though. During my time at the school, I have met many members of the staff, including a lot of resource people who say they are also happy to help me. I feel like I already belong here!
ReplyDeleteWell for this week I have been looking through my teacher's lesson plans and learning her routines. We have discussed my teaching times and what topic she would like me to teach since it is just around the corner. She has given me the topic of carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles. I have to admit the reason I did not post sooner is because I was struggling thinking of how to teach these topics hands on. I have finally came up with ideas and put them in lesson plan format. I sent my ten lesson plans to my teacher and she loved them. The only comments she made was that smaller group work would be better and that she hopes I continue her routine of a daily question. It was just refreshing and wonderful to have a class of 30 handed over to me for two weeks and for my CT to admit she wants to watch how I teach it since she has never had to teach this topic in the past.
ReplyDeleteI have learned her routines and the students know me better now. It was just amazing that when we told the class on Friday that they will be my students starting Monday they began to clap. It was encouraging to me that the students were enthusiastic about my teaching them. I have been team teaching with the CT but her lessons are pretty much set up for solo teaching since she has been using the computer. I get to go around and help the students and make sure they are not playing any games. In her reading class I have been able to team teach more and most of those students are also in the science class I will be taking over for my ten days. It is just exciting to know that tomorrow the class will be mine!
11/3/10 I am doing great in the classroom. I have some good ideas for my 10-day. Busy! I am in a third grade room with Mrs. Georgina- she's a veteran and I get a lot out of observing her manner. I want to get the knack of asking leading questions without making it so obvious what the answer is. It is an art of hers. I hope everyone is doing well and staying well- I am catching school germs
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