2 Weeks Complete!

I have completed my second week of student teaching and first week of teaching a lesson! Time is going fast already! Each day my math teaching improved and I look forward to teaching more math next week. I am adding another lesson to teach next week also. I am going to teach a literacy skills lesson about visualization. The lesson shouldn't be too difficult and the kids will hopefully like the lesson, as it involves drawing and they are always doodling!

This week I was able to go along with my teacher to a district meeting for third grade teachers to learn more about teaching geometry. Unfortunately, this meeting was not very helpful. We spent 3 hours talking about area and perimeter doing activities for 5th graders, not 3rd graders. No one really learned how to better help our students to understand geometry. There are also more concepts in geometry than area and perimeter! The nice thing about the meeting was being able to go out for lunch with the 3rd grade teachers. We were able to talk without having to inhale our food at the same time! So nice!

The more time I spend in the classroom, the more I am learning about the students. The range of ability level between all of the students is amazing! Some students can only read 10-20 words a minute while other students read 120 words per minute! It is also sad to notice signs of neglect in the students. Some students have poor dental hygiene (their mouth looks like it hurts to talk), their clothes are horribly dirty, and they wear a spring jacket in the middle of winter. It is just sad to see that these kids aren't taken care of very well. Makes me realize how good I have it!

Finally, I am looking forward to my three day weekend, thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr.! I'll be hanging out with Justin most of the time since he heads back to school on Monday morning. I'm sad about that but happy to not have to wake up before the sun for three days!

Thanks for all of your support!
Dana