Another great week in the classroom. On Tuesday my prof came to observe me. He was there from from 8:20 until 10:00. He said I did a great job (and so did my host teacher)! I wasn't nervous like I had expected to be, though there were a few times I would think to myself, "I wonder what Vince will say about this..." or some such thought. There were a couple of things he wondered about, but those were out of curiosity and not because they shouldn't have been done or said.
My prof really loved the activity I had the kids do that morning. We've been reading Barbara Reid books and learning a little about her, so this activity was to have the kids use modeling clay/plasticine to make a picture to go along with the little stories they had finished writing the day before. Vince thought that was an excellent activity - it was engaging and the kids were very enthusiastic about it. He also said that whoever thought of it (me or my host teacher) struck gold with it - or something to that effect. I told him it was a combined effort. I had mentioned it to my host teacher that I thought it might be nice if the kids could do something like that and she said she has done that in the past and that it would be a good idea for the class to do it as well.
All in all, I did very well. Vince pointed out a couple of things for me to keep in mind, or things I might think about for next time, but they weren't much of a big deal.
My host teacher was out on Thursday, so there was a supply teacher filling in. He just graduated a couple of weeks ago from the course I am in now. He had been doing his internship in the grade three class at the same school, and since he was on the list of the school's preferred supply teachers, Mrs. G decided to see if she could get him booked.
I ended up doing most (if not all) of the teaching that day - though there wasn't much to do because there was a guest speaker in for most of the morning and we didn't have to teach at that time. Mr. M (the supply teacher) told me at the end of the day that he was sorry he hadn't done more in the class, that I had had to do it. I told him that I was sorry I had "taken over" and didn't get him to do much, but he said that in that grade you need consistency and I knew the routine so it was probably better that I had taken control of the class. At least he got paid for an easy day of work!
Next week is a short week - three days. Monday is a holiday here (Victoria Day), and Tuesday the teacher's association has some sort of PD day for them dealing with union stuff and voting. Since I'm not a teacher yet, and only doing my internship, Mrs. G. said I probably didn't need to go to it. I didn't want to ask my profs in case they told me to go...Mrs. G. said it was going to be a boring day anyway. But, I really agree with Mrs. G. - I'm not a part of the teacher's association yet (I don't have my license yet), so I probably shouldn't even be there. I'm not going.
I will take this weekend and start doing some planning for when I start teaching all day, every day, for three weeks. I'm not entirely sure yet what I'll do, but I do have an idea for one language arts class so far, and Mrs. G. gave me an idea for another class - something she does every year with her class (a sort of end of year newsletter where the kids write about their favourite thing they did or learned over the course of the year). That would be another couple of classes. I'll have one or two more classes for social studies dealing with the butterfly topic (no social studies this coming week though), and might do a class or two on the life cycle of the frog and then they can compare the that with the life cycle of the butterfly. Mrs. G. said she'd sit down with me though, after school, and help me to plan my lessons. That should help.
I'm looking forward to a short week next week. Language Arts provincial assessments take place starting next Friday, and they have a week to do it. So, I'll get to observe that and see how that is done. I think the kids (or the majority of them) will do great on the assessments.
Anyway, I'm going to head off and do some more reading. This is something I've not been able to do in a long time (due to school), and I'm getting caught up on the books I've had and not been able to read. I've read about four or five books in the last couple of months. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
Well, I hope you have a blessed and Christ-filled weekend!
