Placement+2+Week+6+Experience

Week of April 19th, 2010

4/19/10

I feel so proud of myself today. This semester, I really wanted to branch out and explore the subjects that I never did so well at when I was in school. This way, I hope that I'll be better prepared to teach my future students because I'll have a well-rounded knowledge base to draw from, plus I'll be able to share my own experiences when students tell me that they are struggling to understand in a particular subject like math or reading.

So, the reason why I feel so proud today is that I began the morning by helping several students finish up a chapter test from their 6th grade math class. Then, later on in the afternoon, I taught a review and practice lesson that I created especially for one student who needed a lot of extra help understanding how to simplify fractions. She'll still need more support because she hasn't quite mastered the topic, but I liked being able to help show her that she has the general idea, she just needs to remember all the steps and have confidence in herself. Soon she'll find herself all caught up with the rest of her classmates and all the adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions will make perfect sense!

Otherwise, I am enjoying my internship experiences so much. I can't help but be a little sad because I know there are just three days left - tomorrow and Monday and Tuesday of next week. I love being a part of such a great profession, even if it's just for practice right now. It's so amazing to have Ms. Stamp as my mentor and supervising teacher! Plus, it's been wonderful being able to spend afternoons with all my little guys from my first placement at the elementary school - I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to intern where these two schools are so close to one another. The support and daily learning experiences are much more than I could have ever imagined!

4/20/10

Sigh! Talk about feeling torn! Part of me is so happy that I survived this semester and that it's coming to a close, and the other part of me is so disappointed that this means I won't be visiting Narcoossee Elementary or Middle School nearly as often as I've been able to these past sixteen weeks. I've had so much fun, learned so many things, and grown immensely as both a teacher and a student myself!

This morning, I got to help the kids in Learning Strategies out with their math work again. Who knows, maybe after all this practice I'll become the best math teacher ever?! Haha ~ okay, or maybe that'll just happen because now I've got the teacher's edition :o) Either way, as long as I help these kids learn and we both have fun along the way, it seems like a good deal to me!

I was also able to put the finishing touches on the new bulletin board I made for Ms. Stamp today. I love that the kids had a hand in the decorations, too! The fact that we incorporated things all about them - the books that they are reading and those that they hope to read - really made this something special. Plus, I explained to them that this is a simple and fun way that they can set goals for themselves. To see the finished bulletin board, check out the placement 2 photo album. It's really neato!