Placement+1+Week+8+Experience

Week of March 1st, 2010

3/8/10

The moral of today's internship experience was "Even the best laid plans turn out in unexpected ways!" I planned to teach a lesson designed especially to help reinforce my first grade student's addition and subtraction skills. As an extra treat, I created a fun file folder game where he worked addition and subtraction problems written on dinosaur bones and answered them by matching each problem with the dinosaur who had the correct number of spots on his back. What I couldn't have anticipated was how upset my student was when he heard that he couldn't cut out the dino bones and post them on his bulletin board by his desk - he wanted all his friends to see the kind of work he was doing in math!

After a few tears from my student and some quick thinking on my part, we were able to reach a deal that I will be making him his own un-laminated copy of the file folder which he can cut up and display as he would like. Needless to say, the remainder of the math lesson was a big hit and my student created his own very original addition problem all by himself, complete with an illustration and writing his own name across his work, too (albeit still backwards). I'll still count it as a success, though :o)

I'm so sad that tomorrow will be my final day working with my student and all my other little guys in Kristy's class. They each are really such special little people, it'll be hard not to have the pleasure of learning from them every day! I am truly thankful for the honor of spending my internship experience in Kristy's class. I'll never forget it!!

3/9/10



Today was very bittersweet for everyone - me because it was my very last day with all my wonderful students, for the children because they were distraught over the FCAT testing that began today, and for Mrs. Herring and her para's because they worried over the children's worries and that they couldn't celebrate my "graduation" to middle school and "survival" of the elementary experience!

Even though I would have rather spent my last day teaching the students or doing some fun learning activity with them all, it was yet another interesting experience to add to my list of things that I've learned so far to see them in the throes of FCAT testing. Since they are each given special accommodations because of their individual disabilities, the students are all allowed unlimited time to complete the test, the ability to have questions read aloud to them, and one boy even has his test administered in a small group setting. Despite all the extra accommodations though, the test is still a very rigorous and stressful experience for them all.

One student spent over 5 hours struggling to complete today's portion of the assessment. He was so worn out and frustrated by the time he finished, he unleashed his pent up energy by kicking the wall of the classroom and falling on the floor to seek his classmates' attention. Although this wasn't the best of choices, it's hard not to sympathize with a student when he reacts this way.

All in all, I am grateful for everything that Kristy and her students have taught me, and I was absolutely thrilled to get so many requests to come back and visit soon and all the nice hugs when it was time to go! Also, it may have taken eight weeks, but I kinda think I'm finally getting used to being called "Miss Bunn."

Now to get ready for my next teaching adventure ~ Middle School!!!