Done with Kinder :( But on to new things!

Yesterday was my last day in kindergarten. :( Although I'm sad that my time is done, when I look back on my experience, I know that I learned so much.  I learned to plan ahead, be flexible, grow eyes in the back of your head, and most importantly, always be excited about being in the classroom.  I am SO SO SO SO lucky to have had such an AMAZING master teacher. Thanks, Susan! As I move forward on my journey, I will always be able to look back on this amazing time in my life, and hopefully apply everything I learned into a classroom of my own.  I was extremely overwhelmed with how much love my kinder students and parents gave me.  All the kids made me cards and I received flowers, gift cards, cookies, candy and most importantly, LOTS of hugs!  I cried like a baby! I felt like I must be doing something right :)  I will truly miss it!

Today was also my first day of 5th grade...and it is like night and day!  They are just so independent and quiet!  In kinder, I had to use 14,000 classroom management strategies, but in 5th my new master teacher has such a nice class that there are very few interruptions. Although I miss the little ones something awful, I'm looking forward to using some of the great teaching strategies that I learned in my credential program. I am very much looking forward to all the new experiences and lessons that fifth grade will bring.  It should be awesome!

Although I will miss the little ones, I have to look ahead to prepare for whatever life will bring my way. And in the words of wonderful Dr. Seuss, "“If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.” I'm ready to make it happen! :-D

Tomorrow is my Kinder final!

Tomorrow is my final observation for Kinder.  I'm a little nervous and just want to get it over with! It's impossible to act totally normal when there is another adult in the room...just watching you.  I try to ignore him, but it's nearly impossible.  And the kids get all weird, too.  It's going to be even worse when i have to video myself teaching during my next class...it's a requirement for the state.

Gotta keep it short and sweet...gotta get a good night's sleep!

Valentine's Day AKA: How often can I sneak candy without the teacher noticing day

Happy Valentines (or as I heard 12,000 times today, ValentiMes) Day!  V-day with the kinders was...well...an experience to say the least. A ton of fun, but too much sugar!  We started the day by counting a graphing candy heart colors.  One of the kids had extra fun dips and passed them out at recess and one of the girls came in with a green finger...it was pretty gross!  During centers I caught a few of them sneaking candy hearts from their cubbies...We then read a few books, did a dot to dot a few other things then it was time to party! Watching the kids pass out their valentines was so funny!  They were so serious but excited at the same time.  Several of the parents came in today and one of them said "My daughter really likes you!  She talks about you all the time at home"  and another little girl gave me a valentine that was printed for a teacher. Love it!! <3 I was so surprised/happy that I received so much stuff from the kids and their families.  It's truly humbling :)

Here's my stash:

I love the hand written notes and all the creative ways the kids tried to spell "Rist."  There's "Reses", "Wrist", "Reist" and a few others. One of my favorites was a paper plate with glitter all over it and a foam "R" glued on. Another favorite is Elise's...it's the photo card towards the bottom right of the pic. So creative! We always tell them to try their best, and I'm glad they did!  What a fun day!

Today's Lesson: Please, don't drag your friends

I say so many things everyday that I didn't think would ever come out of my mouth.  Things like, "Where did you throw up?" "Why did you call him a trash can?" and, "Get your finger out of your nose!" (all of these said within the last 24 hours).  In the credential program, you learn effective teaching methods, classroom management, and state standards...I think what we really need is a class on "101 ways to get kids to pay attention" or "Yeah, it really is your job to button that kid's pants."  Don't get me wrong, teaching is awesome..it's all the other stuff that you never think about that is so surprising/annoying/sticky!

Anyways, Kindergarten has been really fun lately.  Other then the random situations I encounter (like telling the kids to stop playing "Let's arrest Justin Beiber"), it's been a blast!  On Monday, we celebrated the 100th day of school. Now let me tell you, this is a big deal.  On top of it being the 100th day, it was also the day of my mid-term observation (which went well!).  We made a 100 day snack (10 pieces of 10 goodies like M&Ms, pretzels, and mini marshmallows), 100th day hats, and a 100 day necklace of cheerios and fruit loops.  One of the student's mom's was kind enough to let me post a pic of me and her daughter...THANKS! :) Here is Elise and I:

Next week we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day, and I already got Valentines for my class!  Everyone will get a little card that comes with either a cheeseburger or cupcake eraser (because the last thing they will need is more sugar!).  Next week also means that I will be taking over the class for 100% of the day.  As of right now, I'm doing about 90% of the day so it won't be a total shock....only 2 weeks left of my kinder student teaching experience...it's gone by so quickly!

A Typical Day...

Now that I'm at the start of week 4(!) I thought I would share with you some of a typical day in Kindergarten.  We start off with role call...each student has their name printed on a card and I hold up the cards.  The students tell me whose name is on the card and that student then tells us "hello" in another language.  They know LOTS of ways to say hello! Here is the list so far (and if you know any others, please leave suggestions in the comments!):

Next, the star of the week gets to share something they brought from home and the kids all got to ask questions about the item. Without fail, they ask the same 4 questions every.single.day. "Who gave it to you?", "Where do you take it?", "Why do you like it so much?", and "How long have you had it?" I remind them to look at the item, ask some different questions, but so far it hasn't worked!
       After the star of the week is done, we read the morning message.  I write a small letter to the class and pick names out of a bag.  If a student's name is called, they walk up to the white board and circle a word they know.  Here is tomorrow's message:

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the kids have Spanish class in the morning, so this should be fresh on their minds!  After the morning message, we have calendar time.  We see what the date, day of the week, weather, and how many days we have been in school.  Here is the calendar wall:

Next is math time.  We'll preview today's lesson as a group and them everyone will sit at their desks. I help the kids work through the worksheets and then they go out for recess.  During recess, we prep for center time. There are lots of things that the kids do in centers.  Crafts, writing, painting, drawing, listening to books on tape (yes, tapes), and many, many more.  Each center lasts about 20 min, and after center time it's lunch!

After lunch we do rotations with the 2 other kinder classes.  Usually our rotation is PE...and it's been REALLY nice weather lately so it's awesome!  After rotations, it's time for afternoon recess.  After recess it's usually writing book, or letter of the day time.  Last, it's time to pick up our chairs and go home!

And that, my friends, is a typical day! :)

I tie a lot of shoes.

Seriously. I should start keeping a tally.

There are SO many things that I never thought I would be doing so often.  Tying shoes, trying to wake kids up, cutting out eye holes in paper plates...it's all worth it though once I see that "light-bulb moment."  You know, the moment that you see that the kid finally "gets it"

 
We've been working on addition and subtraction for the past couple of weeks and I've been doing a LOT of guided instruction.  Today, I let the kids do the math page themselves.  And almost all of them did great!!  There were a couple (literally 2) stragglers that had to stay in a few minutes for some extra support, but I was happy! :)  I'm also happy to say that my master teacher and I found a great way to incorporate the document camera in the lessons, so I'm  not stressing out as much for my midterm evaluation!

Teaching is awesome.     

Technology: can't live with it, can't get a recommendation without it

Last week I met my student teaching adviser, Dr. J, for the first time.  He will  observe me for a midterm (within the next couple weeks) and the final (in March).  He explained that I should use any and all technology in the lessons that he is going to observe. According to Dr. J, principals are looking for teachers that use as much technology as possible in their classes.  Dr. J will not write me a recommendation if I do not use technology. One of the most popular pieces of technology in the classroom is called a "document camera."  It's like a fancy overhead that projects anything you put under it (no transparencies needed!) It looks like this:

Although this device works in a similar manner to a traditional overhead, the biggest (and most annoying) difference is that the document camera needs to be placed in the middle of the classroom and not the front.  My back is turned on 1/2 the class and the other 1/2s back's are to me.  So I'm now expecting 25 five-year-olds to have the self control to pay attention to the image on the board and I can't even see 1/2 of them!  Today's addition lesson was NOT going well.  The kids were just not getting it.  I was freaking out because I could not get their attention.  I took a deep breath and realized that the biggest problem was the document camera.  I turned it off, and used the kids to make live addition problems in front of the class.  We wrote down our number sentences and the class was quite and attentive.

I was proud of myself for realizing that my lesson was suffering and I quickly thought of something else that worked, but now I need to find some way to use technology in a lesson...even though the lesson I thought of on the fly worked better than using the document camera.

Blah.   

MLK Jr. Day

Last week, the kids had Friday off and we had a teacher planning day.  Since MLK Jr. day is today and we would be doing a bunch of fun activities learning about and celebrating the amazing things that Martin Luther King Jr. did for our country, my Master Teacher decided to introduce our friend Martin last week.  During the afternoon carpet time, we read a short book about MLK and his life.  The book started out with a short story about how Martin wanted to go home to play with a white friend, but couldn't because his friend's mother would not allow them to play together due to the color of his skin.  We then paused the story to explain that black and white people were separated in school, neighborhoods, restaurants, almost everywhere.

Now, let me just add in here that kindergartners ask questions and tell you everything on their mind all.the.time. We could be talking about the letter "K" and one of them will raise their hand as say, "Mrs. Rist, I have 2 sisters and a goldfish named Max!"

So when one little girl raised her hand I was expecting "I've seen a cow before!!"  but instead, she said "I don't understand; what do you mean black people and white people?" So we spent 5 minutes looking at our hands and noticing how we're all different "shades."  When the story continued onto Rosa Parks and her brave decision to no give up her seat on the bus, the kids were amazed that she was arrested.  They kept saying "What?!  That's not something you go to  jail for!"  Then another little girl was literally in tears saying, "I can't believe he was killed, he was just trying to be nice to everyone!"

It was just amazing to me that a group of 5-year-olds have figured out that people should never have lived like that, but it took so long for the country to see it!  This was an amazing week and I can't wait to see what else I am going to learn from both my master teacher and the students.

Our MLK masks we made!:

I survived!

I'm home. Safe. And no one peed their pants!  In all honesty, the day went GREAT!  My master teacher is wonderful and supportive...I couldn't have asked for better.

The day started out with carpet time where we learned about the letter "I."  It was amazing to me to see how...academic kindergarten has become.  I remember making green eggs and ham, picking out pumpkins at Glen Oak, and learning how to write my name.  Instead, these kids learn about long and short vowel sounds and what non-fiction means.  It's a little sad...but the one great thing about this school, is that it's all day kindergarten, so there is still time for fun!  The charter school I'm at has TONS of clubs, provides spanish and art teachers, and requires that parents volunteer in the classrooms.  It's realy amazing to see a school work so well because of all the support that parents give in the classroom.  There were 4 parent volunteers today. 4!!  That's more then some teachers see all year!

All in all, it was a great day and I am so excited to be one day closer to being in a classroom of my own.  I will leave you with a great quote from a lovely little girl:

"Mrs. Rist, I need to go to the nurse."
"What is bothering you?"
"Boys."

Well, here goes!

Tomorrow is coming so quickly, It's hard to believe! So many wonderful people have been with me on my journey to becoming a teacher so I decided to create a blog to detail my student teaching experience.

Tomorrow morning at 8am I will be with a class of 25 kindergartners. I'm nervous, excited, and just a little bit scared.  Student teaching is the time that I will show what I've got; it's the time I prove that I am worthy of teaching. I hope I've got what it takes....especially with a group of 5 year olds!!  In case you are unfamiliar with how student teaching works, I'll give a quick breakdown:

For the next 7 weeks, I will be shadowing a kindergarten teacher at a Charter School.  This will mean that I plan and teach lessons, grade homework and tests, go to meetings, and learn as much as I can from my mentor teacher.  A representative from my college will come observe my lessons and classroom management skills and provide feedback.  I'll be given responsibilities slowly, and by the end of the 7 weeks I will be teaching all lessons all day. After 7 weeks of kindergarten, I will then jump into a 5th grade class at the same charter school for another 8 weeks.  Same deal as the kinders, just an older bunch of kids.  I'll be in a class room full-time for the next 75 school days. I'm really happy that I was placed in two classes with such a large age gap, because when I apply for positions, I will have a great range of expirience!

I can't wait to start this new chapter in my life! Wish me luck, I'll need it!