Week numero 3. Wait a minute, this is my third week?! Already?! Seriously?!?!
Being that I am a dual certification major, I will only be in this current placement for a total of 8 weeks. Let's do the math here for a second:
8 - 3 = 5....FIVE! What the what?!?!? Well no wonder why I feel stressed out and exhausted!
This week I am handling morning work, transitions, small groups, whole group FUNdations (phonics), and whole group reading. This puts Mrs. B in charge of the kiddos from 7:58 until 11:00. The past two days have been nutso.
Day 1 - Scramble to get through homework folders, getting lunch count, passing out Apple Valley Pioneer Simulation points, lead two small reading groups while helping other kiddos with their morning work....all in 40 minutes. Did it happen?? No.
Running 20 mins behind, I start my first ever lesson in FUNdations thinking "sure I can bust this out in 20 minutes and get reading started". Did this happen? NO! Again, running behind.
Unfortunately, this was the story of my morning. Forever staring at the clock as the minutes are just flying by. I felt TERRIBLE when I finally finished my (first ever) reading lesson, which just so happened to run 40 minutes later than it should have...thereby pushing my Mentor Teacher's writing lesson 40 minutes behind. Sorry! :( But the kids sure knew their reading vocabulary inside and out by the time I was done with them. That's some consolation.
Day 2 - I wake up with a "can do" attitude and tell myself that no matter what happens, I WILL stick to the time schedule. I get through the morning routine with perfect timing and start FUNdations...ugh, did I really just run over again?! This gives me 30 minutes to build background knowledge, review vocab, let kids preview & predict the story, read the weekly story (while discussing each page), and allow for a closure. Needless to say, I ran over again. Somehow I only ran 20 minutes into the writing lesson, so I didn't feel as bad as I did on Monday.
I am determined to meet my time constraints for the rest of the week. My Mentor Teacher has been awesomely supportive and keeps reminding me that this is only my second day completely handling the mornings, which I do need to remember.
Other than the crazy race against the clock, I am still thoroughly enjoying my time in the 2nd grade classroom.
Cute little story: The students were introduced to "time" in math yesterday. My Mentor Teacher did an activity with the whole class which had them simulating a clock. For example: 12 students stood in a circle and held a number (1-12) to represent the numbers on the clock. 2 students stood in the center, one acting as the minute hand and the other as the hour hand. The class loved it and had a lot of fun. The one SpEd student in the class absolutely hates math. After the clock activity, he asked "when are we going to do math?" and his voice was lined with dread. He looked completely shocked when the teacher told him that we were doing math :)
You would go over time when I can barely fill up the whole time I am given. You always have so many great ideas and plans. I on the other hand keep running short on my lessons. I really need to slow down. It is just hard. How do you really teach /op/ words for 90 minutes??? I get all these plans and am then forget some or skip something. Too bad we can't somehow meet in the middle.
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