March 17, 2009

I have finished my second day of my 2nd student teaching placement. I am in the reading room and I am loving every minute of it. I absolutely love having small groups, and that I am not with the same class all day. It is fun to greet new faces, and the kids here are adorable and so nice! One little girl who I don't even know came up and hugged me today..haha I just hugged her back and in my head I was thinkin..who is this child! It will be interesting to see what happens when I get some more control and start teaching.

Oh and I have learned a few new things about brain exercises and neuro feedback, yea it is all very interesting and new, but it is cool to learn about! Oh and they have smart boards here, those things are amazing! Well that is all for now....probably my last update for awhile, I don't have too many interesting stories.....

Art Project: Paper Bag Puppets

Well I know that I have been done with my first session student teaching for awhile now, but I forgot to upload some of the last pictures I had taken! :) I wanted you all to see how very talented and gifted my students are, they are such great artists!

Pooh Day

Hello Hello! So I am phasing out this week and I am done on Wednesday! I super sad to be leaving my kids, but I know it will be good to have new experiences in another classroom. It just sucks leaving after becoming so comfortable :) Anywho we had pooh day on Friday which was super fun but I wanted to put up some pictures of my students so that you could all see how precious they are! I LOVE THEM!!!

Full Control

So this week I have had full control of the classroom. It is super fun, but I am starting to realize how fast the recesses go when you are full time!!!! I mean the kids walk out for recess and then it seems like 2 seconds I am getting them back in from recess. I like full time teaching almost better than just teaching a few subjects though because the days go by much quicker and although it is super busy, I don't mind it :)! One thing I definitly need to keep working on though is my classroom management skills, I am a little bit of a push over, and I am not tough enough on them! WELL that is all for now, not much new to say, we are going to make animal puppets out of bags on Thursday and Friday and I think they are going to love it! Hopefully I will have some pictures to put up!

Kente Cloth Art Project

So last week I taught an amazing art lesson and we finally finished in on Monday :). Since we have been studying Black History, I decided to incorporate a project that dealt with African Americans from a different culture than the ones we typically see. So the students made designs on construction paper with paint, they made their designs look like kente cloth, which is what African people in Ghana typically wear for celebrations, and they hand weave the kente cloth. It is amazing how cool the different designs are! The different colors represent different things, yellow represents strength and royalty, purple = femininty, red = life and blood, blue = innocence, black = unity and people, green= nature and earth, and white = purification. Anyways, the kids had tons of fun doing the art project, I don't think I have heard a 2nd grade so quiet or seen a 2nd grade class so intent on their work :) I loved their designs and watching them make their creations. My teacher took some pictures so I am going to let you check them out! ENJOY! Oh and with this unit I incorporated warm and cool colors, the book My Many Colored Days by Dr. Suess is a great book to use to introduce students to warm and cool colors, plus they love the fun pictures throughout the book. In addition, the book itself could be used for making a pattern book with students later on :). Ok well I hope all is going well, it sounds like everyone is getting busier and busier! I can definitly relate!

More 2nd grade humour

"If you could change anything in Sioux Center what do you wish you could change?"


Response: "That they don't cut down the trees in the forest".......

hmmm...last time I checked Sioux Center didn't have too much forestry..lol

We were talking about Martin Luther King Jr. today, and we were talking about his I have a dream speech. The 2nd graders are going to write down their dreams later this week, and when I asked the students what their dreams are, this is what one little girl said :).

Funny 2nd Grade Quote:

What is your dream???
"I don't remember my dreams."