First week in review...
I've officially completed my first week of student teaching; only fifteen more weeks to go. It's going to be tough and time-consuming, but I am enjoying myself a lot more than I thought I would. Sixth grade is a breeze and a blast compared to the high school classes in which I've had practicum previously.
I've learned a lot of my kids' names, but to cram more into my brain seems impossible. I have a total of 97 students, and I see each one of them every day. Several of them I see more than once (in homeroom, language arts, and/or reading class), and those are the ones I've managed to commit to memory. The other kids I just cannot get a handle on. I feel bad always having to just point to them when I call on them, and it's especially problematic when they're acting up and I can't call them specifically by name to get them to knock it off. Oh well... I pretty much know the names of all the really bad kids and all the really good kids. I guess that's the way it normally happens - and why none of my teachers in school ever seemed to know my name.
Sixth graders are nice: they still LIKE their teachers at this age. Many students (both boys and girls) come up to my desk as often as they can to chat with me. I bought Girl Scout cookies from Heather today, and Hunter always talks to me about sports, hoping to instill some knowledged and/or interest in me about Virginia Tech's football team. Some of the girls who sit in the front row right near my desk have even commented on the fact that Tyler (who is forever asking me to "watch what he can do" and singing songs and reciting poems he knows for me) likes to "hit on" me. Haha, I almost died when they told me that. Anyway, the students are really personable and sweet for the most part, and even the "bad" kids sometimes make me smile with their unbelievably ridiculous antics.
The thing that's really getting me down about this semester is my stupid "seminar" class. It's two lousy credits, but it seems like it's going to take up almost as much time as a full semester's course load would. Most of the work we have to do for the class is tedious and useless, too. We have to buy three textbooks (one of which is a course pack and non-refundable), after having been promised that we wouldn't have to spend money on those this semester. My professor is a nut job, too. She thinks that every teacher, regardless of the subject or grade they teach, should incorporate dancing into their lessons daily. (Okay to be fair, she calls it "movement" and insists that it stimulates learning or something...) The last time I dealt with this professor in a classroom setting, she made our class stand in the middle of the room and do the "Life Dance." We started out very small and balled up (to symbolize how we are in the womb), then we began to slowly stretch out and "grow up." The stages of "life" were then followed by kinesthetics-esque leg kicks and arm circles and side-bends. Oh Lord. Clearly, even if this seminar's inane content and overwhelming work load doesn't kill me, I think the bi-weekly exposure to the Dancing Queen might.
Anyway, I have to admit that I'm super glad that it's Friday, and I don't have to go back to school until Monday. Waking up at the crack of dawn does not suit my preferred lifestyle.
'Hope everyone else's semester is going well. :)
I've learned a lot of my kids' names, but to cram more into my brain seems impossible. I have a total of 97 students, and I see each one of them every day. Several of them I see more than once (in homeroom, language arts, and/or reading class), and those are the ones I've managed to commit to memory. The other kids I just cannot get a handle on. I feel bad always having to just point to them when I call on them, and it's especially problematic when they're acting up and I can't call them specifically by name to get them to knock it off. Oh well... I pretty much know the names of all the really bad kids and all the really good kids. I guess that's the way it normally happens - and why none of my teachers in school ever seemed to know my name.
Sixth graders are nice: they still LIKE their teachers at this age. Many students (both boys and girls) come up to my desk as often as they can to chat with me. I bought Girl Scout cookies from Heather today, and Hunter always talks to me about sports, hoping to instill some knowledged and/or interest in me about Virginia Tech's football team. Some of the girls who sit in the front row right near my desk have even commented on the fact that Tyler (who is forever asking me to "watch what he can do" and singing songs and reciting poems he knows for me) likes to "hit on" me. Haha, I almost died when they told me that. Anyway, the students are really personable and sweet for the most part, and even the "bad" kids sometimes make me smile with their unbelievably ridiculous antics.
The thing that's really getting me down about this semester is my stupid "seminar" class. It's two lousy credits, but it seems like it's going to take up almost as much time as a full semester's course load would. Most of the work we have to do for the class is tedious and useless, too. We have to buy three textbooks (one of which is a course pack and non-refundable), after having been promised that we wouldn't have to spend money on those this semester. My professor is a nut job, too. She thinks that every teacher, regardless of the subject or grade they teach, should incorporate dancing into their lessons daily. (Okay to be fair, she calls it "movement" and insists that it stimulates learning or something...) The last time I dealt with this professor in a classroom setting, she made our class stand in the middle of the room and do the "Life Dance." We started out very small and balled up (to symbolize how we are in the womb), then we began to slowly stretch out and "grow up." The stages of "life" were then followed by kinesthetics-esque leg kicks and arm circles and side-bends. Oh Lord. Clearly, even if this seminar's inane content and overwhelming work load doesn't kill me, I think the bi-weekly exposure to the Dancing Queen might.
Anyway, I have to admit that I'm super glad that it's Friday, and I don't have to go back to school until Monday. Waking up at the crack of dawn does not suit my preferred lifestyle.
'Hope everyone else's semester is going well. :)