Making Progress-Week 4

Wow, I can't believe that it's already week four of my student teaching!! It's been a little over a week since I've posted, things have been very busy at Nisswa Elementary School. Everything is going great, I am so happy with my placement. Like stated before, I am very fortunate to be able to be split between two classrooms for my student teaching. The benefits are fabulous-57 students vs. the typical classroom of 28 students. I can't go wrong with that!! I am now teaching the whole morning at Nisswa Elementary School, except for Reading which will come in the next week or so. In the afternoon when I switch to Mrs. Baker's classroom I am teaching the full afternoon! I never thought that by week four I would basically be taking the full school day over, but everything has been going so smoothly I couldn't turn it down. Overall I am teaching the basic subjects of Science, Social Studies, Spelling, Writing, and Math. I am so happy with my profession choice. I love going to school each day of the week :)

For those of you who don't know, Nisswa Elementary School is actually considered to be a part of the Brainerd school district. It is located in Nisswa, MN in a small community that is very well known for the beautiful northern Minnesota commodities. I feel that due to the smaller, welcoming size of Nisswa that everyone is very close. Our elementary school has classrooms in grades K-4, with two classrooms per grade. No matter where you are in the community and/or building everyone is so friendly and couldn't be any more helpful. It makes this experience so much more exciting to take part in.

Mrs. Olson's classroom has a total of 28 students, 12 males and 16 females. Mrs. Baker's classroom consists of 29 students, 13 males and 16 females. Throughout the school day many of the students in both classrooms are taken out for special assistance. Along with students being taken out, there is at all times one other helper/volunteer in our classroom besides the teacher and I. I have never seen so much help within a classroom, it is so nice for the students!

Today our students switched classrooms for the first time for Math, Science, and Reading. My teachers and I have decided which students may need a little more help in each subject and have split them accordingly. The reason is unannounced to them of course. This is giving me such a great opportunity to see different levels of student success, and it is teaching me how to adapt accordingly. At this point in my student teaching I have two concerns. The first concern is how to reach every single student in the section for math that need a little more assistance than the other students. My second concern is how to form a personal relationship with the parents of each of the students. I have started writing hand written notes to one student each day letting their parents know how proud I am of their son/daughter. I find this to be very rewarding, when the students realize that I am proud of them. I am looking forward to being able to know each student on a more personal level. It makes them happy when I know things that are interesting to them. I am looking forward to teaching the rest of the week-I get observed by my supervisor for the first time on Wednesday! Wish me luck :)  

Meeting with Paul Tesdahl

Another great day was held in my classroom at Nisswa Elementary. I was able to lead Holly Olson's class today with their morning work routine and it went very well! It feels good to actually be infront of a classroom teaching :) In Sarah Baker's classroom in the afternoon I was able to teach a few things as well. I led and went over Rocket Math with the students, as well as their agenda books for the day. Everything went great! After school was over I met with my University Supervisor, Paul Tesdahl. This was a very successfull meeting and we got a lot of material covered. I have a better understanding about what is expected and Mr. Tesdahl was kind enough to hand out some helpful tips for the weeks to come. We also set a very important date for me in the next two weeks. Wednesday, September 29, 2010 will be my first observation done by Mr. Tesdahl. It will take place in the afternoon at 1:00 pm and he will be observing me during a mathematics lesson that I will be teaching. I am very excited, but a bit nervous!! Over all, the meeting went great today. I'm very happy to know that I have a great University Supervisor that I can get advice from at any time.

First Week With Students: Arthur Theme

We based our first week with students on Arthur books, by Marc Brown. The students were very excited to learn how to draw Arthur on their own! Once everyone had Arthur drawn, we decided it would be a fun twist to let the students paint their portrait with water colored paints. Above are some masterpieces! Enjoy :)

Nisswa Elementary School is known as the home of the Nisswa Lakers. We are proud to show "Lakers' Pride" throughout our school. Lakers' Pride is our new behavior plan that we are beginning this fall. Friday, September 10, 2010 all of the classrooms and staff were brought into the gymnasium at 8:45 am for a Lakers' Pride rally to inform the students and staff about the benefits and rewards! We are proud to be the Nisswa Lakers! :)

Successfull First Week

I have the opportunity to spend 12 weeks at Nisswa Elementary School. I began my student teaching on August 31, 2010. I am very fortunate because I am able to spend time in two classrooms at Nisswa. I will be spending the mornings with Holly Olson and the afternoons with Sarah Baker, both 3rd grade teachers. A lot of preparation took place during the first week of teacher workshops! Holly, Sarah, and I were very excited for the first day of school, September 7th!!