Paper Ornament Making Week....

Oh man, what fun! Though I felt 100x more comfortable just kind of co-teaching than trying to completely teach on my own, I still feel like it was a great experience....

I went to my placement three times this week....

Day 1: Just went to help out with the paper making lesson. The basic steps: blend paper, pour into cookie cutter mold, pat dry, transfer onto non-stick material, decorate. The students had two choices: a tree or a gingerbread man. It went great. My mentor teacher ran most of it, but I explained parts of the process and then helped all the kids on each station. The kids loved it. There was only one little girl who absolutely would not touch the blended paper.... But that was ok because we just had her watch that step and then do all the other steps. Also one boy kept asking if it was candy, which I thought was funny. Then he asked if they would get candy when they got the project back... THEN he asked if one of the statues of a gingerbread man that we had as an example was candy... haha he was adorable. Anyway, everyone was very well behaved. They put a little too much paint on during the decorating process, so we made sure to note that. Also we went about ten minutes overtime, so we also noted that as well.

Day 2: Started out in the regular classroom, just observing mostly. Helped one student with his speech words, just checking off 100 words as he said/recognized them correctly. Then it was off to art. I was really nervous about teaching, so I asked my mentor teacher to introduce the lesson. I then took over demonstrating the lesson to the students, with Anne my helper =) The lesson went ok. I did feel a little overwhelmed trying to keep an eye on all the kids, and I am glad my mentor teacher and Anne were there to get involved with the lesson as well, though I feel after doing the lesson a few times I would get a routine down for sure. I think I let nerves get the best of me, but overall the kids seemed to be having fun and that's really all the matters in the end. I was impressed by how well the students worked in pairs, especially one student paired with another student using a wheelchair. He was so helpful and wonderful with how he worked with and treated her. All the partners pretty much worked fine without any problems. One kid said the blended brown paper looked like hamburger meat, which I thought was funny. They were grossed out by the blended paper at first, but most of them loved getting to touch the mushy paper. Very fun to watch. We went overtime again by about the same amount, which was a problem....

Day 3: Sorry I had to skip out of class early, but I was happy to be able to help out with the last of the third grade classes. Being the third time doing this project, I felt a lot more comfortable. I felt like my mentor teacher and I worked really well together this time around and let the kids do more on their own without telling them the steps as each group came up over and over again. I kept an eye on the first few stations; my mentor teacher called people to go up and managed the decorating station. We ended up finishing about 2 minutes overtime, with the exception of one girl who stayed about 5 minutes extra to put some finishing touches on her project. It was interesting to feel the change within myself from so nervous to much more calm this last time around. It definitely gave me a boost of hope that I will be able to one day be a confident teacher.

I think for me it was just about getting my feet wet with teaching. That's just how I get comfortable with things. I feel confident that by the time I complete my student teaching in my senior year I will feel a lot more comfortable and ready to begin my teaching career.