I had my 1st "I want to run out of here" moment!

I've been doing great with leading the class after watching Mr. G. Today was my first day of teaching all day and my own lesson. First period went well, and second period did except they finished about 15 minutes early. I did not know what to do. I felt really embarrassed that my teacher was judging the students chatting. They did pretty well with sitting, but I wished I had planned more. I had a lot of self-doubt about wether or not I would be a good teacher all because of this 15 minutes of time. It seems pretty silly now. Anyway I added in some more time taking-up stuff and my lessons went really well for 5th and 6th periods.

So my lesson plan today was to continue with the introduction to the Cold War. Friday I had students fill out a KWL form with Cold War, Communism, and Containment. Today, We discussed their ideas, then had them read Dr. Suess Better Butter Battle in groups. We discussed the cover and what they thought the book was about first. To add more for the time issue, I added some events about 1984 when the book was published. After the groups finished reading, I had each group write down some ideas about how the book related to the Cold War. We held a class discussion, and I wrote their replies on the board. Once we finished discussing the book, I had them copy down vocabulary words I had written on the board. I actually had not planned for them to do this, but there was time, so that was my first improvisation. Tomorrow is my first powerpoint lecture lesson ever. I am really nervous and I have a cold. I guess that happens with student teaching!

I start Monday!

Today is Saturday and I start my student teaching in two days. Yesterday morning my partner and I took our boys to their new daycare to hang out for a couple of hours. Lucas seemed to really enjoy it, and I liked his teacher. My partner wasn't so sure about one of the teachers in Simon's class. She didn't seem to want to be there. One of the boys had a messy diaper and she just left him until the other teacher came in and changed him. I may have to complain about her, but I'll keep my eyes and ears open for now. The other teacher seemed wonderful though. It was kind of like that at the other daycare with Simon's teachers as well.

As far as student teaching, I've been doing a lot of teacher development on my own over this break. I feel pretty good about it and have some great ideas. I haven't started planning yet because I want to observe my mentor teacher first. I want to see how he runs his class and what the students are used to. I will change it up, but I don't want the student's to rebel because it isn't their normal routine. Hopefully they like what I have in store for them. I need to work on amping my voice up. I have one of those quiet voices that doesn't carry well. I may need to buy a mic to help with that later on, but I'll give it a go first and work on speaking loudly.

Also I have teacher development workshops all day Wednesday, and I am sure I'll get some great ideas to use from those as well. Wow, I am getting excited. I think the worst part for me now is thinking about leaving my kids all day long. I am hoping my mentor teacher doesn't stay at school much later than the students leaving because I really want to spend as much time with my own kids as possible. Also I really hope my kids get some great teachers that really help them development and learn.