Friday, January 9, 2015

One week of student teaching completed!

I survived my first week of student teaching! The students cannot wait until I take over and teach them. My mentor teacher is one year away from retiring and you can tell. She is not a happy camper; she hates all extra-curricular activities and talks to the students like they are dumb. I have learned a lot of useful things this week though. I like how she has bell work and you only get the bell work points if you are on time to class, I like how she puts smiley faces on homework with high grades and then counts them as extra credit at the end of the term, and I really love that she has a smartboard and she uses it!
I really hope that I last the rest of the semester with her, I have 55 more school days to spend with her. I haven’t observed her teaching much since this week was the end of the semester so they just reviewed and then tested, so next week I’m going to watch her teach with the smartboard then slowly take the classes over for her B days and I think on A days I will be observing other teachers/making lesson plans. Today I started class while my mentor teacher went to go talk with another teacher and the students asked in the most excited voice ever if Mrs. Twitchell was gone. They were very sad when I said she was here and they asked when it was that I get to take over. So at least I have that going for me, the students want anyone other than her teaching.
The room I moved into is like the size of my closet at my parents. It’s cheap, the girls are nice and LDS, and it’s close to school. Everyone asks how I ended up here from Cedar City, I usually answer “I don’t really know, I wanted to be closer to family and here I am in the big scary city.” Then someone usually says oh this isn’t the city. They. Are. LYING!, this is the city and I know that, because even if you get lost in Cedar it’s really easy to get un-lost fast, but here I have to get out my phone and ask it how to get home, let’s not even mention how many people there are and they are all in a hurry. I think the hardest thing has been going from a huge awesome friend base to not knowing anyone. Pro of no friends- bedtime comes at a time that lets me get 8 hours of sleep. Con of no friends- no one to goof off with. I really really REALLY miss Michelle and Megan.

So I have to be at the school at 7:00 am every day and on my drive to work at like 6:45 I drive past a coffee shop and it’s always closed, but if I drive past it at night at like 8pm it’s open. Who drinks coffee at eight at night!? 

Here's a picture of my room. You really only need one cause you can pretty much see my whole room in this picture I took from my bed.