Beginning to Mold Minds One Cursive Letter at a Time

Friday has finally come and he's brought his friend three day weekend. Yes, let me say that again, three day weekend.

This week as a whole has been relatively active and enjoyable. After walking out to my car a couple of times in the morning to see an unwelcome sheet of ice over all of my windows (granted it was a very thin sheet, more like frost, less like IA...but still ice nonetheless), I must say I think I'm starting to figure out where I fit into the teaching world. What's that you say? It's only week two? Ah, but dear readers this week has taught me quite a bit.

T1 and T2 are starting to let me out of my student teaching cage. No longer do I sit on the sidelines as a mere observer. I'm becoming an active player in the game of 3rd grade education. So far my areas of expertise have been of Spelling and Handwriting. Not super difficult subjects (in fact making a lesson plan for these would be a laughable idea), but it's a start. I will say though that my cursive really isn't what it used to be. I even had to sit down and practice my letters for my next lesson. Next week I get to add the math teacher hat to my collection. To say I'm nervous would be an overstatement, to say I'm prepared would be lie. It's not hard math, they're just starting to learn multiplication. I just want to make sure I don't confuse the kids. Something will work out though :).

As for what I mentioned earlier about "finding my place in the teaching world" let me explain. Honestly earlier this week I was wondering if I was even meant to be a teacher. In the back of my mind I was slightly concerned that this four year degree would get sucked down the toilet and travel on its way into the sewers. But today was different. This morning I did the opener, it's basically the introduction of the day. Often it includes singing, trivia, devotions, etc... As I opened the day I realized how much I enjoyed leading class. No nerves or anything, I actually conducted class and conducted it without any problems. T1 talked with me at the end of the day. She told me I had done an excellent job and that I had great classroom management skills. Now T1 has been teaching for quite sometime, this was quite the compliment for me.

Ok God you've helped me find my niche, now how will I use it?

Another thing that has been on my mind lately is our grading system. In grade 3 the students aren't quite at the point where A,B,C,D, and F are of any importance, except maybe that they're all letters in the alphabet. When students in my class get anything wrong on a paper they are expected to correct it so that they can learn from their mistakes. I've found that, especially at the high school level, teachers give a grade and more often than not that's it. In most classes nothing (at least in my personal experience, things may have changed) is expected to be redone, unless a student asks if he or she can. Is this true for all high school educators? No, just bear with me. You may be thinking, well in elementary kids need to learn the basics so they can build on them. This is true. But what if we had students redo problems or worksheets they got wrong on the none-basic level? Think of how much more they would learn. What if every high school math and science teacher had each of his or her students correct their papers until it was worthy of an 100%? Wouldn't that help improve our standardized test scores instead of "teaching to the test?" (I have other ideas about standardized tests...but that's a whole different rant) Wouldn't students learn more that way instead of merely getting by? There are thousands maybe even millions of kids who graduate in America who can't read, write, or do any sort of math. Problem? Majorly. In my Ed. classes I'm taught that high expectations are important in the classroom, I can't help but think that in some schools those expectations have fallen.

Ok I'm going to get off of my soapbox now.

Enjoy your weekends!

Lessons Learned This Week:
-God has a plan that is far better than mine (or anyone else's) ever will be.
-A left-handed whiteboard needs to be invented.
-Don't judge your students, they will surprise you.

Goals for Next Week:
-Get more lessons for my unit done.
-Become super awesome at teaching 3rd grade math.