Well this week was a bit nuts! The first two days of the week were so cold that my school closed! I had been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the combination of student teaching and going to Champaign for my own classes.  Although I enjoy student teaching and learning about my students, I must say it was a nice break to calm down and relax a bit.  Hopefully this isn’t how I feel throughout the whole semester!

With the two days off of school, and Friday down in Champaign for class, I only had two days at school this week.  It was short but I was still able to get some valuable time of learning about my students.  I have only been in the classroom for 6 days now but I know the name of every student.  I am generally good with names which is pretty helpful going into the teaching profession.  I am starting to understand some of the students personalities too.  I know who gets along and who doesn’t, who should and should not be seated together, etc.

There are already some students who have really opened up to me and enjoy my presence in the classroom.  But, there are other students who have not yet warmed up to me.  I hope that in a few more days these students see that I am here to help and am fun! There are only 17 students in my class and there are lots of students who go to different rooms during different times of the day so my class seems pretty small most of the time.  Hopefully I get the chance to spend some 1-on-1 time with each student so that we can connect and get to know each other better.  Fingers crossed!

Friday has come and I am done with the first week of student teaching!   It has all been great so far!  It is very different going from 8th grade with 120 students to 4th grade seeing the same 17 students all day.  I feel like I already have a good understanding of who these kids are and I am understanding some of their personalities and quirks.  The kids are so excited and interested in learning, even if it’s a subject they don’t particularly enjoy.  I have gotten to lead reading groups and work individually with struggling students.   I always like to work 1-on-1 with students because I get to know them better and I am helping them through a difficult subject, whatever it may be.

I am also adjusting to the different routines of the classroom and school.  The students are pretty self-sufficient and have their own jobs for the class.  There is an organizational chart that have a list of students’ names and different jobs listed on clothes line pins that are moved weekly.  My favorite job, and I think the students’ favorite too, is the calendar.  They write the date and weather.  At the end of the month the students find the mean, median, mode, maximum, and minimum for the month’s temperatures.  It seems very fun!  I only go to school Monday-Thursday for the first six weeks so that I can attend my own classes to keep learning the best ways to teach.  The short weeks make everything go by so quickly.  I am excited to see what next week will bring!

Hi everyone!

My name is Miss B. and I am a senior in the Elementary Education program at U of I.  I am just about to start my student teaching in 4th grade and am very excited! I will be posting here periodically to tell you about my ups and downs along the way!

I am excited to begin my final semester of college and am so thrilled to be able to spend my time teaching in the Chicago suburbs.  It will be a change to go back home and be essentially a full time teacher, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

I begin my first week of student teaching soon!  It will be fun to get to know the students and learn what goes on in the 4th grade world!  I was in a middle school in the Champaign-Urbana area last semester so this will be quite a change!  I met the students and my cooperating teacher over Thanksgiving break and they seem like a fun bunch.  I wonder if the students will remember me.  I was only there for the morning and they are only 10.  I have had such a long and relaxing winter break it will be hard to get back into the swing of things! I hope the first week isn’t too rough!  We’ll see!! Wish me luck!