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!