How to motivate writing...

The kids love these! 

AND when you aren't allowed to use plug-ins,  this is sure to keep your room smelling great!

And so it begins...

The first week has come and gone and I am still excited to be in the classroom. Those first two days of teacher meetings were tough, but once I got into the classroom with the 3rd graders, it felt like I was home. It felt like I was supposed to be there, and I am.

Right away the teacher, Mrs. R, had the class participating in writing and reading activities. I absolutely love learning about new ideas for lessons and how to make crafts in order to make learning fun. When the kids are doing instead of watching, it is so much better and that is exactly what Mrs. R has her students participate.

The first writing activity was called the "Line Activity." First, the teacher reads the book, "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" and afterwards, "Not a Box" where everyday objects can be looked at in so many different ways. So the activity was for the students to receive a piece of paper with a random line (squiggly, curvy; any kind of line) and they are to create a picture including the line. After they draw a picture, they write a sentence or short paragraph about the picture (a story or a description).

Line Drawing

Other activities involve reviewing Nouns and Verbs as well as getting ideas for writing from ones own interests.

Writing Ideas

These first few days have been great! I am hoping to keep up with the notes I am taking and keep learning. Even though I am not actually teaching the lessons, I am content (so far) with walking around, answering questions,  and reading the chapter book aloud to them. I should have stories up soon!  BUT here are some more examples of what we have been up to...

Place Value

More fun to come! :D

It's not a good sign when...

I am already tired of lesson plans.

I am a student teacher and on the path to getting certified to teach at a local elementary school here, in Irving. Friday, August 19, 2011 was my very first day of teacher-workshop for the new school year. From 7:30am to 3:30pm, we learned a completely new curriculum (which happens to be all electronic...yay) and had to learn how to set up units and lesson plans the way the district needs. This not only was hard to comprehend when we were being taught, but also difficult to do. Today was not an exception, it was more time consuming than a lot of us really had time for. Since I am only a student teacher, I did not have much of a part in planning (just observing), but what I did observe was stress and confusion. This may be a busy semester ;)

Tomorrow the fun begins! I always enjoyed the craftsmanship that involves putting together student notebooks and signs. I will be cutting paper, gluing, folding, drawing, (etc.). I will not mind waking up early to get to the school to start. Tomorrow is also "Meet the teacher" day, where the parents just drop in from 3:30-4:30 to meet the teacher and see the classroom. Since my teacher has moved up this year with her students, I don't expect many parents to come meet her considering they already know each other. We shall see, though.

Other happenings are the fun times happening at the new apartment. Gabi (my roommate who is a Senior at the college I graduated from) and I have been settling in quite nicely. One thing that hasn't been so great, however, is the cable and internet that we ordered a month ago. I hope I don't have to keep spending money at Starbucks and Barnes and Nobles, not because of how much wifi costs (because it's free), but because of how much their coffee is ;)

Me, Gabi (Oct. 2010)

Besides this, we have a happy friendship as well as apartment-mate...ship. It's great to have our own rooms, but also great to have a living room separate from the dining room so when one of us wants to study, we don't disturb them when we want to watch TV on the big screen. It'll be an interesting semester!