The week started out with meeting my cooperating teacher, third grade team, and school staff. We then got to decorate and label our rooms before going to different seminars at the civic center and another elementary school. Let's stop right here though, and talk about the cutting...YIKES! Now, don't get me wrong, it is not a bad thing, I just had not taken into account what it meant to cut activities and labels out for 25 students for multiple subjects. My hand is literally sore from all of the cutting that took place. I think the scissors and I will have a bit of a different relationship from now on.
I never knew how much teachers went through mentally and physically during the week before school officially starts. I cannot honestly say that every minute of the seminars I attended this week were worth my time, they could have definitely been condensed from three hours to one or two, but they did have pieces that will help in my teaching. The conferences I attended had to do with legal issues and electronics, lockdown and evacuation procedures, Action 100, Everyday Mathematics on the computer, and what a reading workshop looks like.
Legal issues and electronics. Now that is a big subject for teachers! Imagine getting handed a huge pamphlet full of things you are not allowed to do. It made me nervous to even give my future students a pat on the back. However, I certainly learned a lot from the scenarios that were presented. I learned how to handle situations with custody battles, gossip, and professionalism. The biggest point they made was to not have "peer-to-peer like" conversations with students, which I think is a very good point to make. We are there to teach, not to be close friends.
During the lockdown and evacuation time, the speakers presented very interesting facts: 1) The average shooting is 12min long, 2) First, run. Then, hide. Lastly, fight if you have to, 3) 93% of attacks are planned and 81% of attackers warn someone overtly, and 4) Say, "Good morning, how are you?" to everyone, especially those you don't recognize. These will be things I will definitely take with me into my years of teaching. Even though we do not have shootings here in our part of the country at the moment, it is always better to be over prepared than under prepared.
Action 100, Everyday Mathematics, and reading workshop were actually subjects I have learned about through my WSU-R schooling and it was nice to have a refresher on things. The biggest part of my week however, after the countless hours of cutting out, listening to speakers, and devising lesson plans was meeting the kiddos at meet the teacher. The school was buzzing with excitement, and in filed the families eager to see their teachers and classrooms. We chatted, completed a scavenger hunt around the classroom, and the parents wrote notes to their students for the first day of school (something I want to do one day also). All of the planning and preparing that took place throughout the week, and meeting the families of my students for the next six weeks finally meant something very real-I am going to have a classroom of my own one day.
I never knew how much teachers went through mentally and physically during the week before school officially starts. I cannot honestly say that every minute of the seminars I attended this week were worth my time, they could have definitely been condensed from three hours to one or two, but they did have pieces that will help in my teaching. The conferences I attended had to do with legal issues and electronics, lockdown and evacuation procedures, Action 100, Everyday Mathematics on the computer, and what a reading workshop looks like.
Legal issues and electronics. Now that is a big subject for teachers! Imagine getting handed a huge pamphlet full of things you are not allowed to do. It made me nervous to even give my future students a pat on the back. However, I certainly learned a lot from the scenarios that were presented. I learned how to handle situations with custody battles, gossip, and professionalism. The biggest point they made was to not have "peer-to-peer like" conversations with students, which I think is a very good point to make. We are there to teach, not to be close friends.
During the lockdown and evacuation time, the speakers presented very interesting facts: 1) The average shooting is 12min long, 2) First, run. Then, hide. Lastly, fight if you have to, 3) 93% of attacks are planned and 81% of attackers warn someone overtly, and 4) Say, "Good morning, how are you?" to everyone, especially those you don't recognize. These will be things I will definitely take with me into my years of teaching. Even though we do not have shootings here in our part of the country at the moment, it is always better to be over prepared than under prepared.
Action 100, Everyday Mathematics, and reading workshop were actually subjects I have learned about through my WSU-R schooling and it was nice to have a refresher on things. The biggest part of my week however, after the countless hours of cutting out, listening to speakers, and devising lesson plans was meeting the kiddos at meet the teacher. The school was buzzing with excitement, and in filed the families eager to see their teachers and classrooms. We chatted, completed a scavenger hunt around the classroom, and the parents wrote notes to their students for the first day of school (something I want to do one day also). All of the planning and preparing that took place throughout the week, and meeting the families of my students for the next six weeks finally meant something very real-I am going to have a classroom of my own one day.