Preparation

This past week Jean and I have been discussing more and more about the mini residency I will be doing coming up after Thanksgiving break and I'm thinking it's going to be a great time! The theme will be festivals of like starting that week up until winter break, which means I will have the opportunity to participate in a theme change as well as a month change, which is something I haven't been able to view much of, because the change over is usually on Mondays and some changes happen in the afternoon while I am there in the mornings. Either way, I am excited to have the opportunity to get my hands wet and really help to plan the week's activities. In light of this, I must admit that one of the challenges of this planning, is that in the kindergarten class at Chugach, they are not forced to follow any specific curricula. Although there is a kindergarten math program that is used as a guide, and the handwriting program, Jean does most of her planning primarily from looking at the GLEs and planning her lessons around that. Therefore, I will have the chance to really use my talents and knowledge as a student teacher to plan the lessons myself, with Jean's guidance, rather than follow a scripted program. We have already spent time looking through some past lessons for this theme and this past Friday I was able to teach the entire morning, which I have been doing more and more often. whoohoo! :)

First week of November

This week, I had the opportunity to lead a couple of full days worth of lessons. I have continued leading the morning routine and language arts study, but this past week I also led a lesson on map building using the story Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy. What was especially exciting, was that I chose the story and was able to develop the routine and everything with the guidance of Jean. The lesson extended over three days and was broken into smaller pieces, as a way to introduce the story and ideas as well as revisit them. After the two main portions of lessons, I was thrilled with the results and the children's enthusiasm with the story and activity. :) Jean also said that I did well and the main thing I have to work on is projecting my voice a bit more, or using other techniques to get my message across to everyone, because sometimes I am too soft spoken. One of the most important concepts I have been learning about teaching, are all of the tiny details that are critical for the success of a lesson, such as transitions, what to have children do if they finish quickly, flow, and other details that a regular lesson plan simply cannot address without spending hours on a single lesson. The teaching process is amazing and I am boggled by all of these new experience and enjoying everything!

The first semester is just about over?!?! I can't believe this first portion of the school year is just about over....

Conferences

Although this post is late, I do want to take a few moments and describe how exciting and new it was to be assisting in this portion of teaching. At Chugach, their conferences are more student led and in kindergarten we focus on the social/emotional portion of learning, rather than discussing GLEs. In fact, there are no report cards! Prior to the conference, the children and their families were asked to fill out a questionnaire that would help us understand their views about school, friendships, and their thoughts about the academic subjects they are now being formally exposed to: reading, writing, mathematics, science, and also art. After observing the first couple of conferences, I took over leading the review of the questions and then Jean and I tagged team to learn more information or discuss in depth certain portions. As we went through them, I found it fascinating how many of the children really took the time to understand their intrapersonal selves and discover what they needed to work on and what their strengths are. They really took the time to think about their answers. Overall, it was an experience that I am happy to have gone through, as it gave me more insight into the children's thinking as well as the parents/guardians.