It's not stealing, It's borrowing!

I love to "steal" ideas from other teachers and tweak them to make my own. Today I went to Taylor Elementary School, a year round school, for their first day back! While volunteering in a first grade classroom I took so many ideas out with me. One thing I want to continue to do as a teacher is observe other teachers. I think we often get into a mundane routine and that's where the "burn out" comes in. It was so energizing watching another teacher at work and seeing the great things she did that I could also bring in to my own first grade classroom!

On the same subject, different idea, another teacher mentioned something about me going the extra mile in a surprised voice. This last week I spent 3-4 hours a day helping at the school and then today in the room with the kiddos. In away this made me sad because it seems a lot of teachers don't go that "extra mile" and often complain about the work they already have to do. When I chose to be a teacher I knew the work was going to be hard, and I know that there will be days where I "want to pull my hair out" but that's ok, because in the end I see these little ones grow up to be responsible adults and I know that I was a part of that!


Here is a website I found tonight and it's awesome!

http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/index.htm

All of life is a journey; which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there.

Today was one of those super exhausting days... I went to MN over the weekend and got back late Sunday night. Last night I found out I would be working a few extra hours for our after school program along with the 2nd class I started teaching today. I also was switched from working in my pre-k room to another class. Basically I worked 9 pd hours and then stayed at school till 7pm prepping/cleaning. Throughout the day I started to feel grumpy. I felt bad when I could tell the kids where "getting on my nerves" and I wasn't my normal perky self. Then I kicked myself in the butt and remembered #1 that I was there for them, #2 I dislike teachers like that #3 it wasn't there fault I was in a bad mood and if a student acted the same way they would probably be in trouble too. I think it's easy to just blame things on being a "bad day" and then not work at making it better. Today was one of those days where I took the situation and turned it around. I don't believe we necessarily have good and bad days. I believe we make the days and how they are going to be with our attitudes and actions.

On the plus side I feel like I am preparing for my teaching assignment coming up by working the extra hours and getting my body used to the feeling of going non stop at school from 7am till 5:30pm. :)

For the love of science!

A few weeks ago I taught a class called "Mad Scientists" and we had a blast! I think one of the best parts about being a teacher is that you get to be a kid again. The class only had 8 students in it, which was great because it was just enough to have whole group and small group work. We were also able to do more experiments since they took less time. I was also able to experience my first field trip. We went to Coe College to see what "real science labs" looked like. Other than the students complaining it was hot outside when we went from building to building, it was a great day.

Some of the topics we covered were: Light/Reflection, Color, Senses, mixtures, and density.

I think the biggest thing I practiced with the class is teachable moments and how to utilize them. This was the perfect class to do this for since we didn't have a set curriculum and I was able to design the lessons.I tried to take a lot of their conversations and just go with it. Luckily with the use of technology this was relatively easy. The room had internet and a Smartboard... what more does a teacher need? :)