In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back. (Charlie Brown)

Halloween was a blast with the kids. What was even better was the parent support that put the party and parade together. They created games and activities in each room and provided snacks. (It was nice as a teacher to just sit back and enjoy too. It shows that there is help in/outside of the classroom and as a teacher you really are not alone.

Today I taught spelling, grammar, and science. Science was completely new for me since in my last placement my teachers swapped classes for science and social studies, and we taught social studies. I realized that even though a lot of it is already planned out, there is still a lot of work to go into it. I made some errors with the lesson. It's funny how when you are watching teachers things seem flawless, but then once your get up front it seems to become a snowball of disaster, or at least to you they do. I find myself forgetting things or not thinking of one thing or another, but ultimately this happens with all teachers. One of my college professors once said you need to be a good liar to be a teacher. She didn't mean that you had to actually tell lies, but be able to cover up your mistakes. I think it's also good to also let students sometimes know when you make a mistake. It shows that everyone makes mistakes, but you don't just let it go, you fix it. I planned the lesson all out and had a power point to show the information to the students. It went pretty smooth until I realized I had skipped a step in the experiment. There were also things that came up that I didn't realize would come up. It's hard to plan for everything and to predict what is going to happen. I think this is one reason why teachers with experience are the 'experts.' They've taught the lesson before (sometimes many times before) and have had those unexpected questions come up.

Yesterday I was driving home and I realized how much driving and teaching are alike,
1. You have a destination to reach, you can take the long way or the short way.
2. It takes practice, but eventually becomes second nature.
3. You always have more than one thing to focus on at a time, if not you can miss something big.
4. You constantly have to maintain control.
5. It requires regular check ups.
6. Needs a continuous amount of fuel to keep it moving.