An Update!

I've been a bad, bad blogger.  According to my page views, it doesn't matter much, so I don't feel that bad!  

I hope that everyone in my cohort is enjoying their placements; I'm currently in my 2nd week of "full control" and I'm ready to move on to my next placement.  Time has passed so quickly and I cannot believe that I only have 17 days left in second grade!  After having this experience, I cannot wait to have my own classroom and I am disappointed I will have to wait until at least mid-January to make that a possibility!

My first placement has been kinda rocky at times and I've been trying to stay calm, cool, and collected.  Ironically, I have received a lot of compliments about how calm I am (seriously!) and a lot of staff say that they're surprised about how easy going I seem to be.  I personally have a lot of confidence in how I'm performing/teaching and my supervisor is providing so much positive encouragement and advice when I need improvement- I'll have to send her a huge thank you card when this is all over! 

Unfortunately, my lead teacher and I do not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, so our relationship is strained.  She tells me each day what to teach and how to teach it, no creativity allowed.  Each time I have an idea that is shot down, I write it in a journal to save it for when I have my own classroom because even if my ideas really are bad, I'd hate to lose them before getting a chance to try them!  I'm not truly gaining "full-control" experience, so I'm just trying to stay positive and hope that things will be better in my next classroom.  If you're wondering, yes, I have had discussions with her (and my supervisor) about how I'm feeling, but I feel obligated to keep my mouth shut because this is a learning experience and it is ultimately her classroom. 

I'm staying positive and enjoying my students!  Believe it or not, I like lesson planning- I've been trying so hard to write all of my lessons on the weekend so I can have more time during the week to adjust them after teaching each lesson.  Plus, if I get it done on the weekend, I can relax a little at home after school.

Time to grade the math tests from earlier today!