Campfire Day

This past Friday I went to my placement. It was Campfire day in first grade! At the end of the day... about the last full hour, the three first grade teachers gathered their students into one of the teacher's room. There, she had set up a light in the middle of the room with logs set over it to look like a campfire. Then each teacher took a turn reading from a Halloween related book. They were about pumpkins or ghosts, etc. Just friendly little stories, not too scary. Meanwhile, the first grade aide and I were in the teacher's lounge preparing 58 s'mores in the microwave popping six in at a time on a plates. Through trial and error, we figured that it takes approximately 12 seconds to make the perfect melty microwave s'more. (Each first grade teacher had brought enough graham crakers, Hershey's and marshmallows for her own class that day). We then divided them between classrooms so that they were ready for the kids when they came back. The kids LOVED this and it was pretty enjoyable for the teachers and me. One of the teachers had mentioned that it was a good way to celebrate Halloween without naming it since they are not allowed to have Halloween parties there.

 I personally had so much fun doing it. I really had the chance to see a great activity to celebrate this time of year; and a couple of girls had no idea what s'mores were until that day!

All in all it was a very enjoyable end to the school day.

Tanka's, Tux's, and Towns

Today was a fun-filled day. I loved our poetry discussion this morning. It reminded me of a project that my 8th grade teacher had our class do. Each student made a poetry packet that was labeled "All About Me" (I actually rediscovered this while rummaging through an old box of school papers under my bed last week). On our cover page we drew a picture of ourselves. We filled the packet with a Haiku, Concrete, List, and Acrostic poems. I just loved reading through what I had written. I also found a folder full of free writings and journals from a Creative Writing class in high school. They were hilarious to read, at least to me, and I loved going over them again.

I loved creating the town in Social Studies today. I was really glad I was on the zoning comittee in charge of coming up with names for the town and streets. I just love this idea of creating an educational experience by building a mini town. I mean, I don't know how many times my brother and I would do something like this for fun when we were kids. I can't wait to do this with my students.

Right after class, I met Corey, walked to the library and we took our Exit exams. And wow.. it is really hard to believe that at this time last year I was adjusting to my first semester here. And now I am getting ready for my last semester.

After our exit exams were finished, (Yay!) we went over to put in an order for the tuxedos for our wedding. We went through and picked out the colors of shirts, patterns of vests, and kinds of cuff links. You know what, it was actually kind of fun. We are getting so excited! I know that every girl probably feels this way but I feel like our wedding is gonna be just perfect lol.

Here is a picture of Corey and I after we finished our Exit exams.

Critical Voice

     I can tell you exactly when I decided that I was going to be a teacher. It had always been a backup, thats for sure and I had always enjoyed school since I was in first grade. People always asked what I wanted to do and I never gave just one answer because I could never make up my mind. But people would always tell me, "Oh you would be a great teacher" or "You should be a teacher" etc. Every time I would hear this, (which was often) I would think to myself,  "I don't have to be a teacher just because everyone says I will be... I can do anything I want."  Well, I graduated high school and still was not able to decide on anything. Then I had the opportunity to help with the Children's Ministry at my church in the summer of 2008 and man, I fell in love! It was then that I wanted to be a teacher. And I knew it.
     Well here I am about to enter the field and I have something else to decide on. My critical voice. There will be always be those people who think that they have the best way for you to go about doing your job. And just like those people who had their ideas about what career would be best for me, I must decide what is best. I have a critical voice. I believe that every teacher has their own strategies and techniques that he or she believes is most effective with students. As a new teacher, I will probably hear many opinions about students' strengths and weeknesses, types of learning etc. And it is alright that everyone has their own voice. Everyone will be different, and can figure out what works best for them in their own classroom. I must have my Critical Voice and learn to use it when I teach so that I can be effective and know that for my students it is the best that I can do for them.