These are the chronicles and capers of the OBUeduCREW student teaching internships. We hope to encourage each other and provide an easy way to share ideas!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Graduates
Miss you all already,
Miss Neal
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Reflections on Student Teaching
Friday, May 6, 2011
The beginning of the end!
Last Day!!
We're (almost) done! I hope you all have an AMAZING last day!
-Miss I/Inkner/Easter/Nectar/Itcher/Itched-Er (the list gets longer and longer every day)
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Last week!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Ups and downs of teaching
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Well, this is my 2nd post
I have officially reached burnout point. And it's not because of the kids- I just LOVE working with the Elementary kids (and I am still so surprised that I like it so much). It's the people that I work with. I am constantly around negative people, and it's gotten to the point to where I'll just eat my lunch alone in my classroom so I don't have to listen to it. I remember Dr. Bass always talking about the whiny teachers, and I figured that there would be a few of those at any school. But for whatever reason, all but 2 people that I work with are so negative.
Being around them has made me so aware of the fact that although we are called to teach in a classroom, we are also called to minister to our co-workers and be as Christ-like as possible. I think that God is trying to challenge me during these last few weeks. I have no desire to be around any of those people, but I realized that I might be the only person who will "show them Jesus" every day. So I'm going to do my best to just listen to the complaining, give an encouraging response, while keeping a smile on my face the entire time.
In other news, I have a job interview on Friday! Yay!
I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in a little over 2 weeks!!! We're SOOOO close, folks!
-Miss I/Ichter/Inkner/Nectar/Easter/Itcher/Eyekter (and the list goes on and on)
Swinging and sadness
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
New post!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
HAAAAAAAAAAA
Miss Neal
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
3rd grade
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Green green everywhere!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Case study kid?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
School on a... Saturday?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
My heart is still in kindergarten...
(This post is from yesterday, my first day in third grade.)
Today I moved up to third grade. To be honest, I really was not looking forward to it. As I drove up in the parking lot, it hit me that I will be walking into a different building from now on. I did not expect to feel so sad about not being with “my” kindergarteners. Although I am glad that there are no more snotty noses, untied shoes, and stinky pants, I will miss all the quotes, hugs, and smiles that I got to experience each day in kindergarten. I thought about Mrs. A’s class all throughout the day. :(
Mrs. N was very helpful all day as she informed me about pretty much everything I need to know about how things work in the third grade. Their schedule was a little off today because they were doing their TLI tests, which is a practice test for the Benchmark. I went with Mrs. P and watched her administer the test to a small group, as I would be doing the same thing later in the day. I also got to make two trips over to the administration office to deliver the tests so they could be scanned. The ladies over there are so nice! It is going to be such a big adjustment going from kindergarten, where they do not really take “grades,” to third grade where they have all these standardized tests. I will also have to learn twice as many names and remember whose homeroom they are in! All in all, it was a pretty long and boring day. Third grade just does not measure up to kindergarten in my book.
-Miss Moore
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
3rd grade... whaaaa?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Last Day in Kindergarten :(
Quote of the day: J- (singing) “Takin’ care of biscuits!” S- “Uh, I think you mean business.”
Today was my last day in kindergarten! For the final day of Read Across America week, we wore bright colors in honor of Dr. Seuss’ book entitled My Many Colored Days. I wore my tie-dye Ouachita shirt. In addition, we made green eggs and ham. The kids loved it! It seemed to be a pretty normal day until after lunch. Mrs. A sent me to the lounge to make some copies, and when I came back, all the kids were seated in a circle on the carpet and they yelled “Surprise!” There were also gifts, cake, and ice cream waiting for me! One student’s mom had even sent me candy and balloons, and Mrs. A gave me a big box full of teacher stuff. I was so surprised! Tears came to my eyes, but I pulled it together because I did not want the kids to see me cry. They even sang me an impromptu song called “We Will Miss You” to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” After we ate cake and ice cream, I gave Mrs. A the gift I had gotten her: a 6-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, a box of Wheat Thins, and a big jar of M&M’s. (These are all her favorite things.) At the end of the day, Mrs. A had the students raise their hands and say their favorite thing they did while I was in their class. It was really neat listening to the things they remembered from the past six weeks. I will never forget all the sweet words and hugs I received from the kids as they were getting ready to go home. I am really going to miss the kids and teachers that I have had the privilege of working with this rotation. Because of them, my heart has been truly blessed.
It's really hard to get 20 kindergarteners to be ready and smiling all at the same time, so this is the best picture we got. I think it's pretty good, don't you? I will miss them so much!
On to third grade!
-Miss Moore
Friday, March 4, 2011
Last day!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Service Learning Project
Quote of the day: (The Star of the Week brought pictures from home for everyone to look at, and some of them were “glamour” shots, which is what Mrs. A told the class.) M- “Those are good grandma shots!” G- “Yeah she looks just like a grandma!”
This past Tuesday we had our community helpers assembly! (This was the celebration portion of our service learning project.) It went so well! Before lunch, Officer C came to Mrs. A’s classroom. Mrs. H’s class and Mrs. M’s class came in our room as well, and they listened to Mrs. A’s class read our classroom appreciation book. Officer C then spoke about some of the things he does, and the students asked him questions. We then presented him with our thank you cards, and he gave each student a sticker badge. During the assembly, which we had right before lunch in the cafeteria, we had students come up and help introduce the community helpers. We had a police officer, a mail carrier, a volunteer firefighter, and the president of the Lion’s Club. The students in the audience were so attentive! Miss G did such a good job of leading the assembly. Overall, I think we were very happy about how everything went. We received a lot of really good feedback from the counselor, the principal, and even the president of the school board! Wednesday during lunch, several other interns and I went around town and hung up our class appreciation posters in several local businesses. They were so great about letting us do this! They even seemed to appreciate the fact that we were asking them to get involved.
Here are some pictures of events from the day!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Getting there takes time... : )
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The BEST Day
Quote of the day: J- “Do you have a baby?” Me- “No.” J- “You need a baby.”
Yesterday was probably the best day I have had as an intern so far! I had my second observation by my supervisor, and it was one hundred times better than the first! It was like a complete transformation! This process has definitely shown me the power of effective and consistent classroom management. That is a lesson I will never forget. For my lesson, I read the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake since the letter of the week is C. Then I let the students help me mix the ingredients to actually make cupcakes! (We talked about how recipes are a special kind of writing as well as different tools to use when measuring.) I was so glad to have a sub in the room with me, because she was able to take the cupcakes down the hall and put them in the oven as I continued on with the lesson. After we mixed all the ingredients, we wrote our very own class recipe for a pretend pizza. I told the kids to be creative… their list of ingredients included chocolate chips, sprinkles, pepperonis, and... eyeballs? I was worried that they might get too excited during the lesson because it was so hands-on, so I thought of everything that could have possibly gone wrong and planned for it. I set my expectations up front, and I followed through. I would not say that it was perfect, because I know I can always improve. But I was so happy with the way things went. I feel like I have come so far! Today we iced the cupcakes and ate them during snack time. They were yummy!
One more day of solo week and only 6 more days in this rotation... I can't believe it!
-Miss Moore
*Emergency Room?!*
QOTD: Miss Neal, how long until school's over? Me: 3 hours Kid: That's NOT what I wanted to hear.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Bathrooms have great acoustics
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Find me a husband...
Monday, February 21, 2011
QOTD: Miss Neal, I wish you looked more like Mrs. C.
Much love,
Miss N
Friday, February 18, 2011
One of those days...
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Don't waste my time...
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wonderful Wednesday
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Rocks, rampages, and ready to GO
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Love Day!
Happy "Valentime's" Day!
Happy “Valentime’s” Day! (as Junie B. Jones and some of the students in my class would say) Our classroom was full of love today. The kids were so excited about giving each other Valentine cards. I had never thought of this before, but having the students write their classmates’ names on the cards and then have to look at them when passing them out is good practice for reading, writing, and letter recognition. I tried to incorporate some review on the numbers 1-20 by having the students sing “One little, two little, three little Valentines…” (all the way to 20) during morning carpet time. I passed out red hearts with numbers 1-20 on them, and when we got to their number they had to pop up really fast! When we mastered that, we scrambled up to make it more of a challenge. Instead of having a Valentine party, Mrs. A just incorporated the Valentine theme all throughout the day. In the afternoon, we had ice cream sundaes which were so delicious! The parents were so good to send all the items that were needed. Somehow we ended up with 6 jars of cherries, but we did not even make it through one! I also just want to say that I have the best kids ever. They are so sweet! Many of them gave me Valentines… I even got flowers, a teddy bear, and a huge box of chocolates! I think they liked the Valentines I got them… each one came with a tattoo. What a fun day!