Last Post

Explain the most challenging part during your field experience.

The most challenging part of field experience for me was the sense that I was missing part of the day, every day. I think there are two things going on here. First, I just genuinely enjoyed being in the classroom with the kids and wanted to spend as much time as possible without seeming like a nutjob. This irrational fear of missing out has little to do with being a professional teacher. The second thing is that I felt like I never had an accurate, whole picture of how a student was doing in a day. We were scheduled to come in late morning right before lunch and stay through the end of the day, and I often found myself wishing I had been there first thing in the morning so I could see how a particular student seemed when he or she first got to school. I felt that my arrival later in the day, when so much had already happened, prevented me from accurately assessing how students were responding to my teaching and interactions with them. I felt like I lacked the background knowledge I would have gotten if I had been able to see their body language and facial expressions and the way they greeted me in the morning when they got to school. 

Explain your greatest success during your field experience.

I felt my greatest success lay in the habits and learning culture I tried to establish within the small group of students I worked with daily during math reteach. Some of these students belonged in our cooperating teacher's class; other students came from some of the other sixth-grade classrooms. When I worked with our small group, I asked the students to follow the procedure of reading the math problem aloud, then stating their answer and how they got that answer. I had a group of 3-4 students, and we took turns answering the problems on the sheet every day. I took a turn myself; I felt that it was important for me to model what I was asking them to do. After the first or second day, when the students would gather in the classroom for reteach, I noticed that the same students were gravitating toward my area of the room. They smiled and seemed relaxed around me; they seemed happy to be there. 

What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience?

Don't hesitate--jump in with both feet! I was really nervous right before field started. I worried that I was going to bomb. I gave myself a pep talk the night before, and when I showed up the first day I smiled, volunteered to help the cooperating teacher whenever I could, and began establishing personal relationships with the students. I had most of their names learned by the start of the second day. I guess what I realized is that no one expects me to be perfect. Actually, no one expects me to have any idea what I'm doing because I have never done this before. I think what I'm trying to say is that the best tool to take into field is a good attitude and positive expectations for the experience.

LAST POST

Most Challenging: The most challenging thing about my field experience was classroom management. I love to have order and realizing that a lot of these kids are going to do whatever they want regardless of what I say was difficult. It was hard to try and change or implement something for such a short period of time.

Greatest Successes: I think that we got these kids to better understand Long Division. We worked hard with these students and some were really struggling with the concept. It was such a great experience to work with these students and literally watch the light bulb go off.

Recommendations: My recommendation is to just do your try your best and love the kids. I may not be the best teacher or most knowledgeable but I hope that my students will always know how much I care about them and hope I can help them succeed. 

Third Post

November 14, 2013--This afternoon for writing the students began working on prewriting for their descriptive essays. The topic for the descriptive essay was a personal hero, someone they knew personally who they admired. They were given a prewriting graphic organizer that had three columns for physical, personality, and character traits of their hero. The teacher told them they had to list at least 3 traits for each category. When the students began working on their organizer, I began walking around the classroom answering questions about how to spell words and other things. 

One of the students had a question that stumped me. She asked what the difference is between personality and character traits. Even though the teacher modeled when she was giving instructions, the difference between the two was unclear to the students and to me. The teacher had a difficult time articulating the difference herself. She ended up referring to the teacher manual of the writing textbook before giving the students a definitive answer. 

This experience was unsettling to me because usually when a student asks me a question I have a basic idea of the answer, I just have to find age-appropriate words to communicate my answer. But this time I didn't have the basic idea. It was uncomfortable for me. What made it worse was that I didn't come straight out and say "I don't know, let me ask the teacher," or "I don't know, let me check the textbook." I don't usually have a problem admitting that I don't know, but for some reason I didn't come clean and admit it. I think it may have something to do with the subject. I tend to think I can BS my way through writing and English. If the question had been in math or science, I would probably have been more straightforward at admitting I didn't know.

Second Post

November 8, 2013--Today our cooperating teacher stayed home sick; she had begun losing her voice and coughing like crazy for the last several days. When I left for at the end of the day on yesterday she said she was probably going to get a sub for today. She got a substitute teacher she often uses, a friend of hers she calls first whenever she needs a sub. The substitute's name was Mrs. Peterson. On this day the students had the chance to use the school's Chromebooks to type up final drafts of their opinion essays. The previous few days they had been prewriting and drafting opinion essays. (They had been asked to write persuasively about which was better, books or movies based on books.) 

By way of backstory, the district has recently begun placing an emphasis on email communication for the students. They have sent home communication with parents with instructions and plans for what they want the students to be able to do. The district uses Google Apps for Education, and all the students have their own nebo.edu email address that is hosted by gmail. The students are all being encouraged to begin using their nebo.edu email address to access Google Drive and the other educational apps that are offered by Google. In theory, this is a wonderful idea. But it's not such a great thing when the students can't remember their username and/or password and can't login!

Right as I got there a few students were wheeling the cart with the Chromebooks and were getting them all out. Each student had a beautiful shiny silver laptop, and most were successfully logging in and getting to work typing up their final draft. 

The students had 60 minutes with the computers, and what I noticed during the hour was that there were some students who had their drafts completely typed up and finished within 30 minutes and some who wasted most of the time doing other things. There were students who had problems logging in. One student in particular, a student who struggles significantly getting any of his work done ever, spent 20 minutes trying to log in. Mrs. Peterson and I both began trying to help him log in. Finally he found the paper with his username and password in his desk, and he realized he had been typing his username incorrectly. 

It became apparent that some students had been goofing off earlier in the week when they were supposed to be prewriting and drafting. Their teacher had spent the previous three writing lessons giving them time to draft their essays, but for whatever reason some students had failed to produce a first draft before the class's scheduled time with the Chromebooks. These students were given instructions that they were not to use the computers but instead spend the time with paper and pencil coming up with a draft. The teacher wanted them to have a handwritten, double-spaced draft before sitting down at the computer. 

Later on as the hour progressed, many of the students began sending each other instant messages and chatting via gmail. Mrs. Peterson instructed them that they were to use the computers only for writing their drafts. Some students protested, saying they should be able to do other things because they had finished typing their essays. I could see their point, but it seemed like a bad idea. Mrs. Peterson and I both agreed that they should get off the computers if they were finished and read or do something else quietly at their desks.

At the end of the day Mrs. Peterson and I taught the students a science lesson about the seasons using a video clip that was saved on the teacher's computer. Mrs. Peterson had gotten the video queued up earlier, but it wouldn't play. Mrs. Peterson didn't seem to know what to do about it. I went over to the computer and was able to start up Task Manager, stop and restart Windows Media Player, find the correct file, and play it. I felt good about the fact that I was able to get it working, and Mrs. Peterson seemed relieved too. She looked panicked there for a minute, I'm sure because she wasn't sure what she was going to do with the class for 30 minutes without the video.

First Post

November 6, 2013--I can describe my response to my first day in the classroom in one word: Disorienting. I think the first day placed me in a state of disequilibrium. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First I'll describe the events that happened.

When I first got there, the class was finishing up morning work. They worked on a science quiz about the stars; passed off some math facts for Knights of the Math Table; and corrected the previous day's math homework, which was about integers and whole numbers. The teacher then started guided reading. She called several reading groups back to the half-circle-shaped table at the back of the classroom and worked with groups. She asked various students to read aloud and kept a tally in her gradebook, which she called a running record and said we would learn about that next semester in literacy. 

In some of the reading groups the students handed in completed book reports. The teacher had given them a few options for their assignment, and she asked the students to explain to the group which option they chose and why. This was my favorite part of the day. I appreciated being able to see the way the teacher allowed the students to self-differentiate by choosing from a variety of reporting methods. I was thrilled to get a chance to look at what the individual students came up with. The students were allowed to choose between writing a letter from one character to another; creating a newspaper page featuring one of the events in the book; or drawing an 8-frame cartoon depicting a scene in the book. This is one of my favorite things about teaching--participating in students' individual responses and seeing their personalities emerge through their creative output. 

As I got ready to go the morning of the first day I struggled with feeling ill at ease. I wondered how I should act, if I should speak or just observe, and how to go about making a good impression. Because it was a half day of school, we were scheduled to be there first thing in the morning. I got there around 8:45 a.m. and asked the teacher if there was anything I could do to help (school starts at 9 a.m.). She looked surprised and explained that she wasn't used to having any help, so she'd have to think about it for a minute. I feel good about this; it seemed like it helped me start off on the right foot. 

With regard to what didn't work or what I would change, I can't think of many things. I wish I had felt more comfortable with the students that first day, but there really is no way to naturally accelerate that process. It just takes time to ease into things, get to know students as individuals, adjust to the pacing of the day, and feel comfortable with the classroom milieu. It's kind of a honeymoon period. I suspect it will be much the same for the first few months of the school year when I'm teaching on my own.

Last Post

Most Challenging: The most challenging thing about my field experience was classroom management. I love to be in control and realizing that a lot of these kids are going to do whatever they want regardless of what I say was difficult. I knew these kids had it in them to focus but sometimes they were distracted by others or they let their confusion for the subject take over. A lot of the kids would get stuck on something and then shut down.

Greatest Successes: I think that we got these kids to really care about what they were learning about in social studies. We did a petroglyph/pictograph activity and then "someone" came by and graffiti-ed our art so the students were able to experience first hand how it feels when someone vandalized their work. I thought this was a huge success because if you can get the students to care, I think they have really internalized the information.

Recommendations: My recommendation is to just do your best and be real with the kids. Sometimes I would get really nervous but I needed to remember I am a first semester junior and I won't be perfect. I won't even be perfect when I am a teacher. Just be honest with yourself and your students and you will be successful!

Final Post

Most Challenging:
I think the most challenging part of field was making sure that my lesson was good enough by the time I had to teach it. I am pro-procrastinator and it definitely would help to get better at preparing ahead of time. Also feeling confident that my lesson will help them at the final year end test puts a lot of pressure on the lesson.  You want to make everything you teach memorable, but that can be very expensive and time consuming. Finding a good balance is one thing I hope to work on and get better at as I continue learning.

My Greatest Success:
Was the love and joy I received from the class.  I knew I was interested in being a teacher, but after seeing the students faces light up when they understood a problem brought it to a whole new level.  Being able to even come up with my own lesson was a great accomplishment to me, and it got me really excited to expand my creativity in my future classroom and see what fun lessons I can come up with.  I know for sure that teaching is what I want to do and that it is going to be a great place for me.

My Recommendations:
I think being first semester students we think we have to have it all figured out and have to be perfect.  We have to remember we are just starting out and learning.  Take the time to observe, and listen to any advice that teachers give you. Having confidence in our self will make a huge difference.  Also, I think we need to learn to limit ourselves.  Dr. Jay told us already that we need to remember it is just a lesson in our unit plan as a whole. We can do great things already, but we have to keep growing.

Last Post

I first of all just want to say how much I enjoyed my experience in field!! I loved the students in my class and I already miss them. They are great kids and very fun to work with.

1. Explain the most challenging part during your field experience.

The hardest part of field for me was classroom management. I was very lucky to get the teacher that I did because she was a fantastic teacher and was great at classroom management. I learned many techniques and skills from her that I will forever be grateful for. She made managing the classroom look so easy but i found out it takes a lot of work. Learning to manage a class takes time and practice and I was grateful for the experience that I had to learn.

2. Explain your greatest success during your field experience

I think my greatest success during field was that I became a better teacher and a better person after completing the experience. I was very lucky to get the teacher that I did. Saying that she was an incredible teacher is an understatement. My cooperating teacher truly cared about her students and helping them learn and grow as individuals. I learned so much from her that will help me to become a better teacher. I think that a success for me was having the chance to teach and learning that I really could do it and that I enjoyed teaching. I have always loved helping others and this experience has increased my love for helping others to learn and to grow.

3. What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience?

My biggest recommendation to others is to enjoy the experience. Enjoy the time that you have with your students and in the classroom because it goes by fast, way too fast. Value the time that you have and enjoy it. 

Final Post

Most Challenging:
For me the most challenging part is preparing, especially preparing with another person. I make lesson plans, but I don't always stick to them. I'm not a rule follower when it comes to teaching; I let the students guide the lesson. I feed off of them and get all of my energy from them. It is very difficult to plan and teach with others when you teach differently.

Greatest Success:
I think my greatest successes were the first and last lessons that I taught. I was so confident in front of the class- when I'm teaching it's like no one else is even there. The only thing I care about are the kids. I think I was also very good at demanding there attention and respect. I never had any classroom management issues with them and they always knew that I was just as important as their teacher. I felt like they paid attention and participated and that definitely made me feel successful!

Recommendations: 
I recommend getting to know all of your students. You can feel that they trust you once you know about them and spend time talking to them. I also recommend using as many resources as you can! My cooperating teacher helped us out a lot and gave us a lot of ideas. Use as much as you can! As Axel says- beg, borrow, and steal! :) Also- don't panic! It is overwhelming- that's just the profession that we are going into. But I found it a lot easier to stay calm when I started seeing it as a learning experience. We are so privileged to go into these classrooms, and we have so many resources and wonderful people to learn from.

I would also recommend not putting too much into one lesson. This is SO SO important! Our teachers always say simple is better. You can NOT fit an entire unit in one lesson! Our time was limited and we were not expected to cover everything.

I was so sad to go. The day before my last day with them I cried after I left the school! I was just heartbroken. I told them I will definitely be back to visit. On the last day they all told me how happy they were to have me. A few kids said that I helped them with subjects that they didn't understand and that meant the world to me. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work with them.

Week 3

Most challenging: This last week I was able to do my teaching and I taught the fourth grade class on prime numbers and composite numbers. I felt very prepared and thought this would be a very smooth lesson to teach. The time was pretty accurate but some of the worksheets and activities we did I could have been more clear and have done the activities a different way so they understood better. So my most challenging part was to teach in the most clear [fourth grade mind].


Greatest success: Those were the fastest three weeks ever! But in that short time period I learned so much about myself. It was a great way to see my strengths and definitely the many of things I need to improve on and really learn before I become a teacher. I am so grateful for the cooperating teacher I had and am grateful for the chance I had to observe her and see how she handled her students in many different situations. I would say my greatest success would be the love I felt for the students. I truly had such a strong desire to help them succeed and be happy. The best thing was helping them understand something they didn't before and once it clicked how they would just light up and be so proud of themselves.


Recommendations: My recommendations for myself and my classmates is to think like the students. Think of ways that would connect and make the most sense. Think of fun ways to learn and remember subjects and activities. Prepare your lessons to be fun but also challenge the students so they push themselves to learn. They will have more respect for you as a teacher and themselves if they understand the importance of knowledge and learning in the classroom.

Final Post

Explain the most challenging part during your field experience: I think the thing I struggled with the most during field is timing, I am really bad at keeping my lessons in the right time frame. I like all the student input and comments and it is hard for me to cut them off and move on when there are still students who want to contribute. I got better at moving forward throughout field my first lesson I had to stop in the middle of it because I ran out of time, the other 3 lessons I taught were much closer to my time limit but it is still something I struggle with. Explain your greatest success during your field experience.: I think my greatest success was really caring about the students, I learned their names quickly, got to know them and tried to individualize my lessons to the students. I really want to do a great job and I put a lot of effort and thought into my lesson plans. What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience? Have your lessons planned out ahead of time so that you can just make small adjustments while in field. Plan a pre-test and a post-test that is the same so you can really gauge what the students learned. Learn the students names day 1 (or 2) because it lets them know how important they really are.

Week #3

This week was so great, I am so sad to say goodbye to the students. My last lesson was on the last day of field, I did a blow the roof off activity to review for their test, they were so into it. I spent a lot of time thinking of things that the little girl in my class who was mute could do, and she was not even there for the activity. I was really bummed out because I thought it would be something fun that she could be included in. The whole time I was in field the students were working on research and presentations for their reports on an ancient civilization, Friday they presented. It was so awesome, parents came to watch and the whole class did amazing. I ended up spending a lot of the time I was there helping students who were not finished, finish their projects so they were able to present. I am so excited to come back to class and hear about everyone's experiences. See you Soon.

Final Blog Post

Explain the most challenging part during your field experience.

The most challenging part during my field experience was trying to get all the numerous assignments completed throughout field and not just leaving it until the last minute right before its due. Sadly even though I was able to stay pretty on top of things I still left the assignments for creative arts to the last minute. I think if I am ever going to be an effective teacher I am gonna have to get better at getting things done earlier than required of me. Through all the stresses of getting assignments done I still had a wonderful time while in field.

Explain your greatest success during your field experience.

My greatest success during my field experience would have to be the timing... When we taught our lessons it seemed as though we were over planning to the extreme but then when it came down to it we were perfect on the timing. Especially when our observer came for the first time, we were so so worried about getting through everything in 25 minutes and surprisingly we did just that fantastically. We said the last thing we wanted to say and bam the bell rang.

What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience?

The only recommendation I would make to others based on my field experience would have to be "just get it done now" meaning that instead of putting things off until the week before the end of field instead you should get started on everything that is gonna be due, on the first week of field.

Final Week

1. Explain the most challenging part during your field experience. I think the most challenging part was working with the student I chose to focus on for Dr. Byrd's ZPD assignment. The resource teacher said he had completely checked out of school mentally, but I could still see a spark of interest he just didn't seem to know quite what to do with. Writing anything for him was especially difficult. Spelling has always come very easy to me, but it wasn't for him; grammar was also very troublesome for him. I did my best to help him make progress, but I left feeling that I hadn't succeeded in that area at all. I hope I at least encouraged him to keep reading and acknowledge his small successes.
2. Explain your greatest success during your field experience. My greatest success... probably the lessons I taught with Karen. There was a bit of a learning curve in regards to being able to work with the students, but I feel like I came out the other side with a new level of understanding in regards to classroom management. I personally still have a ways to go with that, but I really think the lessons we taught were pretty awesome.
3. What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience? Every day is a new chance to try again if the day before wasn't so great, and not just for you, but the cooperating teacher and the students, too. Also, positivity doesn't always come naturally when you're working with a student who is struggling with self-confidence in their academic abilities. Sometimes I wanted to express frustration when a student wasn't understanding something I was trying to explain, but I didn't allow myself to give up. Staying positive seemed to encourage better results. And lastly, find ways to connect with your students. I managed to connect with a few who liked video games due to the fact that my husband loves playing games himself. I was even able to relate some of the games to what the students were learning about. If you can understand their likes and communicate on their level, you can go so far with them. I loved every day that I was out there, and I can't wait to do it again next semester!

Week #4

1.Explain the most challenging part during your field experience.

The most challenging part of field for me was keeping up on our class assignments. I thought being in the classroom and creating lessons plans was so exciting and so fun! Creating lesson plans, took up a lot of my time after school already, and then I had to worry about multiple assignments that were very lengthy. It was extra hard for me to concentrate on making the most out of my field experience when my brain was so worried about all of the assignments that needed to be finished! I cannot wait to become a teacher. I loved my field experience so much and I have met so many great people!

2. Explain your greatest success during your field experience.

I honestly think our teaching was our greatest success as a team. I felt very organized, and prepared as we began each day. Our lessons went a million times better than we thought that they would and I was thrilled to hear the students talk about our lessons throughout the day. I loved that the students were so excited for us to teach, it just made it that much better of an experience! My partner and I also became very close to our students and cooperating teacher. Our last day was very sad because everyone became such good friends!


3. What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience?

Field is the best experience ever. I know that teaching can be hard, same with the preparation to become a teacher, but once you are in the classroom you will remember in less than a second why you are there. I would also recommend to get to know your students and develop trust, but at the same time, keep a professional relationship. The students need to know that you are the teacher and not just a friend, they will respect you more as an adult. Having said that, it's ok to be silly and yourself in the classroom. I loved that about our cooperating teacher. During play day, she would become one of the students as she participated in each game and they absolutely LOVED that!

The Best Field Experience so far....

I was so nervous going into this field experience, that now, I cannot even imagine why I was nervous because it was the best teaching experience I have had so far.  I miss the students already!

1.  Describe your teaching day.
The day starts out where the students come in and start working on their daily oral language and they work on it through the announcements while the teacher gets the lunch count and takes attendance, then the teacher corrects the DOL with the students.  The students then immediately go into math where they take about 45 minutes to an hour to do math because this class has been struggling with long division, so the teacher has been spending a lot of time trying to help the students understand it.   After math the students go to keyboarding and when they come back they usually do guided reading, shared reading or DEAR (drop everything and read) then they go to lunch.  

2.  Describe your favorite part of the day.
As always, I LOVE it when I get to teach!  It is absolutely my favorite part of the day.  When I am not teaching, I love spending one on one time with different students to help them understand math better or taking a group of students and working with them on their assignments.  It amazes me how well I know these kids in such a short amount of time and I have grown to love each and everyone of them.

3.  What went well, what didn't work so well, and what would you change or do differently?
Me and Kristie had our second observation this past Friday, which we did  our lesson on the 5 tribes of Utah, which went very well.  The students  were engaged and taking notes during our PowerPoint presentation, which was a bit long, but they hung in there and were very good!  Our observer  was amazed with how well the students took notes.  After our lesson was over we had the students in groups of 5 and each group made a poster about their tribe they were assigned by using their notes.  They did a FANTASTIC job!  I was so proud of their posters that I decided to share them with you.  Goshute    Navajo   Shoshone   Ute   Paiute     
I am also proud of how well our management technique went with the turkey.  The students responded very well to it and they all received a prize once they finished coloring it in.  Here is a sample of what we did and a student who had their turkey all colored in.  Turkey 
What would I change or do differently?  Once again, I felt our lesson on the 5 tribes of Utah was a little too long, but it was what our cooperating teacher wanted us to cover, so we did what we could to cover so much information in a short amount of time.  Another thing I would change would be the prizes I put in the treasure box.  Some of the students did not like the prizes I put in the treasure box, so I think I would put more thought into that when buying prizes.  

4.  To help your students you would....
I am always thinking of ways I can help students who struggle or just need a boost in their brain to get things to click or to understand  something better.  Me and Kristie helped a student in the class who was not in her Zone of Proximal Development ( ZPD).  She has been struggling with long division and cannot remember the steps very well and struggles with her multiplication, so to help her out me and Kristie made her a math book with the steps to long division with examples in it and we tested it out on her and it seemed to help her.  She had this big smile on her face the whole time we were helping her...I think it made her feel very good about herself to know that someone was reaching out to her to help her.  Today when I was helping her with her math assignment she didn't hesitate to get the math book out that we made for her to use, as a matter of fact, she was very proud to use it!  I hope she continues to use it.
Here is what the pages of the book we made her looked like.
Multiplication table     Steps to Long Division     Divisibility Rules  
Math Page 1     Math Page 2

I have had such a wonderful experience!  We ended our last day by showing our digital story to the class and we had the students and the teacher write down their feedback on paper and give it to us!  Our cooperating teacher and the students absolutely LOVED it!   WHEW!

Even though I am sad to see this come to an end...I am way excited to see everyone again! See You Soon!

Week 3: I can't believe it's over!

I can’t believe our three week field is already over! I am going to miss each and every student so much - I almost cried when I left the classroom today! I had an amazing field experience and this past week in the classroom has been especially fun.

1. Describe your teaching day

    When students first arrive to class in the morning, they start by greeting their teacher (and Rachelle and I).Then students hang up their coat and backpacks, pick their name off of a Velcro strip, and make their lunch choice by placing their name in the correct section (either the lunch choice #1, lunch choice #2, or the cold lunch section). I really like this easy morning routine because it allows the teacher to quickly take roll by knowing who is present or not, just by looking at who has made their lunch choice. After the students make their lunch choice, they immediately start working on their “self starters” without being told and do so, and continue working until after the morning announcements and pledge of allegiance. After “self-starters”, students start rotations where they look at a chart which quickly tells them what rotation to work on and start (writing, reading, or math). I am so amazed each morning as to how well the students just come into the classroom and follow this morning routine without being told to do so! I am impressed with my cooperating teachers classroom management style and hope that I too can have this well of management as a teacher. As students are working on their morning routine, Rachelle and I are usually doing whatever the teacher has asked us to do, whether that be: coping of papers, grading and recording students’ scores, helping to preparing items for the day’s (or future) activities, or just simply walking around helping students.

2. Describe your favorite part of the day

    My favorite part of the day is when I get a chance to spend one-on-one time with a student. For example, this week I got to work with cute shy boy who needed extra help with long division. I was so excited when after some guidance, he actually “got it” and started solving the math problems on his own!

3. What went well, what didn't work and what did you change?

    Rachelle and I finished teaching our fifth lesson this week in which we taught a fun art project. While teaching our art project, we had someone come in to observe us and I think that overall, our lesson went really well. What didn't go quite so well was, since we were teaching art, I wanted the students to interact with each other and have fun, but during our project it got a little loud and hectic in the classroom to where at one point, I had students trying to glue their hands together! I am very proud of myself though for quickly getting on top of the situation and feel that I handled it well, but maybe for next time just making sure I give more clear directions (including what not to do).

4. To help your students you would…

    During our lessons, Rachelle and I have been using the fill-in-a-square classroom management technique using a turkey picture and having students color in a section of their turkey (instead of a square) for rewarding behavior. This technique has been so successful to use! We have some students who have not filled in all of their turkey sections yet so this past week, I have really tried to let students know what expectations I was looking for and tried to help students achieve these goals to fill in their turkey! Today, I am happy to announce that all mostly all the students filled in their turkeys so all the class earned their reward (Rachelle and I put together cute goody-bags for each student).

    I am really going to miss all the students! I have had several girls come up to me in tears, especially today, because they were sad that Rachelle and I weren't coming back! I had a lot of students make me heart-warming notes and drawings saying: “please don’t go”, “I’m going to miss you…” and “all I want for Christmas is for you to stay in our classroom.” Rachelle and I had a hard time not crying as we were given hugs today before we left by almost all of the students (including some of the boys). - Overall, I have had an amazing field experience, (with a wonderful partner - thank you Rachelle!) that is just another confirmation to me that I want to become a teacher even more!

I can't believe it's over already!

Time sure flies, I truly can't believe that field is already over. It feels like I was just walking into the classroom for the first time just yesterday! The most challenging part of field was getting the students to truly see you as an authoritative figure. I feel like at the beginning they viewed both of us as just a helper, but I think by the end they knew we were teachers too and gave us the proper respect we deserved. Another thing that was semi difficult during field was trying to keep the chatter to a minimum during our lessons. They never talked over or were ever really loud. There would just be side conversations going on about our lesson, but still during it.

Honestly, I don't know if I had a greatest experience while teaching. I loved every part of it, but if I had to choose it was each time I was able to sit down with a student within the class and help him or her understand a concept. To see the smile on their face when they understood the subject is just one of the greatest feelings in the whole world. Other things would be when I got the chance to eat lunch and play at recess with the children. I feel like at these moments I was able to grow so close to the children where they began to trust me, which is so huge in teaching.

Recommendations for people who start field would be at the beginning super hard and firm with the kids. This lets them know that you are their teacher and they must give you respect. I feel like for most of us first time field experience student teachers classroom management is our main struggle. My cooperating teacher told us that if we just make sure to show them that we are in charge (of coarse not being mean in any way, but being by having a "loving sternness") then the rest of the time will run so much smoother with the kids.

I just have to say one more time how much I loved and enjoyed field. This has been one of the greatest experiences like ever! I cannot wait to get back and hear about your experiences in your classroom in more depth! :)

Last Day... Wish it could never end!

I am so sad this whole experience is over. The class I was placed in was by far one of the best classrooms I have ever worked with and I am so incredibly grateful to have been part of it for the past month.

So today was one of the best days of field so far. In the morning the students were able to learn more about decimals and decide whether they needed an exact answer or an estimate. While the other students were working on the work my cooperating teacher assigned to them, Rachel, my teacher, and I worked with the students who were absent the day before to teach them how to learn the concept that they learned the day before. It was way fun. Once that was over we went around and helped some of the students who needed help on the work they were doing. Then the students went to computers and recycling right after that. While they were out of the room Rachel and I were able to talk to our teacher more. I truly love my cooperating teacher, she is one of the best woman of all times and such a great example to emulate in both real life and teaching life. I want to constantly stay in contact with her through out my whole career as a teacher. When the kids came back we had a huge goodbye party for both Rachel and I. It was way fun to hang out with the kids and answer the last questions they were dying to ask (which were mainly about soccer for me). Rachel and I at this time also handed out presents to the children. It was such a cool experience and I am going to miss everyday being and helping them.

I also ate lunch with them today too and got to play soccer with them at recess. It was so fun. I love being around the children and being able to get to know them more. They are each so unique and different that it was just great to be with them. I feel like the best part of the day was lunch and recess because I got to interact with them in a different way so I feel like my bond with them grew that much stronger. I wouldn't have changed anything about today, honestly it was perfect. I feel like I helped them with math and I helped them a ton with their confidence. The children kept coming up to me asking me what words described them and I feel like each of them felt better after it.

Today was a perfect ending..
except it really wasn't the end. I plan on going back next semester to help tutor them in math in the mornings or work with them in the afternoons. so excited :)

Week Number 3! November 22

First off, I LOVE TEACHING!!!!!! like so much guys!

Today was a really fun day! We were able to help the students correct their math tests so they could earn a few extra points on their overall grade. They also learned how to estimate numbers with decimals. After that Rachel and I were able to go play P.E. with the students and PLAY WITH THEM! We played dodge ball and split the team by evens and odds within the class, but the way they played it they game was nearly unending. However, still way fun. When we got back they did a pass in party where they turn in all of their week for the past week. After that I did an academic debate with the students, which went super well. The kids super enjoyed it. The best part of the day was my lesson with the kids. We had so much fun debating over whether or not there should be school uniforms and then they wrote an essay trying to persuade the principal why he should or should not have uniforms. I really wouldn't have changed anything about this day. It went over so well and smooth.

Overall, I think I did help the students a ton. I love helping them with math the most. They are very behind in math so when you can tell they are finally getting the subject it is way rewarding. I am sure you guys have had similar experiences during your time in field. This job is seriously one of the best jobs a person could ever have!

Substitute Teacher!

Week Number 2: November 14

      Today we had a substitute for the majority of the day. Both Rachel and I taught for the majority of the of the time that we were there. We taught a huge math lesson on dividing large numbers into even larger numbers. This went really well and I feel like the kids truly understood it. Next, we taught them a literature lesson really quickly on how to write a persuasive lesson. We did it on Christopher Columbus, who we taught about the day before, and had them write their opinions of him. It was a really good day overall. My favorite part of the day was also one of the worst parts of the day too, but the majority of this experience was good. Both Rachel and I taught P.E. to the two fifth grade classes at the school. It was a ton of fun and slightly chaotic with that many kids. Unfortunately, we failed to mention no sliding so a girl in the class we teach in slid to try and win and ended up bonking her head on the wall. Rachel took both classes of students to their classrooms while I stayed behind with her until she felt well enough to walk to the office, where the nurse was actually not even in that day either. So this girl ended up going home. She came back the next day with only a slight bruise.
       I feel like I helped the students a lot today. The substitute basically handed the reigns over to both Rachel and me so we were constantly helping and teaching the students. It was fun to basically be the teacher the entire day. More than anything the kids taught me how fun it is to really teach and reaffirmed how much I love to teach. :)

I'm sad to see it end!

The class I spent the last three weeks in was so great. I'm sad to leave because I really became invested in the students and I learned so much from the teacher! Each day was so enjoyable for me. The time just flew by. Most days I spent the mornings at the school so I got to see the kids as they came in for the day. The teacher has let me help a lot and I have loved that. She let me give them their spelling words for the spelling test. I went too slow, and they let me know! I think they thought I was underestimating them. But then when I corrected the tests, I think they could have used a little more time:). My last couple of lessons for my unit on Ancient were the art lessons. We made Roman mosaics, and the students wrote and performed skits about Roman religion. Of course, most played Gods in their skits. The students loved both projects and I took pictures for them to put in their Rome booklets that we compiled from all we did. I also did video with my phone of their skits so they could watch themselves. It was a lot of fun.

The students were really starting to trust me and talk to me by the time it was over and it made it even harder to say goodbye. They said they want me to come back and substitute, but I don't think our program schedule at UVU would work out for me to do that...although I would in a heart beat! When it came time to go today, they gave me a really sweet card they had all written little messages in and a few gave me hugs. It was awesome.

After this experience, I think my biggest issues are organization and class management. Keeping 30 students on task isn't easy! Even though they were interested, they still got too loud sometimes. And even doing one unit for one subject, I felt like I had stuff all over the place and was struggling to keep it organized and together. I need to figure out a better way or I know I will go crazy!

I really feel like I was able to connect to each student in the class (some more than others) but I think that is huge as a teacher. I really think they knew that I truly cared about them and I hope I can always accomplish that because, as we learned in Ed Psych, quality instruction and the teacher-student relationship are most important for student success.

I cannot believe it is almost over :( (Week 3)

I cannot believe that our field experience is coming to an end. It seems like we just started.

1. Describe your teaching day
To begin each day, our cooperating teacher will write on the board what assignments students should be working on when they arrive to class. I love this technique because students arrive to class at different times and the students know to look at the board and to quickly get started on their work. While we are with our students they have math, language arts, computers, recess, and music. During music time our students either go to band, orchestra, or choir. Each of the groups our working on Christmas songs that they are going to perform in an assembly for the school and for their parents.
This week our school had an earthquake drill and we had the chance to see what happens during that. Once the kids hear the drill they quickly take cover under their desk. The students then line up, get the safety bag, and head outside. Once all the classes were all accounted for we could go back to class.  All of the sixth graders also had a training on school safety in the library.

2. Describe your favorite part of the day
One of my favorite parts of my week is when I had a student come up and tell me that they were excited to have me in class. It may not have seemed like a big deal to that kid but to me her words meant the world. It is amazing what simple kind words can do.

Our class also started drawing some Turkeys for Thanksgiving. We have not finished them yet but we are going to work on them some more tomorrow.

3. What went well, what didn't work and what did you change?
One thing that went well this week is that I had a couple of opportunities to help students with their math. There were a few kids who were not understanding the assignment and so I sat down to see if I could help them. We broke the problem down and went through all of the steps. The kids followed very well and knew exactly what to do when we wrote down all of the steps. It was neat to see the kids go from being frustrated to feeling excited that they could do the problem. Sometimes we think we don't know something or we think we can't do something but when we can see it in a way that makes sense to us we realize that we really understand and can do more than we think we can. As we were going to recess one of the kids that I helped came up to me and thanked me for my help.
Something that I can always work on is helping to manage the class. Classroom management does take time and work but I am learning so much and gaining so many techniques that I am going to remember for my future class.
4. To help your students you would...
Last week I made a goal to learn more of my student's names. This past week I really worked hard to learn everyone's names but I still have a few more to go. I have found that when I get to know the student's I can better know how to help them. In my final day with my students I am going to let them know how much I have loved and appreciated working with them. I am going to remind them of how great they are and how they have been a great example to me.

I hope that everyone enjoys there last day in field!! I am excited to see everyone when we get back from break!! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great break!! I am truly grateful and blessed to know you

1. 
   

Three Weeks Already!?

Three weeks are up!? What?! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by!

I am so sad to leave these little guys!

The MOST CHALLENGING part of my field experience was probably just thinking about all of the assignments I will need to turn in once field is over!!! haha Field has been such a FABULOUS experience! :) It is fun to learn by doing! I have learned so much from my cooperating teacher and the students that I just couldn't have learned in our UVU classes. It was a challenge to be a sub for two days and handle all of the classroom management! I know that is something that just comes with experience, but I have learned some AWESOME techniques that have helped so much!

The GREATEST SUCCESS was definitely teaching our lessons! I felt so prepared and comfortable guiding the lessons and helping the students learn. I loved that feeling of reassurance that I am doing the right thing! I couldn't be happier about being an elementary school teacher! :) I loved being able to teach almost everyday with Makaila! Our cooperating teacher gave us so many opportunities to teach and grow! And I felt like that was an awesome success!

The ADVICE I would give to others going into field would be to go to bed early!!! :) haha You need lots of energy to keep up with those little munchkins! Sometimes it was hard to stay awake (especially this morning when I took two allergy pill and it made me drowsy! hahaha) so I would definitely recommend getting into a good routine of going to bed and waking up early! :) Also, ask your cooperating teacher lots of questions! They are so great to learn from and get ideas from! I LOVED my cooperating teacher!!!!

2nd Week

1. Our Second week went very well. We have had plenty opportunities to teach. Our day starts off with the students working on their daily oral language and then we usually get the opportunity to teach after that. This week we had our second observation on Friday. We taught a lesson on the The Utah Tribes. It went well. The students participated and seemed to enjoy the lesson. We are so going to miss being in field and having the opportunity to teach everyday.

2. My favorite part of the day so far has been the Guided Reading Groups. I have two students that I take and work with and in the two weeks I have been there they have moved up a level. They are doing great.

3. What went well this week? We made a student a help folder for her division and she seemed to really like it and we are hoping that it will give her the help she needs. I think that it turned out great and we showed her and had her work on some problem with our help guide and she seemed very receptive about it.

4. The only think I think I would change about this week or what I would do different would be in our lesson for the observer I would of changed our slides up a little. But other than that I was really happy with this week and all that we accomplished.

Another week done!

Just finished our second whole week and this week we got to teach 3 times!  I am going to talk mostly about our Friday!

#1  Our day started like it usually does with the students coming in and getting done with their math self starts.  After that they did a class review for their math test they took the test and there weren't too many raised hands during the test so hopefully they understood better!  Then we got to go on what they called a dinosaur walk in the 4th graders classroom where they had made papermache dinosaurs.  They looked awesome!  When we go back it was our turn to teach our last lesson on ancient Egypt.  We started with just some simple direct instruction all about the everyday life of an ancient Egyptian.  After we were done giving the lesson we did a blow the roof off activity.  We wanted to do this activity because our cooperating teacher preferred if we did something that she could give them points for.  We made up a little ten question quiz on the 5 subjects of Egypt we focused on.  This was also our way of assessing what percentage of the students learned more then they already knew about ancient Egypt.

#2 My favorite part of the day was our activity we did.  The blow the roof off went really well!  At first they had to go slower and figure out what they were supposed to do.  After they understood they LOVED it! I was so happy to see them all running around one at a time and trying to go really fast.  It was a great way to see them engaged and using all the props we brought in for them.  I think it really helped a lot of them on their short quiz because we go most of the questions from the blow the roof off activity.

#3 What went well was our overall lesson for the day.  We did really good with our timing and making sure we had enough time to get in the lesson, activity and ending assessment.  I think maybe the only thing we could of done better was maybe be able to have they students do the blow the roof off one more time but we really only had 45 minutes all together and the lunch helpers had to leave early so we had to make sure to get everything done!

#4 To help my students I would maybe make sure to give the less "jumpy" activities in blow the roof off to the quiet and more reserved students.  I know there were a few students who were not as comfortable as others doing goofy Egyptian stuff.

Head Injuries and Heart-Throbs! :)

I love these little 5th graders!!!  They truly have my heart!!!  

This last week (week 2) we got to sub for two days while our cooperating teacher went to a conference.  Of course there was a paid sub there with us, but we ran the show!  

.....

And they sure gave us a run for our money!!! hahaha 

(If ONLY we made money! hahaha) 

:)

It must be hard for ten-year-old's to have three new teachers in their classroom, and that's understandable!  They like having fun with us.  Sometimes it's hard to discipline when you see them as friends, but it is so important to establish that teacher-student, professional relationship right off the bat.  It really does help both of you in the end.  

Thursday we got to greet the students like their teacher normally does! We sat by her desks and greeted each student by name as they lined up to say good morning. :)  Then we got right into math!  It was fun working with Makaila and doing fun math activities with the students! They especially like using their desks as white boards.  We had fun races to see which row could clean off their desks the fastest once we were done....a little competition sure does make cleaning go by a whole lot quicker! :)

By the time we got to PE the kids were soooo excited!  We played their favorite game, "Ship to Shore."  They had to move quickly and run from one side of the gym to the other.  When it was down to the last two girls, they raced to one side of the gym and one girl slid on her knees to get there faster..but ran into the wall face first. :(  Luckily there were three of us teachers to take care of her and the rest of the class!  She is doing fine and wanted to stay at school that day...her parents didn't let her!! hahaha But she is doing great now!

My favorite part of the day was when one of the students brought me and Makaila a drawing she had made for us!  She had written all over it how wonderful we are and that they never want us to leave! :) That sure made us feel loved and appreciated!

I would change how we did classroom management.  I think sometimes its too hard to have three teachers doing the teaching and managing.  I think it would be better to have one teacher teach something while the other is managing the students, instead of both doing both at the same time.

To help my students I would want to WORK WITH THEIR PARENTS TO HELP THEIR CHILDREN DO THEIR HOMEWORK!!!!!!  It is SO vital that they get attention at home while they work on their homework!  The differences in the students who have parents who help their kids with their homework and the ones that don't are HUGE!   I don't know what I could do to work with the parents...but I want to!

Field Experience Week 2

Describe your teaching day- Our day is very similar to what I said about week one. We have had some variety lately though. We have had two assemblies during our field experience, one for the orchestra and the other about internet safety. Although it is nice for the kids to have some variety it makes getting through all the material that all the teachers are supposed to finish extremely difficult. Shayla and I help the students with math, do reading groups, and have been modeling paragraphs for the kids. 

Describe your favorite part of the day- I really enjoy our language arts/social studies time. We are writing reports on Indian tribes and each student is writing their first real report. We model a paragraph about the Anasazi at the beginning of the class and the students help write them by coming up with supporting ideas. It is cool to see them learn how to do something that they will have to do for the rest of their lives. 

What went well, what didn't work so well, and what would you change or do differently? This week when we did our lesson we made sure to state clear rules for the kids during the lesson. It worked well for awhile but we soon realized that you need to keep restating the rules when you switch activities. That was something that our supervising teacher brought up and it makes a lot of sense. The kids attention needs to be refocused. Next time I'll definitely let the kids know of the rules throughout the lesson. 

To help your students you would- I wish there was more time in the day to help each student individually. I love finding how each student learns and helping them that way. I want to make sure that each student has an individual relationship with me as a teacher so that I can help them progress. I think that knowing each student is very important for their growth.  

Week 3

This week has been so much fun! When the students first arrive they walk in and greet the teacher. Then they put their coats and back packs on the racks, pick their names off a velcro strip, and put it by the lunch they want. This is great because they pick their lunch and it makes it super easy to do roll. Next they have self starters and they just go! I am amazed every day at how well they do without being told what to do. After self starters, the teacher tells them they will start rotations, and again, they just go. It's really cool seeing what a good teacher can do with a group of kids.

My favorite part is anytime I get to teach or help a student one-on-one. These kids are so sweet. They have been working to earn their campout, and they earned it Friday so that is what we will be doing tomorrow. We will get the parachute from the gym and put it over a circle of desks for the tent. We will do s'mores in the microwave and tell scary stories.

We finished our five lessons this week and they all went really well. We had someone observing us this week while we were doing an art project. I had a student have a melt down while I was trying to work with him. I worried that I wouldn't know how to handle the situation but knew that I was being watched and had to decided what I was going to do. So I did what I would with my own kids and it worked! I told him what I expected and then I walked away. He sat on the floor for a while and then I saw him get up in his chair. I went back over to talk to him again and he was ready to work. He worked very well with me the rest of the lesson. It felt so good to get through to him. Now he always comes up to me and I can tell he has more respect for me now.

I will help the students more this week by letting them know my expectations and then helping them reach them. We gave them a turkey that they could fill in spaces when they showed good behavior and most of the class has theirs filled out so I'm excited to give them their treat on Tuesday. But I am so sad to be leaving them. I had a girl come up to me in tears saying that she doesn't want us to go. The students wrote letters to santa for Make-a-wish foundation and a few of the girls said their only wish was that we could stay all year.

Week 3

1. Describe your teaching day. On Wednesday, Karen and I had our second observation. We were teaching another class we'd never taught before, and we decided to do a jigsaw to teach about the location of Rome. The students were a bit rambunctious, but it went really well and our supervisor was really impressed with us. I am so glad that the whole observation thing is over with! I've just been enjoying myself since then.
2. Describe your favorite part of the day. I find I really enjoy Reteach. The students are divided up among the four sixth grade teachers and are taught at their skill level certain math concepts. My teacher had the students who scored the lowest on their last math test, but the table of students I worked with were actually pretty good at what they were doing. The biggest problem they had, though, was going too fast and accidentally skipping steps. I had to keep making them go back over each problem and explain to me what they were doing. I really hope it makes a difference in the long run for them.
3. What went well, what didn't work and what did you change? The student I've been trying to work with for Dr. Byrd's ZPD assignment has shown mixed results over the last couple of weeks. I think the most disheartening thing I suffered was when the resource teacher said this student had mentally checked out of school three weeks in, and that he would never go on to finish school, same as his older siblings. I tried not to let her negative attitude affect me, but it was really hard. This boy goes to resource twice a day for 30 minutes, as well as spending time with the ESL teacher once a day. He's a sweet boy, and probably the most soft-spoken boy I've ever met, but I wasn't fully convinced that he had completely given up. I tried using a positive attention approach with him using his teacher's star chart system, and he started paying more attention in class, but my goal of helping him finish just one written assignment doesn't look like it's ever going to happen. I tried guiding him through the steps the teacher required for every written paper, but I couldn't step back or he would lose his focus. I worry that the resource teacher's negativity had a negative impact on how I worked with this student, so I think in the future, I'm ignoring everything that everyone says.
4. To help your students you would... I found ways of rephrasing questions on tests the students were struggling with to help them answer the questions correctly. I also gave gentle reminders when students started getting off track in any way.

3rd Week

Describe your teaching day.

Ridgeline really is the best school, the other teachers, the students everyone was so friendly and helpful in our field learning experiences. The only downside to this week was that we only got to teach once instead of all week... I really do love teaching it just makes the whole day just wonderful. Our observer gave us another wonderful review of our second lesson.

Describe your favorite part of the day.

My favorite part of the day this week would have to be helping the student I am working with that is not within the necessary zone of proximal development standards. It was a blast to be teaching one on one with a student that I have the opportunity of helping have a better understanding of the material that she was struggling with.

What went well, what didn't work and what did you change?

The students were able to warm up to us a little more than the previous week which was nice,  I know about maybe 20% of their names but still don't feel like I know them as well as I wish I had. However I have had a wonderful time thus far. What didn't work would have to be having enough time for our lesson plan on tuesday, we ran out of time and instead of having them do the assessment we had for them to do we sent it home as homework. Really getting the timing just right is one struggle I wish I could master.

To help your students you would...

To help the students in the classroom I found it to be most helpful to give them feedback on their persuasive writing essays, which were quite wonderful of the ones that I had the opportunity to read. They really are brilliant students, there was a student that started her essay on why we shouldn't eat turkeys with saying "Do you want to be a cliche again this year?" Like really, CLICHE! I wouldn't even be smart enough to start an essay in such a brilliant way. They really do amaze me with their abilities.

Week #3!

1. Describe your teaching day.

Week 3 was a great week because I taught two lessons! The preparation is always the hardest part, but the lessons have always ran smoothly. On Monday we taught our Social Studies lessons during the math time slot, and then they had math later in the day. On Friday we taught first thing in the morning, before ancient civilizations presentations. We split up the lesson so that I would teach 30 minutes and Brandi would teach 30 minutes. It worked out really nicely.

2. Describe your favorite part of the day.

We had a different schedule this week because we (Brandi and I) were teaching so much, and because the kids were preparing and presenting their ancient civilizations projects. My favorite part of the day is usually the morning transition when the P.M. kids get to school. We do the pledge, the greeting circle, a song (usually Brave by Sara Barielles or Roar by Katy Perry), and then the kids watch CNN Student News before getting started on math. There was a day where a few students needed to work in the computer lab so my teacher went with them, and I got to lead the transition time! It was a blast and I actually stayed on schedule. I also loved the times that I got to teach (of course) and the ancient civilization projects on Friday were AWESOME. The kids "dressed professionally" (they were so cute) and stood in front of the class, and I was just so proud of them.

3. What went well, what didn't work, and what would you change?

I felt like my Monday lesson was a little scattered because it was a Reader's Theater. I felt like it was difficult because I had them read in groups and some groups finished before others. I realized I need something for them to do or focus on while waiting for others to finish. I also realized that kids aren't so patient in sixth grade...they didn't like waiting for slower readers to read aloud. If I knew their reading levels better I could have put them into better groups. That will definitely be something to think about for future lessons.

4. To help your students, you would...

I helped them a lot on their presentations in the computer lab. They each made a powerpoint, and they actually really surprised me. I always help a lot in math, which is most rewarding for me. I feel like it's fun to watch math "click" for them. My teacher did an inquiry based math lesson that was awesome, and I worked closely with one of the groups to help them figure it out.

IT'S A..........

Hey everyone!
IT'S A BOY! :)
 I just thought I would share the exciting news, I hope you are all doing well!

This week has been great! I am amazed at how attached I can feel to this class of fourth graders in such a short amount of time. I will be sorry to see my field experience end. There is one student in our class that just loves to read. Currently he is reading Harry Potter. He tries to be sneaky by setting the book under his desk while reading. He rarely says much, just hurries to do his work and then right on back to his reading. On Friday, Brooke and I did a jigsaw lesson on the Native Americans in our state. We divided our class into five groups and assigned each group a different tribe to report on.  We were so excited at how excited some of the students were and how seriously they took this assignment. One of the students that really surprised us was our student that loves to read. He wrote an informative talk and you could tell how proud he was of the results of his work. I think we heard his voice more during that presentation than the previous weeks we had been in the class. And he wasn't alone in his excitement. This was truly a rewarding lesson and the students were great. We had a sub that day and they just accepted Brooke and I as their teachers. Many of our students are already expressing their sorrow at seeing us leave. Brooke and I both taught lessons this week. I was happy with how my lesson went and as always Brook was wonderful! We decided we could be team teachers for life. I have come to admire and respect Brooke even more during our time together. She is an excellent teacher and has great instincts. My greatest joy is working with the students. I was doing read aloud with them and trying to read with good expression and some of them got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. Oh well!  This school has been so wonderful to us. We have met so many people here who encourage us and make us feel good about ourselves. It will be hard to leave them.But  I miss all of you and will be happy to be with you again.