How much longer will it be?

FINALLY started my Special Ed observations! I had the biggest smile on my face walking into the classroom to meet the teachers, one even said you sure look happy to be here, I told him I was so excited I barely slept last night! He laughed, and told me he was like that on his first day too, I was a little more at ease after that. As soon as the students walked in, I think my smile got even BIGGER! I work with students who are in kindergarten to third graders. Their disabilities all range from ADHD to a student missing a part of her brain, the corpus callosum...she almost made me cry that day. I get to help students improve on their reading and math. The students I am working with are absolutely hilarious, they made me laugh all morning. Their favorite thing to do is to make their teachers laugh. All the teacher's I am working with are super nice and they make the resource room an exciting place to go. The students all LOVE going there and they did not want to leave when the class was over. The one teacher I was mainly working with told me that I was meant to teach Special Education, this made me so happy I can't wait to go back! All I keep asking myself is how much longer till I can actually teach?! I can't wait to have my own class!

In the other classroom I am observing in, the teacher asked me to work with a student on math to see if I would be better than the aid he was given. She thinks I was so she wants me to work with him from now on. She said what makes you so great is that  you gained his trust, you cared about him getting the problems right. It kind of made me think about the survey we took for a grad student here, does caring really make you a more effective teacher? Well for those of you who are unsure of this the answer is YES. If you don't show that you CARE than neither will your students. Especially if it is challenging for that student, they need to be encouraged. Since all of us are going to be teachers: care for your students no matter if they are the cutest thing you have ever seen, super geniuses, not the brightest, or the most annoying child you have ever met, just care...it will make a difference.

Paper Air Planes and Neatbells

I absolutely love the classroom I am in! Already my dorm is covered in pictures from the kids in the class! My first day of observing was fantastic! The kids are sooo adorable and well behaved. I have gone and worked in the classroom three times so far, already the students are really willing to work with me. The teacher threw me right in and had me working with a little girl whose having trouble with her reading. She had taught the class a new technique to use where if they did not know a word they looked at the picture for clues. Not only as we were reading through the book did she use this technique but she had used a technique they learned in a previous unit! I was so impressed that she did not need any reminders and figured it out all on her own! I really love working with the kids. The teacher let me open a unit called "How To..." and we wrote the lesson plan together. As a demonstration, I taught the class how to make paper air planes! How cool is that!? I am curious as to how the unit is going because I have only been there for day one so far and can't wait to see how far the students have come when I go to observe tomorrow! When the class was brain storming ideas to teach others how to do something, one girl asked me how to spell meatballs only she spelled it "Neatbells"...I thought it was cute but then helped her correct it! One thing I have noticed is that when the class goes to a special activity, they tend to show worse behavior than when in the classroom, especially in art. The kids were kneeling on stools and all I kept thinking was that someone was going to fall! I was so scared! So far my observations are going great! On Wednesday, I am hoping to start my special education observations! Can't wait! I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!

I have been doing homework all day with Nicole and for those of you who can watch TV and do homework at the same time good for you!...however, we can't! At least the GIANTS won the SUPERBOWL! What a great way to end the weekend! My two favorite sports teams winning! The DEVILS being the other team, although Nicole is not so happy about that because they beat her team!

My First Blog Post!

Today was the first full day of class of spring semester and it went pretty good for classes today. I had my first special ed class today and I absolutely LOVED it! Never been more sure of anything in my life! Can't wait to become a teacher only about three more years!...not including grad school! I have my first observation tomorrow in a first grade classroom! I am sooooo excited words cannot explain! I don't think I will sleep tonight...I know I'm sad.

Anyone have any good advice on what to blog because I clearly have no idea what I am doing if you couldn't tell! First blog post is soooo short because I do NOT know what to say. Someone please give me advice! First blog post complete!