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The First week was terrifying, going into a classroom with little experience, with a teacher who I barely know, and STUDENTS 24 second grade STUDENTS! The first week was really me just watching the teacher set her classroom expectations and schedule for the class. However she gave me an opportunity to read the class a book just to get my feet wet. Being presented with my first time to lead an activity in class made me more nervous then I ever had before. I was a stuttering mess and had to apologize profusely to both the class and my cooperating teacher. I am glad my teacher gave me the opportunity though, if I hadn’t gotten my feet wet early I would not have seen some weaknesses in my skill set that I needed to take care of.

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Week two was still a little scary but most of the nerves had gone when talking to new people. They had a hub where they would eat lunch but because was nervous I would stay in the classroom and eat alone. I am grateful for the second grade team at Taylor, they were very welcoming and broke me out of my shell. I asked for a second chance to read a book aloud for the class, and my cooperating was always willing to give me a chance. I was still watching my cooperating teacher set the foundation of her classroom, but I helped with stations and answered questions if students needed help during this week as well.

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During week three I was finally being handed my first part of recurring teaching tasks, morning meetings. During the morning meeting there would a fact of the day, a joke/ riddle, and a video that shares reflects qualities we want the students to learn. After the video there is a couple of questions we would ask the students, then tell them where we are going for specials that day. I was definitely over confident when starting this task because I thought it was easy, but I learned real quick it would not be easy keep students engaged for 15 minutes on the carpet. Any chance I got I went to my teacher and asked for advise or areas I could improve on, because I never want to hold back the students from learning. My teacher gave me a list of the morning meetings ahead of times so I can better familiarize myself with the content.

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Every week a subject is being added to my plate, and during week four it was science and social studies. I enjoy both subjects so I was very exited to teach them. This is also the week of my first observation. Those nerves that I thought were gone came rushing back. My Cooperation teacher told me what topic in science we were going over, and stay late after school to listen to my ideas for a lesson. Before I submitted my first official lesson plan I sent it to her to get an outside opinion. She was kind enough to help bring some manipulatives that I did not have as well. The second grade team gave me all types of advise for what to expect and even recommended things I added to the lesson later. My first lesson was an experience for sure! I wanted every activity to work but had to change the would you rather activity on the fly because going to either side of the room proved to be difficult. I think the lesson still went well, everyone completing the exit ticket at the end of the lesson was reassuring.

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During the Fifth week I started teaching reading/fundations. Reading/Language Arts was something I was dreading because of my dyslexia. Once again my cooperating teacher was looking out for me and split it up so I wasn’t teaching the whole subject at once. She let me slowly add more to my plate and let me get comfortable before moving on throughout the full fifth week. I started to get feel for the scheduling part of teaching, you get used to time frames you have for each subject, and you learn how the school functions throughout the weeks.

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The sixth week was intense for two reason, I was given the last subject being math. Which I thought was going to be easy, until I learned THEY CHANGED HOW MATH IS LEARNED! Now this subject I used to flourish in was a challenge because teaching students a different why I learned meant I had to relearn the math as well. Then I had my second observation that Thursday. I took the advise I got from everyone and realized I needed to give more effective and detailed instruction. I felt like this was one of the better lessons I did because I gave so much instruction. The class had so much fun blowing into the straws, even if it went a little off track we got back on task quick with the attention signals my cooperation teacher gave me.

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FULL TEACH WEEK, everything I was doing was preparing me for this week! My teacher sat in a corner and did not do a single thing but watch how I taught. I was exited and nervous, talking to the team about how their lessons went and how I can improve mine. It felt like the week went by so fast, as I was actually in control of the whole classroom. The stations went well, students were passing the assessments. If I didn’t get to something one day, I changed around the schedule to give us time to catch up. Having full control was a trip to say the least, I sound like a broken record but Taylor Elementary’s second grade team was very helpful when I had any questions about teaching a topic, or how to implement instruction better. I could not have made it through that week without them!

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The eighth week was a very sad one, I had a second observation to go to at the end of the week meaning I was spending my last week with Taylor Elementary. My cooperating teacher took back most subjects, but allowed me to keep the subjects I enjoyed most! We still had a couple of fun activities still left like melting a Styrofoam cups and making bear molded crayons. That Friday was rough being with this class and team since the beginning of the year I felt very attached to this campus. We had a small celebration/goodbye party thrown by the second grade team and class. I left after school to meet my new cooperating teacher and principal of Stafford Elementary which would prove to be a whole different story, full of different experiences and lessons I did not see coming.