First Day at Drayton Hall

Today was my first day at Drayton Hall and I had the best day! Immediately when I walked in I had great feelings rush back to me from when I was in elementary school and it was so neat. I had almost forgotten what public school was like and almost instantly I remembered why I love it so much. My teacher, Mrs. Fisher is amazing. She has the control over her class that other teachers would be jealous of. I enamored by her and quickly realized that I am going to learn so much from her. She is so welcoming and I can really tell that teaching is her passion because not only does she teach her class but she quickly begins to teach Allison and me as well. 

Today she was performing the Dibels testing to her students which is a one on one testing system that does a series of one minute tests that focus on literacy. The first section is on phoneme segmentation where the children are to say each individual sound of the word that the teacher states to the student. The second part focused on what they called a nonsense word fluency where the student would read nonsense words just to make sure they are understanding the sounds of the letters Ex: len, aj. The third part of the test was on reading fluency where the students would read a passage out lout and the teacher was checking on how accurately the student reads the words. This testing experience was amazing and was so pertinent to our assessment course. My co-operating teacher chose three students that were on three different literacy levels so that I could see the changes in skills and it was so fascinating!

Overall, I just had a great day. It was one of those days where everything seems to come together and make sense and just reaffirmed in my mind that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. It was such a great feeling because I know that experiences in the field can sometimes do the opposite. I can't wait to go back next week because I know there is so much that I can learn from Mrs. Fisher!

Drayton Hall

So, it is the night before our first field placements and I am so excited. In my first field I was lucky in that I was able to do all of my observations where I work at Ashley Hall, just in different classrooms. This time I am going to be in a completely different setting with different people in a whole new place. I grew up in a public school and I had the most wonderful experience so I am so excited to be in a public school again as I have not been back in one since I have been on the other side as a teacher. I have already heard great things about my co-operating teacher and I can't wait to see how it goes!

Goals

I am so excited to start teaching this semester because I know that I am going to learn so much. First, I am excited about having another teacher to observe. In these experiences I know that we learn so much from the students themselves, but I learn the most from watching the teacher and the little things that they have picked up from their many years of teaching. 

My major goal is to just get as much out of this field experience as I possibly can. In my past field and in my work experience I have worked in a private school, so I am so excited to have the experience of working in a public school and to be able to experience that different atmosphere because I grew up in a public school and I hope to teach in one as well in the future. I know because public and private schools are so different that I am going to learn so many different things and I can't wait to be able to take what I have learned from both experiences and take what I like from both and have my own teaching style that is a combination of the two. 

I also hope to learn about just working with another age group in general. In my past observation I did not have as much time as I would have liked working with Kindergarten and above so I am so excited to see how this age group goes and what kind of interest that they will spark for me. Overall, I just hope to learn everything that I can from this experience. I want to go in with an open mind and just take everything in that I can from the entire thing. 

First Post for 636

So, I am kind of excited to start blogging again because I honestly enjoyed doing it last semester because I think it is a good way to reflect on your teaching experiences and remember them. I know we all probably have similar reasons for wanting to be teachers, for me it is mostly because I have a great passion for children. I love working with kids and have for a long time. As a result, I have spent a lot of time babysitting, being a camp counselor and doing any kind of activities where I get to be a role model for children. I think children are so much fun to be around. I love their energy and their enthusiasm for life, and most of all how eager they are to learn about everything. 

Over the last few months, my passion for teaching has changed even more. Now that I have had a taste of it, I want even more. Just like excitement for other things in the future, I have the excitement to soon be the teacher in my own classroom and to be able to use everything that I have learned combined with my own creativity to teach children in fun and interesting ways so that they are excited about learning. 

There are several things that I worry about with teaching. First and foremost is simply not being successful. I worry that my students will not understand what I am teaching it and that I will not be able to explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them. I also fear a lot about the parents. Almost all horror stories that I have heard about children somehow incorporate parent involvement. I think that communicating with the parents and keeping them up to date with what is going on in the classroom can be one of the most difficult aspects of teaching. 

There are so many things that excite me about teaching. I get excited just about spending time with children, teaching them new things, creating sparks for passions that they may have in the future, being creative with them, being able to see things through their eyes, having them teach me new things every day, and most importantly I am excited to hopefully be that teacher that my students will remember for a lifetime.