Wacky Wednesday...

So... why is it Wacky Wednesday? Somehow all the student teachers became daycare staff for students with parents attending the Volunteer Tea. hahaha...what a way to put us to work.

No surprise at good ol' Anaheim Hills. Today has been a better day compared to my awful week last week. Language Arts is not so scary, I'm definitely more confident about it. =) Meeting the kids on the floor, definitely the scariest part of my day. They have a better attention span at their desks than on the floor. It's definitely strange to me.

Anywho... today we worked on our calendar for the month of May. I made each student a calendar and placed it in a sheet protector for them to write all over it when we did our guided practice. I included the day I was leaving. Malia, sweet little girl, comes up to me, "Are you going to be here on your last day? Are you coming back?" I guess the kids thought I was permanent. hahaha... It's interesting how they display their emotions towards me. =)

I'm definitely going to miss Room 2, but I won't miss the workload I've been put through.

Oh to make sure I make many many memories, I've decided to take my old "Converse" shoe box and turn it into a message box for the kids to drop notes in there for me. That way the students are making conversations with me. Get it? hahaha... I am lame and nerdy, but hey... that's how Miss Tran rolls. (oh wow...I just realized I talked in third person. forgive me.)

The Unpredictable...

After a wonderful first week, I really had a downfall during my second week. My master teacher was checking in and out of the classroom and leaving me all by myself at times. I kind of felt that I was alone during this second week and totally unmotivated, tired, and just scattered-brain. I finally talked to my master teacher about how I felt. But... a new week is going to start, another week to continue testing out new things and just learning from my mistakes. I just need to have this mindset where I can't be an expert at this and that I don't know everything. My biggest weakness is definitely the tone I use with students. I have a hard time with this...I am SOOOO soft-spoken! But anywho...I am just depressing you with my story. Here's something to laugh out loud about....

Mrs. H: Tell Miss Tran what your favorite song is.

Me: (I look around confused)

Mrs. H: Ask Chris what his favorite song is.

Me: What's your favorite song?

Chris: My Humps

Me: (I had a priceless facial expression of shock. My eyes got big)

Thee Most Rewarding!

Today, Steven opened up to me! I taught about buyers and sellers today in my social studies lesson. Students volunteered to role-play as a buyer or seller for the other students to decide what the actor is portraying. Who would have thought that Steven, the shyest boy in my class, would volunteer to act out a part. It was theeeeeee highlight of my day to see him come up and act and talk to me about how he should act out the part. After that, he approached me many times. =)

Four more milestones to go...

If you had asked me what I was feeling going back into the classroom to teach before this week, I would have told you that I'm not ready, I won't last a day, and so on. After this week, I've experienced so much and it's definitely not easy especially waking up early. I've learned to always be over prepared, to expect odd comments, to hold on to every word that comes out of a student's mouth, to work with a student who speaks barely any English. It has definitely been a memorable week. I closed off my first student teaching week with a false fire drill alarm when we had an assembly about Van Gogh, a crazy math lesson, an amazing art lesson.

So...during the Art Masters assembly about Van Gogh, the presenter has a straw hat with a candle on the tip of the hat. Van Gogh didn't have light when he was painting in the dark, so he wore a hat with candles around it. The presenter lights up the candle and bam! the fire alarm goes off. That was the highlight of the day. hahaha...

My math lesson, I brought in my friend to help me. He's a robot clock and his name is Robbie. I had the students close their eyes as they stepped into a time traveling machine to travel to the future. I'm a doork and decided to play the Star Wars theme song. Of course...I could not forget the reaction I got. They did not yell, scream, or get loud... they all did their "silent cheers."

My art lesson was on water-resistance technique. I showed them that you could draw stars with a white crayon and paint over it with black.. I get ooohs and aaahs....from the students. And Abiral goes, "Miss Tran did you just do magic?" It was adorable! And their art was fantastic!!!

So... I survived a week successfully! Let's just wait and see what happens next week. :)

I forgot to mention... remember Christian, who I had clip down a day ago? Well...he had to explain to my master teacher why he got a pink slip.

Mrs. Hawley: Christian, why did you get a pink slip?

Christian: Because I farted.

Now how can you possibly keep a straight face when he says that? hahahaha..

Behavior Chart.... dun dun dun...

I am a big softie! I have a BIG HEART. I care, I love, and BAM! I feel that I just lost a bit of that today. I had a little boy clip down during my lesson. I had half of the class involved, and the other half fooling around. It was CRAZY!! I had to stop so many times to redirect students. And this little boy, he is a BIG sweetheart trapped in a little body. He's smaller than all of the other students in his class and here I am going, "Christian, please clip down." He looks at me as though I was joking. He gives me this excuse saying it was because he farted. I tell him, "It doesn't mean you should create a scene that prevents you from learning as well as for others from learning. You need to make a better decision next time." Poor Christian came back and his eyes were watery and a bit red. I almost wanted to break down because I felt like I failed and I hurt a child. It's not my choice to do this but it isn't my classroom and I can't go around changing the way my master teacher deals with behavior. =(

Crossguard, Assemblies, Staff Meetings, Ladybugs....

YOU BET I EXPERIENCED IT ALL!!

Today we had our award assembly with just the first graders. It was super cute with the types of awards such as Money Master, Math Wizard. Then.... it was a short Wednesday, the students go home early. Mr Zachary comes up and asks me, "Miss Tran guess what I have?" And it was a ladybug and Zachary goes on and on about aphids. LOL.....sigh... I definitely know how to reach Zachary...I'll have to bring up bugs many times. =) My master teacher has duty... somehow I volunteered to be crosswalk guard in her place. Imagine Mary Tran carrying a huge stop sign walking across the crosswalk. hahaha... it was interesting. I almost thought about changing my career to be a crosswalk guard. How do you think I would look in an orange vest?

Student Teaching Curse...I mean Blessing....

Second day of student teaching, I walk in and think, "today will be great, it's been great so far." My master teacher walks in and asked me, "Did you hear about our new student?" In my head, I'm thinking that it's so late in the school year, how this student going to catch up. I get a little Russian girl who speaks no English and has no schooling at all. YES...I definitely wrote AT ALL. She just came from Russia three months ago and you know what, it's definitely difficult when she's brand new to this environment. It's hard to teach her and expect her to jump right in. BUT...she is the sweetest girl who made me smile every time I saw her smiling. I remember she was smelling sage and she went "OH MY GOD!!!" It was absolutely hilarious and made me wonder if that was a universal phrase. We had P.E. and ladybugs are definitely the talk of the town on the playground. She had a ladybug in her hand and she totally couldn't stop giggling and when I looked she got serious and hid the ladybug. I helped her with simple addition because the curriculum right now is just not appropriate for her. The little Russian girl truly made my day and I'm glad she's in the class. It will be a great experience!

My teaching experience so far has been filled with finishing lessons earlier than expected. I literally have 20 extra minutes when they finish all their math and I finish my modeling and guided practice with them. I don't know how this happens... TOO MANY SMART COOKIES? I asked my master teacher if this is an issue with time, apparently she loves how there's sooo much time now. The students are getting it and I don't have to reteach anything, so I don't know. I'm not getting much feedback on what I need to improve, but she's telling me to keep it up, she loves the lessons. She loved how I found a way to incorporate Kit Kat bars. I didn't think my execution today was as great as yesterday.

THEN...I went to lunch with the students. I sat at every table, asked them what they thought of the lesson and basically listened to them share about what they did over break and random thoughts. IT'S DEFINITELY FIERCE IN THE LUNCH AREA!

Soo.... I leave you with more quotes.

I see Malia playing with a candy wrapper and giggling.

Me: Malia, could you please throw the candy wrapper away? It's distracting to others as well as to you.

They're studying about the marketplace and goods and services.....

Mrs Hawley: Miss Tran can you get the supplies to help Makenna with her piggy bank?

Me: Makenna, follow me to my market so I can provide you some service to my goods.

Ian: Miss Tran can you provide me service?

Me: Ian, only one customer at a time.

Out at P.E. I did tell you ladybugs are THE TALK OF THE HILLS.

Me: Zachary, I need you to free the ladybug.

Zachary: I want to keep it, I have 2 million aphids in my yard. Please Miss Tran!!!

Me: Well Zachary, I'm sure there are millions of aphids here on the trees at school, the ladybug needs to be here.

Zachary: Well can I put the ladybug back on the tree?

And finally....

Malia: I hate P.E.

Me: Why is that?

Malia: Because after P.E., I'M POOPED!

So you see....as wild as room 2 gets, in the end they put a smile on my face and re-energize me for the next day.

Off to the Hills...

Today was one of those days where I drank a massive amount of water (which hit me later in the day) because I was nervous and had crazy psychotic butterflies in my stomach. I had no idea what to expect on my first day of student teaching. I questioned, "Are the students going to remember me?" Questions, thoughts, ideas, etc all running all over the place in my head today. BUT... to be honest, this has got to be one of the most awesome, FABULOUS day!!! I welcomed them back with a story and told them all the details about what I'll be doing for the next five weeks. I taught my first math lesson and it was successful, except I had such smart cookies we finished math earlier than expected. AND...I haven't had to use the clip chart or pink slips! wooot woot!!! The students were sooo well behaved and showed me so much respect! I love it and hopefully it continues. :knock on wood:

Before I forget....here's a quote.

Me: What do you think of when you hear the word "paint"?

Student: I think of putting white paint into my sister's hair.

Me: :chuckle:

Just something off-topic...

I have something to confess, actually more of an epiphany. Soo...I discovered or realized that I am a myspace pack rat. I have issues of letting go because honestly, I go on just to see if there's any comments or messages, put up pictures, change my layout. It's truly time consuming and makes it more difficult to cancel an account and pretend it never was there. BUT...:deep breaths: I DELETED MY MYSPACE! After saving all the pictures I need and old blog entries. Myspace is history! No turning back and now all I got is a place to blog. Good thing it's nothing like myspace. LOL!

Master Teacher and Company!

I met up with the first grade team today. Oh these conversations about lessons went all over the place. I was flipping my plan book back and fourth and I think I need to write stuff over. LOL! Apparently...there is a change in plans, not a big surprise in this world. I somehow will be teaching an art lesson on Thursday and Friday. I volunteered myself to chart the songs for the first grade musical, which I am taking a break from. Seriously if I write one more line, I'll probably be high for a bit. And....setting up the classroom was fun; I think a leprechaun came in and messed with us because we couldn't find a lot of the supplies. =) I'm excited and looking forward to all the changes that will pop up! OOooOOoooooOOO!!!!

Oh I forgot to mention, my master teacher told me don't be afraid to have students clip down and fill out pink slips when you start teaching. Oh boy... I'm not a big fan of behavior charts and pink slips and I probably will have to succumb to them. =/

Back to Business...

Just less than a week until I start my five week long journey of student teaching. I don't know what it is, but I am not motivated at all to write lesson plans. I'm running on empty with ideas. Just not feeling innovative at all! =(

Umm....

Printed out those TPA's and what do you know....my computer is out of colored ink and my CWID didn't show up or the boxes that keep the work organized. I figured this out after printing 20 odd pages. Lord... I don't know anymore! And then my mom tells me to just write in your number and draw lines where the boxes are supposed to be. All I have to say is I looked at her...

P.S. This blogging is pretty addicting!

Oh the wonderful world of TPA! ....

Every student teacher knows about TPA. One day, you can call it Teaching Performance Assessment. Another day, it'll be called Teachers Perspiring Astonishingly. The next day, it'll be called Total Pain in the A$$. Whatever floats your boat, ey? I am happy as well as HYSTERICAL that I am done with TPA!!!!! After many hours sitting at the computer and laughing to myself or even talking to myself...it is over! Seriously...you have no idea how many days I sat at Starbucks. I walk into one and make eye contact with the corner table and of course the many Venti Iced White Mochas I've had. Anywho.... I am done!!!! No one at home understood why I did cartwheels, somersaults, and ran around the house clapping and yelling cheerfully. They just nod and smile. Oh boy....what has my life turned into?!?!

Life on Break

Thanks to Miss Candace Steele, I think I just might start blogging. =) So far...I have yet to experience student teaching. I have about one more week of lounging (hahaha...not!) around before I get to see those bright faces of Room 2. More to come...