Remember
how I said I had a lot of free time at the beginning of the semester? Well that completely disappeared! :) Let me catch you up and show you some of the things I have
been busy creating. It seems like a little bit of everything has been going on...and quite frankly this blog post is a little bit all over the place.
I received my field experience placement right before Winter Break and was able to go into the classroom twice last week, one day for only two hours and the other for the whole day. I have also had several assignments in my classes lately which require some out of the box thinking---some creativity of sorts.
My art class requires that we each teach one lesson. Art is not my strong suit so I volunteered to go the first day so that I wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of the semester. This assignment encouraged us to use a children's book and to create an art lesson to accompany it. I used one of my favorites....Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and had my "class" give the Pigeon a new ride. I tied in core curriculum by discussing transportaion and setting as well. We had to make an example for the "students" and this was the best I could come up with. I chose to let the Pigeon drive a tugboat.
I also created a Valentine's Day themed center for my math methods class. We did not actually use this or teach this to anyone but had to create it and show it to the class. We used this as practice because next week we will be going into a school and conducting centers for an hour. (That's on my list to complete for this week.)
I mentioned that I am also in my field experience classroom now. I am going to be teaching my first lesson on Friday so I have been working this weekend to prepare that lesson. My reading instruction methods class requires that we get our lesson approved so I am waiting on approval from my cooperating teacher...but I am hoping she likes the idea.
I created an example machine for my students. I have a feeling their drawings will be ten times better than mine. I just wish this machine really existed.
Well those are just a couple of projects I have been working on...and the main excuse as to what I have been absent for so long. I wish I could say I would be back to regularly posting tomorrow...but I have quite a few more projects to tackle again this week. Oh and please bear with me as I try and figure out how best to show the projects i have been working on. You guys probably don't follow 46 teaching blogs like I do, but I am definitely not up to par as to how I display pages yet as the other blogs do.
This semester my classes are focusing on giving us hands on experience more than ever. The experiences are definitely beneficial...but also a wake up call as to what lies ahead. I think I'm both terrified and thrilled.
On another note...I can't believe how fast this month is passing by. Three out of the four of my favorite parts of February are already over. It's hard to believe that I will be leaving for my mission trip in 12 days!
Until later (or maybe not...),
