First Day Jitters

So...today was the big day...my first day of student teaching! I woke up around 6:15am, and was surprisingly very awake. I think I was so awake because I was very nervous. When I arrived at the school, I was greeted by all of the staff I encountered...many of them thought I was a substitute! I found my cooperating teacher and she showed me around a bit. The principal even came up to meet me!

Soon enough, the children were arriving. I can't even begin to describe the vast differences between the children at this school (very rural) and the ones I had done field work at previously (very urban). It is hard to believe that within 50 miles there can seem to be two totally different worlds.

For the entire morning, I sat in the back of the classroom and observed. Then, the children had library time. After that, I got to experience my first lunch duty. It was a little intimidating because children would ask me if they could do things, and I wasn't sure of the lunchtime rules, so I was afraid I would tell them the wrong thing. But I survived and so did they. After lunch, I felt a little more comfortable and helped out in the classroom a little bit, but mostly just observed still. The end of the day came fairly quickly after that.

My cooperating teacher does a lot of things I really like. First, when she is administering discipline, she does this thing where she whispers across the room to the student she is trying to communicate with. It seemed to work really well and none of the other children even seemed to notice it. I think it took a little of the embarassment off of being called out in front of the class. She also pulls students aside and speaks with them privately, which we have always been taught to do, but this was the first time I ever really saw it completely in action. She is also very patient with the students and treats them with a great deal of respect. I really think I am going to learn a lot from her!

I am really going to have to get my body used to this early morning stuff. By 5pm today, I was exhausted and took a 2-hour nap.

So, that is really the gist of my first day. Pretty good overall. Pretty long as well.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.