"Are you going to get fired if you do bad?"

I can't believe how quickly time has been flying since student teaching began! October starts this week... what?! It's almost getting to the point where I'm upset how fast it's going because that means the end is coming. Once the end is here.... I guess real life begins? Yikes!

Alright, so this week wasn't exactly my best week ever. It might have actually been the worst one so far. If anything, it was a real reality check on what classroom management means. 

As frustrated as I might get with my students, I need to remember that they are 7 years old and probably just want attention. Which is usually the case. They just want a good laugh from their friends and to avoid the language arts phonics worksheet they need to do!

Sometimes I forget that to them... this is school... to me this is a profession I want to get better at. At times it may be fun and games to them but to me it's a lot of business. 

I've learned that my classroom will never been perfect in terms of management. There will always be students who call answers out, leave the room without asking, take too many pencils, throw books, etc. 

Some quotes from this week... 

"I'm not doing science, I hate science"

"You can't make me read, I'll just stare at my desk pretending to read"

Me: "Didn't I just say to keep your books closed?" Student: "*opens books* So?" 

"I hate this book"  

"I'm bored!"

Me: "You're wasting your own PE time" Student: "You're wasting your teacher planning time"

 

And my favorite one of all week, after telling a student she was being disrespectful... "I don't tell anyone when you're disrespectful to me"

I later learned that me being disrespectful to her was the fact that I don't let them call me by my first name.... okay.... lets just say my CT handled that one in the hallway and I received a nice heart felt apology later. 

They are just kids. Harmless humans! We've all been students and remember how boring school may have seemed at some point. In some ways the experiences I had this week made me want to reconnect with my students in an academic sense and figure out how I can make school more interesting and engaging for them. 

As I begin to plan my original unit for science, I want to figure out what my students want to learn about and tie it all in with my own ideas. I think it'll be fun to see what they are curious about before the unit and watch them uncover the answers to their own questions. Maybe this will help them? I'm not sure but it's worth a try! 

There has been a new face in our classroom lately. My advisor has been coming to school to watch me teach! One of my students asked, ""Are you going to get fired if you do bad?" 

They LOVE to think they have control over me when it comes to my success in teaching lessons. One student even told me they were going to purposely misbehave so I would "get in trouble" with my advisor. Little do they know... he's been a teacher before and knows all the tricks a 7 year old might pull on the innocent student teacher. 

Unfortunately for my students I won't get fired ever. In fact, he loved my lesson! He said my students all seemed happy, engaged, and I was really communicating with them and showing enthusiasm towards the content. 

Miss Brailov- 1     2nd graders- 0

Now as I write this post, it's almost hard to think of all the 'bad' from last week. I'm thinking of all the good things that happened, all the laughs I had with my students, all the hugs I received, all the 'I'm sorrys' I got. Even on my worst day, I left school feeling okay about myself and how the overall day went. 

One of the most rewarding things that happened all of last week was when I heard many students say that they had fun writing a draft of their narrative. They said they wanted to write more because they enjoyed it so much. 

This was so exciting to me because I have been teaching writing! I spent a week and a half teaching them about what a narrative was and all the different parts of writing one and modeling the whole process for them. Recently they have been crafting their own narratives with a partner. On Friday, they drafted their narrative and genuinely had fun. 

That's real learning. When students have fun doing something in school.

After hearing those comments on Friday morning, everything else felt irrelevant. We made it to Friday and my students are having fun writing narratives (Something I've been teaching them to do)! That's a success for me. 

I'm ready to tackle a new week! I'm sure it'll be full of playground drama, trips to the nurse, excuses to not read, broken pencils, chatty students, and so much more! But that's apart of the job and I'm ready for it. On to Monday morning and week 6! 

I'm taking over the whole classroom in 3 weeks... scary. 

Week 5: Mid-week update!

Well, I'll admit.... I totally blanked on posting my mid-week update yesterday. OOPS! That's what happens when you have a random Thursday off of school, everything gets a little crazy.

This week has been exceptionally tough in terms of teaching. I have been experiencing many behavior problems this week with my students. Lets just say, I've had a good dose of "classroom management" practice. But it's all apart of the experience! Teaching can't always be pretty and perfect. Sometimes it just isn't fun but at the end of the day you still love your students like you did at 8:25 that morning. 

Some good news JUST happened. I received an e-mail about the University recommending me for licensure and this is what they said they are recommending me for based on my coursework. 

Apparently I qualified for a K-8 Social Studies endorsement on top of my K-6 Elementary Classroom endorsement! The best endorsements are the ones you didn't know you earned. ;) 

"After school, do teachers have a teacher party?" "What is that?" "Like when they eat food and listen to music!"

I stayed at school until 5:00 PM on Friday. Generally I stay until around 4:30-5:00 on any given day but this was a Friday. As I was making copies in workroom one of the other teachers came in and started chatting me up about how hard I was working and asking about my weekend plans. As she was leaving she said, "Now I better not see you in here Monday morning in the same clothes, please go home soon!" I laughed and smiled but then realized I still had about 10 separate more pages to copy... I'll be out of here soon.... maybe... 

I've learned a lot about a teachers work schedule during my first month as a student teacher. Here are a few observations I've made... none of which were really talked about in college... 

1. Teachers are mandated to arrive at school by 8:15 (15 minutes before school starts), most are there between 7:00-7:30
2. Teachers are mandated to stay at school until 3:35 (10 minutes after school gets out), most stay until anywhere between 5:00-7:00
3. Yes, they do have a lunch break for a full 55 minutes! Well I should say 55 minutes labeled "lunch". Drop the break, teachers are usually spending the first 20 minutes responding to emails and phone calls from parents. Now you have 35 minutes, still plenty of time! Wait... you have an IEP meeting, make that 15 minutes for lunch. Or... wait! You have students coming in to make up assignments that you need scores for (wouldn't want them to miss MORE instructional time), 15 minutes for lunch again. Or... wait! You have copies to make, this morning your students didn't exactly understand the concept you taught them. Might as well bump that social studies lesson and create a brand new language arts lesson to reteach this afternoon before you fall too far behind! Wait... is that the 2nd week in a row we bumped a social studies lesson? 

Lunch break? You mean the 10-15 minutes teachers have for lunch.

4. Well we do have a special everyday, sometimes two in a row! (Specials are art, music, physical education, and library time. Each one lasts for 30 minutes) Everyday the students are gone for an additional 30 minutes sometimes 60 minutes in the afternoon. Surely that's a great time to catch up on something! Wrong again, more e-mails to respond to, more planning on how to catch students up, more planning for the 4 different leveled reading groups and 4 different leveled spelling groups you have, etc. 

Break time does not exist for the average elementary school teacher who is teaching for a full sized class for the whole day. These teachers are constantly buying time throughout the day to find the energy to keep going and to keep planning and to keep responding and communicating with other teachers, principals, and parents. 

My school day runs from 8:25-3:25 in terms of student hours. (Students don't actually get into the classroom until 3:35 but the first bell rings at 3:25 to line up). 

That is 7 hours of time the students are under the responsibility of the classroom teacher. 

Lets take out roughly 1 hour for the student's lunch/ recess time. 
Another 30 minutes for a special. 
Another 30 minutes for morning recess/ snack time. (Although that is supervised by the classroom teachers, there is no teaching going on)
That is 2 hours of no instructional learning time 3 days a week and 2 days a week with 2.5 hours gone. 

There are roughly 5 hours a day of instructional time in a students day with their classroom teacher. Therefore a teacher needs about 25 hours of teaching time planned each week. Maybe 24 hours if you add the 2nd special twice a week. 

It's crazy when you put that in numbers! I know, some people might think that's a big numbers considering "ALL THE FREE TIME TEACHERS HAVE" But really, how much do you think goes according to plan during the day? 

Students get pulled out of the classroom, students get sick, students don't finish all of their work, technology fails, the lesson doesn't get across to the students as well as planned, students go to the nurse, students have to go to the bathroom (ALL THE TIME!), book fairs happen, fire drills happen, the students simply can't stay focused... these are all natural occurrences during a day. 

And sometimes during those "breaks" in the rare moment that you don't need to get something done... it is nice to just sit in silence and take a few deep breathes. 

It's so much easier to actually plan while the students are not in school because you really don't need to worry about them or worry about what's happening next. It's the only time you can really take it all in and determine what worked/ did not work during the day. Hence staying the extra 1-3 hours after school. 

A student said to me, "After school, do teachers have a teacher party?" 
"What is that?" I asked
"Like when they eat food and listen to music!"

See that would be nice! Just some free food, music, and relaxing! Sounds glorious. 

No, no we don't have teacher parties. We just plan for tomorrow. 
One day at a time

Most teachers are working so much harder than people ever think. They don't have time to sit around and enjoy a lunch break. If they are sitting around and talking, they are talking about what they are doing that afternoon and asking for advice or for another worksheet or to borrow a book. 

"Teaching, the hardest job you'll ever love" 
"I teach, what's your superpower?" 
"Keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan" 
"Don't make me use my teacher voice!"

Just a few t-shirts/ posters I've noticed in the classrooms at school :) all too relatable! ;) 

To set the record straight, I know plenty of jobs involve working extra hours, short lunches, no breaks, etc. 

But teachers experience all of these things and cannot show their anger, stress, or exhaustion because the students are there. You can't just decide to cut the day short and take a breather. Heck, you can't even walk out to the bathroom! There's no time for a personal moment. You just need to keep going. Most importantly, you also need to keep your energy levels up! In order to keep students engaged and learning you need to keep on smiling, keep on moving, and keep on your energetic spirit. 

This job really isn't for everyone, even when you think it is for you. The statistic is that within the first 3 years of a teaching career, 50% of teachers will quit being a classroom teacher because of the stress. 

That's just the reality. Every job has it's own reality. But this is the reality of MY job. 

At the end of it all, I love my major, I love student teaching, I love being in the classroom, I love coming in early, I love staying late, I love my students, I love planning, I love grading, I love teaching. 

I wouldn't change anything about this career. Except for maybe the respect a classroom teacher receives from the rest of the world... but that's for another blog post ;). 

I'd much rather love my job even with all the extra craziness than settle for an okay job that has more consistency and benefits. 

Loving what you do is so important. It makes the good days great and the not so good days tolerable because you love it anyway. 

Student teaching has been the BEST reality check to make sure you really want this whole teaching thing. I've learned more in 5 weeks than I have in my entire program.... and I still think I'm in it for life. Even with the crazy! :) 

4 weeks until midterm... what?! 
This is all going TOO fast. 

**Also! Please check out this link! It puts the whole teacher schedule vs. salary thing into a perspective. ****
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/02/23/if-teachers-are-mere-babysitters-pay-them-accordingly/

Week 4: Mid-week update!

This week someone said to me, "Hopefully you don't spread your cold to your students!" 

My response... "It was THEM who gave it to me..." 

I've officially caught my first school cold. Awesome... 

I've been downing bottles of lemon lime Emergen-C, popping a cold and sinus pill every few hours, and washing my hands like no other. As much as I like my hugs from my students, I cringe on the inside every time one of them touches me now. I think the most difficult part of having a cold while teaching is that you still need to keep talking no matter what! I spend most of my day answering about a million questions from my oh so curious 2nd grade students and it's clearly taking a toll on my voice. 

Today I was able to breathe decently well! Lets hope my voice fully recovers by tomorrow :)  

"Okay so, I'm really bad at math but I still like it a lot! Like really, I'm so bad at it but it's my favorite subject!"

I've noticed that many of my students have the BEST attitude when it comes to school. They are not quick to give up, my little resilient 2nd graders. 

It's refreshing to see how easy it is for them to ask questions and for them to keep trying something. Yes, often times they become very distracted and frustrated but that doesn't mean they are ready to fully give up on something. Usually after a little pep talk and a few things clarified they are right back at it! 

Often times when my CT asks a student a question about the book we are reading together a student will give an answer that makes no sense at all. What I've noticed is they deliver their response so clearly and confidently, even when the logic isn't there. As a teacher, I would much rather my student have the confidence to share what they are thinking, even if it's wrong, compared to a student who has mentally given up and chooses not to share because they are afraid of the consequences. 

Last week I worked with a student who consistently struggles in reading and writing. She hardly reads words out loud correctly and could use some help with her hand writing. In spite of what may seem like "huge academic problems"  this student is incredible when it comes to comprehension! I could read a chapter of a book to her out loud and she could remember ever detail. Last week she answered a question about the book that was read to the class and her answer was so detailed, it was clear she understood what was going on. After my science lesson I gave the class a worksheet with a somewhat complex question to gage their understanding of the first lesson. Many students who appear very bright academically had answers that only displayed that they were approaching the common core standard in terms of their learning. This particular student gave me an answer that displayed that her knowledge was beyond the common core standard. I was so thrilled to see this from her!

Yes, it was hard to read her answer but once I got past that... her answer displayed a true understanding of the topic. This was more than I could say for many of her peers. 

The point is, these students still haven't exactly been exposed to the part of school that knocks them down yet. In the primary grades (K-2) they are still trying to be figured out academically by parents, teachers, psychologists, social works, aids, academic coaches, etc. I feel like we often work so hard in these primary grades to figure the child out and to label them in some academic way. In the primary grades we just let them live that label until they prove otherwise (measured in academic success of course, which most of these students struggle hard with). 

I don't know. I guess I just don't believe all of that. I don't have a better solution to this problem. I just find it so sad that many students have so much potential yet it all comes down to a standardized test which is essentially based on reading ability and time efficiency. I also know it is not realistic to have a teacher spend so much time helping individual students when there are plenty of students on track or above which also need just as much attention. 

In general, I just feel like too often we don't fully consider a students strengths and play to those to help them succeed. We find it much easier to explain their lack of success through an IEP and give them reasons they should be struggling. 

OKAY

I know some students need IEP's. I am not bashing the use of an IEP or saying it's just an excuse. 

I do fully believe we don't always try as hard as we can to help a student be the best they can be before getting to that step. Of course, IEP's exist for a reason and they are very beneficial and the key to success for many students. 

Sometimes I am just so bothered by how standardized school has become because I don't think it is always possible/ feasible to really help every student in the way they truly deserved to be helped... whether that means... 
-Helping advanced students continue to be challenged at a productive level 
or 
-Finding out why a student is behind and using their current strengths to help them build new skills in their more difficult subjects

I guess I have just been getting too caught up in how happy and positive my students have been about school! Their frustration is often a sign of them only being 7 years old! They are not exactly at a point where they can handle their emotions on their own very well which is so understandable for that age. 

I just wish that happy and positive outlook on school could continue through elementary school and beyond but we all know it doesn't. I know I won't be a superhero to turn that around for every student I come in contact with during my career. But I can say that I will give each student a little harder of a look before I write them off to someone else. As an educator, I believe that each student is my priority first and foremost. No matter what their academic situation is, I want to be apart of their progress throughout their time with me. 

In the words of one of my students, "Okay so, I'm really bad at math but I still like it a lot! Like really, I'm so bad at it but it's my favorite subject!" 
The fact that she loves a subject she is 'bad' at is simply incredible to hear. She probably feels this way because no one has made her feel like she 'can't do the math on her own' or that she 'isn't fast enough' or 'doing it the right way'. 

I hope she never ever feels any of those ways. Let her love the subject she hates. 

QUICK UPDATE:
Now that you made it through my rant... let me tell you what I've been teaching!

Last week I taught science all week (3 days a week). I now feel so comfortable in front of this class. It just seems natural to get up there and work my magic for 30-40 minutes. We have been learning about technology! Something all too relevant to these kids :P 
I'll be finishing up this unit in the next week and a half. Next, I will be writing my own original unit about outer space! Wahoo!

This week I will continue teaching science plus I will be teaching writing! This subject takes up the entire week! So I will be having a solid 5 day run at teaching 'what makes writing good'. Basically we will be exploring the basics of what makes a narrative. (From brainstorming to the final product) By the end of this week they will be working on a partner narrative and then eventually sharing their narratives within small groups! I'm excited to see what these creative minds come up with. 

And of course I will continue working with my small groups for reading and spelling every day. 

Onto week 4!

Week 3: Mid-week update!

Tonight was CURRICULUM NIGHT! Basically the teachers get all dressed up in clothing they would never wear on a normal school day and speak to the parents of students in their class about what the school year will look like. Of course my CT did all of the talking, I did introduce myself though! The whole event only lasted about 30 minutes. It was pretty strange to be answering questions to parents about curriculum. I'm still adjusting to being considered an actual teacher in these instances! The parents of my students were beyond friendly and very chatty with me. Many of them mentioned their son or daughter has mentioned me at home, so that was nice to hear! Here is a picture of what I wore tonight! I felt like I looked like an actual teacher... scary! ;) 

"You're 22 and you still don't have a job?! My cousin is 17 and she has a job!"

Well I survived ALMOST a full week! I cannot believe this upcoming week will be my first full week of school with my 19 students. Bring on week 3! I have a feeling this whole experience is really going to fly now. 

I should also mention real quick that I DID go to lunch with the little boy who asked me to! It was fun to chat with my students on a less structured level and just get to know them as people. I ended up going to lunch with them for two days in a row! My little group of buddies at lunch grew a little more the second day :). 

It was very refreshing coming back to the classroom this week. I felt like everything was much more of a routine. This week I was the pilot of the week! My CT's classroom theme is hot air balloons and stuff like that. Each week we have a pilot of the week to make an 'all about me' styled poster. I filled mine with pictures of my family and my dogs and even a picture of me playing field hockey as a goalie. (The kids really got a kick out of that one!) 

The most amazing thing to them was that I am 22 years old. To them that did not seem too old but it wasn't young either. I went to lunch with my students twice this week and one student asked me if I was in 8th grade last year... hmm... no I was not. College was a more complicated idea to explain! My brother suggested that I should have said I was in 16th grade, that reallyyyyy would have thrown them off! Another student said to me, "You're 22 and you still don't have a job?! My cousin is 17 and she has a job!" 

Yes, I have had a job but it hasn't been a REAL job in terms of my life. I explained to her that teaching is the job I have been studying to do for about four years and that will be the job I want to do the rest of my life. She seemed to understand it a little more! :P

Many of my students have been telling me that they cannot believe I will be leaving them at some point! This makes me really happy to know that they are enjoying my presence in their classroom but also hurts to hear a little bit because I know that means saying good bye will be that much more emotional. 

I keep having flashbacks to when I had to say good bye to my kindergarteners in Iowa City. As I listened to each student tell me something they would miss about me, received a book about why they loved me, and hugged each of them good bye I was holding back tears. Once finally made it to my car I cried the entire way home because I was so upset that I would never see them again and I knew I would miss those little guys who taught me so much about teaching. One of my friends was a practicum student across the hall in the other classroom. I ran into her on campus and asked her how her last day was. She said, "Oh gosh, I bawled the whole way home! Tears... everywhere..." I was happy to know I wasn't alone. 

I was with those little ones for three to four hours for three days a week and I was THAT attached to them. What am I going to do when I need to leave students who I have been with since day one, all day everyday for a semesters worth of time?! What about the day I have my own classroom of students?! I don't even want to know... it won't be a good day. 

One of the students said I should teach 3rd grade so they could be in my class next year. I told her I would loveeeee that! Let's hope she passes that onto the principal or something ;) 

This week is going to be a BIG week for me! I am going to start doing the classroom opening every single day until my last two weeks of the semester. (The last two weeks are meant to be a 'phase out' meaning I will be doing less and less in the classroom so the students don't become dependent on me being in the classroom after lead teaching for so long) 
In addition to doing the classroom opening... I will be having my own small reading group to teach almost every day, my own spelling group to teach, and I will be teaching whole group science! Truthfully I have never taught a science lesson to students... ever... so I am a little nervous for that. I am sure my CT will help organize me and prepare me enough for this lesson. I think I am going to do something extra exciting with them! As a reward for all the standardized testing they had to endure the past few days. My lesson will be more of an experimental activity in which they will use random tools and objects to move a ball for one location to the next without touch it with their hands. I have a feeling this will be a big mess and stressful in terms of teaching but hey, as long as they students have fun and remember the point of the activity, I've done my job!

On top of all that, I will be attending curriculum night on Wednesday! It is crazy to think that I will be with my CT speaking to the parents of my students in my class as their teacher. I'm sure I won't be doing much of the talking but it is still pretty surreal to think about. I already have my outfit all picked out! 

It will be an exciting week ahead! I am nervous to start having all these other responsibilities in the classroom... but I know that once I do it a few times, it will become routine. I guess I would rather be thrown into something early in my student teaching experience and have plenty of time to become comfortable before I lead teach on my own for two weeks. 

Here's to another fun yet exhausting week filled with 2nd grade drama, iPad malfunctions, and more teaching responsibilities! As nervous as I am, I know it'll all be fun! 

Week 2: Mid-week update!

This picture summarizes the biggest change to this school district... TECHNOLOGY! Students in K-2 each have their own iPads and students in 3-5 each have their own Google Chrome Books. Geeze, I remember getting a floppy disk in my school supplies back in 2nd grade... Basically the next few months will be full of experiments and technological errors! Today I taught 19 2nd grade students how to take a picture of themselves and then set that as their lock screen. This was an adventure! They were so excited and anxious to play on their iPads. My biggest struggle was that I had absolutely no control over what they were ACTUALLY doing on their iPads. Lets just say today I had my teacher voice on full blast and probably repeated myself way too many times! This whole technology implementation will certainly be a learning experience for the teachers in SO many ways! Luckily I'm decently tech savvy and can quickly fix those 'wiggly icons' as my students like to say! (We had a major problem with pushing on the apps too aggressively and therefore causing app icons to move around :P )