"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!