Semester ONE.....OVER

A group picture of Mrs F with the boys

Yesterday, I spent my last day with eight of the cutest, funniest, wildest, and most caring first and second grade boys.  They taught me I can give a pretty good stern “don’t do it” look, I have a pretty good life no matter my health, and how to start new every day. Because of my health, I ended the intern on crutches and these boys couldn’t have been more caring and supportive of me.  They never complained about how slow I was when things first started or that my crutch hit their chair.  The only time they did complain is when I would tell them I couldn’t play Air hockey, Go Fish, or Old Maid with them- because the school focus’ on behavior and peer social skills, I had to limit the time I played with them during free time.  I really enjoyed my time in this class and I know I said that last time, but I learned SO much more this time around! 

This past week was an eye opener in that classroom.  Since I was there the same days every week during my placement I only saw what happen on Mondays and Tuesdays, this week I spent every day with them and saw how they can spiral down hill behavior wise through the week.  It broke my heart to see one of my boys lose control of his body and end up in the intervention room.  I am still trying to decide on where I want to do my student teaching, I have first dibs on both of my teachers from this semester because I was the first person to have Mr. H and the only person to have Mrs. F.  My mentor teacher wants me to student teach with Mrs. F and to be able to truly get all the benefits of student teaching, I know that would be my best bet unless I just went with a whole different teacher- but seeing that I don't do well with strangers, I will most likely pick one of the two that I had this semester.  

Not feeling very creative in the terms of a creative thank you gift until Thursday and of course when I went to Target to buy supplies they no longer had what I wanted.  So I opted to wake up early and go to Fry's grocery store and get the two teachers in my class flowers to go with their thank you notes.  I also got the boys each a ring pop- I wish I would have thought to write each of them a little thank you. I am not usually one for store bought but up until Wednesday I was still feeling stressed out because of being behind in two of my classes.  Finally, I did what was best for me and my grades by informing one of the teachers that I was going to need an extension.  Since I wrote that email most of the stress has been lifted off my shoulders and I couldn't be more thankful for that.  I'll be focusing on that after I have a little get away next weekend, which is a surprise so I can't wait to post about it!  

Love that each of the boys
 signed it

My card from the class & teachers

 To not throw the boys off, we didn't tell them it was my last day until the last 10 minutes of class, this was properly a smart thing since two of the boys started balling and the rest of them just wanted to hug me.  I am so glad that they were able to notice how much I care for them even though, we were only together for a small amount of time.  I was going to try and go back next week for their spring concert; however, after seeing how the boys reacted, I have decided it is with their best interest in mind that I don't go back. 

~Just Believe~

Life and School Got in The Way

If I could describe the last two months in a single word it would be WOW!! Last time I wrote, it was the day before my last day in my first placement class and I was stressing about my next placement.  Time has flown by and next week is my last week in my second placement a 1st/2nd grade Emotionally and Behavior Disabled classroom.  It was FABULOUS to say the least and that would be why I was unable to write.  My teacher allowed me to teach lesson after lesson during my time in her class.  After my first day of observing, I was caught off guard when she asked if I wanted to teach on day 2!! I said yes of course and from there it just kept going and going.  I learned a new behavior model called the Boys Town Model and at first I didn't care for it because everything focuses on behavior and the students (all boys) don't get much academic time because the teacher has to stop and deal with the behavior.  After a couple weeks, I witnessed why it was so important for the teacher to focus on the behavior right then and there.  I was warned by many that I would fall for these boys and I sure did- maybe to quickly.

During my eight weeks, I had a formal observation during one of my lessons and thanks to all my Facebook teacher friends I had an AMAZING lesson idea and thanks to my mom for helping me expand the idea into a WONDERFUL lesson that got raving reviews!!! Today, I had my post conference and my head teacher had nothing to say besides OUTSTANDING job...this made me smile ear to ear and then I shared with her the couple things I knew needed fixed and she just kept saying no it was perfect.  So, THANK YOU to those who shared their ideas with me.  My little guy and I had a great time and he was ON TASK the ENTIRE TIME and that rarely happens with this little guy.  Sadly, my lesson was planned to be done with my reading group of two little guys but one got sent to intervention during PE and didn't make it back in time.


I was given the topic of Adjectives and told to have fun with it, so after the idea of having the students describe an orange.  My mom and I took it a step farther and planned out my lesson.  I began by reading one of my favorite childhood books:

The idea of the book was to show how the author, Audrey Wood, uses adjectives to describe the strawberry.  I then allowed the little guy to taste, smell, touch, and see a real strawberry!  He was amazing at  giving me adjectives to describe the strawberry.  Once, I knew he got the concept and could tell me that "an adjectives job is to describe a noun" I knew we could move on.  So then, I pulled out a whole orange and a slice of orange for him to describe it to me.  I started him off by saying "Oranges are round" and then he was able to come up with 10 adjectives ALL BY HIMSELF- I was going to be happy if he could come up with 4, so this BLEW me away! After he wrote all his adjectives out, I asked him to give me a couple sentences using his adjective and his noun.  He did a FANTASTIC job again and wrote out 4 sentences.   I CANNOT wait to use this lesson with my students, NO MATTER the age.

This past Monday my placement teacher wanted to observe me since we are usually doing lessons at the same time working with different groups, so I planned my first whole class lesson using Sheep in The Jeep  by Nancy Shaw.  We studied the book to find words that rhyme with sheep and jeep; lucky for me I have a super smart group of second graders that excelled! After we read the story, one of the students showed me how to make a circle map and then each student had a couple chances to come up and write a word that rhymed with sheep.  They were all so excited to come up and write on the board and were even asking to see the book to find more words.  Once, I felt they had the concept down we reviewed the words we had on our circle map and then I dismissed them to their seat to do an activity sheet.  We started the sheet as a group using the doc cam and then each student had the opportunity to come up to the doc cam and circle a word once our friends found all the rhyming words.  As the students were circling the rhyming words, I was able to walk around and help my struggling student, who also did a great job.  I am loving the planning process and especially the implementing part of lesson plans.  I can't wait to plan some future plans over the summer in my spare time.

Sheep in The Jeep Circle map

I did have a pretty big downer during the semester between all of this good going on.  While sitting in class one day, I felt my leg tighten up and immediately knew I was relapsing.  RPS is triggered by both a trauma and stress and sadly twenty-two units, a placement class, and frustration leads to a lot of stress in someone who is already highly stressed.  Thankfully, it was just a simple call to get right back on schedule of my medication and shots.   I took a week off of my placement class and classes to rest my body and get it back on schedule.  Then on my good days, I would go to all my classes by the aid of a parent spending the week with me or a girl from the cohort driving me.  My body did a few different things this time around; after shot #1, I had an AMAZING outcome and was back to walking within a couple days.  Then just a few days later my foot was cold and not moving....AGAIN! So, it was back to hitting it hard, so hard that this weeks scheduled shot was cancelled because after the last two weeks my back has been giving me terrible pain at the injection site.  It has sure been another roller coaster!

I feel as if I am drowning in school work and medical stuff right now, but my teachers keep assuring me that I am just fine and not to stress out any more than I already am.  I am caught up in most of my classes and will be getting a couple extensions, unless I can get the stuff done next week; which would be ideal.  I also have three more days to make up in my placement class because of doctor appointments and knowing for my safety I was to fragile to be in the class with my boys.  I am sure enjoying the days with them and I love all the different questions about my crutch, kids sure do say the funniest things :)

Tomorrow is our last class for the semester!!! 

That marks one more year until GRADUATION and a JOB!!!