what it’s like to be full-time.

well friends, i am currently in my fifth week of full-time student teaching. what does that mean? well, that means i’ve been planning math and science lessons for two classes of fourth graders and reading lessons for a class of fifth graders since the first week of february. wild, isn’t it?

i honestly can’t believe it’s almost over — i technically only have about 2 weeks left of full-time student teaching!(?!) i know people say stuff like that, about how fast the time goes, but it has seriously flown by without me even fully realizing it. one minute i’m staring at a siop lesson plan template with no idea what to do, and now here i am cranking out a few lesson plans an hour.

i’m not gonna lie, it isn’t easy. staying at school until 6:30pm isn’t exactly my favorite thing to do most nights, but in the end i know it’s worth it. i think about how long i spend planning lessons sometimes and then think about how the lessons will actually go; then, once the lessons are taught i get to look back and see if things went as planned, and it is SO cool knowing that i spend my time helping kids LEARN.

example: tomorrow we’re starting to talk about magnetism in science. there are bags of various items for the kids to explore with magnets (basically they’re figuring out on their own which items in the bag are magnetic and which ones are not) and they’re going to write their observations in their science journals, just like little scientists. i can’t help but wonder if they’ll enjoy the activity and if they’ll actually get something out of it. i will try to update tomorrow with my end result.

anyway, teaching rocks — that’s what this all kind of boils down to, really. i can honestly say that i love all of my kids to death, i love going to school everyday, and i love teaching them about fractions and magnets and electricity and division and everything else in between.

i really wish that i didn’t have such a limited time left with my kids. i feel like april 25th is going to come before i know it and it’ll be my last day with them — how i’m supposed to deal with that, i don’t really know yet. i guess that’s one of those bridges you kind of have to cross whenever you get there.

i also really wish i could pinpoint what exactly it is that has made all of this so great — i don’t know if it’s the kids or my cooperating teacher or my school or the new friends i’ve made along the way or even if it’s all of the above, but i think part of it is that i know i’m doing what i’m passionate about. there’s nothing in the world i’d rather do than spend my days watching kids engage in their learning. do you know how amazing it is to be a facilitator to that learning?! ahh, it’s the best feeling in the world.

in. the. world.

 

#teacherlife

if you know me, you know i’m an avid tweeter.

last year during my education classes, i came up with the hashtag #teacherlife so that those in my cohort, myself included, could tweet about our lives in unc’s school of education (also see #educlove — another big hit). i created the hashtag partly in jest since we were taking a technology class and we kept telling ourselves that “tweeting is technology!” (which it totally is), but i don’t think i ever really realized what real teacher life was like until now.

i’m in my first year student teaching and have been attending the teacher workdays at the elementary school where i was placed. i always knew that teachers had a lot to do in order to get prepared for the school year, but it is so much more work than i initially thought (this is in no way deterring me from my career path). i’ve been spending about eight hours every workday at my school and the feeling of productivity by the time i leave just courses through my veins in the most incredible of all ways.

example: i spent about six hours the other day just reorganizing the classroom library. friends, my cooperating teacher has SO MANY BOOKS (and it’s so awesome). to be completely honest, i was overwhelmed when she gave me that task. i’m pretty sure i just stood there staring for ten minutes at the hundreds of books strewn about the shelves, falling out of baskets. despite this (at the time) seemingly impossible endeavor, when i finished that i felt like i was on top of the world.

today’s workday was pretty much all staff development and training and whatnot. we’re doing siop lesson plans, which i’m really excited about (how smart is it to have content AND language objectives?! brilliant), and today i learned how to manage any school crisis that may come my way. we also talked about pbis initiatives and i met with my teacher and the ec specialist to talk about some of the students we’ll have this year.

i particularly love being surrounded by teachers so frequently. i can talk to these people about things i’m passionate about and they just get it. it’s incredible. i feel so unbelievably confident that i’ll be learning so much this year from not just my cooperating teacher but also from all the other staff members at the school. everyone seems so well-traveled and knowledgeable and passionate. i adore that.

tomorrow we’re taking our school id pictures (!!!) and it’s also meet the teachers night (!!!), and we’re planning first quarter’s lessons — and did i mention i already know what i’ll be teaching next semester (electricity/magnetism and earth materials, WHAT’S UP)? thursday is the first day of school and i am BEYOND EXCITED about meeting all the kids. i mean i literally think there are no words in the english language (or any other language for that matter) to express how happy and excited i am for thursday.

i admit that there are nights when i’m bummed about having to get up early to spend all day at school when it’s still summer, but once i’m there time just isn’t even relevant. seriously, five hours pass and it feels like thirty minutes. even though i wish sometimes that i could just have a normal college kid life and a regular senior year at unc experience, there is no way i would trade this student teaching opportunity for the world.

i’m so blessed to be in such a great school system at such a great school with such great colleagues. carrboro elementary, i think we’re going to have a really good time this year.