The First Days of First Grade

I've been student teaching for a week and a half now, and what a week and a half it's been! The time has gone by very quickly, because each day is so busy and non-stop, but I also feel very comfortable in my role as a teacher - as if I have been doing this for a lot longer than 8 days! The student teaching experience so far has had its ups and downs, but overall, I have really been enjoying being back in first grade!

First grade is a very exciting year, and especially for my first graders in Mansfield because this is the first time that they have been in school for a full day. Each afternoon there are a couple students who complain that they are tired, don't want to do their work, and just really want to take a nap. We tell them that they will be fine, we just have a little bit longer to go, but little do they know that I often feel the same way by the time I get home after school! We've already done a lot of work, but I think they will be in for a shock when they get homework for the first time tomorrow!

Over the past week and a half, we have done some small writing projects, and lots of illustrating. The kids have written about their favorite part of the summer, and about something they have in common with a classmate. We have learned about the letters A-H, and written and illustrated a page for each of these letters in their ABC books. We have learned and sung songs about colors and teddy bears (we are known as the teddy bear classroom because my cooperating teacher loves teddy bears and used them throughout her room). Each day I come home with these songs stuck in my head and sing them to my roommate! We have even started to learn about bigger and smaller numbers and coins in math. We have learned the Monster Squeeze and Penny Dice games and play them to practice these math skills. Since we are the teddy bear classroom, the students were actually allowed to bring their teddy bears to school on Friday, and we began a small writing/illustrating project about their teddy bears! All of the students are still learning how to read and write of course, although some are already further along than others, but first grade will be a monumental year for learning how to read and write. Right now, the students are expected to sound out the words and do they best they can with their spelling by writing the letters for the sounds that they hear.

One of my favorite parts of the set-up of our classroom are these risers - it makes sitting on the rug so much easier! Here you can see the students' teddy bears scattered around the rug area.

My role in the classroom so far has been a lot of observing and assisting. I assist the students when they have questions, and also help my cooperating teacher with planning and preparation. My teacher has even let me take on some of her teacher responsibilities! I taught a short lesson on listening and the school listening look, and I have already written a lesson that I will teach next week on nonverbal signals. I have done a lot of copying, laminating, cutting, gluing, posting, correcting morning work, passing out papers, etc. This week I also led the morning meeting a couple times, but beginning on Monday, we will be putting the students in charge of running morning meeting! My teacher likes to give the students a lot of responsibility and encourages them to be independent early on. (An important skill to learn in first grade!) Soon I will gradually begin taking on more and more responsibility up until I have my full three week take over at the end of the semester when I will be in charge of everything in the classroom! I am very anxious to be taking on more, but I am also very nervous! I am exhausted and so busy already, and I haven't even begun half of what I will be responsible for this semester! This is a scary and intimidating thought! I need to be prepared for it to just get busier! Some of what makes it busy is also the work I have to do for my seminar at Stonehill, the requirements that we need to fulfill in terms of the lessons that we plan, and also the Pre-servive Performance Assessment that is required by the state of Massachusetts. But I am enjoying it, so it makes it all worth it.

The morning meeting bulletin board, which includes our daily schedule, the calendar, school day tally, money date with coins, and the weather chart and lost tooth graph - both of which I helped prepare.

I am also really enjoying working with my cooperating practitioner, Lisa DiSangro. Lisa has been teaching in Mansfield for over fifteen years, and in addition to her experience in first grade she used to teach in a multi-age classroom - where first and second graders would stay in the same room for two years. Although she doesn't do this looping anymore, she still coordinates projects and assignments with the second grade teacher next door. They are old pros at teaching, they have their plans from previous years, and they know exactly how to do things - thanks to their years of seeing what does and doesn't work. Mary-Ann Centrella (the second grade teacher next door) and Lisa are like two peas in a pod! I think they can probably even read each other's minds, that's how fluidly and smoothly their interactions and coordinated lesson plans run.

Lisa is a great teacher, and I have already learned a lot of about her pedagogy and her style of teaching. I have seen things that I would like to adapt for my own classroom, but also some things I may do differently. Lisa has a ton of energy, and she has to in order to manage a classroom full of first graders and her own three sons! The best way I can describe her is to say that she is a whirlwind! She gets things done and lessons pulled together so efficiently and effectively. She's had so much experience and knows the ropes so well that she could probably teach in her sleep! Hopefully one day my teaching experience will make as great a teacher!

*Note: Due to privacy concerns, some of the classroom photos have been removed