I Survived Week One of Take-Over!

Whew! Well, I survived my first week of take-over, and what a week it was! Being in take-over means that I have full responsibility for the classroom. My teacher is in and out of the classroom just checking on things and making sure I have things under control, but even when she is there, I am still in charge. But despite all the challenges, things are still going pretty well!

On day 1, my class was scheduled for hearing and vision tests, and my cooperating practitioner told me they were at 9:15. So at 9:15 I had my class downstairs set up outside the library with work to keep them busy while they waited, only to find out when I called the nurse to find out that it wasn't scheduled to start until 9:30. So I lost 15 very crucial minutes with the kids! I had a lot to get through for my reading lesson that morning, and I could have used those 15 minutes. I ended up having to rush through the whole class lesson, and then rush through my small reading groups too. But I was happy that somehow I still got through it all!

On day 2, I had a little boy get sick...luckily it was into the trash can. But you can just imagine the commotion that it caused! By Tuesday afternoon, I was also not feeling well. I had been fighting a cold the previous week, so after two full days of school, I was exhausting and my cough was getting worse. Luckily, we had Veteran's Day off from school. It was a much needed day of rest and time to get some work done! I also went to Health Services because I felt an ear infection coming on, and they got me all set up with medication. Now I've been feeling a lot better over the past few days!

Day 3 brought more surprises when my paraprofessional was out sick and we had a substitute in the room. But it all worked out okay. As a teacher, I am learning to just meet each new day head-on, take what the day brings because every day there's something new, and just do the best to adjust to all the changes, interruptions, and unexpected surprises that come my way. I am certainly learning how important it is for a teacher to be flexible!

Friday afternoon I attended an open house for the Urban Catholic Teaching Corps through Boston College at their residence in Dorchester. The UCTC is a service-teaching opportunity in which I would get the opportunity to teach in Urban Catholic schools in Boston and also work on my Masters degree at BC's Lynch School of Education. There is a similar program called the Providence Alliance for Catholic Educators through Providence College that I am also looking into. The open house last night was really informative, and all of the students currently in the program are the nicest, friendliest, and most welcoming people! I still have a lot of thinking and decision making to do about what is the best fit for me for next year. I am sure that my Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks will be full of resume and application writing!

For now, I have LOTS of lesson planning to do for next week! Hope you all enjoy your weekend, while I get back to work!

A Happening Happy Halloween

Happy (belated) Halloween! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday! Can you believe it's already November?! And that means Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

Let me tell you a little bit about how I celebrated Halloween this year. My celebration started with a Halloween party in first grade Friday afternoon. All week the students worked on making Spooky Bingo boards - they had to color Halloween pictures, cut them out, and glue them onto their bingo boards - so everyone's came out differently. We spent the afternoon playing Spooky Bingo with the second grade classroom next door. We had a couple parents come in and help check bingo boards because when the students got "Spooky Bingo" they won a prize! We also had lots of candy and goodies as a snack during our party. It was a fun afternoon, but also really hectic and tiring for us teachers! The kids were all really excited for the weekend!

As usual I had a busy weekend and it felt like I spent a lot of time working! But I did take Saturday night off to enjoy the Freak Week Dance in the Sports Complex. Stonehill students definitely love to dance, and proof of this is just how many students attend each dance that we have. We have a couple large themed dances each year, and Halloween is one of them. There must be over 1,000 students, nearly half our student body who attend the dances! Plus, this one is extra special because everyone gets decked out in costumes. I am always impressed by the really creative ideas (because I am not very good at being creative).

Princess Lolly (Kari-Ann), Audrey Hepburn (Melissa), Queen Frostine (Alexia), Miss Mint (my roommate Carrie), and I in the common room of our suite before the dance.

At the dance in the Sports Complex, we also found Kait and Emma!

This year my roommate and some of our friends who live in our suite, decided to go as Candyland characters, which I thought was a great idea! Unfortunately, I just didn't know how to put together a costume to be Jolly! :( But it all worked out because I was able to borrow a costume from my friend Sarah and I went as a pirate.

But now I really need to be getting to bed! It's almost my bedtime, and I am being observed tomorrow for the second time by my college supervisor. He will be observing me teach a math lesson on even and odd numbers. Then as soon as that is over, I need to finish up this week's planning so I can begin planning for next week because next week I begin my take-over! That means that I will be in charge of everything in the classroom! I'm so nervous I am going to forget things and not be able to get it all done! But this week I need to put together homework for next week, Reading Workshop jobs, and work on my block plans so that this weekend I can write all my long lesson plans. Getting all my lesson plans done is going to be a challenge, so I will need to be working very hard over the next five and a half weeks!