November 22, 2007

Katie's Adventure at Southland Elementary!

So my first day of being at a real school was on Halloween, 2007. It was wild. I dressed up as a waitress. Most of the first graders didn't get my costume, they thought I was dressed up as a teacher. (Part of the confusion is because one of the kindergarten teachers wears an apron every day at school.) I have learned so much during my stay at Southland. One of the biggest things I've realized is that the personality of the teacher sets the mood for the classroom. Some of the classes I've been in I have just hated, but I realized it was mostly because the teacher was putting off a weird vibe that affected all of the kids. I have one more week after the Thanksgiving break and three more lessons to go. Overall my lessons have gone really well. I've been told by two of my observers that I am a "natural teacher" and that my lessons are really well prepared with good ideas. Everyone has been impressed with Liz and me. (Liz is the other cohort student, we carpool to the school and have the same mentor teacher so we're in the same class everyday, teaching and observing together.) Liz and I have also had a good time getting to know each other during our daily commute. It's been really nice to have someone to talk to on the way up and back each day about how my lessons went and different things that we notice in teachers and our new situation in general. The month of November has been wild because of this wonderful experience. I'm so excited to be done with school and start teaching! This picture is of me on my second day of school, notice I'm not wearing an apron.

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