Week 8

This was my first week at my new placement. I am in an A.E.R.O classroom at Byrd Elementary School. It has been a huge transition for me to go from New Mexico one week to just a few days later back at Trinity and in a new classroom that is so very different from one another. I felt like I have not had time to adjust to being back and it has been a tiring and tough week.

My classroom is a classroom of eight students, four paraprofessionals, my cooperating teacher, and an occasional PT and OT. Needless to say, it is tight quarters.

The room is set up in a way that there are stations. The students function off a specific schedule and the schedule never changes. This is helpful for the students who have autism. Each of the paraprofessionals teach a station that the teacher has prepared for them at the beginning of the year. Each day the students go through eight centers and have group time. A few students go to some of the general education classes like gym and music.

This week I really worked on building rapport with my students. I did a lot of playing and observing. My teacher recommended that I play with the students a lot because they need to associate "fun" with me before they can feel comfortable working with me. She said that at the beginning of the year they take two full weeks to play with them before they start a normal schedule. This was amazing to me!

They go on a lot of field trips throughout the year. I was able to go on one with them this week to Jump Zone. They had a wonderful time and it was fun to play with them and get to know the students and even the paraprofessionals a little better.

My goal for this week was to learn the schedule, get to know teachers and paras and students as best as I could. It is very important for me to get along with them and immerse myself in the classroom. I want to be able to learn from them all and I made that very clear at the beginning of the week.

Each student is uniquely and wonderfully different. I am a bit nervous as to how I will do in this classroom however. I am finding that this type of placement is not what I expected and I feel quite uncomfortable majority of the time. I feel that I have a lot of learning to do in order to fit into this type of environment. I hope to feel more and more comfortable as I continue my time there.

Next week I am hoping to start teaching my teacher's center with at least one of the students one-on-one and continue to observe and play with students in order to build rapport.

Week 7

Last week.

I am beyond sad to say goodbye to my students, Rehoboth, and this community. I have had such a positive experience teaching and living here in New Mexico. God knew what He was doing and he prepared an amazing place and placement for me. I am extremely thankful for God's faithfulness in my life and through this chapter of it.

This week Monday was President's day, so we had no school. This meant I had a nice long weekend for one last trip! I headed to Moab, Utah to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. I saw the most beautiful scenery... "arch" you jealous?

As far as teaching goes, I taught majority of the subjects still, but slowly had my cooperating teacher come back into the classroom and help me teach in order to transition him back into teaching. We have done a little bit of co-teaching together as we have done this switch. 

This week in reading class, we are watching the movie Holes because we finished up the book last week. The girls are giggling along with the movie as they remember certain parts of the book and how specific things are "ironic". We really focused on how the book is ironic, so this is fun to see them making the connections for a second time. 

In math, I am wrapping up some of the partner projects I had them do and begin studying for the test we will be having on Friday of this week. I had the students do an exit slip about how they liked the project or disliked the project. Majority of the students enjoyed it and thought that it helped them understand math from a real world perspective, but a few were not a fan of doing projects in math class. I found this very interesting.

I have been helping out with Track and Field after school each day in the high school, but on Tuesday I ran into Kelly who was frantically looking for someone to coach 4th and 5th grade basketball at their game that day. I jumped in and took over and coached basketball. Boy was it crazy, but a lot of fun! I was able to experience a whole new world of coaching, especially because this was my first time with these kids before and I did not know them. 

This week I was also able to do a mock interview with Principal Chris Huizinga. This was such a positive experience! I was very excited to be able to have the opportunity to practice being in an interview. I think that it went very well. He asked me a lot of questions that related to Rehoboth, which was helpful because I had a lot to say about Rehoboth seeing as I have been teaching here for the last 7 weeks. I am realizing that I will not have this advantage in most interviews.

Last day.

On my last day we had a party! I gave my teacher a thank-you candy card and my students cookies. We ate tons of food and so much more. The students gave me gifts they had prepared for me. One student put together a whole book about the Navajo culture, another bought me my favorite candy, another made me a necklace and earrings that are often sold at the flea market, and another brought me in mutton and made me try it. Here is my reaction...

Today was a bittersweet day. I got so many hugs from students and many pleaded for me to stay. My cooperating teacher, Nick, wrote me a really nice letter and got me some of my favorite burritos. Boy does he know me well. I am beyond thankful that I had the opportunity for such a hard goodbye. God is so good! 

Tears in my eyes and a piece of my heart will always be with this school and these kiddos. I guess I will return back to Trinity, but only with hopes of returning!

Week 6

What an adventure it has been to be a part of the 6th grade and Rehoboth! I get tears in my eyes when I think about the fact that next week is my last week. God has been so faithful and good to me while I have been here. I am thankful for the students, teachers, friends, and community I have been able to get to know and be a part of. This week was a short week, which was quite unfortunate because it meant less time with my students. Although it was short, it was amazing. I feel so confident with my teaching after this week. All of my lessons ran smoothly and we had a ton of fun learning together. I was full time teaching again this week.

In math this week, we started a partner project on unit rates and grocery shopping. I wanted my students to be able to cut out various foods from grocery adds and find the unit rate and identify the best deal. It is important for them to know how to find the best deal and it relates to real world problems. They have been working on these and have honestly struggled a little bit with it. They did a great job and had no problems finding the unit rate when it was a problem out of the math book, but as soon as they had to identify the problems and solve it themselves, they were confused. We will have to spend an extra day next week looking these projects over again. This was good for me to see that they can do math out of the book, but they have difficulties when it is in real life.

In reading this week we wrapped up the book Holes and started discussing irony. The book has so many examples of irony, so we spent a day looking at what it is and I found a ton of goofy examples of irony. They laughed and laughed at all of the silly examples of irony that I found. We made a list of irony that is found in the book Holes and then started designing t-shirts with ironic slogans on them. They had a blast and they really understood what irony was by the end of the lessons. They also took an assessment test on Holes this week and I asked for feedback on my teaching in reading. I got a lot of positive feedback and I was very happy to see that they liked how I had taught reading and worked through the book with them.

In social studies this week we played review games and studied for their chapter 4 test. We played "trash ball", which is basically basketball with a trashcan and ball. The LOVED this review game and it really did help them study for the test. On Wednesday they took the test an they all seemed to do very well on it.

In Bible we did a lot of hands on activities and games. We played follow the leader and I took them outside and they had to do whatever I said and follow my every move. We came back to class and discussed how hot, tried, hungry that they got and talked about how they are a lot like the Israelite's who wandered around in the dessert, It is easy for us to get grumpy and grumble. The picture to the right is one of them before they started to grumble...


This week I also led Monday morning kick-off. This is an all middle school chapel at the beginning of the week. I was super nervous about leading this in front of the whole middle school and teachers, but it went very well. We talked about what kinds of things stop us from living out our faith and I shared the example of Moses. Moses had a stutter and he did not feel that he could lead the Israelite's out of Egypt because he was not a good speaker, but God still used him and surrounded him with community and help from Aaron.

Last, I helped out with Track and Field practice in the high school after school. I am stepping in as their distance coach during my remaining time here. I wish I could be here longer and help out. I am having a blast already getting to know the high school students a little bit and run and train with them.

Next week is my last week, so I am planning to still teach full time, but have my cooperating teacher in the room to possibly co-teach with them. I really do not want to leave!

As for adventures this week, I hiked Pyramid with some of the Rehoboth teachers and we had a blast. What a beautiful hike and fun time with new friends.

Week 5

This week began with a snow day, which was much needed after our weekend trip to Arizona. We visited Flagstaff and Sedona for the weekend and saw the most amazing red rocks! On Sunday, we took a trip to Zuni for church and Chu Chu's restaurant. Needless to say, we were exhausted after all of the hiking and traveling, so our extra day of rest was well spent.

                    

This week was spirit week. Tuesday was character day and I dressed up like Miss Frizzle! Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was mismatch day, and Friday was Rehoboth spirit wear day. I had a ton of fun dressing up and supporting Rehoboth with the students. I was really bummed that Monday was a snow day because I had a rocking nerd outfit planned....maybe someday I will be able to use it...

This week was a blast of fun outfits and silliness. In addition to this, I started completely full time teaching. I added math finally into my schedule and it has been wonderful. I was extremely nervous at first to add math and teach math, since I have never taught math before, but I have loved every minute of it. Math was always a subject I struggled with, so I feel very passionate about working with my students and having my students work with each other to support each other. I decided to start something called "Math Partners". I paired up my students and made sure their was a high student with a low student. Every time I give the class a problem to work on, they have to work with their math partner and make sure they can do it by themselves. They are held responsible for each other and they end up teaching each other. If I call on a student and they cannot do the problem and their partner signed their paper saying they could, then their partner is responsible for it and the whole class uses a math point. Math points are collected when students are working well with their math partners and are getting answers correct. Enough math points will earn them a food day. I have seen a lot more confidence and excitement with math since I started this. I also am planning to do a math project with them next week. I mentioned this to a student and he could not believe it that we would do a project in math class, so this will be fun!

Another thing that I tried that was new this week was Kahoot. I did a social studies review day using Kahoot. I was a bit nervous when the internet went out the hour before I had to use Kahoot for class, but I thought on my feet and came up with alternative ways of scoring and answering questions using whiteboards and their iPads. It worked out great! I was observed for this lesson and the Principal was excited about my positive reinforcement and my classroom management. This was very reassuring to hear after this week with the students. 

The students were a bit crazier than usual this week. Do not get me wrong, I love a little crazy in my life, but some of my difficult students were more difficult that usual. I had to sit down and talk with some students after I was observed by Dr. Meyer. They were talking over each other, myself, and were acting in a disrespectful way during my Bible lesson. I think for me this was a reminder that no matter how hard I try, sometimes teaching can be frustrating. In the end, I want to reach my students and see them succeed, and what some students need, unfortunately is tough love. This is something I am still working on and will continue to work on.

My cooperating teacher, Nick is super great. This week I really realized how much I appreciate him and am thankful that God placed me in his classroom this semester. He has been an awesome role model for teaching, I have had an absolute blast teaching with him and working with him, and I am thankful for all of his encouragement through the good and the bad days. He constantly reminds me how well he thinks I am doing, gives me advice and great feedback, and supports me and teases me. It has been so great getting to know him.

This week I have learned that sometimes there are good days and bad days and just because you have a bad day, doesn't mean your a bad teacher. I also have learned that sometimes the internet crashes and you have to be able to think on your feet. I've learned that full time teaching makes you very sleepy and all you want to do is sleep and lesson plan. I have also learned that students, especially at Rehoboth really just need and want love. I am in awe of the relationships I have built with my students over these past five weeks and I have found that the best way to teach is to really truly know your students. 

Next week is a three day week because of winter break, but I will be continuing to teach full time. 

I am constantly in awe of how much I love Rehoboth, I love Gallup, and I love my students and new friends. God has blessed me so very much here. I dread the moment of having to say goodbye to it all.

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Schmidt:

The chapters are not on moodle.