continuing to grow

Today I sat down and created a calendar of the days remaining in the semester and wrote down all of the things I have due in the coming weeks. I feel completely overwhelmed with how much stuff I still have to do! Projects, lesson plans, and presentations are going to be the death of me in the next few weeks. But to think that this is all beneficial to me and will help me when I am on my own and having to flesh out an entire year for my students makes me feel a tiny bit better (:

On another note…

I haven’t written about any of my PSII (pre-student teaching 2) experience as of yet, and I feel inclined to express my emotions and feelings about this experience. I am in a 7th grade math classroom in Homer-Center High School with another pre-student teacher, Miss Amico. My teacher, Mr. Page, is a very easy-going teacher, and I feel very comfortable in the room. He knows each of his students, and likes to really joke around with them a lot. Now, I have only gone to the school to visit for two days so far, so I do not know quite everything just yet. I am starting to get to “know” some of the students though, and am starting to understand how things work in the classroom. My cooperating teacher has been very willing to work with Miss Amico and I in trying to find other teachers for us to work with that teach other subjects (social studies and science) to help us fulfill our requirements while we are in the schools from April 12-May 10. I cannot wait until that time comes so I can finally do what I came to do – TEACH! Of course, I also came to learn and observe, but the teaching part is the most important for me because that is what I need to work on and experience more to be ready for my actual student teaching and later when I have my own classroom.

So far, I think I have come to a conclusion that I do not want to teach 7th or 8th grade. My certification will be for grades 4-8, and I think at this time, I am leaning more towards an elementary-based classroom, as opposed to one that is more middle school. While observing Mr. Page teach, I do not think that what he does will be right for me in the future. I get easily distracted and (hate to say it) bored while I am doing these visitations, because I have to sit through pretty much the SAME EXACT lesson four times in a day. I really do not think that I would want to do this for the rest of my life. I like the idea of being able to teach several different subjects in a day (it just seems so much more fun and exciting). Now there are other negative aspects to my visitations thus far that are making me feel this way, but I’m not going to sit here and complain about it all! I’m just thankful that I am getting this experience now to see what I like and what I don’t like, that way I am (hopefully!) not stuck doing something in the future that I do not 100% enjoy.

Of course, I’m still open to teaching in a 7th/8th grade setting, but from what I see now, I just really am not sure it is for me. We’ll see though as I continue to grow this semester and in my final student teaching experience!