So sad to go

Well, today was my last day of teaching at Wiley! I am super sad right now and holding back the tears because the class that I have been teaching since the beginning of February just left on my last day! I love love love that class so much along with all of my other students here at Wiley. Tomorrow we don't have to be here for teaching since it is International Night, so I will still come tomorrow night and see my kids perform! I have learned so much at Wiley this semester! :)

Outside of the classroom

A few weeks ago I had the funniest experience at Chick-fil-a. I saw two of my students while my boyfriend and I were eating and you would think I was Taylor Swift or some other famous person... "SENORITA ORSEEEEEEEGGGAAAAAAA!!!"

I look up to find two little girls from Beginning and Intermediate Spanish sprinting towards me. After about 10 minutes of them hugging my leg, one of their mom comes up and I introduce myself to her. She tells me "You better get used to this, now that you are a teacher you are going to see your kids everywhere!" It was so funny...my boyfriend was in shock and I was so excited to show him some of my students. Of course on the first day back I hear, "Senorita Orsega was that you BOYYYYFRIEEENNDD?" Oh goodnes...

Then the other day I saw another little first grader at Pullen Park. She comes up to me and goes, "ummm..hi!" with this little attitude...so funny. The next day at school I saw her and I said "Senorita Layla, ven aqui! UMMM HIIIII" She started cracking up...it is so funny to be on the other side when a student sees a teacher outside of school :)

Cuando sea grande yo quiero ser...

Here is a video of Continuing 2 (the class I have had since beginning of February) doing the project we have been working on this week. They learned all about professions and how to talk about what they want to be when they grow up! I made sure to only get their work and their voices so that I could show you guys the video!

Connecting with my kids

So, here is a story that I don't think I will ever forget. 

It is cool to be the observer again in the other classes. Now that I know the kids and get to watch them learn from the back of the classroom again, I am seeing a lot more that I did not see before. There is this one little boy in one of my classes who just says the worst things about himself. He will crumple up his paper and write f+ all over it...it is really sad. The first time I saw him doing it when I was the teacher I brought him to a separate table and made him start over on a new sheet of paper...he then told me how stupid and worthless he was and I literally got down on my knees on his level and told him that he was good and smart and that I did not want him to write F+ on his paper anymore. He still did it for about 3 weeks on EVERYTHING. I talked to his homeroom teacher, his parents, my CT...NOTHING really helped. Then, on Wednesday last week, I saw him crawling under the table while my CT was helping another student, so I went over to him and told him to get up. He does this thing where he pokes out his bottom lip when he is feeling bad about himself, so instead of telling him to stop writing f+ all over his paper I decided to chat with him. 

I said "Hey, what do you wanna be when you grow up?" (We are learning about occupations and his homeroom teacher told me he looooves airplanes. My boyfriend is an aerospace engineer, so I thought he might like to hear that I know someone who designs planes.) He responded, "Well, I don't really know." So I said "I heard you really like airplanes. Guess what? My friend builds airplanes!" After I said that he literally got the brightest smile on his face. He then told me, "I know what I want to be when I grow up." I said, "And what is that?" He told me "A tour guide of Machu Picchu!!"

  --Just to preface this, we learned about Machu Picchu about a month ago and the kids literally ALWAYS talk about it. I showed them a photo of me in front of Machu Picchu from this summer and they are so obsessed with it. It is so awesome how much they remember from that one lesson.--

Anyway, so of course my heart just melted when this little 7 year old tells me he wants to move to Peru and become a tour guide at Machu Picchu. I say, "You know what...I think that is a great idea, but you know what you are going to need if you are going to be a tour guide in Machu Picchu?" He responds, "What?" So I say, "You are going to need to learn Spanish! And if you are going to learn Spanish then you need to be at your desk doing your Spanish work...not crawling under the table, dont you think you would learn a lot more Spanish by doing your work?" He said, "Well, yeah!" So I said to him, "You are a very smart kid" and I left it at that so that I could finish circulating the room with my CT and making sure the other kids were ok. When I got back around to him, he pokes me in the leg and points at his f+'s on his paper. 

He had crossed them all out.

For 3 weeks I literally would have to tell him every day to stop writing that on his paper. To stop crumpling up his paper and hiding under the desk. And now he had not only crossed them out, but had completed the whole worksheet correctly and was so proud of himself that he wanted to show me. The class had ended and I took up his paper so that he could line up, but I was holding back the tears because somehow I got through to that little boy and he felt good about himself for once. It was a really great feeling and I learned that instead of always telling the kids what to do, I need to connect with them. It made me realize that getting on their level is SO important and if anyone is going to listen to me, I need to listen to them first. 

Time to let some classes go

Well, friends...I am officially finished with my full load teaching of my student teaching semester. It seems weird to have already taught all of the classes for 6 weeks, I can't really imagine what I am going to do now that I don't have over 100 kids to worry about! Over spring break this week I need to grade over 100 tests, write comments and grades for report cards, and plan out what is left of my student teaching assignment. I have one more observation with my US and 4 more weeks with my CT. HOW has time flown this quickly! I guess they say "time flies when you are having fun"....which I am having fun, most of the time ;)

Last week I taught my last lesson with my beloved intermediate Spanish class. And when I say beloved, I mean my most challenging class. I do love the students and I love watching them learn and grasp the language, but I have to say my days will be a little bit less stressful now that I am not in charge of these kids anymore. This class probably taught me more than any other class in my student teaching assignment, mostly about classroom management. I think I have had a scratchy voice for the past few weeks just because speaking loudly is the only way these kids can hear me. 24 kids in one class of 3-5 graders might not seem like a lot to the observer's eye, but once you are in front of those kids and in charge of them, everything changes. I have grown so much in the past 5 weeks thanks to these kids, so it is bittersweet to give them back first.

I am excited about the homestretch, but also kind of sad. I had a little girl in my advanced class, a 5th grader, tell me the other day "Senorita Orsega, I am going to really miss you when you are gone." Needless to say I almost teared up because some of these kids genuinely love me as their teacher and I genuinely love them as my students! I can really see how rewarding being a teacher will be. I also have 2 little girls in 1st grade who run up to me every morning in carpool and give me the biggest hugs. How excited do you have to be about seeing someone to literally run to them in the morning and give them a hug! It seriously warms my heart to have students like this and shows me exactly why I came into teaching.

I am excited about the last few weeks and intend to finish strong as I approach May 4th, my last day as a student teacher.

Presentations

OH my goodness...I feel like a proud mama right now. For my K-2 class we have been learning about animals and we put together a play for the parents called "Eres mi mama?" The kids seriously blew us away, most of them memorized their lines and actually KNEW what they were saying! Some kids even made their own costumes. These kids seriously are so awesome. I almost cried when they were doing their presentation....no really, I did... I had to turn away so no one would know I was about to cry! They were so excited and happy to be learning Spanish and so proud to show their parents their skills with the language. I would definitely say that this skit has inspired future learning of the language.

This week we started with a new unit...transportation and direction. I am having a much better week...the best week so far out of my whole "full load" experience! With animals I tried to do too much, something completely different with every single class. It was too much to handle. This week with the new unit I have planned most of the lessons to be similar with modifications based on level. The kids are doing a great job with the new material and I am having fun teaching it to them :)

Early morning jitters

Eeeeeek I start my full load of teaching today in about 35 minutes and I am kinda sorta freaking out. Even though I have been teaching 5/6 classes, we are starting a new unit today and all of the lessons were planned by me...completely. So many things are running through my mind right now....likeeeee...what if my lessons are stupid? What if I tried to plan too much for them? What if I trip and fall in front of the class or have toilet paper stuck on my shoe or something and start off the next few weeks with something really embarrassing? I planned for this unit 2 plays, one story book, one class learning how to read a book in Spanish to their parents, and a flipbook project, so needless to say I am a little nervous that all of this will be too much and I will just work myself to death.

With all of this said, I am really excited to be able to experience what it is like to be a full time teacher! Wish me luck friends! :-)

Classroom Management

So yesterday I had my first bad day as a student teacher. Bad day does not even begin to explain the stress I went through yesterday. I woke up yesterday morning to a text from my CT saying the was going to be home sick for the day and that I needed to help the sub because she barely knew any English. Immediately I started to panic because my University Supervisor was coming yesterday for my first observation and I needed the few classes before to get myself ready. I ended up fully teaching all 6 classes of the day with plans for only 2 of them. I did not get my CT's plans until about 15 minutes before my 25 person most challenging class of the day arrived in full steam. I went through her plans in about 25 minutes and then I had 20 minutes to come up with something as the kids talked, walked around, and even threw buttons across the room. I was about at my breaking point.... no matter what I did or said these kids would not quiet down or behave. I yelled at them and told them how dissapointed I was because if their teacher was here they would not be acting like this. Immediately I felt like a sub...that is what I was to them. Not their teacher, but their sub. I was so frustrated that my first time ever in front of that class was the day they see me as a sub and as someone they do not respect. Don't get me wrong, there were good students in the class, but in my unprepared and unorganized last minute substitute eyes, the challenging kids took the spotlight. Two kids even sprinted out of the classroom as the bell rang. UNACCEPTABLE.

Today I told my CT about my frustrations and she apologized and suggested that I begin the Intermediate class today and "show them I mean business." They came in today and I stood up front and told them how I expect respect and how I am their teacher now for the next couple of months, so they better treat me better and behave in class or their lives during 3rd period were going to be very rough. They calmed down for about 5 minutes and then they started up again. I. lost. it.....in my head, thankfully not outloud. I did, however, manage to get them respecting me. As soon as I said "excuse me!" they all were quiet and sat down (with the exception of one challenging student). I basically restated that I am their teacher now and they need to respect me. After class I held the two behind that tried to sprint out yesterday and told them the next time they do that I will have them cleaning my room after class instead of leaving on time.

My fear of the kids hating me is gone now. All I want is their respect. I have the most problems with this class and although it is challenging, I know in the future I will have the same kinds of classes, maybe even worse. In my opinion, the toughest part of teaching is classroom management. I knew this whole student teacher thing would not be all sunshine and rainbows, so here's to learning how to manage a classroom....one challenging student at a time.

Lunch Duty

Every Monday my CT has lunch duty, but somehow up until today I have not had to be here on a Monday for lunch. We started school on a Tuesday, then we had class at NC State during lunch time, then we had no school, then we had a teacher workday and today we finally had lunch duty. Talk about stressful. I am not going to lie, I hate it! I am sure every teacher will say the same thing, but oh my goodness... it was insane. My personality came out a little bit when one of my more challenging students tried to shut the door in my face and lock me out. I had enough and I was not ready to deal with him, so I just stared him straight in the eye and said "Seriously." and he let the door go! haha, at least I kind of know how to make him listen to me now...

Anyway, I had a few extra minutes after lunch duty and a new experience so I figured I would update! Hasta luego!

Hola! Me llamo Senorita Orsega!

Two days ago I started phasing into my student teaching and taking classes from my CT. Right now Wiley is in Interum Schedule and we have 6 new classes for the next two weeks, one class from each grade level. Our daily schedule is a bit different as well. We have 4 classes straight in the morning, then lunch, then 2 more classes and then planning for 8th period. Can I please just tell you how much I love 8th period planning? I thought this schedule would be horrible, but I actually love pumping out most of the classes before lunch. In our normal schedule we have planning 2nd period which seems to make the day go on forever. These classes are also not going to be the same students that I will be teaching during my weeks as the teacher for Spanish. I have taken the 1st grade class, the 3rd grade class, and the Kindergarteners for interum (most of whom do not take Spanish and have never taken Spanish before). I think this is a good experience for me to start out with students who I will not normally have because they throw the unexpected at me every day. I am also excited to teach full time with my regular students because they will be just as amazing as these kids, but will already have some Spanish under their belts.

I think my biggest challenges right now are Kindergarten (although yesterday we learned about Peru and colored the flag and they were little angels. Maybe it was the coloring that they wanted all along...) and classroom management, mainly with my third graders. Today I did a great job of quieting them down, but they are so talkative it is exhausting. I love them though, they are really funny. Here is a conversation between two "class clowns" in my third grade class:

"Hola"

"Como estas?"

"Rojo"

"Hasta la vista baby!!!"

Needless to say, some of the kids need some work (haha:)), but I am very impressed with how quickly these kids pick up a language. Let me just repeat that most of the kids do not take Spanish as their language here at Wiley. They take German, Chinese, Japanese, or French. With all of that said, how impressed are you with these kids knowing that it is their third day ever in Spanish and they can do a conversation with a partner that sounds something like this:

   "Hola"

"Buenos dias! Como estas?"

"Estoy excelente, y tu?"

"Estoy cansada. Como te llamas?"

"Me llamo ______"

"Mucho gusto!"

"Mucho gusto tambien!"

"Hasta la vista"

"Adios"

We are learning all about where we live and we are making booklets with sentences like "Yo vivo en el sistema solar en el planeta tierra." SO awesome, love these kids.

Before I started taking over classes and mostly before I came to Wiley at all, I thought that teaching might not be for me. Now that I am here and spend my whole day every day with these wonderful kids I am so happy that I chose teaching as my profession. I love waking up every morning  and coming here! Hearing a struggling student in Spanish tell me Hola, hace frio in the morning at carpool literally makes me want to jump for joy. These kids are really great and I am excited to continue teaching them!



First Few Weeks

Hello world! I am Libby and I am in my professional semester at NC State as a student teacher. I am doing my student teaching at Wiley Elementary in Raleigh, NC and I absolutely love it! I teach 6 periods a day, 5 of those periods are classes that I have every day as an elective. I feel extremely lucky to have been blessed with such an amazing school and CT to see before I become a teacher myself. For the first few weeks I have just been getting to know the kids, helping out on the activities, and learning about teaching and classroom management from my CT. I have attended PLT meetings, faculty meetings, carpool duty, lunch duty, recess duty and more since I have been at Wiley. I think my favorite duty is carpool duty even though it is freezing cold outside. We get to greet all the little kiddies when they get to school and one of the best things ever is when the kid remembers me and runs up to me saying "Hola Senorita Orsega!" So adorable! My teacher assessed the students on parts of the house, body, and family members the other day and the best part was that when grading the tests, one of the students in the class who has been behind was one of the only students who got a 4! (a 4 is like a high A) There are a lot of great things about this school and about teaching Spanish so seriously at the elementary school level, I am excited for what is to come! :)