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.