Denim Friday

Friday was a very significant day in my student teaching experience: I student taught ALL BY MYSELF! My teacher had to go out of town for the weekend and left on Friday which meant that I was "substitute teacher". I had known about this for a while and as Friday grew closer and closer last week I grew more and more excited. Friday morning I got to school extra early (after picking up a free spicy chicken biscuit at Chick-fil-a, courtesy of Codington) and prepared the classroom and myself for the day. I didn't quite get nervous until the morning bell rang to let the kids in but I knew I could do it. My teacher had prepared me extremely well and even made a check-list of the "morning duties". Fridays are especially tricky because I don't have a teacher assistant either so it was just me, the kiddies and a very saintly parent volunteer who organized all the students weekly work and made it ready to go home.

The morning went smoothly; I'm a pro at the morning routine I would say. They completed their morning work, I gave them their spelling test and we continued to read in our class chapter book that we have been reading the past few weeks. I was under the impression that the school guidance counselor was going to come in at one point in the morning to do his lesson however he did not. I panicked for a second because I had not planned anything but luckily I am quick on my feet and improvised a fun Friday activity for the remainder of literacy. The rest of the day went just as smoothly with no significant issues besides my normal little motor mouths and some squirrelly behavior in the bathroom. Unfortunately it rained during recess so they had to stay in and I allowed them to watch a Magic School bus clip. They had PE earlier in the day so luckily them missing recess wouldn't make them too rambunctious.

End of the day came and we were rapping up. Children were packing and everyone was ready to go home. Unfortunately I had to send some "pink slips" home with a few of my children which simply means that they did several things throughout the day to not earn where they needed to be on the classroom behavior chart. No one ever likes to receive a pink slip but some students handle it better than others. Never feels good to hand one out, especially when the student you are giving one to has just handed you a card they made saying that you are the "best teacher ever". I felt better once I talked with the student one-on-one telling him "thank you" for the card and that I hoped he knew I didn't think he was a bad student, he just made some bad decisions today and loved to talk. He smiled at me and admitted his love for talking and we agreed that he would try harder not to talk at inappropriate times. It made me feel a lot better, I love all of my students and I don't want any of them thinking otherwise.

The bell rang and all the students exited the classroom in a hurry. The teacher assistant and I cleaned up after them and began to prepare the class for Friday. As I was cleaning off my desk getting ready to go home I found a small piece of paper that I recognized from one of my students tearing up a larger sheet. I thought nothing of it but as I picked it up I noticed writing and the message was not quite the same as the card I had received earlier from another student. Another little boy, very upset by the fact he had been given a pink slip wrote in very bad vocabulary that I could "put the pink slip up my butt". Appalled by this I showed the teacher assistant and we talked about how to handle it on Monday morning.

All in all it was a very smooth day and even though I was more tired than I had ever been before, I never felt happier. This was going to be my job, what I would be doing after I graduate and knowing that I could actually do it by myself gave me such a boost of confidence. As if Friday couldn't get any better my brother came into town with his friend and I got to spend the whole weekend with him :) Family and sunshine made for a perfect weekend and knowing that I only have 2 more left in Wilmington for a while gives me the same kind of excited/nervous feeling as student teaching by myself. I handled that by myself, I believe I can handle Belize as well!

One more month to go ...

Okay, so this is my first attempt at this whole "blogging" deal so here it goes!

I am required to keep a blog for the duration of my 5 week Study Abroad Student Internship in Belize. It is through the Watson School of Education here at UNCW. Today is exactly a month until I leave so I figured I would begin my blogging journey now as the excitement of the experience grows closer and closer!

I was accepted to be on the cohort of students to travel to belize in early October of last fall. We were supposed to find out a week earlier whether or not we were choosen but since there were so many exceptional applicants, it took an extra week for the committee to decide who was going to go. I was on my way up to Boone on a Friday to attend an App State football game that weekend when my roommate called me and told me she had be accepted to attend. I was so excited for her and immediately told her to check my email for a confirmation of my acceptance as well. After a few moments of joking with me and telling me I had not gotten accepted, she finally divulged to me the truth: I had been accpeted to travel to Belize in the Spring.

Of course the excitement was immense at first and I wore out my cell phone battery francially calling and texting everyone! However, it was not long before that excitement slowly faded. I had so much to get through before I could even begin thinking about Belize. My student internship began before I even went home for Christmas break. I observed at Codington Elementary school in a 2nd grade class before returning home. After a long and much needed month long break, I returned back to school for a semester that would be unlike any other. I started my first week of student teaching with two subjects already under my belt. By the end of the second week I had taken over all four subjects in the classroom, including Excel time and was in complete control, full time student teaching by the third week! *WHEW*

I have LOVED student teaching more than I ever imagined that I would. I have grown so much not only as a teacher but as a person as well. Teaching has taught me a lot about myself, other teachers, kids, the education system and society in general. It did not take me long to get used to at 10:00pm bed time but the 5:45 mornings are still kind of rough! I am so busy though that I have trouble thinking about next weeks lesson plans let alone my trip to Belize. I sometimes forget completely about it. Until a week ago. 

I recieved an email from Dr. Kubasko who is one of the UNCW professors that is going to Belize with us. He emailed the cohort with our school placements and I could not have been more estatic with where I was placed; San Pedro Roman Catholic Primary School. I am minoring in Religion specifically so that I hopefully may be able to one day teach in a Catholic or Christian school. I am placed there with five other Elementary school interns from UNCW. As soon as I got my placement I searched the school on the internet. The more I searched the school the more I started learning about not only where I was going to be teaching for five weeks but where I was going to be actually living for five weeks. Two hours later of surfing every website possible on Belize I was ready to pack my bags and leave the next day!

Since I have been accpted to the program, the cohort has attended manadatory meetings once a month to prepare us for the trip. Today we had our second to last meeting before we leave. Our last one will be held in March only a few short days before we hop on a plane to fly over. Today is also exactly a month before we leave. While I am beyond excitied there is still much that I have to complete here in Wilmington for my internship and there is still a great feeling of nervousness which grows along with the excitement. I have never been gone for such a long period of time, espeically without my family or anyone very close to me coming along. I know that the lifestyle there will be very different and communication to the "outside world" will be limited. I know that it will be a life changing experience and I fully intend to embrace it and go in with an open mind.

I think that this is long enough for one blog! I promise my next ones will be shorter as I continue to share with you my thoughts and feelings along my journey. Thanks for following