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!