Week One: Complete

My first week of student teaching was amazing. It was also extremely tiring. I found myself going to bed around 9PM, some days even including a nap before that after I got home from the school. But, really, so far I completely enjoy what I'm doing.

This week has been focusing on introducing our classroom rules to our students and getting to know them. We've done a few activities that relate to working in groups, as well as what respect, resourcefulness, and responsibility look like in our classroom. This has helped set the level of expectations for how students will act in our classroom.

I have memorized almost every students name. There are a few that I get confused, though that is mostly because we have so many of the same or very similar names in our classes. I do spend time each day making sure I know the students by name, mostly to drill it into my head who is who, but also to show that I want to get to know them and that they are individuals in our class, not just a random part of a whole.

I've done one lesson in front of the class. It didn't take the entire period, but it was a good intro to teaching for me and a worthwhile and important lesson for the students. We've done a lot of individual and group work this first week, so I've spent much of the time in the classroom walking around and helping the students.

At the end of each day I'm tired, but I feel fulfilled. My main fear for student teaching was to find that I don't enjoy doing this, that I can't handle the classroom environment or schedule. So far, however, I leave each day tired, but so happy. I really am finding that I love to teach. I love to walk around and help and hear the opinions and questions of students. It makes every day, so far at least, really wonderful.