This is something that I came across in TE 401/402 last year and thought it was a great idea to use in my future classrooms. This year we are selecting a student each week to be the "Student of the Week". The student of the week has an opportunity to share their favorite subjects, sports, vacations, etc. A bulletin board is designated for the student to add pictures and their interests. Each week a student will have a chance to share an artifact they bring in. This is a great way to get to know your students better and to boost their confidence in the classroom. I will continue to use this for my teaching career. The first student of the week was a great success! She brought in a poster full of pictures of her family and friends. Today, she surprised everyone by bringing in her stand-up bass. She played a few songs and the class was amazed. Students look forward to sharing their favorite things with their classmates, its great for building a community within your classroom!

PD

Professional development, sounds serious, but really its just a day teachers get to learn new, innovative teaching techniques and familiarize themselves with the mechanics of the upcoming year, at least for my school.

Today I learned a lot about the intervention program our school has recently adopted, its called RTI or the Response to Intervention program. We researched and learned about ways to help students that are struggling. We also talked about the bugs in our grading/attendance system and discussed the technology requirements for our 5th graders. It was a long, strenuous day and the kids weren't even here! Though PD was all day it seemed like I got a lot of work done and learned a little bit more about how to be an effective teacher to all students.

I am also adopting something I learned last year from my CT in 4th grade called 'Student of the Week'. I created a bulletin dedicated to a particular student and they have the chance to share there favorite things with the class as well as pictures of their family and friends.

One final note, I taught my first full day this past Friday and was pleasantly surprised at how well behaved the students were and how smoothly the day went. One major hiccup in the day came early in the morning when two students were bickering about their desk space. One student said something inappropriate to the other. They notified me of the conversation and I had to think quickly on my feet. I've never dealt with such a situation so I called upon the knowledgeable sub in the room and she let me know what to do. I took both students in the hall explained that I wouldn't allow that inappropriate behavior in the classroom and that each student apologize to each other. I could tell the one student who was in trouble felt extremely bad about what he said and it seemed that this meeting gave closure to the problem and set the tone for the rest of the day. Good thing the sub was in there to help all day!

Week One thoughts...

It's noon on a beautiful Saturday for football and I am not at Spartan Stadium. I now know this year is surely going to be different than the past four years at MSU. Instead of tailgating, I'm brainstorming ideas for a related arts class I'm going to be teaching this coming week. Instead of getting up early to stand in line at a port-a-potty at the tennis courts I'm enjoying my day to sleep in and enjoy my weekend. It's a good feeling, maybe a sign I've grown up.

The real reason for this post is to talk about my first week as a student teacher, so I'll get to it . I couldn't be happier with my placement, CT and TE instructors, the first week went off without a hitch. I'll admit, I didn't get much sleep the night before school started, but after two days in the classroom I have no problem falling asleep by 10pm.

I have never really been in front of a room"leading" students by myself so this was one of the things I wanted to get out of the way early in the first day. I had two chances to introduce myself to my classes and soon found that I had nothing to worry about being in front of a class. I'll be in front of a class everyday for a long, long time to come and yes I will make mistakes (everyday too).

My other goal for the first week was to learn all of my students names. By Friday I had everyone in my homeroom down, but I still am struggling with the other 5th grade class that comes in our class. Week two goal: learn those other students names!

I know there a million other things I want to write about, but I don't want to get in too deep on my first post...and the Spartans are still on and tied with CMU! If I learned one thing this first week it is that the days of sleeping in, writing essays the night before they're due and bumming around all weekend are over...and that's a good thing and I am looking forward to the weeks to come.