Today was my first official day of student teaching. I have been told that it is very important to reflect about your experiences so that you can continue to blossom as an effective teacher. To that end, I have decided to start my first blog. I will be very busy this fall, balancing student teaching and softball. But if it was easy, then everyone could do it. Right? Right! Please, forgive me in advance, my posts will most likely be days apart. But I will do my absolute best!
I had to do report about my august experience. This is one of our requirements for student teaching at LSU. I have pasted the document below. Enjoy!
I am student teaching first grade at the LSU Laboratory School. My mentor teacher is Mrs. Zittrauer and her assistant is Mrs. Wilmot. There are twenty-six students in the class. Thirteen are girls and thirteen are boys.
Mrs. Zittrauer is required to attend meetings and trainings. I got to attend a school-wide meeting during my august experience. Once a week, she meets with all of the other first grade teachers for one hour. During these meetings, they plan and collaborate about units and for their students. Mrs. Zittrauer is required to update and compile a professional growth plan. A professional grow plan is a thorough self-assessment that considers students learning and performance. The goal is to pick your weakness and improve it through reflection and professional development activities. Colleagues and administrators observe the teacher throughout the year and provide feedback. After each school year, Mrs. Zittrauer is required to complete a PS-35, which is a reflection on her professional development plan and turn it in to her principal. This year her focus is science. She will meet with the principal and hear feedback from him. The principal will set up types of professional development activities for her to participate in during the school year. A professional growth plan is completed once a year.
Mrs. Zittrauer turned a second grade classroom into a first grade classroom. She worked during the summer to clean, organize, and prepare her classroom. The students are sailors and Mrs. Zittrauer and I are the captains sailing the ship. The desks are organized in groups of four. At the front of the classroom there is a word wall. The behavior chart is next to the entrance of the classroom. The back of the classroom has a huge carpet rug where the students will spend their mornings doing calendar math, daily weather, and reading buddies. The classroom library is organized by type of book. There are several bins with labels for each theme. She chose a nautical theme for this year. Our classroom is a friendship where all students are friends. To introduce her students to her theme, she sent a letter home to each student. This was a cute way for the students to learn about their new teacher and created anticipation for the first day of school. Also, Mrs. Zittrauer looked at each student’s folder that is kept at the school. These folders have information and tips about each student. The Laboratory school has parent-teacher night every year. Mrs. Zittrauer took full advantage of this night and had a folder prepared of documents for the parents of each student to fill out. A student profile sheet was included for parents to fill out about their child. This gave Mrs. Zittrauer more insight about her students, especially those who will need special accommodations. Attached to this sheet, was a list of questions about the students. The parents answered questions about their child. For example, one question asked to describe their child’s personality. To accommodate her students needs, she informed all of the parents at parent-night about one of her students having a peanut allergy. She told them to not pack any peanut item in their child’s lunch. Also, on the first day of school, she told her students the same thing.
Mrs. Zittrauer is a firm believer in establishing a consistent routine. She says it is important to introduce the rules, protocols, routines, and expectations slowly and thoroughly. She credits a good school year to the time taken to introduce a classroom management plan. The behavior chart is based on a positive reinforcement model. I love her model. She related the behavior chart to her nautical theme. The cards represent a sail, blue sail. Every student starts at blue card, which means blue skies, working hard with all hands on deck, smooth sailing ahead. If a student is off task, they must flip their card to white, which is fogy seas, remember to make good choices. A yellow card is flipped when a student is having trouble following directions often. Yellow card means caution, stormy weather. Dock until the skies are clear. The student would miss a classroom privilege or sit in the thinking chair. A red card means demasted; make repairs before returning to sea. A parent is contacted and discusses the student’s bad behavior. My favorite part about this behavior chart is the silver sail. The silver sail is awarded to students who exemplify excellent behavior. If a student asks a really good question, or helps a classmate, Mrs. Zittrauer will tell the student to flip their card to a silver sail and award them the super skipper. The supper skipper gets to wear a sailor vest for the day. Also, they receive Captain’s Cash. This is a great way to keep students motivated to go above and beyond. The routines, procedures, and behavior chart is posted on large poster board all around the classroom. Captains Cash is rewarded to those students who have good behavior. Students save their cash to pick an item from the class treasure chest or gain classroom privileges, like being first in line.
Mrs. Zittrauer plans for one day at a time. She follows the curriculum when preparing lessons and the timeline for the first grade units. She writes down a general time line for the day with activities and uses the activities as time permits. If she does not finish a lesson she planned on teaching that day, she moves it to the next day. She prepares the day before and has all of the materials ready as if she were going to teach everything on her timeline for that day.
On the first day of school, parents piled and in and dropped off their child. Many of the parents were taking pictures of their child’s first day. On each student’s desk, there was a coloring page of sailboat and a box of crayons. The students colored the coloring pages after they put their book sacks away. This activity was a great way to keep students busy while students were still arriving to school. Once all of the students arrived, Mrs. Zittrauer used a cute song to transition the students to the carpet at the back of the classroom. She told students that this is the song to listen for in the morning when it is time to meet for morning activities. She explained to students a typical morning and then told her students about herself. Next, Mrs. Wilmot introduced herself then I got to introduce myself. Mrs. Zittrauer read her students a book about the first day of school. First graders do not like to be sitting still for long periods of time. To help the wiggle worms, she played a song, “Tony Chestnut.” This was a great way for students to let some energy out, while still keeping their attention. Next, we practiced going to the cafeteria for lunch and then going to the restroom. I think that this is a great idea because even the simplest tasks can be a nightmare if expectations and procedures are not explained and practiced by students. When we returned to the classroom, it was time for French and P.E. Mrs. Zittrauer and I planned for the next day. Mrs. Zittrauer attends her grade-level meetings during this hour, but since this was the first day, we planned together instead. After P.E., it was time for lunch. Since we had already practiced, lunch went very smooth. I sat next to my teacher and ate my lunch at the table with students. On the way back to the classroom, the students used the restroom if they needed to use it. We gathered on the carpet in the back of the classroom to go over calendar math. The main purpose for this was to introduce students to the procedures and expectations. Following this activity was recess. Once the students returned, they worked on an art activity. Students made sailor hats. They colored them and then I helped staple them to fit their head, so that they could wear them home. Next, students had library. While they were at the library, I helped Mrs. Zittrauer with regular routine classroom responsibilities. I helped cut out nametags for the next day. Once students returned from library, it was almost time to pack up. Mrs. Zittrauer explained the procedures and expectations for after school car pool. This was arranged before the first day of school. The parents completed a transportation form for after school pick up. This form was one of many included in the folder from parent-teacher night.
Mrs. Zittrauer is on a fifteen hundred dollar budget to purchase materials for her class given to her from the school. She says that she has already exceeded her budget. She had to buy a lot because this is her first year as a full time instructor. She was an associate teacher for the past nine years. She mailed home a material list for students. Parents labeled and brought them on parent night. She organized them into bins. She purchases items for her treasure chest. She encourages parents to donate items to the treasure chest. Mrs. Zittrauer had everything prepared before the first day of school. Her advice to me was to get to school right on time that way there is not as many nerves. She told me that all she brought today with her was her purse.
Overall, I had an excellent first day. It was a long day, but something I could get use to doing for the rest of my life. I am in love with first grade. The students are needy, but still want their independence. They are still young to sing songs and be silly. I look forward to this semester and am excited to learn a lot. My favorite part of this experience so far is the students. They are so precious and a joy to be around.
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