The First Day and Such...

So I had every intention of blogging about my first day of student teaching on the first day. However, that just did not happen. Therefore, I will give a brief overview of the past couple of days.

I have been assigned to John B. Dey to work in a second grade classroom for my first student teaching experience. I must admit that I was slightly nervous about the first day, but knew I was all prayed up and ready to jump in feet first. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful to make my transition to John B. Dey a successful one. Mrs. Hartin even set up a desk just for me to make her classroom feel like my classroom. I thought that this was a nice gesture.

As far as the children are concerned, they thought that it was really cool to be able to have two teachers. One little boy in particular really touched my heart. Every Monday the children compelte a weekend update. Well, as he was reading his vacation update to the class, he told everyone how "he did not have a good Christmas. Infact, his Christmas was not great at all. He had a wonderful new years though." Once the children had gone to lunch, Mrs. Hartin told me that this little boy has seven brothers and sisters and sleeps on matresses that are on the floor. She went on to tell me that the mother apparently went psycho and tore down the Christmas tree and told the children that they were not going to have Christmas this year. Therefore, this little boy did not receive any Christmas gifts or even celebrate the Christmas holiday. So here I am standing in the classroom with tears in my eyes thinking to myself, "this is why I teach." With all of that being said, I have to say that the first day went smoothly and the children were absolutely adorable!

Days two and three have also gone extremely well. Over the past few days I have had the opportunity to meet the principal and assistant principal. They are both very nice, but you can tell that they expect their employees to be a step above the rest. Therefore, I say....BRING IT ON! Other than that, I have been keeping myself busy getting to know the children, taking down and putting up bulletin boards, grading papers, making copies, tidying the classroom, reading books to the children, planning lessons, etc.

So far, so good! I cannot wait to see what the next few weeks have to offer. Blessings to all!