student-teaching.

Ms. Griffin is off to a great start!

While my first week consisted mostly of observation, I am already getting to know the kids and they seem to be comfortable with my presence since they ask me lots of questions and I help out during individual work time. I totally lucked out with my cooperating teachers – they are patient, friendly, and so good at their jobs. They are literally modeling the type of teacher I want to be. They are so soft-spoken with the kids (kindergartners are, in a word, nuts!) and the way that they speak with each student, especially the ones who are impulsive and misbehave a lot, is so admirable. I already feel like I will walk away from P.S. 452 with an excess of information and ideas about teaching.

In two weeks, my student-teaching supervisor (the woman who teaches my class on student-teaching) is coming to visit me at the school for the first of three observations. While I do not have to create my own lesson plan for this first visit, I am still nervous as hell. I haven’t quite gained rapport when it comes to the kids – or rather, all 22 of them at once - but I know that I have to go through this in order to learn about myself as a future teacher.

I will say, though, that the support has been overwhelming. When I noted on facebook that it was my first day of student-teaching, I received an insane amount of encouraging comments and over 30 people “liked” my status. The positive feedback helped me gain more confidence than anxiety that day and it definitely gave me the warm fuzzies to know that so many people were behind my decision to become a teacher.

The weeks will get more chaotic from here on out until mid-December but I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted on my days in the classroom and how everything is going!