Week 16

One more week to go! Scary thought. This was my student's last week of working at their job sites for the school year (unless they are competitively employed). We finished up the start to their career portfolios and my cooperating teacher went out and got the students these neat file folders with tables and extra pockets in them to organize their portfolios. We labeled the tabs for their resume, skills, and work samples. I was happy to hear a few students share how they would bring this and use it in an interview.

On Friday, I took 2 students to Walmart to pick up six $50 gift cards to send to the victims of the tornado in Fairdale, IL. We also had a movie day and spent a lot of time outdoors. During this time, I had a student approach me with anxieties about his track meet on Saturday. It was awesome to know that my students trust me, and value my advice and counsel. Helping students one-on-one is one of the most rewarding parts of student teaching to me.

Next week we are going on 2 field trips, cooking nachos for Cinco de Mayo, and making an order of 50 chocolate star suckers. It will be a busy and fun week! I hope to visit a few other pod levels in the building as well, to get a feel of how some other classes are ran.

Schmidt Chapter 12

Being a lifelong learner is not only one of my personal goals, but an aspiration I have for each of my future students. It is my goal to see my students fall in love with learning. Personally, being a lifelong learner means participating in professional development, collaboration, reading teacher blogs, educational research & children's literature, using new technologies, and possibly furthering my education formally. One thing I have heard from my cooperating teachers is that I should take a student teacher as soon as I am able and willing because you will learn as much from them as they learn from you. This was also a suggestion that Schmidt mentioned as well.