Wednesday, May 1

Today I observed for management techniques.  It was another weird day, as Jessica was out of the classroom after 11:30 and we had a sub.  I ended up kind of leading the activities, although another specialist came in for their reading lesson.  In terms of time management, we started a little late and had two lessons to do instead of one.  Instead of starting the second lesson, Jessica decided it would be better to play a game for a while instead of trying to squish a lot of info into a small amount of time.  The other major management note was that we finally were able to rearrange the classroom!  We didn't make any huge changes, but were able to move some shelves around, get rid of some smaller furniture items, and clear things up a bit.  Our whole goal was to get to the windows so we could open them (there's no air conditioning), but the changes ended up making everything less cluttered.  We also switched the front of the room so that the reading group table is on the other side, as well as changed the back of the room so that the ELL reading table can be walked all the way around.  It looks a lot better, and moving around the room seems much easier.  I was trying to comment on materials in my template, but then realized all material prep had been done by me.  Before the lesson, I made table bins containing centimeter cubes and paper rectangular prisms (folded by me as well).  We didn't get to this lesson yesterday, but those will definitely help things run smoother today.  I also had a small taste of my own management today.  A student was misbehaving, and when Jessica is there I usually let her take the reigns on the situation, but I finally had my first student sent to the take a break chair.  It doesn't seem like much, however I'm sure those instances and other pieces of behavior management are coming  my way soon.  I also made some notes during the reading lesson, conducted by another teacher.  He had difficulties with one student, and was close to sending him to the buddy room.  Ms. Keisha was called in to deal with him.  I also noticed how different the bus line was today with him running it (it's usually run by the other third grade teacher).  He took the students out late, but demanded silence and a straight line before we went out.  Despite being late, it was less hectic.

Question of the day: As a first time teacher, what do you wish you would have known before you started teaching?

Jessica and I had touched on this a few days ago, and her responses were similar to our previous conversation.  She talked at length about how difficult it was for her to set up her room, routines, rules, transition tactics, etc.  She said she wished she could do a run through before actually starting, because there's so much to set up at the beginning of the year.  I also have this concern, and I know many other pre-service teachers share it.  Jessica had the lucky chance of beginning her career in a room where she team taught.  Her co-teacher was a veteran, and showed her the ropes on setting up the room and the expectations and practices with the students.  I would like to know more about how most teachers do this, as I probably won't have that same experience.  It seems like a lot for the first few weeks.