More Fun Than I Should Be Allowed [Picture]

Well, I’m pretty much absolutely sure that I want to be a general education elementary teacher.  Today was my very first ever elementary class to teach (I did some student teaching with music back in the day, but I only had each class for about 25-30 minutes).  I had so much fun that I absolutely know that this is what I want to do.  However, I taught fifth grade today, so I don’t know if maybe I’d rather teach the higher elementary grades than the lower ones.  As I was teaching them today, I realized that they know how to read (mostly), spell, write sentences, and all the basic knowledge they need to then work on concepts.  I really liked the idea that I’d be building on the basic skills they had instead of knowing that they would absolutely be screwed if I didn’t impart the knowledge they needed.  Don’t get me wrong.  Teaching is teaching and money is money, but I’m starting to think that it might not be so bad if I get a position teaching fourth or fifth grade.

The teacher I’m teaching for (today through Friday) is super-organized and pretty much my hero when it comes to this.  I was nervous until I sat down this morning and briefly glanced through her lesson plans.  She had everything down to the minute.  I kept pretty much to the schedule, but I allowed a bit more time here for certain things and there for other things.  The kids were really anxious to find out about me, so instead of writing this morning, we had "Get to know Miss Jessica" time.  We took twenty minutes and I let them ask me any question they wanted.  I got some really good ones like, "What are you not good at?"  and "Why did you choose to teach music and why do you want to do regular school now?"  I also got a couple wacky questions like, "What’s your favorite rating on a movie?" 

They still had tons more questions, and I told them I’d bring some stuff in from my home so they can know a bit more about me.  I’ll probably take another twenty tomorrow and Friday so we can have "chill time" and they can ask me more questions.  I think doing that allowed them to feel more comfortable with me and they stayed on task all day and were rather well-behaved.  I honestly believe that’s a product of that personalization.  That’s the cool thing about elementary kids.  They care about their teacher as soon as they understand he or she is a "real person", so they want to do well not just because of their grade, but they know that the teacher will be proud of them.  This is what we call, on a certain level, intrinsic motivation.  There that’s your college teaching lesson for today.

I also realized that because the day was scheduled so that we only spent 20-30 minutes on any given lesson (reading and math excepted), I did not get bored.  This is very important.  When I taught music in elementary, I was teaching the same lesson seven times a day, two days in a row.  To be sure to get all the classes in for music, we had to have them on two days, so I would teach a lesson seven times on Monday, then again on Tuesday, and repeat the process with a new lesson on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Drove me nuts.  I was ready to hang myself before lunch.  While the day seemed to take awhile today, it still went by fast because we were always switching things up.  Loved it.

And now, a picture of my dog…because I feel like it: