It's been a long time...

Wow so much has happened since I last posted.

I substituted for my CT twice. Once for a 1/2 day where I had my students in class with me for 3 hours straight. The second time was for the whole day, but I only had my students in class with me for a total of 3 hours during the full day (we had specials, an assembly, and I taught science to the other second grade class).

Let me tell you....
I don't know how my CT does it on Fridays when I'm not there. True, she's been doing it for a lot longer, but so many days we both are doing so much at the same time (one controlling behavior, one teaching the lesson). It's much more difficult when you're the only adult in the room. What's even more frustrating is when the "good" kids act up. Especially the ones that don't act out for my CT, but just for me. Aren't I lucky. My CT thinks it's because he has a crush on me. Weird.

I'm tired of arguing with students that they they can be right and tell me I am wrong. They can't do that! I've started telling them that I'm tired of it...that makes them a little angry. Maybe not the best way to handle it....

I've got to try something new.

Thanksgiving was great. I went to my dad's with the fam and spent 4 days without thinking about school. :-D I didn't go to my mom's, which means I didn't get to see any of "my boys" (aka my friends from high school). That was sad. It's been too long.

I think I'm actually going to send out Christmas cards this year. I must be getting old. I feel like the only way I can keep in touch with some people is a once- or twice-per-year letter. Is that bad? Am I too young to be feeling this way? I'll try it this year and see how it goes. I miss my friends.

I'm in East Lansing right now because I'm headed to Real Life where one of my girls is sharing her testimony of how God has been working in her life. I'm really excited. She's got a great story.

Only 2 weeks of MSU classes left!
Only 3 weeks left at my general education internship site!

Man! This semester has flown by!

Two things...

I am a city girl. :-)

How do I know this? Yesterday when I was so sick that I didn't want to do anything, but I went to my brother's graduation anyway, I was downtown Chicago. As soon as we stepped outside to walk from the hotel hosting the graduation to the restaurant, I learned how much of a city girl I am. Even when I'm sick, I was energized by the brisk fall air and I just started walking (kinda fast). I knew where I was going, too! :-) As soon as the light changes, I'm walking. One thing I need to learn in the middle of that bustle is to find peace and patience, and to take time to rest. I have a hard time slowing down sometimes, too...


Here's the second thing....kinda kicked my butt today. From the iGoogle application: "Reminders from God" or something like that....
You must not expect to live in a world where all is harmony. It is your task to maintain your own heart-peace in adverse circumstances by relying on Me.

talk about peace...

Crazy

A few things that are crazy right now:

... teaching
Science (weather)

• My own unit plan
• Culmination (hopefully) to happen next week
• Videotaping my lesson for viewing by my MSU classmates
  

Math

• Pretty structured
• Not as many fun activities as I would like
  

Phonics/reading vocabulary groups

• I get very little preparation for this
• Kids don't like to work well together

Behavior management

• My students are very challenging, and oppositional
• I am going to substitute on my own for the first time on Thursday morning...I'm nervous because the kids are so different every day, and have already chased at least 1 substitute away by being so awful.
• I started "making deals" with students, encouraging positive behaviors by providing an incentive if they succeed in the behavior for a slotted amount of time. (i.e. If one student calls out a lot in class, his deal is to get something if he can go a whole day without shouting out.

Personal goals (as assessed by my msu teacher...)

• Behavior management - finding creative ways to include all students and have them focused
• Deliberately using assessments (formal and informal) to modify my teaching
• Incorporating and including diverse learners (especially when the extremes are present in the class)
  

... MSU coursework
Inclusion project re: a child with visual impairments in a mainstream classroom.

• Interviews
• Observations
• HUGE paper at the end exposing my findings

Project re: child with a language problem (writing expression)

• Observations
• Interviews
• Research (for my problem and those of 2 of my classmates)

IEP observation

• 6 page report re: what happened

Group Inservice (Professional Development) presentation

• 1-2 hour presentation to "general education teachers" re: having a deaf/hard of hearing student in their classroom
• 5 members need to collaborate in order to present this

Paper re: my learning breakdowns and development of my learning during the course of the semester

and I think I'm getting sick again....



Positive craziness:
At MSU last week they had an outreach called The Price of Life where they talked about the international slave trade and attempted to raise money for the International Justice Mission. As far as I have heard (this was as of Wednesday night) there have been 55 people who accepted Christ as their personal savior this week! This is very exciting! The angels are rejoicing. :-)