Summer School Day 4

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

I'm going to chalk this day better. I was able to do some small groups, and was able to enjoy working in those groups. It's still an ongoing process to find my groove. I'm feeling more confident and excited as the week has gone on. I feel that I need to continue to adapt to this group of students, and not think of my former class.

One thing that I need to work on is getting out of the Kindergarten mentality. The students are different emotionally and with their mentality. There are things that I did not factor in when I was teaching Kindergarten that I have to factor in teaching younger students. Apparently getting kids to eat their food (ie. main food, not snacks) is important, because of setting eating habits. This was something that was not introduced to me. I'm use to kids asking me to open something, I will. So when this upsets the standard process from the other teachers, I really don't feel that bad, because nobody has told me to do something otherwise. I feel a little sorry for what happened.

Summer School Day 3

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

At the beginning of the day I was in an IEP meeting till 9:25. When I got done, my friends who ride the bus had just showed up. Which to be honest is ridiculous. The buses have been operating late for arriving and leaving. When I came back from the meeting, the class was in centers and operating smoothly.

I feel that the read aloud I did, The Rainbow Fish, went well. We did an activity after it. I feel that if we weren't under the gun with time we could have continued for ten more minutes. 

The activity was for the students to draw a fish and then add scales. The students could rip up pieces of paper to make the scales and then glue them on. I have a picture of one students work.

It's still my learning process of being able to teach an adequate art lesson. Which is tough since I am not that big of a fan of art. 

The one thing I need to work on is finding something for my students to do after lunch. The boredom of reading books has caused them to act out.

Summer School Day 2

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

As another school day passes, I find it very cathartic to write my thoughts down. It provides an opportunity to not only document things, but gives me an outlet. As something that I have been thinking since yesterday, that I really need to find positives in negative thoughts. In summer school, what I believe is that this will present to me a transition away from not having my co-teacher. It will be able to help me get over that she is not in my classroom, and will help me in the transition. It has had it's moments in only two days! One thing that I really have to be conscious when I'm teaching is to not compare my new colleagues to my old co-teacher. I can't say, "she would have done that different" or "she would have it out already". This is the learning process for sure.

Another thing that I am learning, is still going through the feeling out process with my students and vice versa. What I need to do is make it through this week, and get all the routines and procedures down.

I am pleased that once again I am getting positive praise from the admin staff. One goal coming into the 2012-13 school year was to change how I was as a teacher. I felt that in my first year I was a shitty teacher, so the goal was to not be that shitty of a teacher. It was something (that honestly) I thought about everyday. I was visualizing what would be different. I was visualizing what was going to go through the first day and how I would react to things. Honestly it was a step in the process of what has fascinated me for a long time. I feel that there is some aspect of statistical analysis when teaching. The steps are finding it at a point where the classroom can run smoothly.

One fascinating aspect from today was that I was bitten by one of my students. I feel that from interacting with this student so far, that a different tone and style will need to be used. But frankly he will not get me down. I will break him down.

Summer School Day 1

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

Today was not that bad when it came to first days. It really was a learning experience. I'm not use to working with students that young, but it was one of those things that makes me better at the profession I have chosen. I was a bit ambitious with choices of centers. They were a bit to much academic, and did not hold the attention span of the students. In our next center rotation, I modified them to give them more hands on learning (legos, blocks). And it worked well. It's still a challenge with their emotional and maturity level. I was pleased with certain aspects, but there is still room to improve. It's an adjustment when you leave the end of the year, where things are smooth, well oiled machine, and you have to start all over again. This is something I talked to my co-teacher about in September/October of the school year, and it was meet with some sort of braggish notion on my part. But it holds true. Having to re-establish new routines and expectations.

Once again the read alouds I do, and the investment I put into them get my students hooked. I read the book The Snowy Day and dressed up in winter clothing. After the read aloud, I did a science experiment and put ice cubes (dyed with green food coloring) and dropped them in a jar of warm water.

June 3rd & June 4th

...yesterday was a workout that kinda knocked me down a peg. Then what happened after that is a feeling that I have not had in a long time. I was extremely dehydrated and crashed big time at 8pm. I then went to sleep, because I didn't think I could do anything else.

I did my tempo run in the afternoon. I had some anxiety of running in the morning and pushed it to the latter times. I should have ran in the morning. The temperatures were cool. I did the tempo run and knew that I would be hurting as I was running. The first mile was 5:34 and I never felt great. Then I followed it with a 5:47, which was where I was in deep pain. The third mile was like most of what I have been doing in DC. Full of wind to the face. I was pushing and not really having much in me. I ran the third mile in 5:47.

I then did my cool down and immediately had to scramble to find a bathroom. I made it, but felt awful during the cool down. Awful like I couldn't believe if I would make it back to my place. I did, but was running on fumes and hoped some food would get me back. It did not. I was crashing and after taking a shower and trying to eat something, went to bed.

This morning I ran ten miles. It wasn't that bad, considering the effects of yesterday's run. I know that if my life depended on me running a workout, I would be dead 100 times. I ran the miles this morning, and didn't feel that bad. I just got done studying for my test. I did four strides and core for the first time this week. I'm planning on mile repeats tomorrow morning. That will be a go for sure.

June 3rd

...I woke up in the morning and was getting ready to go run. I didn't hear the pounding of the rain, so I didn't think it was that bad. I got out around 5:20 am and it was raining. Not that hard, but enough to warrant an umbrella. It had rained enough during the night to prompt massive puddles on the trail. The rain stopped at mile four and didn't pick up until seven and a half. That's when it started to pick up. It was over by the time I finished. I eschewed strides and core because I was soaked to the bone.

It wasn't a bad run. I did see two other people while I was out running, so that was reassuring. I am planning on running early in the morning to get study time in for my test on Saturday. I got home this afternoon and was starving. I had a bowl of cereal, orange, and some pita chips before my chicken dinner and then ate a cliff bar after that. So I was really hungry.

Mileage for the day was nine miles at 7:10 pace.

June 2nd

...today was going to be an overly ambitious start to getting into some tip top shape. It was going to be a long run, with a four mile marathon pace tempo run thrown into the mix. I was thinking of running eleven miles, then doing the four mile temp, and then jogging the last two miles home. That was the plan. I was hoping for a tempo pace around 5:50 to 6 minutes. And while that didn't materialize I can at least be confident in where my current fitness level is, and where I need to go to achieve what I want to accomplish.

I'll start with the run with began a little past seven in the morning. I was debating whether to drop my shirt off at some rock cliff around a mile in, but decided not to. I then got to two miles and knew that it would be better served to run without a shirt, for the first time in recent memory. I also stopped to tie my shoelace, not because it was untied (which I have to say is starting to become a problem with my shoe. It's happened twice this week. Although to be fair that's better than the last pair, that got untied nearly every run.), but rather because it was off a bit. I then continued with my run. I wasn't feeling that spry and was debating about pulling the plug a bit and just running to some distance and turning around. I felt that way until mile five and then I started to relax. I was close to sub seven or right around that for the miles. I ran new parts of Rock Creek in Maryland, which reminded me of McMullen in some areas. I turned around at 8.5 and was exactly at an hour. I stopped to get some water at mile nine, and then hit my temp a mile and a half later.

I started the first tenth of a mile running uphill and then the course goes back downhill (very convenient). I was trying to shake off the first part of that run and was able to get it down, but not low enough for me. I hit the first mile at 6:14. I continued to press on. I really wasn't in any danger of fading, but was having a problem dropping the times. I hit the second mile at 6:13. I then eased into the run and the third mile went by with a better effort, with a 6:06. Then I hit the fourth mile and it honestly didn't feel that I was working that hard, even though the pace dipped quite a bit. I ran the last mile in 5:48 to give my tempo time of 24:21. Not really what I was expecting, but a promising start, a baseline to see where I am. I ran to get some water and jogged back to my apartment building. I did four strides in the alley and had to fight with the wind on two of them.

I ended up running the seventeen miles in 1:56:23. The first eleven were at 7:02 pace. Not that shabby. My weekly mileage was 81.75. That's probably the first time I've ran eighty this year.

June 1st

...I woke up this morning and I felt exhausted. I really had nothing in me, but I went out for a run and knew that this would be a run where I just ran through it. I kept the pace slow and while the mileage was in the double digits, it wasn't that bad. I was able to pick up my pace as the run went on, and I was able to keep my stride in the same shape throughout the run.

Throughout the day I studied for a Praxis test and took a nap.