Planting Cucumbers!

I would like to take a moment to almost brag about the success of my classes cucumber planting on Monday. I have heard middle school teachers complain about the chaos that ensued when they had their students planting seeds but I am proud to say I found a way to make it work- at least for me. Since they were planting them in trays I knew the whole class couldn't do it at one time because only do many kids can fit around a tray at one time. So I had students do a worksheet that the answers were found in one of the chapters of their book and I called three or four students at a time to the back for planting. I drew pictures on the board and explained the procedures and then the kids worked together to plant three or four cells in the tray. Now I'm just praying they will grow!

Early Release Days are difficult!

Today was my first day teaching on an early release day (we have them pretty much every Wednesday). By the time students get a mind mover done and settled they only have like 30 minutes! Today we did a couple of cool activities: one class did posters presenting the data from the bubble gum activities and the other class did marketing and labeling for the popcorn we popped yesterday. I have found that when you take the time to slow down and go through an activity like you want to, even though it takes much longer than you thought, the students do much better. My first period class is still doing good though considering they are my trial class-poor guys. I'll add some pics of some of the stuff the kids made today, they did a great job!

It's a learning process alright!

The past two days have been the first days I was teaching actual lessons. At this point in my internship I have only taken over the first two periods of the day (7th grade). I have discovered SO many things already though! For instance, at the University I would have my teachers and Ta's tell me, "That activity is only going to take the kids 10 minutes and you're trying to give them 20 to get it done." Actually, I hate to say it but I don't think they were right on this one. It takes middle schoolers forever to do anything! Especially in a group work setting where they have to interact with each other will they quickly get off task. The activity that I had planned for one day has now turned into a three day activity (they are finishing it tomorrow come hell or high water). On the other hand, I also found out that you don't need to put too much popcorn in a dry air corn popper at once, it might almost blow up on you. And I have had to learn really quick how to deal with situations like your corn popper almost blowing up and the rest of the class not getting to finish an activity. But on a more positive note I will say this: I am proud of the way I've been handling all of my situations and I can tell that in the last few short months I  have changed drastically in my ability to 'roll with the punches'. Last semester (especially lab 9 in the high school), if some of these things had happened to me I would cry all the way home (again). But now I am taking it all in stride and I know it's ok to make mistakes. It's ok that I'm not the best teacher in the entire world. It's ok that my one day activity is going on it's third day. It's ok that my first period class is my guinea pigs. Even though it seems that nothing has gone right yet I'm still so excited for the weeks to come, so excited to move into more challenging content. These kids are awesome and I can already tell I'm not going to want to leave in a few short months. Let's just hope the weeks start going a little smoother.

First day in charge tomorrow!

Today I had a small taste of being in charge of the classroom and I was met with great surprises. My classes that are the absolute worst stepped up to the plate and were very well behaved and respectful and the classes I didn't expect any problem from tried to take advantage of me. Lesson learned: do not start letting them go to the bathroom. Evidently needed to pee is a virus and can spread quickly, soon the whole class needs to go to the restroom. Despite the difficulties of the afternoon I am excited to work with the students some tomorrow and get to know them. We're going to play some get-to-know each other games and make name tents!!!! I'll let you know how it goes! I'm adding pics of my name tent example and my first chalk board ready to go for tomorrow :)