Responsibilities and Relaxation

Today I officially took over all of the responsibilities of a full-time teacher. Since last Wednesday I have had the Sophomores totally, and today I was handed over the Juniors as well. I figured I would be totally stressed today, but it went suprisingly well, even if the projector did die :) Tomorrow and the next week or two may be a different story as I know it's going to be busy! I have figured it up, and if we get our Spring Break (April 6-10), then I have 36 more days of teaching (not counting weekends) which means 7 more weeks of making lesson plans. Hopefully it goes quickly!

Nick is coming down this weekend which I am super excited for because he's not been here since before Thanksgiving. Well, my Xbox 360 is calling me, so I'd better answer :)

Week One Down (almost)

My first week officially student teaching is nearly over and I am drained. I am also astounded at how fast the students go through some of the work that I have planned! For instance, today I had planned some stuff that I thought would take a while, but we were done with it in half the time! I'm afraid that I am going to have to overwork myself in order to make sure that we aren't endind up with half of the class period with nothing to do. I just don't know how to do it. Maybe Mrs. Hyatt can provide me with some insight....

Oh, I applied for a job last night. There is a K-12 Sp. Ed position opening with Westside Community School district and I applied last night. Dr. Eicher called and spoke to some director of Special Ed in that school system and gave him my name and told him about me and he said the man seemed very interested, so that's exciting :) I will keep you posted! Hopefully next week goes better than this week!

Officially Ms. Osborn

This morning at 7 a.m. Mrs. Hyatt called and said that her little girl was at home sick with the flu and that she would be staying home with her, and so I was in charge for the first five hours of classes, after which I left for eletronic fingerprinting. All in all the day went pretty well. I definitely think that my most challenging class is going to be 5th hour (LA2 right after lunch). There are a few boys in there and a few girls that talk so much and I really forsee myself needing to find an effective method of dealing with them.

Tomorrow is my first day of actual teaching (will do all 3 classes of LA2) and I think i am pretty much ready, so we'll see :) Hopefully I am as optimistic for the next day tomorrow night!

Thank God!!!

After checking nearly every ten minutes this morning to see if my Praxis results had been posted yet, around 10 a.m. I saw that they were up and I passed my second and final test!!!!!!!!!!!! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy :) This means that I am eligible to get my special ed teaching certificate and that I can start looking for a job now which I am super excited about! I got a hold of Dr. Eicher and he wants me to come in and meet with him in March so we can get a hold of his friend that works in the Omaha school district and see if they have any sp. ed openings, which is exciting :) Will update you when I know any more!!!

Exhaustion

So as you can tell by the title of this entry, I am feeling extremely tired and, not run down, but rather sluggish and grouchy. This past week was my first of student teaching (where I did no teaching :P) and it went very well. But, although I have been going to bed between 9 and 10 p.m. every night and don't get up until 6:30 a.m. I am so tired every day. This might be attributed to the long days I spend just sitting and observing in the class and such.

However, today was better because I got to actually help and work with the students when they were writing essays of Of Mice and Men, so that was nice. Believe it or not I think that the classes I am going to enjoy the most are my 6th hour (16 boys and 2 girls---La2) and my 7th hour (La3). Well, the Westminster Kennel Club Show is on so I had better go and watch it :) Ciao.

It's "Ms. Osborn" to You

Today was my first day in the high school and of student teaching and it, honestly, was rather boring (not that I mind, though)! As mentioned in an earlier blog I'm sure, I have three LA2 sections and three LA3 sections. All of the classes seems to be pretty well behaved for the most part, with a few exceptions in a class or two (which is to be expected). The sophmores are just finishing Of Mice and Men and Mrs. Hyatt said that I will probably be able to start taking them over later next week. She said that it will be a little longer before I take over the Juniors because they are still reading The Great Gatsby which she is going to finish up.

My planning period during fourth hour, which is right before lunch, and so it makes for a nice, long 1 1/2 hour break where I can eat at my leisure, grade, make copies, and just prepare for the second half of my day. Yesterday before I came home from Omaha I was so upset because I was just so nervous about student teaching and nervous that I would be thrown in pretty quickly, but Nick kept reassuring me that it would be okay and that I had nothing to worry about. Turns out he was right (as of today), but don't tell him that ;) He is just so good to me and I am so lucky to have someone like him by my side and encouraging me during this new point in my life, and I couldn't ask for anything better! Hopefully when it is time for me to take over the class in full I am still feeling so happy! But hopefully that won't be for a few weeks :)