Sick

I knew I was in trouble when I woke up in the middle of the night coughing.  But I got up and went to school anyway today.  Unfortunately though, my symptoms did not go away, they got worse so at 1:30PM I left school with the permission of the teacher to go home to bed.  So far, no fever, just a nasty cough and a general run down feeling.  Pray that this cold is short lived.  This is the worst time for me to be sick. 

The first week!

Well, I made it through my first week of Student Teaching II at an elementary school about 8 minutes from our house (very convenient!) and so far, it is proving to be the exact opposite of my experience at the other school. My cooperating teacher at this school is an experienced elementary teacher with over 20 years of teaching under her belt. She also cares about her job and that was evident to me this week when I observed her teaching.

First, she is so organized! When I first met her, she showed me her "map" for each grade (k-5th). This map had each week of teaching planned out to teach specific music concepts to each grade for the whole year! I was so impressed. But more than impressed, I am excited to work and learn from her. So this week has been such a welcome relief from what I experienced before at the other school because I am learning that teaching can be a joy if you are organized and prepared and this current teacher is so I hope to soak up all I can from her!

Second, her classroom management and discipline in her classroom is so much better than the other teacher's system. She shows consistency in her discipline and her methods are effective! On Friday, she had me teach the 2nd and 3rd grade music classes a song and game (which ended up being about half of the class time for each period) and her critique of my teaching was very positive but also gave me a few practical things that I could work on to make my teaching even better. Again, this was opposite of the other teacher I had, who would ask me after watching me teach one of her classes, "how do you think you did?"

Next week, I will be teaching a lesson to one of my coop's kindergarten classes and also a 4th grade class.

It is a...

It's a girl!

The latest happenings...

Well, my first placement is finally over...yay! I have been so ready for it to end.  I shouldn't complain too much though because on my last day at the school this week, some of the kids baked cookies and brownies, got balloons and had a little surprise going away party for me.  It was really nice and I appreciated it.  Now that I am five months pregnant, I decided it was time to break down and buy some maternity clothes...do I look pregnant now?!

Tom took this unflattering picture of me but it is a picture nonetheless.  Did anyone get to enjoy the snow on Monday?  I sure did!  I didn't have to go in to school that day since the storm was so bad.  That didn't stop Tom from driving to the shore to surf though.  He said the waves were really good so it was worth the treacherous drive down (I know he's crazy!). 
I have been wanting to put this picture online for a while now...some students got the bright idea to fill Tom's office with balloons...this is a shot through his office door.

Another picture of the shore!
The drive down....

Tom in his office....
In a little under an hour, Tom and I are going to get THE ultrasound (boy or girl?).  I am so excited to see the baby!  I have been feeling movement more and more lately and it is really amazing.  I will probably post again once we find out so don't worry, you'll know soon hopefully.

The day I think I should have stayed in bed...

I know I just posted yesterday but I just have to tell you about the day I had.

As you know, I have been able to conquer managing/disciplining the middle school grades and these students have been relatively easy for me to teach with no real major challenges.

High School has not been the same. Today, I had high school choir which the cooperating teacher and I decided to split boys and girls. I had the boys today and she had the girls. The reason we did this was because the guys were so bad, they needed more attention and were kind of dragging the girls down...most can't read music at all and rely on me playing their parts to get the songs.

Today I had asked another teacher at the school to come and observe and give me pointers. The guys were good in the beginning for warm ups but got progressively worse as the rehearsal went on. One student asked to be excused to go to the bathroom and on his way out, was kicked by another student. This I did not see because I was playing the tenor's part at the time. When the student returned from going to the bathroom, he smacked the student who kicked him in the groin. This unfortunately I also did not see because I can only see the guys from the waist up when I am sitting at the piano playing parts. All the guys saw it and of course no one would explain what happened, even the student who got hit in the "man area" would not say what happened.

But the teacher who came to observe me today saw it. She told me afterward what happened and said they have done this before.

In the midst of all this, I had another student in class who told me he wasn't singing because he wasn't going to be able to go to Dorney Park which is what we were practicing this music for (I found out later that the reason this kids wasn't going was because his parents couldn't afford it). I informed him that he could sing with us regardless because by doing so, it would help him become a better singer. He did not fight me on this statement and joined the choir but for the rest of the class, proved to be rude and distracting in everything he did. At one point, he blatantly walked in front of me and was making faces at the tenors. It was at this point that I asked him to sit down.

On my way home, I had to call Tom. He of course was very comforting and encouraging, and gave me some good tips and suggestions for Wednesday when I have this particular class again. Tomorrow I am going to speak to the Principal about the kid who hit another student in the groin. That act could be considered sexual harassment. I came in to the class trying to treat everyone with courtesy and respect but now realize that I can no longer treat them as young adults but as children who need to be directed in what they should do. I am amazed at the level of behavior in this school though. In talking to other teachers, this seems to be accepted that the students act this way and most struggle at ways to help them behave. I can't wait til I get to the elementary school!

Pray for me if you think of it!  I need it right now.

The home stretch...

Yay! Only 1 and a 1/2 weeks to go until I am done with my first placement!  The past couple weeks have been very full...at school all day, come home write lesson plans all night, go to bed, repeat the next day.  The weekends aren't much better.  Saturdays we have drama/music rehearsals with the church for the Easter musical.  I leave my house at 11AM and don't get back til 6PM and by then I am tired and don't feel like doing more work.  Sigh.  I knew this was going to be hard when I decided to do this whole student teaching but the gravity of this has definitely sunk in.  At least when I am all done, I will have my certification "just in case." 

I met the teacher for my next placement (which will be at a public elementary school, starting March 11) this week.  I am really excited to get to work with this woman, she has been teaching for over 22 years and has quite the reputation at the school for teaching the kids how to read rhythms and melodies in elementary school!  

As far as my impressions of the school I am still currently in, I am really enjoying the middle school but the high school leaves much to be desired.  They are kind of a rowdy bunch and do not respond as quickly to behavior management techniques that work so easily with the middle school.  I have found quite a few of the high school students rude and disrespectful and it has been a challenge coming into such a culture.  It's funny because I thought that the high school would be the easiest for me since I have more experience with that age group working with the choir at my church but they have proved to be the most difficult.  When I asked other teachers at the school whether they are experiencing the same things, they all seemed to voice the same concerns that I have.  Unfortunately, I probably am having a harder time because the high school students see me as an inexperienced student teacher. 

Despite the business, my belly continues to grow...it is just such an amazing process.  On March 5th, we find out if the baby is a boy or girl!  So exciting!  Tom and I have been working away at the "baby" room.  So far, everything has been cleaned out of there but no decorating yet until we know the sex of the baby.  

I think I can, I think I can!

Frazzled.  That would be a good word to describe my current state of being.  At this point in my Student teaching I experience, I have reached the halfway point.  I have completed 3 1/2 weeks of placement one and have 3 1/2 more to go.  Unfortunately, the next 3 1/2 weeks will be harder than the first because I have been gradually adding classes into my teaching day week by week until this week where I am now teaching the maximum 3 lessons per day.   That means I will be writing 15 lesson plans per week from now until March 4.  If any of you are wondering how many that it, it's 54 from now until March 4!  While it can vary depending on the subject I am teaching, each lesson takes anywhere from 1-2 hours for me to prepare and write.  That is a lot of time considering I am teaching 3 voice students at PBU as an "affiliate artist" this semester, taking a 4 hour long graduate class on Tuesday nights, running my churches Easter musical practice on Saturdays from 12-5 and still trying to remember that the house should be cleaned, dinner should be made and I should get to bed at a decent hour.  

As you can imagine, there are some things that are starting to slip through the cracks and I don't feel one bit guilty about it.  For example, I was able to vaccuum the house on Saturday and get all the laundry done, but there would be no dusting or washing of floors.  Some things have to give for me right now because there is just not enough time in the day.  Thankfully, I have been to make some time for exercise and scripture reading in the late afternoon evening (before I start writing lesson plans) but you can pray for me that I make it through this whole ordeal with my sanity intact.