Student Teaching Experience Week 1

This was my first week back at Clay-Battelle High School, and it was such a great, and slightly overwhelming 3-day week.  My first day back at school was Wednesday, August 14th.  There were no students back at school until the next day.  I felt so connected to the school by returning on the 14th, attending the faculty meetings, getting our classroom ready, and reconnecting with the school and faculty.  I was happy when Mr. Ammons and I sat down and talked about the classroom rules we wanted to establish and write in  our student-parent-teacher contract.

On Wednesday I created the student-parent-teacher contract and class syllabus for the students, where I laid out the expectations of the student and the teacher.  I realized how valuable it would be to create this and establish structure and mutual respect on the first day.  I am curious to see how the students do in following rules and offering respect.

The official first day of school was Thursday, August 15th, and what a day it was! My classes average about 20 students, and I have 2 preps: 9th grade World History and 11th grade Contemporary Studies U.S. History.  The school is phasing into a completely online textbook for students in all social studies classes so they bought new textbooks, 1 set for the classroom and logins for students to access the book online at home or online at school.  I'm interested to see how this will work and I already see myself trying to use the resources the textbook company provides: review games, activities, etc.  My mentor teacher doesn't have lessons that coincide with these new texts, so he said that I will be starting teaching both classes from the very beginning...using my own lessons! This is both exciting and scary.

All in all, this week was great.  My goal is to have all of my students' names learned by next Friday.