My First Week

The first day of student teaching was similar to my first days of school when I was younger. I could barely sleep and I woke up extra early so I would be on time and I could try on multiple outfits before deciding on the first one I tried on in the first place.

My mentor teacher Jessica thought of this cute idea for me to re introduce myself to the kids. I haven't been in the class since the beginning of December and she recently had some new students join our class. At the beginning of the year each student had to bring in a personality bag. The bag should have ten things that describe something about you, so she thought this would be a great way to let the kids get to know me a little better.

In my bag:

1. A pink hair tie because pink is my favorite color.
2. Diet coke bottle because I can't go a day without one.
3. Starbuck's gift card because I get my iced coffee every morning on my way to school.
4. My Angel's hat because I grew up in California and the Angels are my favorite baseball team.
5. My Cardinal's jersey because I love going to football games with my dad and brothers on Sundays.
6. An Alphabet poster that I got for Christmas because I want to be a teacher.
7. "Westside Stories from Wayside School" because that was one of my favorite books when I was in 3rd grade.
8. A picture of my nephew Jack because he is my whole world and family is the most important thing in my life.
9. My ASU hat because I am going to ASU to become a teacher.
10. My I-phone because I can't go a day without music or talking to my mom.

They loved it and had so many questions to ask me afterwards.

• Do you have a husband?
• Do you have a baby?
• How old are you?
• Did you get your good looks from your mom or your dad?
• Did you get your brains from your mom or your dad?

We had to cut them off because we had to go to lunch but it was nice to let them know a little bit more about me. 

My first week went better than I could have hoped. Jessica team teaches with three other third grade teachers and I love them all also which is great because I will be working with them on all of the weekly lesson plans for the next four months. 

I can't use student's names due to certain laws that protect them so I will just use initials to share some of my favorite parts of the first week. 

Tuesdays highlight: I soon realized that Justin Bieber is similar to the JTT of my time. All of the girls are wearing his shirts and have their binders covered with him. So, I see K looking really upset at the desk he is at ( they switch classes for different subjects because this district does ability grouping). I ask him what is wrong and he looks over at the binder on the desk he is sitting at and winces. "Worst day ever." I could not help but laugh because he was so adorable. Of course this started a conversation up. The girl sitting across from him was completely willing to trade him seats and sit with the binder while another girl yells out that she doesn't like Justin only his music. At this J (a boy sitting next to her) responds with when I first heard that baby baby baby (he sings it) song I thought it was a girl, I told my mom there's no way this is a boy this has to be Katy Perry! These kinds of moments light my day up because it is extraordinary how much personality all of these kids have. 

Wednesday highlight: On Wednesday I was able to experience my first staff meeting. It was really interesting to see this part of the job. When I had interned in the past it was usually just one day a week and the same day each week so I didn't get to see a variety of how the school runs or the interaction between all of the teachers. The principal is amazing I love her already and she ran the meeting. Of course towards the end of the meeting I was introduced to all of the teachers, and I had to stand up and wave this was only slightly mortifying. :)

Thursday highlight: Every day has something amazing happen in the classroom, more like a million amazing things. Yet my favorite part of Thursday was Jessica inviting me to happy hour at Uncle Bears with two of the other third grade teachers. They are all really close which is something I hope to have with the teachers I work with wherever I end up. It was fun to see them outside of school in more of laid back atmosphere. I am looking forward to may more of these kind of evenings <3

Friday highlight: This is so hard to choose because for one I loved being able to wear jeans and the school colors. (black and gold) I wore a black top and gold jewelry, however the students pointed it out that I did not have to wear gold jewelry because I already had gold hair :) I also went to four different classrooms and grades to observe and see some of the things I liked and didn't like. I always thought I wanted to teach fourth grade, if not that then I wanted to at least teach 3rd-6th. I never in a million years wanted to go younger. However, after going into the kindergarten class and seeing those kids I absolutely fell in love. It is crazy amazing how much they are learning in kindergarten these days and the kids are all about learning! They are like little sponges wanting to soak everything up! It also doesn't hurt that they love love love their teacher. I am so much more interested in the younger grades now but I think it's good because now I would be fine with any age level I think. Those little stinkers stole my heart though. Later in the day my heart was stolen again by two girls in my own class. During journal writing they have to choose a prompt from choices that are already printed out for them. I had two girls ask me if they could use me to journal on the prompt "Write about someone that has been nice to you". Little things that like that make me so happy I could cry.

There hasn't been one day that has gone by that wasn't hard and didn't have it's challenges. Yet these were always countered with the little thing moments that make being a teacher worth while! I'm sure I can look forward to many more weeks like this and hopefully years to come. After this week I can say I am completely content with my career path choice and I can't wait to continue my life in this direction.