The Meetings

Yesterday, I went to Lux to meet with my cooperating teachers. I'll be working with Mrs. Janike's 7th Grade Social Studies class and Mrs. Ringenberg's 6th Grade Language Arts class.

For the first eight weeks, I'll be with Mrs. Ringenberg's class. She told me that she basically plans on throwing me into everything, and I'll be teaching right away. Among the many things she has planned for me, I will be in charge of giving and grading the theme tests. My day is very well-laid out. My first two periods are plan periods. Then, I have a two-hour block with 24 differentiated students. After lunch, I have a two-hour block with 32 at-level students. I think it will be nice to have such a small number of students to get to know. Two classes seems very manageable! One project that I am very excited about is having my students be online pen pals with Rachel Fehring's Japanese students. Mrs. Ringenberg will be setting up a blog for the students to use, and I am excited to see how this goes! Lux has a close relationship with Senshu Matsudo Junior High in Japan, and as eighth graders, students have the opportunity to do a student exchange with them. Having these Japanese pen pals will be a great way to get the students thinking about the exchange program!

For the second eight weeks, I'll be with Mrs. Janike's class. She has a very set routine established in her room, so I will be observing her classroom for the first week or so. Once I begin, though, she said she is leaving everything up to me. Among the things I will be teaching are: Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Russia. This makes me nervous, because I haven't really studied much about any of those places. I plan to use up much of my weekend time studying up on the history of these places! In her classroom, I will teach five sections, including one differentiated section. From the sounds of it, this differentiated class is structured much like many of my college classes! It will be interesting to see how the students do. As a part of the unit, we will be having Greek Olympics, which also sounds like a lot of fun!

Both classrooms have a SMART board, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to teach using that technology! It is relatively new for me, but hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to work it! Mrs. Ringenberg has developed several lessons on the SMART board, so I'm hoping she'll share some of them with me! Overall, it sounds like student teaching is going to keep me VERY busy, but I'm excited to dive in and get started!