Well for my first post of the New Year I was going to write how I had made the resolution to stop procrastinating. However, it's already January 9th...so much for resolutions.
Last week I had the great opportunity of substitute teaching for the 4th grade at Concord Christian School. This was an absolutely amazing experience! Aside from an occasional aid popping in to give me a break, I was basically on my own. For those of you in the student-teaching process, you know what a cool thing that is! I did not have the pressures of being evaluated or the boredom of sitting in a desk observing someone else teach. Instead I got hands-on, pressure-free experience! Yeah I made mistakes, but I was able to cope with what I needed to do to fix them. There were 22 students in my class. We studied everything from multiplying double-digit numbers to diagramming sentences to learning about the weather to reading stories. I even got to teach some of them division for the very first time! Have you ever thought about how hard it is to teach something that comes so natural to you now? They were definitely a rowdy bunch, so I also got my share of discipline practice in. All in all, it was a good experience and I'm glad that I was able to do it. On top of getting paid, I also got a great picture of a snowman with "to Miss S." on the top from one of my students. I'm sure I sound like such a nerd saying all this, but it was so exciting for me to be able to put into practice what I am learning in school. And as much as I loved being with "my kids", I know that I am definitely not cut out to be an elementary school teacher. There's no way I could keep up with them all year! I'll take Shakespeare and a bunch of hormone-crazed teens any day! (And for those of you who love to tease me, yes I did spell-check this post)