First Week

It has been a super busy week.  After Monday, I took on Jesus time for the rest of the week so I was busy planning for that and looking over the stories for the week.  Jesus time went pretty well the entire week.  It is one of the things the children really like to do and it's simple too.  Each child gets his/her own Bible and I read a section of the story and the children repeat it.  Then after we read the story, we talk about it.  My co-op told me about the turn and talk technique which works really well in this situation.  I'm glad I picked Jesus time to start with, it was a good way to ease into student teaching.

The same little boy who asked me why I was so skinny, asked me later in the week why I was so small.  Haha I guess being a 5'2 teacher is just something they do not understand yet.

Two of my favorite quotes this week were:
A little girl said this to my co-op "She really is a teacher...she acted like a teacher!"  It was after Jesus time on Thursday.  The children were driving me crazy flipping through their Bibles and I finally had to have them close their Bibles and put them on the ground in front of them so that we could focus.  Once the Bible's were closed, it was amazing how much they could pay attention then.  The second quote comes from a little boy as we are in line coming back from lunch.  In Kindergarten, the last person in line is referred to as the last little duck, so I was last and said "I guess I'm the last little duck."  The little boy responded with "Well you're actually a big duck."  haha I guess I'm not as small as the other little boy thinks I am.  My co-op and I get a lot of laughs from the things that these children say to me.

This week I also experienced my first Wildcat Wednesday.  On Wednesday, teachers can wear jeans as long as we are wearing school colors (red, black, or white) so it was nice to be able to wear jeans to school.

This coming week is National Lutheran Schools Week so I am excited to see everything that goes on this week.

First Day of School, First Day of School!!

Today was my first day student teaching in my kindergarten classroom.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I first got there so I was a little nervous.  But by the time we were in faculty devotions, I knew that everything was going to be okay for the day.

There are 17 kindergarteners in my class.  And they are all amazing.  I easily gained a fan base with most of the girls.  It is so cute, they run to the carpet just to get a spot next to my chair.  One of the girls told me we were going to be best friends...this is also the girl that wants to hold my hand every time we go somewhere.  When some of the girls found out that I will be teaching Jesus time tomorrow, they just about flipped out. "You're teaching Jesus time tomorrow!" "Hey guess what Miss Abel is teaching Jesus time tomorrow!"  There was so much excitement with that.  So we will see how Jesus time goes tomorrow.  The girls told me they were all going to sit front row for Jesus time tomorrow to sit close to me.  I've also got a couple of boys that love to come and talk to me and smile at me.  It's so dang cute!  It makes me never want to leave kindergarten!

I experienced my first teacher indoor recess today.  And let me tell you, it was a little crazy.  The first recess was at 9 AM and it was kindergarten through 2nd grade all in the gym.  There were children everywhere!  You couldn't even tell which ones were yours.  But somehow we all made it through the craziness of balls being kicked and thrown in every direction possible.  For noon recess, we watched a short video since the gym was in use for a middle school gym class for most of our recess time.  We got to go into the gym (only kindergarten) for the last 10 minutes of recess.  This time it was much calmer.  The children literally ran in circles for the first five minutes.  I guess they have to get the energy out somehow.  During this recess, I decided that hula hoops were invented for a teacher's amusement because watching most of the kindergarteners try to hula hoop was really cute...and a little funny.  They just haven't got the hip movement down yet.  One little boy tried so hard and I had to try hard not to laugh because he would spin it around him and then to try to get it to stay, he looked like he was doing on of those drills where you run through the tires putting only one foot in each tire.  It was adorable!

Here are a few cute things that happened today:
1. A little boy comes up to my desk during snack and stares at me for a while.  So I asked him what was up.  He gets all serious and says "Miss Abel, why are you so skinny?"  Haha it was really funny.  I had to try not to chuckle because it was so random.  I had no idea what to say to him though, I just asked him why he was skinny...he just laughed and walked away.

2. One of my kindergarten BFFs that is always next to me comes up to me during their free time while memory work was being said and she hands me a picture.  I look at the picture and say thank you.  She proceeds to tell me that the picture is of me and her...and a rock.  Apparently it was important to throw a rock in there...who knew?  But it's cute.  Below is a picture of my beautiful rock picture.

3. As we are walking to computers today, one of the little girls looks at my shoes and says "Ooh your shoes are so cute!"  So I say thank you.  The little boy behind us says "You know I thought you'd be wearing winter shoes."  Haha apparently he did not like my flats!

Here are two more of my wonderful presents that I received today:

 I am not entirely sure what the above is, but he was so happy to give it to me.  It's basically a bunch of papers glued in a circle.  But he was so excited that it was for me.  He ran over to me just to give it to me.  This was the very first present I received today.

This is a Christmas tree drawing I received.  It's black and pink so I don't know what more I can say about this tree.  But once again, she was smiling ear to ear when she gave this to me.  

So this is day one of my student teaching adventure.  I'm excited to see what is going to happen throughout the rest of the week and the rest of the semester.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!!  Since I will be starting my student teaching experience on Monday, I decided to create a blog to share my wonderful experience with all of my friends and family that may not be around to hear about all my experiences.  

So a little about myself, I am a senior at Concordia University Chicago.  I am a Lutheran Early Childhood Education major and I will also have a Special Education Endorsement.   I am going to be student teaching at a Lutheran grade school in Cedarburg, WI.  And I'm really excited to start!  I will be in Kindergarten for my first 8 weeks and Second Grade for the last 8 weeks.  I am looking forward to all of the new adventures I will have with both of these classes.  And I look forward to sharing all the steps along the way with you.