Another Successful Week! (Includes an Interview!)

Although my title speaks for itself, I have to repeat that is was another successful week mentoring with my first graders! All of my students are so great and I know they will grow up to be so smart and successful. They love Mrs. Zawisza and she makes them love learning!

This week the kids had a different schedule because all of the first graders got together for a dance unit as their specials! It was completely adorable seeing them dance around the gym! On Friday though, my students decided I had to join them and three of the girls literally took me by the arm and dragged me to the gym (they’re pretty strong!). Fortunately, this day we only watched a video of all the kids dancing earlier in the week and I had to help all the kids sitting around me find themselves! I would have to say this is my awkward moment of the week because a bunch of my students were trying to sit by me and all around me, then kids from other classes came over to see who I was when everyone’s supposed to be watching the video. I was suffocating from attention! Then, a group of the girls decided they wanted to try and braid my hair, so I had a bunch of girls touching my hair and the music teacher was watching us, and I was trying to get them to stop and pay attention without being mean until finally the music teacher had to yell across the gym for them to pay attention and keep their hands to themselves. It was so so awkward and funny!

So anyways! Learning wise the students got to have so much fun this week building a roller coaster out of tape and paper towel rolls! They got to see how gravity, momentum, force, and speed related to their coasters with the different types of motions they wanted to do such as loops, hills, back and forth, and zig-zag. It was amazing to see the excitement in all the students faces as we tested them! In math, they are learning about shapes, and the number of sides and corners they have. Also, they played a game called “Attribute Train" where everyone matched the shape they had based on color, size, shape, and thickness. Moreover, I got to help the students create shapes out of popsicles sticks and earlier in the week I gave some students their sight words test! I'm also going to start commenting on my students blogs I recently found out they had! You can look at them too under my Links page!

To continue, an interesting experience I got to have this week was interviewing my mentor! With the kids away dancing, it was really nice to just have some one on one time with Mrs. Zawisza. She finally got to show me how to use the copier and what the teachers’ lounge looked like! Then, I got to talk and get to know some of the other first grade teachers which made me feel like more of an insider. However, the best part was getting the answers to some questions I've had and wanted to know about Mrs. Zawisza. I loved sitting down and talking to her about my inquiries! It was so comfortable and it really gave me a better persective of teaching and the education field from a teacher's point of view. This is also what inspired my video of the week!

These are the questions I asked:

Q: What is your educational background? How did you get started?

A: I grew up in a family of educators with my dad being a high school math teacher and my mom a daycare teacher. I went to school at Ohio State University in there Elementary Program, and then I worked at the Ohio State Daycare and my mother’s Daycare. I did my student teaching at a couple of different schools. Then I joined the Master’s Program to get my certificate to teach.

Q: What best prepared you to become a teacher?

A: Definitely my parents were a huge influence and helping my mom at her daycare.

Q: What do you like least about your job or what do you find most difficult?

A: Not having enough time to do everything I want to do. You have to pick and choose what’s going to cover your standard. I would love to lengthen the day a little bit to have more time to get things in such as hands on projects like the rollercoasters we built. We could spend all day tweaking and improving them but then we couldn’t get math done. Then, being flexible because schedules change a lot so you have to be quick on your feet to change things but still keep the routine calm for the children so they aren’t confused since they like consistency.

Q: What do you find most interesting about your work?

A: Probably my students and how each person is so special and unique, and learning what motivates each kid and trying to do what you can to make them learn the most and have the most fun.

Q: What skills/abilities do you find are most important in your work?

A: Making sure that you are child centered, making sure you are age appropriate in the activities you plan for the children, that you have a sense of classroom management. Be able to think ahead and be proactive instead of reactive. Know your subject area and plan ahead. Make sure the students have choice in what they do, and be a good model.