Do you all remember when I was telling you about my greatest fear about being a future classroom teacher? Well if you don't, I'll refresh your memory. My greatest fear was being able to manage my own classroom. Can you imagine you, by yourself, with 26 other students? Oh my gosh! Such a scary thought to have right now! Well I have great news. The other day, I had a definite confident booster, and I am finally starting to feel like I can control a room full of kids. After all, I was able, today, to enforce rules on a room full of crazy 6th grade students. I was surprised to see that they actually listened to me, and obeyed my rules. Of course, I wasn't going to let them out of the classroom until they did so they really didn't have a choice. But, I wanted to share my success with you, and let you have a little hope that you can control a classroom full of kids. WE, AS TEACHERS, CAN DO THIS!!

What subject I am best at.......

I have always wanted to teach a science class, but since I am an elementary education student and my certification with be through the 4th grade, I won't get the opportunity to just focus on teaching science to students. Instead, I will be teaching all the other subjects including science. As you can see, I feel like science is my strongest subject. The reason I love science so much is because I personally love to find out how our earth functions and all of creatures that live on it. There are so many beautiful creatures and I have such an appreciation for nature, and I want my students to have an appreciation for it as well. The earth provides so much for us; why shouldn't we take care of it. Another reason I would love to teach science is because our earth is amazingly made and it's so intricate. I love it all!

The Best Teacher I've Ever Had

In my years of schooling, I've actually had two great teachers. My kindergarten teacher was the best teacher I had in my younger years. I can remember walking into her room on the day before school started (my mom thought it would be a good idea for me to come see my room early so I wouldn't "freak out" the day of school) and saying "Wow! This is awesome!" There were so many things hanging up in her room, she had so many centers to play in, and she even had my birth date already posted up on her birthday organizer. I felt special. The second teacher I had that I consider the best was my senior English teacher. She was a very challenging teacher, but I learned so much more from her than just school work. She taught me life lessons within her teaching lessons. One of the things I will take away from my kindergarten teacher and apply to my own classroom is that I will individualize my students, and make them know that they aren't just a number in my classroom, instead they are an individual. What I will take away from my senior teacher is that to not be afraid to challenge my students, and teaching is so much more than just teaching them what they need to know to get through school. Instead, you teach them what they need to know to get through life and challenge what they currently believe. It will make them stronger as a person.

Another Day In the Life with the New Kid

I had another session today with my student in my diagnostics class. From this first teaching session with the student, I learned so much about the teaching process. The student does learn what you're teaching them, but you also learn everything you didn't know before about what you're teaching them. Of course as I have discussed before, I am worried about my management with my students, and of course my management was challenged during this time. Once the student got comfortable with me, he wouldn't stop talking and he was a little rude at times. My management practice has got to come out now! Wish me luck! I think I can do it.

A Day With the New Kid

I recently started doing diagnotic testing on a student for one of my classes. It was extremely stressful! I was constantly worried about if I was not scoring it correctly, or what if I counted that word wrong when he might have got it right... Ahh! I walked out of that testing session very frazzled and worried about what I may have done wrong. This was my first time to do any kind of diagnostic testing on any child so I hope that it will get less stressful as I do it in my own classroom one day. I enjoyed doing the testing because I finally got to see how teachers know what to do with the students. I found out they actually have a plan and a reason to teach what they teach, not just for the sake of teaching the material. I think it's very cool.

The Reason for My Fears About Behavior...

I feel like the reason I'm so worried about how my discipline plan will be in my classroom is because I've already had a bad experience working at one of the schools in Temple being a "tutor." I was working with the pre-school students and I felt like no matter what I did to discipline them, nothing ever worked. They continued to do the same thing over and over again. One girl I worked with was very stern with them and they listened to her for the most part, but every day I left mentally exhausted because I was always trying to think of something else that would get to the students and make them stop. As a result, I don't feel like I'm prepared or knowledgeable enough to know how to manage my students in my OWN classroom effectively. I know classroom management is a very important thing because if you do not have control of your students within the first week of school and have a consistent routine every day, then they feel free to do whatever they want and they are in control and not you, the teacher. Does anyone share this same fear with me? Has anyone had a similar experience, and can share some advice with me?

Worst Fear About Being a New Teacher!!

I'm very excited about becoming a teacher, but I have some hidden fears. One of them is that I won't know how to teach the students the best way, and what if I don't teach the material in the right way. Also, I'm very worried about how I will effectively manage my students' in class behavior. I am a very structured person to begin with, and so I plan on having my room be very structured; however, when it comes to disciplining my students, I seem to let it slide too often. I'm still working on finding a healthy balance between how much structure do kids actually need. I'm very aware that the students do need routines and structure, but I always feel like its too much for them, and I'm not allowing them much freedom. I don't feel like I learned what I needed to learn in my management class, and so I'm a little worried how I will handle this situation in my own classroom. Does anyone have any similar fears, or have any suggestions to help ease my stress about this?

Who Am I?

Hi everyone! I am currently a student at a private university in Texas. I am studying to be an Elementary Teacher at the moment, but I will start working on my Master's in School Counseling as soon as I graduate. I am very excited!! It has taken me quite a while to get this far in my education because I started out at a local community college not knowing what I wanted to do in life. One day, as I was looking for a side part-time job, I came across the only job available that I was somewhat willing to take, a job at a "daycare." I haven't had good experience up to this time working with kids from 2 yrs- 6 yrs of age... I found them a bit annoying. However, I took the job because I desperately needed one, and I ended up LOVING it!! Kids are amazing, and I've learned so much about myself and them from working with them for the past 4 years as I've made my way through college. I see how eager they are to learn, and I want to be one of the privileged individuals who will experience the wonder of a child learning new things. An added result is that I will get the joy of knowing that I helped an individual learn about the world they live in and about themselves. What better thing is there than that?