Week in Review, Nov 29-Dec 3
Hi everyone! Chris asked me to get this prompt up for you.
Please give us a short post about your Thanksgiving highlights and and overview as your students return from a short vacation.
I hope all is well!
Heidi
posted by Heidi @ 8:20 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Hi everyone! I can hardly believe we are almost done...
My Thanksgiving break was fantastic. Three of the student teachers from Truman and I went to Rome for the weekend. We ate AMAZING food, went to the roman forum and colliseum, saw the travi fountain and spanish steps, and were able to get about 10 feet away from the pope! It was a fun change of pace (and slightly warmer than Germany...brr!).
As far as school goes, I am starting to hand the class back over to my cooperating teacher. Right now, I'd say its kind of a co-teaching classroom. For example, I have been doing centers in a very different way than Deborah normally does. We are now working on getting them back into the routine she will expect, because when I'm gone in January, that is what they will be doing.
I've been scheduling observations with teachers in other grade levels for the end of this week and next week so that the students get used to having me out of the room and I get a chance to see some different teaching styles. Naturally, with the holidays coming up, things are a bit crazy. We have a cookie exchange, friendship party, a polar express celebration, holiday music assembly, and a cooking field trip to the high school before school gets out.
As much as I am excited and ready to go home, it will be very bittersweet. I'm going to miss my students and always wonder about how they are doing. I can't wait to make the most of my last two weeks!
Like Cammie said, I cannot believe we’re down to less than two weeks! Time has flown by, especially the second half of this semester. I got to spend Thanksgiving break with my boyfriend in Paris- yes, super cheesy I know- but it was an amazing couple of days and a nice mini-vacation from school, grading, and planning. J
Coming back from the holiday break, I really hit me how soon we’re going to be done here and heading back to the states. I will be teaching my freshmen up until the very last day, when our current unit ends, which means that on top of packing, cleaning, and making post-student teaching plans, I will also have final essays and final tests to grade. These last couple of weeks are going to be crazy busy, but I’m very excited to end on a strong note! Despite having classes to teach up until the end, my mentor teacher has also been very understanding and supportive of me observing and participating in other classrooms as well. I’ve been able to observe other English classes, Special Education classes, and even some ESL, all of which have been very beneficial to my teaching career.
My students and I have always been close, but I feel like these last couple of weeks we have grown even closer, which is going to make leaving even more bittersweet. After parent-teacher conferences, and as the new quarter started, I have seen a significant improvement in effort, work habits, and participation from some of my students who had not performed well or lacked motivation during the beginning of the year. This kind of progress, along with all the other academic progress my students have made his semester is so exciting to watch, and it’s so weird to think that they are going to continue on next semester without me!
I’m excited for this last couple weeks, sad to say good-byes, but also looking forward to the next step!
I had a great thanksgiving break with my Mom and sister who were in town visiting. We flew to Dublin for 4 days, and enjoyed a great thanksgiving feast, great pub food, lots of Guinness (of course), and interesting conversations with the locals about the dwindling economy of Ireland. It was really awesome that they could both visit me, as I have been abroad several times before and haven't had a family member come visit.
On the school side of things, time has been moving faster than ever. I am still currently at the HS teaching 9th grade health and spending time in the elementary PE/Health classroom. I have been fortunate enough to have a really well behaved health class. I thought it would be more difficult managing the class and gaining respect because I was stepping into the class mid-semester. Most of the students seem to show an interest in the topics and have something to offer for discussions. We have been covering the unit of nutrition/body management/eating disorders and I will finish my time at the HS with our unit exam.
I have also had the opportunity to take over for the week in HS PE - Lifetime Sports. This class is mostly composed of 9th graders, but again they have shown to be well managed on staying on task (most of the time). I credit all of this to my mentor teacher Linda because the students have such a high amount of respect for her and her husband whom have been apart of the community for over 20 years. They are both involved with coaching so they really show a strong connection with many of the students. This is one of the reasons I want to coach in the future.
With my transition from the MS to the HS I have noticed the PE dept at the HS is much more limited. The overall structure of class is definitely "ran differently" and a lot more laid back. There is only one gym between 3 different classes during a given period, which gets a bit chaotic at times. Some of the teachers don't all seem to be on the same page with some letting their students do whatever they like (including standing around). I am not surprised by this at all, as sadly this the situation at many high schools. I just think it is a shame that we are showing them a reason to cut funding for elective programs such as PE/Health.
For my last week I will be at the MS, I will look to try and get into other classrooms for observations. This semester has FLOWN by. I am already looking into what teaching opportunities that may be in the future.
Hey everyone! Can’t believe how fast the time had flown by. Like Cammie, a bunch of student interns and I went to Rome. We ate amazing food, visited historical places, and made lasting memories.
School has been pretty interesting. I will full time teach until the last week I'm there. I will go and observe the other Elementary school that is around Heidelberg, which is about ten times bigger than Mark Twain is. Then we are done. I think, like every elementary school the last days before Christmas break will be super busy. We have a craft day, a polar express day, and finally our last day before Christmas Break. The last day will definitely be bittersweet since it will be on my birthday!
I will definitely miss everything about this place, my students, and the people that I have met throughout this experience. It will be really different going back home and seeing things a little differently. I am excited for the last couple of weeks! :)
For Thanksgiving my family came down to visit; my dad and three brothers. We ventured our way to Switzerland in the hopes of some skiing. Unfortunately online reports lied to me and the slopes were actually closed (for another TWO days!). We still did some touring around Switzerland... it was very beautiful, yet very cold and kind of expensive. Two of my brothers and my dad left Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. They had to get back to work and school. My other brother stayed for two extra days and we headed up the Rhine Valley in search of our German-side family castle. We found it! Although in ruins, it was breathtaking.
The students were quite rambunctious coming back from holiday. We had to spend the first day reviewing what they were doing before break. Only a few days and you would think they never saw the stuff! We also had a 2 hour delay and snow issues that caused the students to be in a bigger frenzy. By the end of the week the craziness calmed itself down, but we are definitely working with a slightly different personality of students (all because of a little snow!) I was teaching all the classes, all the time, and am slowly giving the class back more. For the most part, I will be helping out teaching until the end. We have a rhythm down and it works well for the both of us. My mentor teacher keeps saying he is going to be constantly emailing me when I leave for advice with the students and wondering how to do certain things in the classroom. Most of my students don’t know I am even leaving (or at least when). Some of them don’t even realize I’m not the real teacher! I keep dreading having to tell them the news. I am definitely going to miss my students, mentor teacher, and Germany. I would love to see my friends and family again for the holidays, but I also really don’t want to leave. I am enjoying myself a little too much; I’m not ready to go! I guess that just means I will have to come back, at least for a visit, sometime soon!
Thanksgiving break was AMAZING! As some of you already know I had thanksgiving in Paris. I made a 9 dish thanksgiving meal (from scratch) for my french friend and his parents. It was overwhelming at first to do that on my own, but it turned out fantasticly and his mom even asked for my recipes!
Of course I also had the exciting chance to meet the family that I have decided to Au Pair for starting in January. I spent 2 days with them and it went great. The kids are great and the parents are even better. Amazing french cuisine and I am really going to be learning a lot about the culture and language in the next year.
School as been going smoothly. I am really in the routines now and the flow is great. I love being able to come in and plan ahead for the week with ease and comfort. I am pretty much fully in charge of the reading group activities, this last unit was Grasslands. It has been so wonderful to really see my kids progress as readers and to have been a part of that process. We are learning about baby animals and their mothers. It has been so fun! We are moving into the christmas season so the room is decked out. The kids have been working on making all sorts of fun christmas projects. I made giant gingerbread men with them this week and today they are finishing up thier christmas trees to hang on our back wall scene.
I feel like there is something new everyday. I have had a chance to be in other teachers classrooms and that had been really exciting for me. I am so interested by how the multi-age classrooms work that is going to be my next observation.
I am not ready for this chapter of my life to be over and I am going to miss my kids and Heidelberg soo much. Of course now I get to go to Paris for a year, but I really hate leaving my kids :( I am most certainly not ready to go home for christmas and if my parents had let me I don't think I would have left Heidelberg for the Holidays!!
Amber Putra-
Time has just flown by and I can’t believe that we are on the home stretch. For Thanksgiving I went to Rome with 7 other interns. We had a blast, saw amazing historical sights, ate great food, and had a wonderful time shopping!
When my kids got back from their own vacations they started out rowdy, as expected. So before I moved on with the day we took 10 minutes for everyone to talk about what they did over break. After this the kids were wonderful and had a great first day, especially since my teacher was snowed in in Scotland for Three days. However during those three days I was really given the opportunity to experience what the classroom felt like not being a student intern. Needless to say I loved it. It was a great experience. The rest of the week went really well. I’m really enjoying my kids and it’s going to be extremely sad to say goodbye.
Thanksgiving break was fabulous! 7 other interns and I went to Rome and it was the most breathtaking and moving trip I have been on yet. The weather was perfect even though it poured at night the sun was out every morning. We decided the best way to see Rome is to get a tour guide and we lucked out. We had three great tour guides that took us around the city and told us stories not found in the history books. (One was cute and was on American Top Model) It made me appreciate Rome even more. We ate greeeatt food ( CARB DIET), did a lot of walking and a lot of shopping. So pizza for Thanksgiving turned out to be a great idea.
Transitioning back to the classroom after break was a little difficult. I was tired from the traveling however I had my lessons planned for that week and was prepared to teach. The kids were a little hyper and full of stories. I can’t believe the places they get to go to when they have breaks. What kid says, “Oh we just went to Paris for the week.” Their journal topic for the moment was to describe their favorite thing they did over break. Some went to castles or Spain so it was very entertaining to read. Two days of being a little more talkative they finally calmed down and we started getting back to the routines.
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