Learning my Students and Coworkers

Well, week one is almost in the books. I've been to inservices, teacher work days, and my first interactions with my students. To be honest, even with the information overload and weight of responsibility, I walk down the hallway smiling every day as I leave. It is so exciting to be a part of a faculty that is so committed to bettering their school, its reputation, and the students it sees every day. I think so far I've learned more than the kids have, but even in the first couple of days they've begun asking questions and engaging in the learning my Mentor Teacher has carefully thought through. I'm glad she has such a good sense of where she is going with each of her lessons and is confident in her students' abilities to learn, especially with our large diversity of learners and their strengths and weaknesses.

In the first couple of days, I have learned about accommodations we can use to help our student who has autism. My teacher looped up with him this year, and describes him as an incredibly smart and funny kid who is just very cautious to let in new people and trust them. Seeing how hesitant he was to talk to me intimidated me at first, but I can't let students slip through the cracks in my own classroom, and I need to learn how to work with all kinds of students now. One of my goals this year will be to build a relationship with him that will enable me to speak encouragement and success into his learning without overwhelming him.

Another unique feature of our room this semester is the amount of colleagues and support present in the room. Between my Mentor Teacher, the Special Education Teacher, ELL para, a one-on-one para, and me, it's a full house. This could challenge me to make sure I take initiative in interacting and working with students, since I could easily stand in the back and still know students will be worked with. It also can make me feel a little more pressure when teaching or working with the class since there are so many adults in the room who may have done a better job than I just did. However, I am choosing to look at it in a positive light, remembering that more adults per student just means a greater attention to each student's personal needs and goals, and more opportunity for small group activities. My goal for this year will be that I learn to better collaborate and have positive professional relationships with each of the women in the room.

Obviously I have goals of becoming more confident in classroom management and being an authority on literature and my subject, but these are some of the more specific things that I've been pondering for the week. I have been so happy with my placement thus far, and can't wait to be back in a couple of hours!

Always teachable,
Mrs. Watkins

Learning to Blog

Welcome to the adventure that is Mrs. Watkins' teaching brain! This is my test post because today I learned many new skills, and creating a blog is one of them. Some others would be where the restrooms are at my new school, what the name of the administrative assistant is, and how many composition notebooks we'll need to give our students on the first day of school. I'm so excited to get going on the most intense year of learning in my life, but to be honest I can get a little overwhelmed. Here's to a wonderful adventure of learning how to teach eighth graders, and seeing how much those same teenagers teach me!