Week 1

The Adventure Begins

When I started my student teaching experience last week, I was blown away by my mentor teacher (Mrs. White) and her second graders. On the first day, the kiddos performed their daily "opening" (which is Room 8's morning meeting routine). The students have jobs that rotate each day, including the MC, Time Keeper, Word Wizard, Mathematician, and the Technician (who records it all on the iPad). The kids have this semi-scripted routine memorized. You truly have to see it for yourself... click here.

Also on my first day, I did an activity with the students so I could get to know them better and so they could get to know me as well. Last semester, I read about a welcome activity called “What's Your Bag,” which is a great way to tell your students a little bit about yourself by bringing in a bag full of knick knacks that give some insight to your interests and who you are. I took this idea and flipped it a bit, so that I could get to know my students better in the process. My idea was to bring in a “Box of Me” (a shoebox filled with knick knacks that give insight to who I am) to show the students. Afterward, I would hand the students a sheet of paper with a box on it (just a rectangle, see attached) to fill in (draw, write, list, etc) anything they would like that would tell me more about themselves: hobbies, family, favorites, etc. The activity went really well. After they finished, I had mini conferences with each of them and they described their “Box of Me” to me. I learned a lot about my students and their interests the first day I was there. Here are some examples of the final product:

                                

As you can see, they got pretty creative... in the fourth photo you can see that one student included things she is afraid of. Oy vey! ... :) Never a dull moment when it comes to 2nd graders!