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WEEK 4

WHAT
Today was my first week teaching the whole day long. My teacher has started to leave the classroom a LOT more now and I am left completely in charge. It is exhausting! I'm trying to find my balance as being a teacher. I like to have fun, but at the same time there is work that has to be done, so I am trying to find that balance.
The hardest part that I have encountered so far is teaching science. My whole life I have done math, and writing, and reading. It's not every day that I talk about soil. I feel inadequate when it comes to teaching science because I can only teach what I have written down infront of me, I can't go off the top of my head.

SO WHAT
Because of my lack of knowledge in the subject of science, I have found myself having to prepare my lessons a lot more than usual. Mainly for the reason that I myself have to study what I am going to be teaching the next, so it takes more time and effort. I am preparing myself for the content of the lesson and preparing to teach students on the content.
There have been plus and minuses to this problem. The negative is that I find myself so busy this semester with student teaching and my math class I have to rush to at UVU after my student teaching, and picking up and dropping off my husband at work - that I am constantly exhausted. So having to take more time to study something I need to teach just wares me out. On the other hand it has caused me to be more responsible. Which is something I have needed for a long time. It's not like a paper that I might forget to due and can turn in to a professor late. I can't step into the classroom and tell the students that I forgot to prepare them a lesson but that I will do it the next day. It has to be done the previous day/night, and this has caused me to prepare myself more.

NOW WHAT
This next week I will be continuing my new unit on soil, teach about numerators and denominators, and having the students finish up their reports on mountain men. I am a little bit excited to see how the stuents do at the end of the unit on their soil test because I will be the only one responsible for their success or failure. It motivates me to work harder with them during that half hour time period.
I am scared for teaching about fractions and decimals coming up these next few weeks because I have heard that these tend to be very hard for the students to learn. I have been checking out different lesson plans and researching fun ways to teach these topics. I feel that if I can be excited about the things to come in teaching, that my students will be excited with me.