Justin Bieber and Tupac

I have been in Arizona for one month now, which is weird. It feels like I just started, but also that I have been here forever. Student teaching seems to be full of opposing feelings like that. For example, I also feel really young, but really old a the same time. I feel young because I am working with people that are older than me and, for the first time in my life, I am not around anyone my own age. However, I also feel really old because I have been working so long to actually be a teacher and now I am finally doing it. It is a very strange feeling.

Anyway, this week was really good. Jodi was only here Monday and Tuesday. She had meetings Wednesday and Thursday; she was going to be at school on Friday, but she got food poisoning! I texted her on Thursday night to make sure she was going to on Friday and I did not need to prepare lesson plans. Thankfully I did that otherwise I would not have been prepared on Friday at all!

I was worried that the students would misbehave on Wednesday since Jodi had been there the days prior and Wednesday is also early release. (We have professional development every Wednesday after the students leave). However, they were surprisingly good and we managed to get through the entire lesson. I think they are really starting to view me more as their teacher and taking me seriously. Plus, I am starting to take myself more seriously and view myself as an actual teacher, which feels good.

Thursday, was another successful day. I struggled a bit in deciding what to teach for the day because Jodi wanted me to start their next writing assignment. I did not really have much more direction other than that so I felt like I had too much to choose from. Ultimately, I found a picture of a crowded airport and had them brainstorm ideas of how they think it would feel if they were in that picture, where the people were going, etc. They did not actually start writing, but we will get to that next week.

Finally, Friday was a kind of crazy day. Woke up on Friday morning and it was storming outside! Not just a little bit of rain, but full on thunderstorm. When it rains in Arizona, everyone goes crazy! Plus, it was a Friday so the kids were extra crazy. However, we had a pretty successful day. They had two tests to take (gross) and we were supposed to do a pronoun worksheet after that. However, I changed my mind since I knew they were really restless and I felt bad after their two tests. So instead, we did a fun writing thing. I gave them a starting sentence: "It was a dismal [vocabulary word!] day in the little town of Buckeye when..." Then they wrote for a few minutes and switch papers, continuing the other person's story. We did this for the rest of the period. Overall, it went really well. This was always something I loved to do in school and it is super entertaining. Plus, it got them writing and it was way more fun than a pronoun worksheet.

Here is a list of common themes in their writing:
1. Justin Bieber
1.1 Justin Bieber's sexuality
1.2 Killing Justin Bieber
2. Hannah Montana
3. Tupac (not sure where he came from...)
4. One student showed up in nearly everyone's story
4.1 That same student wrote about himself getting three girlfriends in each of his stories
5. Teletubbies
6. Giant things falling from the sky (babies, burritos, etc.)
7. Michael Jackson

At any rate, their stories were pretty entertaining and I will definitely do this activity with them again before I leave.

Thankfully, Jodi will be back on Monday and we will start language rehab with the kids! I am not even entirely sure what all that entails, but I will write about it next week after I figure it out. Also, I think this week I am supposed to take over the class full time, which is terrifying, but also exciting. This also means I am going to start picking up the afternoon class, which I am definitely looking forward to. I really need more time with my students in order to accomplish everything I want to do, so another fifty minutes will be great. Looking forward to what I will learn this week!