Well, I had my interview this morning and I'm not sure that I really impressed the principal. I think I'm a blabbering fool who can't get whole sentences out in most situations, but when I'm teaching, I feel confidence that I usually lack otherwise. I just wish that could shine through when I'm interviewing. Here's to hoping that it went better than I believe it did, and that I'll have more chances to redeem myself with more interviews at other schools!
Questions to continue practicing...
What question haven't I asked you that you would like to answer?
How do you use technology professionally? (Not with students, but professionally).
- Does Pinterest count?! (joking...kinda)
I gotta study up on some more specific ELL strategies and interventions. I know some, but as soon as the question was asked it's like my brain kinda went blank. The principal mentioned SIOP, which is something we touched on in Block 1, looks like it's time to dig deeper and find out more! http://www.cal.org/siop/resources/index.html
Now, before I forget, there were a few stories I wanted to list, because I never want to forget them!
One morning, a student entered the classroom excitedly announcing that he had some concentration pills (aka medicine for ADHD). We were excited for this student and to see how it would affect his learning and behavior. Later on that day, another student was acting up and talking back to the teachers, and my CT had asked him to stop being silly and listen. Without skipping a beat, student one chimes in, "Dude, you just need some concentration pills! They will help you so much, and then you'll be able to listen and stop acting silly! I have some at home; I can bring them to you tomorrow!" Needless to say, we emailed his mama and let her know to keep those pills locked up!
A completely unrelated story that happened that same day: We had a class pet guinea pig named Rocky, who was actually a student's pet that she chose to share with the class. Unfortunately, Rocky was old and died one weekend. When we came back to school and found him, we contacted the student's mother, who happens to be a vet, and the mother came to pick up Rocky's body. She promised us that she would come back later in the week and give a memorial service for the kids to say goodbye to Rocky. The day she came back, she led a serious discussion about Rocky's death, what happens to people and animals when they die (bodies are cleaned, may be frozen so they don't rot right away). The kids' comments were all very sweet and heartfelt. One child asked if we were going to bury Rocky at school, and the mom responded that no, they were going to bury him at home with the family over the weekend. Without missing a beat, the child who owned Rocky exclaims, "Yeah, and Rocky is in the freezer right now, and Daddy doesn't even know!!"
There's never a dull moment with first graders :)
No comments:
Post a Comment