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Week 3 of Teaching, Week 4 of classes

To say the last 3 weeks have been informative would be an understatement.  I can say without hesitation that I have learned more from my kids than they've learned from me.  I wish I could say it has been all sunshine and roses, but that is definitely not the case.  In fact, it has been hard, exhaustive work, but I sure do love it!

While I've been working on differentiating my instruction by doing different activities, modeling, visuals, and group work, my main focus has been about classroom management.  The first week the students seemed to be wary of me since I was a new grown up, but by the end of the week, they were definitely testing the waters to see what they could get away with. So, when I began my second week, I began to get a bit more strict about what was going on in the classroom.

One of the things I did was grade the work we did in class together.  This helped me for a variety of reasons.  The first thing was that I could tell when I was teaching what the students were understanding.  The second thing was that I could tell who was participating or not.  When I looked at these things I got an idea of what I needed to do to improve my instruction, and the students started realizing Mrs. Ryan wasn't joking around about all the Math in her class! I've also learned what my "pet peeves" were.  There are some things that go on in a classroom that drive some teachers crazy and it doesn't phase me a bit.  And then there are some things that send me running for the behavior management forms.  I figured out my biggest no-no for the students was NO TALKING WHEN I AM TALKING!  That absolutely drove me bonkers.  Still does, but in at least each class one person has found out that Mrs. Ryan won't hesitate to write that discipline sheet.  And you know, the students don't hate me, and they are paying attention more now too.

I will say I have been blessed with an exceptional group of kids.  They really aren't "bad" kids, and by that I mean huge discipline problems.  I would also say I have been blessed with an extremely awesome faculty that is always there for me to answer questions and help out, especially my mentor teacher.  I always had in my head what type of teacher I aspired to be, and she is really it.  She has the best attitude in class, great classroom management, innovative lessons, and she even incorporates technology whenever she can.  And her door is always open to me for questions, help, words of encouragement, and even prayer.

God has truly blessed me.  It really is a wonderful feeling.
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