Teaching Mrs. Ryan

I have to admit, that this past week has been the most exhausting and exhilarating week I've had since I was in the Navy.  I began my student teaching journey this week as a long term substitute teacher.  I am teaching Math to middle school students who are in the 6th and 7th grade, and boy am I learning a lot! My students have been in school for 2 weeks now, this upcoming week will be their 3rd.  I am the 3rd teacher they have had, and the one they have had for the longest.  The school I'm teaching at uses C Scope for their curriculum, so my students do not have text books.  This is something new for me, and I feel like I'm starting to overcome this challenge.   In all of my classes, my students seem to be lagging behind, so I've been giving remedial instruction this week to make up for the lack of a more structured instruction process.  I have a lot of material to cover, and not much time to cover it in.  Each class is with me for 1 hour a day...

It is once again time for finals and this month has been the hardest so far.  I began the month behind in my psychology course due to work scheduling conflicts.  I stayed behind for the rest of the month and I find myself working on a holiday weekend in desperation to create a final piece that is worthy of what I want to accomplish in the amount of time I have.  While taking my psychology course our professor had us do a very small piece concerning creativity in the classroom.  This really was a blip on the radar compared to the extensive talks we've had on Piaget, Kegan, and Kohlberg, but it really was the piece that grabbed my attention.  I remember a video that is posted on this very blog that talks just a bit about how the current school system sucks out creativity from the teachers on down to the students.  And I really found myself actively reading topics that discussed creativity and the classroom and why it is important to have.  What better ...

We are now working on our end of the month projects and we are having to do an OLD fashioned tri-board for a presentation.  I see nothing wrong with this, it keeps you grounded and makes you realize what students in elementary through high school go through.  With that being said, I am so happy at this point in the course that I have enough craft supplies to open my own store.... literally. Having all of these wonderful supplies did not stop me from going out to buy more.  Heck no, Hobby Lobby was having a killer sale!  30% off of Cricut items.  And since I have a Cricut Expression and about 15 different cartridges, the only thing I could possibly need and find useful is Cricut Design Studio .  So I went out, spent my money, and came home with CDS so I could begin working on my Tri-fold.  I'm half tempted to do what I do in my other blogs, and that is take pictures of what I've done and post here... but I won't.. partly because I'm too tired to add...