Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Year et Bonne Année.



Well it's a new year and a new start for all of us. I'm so excited to start student teaching full time. I feel that everyday I am learning new things and challenging myself. It is amazing what the students themselves can teach you, and I feel that I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to begin my journey as an educator at a young age. I see the students looking up to me and that I can try to explain concepts to them in terms that they will understand.

Also, the first two weeks of my new year have been so jam packed with new happenings, decisions, responsibilities, and life changing situations. My high school was faced with a death and a suicide. Moreover, the students are under extreme stress due to their final exams. I felt lucky that my cohort was approached earlier this year by teachers who talked about the idea that we will be facing serious situations within the schools. Many of our students are facing difficult situations outside of the classroom, and as a teacher I have to keep that in mind.

I'm also excited to be looking towards the future! I have and currently am learning SO much this year, but I can't wait to learn from my life experiences teaching as a "real teacher." haha We'll see if I get through the second semester first! ...But it is fun trying to develop some new teaching techniques that engage and improve student learning. For example, our Educational Technology class has taught me how to take advantage of technology and it's use in the classroom. I created an online webinar about the web2.0 resource Bubblr (http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/) with my partner. The webinar opened up my eyes to how interactive I can make the language classroom. Also, I am going to use web resources like Google Maps to truly "wow" my students and show them that learning languages can be exciting!

So, overall, there is much to come in the upcoming semester.... I will keep you updated and keep on trekking through (especially in this snow... maybe I should take up skiing...)

3 comments:

Rebekah said...

It seems like each of the schools in which we MACers teach has had a difficult situation recently. Death, suicide, violent attack... I had heard this is the time of stress and negative things to happen, but I hadn't quite realized it would be so obvious.
I hope your school was able to give you resources to deal with the situation.
Hopefully, things will start going better for the kids as we move into this next semester. I'm sure it helps to have enthusiastic and positive student teachers hanging about.
(-:

Rebekah said...

Oi! I always post with the wrong login. Oh well.

Jeff Stanzler said...

Speaking of your webinar, here's what one of the MACers had to say about you and your partner's presentation:
"(They) did a great job of focusing on expectations throughout their presentation. Starting with lesson objectives was a great touch, and a sign of great teaching. They were very clear with the class about what the focus of the presentation was on and what the class would be doing. Great!"