Daleville Sneak Peak

Check out where I'll be student teaching in the spring:  Daleville Jr/Sr High School

This time last week I was sitting in faculty meetings in preparation for the Daleville Community Schools' 2010-2011 school year (I would have blogged about it earlier except for the internet issues at our house).  I was there on Wednesday from 8-3 and sat through a meeting with the elementary and secondary teachers put on by the superintendent (trying to pump us up for the school year) as well as the school nurse (safety first) and a representative from the Credit Union (deposit your teaching checks with us, please!).  At first I was excited about this meeting, seeing as how I've never sat through a faculty meeting before, but after about the first hour, it became pretty boooooorrrrriiiiinnnggg.

Then, because Indiana has done away with half-days, we had to squeeze in all our staff development in the rest of the day.  We went over the handbook and changes to the pickup system, the dress code, the tardy system, and how to teach children according to their different strengths.  By the end of this meeting I was staaaaaaaaaarrrrrvvvinggggggg.

Then we got Subway :)  One of the better points throughout the day.  After that, more meetings with the principal, then we had these group sessions for Writing Across the Curriculum and my cooperating teacher and I had to teach math and PE teachers how to use writing in their classes somehow as well as how to grade the assignments.  Interesting.  

After that, another meeting (I don't even remember what it was about because there were so many meetings) and then I got my textbooks that I'll be using to teach from my cooperating teachers and got to go home!  Yay! 

On Friday, I went in for the first student day, which was also pretty boring since all the teachers did was introduce me and go over the rules (so I basically sat at a desk and watched the whole time), but it was interesting to see the students and really observe the differences between 7th and 9th graders.  As of right now, I'm pretty certain I'm going to like teaching 7th grade better, which is completely different than who I thought I'd like teaching best.  I've always planned on teaching high school, but I'll be able to decide officially after I get experience with both of them.

One of the better parts of visiting?  I know what I'll be teaching!  In 7th grade we'll be working on basic mythology and myths, writing their very first essay, the screenplay Brian's Song, as well as some minor grammar and literature terms (like cause and effect and summarizing).  In 9th grade, I'll be covering To Kill a Mockingbird, a nonfiction unit on the assassination of JFK, The Odyssey, a tad of grammar (verb tense and modifiers), as well as helping the 9th graders learn how to write an intense research paper.  Exciting!  And the books are AMAZING.  Last semester we learned how to construct a unit on our own, but with these books?  I don't even HAVE to create a unit!  I can just pick and choose from ideas that I like best and add what I want!  The hard part is mostly finished for me, and creating units was the biggest stressor of teaching.

Aaaaah....I feel much better about student teaching.  

PS--don't ask me to do anything, because after the homework's done and projects are finished throughout the semester, I'm going to be using all my spare minutes working on my student teaching units :)