The First Day of School!

So I've decided to follow in the footsteps of some of my peers and turn my Writing Workshop blog from last semester into a place where I can tell my tales of student teaching.

I was able to go to the first day of preplanning for this year, which was great. I was able to meet my mentor teacher, many of her collegues, and get an overall sense of the school. But today was the real treat. I was there for my students' first day of school as fifth graders. I was so nervous and excited. It ended up being a truly great day.

My mentor teacher incorporates morning meeting and Morning Messages into her classroom every day. I LOVE this! The Morning Messages require the students to actively participate in something, like drawing a flower in the "class garden,"or drawing their face on the morning message poster paper. I'm looking forward to seeing the classroom grow as a community through these daily activities.

My mentor teacher is fabulous. From the minute I stepped into the room, I felt like an important member of the classroom through little things throughout the day:
- "Ms. Turner" was written on the board right next to hers.
- She said "our kids,""our classroom" and "Ms. Turner and I..."
- She gave me responsibilities and tasks to do
- She included me in every aspect of the day and even let me write the morning message for tomorrow.

I wish I could spend the whole first week with my new class of bright-eyed fifth graders, but my 3 year-old's back in Marietta still need me for 4 more days. 3-year-old's and 11-year-old's have a lot of differences, but they'r all children... and I love teaching children!

So that's all for now. My next post will be next week when I return to my 5th graders and my awesome mentor teacher!