God is good

Again.. This has been a rough semester, as I am sure it has been for several of other people.

But God knows just who we need, what we need and when we need it. Some things He has us go through we might not always understand why. Or why now. Why this moment. But He has His reason, His plan. And some things might actually be a blessing in disguise. God has put truly amazing people in my life that have helped me through these tough times and who have really encouraged me and reminded me of how great our God is. And of all of the blessings He has given to me. Sometimes I need to just take time to just sit and reflect, and enjoy the moment.

2nd grade vs. 5th/6th grade

Going from 2nd grade to 5th grade/6th grade was quite a jump. I like both grades a lot, they are just different.
In second grade they are more dependent on the teacher and they need a lot more help. They are much more "needy" which isn't bad. It is totally understandable and they are still learning and we are teaching them to become more independent. In second grade I was always walking around the classroom checking on the students and someone was always saying, "Miss Hoch." "Miss Hoch." "Miss Hoch." Which was a great feeling, being the teacher, the one they came to for help. Also the students have a shorter attention span. They need to switch up their activities and can not sit for long periods of time. If I did a lesson at the smart board I would not make it took long or else they would start to get distracted.

Where as in 5th/6th grade the students are more independent. You can give them instructions and explain what you want them to do and "send them on their way." They will just work until it is complete and then hand it in. They might have a question here or there, but they will basically just work quietly and then hand it in. And ask what they can do now that they finished. It was also different because they were writing paragraphs, whereas, my second graders had trouble writing complete sentences on their own. Also they have longer attention spans so they can sit through a longer lesson, and they can start to learn to sit through a lecture and how to outline their notes.
People ask me which grade I like better, and I do not know if I have an answer. They are just different, but I like both grades a lot! :)

Public school vs Christian school

Teaching in a christian school is a great experience. I love being in the classroom and being able to talk to the children about God. To encourage them to do everything they do for the glory of God. It is very encouraging to see young children reading the bible and knowing bible stories and being excited about God. It is also great because from the faculty point of view, every Monday there is a bible study and every Wednesday there is a prayer meeting. These take place in the mornings before the children come into school. It is again encouraging to see the faculty come together and pray for each other and for their students. This is a K-12 school, so it is really great to gather that many teachers together to pray and study the word :)

Parent Teacher Conferences

It has been a while since I have blogged... So I am going to do a couple of different posts. But this one is going to be about parent teacher conferences.

Our school had parent teacher conferences right before Thanksgiving. It was definitely a good experience. With my first placement my teacher let me come to back to school night, which was great to see how she ran that, and just to get ideas. And now with this placement my teacher let me come and sit in on parent teacher conferences which was another great experience. The parents were very understanding as well. My teacher just explained that I was her student teacher and they were all fine that I was there. It was really sweet because the one parent said her son had told her about me :) It was sweet because I was not sure if my kids went home and told their parents about me but this little boy did. It was just sweet and a little reminder of why I teach. That it is for the students. That I want to teach them and make a difference in their lives.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. This seems to be the verse for me this semester. I am not going to lie... this has been an extremely tough semester for me. This placement had been going so well. I was read to start teaching and BOOM...I had absolutely no voice, thanks to having laryngitis and bronchitis. The students could not hear me. They would place a paper where I was sitting and I would call their name and they would just keep walking because they had no idea. People sitting right next to me I had no idea I was talking to them. It was awful. Then my step grandmother who I have become very close to, she is like another grandmother to me, fell the second week in Nov and broke a couple of ribs. She had been in and out of the hospital. I am not going to go into the whole story. But she was going to go to a rehab, but she was not getting better. They ended up bringing her home and doing hospice from her home. My dad called me this past Sunday and said they were giving her about 3 months to live. My heart sank. She was just up and moving and doing pretty well when I saw her in Sept. There is no way she can be gone in 3 months. Well I didn't think things could get worse...they did. My dad called me two days later (Tuesday) and told me they were giving her only a few days... and if I wanted to come see her I should come soon. So I talked to my fiance, we packed our bags and we got in the car and started our 7 hour trip out to West Virginia. About 1 and 1/2 hours into the trip I received another phone call from my dad telling me that she had passed about about 25 minutes ago. I just feel so crushed... I do not know what to do. I feel like this semester a lot of things are not in my favor. I definitely have a lot to be thankful for and I make sure not to forget about those things. Such as my amazing fiance, He has been by my side through everything! My wonderful family and friends. My best friend, Gretchen who always encourages me and is always there for me. And for God, who I know is with me through this all. All of this bring me back to a song by Matthew West called Strong Enough.    "You must, You must think I'm strong, to give me what I'm going through. Forgive me, forgive me if I'm wrong. This looks like more than I can do. On my own. I know I'm not strong enough to be. Everything that I'm supposed to be. I give up. I'm not strong enough. Hands of mercy won't you cover me. Lord right now I'm asking you to be strong enough, strong enough for the both of us. Maybe, maybe that the point. To reach the point of giving up. Because when I'm finally at rock bottom. Thats when I start looking up. And reaching out." Then later in the song it says "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And I don't have to be, strong enough...strong enough." This has been very encouraging to me. It reminds me that it is ok that I am not strong enough on my own but that God is strong enough for the both of us. This is going to be a rough next couple of weeks, but with the help of my fiance, family, friends and God I am going to make it through. I have to.

Great start!

God is so good! I am loving this placement. I am at my fiance's old school, and I am loving it. The teacher is great and so are the students. They are 5th and 6th grade. Some of them are going to be a challenge but no matter what school you are at you are going to have students that are going to be a challenge. I am really liking the fifth and sixth grade so far. Don't get me wrong, I still love second grade and I do miss them. But with the older kids you can have more in depth conversations with them and they take an interest in you as a person. It is a really cool difference. I am also in a Christian school which is a lot of fun. The students are just great. They want to know a lot about me and about Joshua. I will definitely have to write more about it some other time but I wanted to blog about it today, but just check in and say that so far so good. :) I am really enjoying it!! My teacher also found out from a friend of hers who is a friend of Joshua's family, that today is my birthday. So she brought in a snack and told the class it was my birthday and had them sing to me. It was so sweet. And it is only the second day :) Joshua also stopped by towards the end of the day to see me :) Lovely day

Half way there.

A new fresh start...

Student teaching has been a learning experience. It has had its ups and downs. But hey, you have to have a challenge and push through in order to learn and to better yourself.  My teacher taught me a lot. I have had my struggles through this placement as well. My kids were great. Again I struggled a lot with classroom management, but my kids overall were wonderful and I am going to miss them so much. It still has not quite set in that I am not going back to the same school on Monday. But even though I am going to miss my students a lot. It gave me time to reflect on myself as a teacher and to really take everything I learned from this placement and take it with me to this next placement. It is time for a new fresh start. And to take everything I learned and to press on and practice everything I learned and become a better teacher. Again it is time to practice and work extremely hard. As always. Like we should be doing with everything. I had a great last day on Friday. The teacher worked with the students to make me a cute book. Each student made me a page with their picture on it and telling me something that they learned from me. They gave it to me at snack time and brought in munckins. It was so cute. I also had a really great talk with my teacher.

Also this week in school I was feeling really down and really upset about myself and my teaching. I was just really discouraged. And then as I was going about the morning this verse came to me... 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

I am sad to be leaving this school, but I am also very excited for my next placement. I am looking forward to what is to come. I know it is going to be a challenge but I am definitely looking forward to it. God is good. And I know that he is definitely going to bring me through this.

It's all for the children

One more week to go. To be honest this placement has had its ups and downs. I absolutely love my students. And I really like my teacher as well but honestly I put so much pressure on myself to impress her and make sure I look great to her and PERFECT. And I know we all want to look our best for our teachers. But to try and be perfect is not realistic. We are STUDENT teachers. Now is our time to learn. Our time to make those mistakes and for our teachers to catch them and correct us and to make us better. Those mistakes are what is going to make us the best teachers we can be. Well I have gotten so caught up in trying to impress my teacher that I feel like sometimes I lose sight of why I am truly there. And today God reminded me why I am student teaching, why I went through 4 and half years of school and why I am pushing through all the tears and late nights. Today during computers my teacher was doing something on the computer so I was running around to all of the students helping them with different questions they had. I was between two students and I look over and was watching one little boy as he was working so hard and really focusing on what he was doing. It was only about 10 seconds that I was observing this little boy but in those 10 seconds God reminded me of my passion for children. I absolutely love children, and I want to teach them, and mold them and impact them. I want to help them. I have always had a passion for children and watching this little boy working on his computer today God just reminded me of that passion. And I talked to one of my best friends tonight and one of my old cheerleading coaches and it really helped me to think and reflect. God is really good. In the midst of all the busyness God has little ways of reminding us of our passion and that all the struggles and bumps in the road and the hard times are all worth it.

Strengths

I know I am really last on posting about my strengths... but here goes. I did the test a while ago. And read about it. And took notes about it and everything. Just didn't get around to blogging about it. I would definitely say the test was pretty accurate. When I read my 5 strengths I was like "Wow yes those definitely describe me." My five strengths are developer, discipline, empathy, positivity and relator.

Developer: It said you see the potential in others and like to watch them grow. You challenge and stretch people to help them reach their goals. I felt like this is like me because I feel like I am a very encouraging person. I might be very hard on myself but when it comes to other people I am very encouraging. I love watching people grow and achieve their goals. I feel like I am a developer in the classroom because I love to help and encourage the students. I love to watch them grow and when I see growth I love to acknowledge it and give them praise. And let them know how great of a job they are doing and to continue working hard.

Discipline: You need to be ordered and planned. You set routines and need to feel control and need structure. This definitely is me in the classroom and in general. Every morning with getting ready to go to school I have a plan and a routine. And with school work I need to know that I have everything totally planned out and ready to go for my lessons. If I need notes or samples or pictures. I need to know where it is and that it is perfect and ready. Also when I am in the classroom my teacher has a routine and the students know the routine. I think that is important too because they students then know what to expect throughout the day and it is comfortable for them. They know what is going on as well and it is not like they come to school and never know what to expect or what is going to happen.

Empathy: You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feeling are your own. You are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. This is definitely me. When someone is hurting I hurt with them. My dad lost his best friend a little over a month ago and I did not really know his best friend too well because he lived far away but that fact that my dad was hurting and I could feel his pain and put myself in my dad's position I cried so much for him. And because I care about my dad and when he hurts I hurt. I also am like this in the classroom. When they students are struggling or are upset because they are not understanding something they learned or are getting bullied I need to still be an authority and have their respect but at the same time I show them that I care and have compassion for them. That they have feelings and that how they are feelings matters to me.

Positivity: You are generous with praise and quick to smile. Enthusiasm. Lighthearted. I feel like this one described me very well. I can be very hard on myself but I feel like most people can be. But when it comes to other people again I love to encourage them. I love to smile and give them praise. I also feel like a lot of enthusiasm. :)

Relator: You love being around close friends. You want to have that closeness and know each others fears and goals etc. I feel this is definitely me. I do not look for a lot of friends I look for a few close best friends. Who I know a lot about. I do have a friends I do not want that to sound rude. But it is important for me to have best friends who you know everything about and can truly be there for each other. Who are willing to do anything or everything for you know matter what time of the night it is. No matter how big or small. I had something recently just go on and again one of my best friends just told me she would have come at 1 am to come be there with me because I needed it. That is a true best friend. She knows me. She knows me strengths, my weakness and what I struggle with, what brings me joy and what I need. She knows how to encourage me. Again I think it is important to have friends who truly care about you and know you and will do anything for you. I also bring this into the classroom because I think it is important to be able to relate to your student, again you still need to be the authority figure but they need to know that if they need something that they can come to you.

I did enjoy taking this strengths tests and finding my 5 strengths and reading about them and really thinking about how they relate to me and my classroom.

Being real

To be real and honest... this whole blogging thing is new to me and definitely going to be a challenge. I am not a huge fan of writing out my entire day or feelings for everyone to see. But I had a really good talk yesterday with my former cheerleading coach and it is something that I feel like I can share. I have been struggling with student teaching because I do not want to fail. I love children and love teaching. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl. But now that it is actually here I am afraid of failing and not being good enough and I do not have a back up plan. So to be honest I have been so stressed out and worried. Well I was talking to my coach last night and I was telling her about my lesson and how it went pretty well and that there were some things that needs to be fixed but my teacher said overall it was very good. She said the things I need to change are just little things that will make me lesson that much better the next time. My coach reminded me that it is like cheerleading. When I was flying and we stuck a stunt. After we came down from the stunt we would talk about it and she would tell us what we could fix to make that stunt better and to go up or come down more smoothly. She reminded me that it didn't mean the stunt was terrible they were just little tips to make it better and to go more smoothly, and to help me. To make me a better cheerleader. So we related it to teacher. The advice and tips my teacher is giving me is not being I did a bad job, it's because I am there to learn from her so that she can make me the best teacher that I can be.