Week 2

I noticed that I am feeling more comfortable in front of the classroom. I have noticed that I have been taking charge more and really just having fun. Even though, I was introduced as Ms. Rosnick on the first day of school, students still refer to me as "Mrs. Starkey's helper." I am not sure why this is so. I feel like there was never any type of indication that I am not of the same status as Mrs. Starkey. I hope that when I start teaching more the students will realize that I do have the same authority as my mentor teacher. So far this week, I have been teaching a lot of Reading. I am extremely excited to take over Reading on Monday! I will be starting the book The Summer of the Swans and I hope to do some really cool things with it. I have been working hard on my lesson plans and hope to finish the book in about 4 weeks! I have gotten to know the students pretty well and am learning more and more about them each day. I really enjoy having different students in and out throughout the day because it allows me to get to know many different groups of students. This week we have been working on separating WESTEST scores; it has been a painful experience, to say the least! Going through all 180 students in 6th grades and picking out each individual student, writing down their scores, and then putting them in the right teacher's pile has been a challenge. As much as I detested doing this, it really helped me understand the WESTEST scores and how they score. The experiences that I have had these past two weeks are things that I could have never learned by sitting in a classroom. I am so thrilled to be able to experience everything that I have.

Week 1

On Monday, August 16th, I started at Bridgeport Middle School. We were required to attend the beginning of the year teacher meetings. I thought it was very exciting because it made us feel like we were more a part of the school community. Also, we were able to hear the same things that the other teachers in the building were hearing. On Wednesday, we had Open House and the Back to School Bash. Although, we didn't know what kids we were going to have in our classrooms come Thursday, it was still nice for the kids to get a chance to look around and become familiar with their new surroundings. Thursday was a half day and boy was it crazy. The sixth graders stayed in their 1st period classroom all day so that we could go over the rules with them and get them used to the school and routine. Then, came Friday. Friday was a disaster. We found out that we had to redo all of our teams schedules! It took us all day to get our 79 kids into the classes they needed to be in. Although Thursday and Friday were pretty stressful, I am really enjoying being in 6th grade!