Week Eight

            Holy I can’t believe we are all done! Today was probably my favourite day throughout the past 8 weeks. It was my birthday so I brought cupcakes for all the kids and they all sang happy birthday to me, it was honestly the best day I have had so far. I also got to do a bingo math center and we had a blast.

            I have learned so much from my cooperating teacher, I learned new ways to greet the students, how to properly handle a student when they have behavioral issues, how to teach a student who may be on the spectrum, etc. I also learned a few things from the students, I learned that they will do it at their own pace and don’t rush them, that sometimes they need a bit of encouragement to do that one thing, etc. I loved that I learned so much in such a short period of time, it was so much fun.

            It’s crazy to look back on my first day in the classroom compared to my last. The first day, the students were iffy of us, didn’t know what to do. The last day, I had students constantly hugging me and even coming up behind me to scare me. By the last day, majority of the students finally knew how to closely pronounce my last name and I was no longer “teacher” or “hey hey hey” with a bunch of pokes. I loved seeing the students slowly open up to us the longer we were there. I felt so bad during play centers as a little boy came up and asked me to play with him but there was only 15 seconds left on the timer so I wasn’t able to.

            I couldn’t have asked for a better class, cooperating teacher, and the teacher aid. I am so sad that I can no longer go to that classroom every Wednesday afternoon, but we were told by our teacher that we can come visit whenever we have a free time! I am very grateful for this experience and I can’t wait to see what my next placement will be!