Student Teaching: The First Day

The first day went really well. I found that going in advance to visit the school made me minimally nervous, as I already had a bit of familiarity with the kids, my teacher, the other teachers, and the building itself. I mostly just helped out whenever possible and tried to get a sense of the routine, but with all the testing, there is only a shady sketch of a routine right now.

To give you a picture of how tired I was at the end of my first day, I wrote that first paragraph and then promptly went to sleep. Luckily there wasn't much of anything I had to do after the first day, for today anyway. I am planning a social studies project that will begin next Tuesday (as we have off Friday and Monday for Labor Day weekend), and might have a couple of other lessons that week as well. So if I want my weekend to be a weekend, and if I want to get started on working on things for the week after (thankfully, my teacher is amenable to me working ahead if I am feeling motivated, and choosing what I want to teach and how I want to teach it. I do have a copy of the first social studies test, so I can make sure to cover all of the points at some point).

So, when I went to bed my feet and body ached like nobody's business and I couldn't keep my eyes open past 9. Luckily this morning leaves me with the aches gone, though I am sure I will start to feel it much more quickly today, and ready to face the day. I am bringing an extra water bottle today, because I also accidentally dehydrated myself yesterday. I drank a lot in the morning, knowing we plan first thing and can use the restroom between 8:45-9:30, and had my water bottle at lunch, and I felt ok until the kids left at 3:30, and then realized how thirsty I was when I left school altogether an hour and change later.

As glad as I am to have what seems like a really great class, and a really great co op in a school I like, I am also really thankful the first week is three days (due to my seminar last Monday), and next week is four days. Physically, it feels necessary to ease in to a full work week, and easier to re-acclimate to the intensely tedious college lesson plan format, by having so much time to complete them.