I have started my sixth week student teaching.  I can't believe that I only have two more weeks at this placement.  Along with my internship, I am taking a graduate research class.  For our research class we have to research a particular question.  I have decided to research how differing instruction affects students' mathematical learning.  Today I taught a lesson using mostly manipulatives.  I also gave the children manipulatives to use to find the answers.  Since my math lessons usually run 45 minutes or longer, I knew that I would not be able to remember everything that the students said.  I did not think that I would have enough time to write anecdotal notes while teaching, so I decided to videotape my lesson.  At first the children knew that the camera was there and were distracted by it.  After five minutes they forgot about the camera and went about their usual business.  When finished with the lesson I wanted to interview the children and ask them what they thought about the lesson.  Instead of calling them over one by one and writing down what they said, I decided to pick up the camera and interview them with the camera.  The students were great at responding to my questions.  When all was said and done I had fifty five minutes of math instruction and interviewing on tape.  I was so excited to see how the lesson went that I ran home and watched the video.  

Student teaching is a great way to get feedback and advice from your cooperating teacher and your supervisor.  After watching myself on video I realized many things that I need to work on and things that I do well.  It helps to hear from others what you do right and wrong, but the best critic is yourself.  I learned so much about my teaching from watching myself on video.  If you ever have the chance, videotape yourself teaching and then sit back and learn!

     The first couple weeks of my internship have been great.  I was nervous when I met the children but they welcomed me with open arms.  The children did not come to me with questions at first.  After a few days the children practically wore my name out.  Speaking of my name, it is extremely different to hear, "Miss Stone" all day long.  It is really weird to think that the children are expecting me to turn around when they say my name.  I am just now getting used to my new teacher name. 

      I am currently in a second grade classroom and love the children and the age group.  I was not expecting to like second grade as much as I am.  Since I am an Early Childhood major I always thought that I would only be good at teaching younger children.  Once I got used to teaching older children I really started enjoying the lessons.  The first week I jumped right in.  I started small by reading a chapter book everyday.  The second week was cut short by the ice storm.  The two days that I was there last week I taught spelling.  This week I have been teaching math, science, spelling, and language.  I am really enjoying my internship and have learned so much from my cooperating teacher already!  Next week I am taking over the classroom.  I will be teaching everything everyday.  Wish me luck, I'm a little nervous to be the only teacher.