Monday was a great day! I felt fresh and revitalized from the weekend and ready to get in and teach. I taught Math, LA, and HACE and was formally observed by my SA during my LA lesson. My observation went quiet well, I was working on my timing and again it was an improvement, which was great! My next big goal is to work on making sure that all students are on task. My classroom management is coming along nicely, however, I am wanting to work on better making sure that every child is participating, engaged and doing what it is they are supposed to be doing. In math we stated a new unit, which is length, length conversions and estimation. HACE went really well, we played emotions charades and all of the kids had a great time! They are now experts at reading body language and interpreting emotions in others. Today at lunch I also had my first math celebration meeting- it was really great to get involved with this program and get to know some student from different grades! Also, because all other teachers were busy the other student teachers and myself are steer heading the meetings and coordination of program, so it is really great to get the opportunity to be so involved.

Tuesday I had another formal observation, this time from my FA, for my very first science lesson. I did an introduction into roller coaster physics and it went well! The class was engaged and participating nicely. I used some fun videos, which I think helped to keep and hold their attention. Due to the fact that this lesson was scheduled as a double block, instead of 2 single blocks on differing days, the kids were sitting for a long time so I had them go outside for a brain break and take a lap around the school. During this lesson the need for brain breaks (and including the calming/settling back down piece) was reconfirmed in my mind and I plan on adding in more brain breaks in the future. My SA does not include brain breaks during her lessons, so it is a piece that sometimes gets lost as I am trying to please her as well as put into motion everything that I have learned. I am looking forward to completing this unit with them. On Tuesday we also got a new student to the classroom, which brings us up to 30 students! It was really interesting to see this process of integration and I am looking forward to learning about how these situations can be best handled. So far so good! Today at lunch I also had my first “readers theatre” meeting… the other student teachers and myself have volunteered to be part of the teachers readers theatre presentation during our reading day assembly coming up in May!

Wednesday was a bit of a struggle and was one of my hardest days yet. My SA took the kids down to the track to complete some running exercises for PE and we were about 15 minutes late getting back to the classroom for my math lesson. This particular math lesson was a bit more complex than the concepts studied on Monday and Tuesday and we had a test coming up the next day, therefore, I needed the full block to do the lesson and ended up running out of time. In the end it was all good, I decided to adapted my quiz to reflect the shortened lesson and will work to cover more of the information in our next unit! Phew! Working in a classroom with two teachers is extremely rewarding in that I am able to get feedback, suggestions, advice, and support from two individuals, however, it also poses unique challenges that I am still getting used to such as differing routines, differing teaching styles and differing opinions/ ideas. Today I also my second math challenge meeting at lunch and track practice with the grade 4s after school- busy hectic day!

Thursday was “We are silent” day in which the students and myself were unable to speak for either a portion of the day or the whole day. To be honest I did not think that the kids were going to be able to keep silent for the whole day, but honestly they did so well! It was a fairly light teaching day due to the nature of not being able to talk, however, they did write their 2^nd math quiz (length, units of measure) which was interesting. I marked them before leaving for the day and most students did really well, and we only have 1 student who is requiring a re-write (she was away for 2 out of the 4 lessons on length). All in all it was a good day and I was really proud of my kids!