Time for some positivity

Since my last post, I have received many texts, messages, and emails from my friends, teachers, and followers/readers. They encouraged me to stay positive and to continue to prepare myself to be a strong teacher. All of the experiences, feelings, and relationships I have while student teaching will allow me to grow into the teacher I want to become. I am really appreciative of the support and encouragement I receive on a daily basis! It’s a great feeling to know that people are following my journey and are helping me get through it in one piece! J

This week was pretty eventful! We had a day off on Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so Gabe and I decided to take advantage of it and went exploring! I had my first experience going on the ‘L’ train which took us toward all the museums downtown. Since we’re (student) teachers, we get free admission to many museums, cultural centers, and other attractions! Gabe and I went to the Field Museum and spent around 3 hours learning about dinosaurs, Native American culture, Egyptians and mummies, genetics, and plants and animals (alive and extinct). We both learned a lot of new things and were so fascinated by the amount of living things that existed and still exist in the world!

Teaching this week went a lot better than last week. I introduced the topic of reflection on coordinate planes, and the students seemed to enjoy it! It was something they had never been exposed to, so since it was different, they paid more attention to it and stayed engaged. They also thought it was challenging, but we spent a full week working on it, making sure they understood it completely. On Friday, I was able to do a fun activity where I created a life-size coordinate plane and had the students plot points by walking along the plane. They were resistant at first because they don’t like changes in their routine, but after the first round of plotting, they had higher spirits! I have spent two weeks teaching plotting, translating (moving), and reflecting points, so next week I will be testing them on this information. It’ll be my first experience creating a test that shows me how much they have actually retained and if they are able to perform these tasks on their own.

On Thursday, we had our first JUSTICE session. If you don’t remember what that is from one of my earlier blog posts, JUSTICE stands for “Joining Urban Student Teachers to Integrate Community Experiences.” These are sessions that the six of us in the Urban Program participate in to discuss our experiences in our placements, as well as to learn more about urban education. This week’s topic was “First Impressions and Assets and Deficits.” We shared our impressions of Albany Park and the schools we are teaching in and discussed any stereotypes we were able to get rid of after spending three weeks here. Our discussion was awesome because the six of us teach in three schools with different populations of students and different types of classrooms, so we all had something new to bring to the conversation.

At the end of the week, Gabe, Alexis, and I went to Bellona’s Pizza, a small, family-owned pizza place that specializes in Chicago-style pizza. It was so good! We agree that “hole-in-the-wall” places in our neighborhood serve the best kind of food. The prices are reasonable and the food is tasty, so we enjoy exploring different places around us!

Today, Alexis, Gabe, Bekah, and I spent our time at the Adler Planetarium! Again, we were able to get in for free because we’re teachers… oh, the perks of being an educator! ;) Our goal is to visit one museum or cultural center every weekend. Chicago has some awesome resources, so why not take advantage of them while we’re here!?