So, if anyone ever tells you "teachers have it easy", you have my permission to shoot them. No, not really, of course. This week I began my student teaching my doing what's called a 3 day solo, meaning I taught alone. I spent most of Thanksgiving break making my lesson plans. that was exhausting but in a weird way fun. I felt like I could be creative as well as think about what the kids would need. I taught a sophomore second language learner class (14 languages spoken in the class) in World History. They are a great class and they never fail to impress me with how and what they learn. I taught the end of the unit on the Industrial Revolution, one day focusing on working conditions and child labor, one day on imperialism and industrialization and the third on mass immigration to the US during industrialization. Yeah, that's right with English language learners. We did a lot of activities and they wrote mini-autobiographies of their own immigrant experiences. Most of them really got into it. I used my great-grandpa coming from Russia/the Ukraine as an example. They liked hearing the stuff I learned from interviewing my grandpa.

I enjoyed it and learned a lot from my master teacher and supervisor's suggestions. I was evaluated on the second day and did quite well. At this point, my scores don't matter. That's why I thought it would be worth it to challenge myself with this class. At some point, I know I'll have to teach an ELD class so, why not practice? Next semester I will teach US history college prep, so that will be different. So, I'm changing mental gears. I'll start thinking about the US curriculum and what I want to do. I'm excited about that. I will solo teach in the US class I've been working with to practice before next semester but I won't be observed (except by my master teacher). I will have all different students next semester but it will be good to practice with these kids since I have gotten to know them, too. Right now I'm working on presentations for my state classes, though. One has been a real headache because the prof is crazy and hard to work with. I will be glad when Wed is over. Our semester ends a few days before Christmas and I hope to finish my work a little early since I am so ready for a break!

Happy Holidays!