My Student Teaching Experience

They live in the future?

Students in a Pohnpei school in Micronesia

Our students watching the video

SUMMARY

I began this morning at 4:30am so I could get to school early to have time to write my teacher work sample standard II.  Wait, lets back up because my week really started yesterday, Sunday.  I got up at 7:00am and wrote lesson plans until 5:00pm.  I went to bed early and THEN I got up at 4:30am for school.  I think this is beginning to sound like but  I'm really not.  I'm just surprised to find out how much work goes into teaching.  I knew it required alot of planning but I did not realize it would require me to get up at 4:30am just to stay on track.  Keep in mind I bring alot of this on myself.  I have been writing very specific lesson plans so I can get the practice I need to really understand what goes into lesson plans and I have also been working hard to make them interesting and engaging for the students.  It is one thing to write papers and mock lesson plans in school, it is another to write lesson plans that you must follow in a classroom setting.  

INSIGHT

I am learning that a teacher has a small window of time to teach the students everything they need to know in each subject.  Sometimes in as little as 15 minutes.  Mr. Pacer has had to make alot of decisions about time allotment in his classroom.  He allows more time for reading and math than social studies or science.  Some teachers teach different subjects on different days.  He has divided the school day so that he covers everything every day.  I like that concept because the class segments are not too long and the material is reinforced daily.  

KIDS FROM THE FUTURE

I have a friend that is a teacher missionary in Pohnpei and I asked her to send me a video of her students addressing my students personally telling them what they like to do for fun and their favorite food.  My students are studying how children are different and also the same as them around the world in Social Studies.  I asked the students to point to the furthest point on the map from North America and they all pointed to Austrailia.  I showed them the globe and said let's go even further to Micronesia. 

I explained that the children that live in this country are on the other side of the earth.  I asked them to guess what time it was in Micronesia. When I told them it was 5:30am they were surprised. But when I said it was 5:30am tomorrow, they were shocked.  These kids live in the future!  I explained why they live in the future.  Next I told them that these children saw us on our Facebook page.  They looked at all the fun we were having at Fall Field Day and all the good food we were eating and wanted to send us a video about what they do for fun.  I played the video and they loved it.  We discussed things we had in common with them and some things they did differently.  

Today we are going to record a response video.