Day Seven

So today was an interesting day. We had some grad students come in and teach the class. I enjoyed their lesson and thought it was extremely relevant to today. I've always had an interest in Spanish so I can speak it fairly well. I grew up in a public school where there were a decent amount of latinos. I also played a lot of soccer but not for the school. My brother and I started playing soccer after school and invited some of our latino friends and it eventually became a regular thing where every Tuesday after school we would play soccer. A lot of our friend's families started coming and playing also. My brother and I were the only white people there so it really started to help our soccer skills as well as Spanish. Even though I may not know a lot of vocabulary, I can fake it enough to seem fluent.

So I have never really gave a whole lot of thought of, what if I have a student who doesn't speak English"? I hope by the time I'm teaching full time that I'll be fluent in español that I will not need a translator. I think a second language should be "more" required of us native Americans. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing people say "this is America! Speak English"! We used to be this great, big, melting pot and now we're just making the rest of the world think that we're kind of stupid.

Day Six

Today was pretty cool. I kind of enjoyed doing the whole thing over the phone. I probably shouldn't have done it while driving but I needed to get to school cause I had a class right after that. I learned a little bit and all my questions got answered so I was pretty content with today's class.

I'm still kind of confused with the Website thing due this week for me. I have only heard various things from everyone on what to do with nothing very concrete. I hope by the time it's due that I'll have a better understanding of what exactly I need to do. I'm not too worried about it and I think it can really help with me becoming a future educator.

Well I have faith that everything will get better. Even with all the hw assignments and things due coming up and all the outside things going on in my life I'm not in the least worried about anything because I know God has a plan and it will all work out. That's why I will never stress or get flustered.

Day Five

So I always put the title as "Day .." even though it should be week. But it's too late for me to change it now. So far I feel like I've learned a lot in the class. I feel better about going out and teaching in the real world. My only thing is incorporating the standards into my lessons. So far when I have gone to other schools to help out, I have actually gotten to do a lot in front of an ensemble. I have been able to play with the ensemble, teach the ensembles, have private lessons with them, and even conducted for a concert.
I've always enjoyed teaching people how to do things, rather it's rock climbing, how to solve a rubik's cube, or play an instrument. I've had three piano students and three violin students. I've been taking piano and violin lessons for about six years. I understand what my students are going through because I've been through the same. But when I get up in front of a class I'm used to just kind of winging it. I rehearse with them until I find a section or technique that calls for attention and I try to make a learning experience for the whole class.
This whole taking standards and using them. I'm okay with it to an extent. From what I hear from a lot of teachers, they make a lesson plan or just copy and paste a lesson plan from the year before. So I'm still a little confused as to how and what I will do about that.

Day Four

So, oh my goodness. It feels like there is so much going on right now in my classes. We now have a project that we have to do and I'm pretty sure no one in class really understands what we have to do. All I really know is that we are doing something for the standards that we are assigned. There's also a bunch of websites that we have to use as "references"?? But I think after talking to a few people I finally understand it a little better.

It's hard to believe it's already Feb. We're starting to have more and more due for all of our classes. My fear is that for this class I will not know when what is due. Let alone my other classes. I'm not too worried however because I know it will be alright.