This semester.....

Pedagogy II is underway..... I have been placed in a Hoover City School with third graders, my DREAM GRADE! I was so excited to receive this placement! The game plan for the semester is that I have to teach science, social studies, and math. I have to teach 3 lessons in one subject, 6 in another, and 9 in the another. That's a lot! We have already begun our placements in the school and so far, I have taught 2 science lessons. The first one didn't go that great,and because of that, I think that the second failed as well. I don't know what I'm going to do to improve my teaching ability. I think that I am under a lot of pressure to teach the way my cooperating teacher teaches, and it's hard. It's hard to walk into someone's classroom and take control, especially when the students are used to their routine and the teaching style that has been used since August.

This semester is going to be quite interesting, and probably very stressful over all!

Taking Teaching to the Next Level

I have been placed in a third grade classroom, at Shades Mountain Elementary (located in Hoover, AL). I have had the opportunity to help lead a discussion about Egypt and the political war taking place. One of besties, Randi, is hosting for an exchange student from Egypt. Randi and her family have opened up their home to a teenage boy, Ahmed, for the next several months.

I asked Ahmed if he would interested in coming to speak to the third graders and enlightening them more about Egypt. Well, he came and spoke not only the classroom I'm in, but all the other third graders as well. He had a blast and so did they. Ahmed spoke some Arabic, and wrote some Arabic for them. We have three Arabic speaking students in the third grade and it was very interesting watching them converse with each other. Ahmed is from Cairo and others are from Yemen. Their languages are some-what different. It was so neat watching a third grader enlighten a teenager about their language. Ahmed was so precious while he was working with them. I have several pictures from the visit. All-in-all, the kids learned more about Ahmed and Egypt than they did listening to me or my cooperating teaching speak to them!

The biggest lesson that I have learned from this is guest speakers bring so much more excitement and make the students think and ask TONS of questions! This was a great learning experience for me, to plan a guest speaker and prepare the students for one.

Here are some pictures:

Ahmed and Ali speaking Arabic to one another

Question and Answer Time

Ahmed enlightening the third graders.

My class this semester!

Ahmed, thank you so much for coming! I greatly enjoyed your visit!