I know I know... it's been FOREVER!

Hey Yall! I know it's been awhile since I last posted ... things have been crazy here. I come home exhausted everyday ... the little ones wear me out. My class is great. We only have 14 students on the role and one has not shown up yet, so I am loving having only 13 students. They all showed up on Monday and it has been interesting seeing how the first day/week goes. This is my first time seeing it...all my practicums have been at the end of the school year and I am very familiar with the end of the year routine. It is neat to see how "green" the 1st graders are. The first day was a bit hard on them since they only had half day kindergarten so they are not used to full days. They are doing great after only 3 days. I have a picture of the class (I was the photographer on the first day) but I am not sure if it is legal or not to post it. (Someone let me know or not... I am thinking no) All the parents have signed a photograph permission slip but that is for school use... but it is such a cute picture (they are all making silly faces)!

Anyways, Mrs. Morrill is a great teacher to work under. She is in a technology classroom, which means that the students use computers to do most of their assignments on (don't worry, they still cut and paste and color like 1st graders should!). A lot of the lessons are taught on the overhead through the computer so I am becoming VERY computer savvy FAST! What is also great is that my teacher is giving me a copy of most of the programs she uses so I can do stuff at home. It is great!

Oh! The school I am in is Kesterson Elementary School (Home of the Kesterson Coyotes) in Henderson, Nevada. It is only a 20 (in traffic) drive and is 11 miles from my apartment. It is nice and once I get on the freeway it is a quick drive...it is just going through a school zone and about 10 lights to get there that takes so much time! It is a newer school and is very nice. I love working with Mrs. Morrill and the rest of the 1st grade teachers. Actually the entire staff at the school is amazing! One of the great things about our schedule is the students have specials (eg: PE, Music, Library and Art) for the last period of the day so Mrs. Morrill and I have an hour to prepare for the next day and don't have to stay late (I am usually gone by 3:30).

Right now we are beginning to prepare for open house on Tuesday night ... we are trying to do as many things with the kids so we can have stuff to hang up for the parents to see. Most of my free time is spent hanging bulletin boards and helping all the 1st grade teachers (I am the only student teacher in the 1st grade) ... Right now they are doing a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom themed lesson. Today we read the book, watched the movie and made Chicka trees to hang on our bulletin board. Tomorrow we are going to do an interactive lesson on the computer. Some of yall may be wondering why so much on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom? Well, at this time we are reviewing the alphabet and letter sounds (many of the students can't recognize letters or they don't know the sounds - sad - We only have one or two that struggle a bit but the other classes are worse off... so we are counting our blessings). Anyways, Chicka is a book about the letters of the alphabet that climb a coconut tree... very cute and I recommend reading it if you have never done so before.

Ok, I have written a ton for today! Sorry for the book, but I needed to catch yall up!