I Feel Like A Movie Star!

So this week was my last lesson of elementary science, and I got to say there is no way it could have gone any better! My lesson plans were thoroughly approved, the lesson went great, and I got to sign autographs. It was pretty funny, at the end of class I thought I was just going to walk out and that would be the end of it. Instead, all the students wanted my co-teacher and I to sign there science journals. Then, they gave us there autographs with little messages like "I Love Soils". It was really cute! The one thing I was not prepared for was when the students asked me to come back. I guess the kids loved the unit so much they wanted to keep going with it. I did end up telling them I couldn't, even though I really wanted to, and I got to say those pouty faces really do make an impression. I'm really going to miss them all, they were a great class. But who knows, maybe I'll see them again in fifth or six grade!

A Post From The Past

(If this post seems out of place, it's because it was originally the second half to a post that was up about a month ago.  This did not happen recently.)
After my disaster of a lesson, I knew the only thing I could do was to prepare for the next lesson. In total, I think I ended up spending around fifteen hours or more writing and re-writing my lesson plan. Its hard to tell exactly how much time was actually spent, but I do remember being on campus until 10:30 at night for three consecutive nights. Not to mention that this process was usually continued the next morning and afternoon. All this with at least five to six hours of sleep a night due to other classes' demands. However, in the end it was all worth it. The lesson went phenomenaly. As soon as I walked out the classroom door I knew that I had just taught the best lesson that I have ever taught. The students retained all the new information and vocabulary and were already making valid predicitons (in fact I already know that most of their predicitons will be correct) about the results we would see in our next lesson. I would say that if I learned anything from this experience it would be two things. One, that no matter how much you seem to be struggling if you keep on pushing you will probably do great. And two, even though it might seem uneccessary at first to break down every single minute thing that you do in your lesson planning (even down to exact movements and wording) it really ends up being the best thing you can do for yourself in the end. Hopefully, by sustaining this effort, the next lesson will go just as well, if not better.