So it begins...

The first week of February is over, but the craziness is only just beginning. My first ultimate test came on Thursday and Friday when I was left in charge of my 17 first graders. Although it can be kinda stressful being completely in charge, both days went fairly well. It felt really great to be alone in the classroom and I actually felt like I could be completely relaxed because no one was watching my every move, except for the kids of course. It was especially fun after the kids left, when I was free to organize, plan, and copy for next week. It was a wonderful learning experience, but I will be glad to have my mentor teacher back! So let's see, this coming week my Action Research intervention begins and will be ongoing for the next 5 weeks, on Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I'll be working with 3 of my students during reading time to improve their reading fluency through word identification strategies. Basically I'll be teaching the kids how to better recognize words to help them to read more accurate and faster. Also the next few weeks I'll be planning in depth my math lessons on money for my big evaluation project. On top of all that I'll be also planning science lessons on motion, and social studies lessons on presidents. It's gonna be a busy rest of February and I haven't even begun to think about March!
On another note, I passed my elementary content knowledge praxis test and am waiting to hear the scores of my reading test. Hopefully I passed it so that I won't have to worry about that in the coming weeks.
Even through all the things that I have to do, I know it is all worth it because of the entergetic feeling that I get as I drive to work everyday. Teaching truely is a rewarding career that is full of excitement and smiles!