Week 1 of Teaching

    First I want to state that I did not realize how exhausting teaching is.  I love it and I am happy with my choice for a career, but I have been completely drained all week.  The first day or two I observed and just talked with Dr. Mills about teaching and what all I needed to do.  I got up in front of all of the classes and told them a little bit about myself and then had them all stand up and tell me their names and where all they had lived.  Many of the kids have lived in numerous countries and states.  It is funny how literal middle schoolers are because when i was telling them I drive a 76' Monte Carlo, and it is a boat I think some of them literally thought I drove a boat haha.  The kids are great so far and very gracious.  I know I am going to love them all and be sad by the time I leave.
    On Wednesday and Thursday I taught my mini-lesson over the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.  You definitely learn more teaching something 4 different times and having to research it.  It went well for my first time out and Dr. Mills even left me by myself with the class for 30-40 min and everything went ok.  I am learning a lot from Dr. Mills and he is more worried about me becoming a great teacher and not so much about my content.  The content I need to learn on my own and he is teaching me how to teach.  He has had about 20 student teachers so there is no one better to learn from.  Although I still need to earn the kids respect and love I feel like we are already headed in the right direction.
  On Tuesday i got to help out with the volleyball club and had a blast! The girls are so cute!  What I love the most is their desire to learn and grow.  Poor girls some of them are so confused because they have never seen a real game of volleyball played in their life.  Wednesday I played volleyball with the teachers and had so much fun!  They are all so welcoming and it is a nice stress reliever.  So that is a rundown of my first week of student teaching.  I still have a long ways to go but it was a good start.

P.S. sorry if there are grammatical errors I don't have too much time to edit everything :)  

                                 Here is the sign a couple of the students made for me on the first day :)