Week+1+Experience


 * Aug. 30th, 2010 - Sept. 3rd, 2010**

Wow! To tell you that I'm happy, thrilled, ecstatic...none of those words quite convey the emotion I feel at this very moment. Having completed my first "official" week of my Senior Internship here at Hickory Tree Elementary is the most amazing accomplishment ever! If you could peer through this computer screen right now, you'd see me doing an epically rediculous happy dance :o)

Working and learning alongside Mandy DeRight (my supervising teacher) and the other InD teachers is a phenomenal experience. I feel so blessed to be a part of their team.It's wonderful the way that they've all welcomed me! For example, on Wednesday of this week, I had the opportunity to take part in something called a Professional Learning Community (PLC) meeting. The teachers that attended expressed a desire to reach out to the general education teachers this year by conducting a professional development meeting. The idea is to share simple and effective ways to infuse ESE accommodations into the fabric of the general education classroom environments and lessons in order to meet the growing demands of the inclusion movement. This made me really excited because it's a topic I know so much about! How awesome to think that maybe I can help my supervising teacher and her colleagues reach a goal they've set to stretch make the entire school a more responsive learning environment!?! Yipee!

**Time management and classroom management go hand in hand - Marie Santana** There are so many things I've learned this week, as well as during the time I spent volunteering before the semester officially began. The quote above, which is actually from my Practical Assessment and Instruction in Reading (RED 4942) Professor, does a pretty nice job of summing up one of the big ones though.

I've come to realize that - no matter the time you've spent decorating your classroom, no matter the students you have in front of you, no matter the lessons you've written - if you don't have a plan for what's supposed to happen when and what to do when the little things go awry, you're in for a bumpy school year ahead! The other tiny tidbit of wisdom for this week has to be a classroom without a little laughter is not a very good learning environment :o)