What a Week!

I made it through the week but it sure was a crazy one! 

I introduced our Spooky Story mini unit to my 2 regular classes on Monday and they were so excited about it! We brainstormed lots of Halloween words and did a graphic organizer to help us get started. I also read them a few picture books that were spooky stories. We worked on them some every day and most of the students wrapped them up on Friday. I wrote one too which was lots of fun. I modeled with my own story each day with them. We are going to publish our stories on Monday on some fun Halloween paper and watch Halloweentown while we are doing so. I cannot wait to read all of their stories. 

On Thursday I had my evaluation for PDAS. I was not too nervous about it because the observations that my professors used in Student Teaching were basically the same thing. My AP walks in because he was the one doing my observation and I had already started my lesson. He is in there for about 10 minutes, and calls me over. Of course my first thought is that he hates it, but instead he tells me that there is a parole officer sitting in his office right now and he is the only admin on campus. He asked if I minded if her just used what he saw for my observation because he was very pleased with it. I said of course and was actually kind of excited about it. He told me that I rock and they have received so many compliments about me from parents and he was very pleased with what I was doing for a first year teacher.During my conference period I went and hung out in the counseling for a few minutes while I waited for the laminator to heat up. While I was in there, the secretary in the counseling center told me she needed to talk to me. Once again I was freaking out. She told me that the principal was bragging about me the other day. She told her that I had far exceeded her expectations that she had for me especially for a first year teacher. That made me feel pretty good inside.

Then yesterday, we had our Sheltered Instruction lady come observe in our rooms again. This is the same lady who I blogged about a few weeks ago who made me feel like a complete idiot and that I was a sorry teacher. Well, she did not come to my classroom until about 3pm. Yes, 3pm on a Friday, last period, and the kids were crazy because we had gotten a cold front the evening before. I had the windows open in my classroom because it was warm. As she walks into my room, I notice one of my kids throw something out of the window. I was so mad!!! He just wanted to climb through the window to go and pick it up, but I told him that he must walk out the door to go and get it. While he is walking around to get it, one of my other students climbs through the window to go and get it. I was so frustrated with them. On the bright side though, the observer thought it was pretty funny and could totally relate to it because she once taught 6th grade. Her and I talked for about 10 minutes and she told me that I was the best on the campus at using the sheltered instruction strategies in my classroom. She also mentioned that she has never seen a first year teacher that is as together as I am. I took those both as huge compliments and realized that maybe last time she only came across rude because she wanted me to excel.

I will be back later this weekend to share what I have planned for next week. Well, that is if my computer does not die. My laptop charger broke this morning. :(