I am feeling much more motivated this week. It's so weird how it switches off and then right back on again. I think last week I was just worried that the kids wouldn't like my pirate activities or that they wouldn't work out or that they would overwhelm me. But now that I'm 7 days finished with my unit, I'm seeing that they're really enjoying it and it's overall successful. This is SUCH a relief. My whole student teaching experience so far has been building up to these 2 weeks, and I really needed them to go right. While last week wasn't so hot, this week is making up for it. I'm having a good time!
My favorite part about teaching this unit is seeing the children's learning extend beyond what I am doing and finding its way into other aspects of their school day. I watch children make pirate maps and pirate ships during free choice center time (when they could be doing literally anything in the classroom...but they choose to do pirate stuff!!). I hear them playing pirates on the playground during recess, and there's a lots of "Ahoy, matey!" and "Arrgggh" coming from the jungle gym. It makes me smile to see them to be so excited about what we're learning and to bring it into their own personal play. I only have a few more lessons, so I want to keep this excitement alive over the next 3 days. It is so validating to watch them take what we teach and bring it into reality on their own. That's really the goal of it all, isn't it? It is for me, and it almost makes me want to cry seeing it actually happening.
The other exciting part about today happened when we were singing my Five Oceans song. I don't think I've shared what this is yet, so I'll do that now. I have a map of the world on the Smart Board and we sing a song with hand motions to help them remember where all of the oceans are on the map. It's to the tune of Frere Jacques:
Pacific Ocean, (left hand circling over the left side of the map)
Indian Ocean (right hand circling over the right side of the map)
Atlantic, too! (both hands circling in the middle of the map)
Good for you! (pointing to the children)
Up for Arctic Ocean, (pointing/moving up to the top of the map)
Down for Southern Ocean, (pointing/moving down to the bottom of the map)
Swim, swim, swim (making swimming motions)
Swim, swim, swim (swimming motions cont'd.)
I taught them this song last Wednesday morning and I was a little concerned that they would not remember the names of the oceans, or that it would just be meaningless to them, or just that it would be a bust. I was wrong, though! They caught on to the song right away. I started the first couple of days having them listen to me sing each line and then repeating it. Then on Friday we did it together. This week I had them sing it with me and do the motions, and then I pointed to each ocean afterward and had them name it. I thought it would be hard for them to remember the words "Pacific," "Atlantic," etc. because they don't really mean anything to them beyond this song. However, they really do know them! It is so exciting, once again, to see something you've planned work.
My final thought today concerns the wonderful, wonderful world of getting free stuff!! I have heard of others going into places and getting things for free by telling the employees that they are a teacher, but for the first time today it happened to me! It's just so amazing how kind people are and how they are so willing to just give you things -- things that they take inventory on, that their company pays for -- without charging you anything, or even giving it a second thought. With the amount of their own personal money that teachers pay for things in their classroom or for their lessons (I know I'm not even a classroom teacher yet and I still buy a ton of stuff every year), every little bit helps. It makes me happy to see the kindness in others, and the willingness to help out a little bitty teacher in need.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow. My supervisor is coming and I'm excited to show her what we've been doing in the world of kindergarten over the last two weeks! It rained a lot today and that kind of made today seem a little gloomy and sleepy, so I hope tomorrow the weather is a little nicer. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, because the weather has been so ridiculous lately. The rain hitting the window and the overcast sky had about 20 of our kids taking full-on, snoring, naps today, which was beautiful...but I'd much rather have nicer weather and a rowdier nap time. As long as this all clears up by Thursday I'll be a happy camper. I'm looking forward to lunch at the park after the concert and I don't want to get rained out.
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