Fireworks!

Well we just had our last class for Curriculum Planning and Development :( I can't believe it is all actually over! It's actually not as sad since I know next semester we will have Dr. Smirnova for methods. I have a feeling that that class will be just as challenging, educational, and informational as this one! That Russian dinner was amazing! I never had Russian food before but I really enjoyed it! I'm not the biggest fan of meat so I was happy to see that it was made of mostly greens! I also enjoyed the wine part of the dinner! It was a perfect ending to this semester. Eveyones Unit Plan looked amazing during their presentations! I know everyone worked so hard on them this semester so it was nice we got to present them to the class. It made it more special that we got to do it at Dr. Smirnovas hosue.

I feel like I did my field work for this class so long ago but it was actually only a month ago! I did my field work in a first grade classroom, and I have to say it is probably one of my favorite grades. I prefer the younger grades for a few reasons. I love the activities you get to do with them, I love how they are so excited to learn, and I just think they are so fun to watch! The teacher let me look through all the books that the school district gave her to plan her lessons around. It is nice to know that they give you outlines and that you don't have to create the whole year step by step. The class was very structured, and followed the same routine every day. It was nice because the students knew what to do next so they could just transfer smoothly into the next subject. I think my favorite part was their morning meeting. I went four mornings and each morning they had different fun activities. Something I saw which I loved was watching them go over their spelling words. Each student would say a letter and when the word was done the next student would say Sparkle! and then the next word would start. I just loved the interaction and team work of this activity, plus every other activity I saw in morning meeting plus throughout the day. Overall, I loved observing first grade, but maybe next time I will observe the older grades to get a feel for them.

Overall, I enjoyed this class. Aside from all of the hard work and long nights, I took so much away from this class and have enjoyed every class. We have learned so much and have had it taught to us so that it is drilled in our heads so I highly doubt I will ever forget the material!