It's testing season!

Ok, ok. I'm really starting to get the hang of this whole student teaching experience. Waking up at 6am doesn't seem so horrible anymore. I believe that my body is actually starting to catch up with my mind. Sounds like a pretty good accomplishment, right?!

This week at Centennial has been a little more low-key than the last couple of weeks. We started ACCESS testing, so that has been my student teaching experience for the week. I also proctored and provided instruction for students who were not taking the test on a particular day. On Wednesday, I assisted a student with Easy English News. In case you are unfamiliar with it, English Easy News is a newspaper that has articles for students who need simple language for comprehension. Some of the articles were about the legal system (court cases, prosecutors, juries, etc.) and holidays that we celebrate in the U.S. We read about Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and Chinese New Year. After reading about the articles, I had the student fill out a non-fiction reading log. The purpose behind having a student fill out a reading log is for them to get a better understanding of what they are reading by stating some things that they learned and their thoughts on the article. I also proctored ACCESS testing this week. I have proctored this test before so it was a walk in the park. I also did many other things with the students like assist with animal fact and opinion articles and play PIT with the students. Overall, it was an exhausting week with all of the testing that was going on.

I thought I did a great job with assisting the students with writing their fact and opinion rough draft articles. The students were really comfortable with asking for help. I also got a chance to share some knowledge about grammar. Knowing that my students will come to me for help is the greatest feeling that I had this week. Although, I had a wonderful time helping my students with their rough draft, I am so nervous about administering ACCESS testing next week. From my observations this week, I noticed that there is a lot of planning and work that go into having the test available for the students to take. I AM TERRIFIED OF THAT TEST. I really hope that my beginning teacher mentor will be just as good as Ms. Linton next year!

I have known my students for about 7 months now, and there is great diversity within my classes. Ms. Linton and I have as little as 3 students in one class to as many as 10 in another class. My 11-15 year old students also come from many different backgrounds such as China, Korea, Brazil, United States, Jordan, Sudan, and El Salvador just to name a few. They also come from many different socioeconomic backgrounds and religions. My students also have many levels of English proficiency. I have some students who know a few English vocabulary words and I also have students who carry on conversations with difficult vocabulary. It's quite amazing. This has also impacted my interactions with them. I have to be very mindful of their cultures and backgrounds when speaking and assisting them. I also know that when I teach I will also have to be careful with my lesson plans and the things that I ask them to do because their is so much diversity. I feel that it is such a blessing in disguise because many teachers never get the opportunity to reach so many children from different parts of the world.