Tuesday, November 24

Yesterday was hard. Classwork has been piling up and I think all of us grad students are just starting to realize how many weeks we have left of school (3- I believe). NO TIME AT ALL! There is a lot of work to be done in this very short amount of time and, if I can be fully honest, there has been some procrastination on my part! I started every project that I need to turn in, but I haven't yet finished. This realization led me to have high levels of anxiety yesterday, and going to bed the night before all I could think was, "please, please let class be cancelled tomorrow for SOME reason, any reason!" But, class was not cancelled, and as it turns out working with the kids actually helped me to calm down and remember why I am in this program to begin with.

Still, I couldn't help but be bothered by certain things teachers were doing and saying while I was there. I got through the day by pouring myself into correcting work, copying, and helping the children with questions they had. By the end of the day I realized that I had made it, and I could stand to stay there a few more hours. But the best surprise of the day occurred when my mentor teacher told me that I could leave early (at 3pm) because she had some personal meetings to attend! I was so relieved and thankful, I needed to get the stress out of my body so badly so I went to the place where I knew I could make that happen, the gym.

Anyway, after I left the gym I went home and dedicated the night to relaxing because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do much of that this weekend (even though it is Thanksgiving weekend). The night ended fine, and I felt a lot better about my workload after evaluating what I had to do, organizing my time, and making goals for myself (I did this during my relaxing night in order to prepare myself for the weekend). I think the main reason I chose to put this down in writing is because I find that it is extremely important to stop and take a break if you are overwhelmed and stressed and it is affecting the way you are at school or work. If I didn't stop and take a break for myself I would burn out big time! After re-energizing, even though I've lost one day of work, I find that I can accomplish more, and faster.

So, if you are like me and are experiencing some sort of stress in your life which is affecting your daily routine than stop. Take a breathe. And do something for yourself.

Welcome

Hey everyone! I totally forgot to welcome you to my blog! My name is Sarah Schulberg and I am currently a grad student in Early Education at Pacific University. I have been student teaching since September and I have started this blog to share some of my experiences with the world. I hope that by sharing this blog I can help other future grad students understand that although this process is stressful, it is also possible to get through it......alive!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading about my teaching experiences and stressful classroom projects- and I also hope that you find this information useful!

My First Day Teaching!

Last Thursday was my first day teaching for the whole day (minus math ;)) and I had no idea that I was even going to do this. When I first got to school my mentor teacher told me that she was going to have me take over for most of the day. As you can imagine, I was pretty shocked and nervous! But, the day went pretty well!

I was really glad when the students came up to me with their questions as if I actually WERE in charge all of the time. This experience really helped me to have more confidence in my teaching ability and it gave taught me valuable lessons in student management, which I feel will be the hardest thing for me to take on. I also ended the day feeling very thankful to my mentor teacher for putting me in this situation because in my other class I don't get this opportunity very often (if ever) and although it is hard and nerve racking, it is necessary.

I hope that as the year goes on I will only become better at what I do and feel more confident in my ability to teach, manage, and help students to move along in their learning careers.