New Practicum Adventures

Last Friday was my final day with the toddlers, it is hard to believe I have already finished over half of my required hours!

For my art lesson we made collages, and I am so proud of the little guys!

  
This morning I began in the preschool room – it’s definitely a different environment, and I look forward to all the challenges I’ll face here! My favorite part of the day was walking with the kiddos to the on campus library! We also played outside on such a lovely day! I gave a thousand and a half underdogs on the swing set, and I’m sure that won’t be the last of them.

While I know this room has a lot of requirements for me to complete, I am super excited to start working on them. Also, two of the toddlers transitioned up to preschool, which means I have two familiar faces in the group!

Toddler Room Update – SEP Lesson

Hey everyone!

After completing my Infant Room experience for practicum, I promised I would keep you all in the loop better with my Toddler Room experience. Last week was my first week in there and what a whirlwind! There are 12 boys in this room, so it’s pretty crazy. I really enjoyed working in the infant room because it was relaxed, but I am enjoying this room even more because there’s always something happening!

Tomorrow I will be teaching my first lesson with the boys! I am teaching my SEP (Standards of Effective Practice) lesson for physical development. I created a super awesome animal movement cube for us to use to get movin’! Unfortunately I did not think to take pictures of  the process or I would be sharing that with you here. Basically, it has six sides (like your typical die) with a different animal on each side. Each animal is associated with a different movement, for example, elephant – stomp, snack – slither, bunny – hop. I will roll the cube and whatever it lands on we will do that action. I came up with this idea based on the animal relays we used to do when I helped lead grade school volleyball camps when I was in high school. This lesson not only works on their physical development but also their social skills like listening and interacting with their peers.

I cannot wait to teach this lesson, I’ll be sure to share with you on how it goes! I still need to write up two more lesson plans (one sensory and one art) for my time left in the toddler room. I am currently at 15 of my 40 hours. Tomorrow begins our spring break, so I am only going in tomorrow (Thursday) for three hours instead of four, and the center is closed on Friday. I’m glad my time in the toddler room won’t be too intruded with this break, because it’s so exciting for me to be going into this room so frequently! However, frequent visits means that the time will be over super quickly. Like I said, I already have 15 of my 40 hours done in this room, so it will be over before I know it and I’ll be in the Preschool Room!

As for my spring break…I’ll be spending most of it working on homework and planning lessons! Trevor’s family will also be in town, so we’re planning on seeing them on Saturday afternoon – it’ll be a much needed break from the stress of school and work!

I hope your Wednesday is going as splendidly as mine is!
XO Elisebeth

Infant Room

Well, my 40 hours in the infant room is officially over. I am completely shocked that it went by so quickly and that Tuesday will be my first day being with the toddlers.

I can not even begin to list the exponentially huge amount of experience I have gained and all of the teaching techniques I have learned in these 40 hours. While I can be honest that I don’t know if I ever see myself teaching in an infant room, I know I will use these skills in the future even if they are just with my own future children. I taught an art and a sensory lesson as well as made a homemade toy.

These next 40 hours will go just as quickly I am sure – I will try to write more on that experience as it goes! I also am hoping to get a few more posts out on here in general!

XO Elisebeth

Week One

Hey you guys!

The first week back to classes is done! I am currently sitting at work writing this (shh) and have my other job tonight, so this will be rather short (maybe).

I am only taking 19 credits this semester (that sounds ridiculous..but I can say only after getting a 3.97 with 21 credits) so I am excited to see how it goes! Included in my 19 credits is my practicum for my degree.

For practicum, I am spending 150 hours at the on-campus childcare center here! My first 40 hours, which started this week, are in the infant room. I could not sleep Wednesday night because of how nervous I was to go in on Thursday morning. Thursday went pretty well. I had to do laundry so it didn’t bother me when my pants ended up coated in drool and boogers. I formally learned how to feed the infants, diaper the infants, do their schedules, and much more! I am so excited for the rest of my hours in this room but I know I will miss them when I am done after the first week in February. My next 40 hours will be in the toddler room. I am rather nervous about that experience just because I know they are so high energy. My final hours (70) will be spent in the preschool room. It will certainly be a crazy semester with all of these kiddos, but I know it will help me get prepared for student teaching in the fall!

Other than practicum, I got my first dose of all of my classes. I know I won’t enjoy a couple of them, but I am at the point where everything is required so I do not really have a choice as to what I take anymore. But hey, the end is in sight! I graduate this calendar year!

Another thing that comes with a new semester is getting our home schedules adjusted. This is a bit hard with only one car, plenty of classes, and four jobs between the two of us. But Trevor is a champ and takes the bus downtown most days. Last semester I was so good at getting caught up with my school work that I was not very good at having a life. So I am going to try and be better at that this semester. We’ll see how that goes considering how extremely exhausted I am after week one….

That’s all I have to share for now. I am hoping to start making a few more crockpot meals and sharing those recipes with all of you soon!

XO Elisebeth