Yarn, Youth, and Yippee!

Does an alligator have a butt?

We ended our last official class for our first quarter in the student teaching program at UCD today. Our amazing professor included some read aloud excerpts from the book 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny that captures the experiences that a teacher may encounter. A student quote that stands out was the question, "Does an alligator have a butt?". I can't wait to read this book now that I am immersed in the classroom.
Our professor modeled some class meeting activities that really showed me how important a morning meeting can be in building community in the classroom. She asked us to think of our happy place. As all 70ish of us thought, smiles spread throughout the room and the mood shifted. Then our professor pulled out a ball of yarn and told us to say : "hello  ______ (person's name) from ________ (fill in your happy place), and then to throw the yarn to them. This process repeated until there was a string that would eventually tie the entire class together. We pulled gently on the yarn at the end and could feel that we were all connected and part of a whole team. It was so amazing hearing everyone's happy place. They ranged from cozy flannel sheets of a bed, to the top of a mountain with a view that could go for miles. I learned so much about the amazing women and men that I have been side by side with through this first quarter. My happy place that I shared was at the Kunst Historisches Museum in Vienna, Austria where I had just finished a fantastic coffee and was about to wander the vast halls and soak  up the Breugel and other jaw dropping masterpieces it offers. In the classroom, this would be a wonderful place to get students to share a special part of themselves. Here are some pictures of the activity we did in our class:
students stand in a circle

Say friend's name, your happy place, and add description

Toss the yarn and hold on to the end

Class ended, but our support network has just begun:

One important thing that our professors and supervisors have done to kick off this first quarter was to make sure that we all spent some time talking to everyone else in our courses. They made a sustained effort to mix up the groups and encourage us to break out of our comfort zones. This has been so valuable, because doing this allowed us to become an extended support network for each other. This network can continue when we are scattered all over the country in classrooms on our own. We will be able to lean on each other when needed, and that is one reason we will be the resilient, strong teachers that we all want to be.

I'm on the right next to a kind soul that truly listens and will set students up to succeed

We made it! One quarter done!
Sharing the love after lots of hard work
I'm on the left with this future rock star teacher, she is going to change lives

A beautiful smile to close the quarter

Peers united to make a difference in the world

Displaying an artifact that represents  part of her philosophy of teaching


building community

sharing personal philosophies of teaching

Final assignment for a class about effective teaching strategies:

Our last project to work on for this quarter is to write our personal teaching philosophy. We will submit a written document, but we were able to share three artifacts in class today that represent our philosophies. The pictures above show us meeting in small groups to share these artifacts. My classmates were so thoughtful and creative. I don't feel that I'd do them justice trying to type them up, so I'll explain mine in a later post. I will close by showing some pictures that we took together as a class. I hope everyone has a wonderful week in student teaching and that everyone enjoys this feeling of accomplishment. 
Future Teachers Together

Trying to make our serious/silly  teacher faces


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