Intern Experience Week #6

This past week I returned to my home PDS West Milford Elementary school to start my middle school social studies placement in a 5th grade classroom. It was a more difficult transition then I would have expected, but I think that that has to do to the fact that I was very comfortable in my last placement and I felt like I really knew my students and the school. But it was nice to return to the school that I had been at the past 2 years. I have really been looking forward to this placement because I enjoy history and this will be my first opportunity to teach it, so I am anxious to see if I enjoy teaching as much as I enjoy the subject. It is also nice to get the experience working with a male teacher. I think that this placement will give me something different compared to other placements because I believe that male teachers have a little different approach, and this particular teacher likes to incorporate technology in his lessons as much as possible, which will be a great learning tool.
The week went very fast, and I spent it mostly observing so that I could get the a feel for the schedule of the classroom and the type of students I would be working with. Something that I didn't consider before was that this group would be the highest level learners I have ever worked with. In my middle school placement I had 6-8th graders that were on a lower level to the 5th graders that I am working with. I don't know why but thinking about this aspect made me very nervous to start teaching. I expressed my worries with my mentor teacher and we have worked out a schedule where I will gradually start teaching. We started this week where I watched him teach spelling and english 2 days and then I took over. I am anxious to see how things end up once I start teaching social studies full time. I planned for the week and will start a unit on immigrants and immigration tomorrow which will go with a unit they are working with in their reading class.