Monday, September 19, 2016

Internship Week 4- Real Life Check!

This past week was challenging, both at my internship site, and with my family. My family has been fighting sickness it seems, every week. 

This past week was challenging, both at my internship site, and with my family. My family has been fighting sickness it seems, every week. Thursday, my 8 year old child tested positive for strep. Saturday, I woke up feeling horrible with a high fever, and tested positive on Sunday for strep. I thought this meme <----- was pretty funny and exactly what I do! Then thoughts that follow..."Oh no, I think I have STREP!" Grrr! I'm a strep carrier, so it is not unusual for me or my family to get strep 1-2x a year.

Today, I was scheduled to attend our intern edTPA training at ECU. However, since I have strep, I received permission to attend virtually, with the other long-distance classmates. Towards the end of the training, I received a call from my daughter’s daycare, that she somehow hurt her arm. I picked her up, and went to the children's ER. My husband left work and got our boys from school. She went in holding her arm and crying when we touched it, to being completely fine while we were waiting in the patient room. The doctor thought she dislocated it (Nurse Maid elbow) and it popped back on its own. This was after she endured some x-rays though. I am thankful, she did not break anything. Concerned about how it happened....

Sometimes things can get heavy in life. This is something I know and understand all to well. Having lost my mom to breast cancer in 2009, to taking care of my dad who had Alzheimer's, putting him in a nursing home, and then losing him in 2013...I am no stranger to stressful situations. I knew I would get through this, but I have had my moments of breakdown. One more thing to mention...last week, I found out someone stole my debit card information from an ATM I used, and used it as their own. Our bank caught it as suspicious and reversed it, but that was another curve ball thrown at me last week. Whew! I need a vacation already! These things are not necessarily part of my internship per se, but they can affect me tremendously if I let them!

Aside from all of the craziness in my home, my first formal lesson observation and edTPA lessons were completed this week. My ECU assigned University Supervisor wanted to do one formal observation, before starting my edTPA. She had great things to say about my teaching! There were some things not observed, due to them not being applicable to my observatory lesson, and there is room to improve (always), but I am very pleased with the marks I received! 
Although the edTPA planning, stressing, and working everything out took a lot out of me, I really enjoyed teaching. The lessons were centered around the topic of brainstorming and using graphic organizers to organize our thoughts. I created SmartBoard activities, and found videos to go along with each lesson. The students seemed to enjoy everything! 
Another neat thing, is that my CT uses strategies I’ve taught the students in her teaching and references things I’ve said to them. When I teach, I also try to reference my CT, so that students know we are working together. Side note...I am learning there is drama in this school, just like any other workplace. What do I think about that? I choose to rise above it. I saw this on Pinterest: “Anyone can find the dirt in someone…be the one to find the gold." Wise words right there! I encourage you to join me...
find the GOLD in people!