Student Teaching - Week #6

by Jessica Stob Mills - Daniel Boone Elementary School

Life in the City Student Teaching

Full time student teaching is creeping up on me.  Last week went by so slow while I was in it but so fast in the grand scheme of things. Midterm evaluations are coming up next week and that means that I will be full time in just one or two short weeks.

I am keeping very busy.  I took over math and taught about magic squares, which is a fun unit. When I was teaching social studies, I was surprised to discover that none of my students really knew who Christopher Columbus was. There are so many things to learn about students, one of them is what their previous knowledge is.

View from my apartment

 This past week was pretty warm! I couldn’t believe in October, after a rainy cold week that we would have weather in the 70’s. It was nice but I was a little too uncomfortable in the class with no airflow.  Looking out the window made me long to be out and about in the sunshine and changing leaves.

Life in the City outside of Student Teaching

It was such a busy week. Getting observed and handing in the neighborhood project was a lot of work to make everything look nice, and that means that I stayed up late nights and woke up early. But, I did get to enjoy a nice long weekend.

On Saturday we went to Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. Cantigny is a beautiful park originally owned by Robert McCormick. His huge mansion is now a museum and there is another museum that teaches about the different wars in America.  You can view the trenches of World War II and the barracks of those wars, as well as the jungles of the Vietnam War. Outside on the grounds are numerous different tanks from the war that you can climb on and beautiful gardens to walk through.

On Sunday I went to church at Covenant PCA around Wicker Park; it is a beautiful church with great music and preaching. On Monday we went to a Columbus Day parade on Columbus Drive and also went to the Field Museum. It was such a good weekend!

What I am looking forward to…

I’m looking forward to teaching more and taking on more responsibilities in the classroom. I’m also looking forward to this weekend since we will attend a friend's wedding and hopefully explore more of the city.