Student Teaching - Week 4

by Rachel Miller - Bridge Elementary

STUDENT TEACHING

 This week of student teaching was a little bit different than weeks past. For one, I had my first observation with my supervisor, and secondly, I was doing a lot of research for a neighborhood project that is a part of my student teaching seminar. Researching my school’s neighborhood was pretty interesting. I learned that originally the area where my school is located is home to a mental institution and it is still the brunt of many Chicagoan jokes. I also got the opportunity to interview some very interesting people. The best was when I took my half-day to tour the neighborhood and talk to a long-time neighborhood resident, Ken. It was great. He met me at the school with his big, old, golden retriever, Clancy, and together we walked around while he told me all about the community. It has really changed over the years. When he was first living there as a child, it was still a part of the city that was transitioning from farmland and now it is just as crowded as any other neighborhood in the city. He also took me to lunch at Starbucks where he is a morning regular. It was neat to get a perspective of how things are outside of the school. 

LIVING IN THE CITY  

Chicago Cultural Center

In other news, I fell to illness this week. I was doing such a good job of avoiding it too. I have been taking my vitamins everyday, getting plenty of rest, eating right, working out, but I guess my proactive measures just were not enough to fight it off. Luckily, it hasn’t completely immobilized me and I have actually had one of my more social weeks in the city. On Thursday, I went to the Chicago Cultural Center as a part of the Arts in the City Seminar. I was very impressed. The building is just beautiful, mostly because of the spectacular Tiffany designed rotunda, but the exhibition that we viewed was equally as interesting. The collection was titled Morbid Curiosity, and it certainly lived up to its title. All of the pieces were somehow related to death. Now, many were not morbid (while there certainly some that were), but the collection was more of a catalyst to engage your mind in the reflection of death and how fragile and brief life really is. I want to go back and look again because we only had about 45 minutes before the building closed.

New North - Chicago Public Library

I also had a pretty busy weekend (another long-one at that). Friday nights have sort-of become a ritual of going out for frozen yogurt, but this time my roommate and I met up with a couple of other student teachers from the program. Then, Saturday I made a trip to the Near North branch of the Chicago Public Library and got my very own library card. I am pretty excited about it because not only can I check out books and movies, but I can also get weekly passes to different Chicago museums. Later on Saturday, I had my first official taste of some Chicago nightlife. I went to a place in Lakeview called The Long Room with another student teacher that I met at a professional development workshop. Bars aren’t usually my scene, but I actually really liked this place. They had a great menu and the atmosphere was crowded, but it wasn’t so loud that you couldn’t carry on a normal conversation. It kind of reminded me of a coffee shop, but in bar form. The best part though was this cool vintage photo booth they had in the back. I didn’t use it this time, but I will if I ever go back.  All in all, it was a good week and I am looking forward to going back to school Tuesday, and hopefully feeling better.