Last Week of Student Teaching

Crazy to think that my last week of student teaching is already over...doesn't seem like I've been in the school for that long at all! This last week though was quite fun. This is the last week of school for the 13th years so they have had a different theme for each day of the week. Monday they all dressed up as construction workers, wearing the blue jumpsuits and construction hard hats. They also put caution tape all over the school and locked up the teacher's entrance to the school we we all had to walk in the student entrance. During the breaks, they would all sit outside the staff room as if they were some union on strike...so in order to get in or out of the teachers' room, you had to climb over all of these studets. Every now and then they would also all stand up and chant something in German. It was pretty funny. On Tuesday, they all dressed up in a different sports outfit and would play different sports in the hallway. On Wednesday, they all dressed up like a different character of some sort, comic book, superhero, etc. Thursday, they all dressed up like nerds...and one student was the Easter Bunny. They also filled up a bunch of little plastic cups with water and placed them in front of the entrance to the school so to get into the building you had to walk all over these water-filled cups. Also on Thursday there was a program which the 13th graders put on. It was an Oscar-themed program where the 13th graders had nominated and voted on their teachers for awards like: most artistic, best in their subject, best transportation to school, etc... For some the students voted, and for other categoried the nominated teachers had to get on stage and complete some sort of task and the audience voted. It was really interesting. Friday, it was a calm day for the older students.

Wednesday was my last class with my 5th graders. The students had to fill out a worksheet dealing with vocabulary where there was a German sentence on one side and and the English translation on the other side, and the students had to fill in the missing English vocab word. I was going to go over the answers with the students and my cooperating teacher said that the students would really love it if I tried to pronounce the German sentences while I was going over the homework. So I did. The kids found it really funny, although after I read one sentence one little boy clapped for me so I think I said that one really well. But it was fun and the kids enjoyed it.

Thursday was my last class with my 6th graders. I was really sad to have to leave this class because this is the only class which I have been at every single one of their lessons since I got here in January. To start this class, we handed the students back their reports from the oral exam which they took on Tuesday...we had 9 students start crying. It sucked. Not just like a tear or two here and there, like full on sobbing...and a couple of them were boys which you don't tend to see very often. After the kids settled down from their test scores, we played a vocabulary game the rest of the class period and the students all signed a card for me with their picture in it...which is awesome! I will definitely miss this class. I also had the 7th graders Thursday and I took small groups of them into a separate room to practice their speaking. Their task was to give an oral biography of their favorite celebrity...here are some of the celebrities the students said (note the randomness): Mark Wahlberg, Bruno Mars, Homer Simpson, Johnny Depp, Kobe Bryant, and of course Spongebob Squarepants. I found this quite amusing.

Friday was my last day in general and the only classes I had were 9th grade and 7th grade. I did the 9th grade lesson completely on my own and then broke the news to them that I was going back to America and I received a round of applause from them...which was nice. The 7th graders were just watching a movie but some of them had made cake, muffins, and cupcakes and they said some farewell things to me which was really nice.

The fact that I have completed my student teaching is crazy to me in the first place, but then I also think about how I am basically done with my undergraduate degree and that is even crazier. I have a few school things to take care of when I get back, but I am done with college and it is weird!