Burke Will Laugh

Burke is going to laugh when he gets home and sees this in his email.  On my way home from school I called and told him about my good day and he said, "So how long till this goes on the blog?"  I hadn't even planned on it, but now I am done with my homework about 30 minutes before I need to leave for my night class, and I've decided to share my good day with you after all. :)

Today my supervisor and mentor teacher observed me for my midterm evaluation.  He just happened to pick my "bad" class to come observe.  They actually have been great the past week, but this is the class where I had my confrontation with the defiant student and the same period where less than half the class turned in their research projects a couple weeks ago.  However, my lesson turned out great and the kids were awesome.  After consulting with each other, the two returned to the room to give me my scores and we discussed their observations.  They gave me incredibly good marks and said such kind things!  Mrs. Pascoe (my mentor teacher) believes that either you can teach or you can't.  She said that student teaching is not a time to create teachers, but rather a time for natural teachers to smooth the rough edges.  She said that I was one of those natural teachers and that in a matter of weeks I had nearly polished my edges!  Mr. Barlow (my supervisor) then said that he had every confidence in me, to the point that if Mrs. Pascoe were to need to leave for the rest of the school year he would recommend the principal hire me on to teach her classes in her place!  I don't mean to puff myself up as I know I still have truck loads to learn about teaching, but it was nice to have recognition for my hard work and I felt so good to know that I have their support and encouragement.

I hope that doesn't come across as arrogant, but it was a good day and I am hoping that the warm fuzzies will carry me through my 3 hour night class.  Ugh.