2 Weeks!?!?!?!?

I am officially finished with my 30 days of lead teaching! Well...finished minus an excessive amount of paperwork to catch up on. I am in shock that it is over. While it is nice having some more free time in my life, there is still so many things I wanted to try, so many days I wish I could have a repeat of, and a few I would like to forget.

Dr. Seuss week was a great week to transition out of the lead teacher role because there was so much going on and so many activities in which both my mentor teacher and I were heavily involved that there was no drastic change from one person to the other.

The past few weeks, once I had established myself in the lead teaching role, we had really started working more as a team rather than her observing. It was really nice to see how a classroom would work in a team teaching or classroom teacher-special education teacher setting. We would regularly create a plan for intervention/ re-teaching students and I could see the gains made by the students who benefited from this time. It really sparked an interest in the idea of team teaching and is something I hope to explore in the upcoming weeks. My mentor teacher has friends who team teach at a nearby school and I think I would like to observe how it works one day.

Back on topic...2 weeks! 2 WEEKS! I am not ready for it to be over (though some extra free time will be nice). I think my plan is to use one of my days off during the week to volunteer for half of a day. It just seems right. I can't imagine leaving my classroom. We started the year together and I want to finish it with them! It is a good thing I am going on Spring Break or I am pretty sure I would end up back in my classroom every single day (that or crying and wandering around like a lost puppy).I am trying not to get ahead of myself. I still have two weeks left with the Frogger's and plenty of time to worry about next quarter next quarter.

I also am stuck trying to figure out what my goodbye gifts will be. I have a list of thank-you notes a page and a half long to write, but I want to get something special for my mentor teacher and something small for each of my students. This weekend will be time to go shopping (after Fasching, of couse!). Ideas are more than welcome!