It's official!

This is my first blog post as a fully certified teacher of the state of Oklahoma!!!

I had my final residency meeting today... and everyone agreed that I have completed (almost) a successful year of teaching and should be certified. The papers are signed and in the mail! WOOHOO!

I totally feel like I just graduated again. Except... I think I worked a lot harder for it this time.

So happy!

On another note, it is the big week. The ominous state tests are currently taking place in my classroom. We started Monday morning and have one day left. I am proud of my kids because it seems that most of them have been taking their time, attempting to check over their answers, etc. They are atleast giving the appearance of these things, which is a bit better than I expected, actually. I can't say I mind the extra time I have to get grades entered in the computer! It also made lesson planning easy for this week. It's weird to be almost done with these tests that seem to have consumed our school lives for the last semester. It will be a nice change to have the pressure off, that's for sure.

I'm now trying to figure out what I'm going to do for the next 5 weeks. I think I'm going to try to do a group literature discussion of City of Ember if I can get ahold of a class set from the other TPS libraries. I'm also going to talk to the 5th grade teachers about what they would really like my kids to have some prior knowledge of for next year. Lastly, I am going to spend some time on writing, because in 5th grade there is a big state writing test. I am actually pretty excited to spend some quality time on writing, though we've done bits and pieces throughout the year (not as much as I would like, but such is life). Anyways, at least the next 5 weeks will be full of new activities and definitely less pressure! I'm looking forward to it.

I can't believe I'm almost done with this first school year. It seems like it was just dragging and dragging... and then all of the sudden it is almost the end of the year. I can't believe how ready I am for it to be over, but I am also completely amazed at the amount of learning that has taken place for me this year. There is no way anyone could prepare me for this.

Almost there!

From the computer of a fully-certified teacher of the state of Oklahoma (yay!),
Miss Davis