Today I observed the fourth grade class. They are giving oral presentation about the Universe, made with Power Point. Today I also began to create my physical teaching binder. It has several documents: the self-evaluation, the practice hours evidence, the effect of instruction, the schedules of community relations meetings and action researches. I have another physical binder only for the lesson plans and corrected handouts. I have already created a digital binder with my philosophy of education, my teaching journal, my daily activities report, among other things. This is one of the hardest parts of being a teacher for me: keeping up with all the required administrative documents. I designed an archive system from the very beginning.

I created a very particular interest inventory titled “My style” to know the style of my students’ personal formation. I will be giving it to them today as homework. It is a little bit long for a third grade, that’s why I chose to give it as a homework. Here are the images of my interest inventory:

Those images are, of course, of the interest inventory that has been already corrected by my cooperator teacher. Here are the pics of first draft with all the corrections:

Please notice that I only wrote 6 questions, of 28, correctly! Let’s see it the positive way: it had so many mistakes that it was obvious its content was not copy-pasted from internet. I sincerely apologized to my cooperator teacher: I did so many mistakes in that interest inventory, especially considering that I am becoming an English teacher! He said that everything was all right: I am here to learn, and mistakes are part of the process of learning. He also corrected my first lesson plan and the “My abilities” handout. Those did not have so many mistakes as the interest inventory, thanks God.

I had been honored by my cooperator teacher because he told me that he had never had a student who begins her classes in the way I am doing it, admitting that I need help to achieve the best way I can and letting the students know of both my abilities and my limits. He truly believes that embracing diversity is a great way to begin to teach.

Finally, today I gave my very first class: I taught the The Butterfly Circus lesson plan I made about integrating diversity. My students were attentive and asked many question. They needed to understand why Will does not have arms and legs, among other questions. My biggest flaw as teacher was not ending in time. I need to learn the students’ names too!

Today was a great day. Let’s keep growing!