My first day!!!

Today was my first day at Averill Park High School! I have been anticipating this opportunity since I was in high school. I could not believe that this day had finally come! When I got up that morning, I was not sure if I was extremely nervous or if I was just overwhelmed with excitement.  I have had a lot of experience with elementary students so I was not sure how my experience would be with high school students.  

         
       When I got to the high school, I was very early and getting more anxious the closer I knew I was from walking through the door.

<--------- (Early that morning)

 

            When it was time to go in, Carol the receptionist was very sweet and welcomed me to my first day at Averill Park.  I knew it was going to be a great experience. My teacher Mrs. Valenti greeted me and made me feel extremely welcomed. Her personality was kind and energetic.  She was easy to talk to so I knew we would work well as a team. She told me the layout of the class and said I could just walk around and get to know the students.

 

(My studio classroom!)

As the students started to enter the class room, I walked around and introduced myself.  Many of them were pleased to tell me about themselves and their interests. I was surprised that interacting with my students came so easily. I wasn’t expecting the students to be as excited to talk to me as I was to them.

     Once all the students sat after the bell rang, Mrs. Valenti took attendance and told the class that I would be there until the end of January. The students then began to work on their assignment. They first  had to read an article Robert Indiana and write down 10 facts before beginning their print making project. Mrs. Valenti let me hand back the student’s work so I could learn the student’s names. It really helped me to learn the names
quickly.                                                                                    

(The students work- They learned about differnt types of text)

Later in class, Mrs. Valenti asked me to help her grade art work and display it in the class room. I hung the collage squares in the front and in the back of the classroom. Mrs. Valenti was very pleased and told me how much she loved my help around the classroom. The class thought the projects looked great! My studio class went very well for the first day.

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After having a great first class, I was curious how my second class would go. My class was interesting because the students work together as a team to create the yearbook. The funny thing about this class is that it is only 22 senior girls. It was interesting to see that no boys wanted to create their schools year book.

 

During this class, Mrs.Valenti created an account for me on the yearbook website. She showed me how to access the yearbook and look through the girls progress. She also explained to me how each group of girls were broken up into different sections in the yearbook and had different responsibilities. I walked around and asked the girls how they were doing and what each of them had to do.  I really liked talking to my students and getting to know them. The girls seemed very easy to relate to.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to leave and my first day was over. It flew by and I realized that I really love working high school students. It was much different than I expected. High school students are very attentive and responsive to what I say. I think I am starting to like this age group more than the elementary classes.  I also learned that this was a really great placement and that going to class every morning will be something I will always look forward to.  I can’t wait for day 2!