Ms. Pickens was sick today, which was actually quite ironic because I feel that I have recently had a dream about Ms. Pickens being sick one day and me having the responsibility of taking over her classes. There was a substitute teacher today, but she was very nice and let me pretty much take over the class. I spoke with several of the other teachers and they said that I could definitely do whatever I wanted to in the class today because Ms. Pickens said the day before that she didn’t care what they did (she was obviously extremely sick!). For the first three periods, I led the students in an activity from the book which had them choose between two words which would better complete the sentence. I had them share their answers to earn “puntos” just like Ms. Pickens would. I then explained the writing activity that I created to them. They were to pretend that they were suscribing to eHarmony and creating their profile page that would be displayed to all of the members. They were to write a minimum of five sentences using characteristics and qualities that they look for in their ideal girlfriend/boyfriend. This activity put to use the vocabulary words for this chapter and also incorporated phrases that trigger the subjunctive, which is definitely something for them to incorporate into their writing. They seemed to really have fun with this activity; regardless of the fact that it involved writing! They asked me how to say certain things but for the most part worked by themselves. I wish the students would get more creative, but the majority simply sticks to using model sentences with the exact same vocabulary that is in the book. I told them that they had to turn in the writing assignment before they left class and when they finished, they were to take a crossword puzzle that Ms. Pickens left for them to complete for homework and bring to class the next day.

Her AP classes had a vocabulary quiz today so I gave them the first five to seven minutes of class to study and then I passed out the quiz. The quiz consisted of twenty five matching words on the front and thirty English to Spanish fill in the blank translations on the back. The students seemed very perplexed about this format and said that the fill in the blank translations were extremely hard for them. After the quiz they were to work on a worksheet that practiced the perfect tenses. They seemed to not have much difficulty with the worksheet and worked diligently the remainder of the class.

I truly enjoyed being in charge of class today. I was quite nervous at first and was not sure if I should stray away from the plans that Ms. Pickens left for the substitute, but I figured today would be a great opportunity to test my skills in the classroom. Teaching once again felt very natural to me and I was blown away by how responsive and respectful the students were to me. I understand that she is teaching juniors and seniors who pretty much CHOOSE to be in her class, but they were still very respectful considering they know I am simply a student teacher. They did all of their work and never gave me a hard time. Towards the end of the period the students would start asking me personal questions, especially about college. They all wanted to know what UGA was like and asked me numerous questions about college–which I honestly LOVED answering. I enjoyed sharing and showing my personality with them and actually engaging with them instead of sitting off at a desk in the front of the room. The substitute that was technically in charge of the class today was a cute mother of a girl at Mill Creek and helped me a lot on explaining how the community interacted with the school and with the students and spoke to me about many assets of the community because she has lived here for almost twelve years. Overall, today was an excellent day. I felt as though I was a real teacher and I felt proud of myself for being flexible with the way the day turned out and managing the class well. The students were truly great to me and did everything that I asked them to do.