Fall Teaching Practicum - Week Two: Casper

Before heading off to Casper, guess who decided to visit my cabin?!?! This family of two baby mule deer and mama just LOVE to nibble on the Wild Rose outside my cabin.  As you can see from past blog entries, I am beside myself in LOVE with my location for a cabin...I get LOTS of visitors.  Mule Deer and Moose galore!  One day, I hope to catch a bear or an elk visiting my cabin...while I am safely inside it of course!

Mule Deer Family Enjoying Breakfast

As you can see they get too close for comfort and sometimes I think they expect me to invite them in for tea and cookies! Haha.  They love being in my porch area - to the point where at times I cannot leave or enter my cabin.

 Baby Mule Deer Trying to Invite Themselves into my Cabin.

Anyways, so for this week, the Outreach Team headed to Casper, Wyoming for their second week of the Fall Teaching Practicum.  This week I will be teaching another round of Kindergarten and 3rd week for the second time!  I definitely had some high expectations for my Kinders and then since I had a very challenging group of 3rd Graders my first week, I was a little hesitant about teachign thsi age group again.

First Fish Dish Since I Left the East Coast - Fish Tacos!

When we first got into Casper, we got in around dinner time, so we went out for dinner...totally had my first fish dish since I have been out West.  Come on!  Being from the East Coast, I am very particular when it comes to my fish.  But I had to cave in and order some, I mean, I have not had fish since, let's see....MID-JULY!  So I ordered Fish Tacos for dinner.

And the Verdict is: well...it was pretty good, but no one's fish tacos can ever beat Dead President's back in DE. I can only dream, right!?!? Or at least wait until Dec. 20.

Christy in the Pika Outfit

Ok, so...the Jackson Campus has this huge adult Pika outfit that they use for when they do Pika lessons for the students.  So of course, we had to steal, I mean, borrow it for some Grad Fun!  Let me just say, if you have ever seen the Miley Cyrus 'Twerks' in a Unicorn Costume Video...well, it's gonna be upgraded to the Christy Twerks/Dances in a Pika Costume Video.  Previews Coming to a Blog Near You! TBA.

Team Banner!

On Monday and Tuesday, I was teaching Kindergarten again on Weather and Senses.  This was great because I was able to use the same lesson plan I had used for my first week of Kindergarten.  The students were great!  We were able to make a Team Banner, explore our senses, and Adopt a Tree that they could study and see the changes during their year!

My Kinder's Adopted Tree

On Wednesday and Thursday, I solo taught 3rd Grade again.  Let me just say, I was beyond terrified to teach this grade.  I had such a challenging class the week before that I was just thinking that this week would be the same.  Let me tell you, the phrase, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."  Really put my words in my mouth.  My 3rd graders were beyond PHENOMENAL.  My third graders were very well-behaved, respectful, and very, very intelligent.

Event Path Map of the Day

When I observed them for the first hour of my first day with them, I came in, and the room was quiet, only one child was talking while the rest of the class listened.  As I am watching the child pick a fellow student to answer a question and place something onto the board, I come to realize that there was no adult in sight.  She was sitting in the back at her desk.  I go up to her and say, "I don't mean to be rude, but don't you need to supervise them?"  She simply smiled and said, "They are in the middle of a student-self-taught math meeting.  The leader of the day instructs/leads the rest of the class in a lesson of math problems I have laid out on the board.  I usually step back and let them go through the lesson; I'll intervene if I need to, but they are usually pretty good with this."  I was beside myself amazed!  This was something else!  They were totally different from my last group of 3rd graders.

As we went through my Ecosystems and Energy lesson with them on the first day, they were very bright, engaged, and very active in participating and talking things out and going through my activities.  So on day two with them, I tried the Student Self Taught Lesson with them.  Creating questions on the board for a review of what we did the day before, I asked a student to be my leader and he succeeded in leading them in my "Student Led Review Science Meeting"!  So proud!

Student Led Science Meeting!

They were Brilliant!

Exploring their backyard at school, we found a Mule Deer Skeleton, still full intact!  The students were really excited to see this!

On our way home from Casper, we had to make a stop in Dubois, Wyoming due to a flat tire.  One of our vans ran over a deer carcass, and it caused a tired to deflate.  So when we were at a gas station trying to call AAA and TSS Faculty, we just so happened to stumble upon one of the biggest Jackalope's in the State!

Sarah & I on the Jackalope Outside!

Then we went inside and guess what we found, a Life-Size, REAL one...not really, just one with fur!

Sarah

Em-J

Dani

The gift shop in this gas station was so funny!  They had moose ear muffs!  I really wanted them, but refrained!

Moose Ear Muffs!!!! Love!

So yea....we made the best of it while we waited to hear what we needed to do with the Flat-Tire Van.  Turns out we had to leave it in town and travel the hour back home without it.  I went back the next day with a new tire to help one of our staff get it fixed in Dubois.  Such a process, but it's all good now!  Plus the vans got snow tired put on, so tis the season to prepare for some wintery risk-management weather and the occasional wildlife encounter!

Love,
TheChristyBel

Christy Rides a Jackalope!