Greetings and salutations!

Exciting news came in yesterday! Chicago Semester has been hosting a scavenger hunt for us students in the month of February and my team has won! We were the student teaching group, appropriately named “Shaping Minds, Changing Lives,” and we totally won. I am still in shock, and so are Kieran and Manna. We went out last Saturday and visited five different locations on the scavenger hunt, but I think we stopped thinking about winning a couple of weeks ago.

We had a wonderful time traversing the lovely city of Chicago and I especially loved that I got to pick up a birthday gift for my mother at the Starbuck Reserve, I suggest the little pies they are so delicious.

In student teaching related news, this is my last week teaching full-time! The time has passed way too quickly. I have just started building a rapport with my students and now I am to leave for another placement, but tis the life of a dual placement student teacher.

This week has been so much fun as I have shifted the focus of my Do Now questions, at the start of class I used to ask questions that would get the students ready for the lesson, but this past week I have just been asking a bunch of different fun questions for the students to answer. Examples would include: Tacos versus Burritos, Pitch your idea for the worst tv show you can think of, What does your evil laugh sound like, what is your favorite meme, and so many more. Questions like that are so much more fun and engaging for the students and I got some amazingly, creative answers. I was even able to see for one of the questions there was a student who gave three separate responses! Do not doubt the power of the Do Now in building relationships with students!

That’s all for now!