This week was another great week. I spent a lot of time in front of the class and it felt great! I had two really great teaching moments this week. On Thursday, I played a game called Sparkle. My first class did wonderful and made it through the whole word list. My second class was noisy and talking during the game and didn't make it past the first side of the page. They were getting outs because they couldn't hear and it was all because of their peers. When they went back to their seats I had a discussion about how they were affecting others with their actions. They identified the problem and seemed pretty ashamed that they screwed up a game. My second teaching moment was that I started a really good discussion about bullying. I put up a journal about the topic in the morning and it spiraled into my CT getting chart paper and talking about what bullying looks like and how to prevent it. In the afternoon I read a story and had them journal about it. We then discussed everything and it was really eye opening. This was a totally unplanned event, but it was necessary. I am impressed by their involvement.
I am looking forward to break, but I am not looking forward to all the giddiness that is going to be in school this week. They have been off a lot lately but I think this anticipation for break and the holidays is going to be a lot to deal with. Thank goodness for ending with a party this week! It should be an interesting week!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Reflection 12/7/08
This past week was great. I had my first real subbing all day long day and it went awesome! The kids really respected me as the teacher and it went by without any problems. I also started book clubs. Some students really enjoy the silent reading time and others seem to hate it. I feel like I'm pulling teeth with a lot of them and its frustrating to me that they won't do their work. Some of the incentives I have come up with, rocking chair, managers, and pillow people seem to working wonderfully. The kids like to have rewards :) and I like that they see reading in a different spots so fun.
Something I struggled with this week was modeling my reading journals since they are leveled and are 3 different prompts. I did not want to show one on the ELMO because I was afraid they would catch on or some students would get angry that they have so much to do when other kids don't have quite as much. The first day I sort of realized that problem right before I modelled journaling and ended up just talking about questions. I thought about the problem a lot and came up with a solution. For each entry I have been doing a mini lesson beforehand that relates to the journal. Since connections is something I am focusing a lot on, I spent two days already on connections and they have not had that journal yet. On Friday, I had them write their connections to Jumanji and tomorrow when I do day 4 (connection day) I will show some student work so they know what I expect them to do.
This week I am going to work on doing more modelling of the journals in this way. I wish that I had thought of it sooner!
Something I struggled with this week was modeling my reading journals since they are leveled and are 3 different prompts. I did not want to show one on the ELMO because I was afraid they would catch on or some students would get angry that they have so much to do when other kids don't have quite as much. The first day I sort of realized that problem right before I modelled journaling and ended up just talking about questions. I thought about the problem a lot and came up with a solution. For each entry I have been doing a mini lesson beforehand that relates to the journal. Since connections is something I am focusing a lot on, I spent two days already on connections and they have not had that journal yet. On Friday, I had them write their connections to Jumanji and tomorrow when I do day 4 (connection day) I will show some student work so they know what I expect them to do.
This week I am going to work on doing more modelling of the journals in this way. I wish that I had thought of it sooner!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Reflection 11/25
This week was really short, but very eventful. I was supposed to use the laptops on Monday, and the wireless Internet was NOT working! I had to change all of my plans right there on the spot, and it was very stressful. It all worked out in the end, but I was extremely nervous going into it, because I was not well planned anymore. I did end up having the kids finish up their cartoons and work on horror so it was a good work day in the end. I am happy that I was able to adapt a lesson out of what happened, and I am scheduled to be in the lab on Tuesday so I will have a backup plan ready since I am not sure if they will work then.
One really good thing about this week, was seeing the kids excited about book selection for their fantasy book groups. Coraline, The BFG, and The Doll People sparked a lot of excitement and I love seeing kids ready to read. I felt like the meanest person ever when I told them they were not starting on Tuesday and they had to wait until Monday for their books. I hope they are still excited then!
One really good thing about this week, was seeing the kids excited about book selection for their fantasy book groups. Coraline, The BFG, and The Doll People sparked a lot of excitement and I love seeing kids ready to read. I felt like the meanest person ever when I told them they were not starting on Tuesday and they had to wait until Monday for their books. I hope they are still excited then!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Reflection 11/21
This week was another good week. One strength for the week was transitioning from math to Language Arts. I feel like my first few days went really well and I am enjoying getting the chance to teach two classes and seeing the differences. I am noticing the differences between the two classes and they are pretty different. One class is more chatty and needs more support. The other class is good at working individually and needs to be prompted for answers more. They aren't as chatty of a group. Something I came across this week was having to discipline. I got very angry at my afternoon class on Friday and told them that the next person who is acting out needs to call their parents right then. Right after I said that the class settled down and this one kid decided to test my "threat". He came walking up with his shirt over his face and making funny hand motions. I sent him straight to the phone. This stopped the class and settled them down for the most part.
Two students had been fighting before making it to my class and the fight continued into class time. I was not aware of the previous situation, but it was apparent something was off. I went around the room and noticed the kid drawing a rather threatening picture and had labeled it as the kid who he was having the fight with. I had to call down to the office and send the kid with his picture to the office. I was nervous about doing this but I had no other choice that I could see. My CT was not in the room at the moment, so I did not get to ask for an opinion and I had to make my own choice. I think I chose wisely because the picture was something that needed to be dealt with by higher authority. I am glad that I am getting the opportunity to test these things out and I wish they weren't necessary, but I would be naive to think I would never need to discipline.
This week is going to be really short and I am looking forward to a break! With these 2 days I need to be able to get a lot done with a lot of interruptions. I am nervous about it, but I am hoping that it goes well. I need to use my time to the fullest. I am hoping for full cooperation from the students so we can have fun and get what needs to get done.
Two students had been fighting before making it to my class and the fight continued into class time. I was not aware of the previous situation, but it was apparent something was off. I went around the room and noticed the kid drawing a rather threatening picture and had labeled it as the kid who he was having the fight with. I had to call down to the office and send the kid with his picture to the office. I was nervous about doing this but I had no other choice that I could see. My CT was not in the room at the moment, so I did not get to ask for an opinion and I had to make my own choice. I think I chose wisely because the picture was something that needed to be dealt with by higher authority. I am glad that I am getting the opportunity to test these things out and I wish they weren't necessary, but I would be naive to think I would never need to discipline.
This week is going to be really short and I am looking forward to a break! With these 2 days I need to be able to get a lot done with a lot of interruptions. I am nervous about it, but I am hoping that it goes well. I need to use my time to the fullest. I am hoping for full cooperation from the students so we can have fun and get what needs to get done.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Designing Lessons for Diverse Learners
After our seminar I took a close look at the article, Designing Lessons for Diverse Learners by Natalie Olinghouse. As a whole I find it to be a great guide for the way I accommodate my students. Certain things that I am seeing in here, we do and I never even realized it was considered an accommodation. Just today I gave a word study test. I read the paragraph VERY VERY slowly and repeated each word a lot of times. Then I would reread the whole sentence and stress the words they needed to fill in. I then read the whole thing again through at the end so they could follow along and check their work. I asked my CT after if I was going too slow, and she said it was perfect because some of the kids need to hear it a couple of times. Some kids may not, but I was accommodating those who need it through a whole group setting. I hope that some of the kids who would think I am going way too slow caught mistakes and read over their papers. This would fall into the steps she sets for making accommodations. Since this is something that can benefit all students I think it is a great step to take.
Another connection I had to this article is under step 6 where she talks about altering existing materials. When I did my math unit, I did not take a lot of information out of the actual curriculum. I scaffolded my lessons based on it, but I added in almost all of my own worksheets and projects. I felt the need to do this, because I felt that the student sheets that they provided would have not worked with the class I had. I wanted to take things even more step by step and make sure that they understood powers of ten, basic facts, and place value before expecting them to do all of the clustering. The students did begin to grasp the bigger picture with the aid of these additions into the curriculum.
For my own planning purposes, I feel the chart she provides is wonderful. I have a lot of questions about specific students and for many of them I can find possible solutions right in the article. Next time I lesson plan, I am going to take a look and hopefully implement something new into my teaching.
Another connection I had to this article is under step 6 where she talks about altering existing materials. When I did my math unit, I did not take a lot of information out of the actual curriculum. I scaffolded my lessons based on it, but I added in almost all of my own worksheets and projects. I felt the need to do this, because I felt that the student sheets that they provided would have not worked with the class I had. I wanted to take things even more step by step and make sure that they understood powers of ten, basic facts, and place value before expecting them to do all of the clustering. The students did begin to grasp the bigger picture with the aid of these additions into the curriculum.
For my own planning purposes, I feel the chart she provides is wonderful. I have a lot of questions about specific students and for many of them I can find possible solutions right in the article. Next time I lesson plan, I am going to take a look and hopefully implement something new into my teaching.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Reflection 11/14
This week went really well. I was extremely excited to get signed off for subbing, but I was even more excited to get my first job. It was in the room that is not normally my home base and it was really different, but I definitely feel good about how it went. Something I really noticed this week was how long lessons take in math. I feel like I had so many more things planned, but never got to them because of how long things took with understanding and practicing skills we needed to go over. For example, I had to backtrack after teaching the chart method for clusters, because I realized they were not understanding the meaning behind place value, which I had just assumed they knew. I had to change up my schedule for the following day to add in a quick activity that included this so they would be able to fill out the charts. I was pleased to see that this lesson helped them fill in the chart worksheet.
This week I am going to work on my transition from math to language arts. I know it will be a good one, even though I have grown pretty attached to math in a sense. Its been a totally new experience and I have really enjoyed all the learning I have done from it. I will be working on making my lesson plans as fun and valuable as they can be.
This week I am going to work on my transition from math to language arts. I know it will be a good one, even though I have grown pretty attached to math in a sense. Its been a totally new experience and I have really enjoyed all the learning I have done from it. I will be working on making my lesson plans as fun and valuable as they can be.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Conferences
Conferences were a really good experience. Something that surprised me was how easy it came to make up the goals for each student. I learned how much I have learned about each and every one of them since the beginning of school. We struggled with only a few students, but for the most part we could come up with something perfect for each one. The students are pretty serious with these goals also. Some of them have already started to work on them, I hope they keep it up. Another thing that surprised me was seeing the kids in this situation. Some seemed nervous, and some seemed perfectly comfortable. I was also surprised to see how hard some of the kids were on themselves. For example one girl said she needed to work on reading, even though she is the highest reader in the class.
My CT was great at making the negative sound not so bad. Her wording for things was brilliant and I think they came out sounding great even if they were something pretty bad. I learned a lot about how to word things especially for parents that need to hear positives because you can tell all they have heard has been the negative. I also know there is a fine line, and I would not want a student or parent to feel offended by something I said.
I learned so much about my students and their families through conferences. I loved meeting the families and seeing the resemblance and hearing what the parents had to say about there own kids. I also liked hearing concerns of the parents and things that the student had on their minds that they never told us, such as people bullying them, or seating preferences. A lot of the things the parents were concerned about were things we also noticed, so it made things go really smoothly. The parents seemed to like the goal setting and I feel like it is something I would like to do in the future even if my school doesn't do it. I think student lead conferences are a great thing after being a part of them.
My CT was great at making the negative sound not so bad. Her wording for things was brilliant and I think they came out sounding great even if they were something pretty bad. I learned a lot about how to word things especially for parents that need to hear positives because you can tell all they have heard has been the negative. I also know there is a fine line, and I would not want a student or parent to feel offended by something I said.
I learned so much about my students and their families through conferences. I loved meeting the families and seeing the resemblance and hearing what the parents had to say about there own kids. I also liked hearing concerns of the parents and things that the student had on their minds that they never told us, such as people bullying them, or seating preferences. A lot of the things the parents were concerned about were things we also noticed, so it made things go really smoothly. The parents seemed to like the goal setting and I feel like it is something I would like to do in the future even if my school doesn't do it. I think student lead conferences are a great thing after being a part of them.
Reflection 11/8
This week was a great week. I started off the week with my GLT in math. Monday and Tuesday were both trying days and I just did not feel as comfortable as I have in the past. When I thought about it I realized that it was probably because I have never taught a whole lesson in Math class and that it was not my home base room so I felt sort of disconnected. To fix this I brainstormed some ways to make myself feel part of the class and the room, and I decided to try a community meeting. Since the class I had for math just had a community meeting in L.A we wished each other a "happy learning day" instead of a good morning. We also played a game that led into my lesson. I felt more connected with the class, and with teaching math. It gave me a great intro too and I feel like it was better than just jumping into math, especially after they just had language arts. I had a blast the entire class period and the kids played a great role in discussion and problem solving. Their ideas and ways to solve multiplication problems floored me. I really realized how smart they are! I continued on Thursday with community meeting and it was GREAT! We played telephone with the statement "Today we are going to draw our math". I then gave them a cross curricular project that had them doing math, writing, and drawing. The creativity was amazing and I am so amazed by how great every one of the drawings are. I could also tell who was getting clusters and who wasn't.
Next week I am going to work more on discussion and writing in math. Some of my students are really good at math, but hate to write so I am hoping that maybe writing about math will be something they could accomplish to better their writing skills and get them to write more. We are also going to be doing some group work that I think is going to be fun and really set these lessons in. I will be working on getting them to do a little more paper work than they did this week, and I think this will help all of them begin to reach mastery of the topics. It will also get them to settle down and do some individual work. This will also help me assess where they are more than just by volunteering and student response because I will be able to assess all the students.
Next week I am going to work more on discussion and writing in math. Some of my students are really good at math, but hate to write so I am hoping that maybe writing about math will be something they could accomplish to better their writing skills and get them to write more. We are also going to be doing some group work that I think is going to be fun and really set these lessons in. I will be working on getting them to do a little more paper work than they did this week, and I think this will help all of them begin to reach mastery of the topics. It will also get them to settle down and do some individual work. This will also help me assess where they are more than just by volunteering and student response because I will be able to assess all the students.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Reflection 11/1
This week was another week that I am glad is over with. I was really sick and had to miss Monday. For pretty much the rest of the week I was still sick, extremely tired, and out of it and felt like I was not working to my normal strength. I do not like feeling like I was not giving my best all week, even though I know I was trying to. I am hoping that this is the last week for a long time that this happens. Two weeks in a row of sickness is not fun by any means. I am ready to get back to normal.
My strength this week would really have to be sticking it out even though I was feeling like I was. I know that I couldn't do it on Monday, but I went back Tuesday still pretty sick but well enough to be there. I did things to be as helpful and useful as I could be, even though that really did not include teaching since I had no voice. By the end of the week I was definitely feeling back in it and had a fun Friday. The kids were very energetic because of Halloween and our painting project allowed them to calm down and just have fun and be creative. When they were done they were coming to our room, where I was in the room having them do a small writing piece and then coloring. It was great to see them so excited but still managing to cooperate with the rules. They seemed to have a lot of fun in L.A and that made me happy since a lot of the kids are not that fond of the class.
I feel like I made a good accomplishment with our homebase class also. We had taken away YouTube from them, but since it was Halloween we watched some but with very strict rules. They all sat in there seats and watched. If someone was doing something they were not supposed to do I would pause until that person stopped. I feel this was showing them the expectations and teaching them how it should look when we watch movies or YouTube in homebase. Taking two steps backwards and teaching this really helped in this case.
Next week I start guided lead in math. I am very excited to get started and hope that my lessons are effective and help them learn the things I would like them to learn. I like lead teaching a lot and am excited for a chance to work on improving and getting more practice. I am slightly nervous about teaching math, but I am working my hardest and I hope that it will show when I get up there.
My strength this week would really have to be sticking it out even though I was feeling like I was. I know that I couldn't do it on Monday, but I went back Tuesday still pretty sick but well enough to be there. I did things to be as helpful and useful as I could be, even though that really did not include teaching since I had no voice. By the end of the week I was definitely feeling back in it and had a fun Friday. The kids were very energetic because of Halloween and our painting project allowed them to calm down and just have fun and be creative. When they were done they were coming to our room, where I was in the room having them do a small writing piece and then coloring. It was great to see them so excited but still managing to cooperate with the rules. They seemed to have a lot of fun in L.A and that made me happy since a lot of the kids are not that fond of the class.
I feel like I made a good accomplishment with our homebase class also. We had taken away YouTube from them, but since it was Halloween we watched some but with very strict rules. They all sat in there seats and watched. If someone was doing something they were not supposed to do I would pause until that person stopped. I feel this was showing them the expectations and teaching them how it should look when we watch movies or YouTube in homebase. Taking two steps backwards and teaching this really helped in this case.
Next week I start guided lead in math. I am very excited to get started and hope that my lessons are effective and help them learn the things I would like them to learn. I like lead teaching a lot and am excited for a chance to work on improving and getting more practice. I am slightly nervous about teaching math, but I am working my hardest and I hope that it will show when I get up there.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Reflection 10/25
This week was a rough week. I am glad that its over and that I have some time to relax and prepare for next week. I have been struggling with my home base classes behavior and the overall dynamic of them. The kids are awesome, but put them together and I feel like its chaos and beginning to get unmanageable. On Friday I ended up turning off the movie they were finishing and holding an emergency community meeting instead. We talked about what the problems are in the room and what were some ways that this could change them. I did tell them that there will be no more fun privileges like movies for a while and it will not come back until their behavior shows they deserve it again. On top of all that I have been feeling extremely sick and tired, but I have been trying to not let it show.
On a more positive note, I am continuously growing as a teacher and don't feel nervous at all any more when I am preparing to teach. I feel like I had another successful teaching experience on Friday even though I had to change up my plans a little bit. I am noticing that for the most part the students do not understand a lot of this grammar stuff I have been teaching as review (nouns, verbs) so I took some extra time on them and cut out some of my lesson for Friday to focus more on that. This in turn will affect what I do Monday and I feel like this way they will really be able to learn this stuff since its all things they do need to know in order to be successful. I have been pretty successful in keeping things together this week even though its been pretty crazy with all the unit planning, MEAP week tension, and all the extra stuff I had to fit into my schedule. I need to be able to juggle things in this profession and I am happy to see its happening.
This week I would like to work more on my time management and my ability to get things done, but not let it overtake my life. Even though I've been getting everything done I still feel like I overlook my own sanity in the process.
On a more positive note, I am continuously growing as a teacher and don't feel nervous at all any more when I am preparing to teach. I feel like I had another successful teaching experience on Friday even though I had to change up my plans a little bit. I am noticing that for the most part the students do not understand a lot of this grammar stuff I have been teaching as review (nouns, verbs) so I took some extra time on them and cut out some of my lesson for Friday to focus more on that. This in turn will affect what I do Monday and I feel like this way they will really be able to learn this stuff since its all things they do need to know in order to be successful. I have been pretty successful in keeping things together this week even though its been pretty crazy with all the unit planning, MEAP week tension, and all the extra stuff I had to fit into my schedule. I need to be able to juggle things in this profession and I am happy to see its happening.
This week I would like to work more on my time management and my ability to get things done, but not let it overtake my life. Even though I've been getting everything done I still feel like I overlook my own sanity in the process.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Reflection 10/17
This week went by so fast and was really great! Each week I feel more and more like the teacher. I was able to have a lot of time to teach lessons this week and I feel like I am improving each time in many aspects. My confidence level is reaching a comfortable level and I feel like I am able to control the class in ways that I wasn't able to before, such as getting them to be quiet before I begin teaching. I came up with a lesson plan that included verb charades and noun pictionary and I had a blast teaching and watching this lesson. I really enjoyed being able to include music, art, and kinestetics into a grammar lesson. I also feel like it was a good thing to bond with the class, because I was laughing right along with them. They are all great actors and artists :). I would really like to continue being creative and finding fun ways for the kids to learn! I truly do believe they learn better this way.
My weakness this week is making school (intern and 801/802 classes) my life. I am not really making the me time I need and I am beginning to struggle to find the time to do this as things become more demanding. I need to flat out schedule fun into my life I think, but not to a point where I get unfocused. I have always struggled with allowing school to become my life. I think its good that I am focused and driven, but I need to let up a little bit at times.
Something that would help me this week is taking some time and doing something completely unrelated to school and doing it somewhere away from my apartment. I think this will refresh me and allow me to not get so stressed out.
My weakness this week is making school (intern and 801/802 classes) my life. I am not really making the me time I need and I am beginning to struggle to find the time to do this as things become more demanding. I need to flat out schedule fun into my life I think, but not to a point where I get unfocused. I have always struggled with allowing school to become my life. I think its good that I am focused and driven, but I need to let up a little bit at times.
Something that would help me this week is taking some time and doing something completely unrelated to school and doing it somewhere away from my apartment. I think this will refresh me and allow me to not get so stressed out.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Weekly Reflection 10/12
This week was awesome! I have had some great experience and have been able to really feel like I am in charge in the classroom. My greatest strength has been planning and executing my plans. The opportunity that my CT has given me to plan for Friday and have the two class periods on my own has been great. On Friday, my CT needed to leave in the afternoon so I continued with my plan without her there. There was a sub in the room for support, but I really felt like the teacher! The students response to me being the teacher was great and I feel like this experience is going to help me in all aspects of my intern year. My confidence has been able to grow as a result of it. One of my favorite things to do is plan and come up with activities so I have been really enjoying the chance to do that as well.
I continue to work on discipline as the weeks go on. This week I tested out some of the things my CT advised me to do, such as pulling kids out to talk when they get disruptive and sending kids back to their seats during community meetings. My opportunity came up on Wednesday of this week and I did pull a kid out while he was being disruptive in book club. We had a good talk in the hall and I explained to him what our expectations for him were during book club. I feel like I had a moment to bond with that particular student and got a chance to see what may work for me. I do not really know if it did any good because he still had to call home to tell them that he was being disruptive even after I pulled him out. My goal for this week and the following weeks will be to find something that works for me and shows results, without being too harsh of course.
I have really learned that as the teacher, you need to be prepared with all questions that come your way and be able to explain everything in your lesson. I did a lesson on pronouns and they were specifically personal pronouns listed on the worksheet. They began asking me why her was not one. I ended up looking it up online and giving them the answer, but if I did not have the internet I feel like I would have not known the answer. The thing that would help me for this week would be doing the assignments I give in advance so I can tell if there are things that I need to know in order to effectively teach the lesson. I think that this will help me most in math, because I do not have a lot of confidence in my own personal math skills.
I continue to work on discipline as the weeks go on. This week I tested out some of the things my CT advised me to do, such as pulling kids out to talk when they get disruptive and sending kids back to their seats during community meetings. My opportunity came up on Wednesday of this week and I did pull a kid out while he was being disruptive in book club. We had a good talk in the hall and I explained to him what our expectations for him were during book club. I feel like I had a moment to bond with that particular student and got a chance to see what may work for me. I do not really know if it did any good because he still had to call home to tell them that he was being disruptive even after I pulled him out. My goal for this week and the following weeks will be to find something that works for me and shows results, without being too harsh of course.
I have really learned that as the teacher, you need to be prepared with all questions that come your way and be able to explain everything in your lesson. I did a lesson on pronouns and they were specifically personal pronouns listed on the worksheet. They began asking me why her was not one. I ended up looking it up online and giving them the answer, but if I did not have the internet I feel like I would have not known the answer. The thing that would help me for this week would be doing the assignments I give in advance so I can tell if there are things that I need to know in order to effectively teach the lesson. I think that this will help me most in math, because I do not have a lot of confidence in my own personal math skills.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Weekly Reflection 10/5
This week I feel like I took my weakness from last week and turned it into another strength. My Friday lesson turned out to be a lot more time efficient and I did not feel like I had half the class sitting around doing nothing and the other half struggling to finish everything. I feel like I was able to pace myself better and having one extra activity really helped fill the hour and twenty minute Language Arts time period. Something that really helped was observing the time that my CT took for her own lessons like we were asked to do. I also think it helps for me to keep having back up activities like I did this week for when I get asked what can I do now?
One weakness that I am noticing is knowing what to do when it comes to disciplinary matters. Another team teacher found some scary things written in a boys journal, threats to him and the school. I was in the room at the time and he had asked me what I would do with something like that. I realized that my answer was go straight to the principal with it and I wonder if that's the best option in all cases. Where do I draw the line between things I deal with and things that get sent down for higher forces to deal with. This was an extreme case that I believe should have been sent down first thing, but I am really beginning to think about behavioral extremes that I may need to deal with now and in the future and how I would handle them.
Something that would help me this week is talking to the school councelor and principal to see what sorts of things they would like to know about rather than just the teacher dealing with. I would also like to talk to my CT's about disciplinary measures that they use and what suggestions they have for me to use.
One weakness that I am noticing is knowing what to do when it comes to disciplinary matters. Another team teacher found some scary things written in a boys journal, threats to him and the school. I was in the room at the time and he had asked me what I would do with something like that. I realized that my answer was go straight to the principal with it and I wonder if that's the best option in all cases. Where do I draw the line between things I deal with and things that get sent down for higher forces to deal with. This was an extreme case that I believe should have been sent down first thing, but I am really beginning to think about behavioral extremes that I may need to deal with now and in the future and how I would handle them.
Something that would help me this week is talking to the school councelor and principal to see what sorts of things they would like to know about rather than just the teacher dealing with. I would also like to talk to my CT's about disciplinary measures that they use and what suggestions they have for me to use.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Weekly Reflection
One area of strength this week would have to be me stepping up and being seen as the teacher more. On Monday I got the opportunity to set up home base time with putting up the agenda, taking attendance, putting up a journal topic, and keeping that time monitored and quiet along with silent reading time. I was also able to run community meeting for all classes. At the end of the day I did agendas and homework descriptions and I felt very accomplished with myself. I realized that I have been around enough to do those everyday things that my CT does without having to question anybody and I was able to do it effectively. On Friday I got to teach another lesson, and I received great feedback from my CT so I feel extremely proud of myself and comfortable with my students as the teacher.
This week I will strive to improve myself in being more efficient with my time. When planning for this week I realized that for a lot of the students in the room were done rather quick whereas others were struggling. I think that next time I plan for the day, I will include a "get done early" activity for the done kids to do so they don't interrupt those students still working.
Something that would help me is teaching more full periods so I can see what an hour and twenty minutes feels like more and be able to use the period to its fullest. This will really come in handy during my lead teaching.
This week I will strive to improve myself in being more efficient with my time. When planning for this week I realized that for a lot of the students in the room were done rather quick whereas others were struggling. I think that next time I plan for the day, I will include a "get done early" activity for the done kids to do so they don't interrupt those students still working.
Something that would help me is teaching more full periods so I can see what an hour and twenty minutes feels like more and be able to use the period to its fullest. This will really come in handy during my lead teaching.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Weekly Reflection
This week my one are of strength was meeting challenges that were put forth by being on a week long field trip. I am not a hike in the woods kind of person, but this week I needed to step it up and be that. I needed to be a good leader and I needed to keep my group together. I feel like I met this challenge all week and was very proud of myself in the end as well as exhausted from it. I also needed to follow directions just like the kids because I was not always sure of what was going on and how things would be done. I was very happy with the outcome by the end of the week though. My other main strength this week was dealing with some behavior issues that came up in the group I was in charge of. I feel like I had a good talk with the students involved and handled the situation appropriately.
This week I will improve upon getting frustrated when I feel like I don't know whats going on. Sometimes during this week I felt like I was being left in the dark and had no clue what was going on and when it was going on. This frustrated me very easily because I don't like not knowing things. I think I need to just let go of some of the need to know I have and just go with the flow a little more.
Something that would help me is getting to see a little clearer what lesson plans are getting taught that day, whats going to happen, and know a little bit about it before the fact. This will help me be able to help students, and to add things in where I see fit. I feel like I could be more useful from this simple difference.
This week I will improve upon getting frustrated when I feel like I don't know whats going on. Sometimes during this week I felt like I was being left in the dark and had no clue what was going on and when it was going on. This frustrated me very easily because I don't like not knowing things. I think I need to just let go of some of the need to know I have and just go with the flow a little more.
Something that would help me is getting to see a little clearer what lesson plans are getting taught that day, whats going to happen, and know a little bit about it before the fact. This will help me be able to help students, and to add things in where I see fit. I feel like I could be more useful from this simple difference.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Rules and Routines
During the first few days of school the behavioral expectations were set in the classroom. My CT did not go over a list of rules like I am used to seeing, we simply talked a lot about respect. She made a journal prompt that asked how can you show respect today, then we talked about that at community meeting. Other expectations that were set forth were that they can only go to their lockers before and after school, and that you need to ask before you go anywhere like the bathroom or drinking fountain. They also must sit in their assigned seat. One other rule is that they can not talk during silent reading time.
The behavioral expectation are made clear by reminders. We remind the students when they are not doing what they should be to make better choices or that they need to start acting like fifth graders.
Students were not directly included in making the classroom rules, since I do not think they were ever explicitly stated. If there are things that the students are doing that are not following an expectation then we will have a talk about it at community meeting or journal about it.
The students are held accountable for their actions by losing their privileges. This is done by either giving us 5 minutes of their LAF time, or by going to sit in the hall for a while. I have not seen much of this yet because in the first few weeks of school the students have been very respectful and have not really been acting out.
The behavioral expectation are made clear by reminders. We remind the students when they are not doing what they should be to make better choices or that they need to start acting like fifth graders.
Students were not directly included in making the classroom rules, since I do not think they were ever explicitly stated. If there are things that the students are doing that are not following an expectation then we will have a talk about it at community meeting or journal about it.
The students are held accountable for their actions by losing their privileges. This is done by either giving us 5 minutes of their LAF time, or by going to sit in the hall for a while. I have not seen much of this yet because in the first few weeks of school the students have been very respectful and have not really been acting out.
Weekly Reflection
This week my main area of strength had to be my organizational skills and my ability to work as a team. We are going on a week long field trip and the preparation for it has been quite extensive. On Friday the students had to put together their Woldumar journals and it was quite a bit of work. I could have seen it turning into a disaster but between me another intern and my CT it went along quite smoothly. We were able to improve upon our system each class, so by the third we were pros at it. I really think I am starting to correct myself when I see trouble spots and do it more effectively the next class period.
Next week I hope to improve upon my leadership skills in the wilderness. Since we are going on a field trip with 80 students and I will have some lessons to teach and some groups to watch throughout the days, I am hoping that I can step up to the plate and do what needs to be done. My main concern is that I feel I am strong in the classroom but this is completely different. We are going to be outside and completely out of my element. I hope that I can suck up some of my fears (bees, snakes) and be a good leader. I hope to reach my goal by going into this experience open minded and ready for whatever gets thrown my way.
Something that would help me is some Woldumar experience. I did not get a chance to go out and check out the place beforehand, so if you are going on this trip in the upcoming weeks I highly recommend that. I also think that some more knowledge of the areas we are studying would really help me out so I am going to be researching some of that tonight.
Next week I hope to improve upon my leadership skills in the wilderness. Since we are going on a field trip with 80 students and I will have some lessons to teach and some groups to watch throughout the days, I am hoping that I can step up to the plate and do what needs to be done. My main concern is that I feel I am strong in the classroom but this is completely different. We are going to be outside and completely out of my element. I hope that I can suck up some of my fears (bees, snakes) and be a good leader. I hope to reach my goal by going into this experience open minded and ready for whatever gets thrown my way.
Something that would help me is some Woldumar experience. I did not get a chance to go out and check out the place beforehand, so if you are going on this trip in the upcoming weeks I highly recommend that. I also think that some more knowledge of the areas we are studying would really help me out so I am going to be researching some of that tonight.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Equity vs. Equality
When setting up the seating chart for our homebase, we did not have a lot to go off of other than the pink and blue cards that we received from their fourth grade teachers, and names. We have put the students in pods of four to five so that they would have support available to them for group work opportunities and allow them to still be social while in class at appropriate times.
We were able to try not to place any of the seemingly challenging students together. The actual seating chart has been edited several times since that time because we have gotten to know the students a little better and have been able to pinpoint issues that have caused us to flip flop seats around the room. We are still in the process of moving students around so that they are all in a place that ensures a quality learning opportunity for them.
Some students seemed to have problems focusing next to their friends so we were able to move them away from one another to make a better learning environment for both people involved. So far this switch has helped because it makes talking more difficult, and the urge to do so seems to have gotten less because they are no longer close to the person they want to talk to.
We have also made sure to mix up the boys and the girls in an attempt to have equal amounts of both at each table to balance things out. This is not perfect at the moment because of drops that we have had, but we seem to have a nice balance at the moment.
We were also able to put students with attention problems in areas that are less distracting to them and up close to the board and teacher so that they are more likely to pay attention.
Through these little switches in the seating chart we have been able to make the classroom environment equitable while still remaining equal. We have also been able to use the seating chart to add extra support to students that may need it without drawing attention to that fact.
We were able to try not to place any of the seemingly challenging students together. The actual seating chart has been edited several times since that time because we have gotten to know the students a little better and have been able to pinpoint issues that have caused us to flip flop seats around the room. We are still in the process of moving students around so that they are all in a place that ensures a quality learning opportunity for them.
Some students seemed to have problems focusing next to their friends so we were able to move them away from one another to make a better learning environment for both people involved. So far this switch has helped because it makes talking more difficult, and the urge to do so seems to have gotten less because they are no longer close to the person they want to talk to.
We have also made sure to mix up the boys and the girls in an attempt to have equal amounts of both at each table to balance things out. This is not perfect at the moment because of drops that we have had, but we seem to have a nice balance at the moment.
We were also able to put students with attention problems in areas that are less distracting to them and up close to the board and teacher so that they are more likely to pay attention.
Through these little switches in the seating chart we have been able to make the classroom environment equitable while still remaining equal. We have also been able to use the seating chart to add extra support to students that may need it without drawing attention to that fact.
Physical Space: Our Classroom
Our Classroom is room 124. Here are some pictures to show you around. My CT only teaches language arts this year, so her room includes a vast amount of books and a desk dedicated to writer workshop supplies. Above I have posted the way my CT does her daily schedule. It always starts at the arrow and goes clockwise till the end of the day. I think its a great idea!
This is an image from the back of the room.
This is where the student mailboxes and teacher materials are stored. The mailboxes are only used in our homebase.
This is the place where the books are stored. They are all organized by genre. There are more books that we will eventually switch into the bookshelves so the students can have some new choices.
This was our bulletin board for open house night. It took a long time to write all those names on the stars!
Here is another view of the room
This is where materials are put for students to use. These materials are especially useful for writers workshop.
This is the best technology in the room, the ELMO. It makes everything so much more visible and allows for more efficient instruction time because u can project anything on the screen and not have to pass it around or show each table individually. The computer is only for teacher use because the students have access to a computer lab.
Here is another view of the room.
This is my desk (GO STATE!)
This is an image from the back of the room.
This is where the student mailboxes and teacher materials are stored. The mailboxes are only used in our homebase.
This is the place where the books are stored. They are all organized by genre. There are more books that we will eventually switch into the bookshelves so the students can have some new choices.
This was our bulletin board for open house night. It took a long time to write all those names on the stars!
Here is another view of the room
This is where materials are put for students to use. These materials are especially useful for writers workshop.
This is the best technology in the room, the ELMO. It makes everything so much more visible and allows for more efficient instruction time because u can project anything on the screen and not have to pass it around or show each table individually. The computer is only for teacher use because the students have access to a computer lab.
Here is another view of the room.
This is my desk (GO STATE!)
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